Lucas Read online

  “What about him?”

  “Oh, please. Don’t add insult to . . . insult by pretending you don’t know what I’m talking about. Carmichael Galleries. You knew I was looking for an older man named Alex, especially someone who was interested in my brother’s work. Put one and one together, Lucas. You’re not a stupid man.”

  “You think Alex—”

  “Yes. Alex. Carmichael’s first name, which you conveniently didn’t mention the other night in your office.”

  “Actually that’s not his first name—”

  “Blah, blah, blah. That’s all I’m hearing from you. I don’t care if it’s his first name or his tenth. You knew it was significant and didn’t say a word to me about it.”

  Lucas eyed her intently, and Kathryn became aware that they weren’t alone in the parking lot. There were at least two other vampires lurking on the edges, and his lieutenant Nicholas suddenly appeared around the back of the SUV.

  She frowned. Nicholas looked like someone had sliced off half his face, or at least tried to. What the hell?

  “What happened to you?” she asked, walking the short distance between them and reaching out to touch his cheek without thinking.

  He flinched back with a quick look in Lucas’s direction.

  Kathryn spun around. “Did you do that?”

  “What?” Lucas demanded. “Hell no!” He straightened abruptly to his full height, taking two hard strides until he was right on top of her, golden eyes glittering with anger as he loomed over her. “Look, Kathryn, there are things going on that you don’t know about. Things that are every bit as important as your missing brother. Nicholas was seriously injured last night. He shouldn’t even be here, but he is because you were too stubborn to wait one fucking day—”

  “I might not have a fucking day, don’t you get that?” she yelled at him. “Daniel might not have a day. For all I know your crazy friend is—” Her voice broke off. She couldn’t say out loud what she feared might be happening, what she feared had already happened. She shivered, suddenly freezing cold. She hugged herself, even though she knew the sudden cold owed more to her emotional state than the temperature.

  “Kathryn,” Lucas said softly. “Ah, don’t. We’ll find your brother.” He pulled her into his arms. He was so warm. She hadn’t expected that, had somehow thought vampires would be cold even if they weren’t really dead. It was tempting to stay there, but she didn’t.

  “You don’t know that,” she muttered, shrugging away his arms, even as she instantly regretted the loss.

  Lucas’s lips flattened. “Fine. I don’t know it, but I believe it.”

  “What if—”

  “Don’t say it, a cuisle. Let me tell you something about vampires. Especially vampires who frequent blood houses. When they find someone they like, someone who catches their fancy for whatever reason, they take them home for a while. Don’t you know anyone, a friend, a relative, who’s met someone in a bar and spent a lost weekend with them?”

  “Lost weekend?” she repeated.

  “Sex, Kathryn. A weekend in bed, fucking your brains out with someone new, someone you might never see again, or maybe even someone you’ll end up marrying and having a passel of brats with. But the point is, vampires make a habit of it. They find someone . . . well, tasty, and take that person home for a while. It’s completely consensual. Any vampire caught forcing a human these days is dealt with severely by his rightful lord.”

  “I don’t see what vampire sexual habits have to do with—”

  “If Alex Carmichael does have your brother, and I don’t think he does—”

  “I think so, and so does my gut. And I trust my gut a lot more than I trust you.”

  “Ouch,” he said, giving her a wounded look. “Okay. I’ll grant that someone has your brother, though it doesn’t have to be Carmichael. But whoever it is,” he continued, overriding her when she started to speak, “he’s taken a fancy to your Daniel and taken him home for a spin. Your brother will turn up, a bit exhausted, no doubt. Maybe short a pint, but otherwise fine. You’ll see.”

  Kathryn took a step back, putting more distance between her and Lucas. He was one of those people who touched easily, but his touches were too distracting. She couldn’t afford to let him do that to her.

  “Why didn’t you tell me Carmichael’s first name, then?” she persisted.

  Lucas gave her an impatient look. “Because I didn’t want you hunting him down if he was innocent. My people have been hunted and killed by humans as long as we’ve been alive, and for no reason but foolish superstition. If Alex is guilty, I’ll let you talk to him. But not until I know for sure.”

  “How will you know?” she retorted. “I’m the only one looking for him.”

  “Not true. I set my own people to tracking him down as soon as you left that night.”

  “Did you find him?” she asked curiously.

  “No. Although we know where he is.”

  “And,” she said leadingly.

  “He’s in Chicago, which means I can’t get to him.”

  “It’s a short flight, Lucas, and you have a plane. So why not?”

  Lucas’s face tightened unhappily. “Chicago is out of my jurisdiction.”

  “Well, who rules it then? I’ll talk to him instead.”

  “You will not,” Lucas said sharply, and his eyes were suddenly sparking gold fire as he stared at her.

  Kathryn took another step back, nearly stumbling as the narrow heel of her shoe hit a small rock, and her ankle tried to turn. She caught herself, avoiding Lucas’s helping hand, and glanced down, irritated again that she’d bothered to wear this stupid outfit. Lucas hadn’t dressed up, or maybe he had, given the nature of the club. He was wearing all black, including leather pants, and okay, she needed to look somewhere else, because . . .

  “Is that blood?” she demanded suddenly, her gaze flashing up to meet Lucas’s. “What the hell? First you’ve got Nicholas with half his face torn off, then those wild men invade the club all hyped up with what I’m told was some sort of post-conflict bloodlust—which thrilled everyone in there but me, apparently—and now you . . .” She took a longer look. “Your pants and boots are covered in blood.”

  “It belongs to Nicholas—”

  “Oh, no, it doesn’t. Not unless the two of you are way more familiar than I think you are.”

  “For Christ’s sake, Kathryn,” Lucas snapped, his lovely Irish lilt becoming more pronounced as he grew more irritated with her.

  “I want to know what’s going on, or I’m calling the authorities,” she insisted. “They may not give a damn about my missing brother, but they’re sure as hell going to care about what’s happening in that club.”

  Lucas glowered down at her, his jaw flexing visibly. Suddenly he smiled, and Kathryn wanted to back up even farther.

  “Very well, Kathryn,” he drawled. “I’ll tell you what you want to know. But not here in the parking lot.”

  “My motel room, then,” she said, wishing she could yank back the words as soon as she said them. Her motel room? First, it was a dump. But second, she was inviting Lucas back to her motel room? Lucas of the sexy smile and tight leather pants? Was she out of her ever loving mind?

  “Tempting, but I think not,” he said, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Is there a quieter bar somewhere—” she began.

  He laughed easily. “It’s late, and this is a small town, a cuisle. But I’ve a place in mind. We’ll take my truck.”

  “I can drive—”

  He shook his head. “The roads are dark, and you don’t know the way. My driver will take us.”

  “But what about—”

  “Do want answers or not?” he demanded with sharp impatience.

  Kathryn sighed unhappily. “All right,” she agreed. “But how will I get back from wherever you’re taking me?”

  “Worried I’m going to kidnap you?” he scoffed lightly. “Very well, I’ll send someone to bring your truck by late
r, so you can make your escape . . . should you desire.”

  Kathryn eyed him distrustfully, but nodded. She didn’t know if it was important to her own investigation or not, but she wanted to know whose blood Lucas was wearing and what had happened to Nicholas’s face. That sure as hell hadn’t happened in a bar fight. She was also really curious about what secret dealings were going on with vampires in general. How many humans had been given a chance to peek behind that curtain? It was her curiosity that decided it. She’d go with him tonight and hear what he had to say. But tomorrow morning she was leaving for Minneapolis to continue her own investigation.

  * * * *

  Lucas rested a loose hand against Kathryn’s lower back, escorting her over to the big Suburban, which was standard transport for dignitaries and vampire lords these days. It was black, naturally, and the windows were so darkly tinted they blended seamlessly with the metal all around them. Even the trim was a matte black, and since his vampires didn’t need headlights to see, there was nothing to give them away when they traveled through the night.

  Nicholas opened the back door, and Lucas offered Kathryn a hand up, which she refused, of course. He smiled slightly as she grasped the grip bar instead, forced to turn slightly sidewise in order to take the step up in her black cocktail dress. And what an enticing cocktail dress it was, too. He would love to see her in that dress without those ugly leggings. He was only sorry the night had turned out as it had. But there was hope yet.

  He followed Kathryn into the SUV, sliding over next to her on the bench seat. She stiffened slightly, then relaxed, as if her initial reaction had been automatic rather than intentional.

  Nicholas climbed into the front seat next to Mason and waited for Lucas to tell them where they were going.

  Lucas considered going back to the main house. It was comfortable and safe, and Kathryn knew it already, so she wouldn’t be suspicious. But there were too many people there. Too many phones, too many decisions needing his attention.

  “The homestead,” Lucas said and felt Nicholas’s surprise ripple down their link. He didn’t comment, however. Neither did Mason. But then Mason wouldn’t. Only Nick was high enough in their hierarchy to occasionally question something Lucas did.

  They cleared the town limits, and Mason switched off the headlights. As the town faded farther and farther behind them, the night grew darker. Mason turned away from the main highway, and Lucas was aware of Kathryn staring out the window intently, probably trying to keep track of where they were going. She was a control freak, but in this case, it was pointless. Even in daytime, there were few recognizable landmarks out here. And by the time they reached their destination, she would be totally lost.

  He stretched an arm along the back of the seat, barely brushing against her long, blond hair. He wanted to bury his face in it and draw in her scent. He loved the smell of a woman’s hair, clean and warm and fragrant with whatever shampoo or perfume she used. It was one of his favorite parts of seducing a woman. And Magda had been right. He very much wanted to seduce Kathryn Hunter, though he wasn’t exactly sure why. The FBI agent wasn’t his usual type. Of course, some people would say he didn’t have a usual type, that his type was pretty much anyone female.

  But that wasn’t true. Yes, he loved women, but he didn’t want to seduce every woman he met. He liked making them smile and laugh, liked bringing pleasure to a harassed woman’s night, if only for a few minutes. But that wasn’t seduction.

  Seduction was the slow, exquisite game of persuading a beautiful woman to come into his arms. To dance with him, to share long and languorous kisses in front of a fire. He loved to stroke a woman’s body until she was trembling with desire, until she opened herself willingly, inviting him between her legs and into her body.

  That’s what he wanted with Kathryn. But why? As Nick had said from the first, she was worse than a local cop, she was FBI, and that spelled trouble. Vampires had too many secrets to be consorting with federal agents of any kind. Sure, there were vampires toiling in the depths of Quantico, along with just about every other federal agency, but that was different. Those vampires had a clear allegiance to a master, who for most of them was Duncan as Vampire Lord over the Capital territory.

  But Kathryn owed no allegiance to anyone but her government. For Lucas to seduce her, to let her see even the tiniest fraction of what made vampire society tick, to risk having that information carried back to her bosses in Quantico? Why would he desire such a thing?

  Lucas crooked a finger and captured a lock of Kathryn’s hair. The answer was simple. Because he wanted her. Because she was tall and blond, with long legs and a terrific ass. Because she was smart and disciplined and always in control. A pain in the ass who would fight him tooth and nail for every inch of progress he made in this seduction, and he loved a challenge.

  But also, because she’d come all this way and had risked the displeasure of her superiors to track down her brother. Because family was important to her, and her brother was the only family she had left. Because family was important to Lucas, too. And he had none.

  Because she had a heart deeply buried beneath all that discipline, and before the night was over, he intended to steal it.

  Chapter Nine

  Kathryn tried to keep track of the turns they made, of how far they traveled. But even with a waning moon that was still mostly full, there was nothing to see beyond the dark windows of the big SUV. Maybe if she’d been from around here, if she’d hiked or camped in these hills, she’d have been able to conjure a map in her head of their location, but for a city girl from Virginia, the landscape was a monotonous blur of nothing in the middle of nowhere. Some part of her brain was clanging with alarm, telling her she should be worried about being way out here, all alone, with a bunch of vampires. But no matter which way she looked at it, she just didn’t believe that Lucas would hurt her. Yeah, he’d been less than honest, and he was definitely dangerous, but the kind of danger he represented to her had nothing to do with houses in the middle of nowhere.

  She shifted a bit, exquisitely aware of Lucas’s arm on the seat behind her. It made her feel awkward and insecure, like being back in high school and not knowing if the boy was just stretching his arm or if he really liked her. Kathryn wasn’t that too-tall, gawky girl any longer, but she wasn’t exactly a femme fatale, either. She knew men noticed her. After all, she was a nearly six foot tall blonde, in excellent condition, with a reasonably pretty face. But it usually ended with the noticing. She was a little too self-assured, her college friends had told her, a little too cool. She frightened men off. As if she’d want a relationship with a man who was intimidated by any woman with a backbone.

  Lucas wasn’t intimidated by her. He wasn’t intimidated by much of anything as far as she could tell.

  Not that it mattered how Lucas felt about her. She wasn’t here to be seduced by anyone, much less someone who’d intentionally withheld critical information. That was the same as lying in her book. Even if the liar did come wrapped in a very sexy package. She sighed quietly and focused very hard on the meaningless shapes blurring past outside the car, trying to ignore the slight tug on her hair that told her Lucas was playing with it. Damn vampire.

  They turned down a dirt road. It was much rougher and looser beneath the tires, and there were obvious dust clouds billowing past the windows. The big vehicle didn’t slow down at all, though, despite the occasional hard bump and the sound of rocks pinging against the undercarriage. Kathryn leaned toward the center of the SUV, trying to see out the tinted windshield. She thought there was a house up ahead, but couldn’t be certain.

  “We’re almost there,” Lucas said, his deep voice melodic and smooth. Kathryn felt a tremor of desire skim along her nerves and moved back to her side of the seat. She couldn’t see anything anyway, and getting too close to Lucas undermined her determination to hate him.

  Although, that wasn’t really true. She didn’t want to hate him. Quite the opposite. But she didn’t trust him. He lied
as easily as he smiled. How could she have any kind of relationship with a man like that? Vampire, she reminded herself once more. He wasn’t a man at all.

  The SUV came to a sudden stop, skidding a little bit on the dirt road. The driver shifted into parking gear and turned off the ignition. Kathryn quickly unbuckled her seatbelt, eager to be away from the enforced intimacy of the darkened back seat. She didn’t wait for Lucas, but popped open the door on her side and stepped out, coughing a little at the accumulated dust lingering in the air.

  She looked around and saw they’d arrived at a house . . . of sorts. She couldn’t see much, but even the moonlight was enough for her to see that the structure was ancient by American standards. Not historic like the castles of Europe, as one of her favorite comedians would have said, but definitely built more than fifty years ago. Way more than fifty years, in this case. Either that or whoever had built it had a really lousy set of construction skills.

  It appeared to be made of wood plank. It was small—she would guess no more than 1200 square feet at best—with a covered porch that was sagging both underfoot and overhead. The wood appeared dry and gray by moonlight, and she could only imagine it would be worse in the bright light of day.

  Kathryn studied it doubtfully. This was where Lucas planned on having their private conversation? Did it even have plumbing? And what about heat? She hoped it didn’t use one of those wood-burning stoves, because those things smoked, and the smell was impossible to get out of her hair and clothes.

  “It doesn’t look like much from out here,” Lucas murmured against her ear.

  Kathryn managed to stifle most of her jump of surprise, but not all of it. She turned a glare on him, but he only winked playfully. Next time he snuck up on her like that, she was going to shoot him. Let him see how funny he found it then. Sneaky bastard.

  Nicholas came around the side of the house. He’d apparently gone around back for something while she’d been, um, admiring the architecture. He hurried over to where she stood with Lucas and handed her the keys to her rental. She gave him a questioning look.