Surrendering: A Regent Vampire Lords Novel, Book #1 (28 page)

“And I need you to determine if there was any ploy on the part of my mate. I need to know if she was sent here by Xavier to infiltrate my Regent and if she’s been reporting back to him or anyone under his employ.”

A wicked smirk lit up Esmeralda’s face. She was so easy to read. She clearly hoped this would end badly for Kate and she’d once again have a chance with him. Little did she know that regardless of what she discovered about Kate, his fate was already determined. As per vampiric mating rituals, he would be tied to Kate until either of their deaths. And if she were a traitor that meant that she would be his captive for eternity. He prayed with his whole being that was not the outcome.

“I’d be happy to help you, darling.”

Yes
, Dev thought snidely. Of course, she would.

“I’ll need to spend some time with your mate, of course.”

“Not gonna happen. You will not be in physical contact with her.” Having her here was bad enough. There was no way in hell she was getting near Kate.

“I can’t do the ritual without being in her presence, Devon.”

“Bullshit. You’re the most powerful witch I know, Esmeralda. You can, and you will, find another way.”

She was quiet for several moments, finally slightly bowing her head in mock solute toward him. “I will get back to you on the specifics soon, then.”

“You will do it now.”

“Sorry, darling. No can do, not even for the great and powerful Dev. I need to determine what I need and do some cleansing rituals before I can perform the spell. I will get back with you in a few hours with further instructions.”

She turned, walking toward the door. Ren didn’t budge, looking to Dev for instruction. Dev reluctantly nodded his approval for her to leave.

Fucking witch. This was about the most important assignment he would ask for her help with and it would undoubtedly be the last. He needed to find another witch whom he could actually trust. And fast.

C
hapter 49

Dev

The lords were all gathered again in the boardroom. The chatter was incessant and he simply wanted to get the update over with. The only thing he could focus on was locked up in a room about fifty yards away from where he presently sat.

Dev had had a bad fucking day. He had to confine his mate in the rouge room this morning and spent the entire rest of it waiting on Esmeralda to get back to him on what she needed to perform her ritual. She was unnecessarily drawing out his agony and when he’d threatened to bring in another witch to help instead, she suddenly came up with the items she needed in order to determine whether Kate was telling the truth or not. Hair and blood. How utterly unique.

She’d given him some bullshit about needing to wait until “the witching hour” to perform the ritual, so while he was in this meeting, he’d asked Big D to collect Kate’s hair. They already had some blood in the lab from the previous samples they’d taken. He’d keep this meeting as short as possible, so he’d be done well before midnight and would have a few minutes to talk to Kate alone before Esmeralda started.

He was man enough to admit that he was being a pussy. He hadn’t visited her all day. He’d ignored her pleas. Hearing her begging through their shared connection was agony. She was confused and angry. She had no idea why she was locked up in that room, like some animal that had committed a crime. Had she? He truly didn’t think so.

The more he thought about it, the more he believed she had no idea of her heritage. She’d acted genuinely surprised when he told her she carried vampire blood. He just didn’t think she could be
that
good of an actress. He could now admit he may have acted hastily in keeping her captive while he figured this out. Did he need to go to that extreme? He didn’t know. What if she was lying to him? His whole Regent…hell,
all
of the regents could be in jeopardy. Shit. He should have trusted her more and by not doing so, he felt like a bastard of epic proportions. She would no doubt agree. Would she understand? Jesus, he hoped so.

The sound of Elle and Damian’s voices arguing—
loudly
—brought him back to the moment at hand. Goddamn he wished he knew what had gone down between the two of them.

“Elle, what were you able to find out from the professor?”

Elle pulled her attention away from Damian, while they both continued muttering under their breaths. One of the reasons Dev had sent Elle to interrogate the professor was because she possessed a rare skill to memory sift. Alas, it only worked on humans, not vampires.

“He’s been telling the truth about never seeing Xavier. I didn’t see any interaction with him, but I did see that one of Xavier’s lieutenants, Geoffrey, is the go-between, so we can definitively say Xavier is behind the kidnappings.

“Geoffrey would meet with the professor every other week at the university, where he would turn over the results of the sleep studies. That’s how they are able to identify potential dreamwalkers. He also had to provide details on the participants that were interviewed for the study but weren’t accepted. Occasionally he would be told by Geoffrey to put a particular candidate he’d previously dismissed into the study.

“The sleep study, along with their ‘
alliance’
has been going on for over a decade, but just a few days ago the professor’s daughter was taken. Dickwad apparently grew a conscience and wanted to end the study after the vamps had taken an interest in Sarah Hill. When he tried to get out of their arrangement, they took his daughter as
incentive
for him to continue.

“Sarah is the second participant in the professor’s sleep study that was identified with potential dreamwalker ability and so she was also kidnapped. The first girl, a Jamie Hallow, was kidnapped eleven years ago and was never found. The professor seemed genuinely broken up about her, which is why I think he tried to disengage with Xavier after they started focusing on Sarah. He didn’t want any more blood on his hands.

“On a side note, when I mentioned Jamie’s name to our detective, he looked like he was gonna ralph on the spot. I got the impression this case was very personal to him and just got a lot more so. We should keep a close eye on him and make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid, like try to find Xavier on his own and get himself killed.”

“And why would you care if something happens to your insolent detective? It sounds like he’s a detriment instead of an asset anyway.”

Rom could be such a coldhearted asshole sometimes. Dev would rather continue their alliance with Thatcher as opposed to bringing on someone new, but Elle’s response peaked his interest. Elle seemed a little too passionate about making sure nothing happened to Detective Thatcher. He decided to let her respond instead of stepping in, as he was quite interested in her explanation.

Elle glared at Rom. She had fear of no one or nothing. Dev worried that was going to be her demise someday.

“Because, as much of a pain in the ass as Thatcher is, he has been somewhat collaborative and he’s house broken. Starting over again to train a local police detective takes a lot of time, effort and trust. And we don’t have that luxury at the moment.”

Hmmm…sounded convincing enough. But he knew Elle like not many did. And there was something she hadn’t said in her well thought out explanation. Did she actually
like
Detective Thatcher? Wow…he hadn’t seen that one coming. Oh well, that was a conundrum to solve on another day. He had far bigger fish on his plate to fry at the moment.

“Anything else?” Dev asked.

“Yes. Since all of the meetings occurred on campus, the professor does not know Xavier’s location. I’m afraid this is all we’re going to get from him.”

“Thanks, Elle. Good work.”

Dev turned his attention to Ren. “Ren, were you and Damian able to get anything from our house guests? Are they still resting comfortably?”

Ren laughed. “Well, they were until little dick over there used his firestarter ability. Damn, I thought the whole fucking house was gonna burn down around us.”

“Fuck off, Ren. And it’s called an interrogation tactic. And it was only one of them I ashed. Besides, I got the fire back under control…without too much damage.” Damian glanced at Dev. “I’ll pay for the repairs, of course, Dev.”

Christ. Put Ren and Damian together and the two acted like prepubescent children.

“Were you able to learn anything before you burnt him to a crisp?”

“Unfortunately not. He was loyal till the end to Xavier. Now the other one we were able to get a bit of useful information from.” Glaring at Ren, he continued, “Of course, it took my
special interrogation technique
to pry it out of him, but he did tell us that he reports to Geoffrey and that, upon Geoffrey’s orders, they were there to capture your woman, Kate.”

“Christ, Damian, we already knew they were there to kidnap Kate! Tell me something I don’t already know.” Dev was having a hard time holding it together and everyone else was noticing.

“Chill. Give me a chance to finish.”

Dev nodded. “Continue.”

“They were to take her to Xavier. They had orders to do
whatever
it took to get her there, short of killing or feeding from her, as they suspected she was a dreamwalker and Xavier wanted her alive. They wanted Kate badly and if they couldn’t capture her directly, they thought your detective may be persuaded to help, so they also sent a team to his house as well.”

Elle gasped and immediately fled the room. Dev could only guess she was going to check on Thatcher. This was one big clusterfuck.

So they were at her house to do her harm, not get an update on him and the other lords. Based on this new information, he knew without a doubt that Kate was not a traitor, and he felt lower than the lowest scum of the earth. How she carried Xavier’s blood, he did not know, but he aimed to find out. He needed to stop Esmeralda immediately, before she started her spell.

“Ren, go find Es and tell her to hold off on the spell until I talk to her. Don’t let her out of your sight. I don’t care what you have to do.”

“It would be my pleasure.”

So Xavier knows she’s a dreamwalker, which put her in twice as much danger. He also knows she was in the police station. Which meant Xavier also had minions deep within the MPD and likely knew about the lords’ involvement in protecting Kate. Did he also know that Kate was his Moira?

Dev needed to wrap up this meeting, but fast. “Rom, were your experts able to find anything?”

Rom nodded once and began handing out papers to the group. “Of course. They were able to uncover seven additional documented sleep studies, similar to the one that Professor Bailey was apparently conducting. Two others in your Regent, two in Damian’s and three in mine. We have a list of the universities and professor’s conducting them, which is what I just handed out. I’ve already instructed my people to interview the professors in our Regent, which they will do first thing tomorrow morning. I’m quite certain there is a connection to Xavier here as well.”

“That’s a great lead, Rom. Damian and I will do the same and we’ll reconvene here again tomorrow evening for another update. For now, I simply want them interrogated and watched. Although I doubt it, any one of them may be the key to finding Xavier. Are you in need of Elle’s skills?”

“No, I have several sifters at my disposal in my Regent,” Rom replied.

“I, as well,” added Damian.

“Good. Anything else to add?”

Silence.

“See you tomorrow, then, gentlemen.”

Was the tide finally turning their way? He fucking hoped so.

C
hapter 50

Kate

Kate didn’t know how long she’d been captive in this desolate room. She’d cried, screamed and pleaded, but Dev never came back. She had even tried to talk to him through their connection and he ignored those pleas as well. She wasn’t sure how that worked exactly, if they needed to be close together or not, so she didn’t know if he’d even heard her.

She had absolutely no idea what she’d done to deserve this sort of treatment. Yesterday had been hands down the best day of her entire life. She thought it had been for Dev too. She’d run almost every gamut of emotions possible since she’d been locked up.

Anger.

Confusion.

Hurt.

Despair.

Aaaand…she was back to anger. How could he do this to her without any explanation? That rat bastard! They may not be able to divorce, but there was no way she was putting up with this shit when she was released. She knew she couldn’t return home because she was still in danger, and she may be angry, but a fool she was not. However, she was most certainly going to move into one of the other bedrooms. The one farthest away from him. Preferably after a hard swift kick to the family jewels.

Dev hadn’t bothered to pop in and explain why the hell he’d kept her locked up like a rabid dog, but Leo, however, had been in to feed her several times. She wasn’t hungry, but he pleaded with her to eat something anyway. It wasn’t his fault she was in here, so she reluctantly complied and ate enough to keep him off her ass.

She pleaded with Leo to tell her what was going on, but he was loyal to his master and would only tell her that Dev would be in to tell her himself sometime soon. He said that every time he was here, but Dev never came. Leo was kind, as usual, but he’d been a little more distant than he normally was. What the hell was it everyone thought she’d done! Apparently vampires didn’t believe in the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment.