Surrendering: A Regent Vampire Lords Novel, Book #1 (32 page)

“Oh, I don’t mind at all, love. But I’ll be joining you. And we may be a tad longer than ten minutes.”

He was right.

C
hapter 54

Dev

In the boardroom as everyone dispersed, there was a lot of excitement that they may finally be closing in on Xavier. After Kate had given the details of her latest dream, Dev, Rom, and Damian had each called on some of their best men to scout out the Door County area.

Dev knew that Xavier’s lair was likely shrouded with magical assistance, but Kate had some very good markers between the two most recent dreams, so he felt positive they’d be able to at least narrow down some areas to investigate further. Plus, he had a secret weapon on his side. Manny had the ability to see through shrouding, but only within close proximity. That was how they located Xavier before and foolishly thought they’d destroyed him in the fire. That was also why they’d been unable to locate him again. Using Manny’s abilities without focus would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Virtually impossible and highly ineffective.

It would be a difficult task now, as there were certainly lots of old barns, windmills and trees in the area, but if they could get close to Xavier’s lair, Manny would find it, of that he had every confidence. In fact, the shrouding actually helped, by acting like a beacon to those very few vampires who possessed the ability to see through it. Not a lot of vampires shrouding. Not many vampires he knew enjoyed getting into bed with a witch. It was a danger to one’s long-term health.

As much as Dev didn’t want to part from her, after the meeting, he had sent Kate back to bed to get some more sleep. Even though she was exhausted and needed the sleep, his Kate fought him, as usual, but he promised to wake her up in a couple of hours. And since he could hardly wait to take her again, he planned on keeping his promise.

He craved her.

He was addicted to her.

She had only been gone for thirty minutes and already he didn’t know if he’d be able to wait the hour and a half more to wake her up. He was hard as hell.

Dev couldn’t get Kate’s dream about Xavier out of his head. It only solidified Xavier didn’t know Kate was his daughter, but how could that be? No matter how he worked it, he couldn’t figure it out.

Something about this whole situation nagged him. Why would Xavier let his own daughter out of his sight? She could prove to be very useful to him, not only because of the fact she was a dreamwalker, but because it was clear Kate would be very powerful someday, blooded vampire or not. He couldn’t imagine how powerful she would be had she been blooded.

No, he was missing a critical piece to this puzzle. He just couldn’t quite put his finger on it yet.

Dev was contemplating that when Ren strode into his office, sitting down in one of the two guest chairs on the opposite side of his desk.

“I need to apprise you of a situation, my lord.”

Dev sat back in his chair, smirking. Ren looked nervous and ready for a fight and under any other circumstances he should be. Allowing a human in their house without his permission was an offense punishable by death. Fortunately for Elle, he couldn’t do without her and he knew Ren had a brotherly fondness for Elle, protecting her above all else. Well, above everyone else except for him, that was.

He should string this out, but he didn’t have the heart to put Ren through it. He was going soft.
Fuck that
. Devon Fallinsworth wasn’t soft.

“Oh?”

“Yes.” Ren looked a little surprised, but continued. “Well, you know that Detective Thatcher’s life was in danger and Elle ran out of here earlier this evening to check on him.”

Ren stopped and Dev arched his brow for him to continue.

“When she got to his house, she found three rogues staked out there, but Thatcher clearly wasn’t home. She found him just leaving the precinct.”

“And?”

“And he was unharmed.”

“All right. Is that all?”

“Um…not quite.” Ren hesitated.

“Jesus, Ren. Stop pussyfooting around. Spit it out.”

Ren stood, resolutely.

“In order to keep Detective Thatcher safe, Elle thought it would be best to bring him back here. Just until we eliminate Xavier. I agree with her decision.”

And there it was. Ren was defending Elle by agreeing with her impulsive decision, and by doing so, he would take any punishment that Dev dished out upon himself. Ren had balls of steel. That was why he was his lieutenant and had been for so many years.

Dev nodded. “Okay.”

“Okay? That’s all you have to say?”

“Yes. Except he’s now your full responsibility.”

“Of course.” Ren turned, walking toward the closed office door, turning back before he left.

“You knew, didn’t you?”

Dev laughed. “Of course.”

As Ren left, Dev heard him mutter “asshole.” Good. Even though Kate made him soft in some ways, he could still be hard when it mattered. And speaking of hard, he had slightly over an hour left before he could bury his cock inside his mate once again.

Sixty minutes never seemed so long.

C
hapter 55

Mike

He slept like the dead. It was a dreamless sleep. Thank Christ. He never knew when Jamie was going to invade his thoughts, his dreams. He barely woke when a vamp strode in with his breakfast and a fresh change of clothes. His name was Len, Larry, Leo. Something like that. What-the-fuck-ever. He was a vamp. That was all he needed to know.

After Mike ate breakfast, which was admittedly quite good, he showered and changed into fresh clothes. He had just finished dressing when Ren knocked at his door. Either the guy had a sixth sense or there were cameras in his room. He wouldn’t put it past these sick fuckers to watch him sleep.

He only hoped there were no cameras in the bathroom, because he choked the chicken in the shower earlier. He couldn’t get thoughts of Giselle’s breasts out of his mind. Tits he never got to savor. He’d woken up hard and couldn’t walk around with a toddler in his pants all day. He may not actually screw the pooch, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t fantasize about her and what it would be like to taste her pussy, to take her hard against the shower wall. But fantasize was all he was going to do. He’d lost his mind yesterday when it came to her and her luscious body. His mind-fuck boomeranged back onto him and he certainly didn’t intend for it to happen again. His intent was to avoid her as much as possible while he was essentially kept prisoner here indefinitely.

Dev and Ren brought Mike up to speed on everything, at least he thought it was everything, but who really knows? They couldn’t be trusted. They set him up in a small extra office on the main floor, complete with Internet connection. While the vamps were on the ground scouting Door County, he was using his police connections in other parts of the country to glean any additional information he could on the other missing girls. With so many missing girls, it was tedious work.

Kate had done a very good job describing the girls she’d seen in her most recent dream pretty well to one of Dev’s vamps, who had the skills equivalent to a police sketch artist. He was actually still trying to process the reality of dreamwalkers. Next thing he knew, someone would tell him witches were real.
Jesus, don’t even go there, Thatcher.

Attention turning back to the list of the missing girls who’d been both officially reported as such and who were linked with the psychotic-to-the-millionth-degree vampire, he was down to the last two of twenty-nine pictures. Some of the eleven women Kate had seen in her dream hadn’t been officially reported missing that he could find. Conversely, of the reported missing women, only six matched to the pictures the artist drew. So either the rest were dead, or they were held in another part of the compound Kate hadn’t seen. Obviously the women he couldn’t match were missing women not yet reported. He would get to that task next.

He picked up the last two pictures, pulling them apart so he could study both of them. His eyes drifted to the very last picture, held in his right hand and he instantly lost the ability to breathe.

Staring back at him was…
Jamie
.
His
Jamie.

Except it was an older version of Jamie. A sad, vacant, shell of the young, beautiful and vibrant Jamie he once knew. This couldn’t be right. Jamie was never found, but she was presumed dead, so…
no
. This had to be her doppelganger. It wasn’t Jamie. It couldn’t possibly be.

But his gut told him another story. Jamie had a small, dark mole on the very right side of her upper lip. He used to lick it when he kissed her. He loved that mole. It was sexy as hell.

And the gaunt face staring back at him had that same dark mole on the right side of her upper lip.

So if this was, in fact, Jamie—
his Jamie
—that meant not only was she
not
dead, but she’d spent the last eleven years in the hands of one sick fuck and Mike had done nothing to stop it. He’d done nothing to help her.

Jamie was alive
. He’d been right. Vamps
were
responsible for her disappearance. And she had been in a never-ending living hell on earth, only wishing she were dead.

He promptly leaned over the desk losing his lunch in the wastebasket. Christ, hot wings are a fiery bitch coming back up.

Like a pussy, tears streamed down his face, but he didn’t care. And of course, karma being the fickle bitch she was, Giselle chose that moment to stride into the office without knocking, like she owned the place.

Just. Fucking. Great.

C
hapter 56

Dev

Frustration rolled off him in waves. For three days, they had searched the Door County area for any sign of Xavier, running into dead end after dead end. They had split up into three teams, covering about ninety percent of the area so far. Unfortunately Manny had extra duty, as he would scout locations the other two groups found that were possibilities. So far, nothing, nada, zilch, zip, zero. And it frustrated the fuck out of Dev. His
sparkling
personality was taking a nosedive and most everyone was giving him wide berth. Everyone except his precious Kate, that is. She calmed him.

Kate hadn’t had any more dreams and was equally as frustrated, but he was equally as grateful. While she wanted to help, he didn’t want her anywhere near Xavier, even if he couldn’t actually
see
her. Who knew what that vile monster had up sleeve and if he could trace her to his mansion. He’d called in extra security the past few days. Call him a paranoid SOB, but no one was dying under his watch. Especially not the love of his life. Hell…she
was
his life now.

Rom had his computer wiz research the names on all the property deeds in Door County and the surrounding areas, trying to match any to the known vamps in Xavier’s entourage. Two possible hits, but both turned out to be nothing.

Tonight they should have the remaining areas searched and if they came up short, he wasn’t quite sure what his next move would be. And Dev was never without a Plan B.

While they hadn’t found Xavier yet, they were making progress in other areas.

The detective had positively matched all but one of the eleven missing women from Kate’s dream. Some of them hadn’t been previously identified as the original twenty-nine missing, so that brought the total missing women now up to at least thirty-two.

They also had some minor success with the other professors conducting sleep studies around the country, with the exception of two, who were inconveniently
missing
. Looked like Xavier was starting to clean up loose ends.

Elle and the detective were currently sifting through the many files and computer records they gathered from the other five universities. While they were able to get their hands on more information, unfortunately none of the remaining five professors had any more information than Professor Bailey when it came to the whereabouts of Xavier.

He was like a fucking ghost.

Standing beside his bed—
their bed
—he watched his Kate sleep. She was so beautiful, so perfect for him. He still reeled with the depth of emotion he felt for her in just a short period of time. He found himself daydreaming of what it would be like to watch her belly grow ripe with his child. She would be sexy as hell, all round and swollen. He’d always dreamed of finding his Moira, yes, but he’d never dreamed about having a child, a family. Not until he met
her
.

He pictured a little boy, with raven hair and emerald eyes, running his
meme
ragged. Climbing trees, bringing insects into the house, constantly dirty. He pictured that same young boy growing into a warrior, a lord someday, finding his Moira and having a family of his own.

It surprised him to feel sadness at something that would never—
could never
—be. Because of her vampire DNA, she wouldn’t be able to carry a child. Probably why Xavier discarded her. If she was barren, she was useless to his experiments. But why not kill her instead? Why find an adoptive family to raise her? How did Xavier not know she was his daughter when Kate was dreamwalking? And he
was
certain Xavier didn’t know and that made no sense at all to him.