“It’s minor, my lord,” Bastien assured him. “What can I do?”

“Take care of her,” Aden said, transferring Sidonie into his care.

Sidonie rebelled briefly, twisting to look up at him. “Aden?”

He cupped her cheek, the gentleness an effort in the midst of his anger. “I’ll be right back,” he assured her. “You stay here with Bastien.” He forced himself to speak softly, to let none of the rage that was boiling his blood leak into his words. It didn’t fool Bastien, of course.

“Sire?”

He met Bastien’s gaze over Sidonie’s head. “Enough is enough,” he said grimly. And with that, he reached out with his power and tunneled through the shadows like a serpent until he found the assassin. Human, he was hugging the wall of an empty house, shivering in the face of his failure, too terrified of discovery to run, too stupid to realize he couldn’t hide from a vampire as powerful as Aden.

Aden dragged the coward into the light of the burning SUV, using his power like a hook dug into the man’s chest, making it as painful as possible.

“I know you,” he growled, recognizing the human Balderas. He’d been Silas’s daytime security chief, but he was also the one who’d tried to abduct Sidonie in the train station.

“Fuck you, vampire,” the human managed to gasp, pawing at his chest as if the hook digging into him was something physical he could remove. When he looked up, his eyes were filled with tears, but not with pain, or rather not that kind of pain. “You killed her!” he screamed accusingly.

“That’s what this is about?” Aden questioned in disbelief. “You want revenge for that stupid bitch Silas?”

“Don’t you—” Balderas’s words cut off, replaced by a guttural scream of agony as Aden twisted the hook of his power down into the man’s gut.

“This is how the game is played, human,” Aden hissed, reeling his power in, dragging Balderas with it until he was within arm’s reach.

“I loved her,” the human whimpered.

“Then you can join her.”

The hook became a poker as Aden rammed it up behind the man’s rib cage and into his heart, burning white-hot while the human shrieked in pain, until he had no air left with which to scream, until his heart was nothing but a piece of shriveled meat.

Aden let the body fall to the street. But he wasn’t finished yet. His head swung slowly from side to side, brow lowered, eyelids heavy over his searching gaze. But he wasn’t seeing the neighborhood he stood in, with its neglected homes and old cars, the cracked sidewalks and dried lawns. His gaze went far beyond that. Pure, raw power was driving this search, spreading out into the city, seeking out and finding every damn vampire in the greater Chicago area, moving beyond even that to the thousands of vampires in the Midwest, their lives gleaming in his sight, some bright, some bare pinpricks of light.

“This ends now,” he snarled. Gathering every ounce of power he possessed, sucking power from every vampire life he encountered, he sent out a raging tidal wave of command, claiming the Midwest as his own and daring any vampire to challenge him here and now, to wrest the power from him if they could, and to submit or die if they could not.

Throwing back his head, eyes closed, Aden stood with outstretched arms, hands open and palms up as he drew in the lives of the territory, one after another, first a trickle and then a flood. His power thundered as vampires surrendered, falling to their knees, to their faces, recognizing the new Lord of the Midwest.

SID DIDN’T KNOW what was happening. One minute they were hurrying to the SUV, and the next the world exploded. She knew Aden had saved her, that he’d protected her with his body. She didn’t even think he was aware of the blood soaking the back of his shirt, of the rips and tears in his flesh. She didn’t think he was aware of much, because he’d gone into some sort of Zen state that had even Bastien backing away and taking her with him.

“Bastien,” she said, confused. “What—”

“Shh,” he silenced her quickly. “Wait. Don’t distract him.”

She frowned. Distract him? Aden? He didn’t look very distractible right now. In fact—Her thoughts cut off as a human suddenly came into view, looking like he was being reeled in like a fish, and just as reluctantly. She squinted. He looked familiar. The clothes were different, but . . .

“That’s the guy,” she whispered. Bastien’s hand tightened on her arm in renewed warning, but he nodded.

“What will—”

“Sid,” Bastien whispered urgently, turning her to face him. “Please. You need to be quiet.”

Sid’s lips flattened in frustration, but she figured Bastien knew what was going on far better than she did, and she didn’t want to do anything that might jeopardize Aden’s safety. She spun around, staring in shock when the guy suddenly shrieked as if someone was ripping his skin off, then felt slightly sick when Aden dropped the man’s limp body to the street like a piece of forgotten trash.

Not that she blamed Aden for being angry. The guy had just tried to kill them all. But she’d seen enough violence and death in the last forty-eight hours to last the rest of her life.

She drew a deep breath, thinking it was finally over, but then Aden snarled a few words, and the world went even crazier. Her lungs strained to breathe as all the oxygen in the air seemed to disappear at once, as the few winter-bare trees around them began rattling like dried bones, bending and creaking beneath a powerful storm with Aden at its center. Thunder rumbled, but it wasn’t the weather. It was coming from beneath their feet, an earthquake of sound, shaking the ground until she clung to Bastien, her feet braced as the street rippled like a sheet in the wind.

And still Aden stood, unmoving, immovable. His arms were stretched out as if he was calling down the power of the gods upon his enemies and bathing in its glow. Except the glow was the blue of his eyes, burning brighter than the flames of the wreckage, twin lasers of brilliant blue sapphire.

Suddenly Aden threw his head back and howled, his hands clenching into fists as if holding on to something. He stood that way for a long time, and then his arms fell to his sides, his eyes opened, and his head swiveled to pin her in the blue laser gleam of his gaze.

“Let go of her,” he growled.

Bastien released her at once, his fingers flying open as if she’d suddenly become red-hot.

“Come here, Sidonie,” Aden crooned.

She froze for the space of a heartbeat, knowing something more was going on than what her simple human senses could detect. But this was Aden, and she knew he’d never hurt her.

She closed the distance between them, going into his arms without hesitation.

He seemed larger somehow, and that was saying something, because he was a big guy to begin with. But at the same time, there was something weary in his expression, as if he had taken on a heavy burden in the last few minutes, something she couldn’t see, except in his eyes.

“Are you okay?” she asked, touching her hand to his cheek and noticing that his eyes had begun to lose their laser-like glow and return to their usual midnight blue.

He blinked, seeming surprised that she’d ask. And then he smiled. “I will be. Let’s go home, and I’ll tell you all about it.”

Chapter Twenty

ADEN USHERED Sidonie out of the elevator and into his private quarters. Elias had been summoned, and they’d used his vehicle to drive away from the bombing scene. The explosion had been too dramatic for even that neighborhood, and the scene was now crawling with human police. There was nothing to tie Aden to the destroyed vehicles, so there was no concern there. And Elias, intent on proving himself to his new lord, had remained behind at Pinto’s place, calling in a team to see the women to safety and to do a thorough cleanup on the house. Aden didn’t fully trust Elias, but he judged the vampire to be smart enough to see that his future depended on making Aden happy. With vampires, self-interest was always the best motivator.

“You’ll probably want a shower,” Aden told Sidonie as he hustled her through the sitting room and straight into the bedroom.

“Are you saying I stink?” Her response was playful enough, but she didn’t quite pull it off. She had to be exhausted. She did need a shower, but not because she smelled. She was covered in blood, her clothes stiff, her skin sticky, with bits of grime from the explosion still clinging everywhere.

But Aden didn’t tell her any of that. Slipping his arms around her, he pulled her close and said, “I’m saying you’ve had a rough couple of days, and a hot shower will help you sleep.”

She sighed and leaned her forehead against his chest, her hands resting to either side of his waist. The gesture was so unaffected and spoke of such trust. He gazed down at her bent head and felt his heart clench with rare emotion.

“You’re right,” she said, then raised her head to meet his eyes with a wicked look that belied her exhaustion. “Will you join me?”

He gave a low laugh and let one hand slide down to rest on the curve of her sweet ass. “I have a phone call to make first. And I need to check with Bastien and the others. But it won’t take long.”

“Okay,” she said, standing on tiptoes to give him a quick kiss. “But don’t blame me if you miss all the fun.”

Aden waited until she’d disappeared into the bathroom, pulling the door shut behind her, then he strode quickly back through his quarters and down the hall to his office.

Bastien and the others were waiting for him, but he raised a hand to put off any questions. “I need to call Lucas.”

He didn’t bother closing the door. Vampire hearing made such barriers useless. Besides, these four vampires were his closest advisers, his inner circle as he undertook to rule the Midwest. He’d have very few secrets from them.

Picking up the phone, he hit a speed dial number and listened to it ring. He didn’t have to wait long. The call was answered on the second ring.

“I heard rumors of an earthquake in Chicago,” a familiar voice said. “The vampire grapevine is humming tonight.”