“He wants me as his mate,” she whispered. “He’s knows I’m not his true mate, but he doesn’t care.”
“Why? For your power?” I asked as I tried to contain my irrational fury at any man thinking my mate could be his.
“And for her body. He’s wanted her for centuries,” Gareth supplied.
“Not gonna happen,” I ground out through clenched teeth. “If he so much as looks at you, I’ll behead him and then tear the rest of his body to shreds before he turns to dust.”
“Remind me never to get on your bad side,” Gareth shouted with a laugh. “But… in all seriousness, if you want to find out what’s really happening, I’d hide the fact that you’re mated. Let Vlad think he might finally have a chance… he might be useful.”
“No,” Raquel insisted vehemently. “I won’t pretend that.”
Hatred didn’t quite describe the feeling I had for Gareth at the moment. The simple fact that he’d made a good point was enough to make me want to go insane. Vampyres were tricky. Fooling one as old as Vlad would be risky. I paced and tried to work off the need to peel the skin from my body or shout and obliterate the Catacombs with a blast of magic. Gareth was right. The bile that rose to my mouth prevented me from agreeing immediately, but I knew I would consent to the horrific suggestion.
“Gareth’s correct,” I said so softly Raquel had to lean toward me to hear.
“Oh God,” she muttered, crossing her arms in rebellion against the idea. “Are we even sure it’s Vlad behind everything?”
“No. We’re not sure of anything,” I said tightly, trying to divorce my emotional needs from the battle ahead. “All we know is that we need to be as neutral as Switzerland and proceed with caution. I’ll be your… bodyguard.”
The words came out of my mouth like sludge. They disgusted me. However, I refused to let her go in alone.
Raquel blanched, but then nodded unhappily. She was as aware as I was that duty came before anything else. Never had it been this difficult.
“I’ll be alerting Ethan and Astrid to the developments. I would expect them to arrive shortly thereafter… I’ll also be calling on Satan.”
“No fucking way,” Gareth choked out and gaped at me. “You’ll owe him a favor.”
“That will be the least of my problems,” I snapped. “I plan to protect what I love and if I have to pay for it… so be it.”
“Sweet Hell on Earth, pun intended—this is going to be ugly.” Gareth chuckled and shook his head, but I caught the admiration for me in his gaze.
I didn’t need his approval or even want it. I wanted to punch a wall with my head, but that would be somewhat counterproductive at the moment. I just wanted to get the party started and get it the Hell over with. Watching my woman pretend she wasn’t mine was going to tear at my soul, but I knew the truth.
She was mine.
I was hers and she was mine for all eternity.
I just prayed it would be enough to keep me sane.
Chapter 15
Let the fireworks begin…
“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Astrid shouted. Her four inch high Prada stiletto heels clicked on the highly polished hard wood floor as she stomped around. Sparks covered the upper half of her body and shot around the room like small fiery bullets.
We had transported from the Catacombs to Raquel’s main residence—an enormous villa on the outskirts of Paris. It was difficult for Raquel to leave her brother chained and caged, but in order to free him, we had to leave him. The Summit was taking place several hours from her estate. The location of the meeting was near Mont Saint-Michel in a chateau owned by the Angels.
I’d alerted Ethan and Astrid of the potential problems and they’d transported from the states immediately. They’d left Samuel behind in Kentucky with Venus and a bevy of highly trained guards. However, Venus was probably enough. She was as vicious as she was loyal. Even I was wary of pissing off Venus and I was as deadly as they came. I’d also slipped away and privately contacted Satan. I feared that the call was a tremendous mistake, but I had to start somewhere.
“We don’t have all the facts,” I said as I tried to calm my volatile cousin.
I was certain Raquel liked her home and Astrid was famous for blowing out walls of buildings. Ethan paced in frustrated agitation as Raquel pushed a button on her bracelet. The grand bookcase at the far side of her great room opened silently and revealed an arsenal fit for an army.
I must be all kinds of fucked in the head. The only thought in my brain when I saw it was how sexy it was my girl owned enough weapons to obliterate a small country.
“We don’t have many facts at all,” Ethan corrected my assessment. “Gareth is locked in the Catacombs—aging and possibly dying—and Vlad the bastard is back in charge of the Old Guard. Not a whole lot to go on.”
“And don’t forget they want my ass on a platter,” Astrid added as she honed in on a particularly beautiful sword. “Dude, can I use this?” she asked Raquel.
“Of course you can,” Raquel told her as she removed it from the wall and handed it to her. “But if we walk into the Summit so obviously armed, it might not look good.”
“True,” Astrid agreed as she admired the weapon with child-like glee. “But everyone knows I’m a walking fucking time bomb even without a weapon. I may as well have a little fun with the old assbags.”