“Nuh, no! I never saw—” He screamed as Raphael’s power closed around his heart just enough to hurt . . . badly.

Raphael tsked softly. “Didn’t your murdering friends teach you anything about vampires? After all, a good hunter always knows his prey. And I know all about you, Hugh Pulaski.”

Tears were streaming down the man’s face, carving a path through the oily sweat. He was mumbling something beneath his breath. It sounded like a prayer.

Raphael laughed. “You would do better to pray to me, human. Your life is in my hands tonight, not your God’s. Now—” He drilled into Pulaski’s brain, forcing him to look up. “I believe you wanted to apologize, didn’t you?”

Pulaski nodded desperately, his eyes rolling white with fear. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

Raphael shrugged. “Of course, it would be better if you apologized directly to my mate, but that won’t happen. In fact, I think it would be best if you left this area altogether. You’re not the kind of neighbor I had in mind for my people.”

“I’ll leave. I will. I’ll go tomorrow.”

Raphael frowned and Pulaski screamed again. “Tonight,” he sobbed. “I’ll go tonight. I promise. I will. Just, please don’t hurt me anymore.”

“Hurt you? Oh, Hugh. You don’t know what pain is yet.”

Raphael ignored the human’s pathetic whimpering and began rummaging through Hugh Pulaski’s brain, his mouth pursed with distaste. The man was nobody. A rich man pretending to be poor, a small man pretending to be big. A liar and a cheat. And this, this slug had dared insult his Cyn, dared threaten her with violence? Raphael should do the world a favor and rid it of bad trash. But that wasn’t his purpose tonight.

Cyn’s bodyguard, Robbie, had been certain Pulaski knew more than what he’d been willing to tell Colin Murphy this afternoon. But it was also possible that Pulaski knew more than he realized he did. Raphael sent a suggestion to the human’s mind, directing him to the recent vampire murders, to the people behind it.

Pulaski twitched where he lay on the ground, his eyes rolled back in his head, drool dripping from his mouth. He looked like the idiot he was, but he wasn’t permanently damaged. Not yet.

Raphael followed the human’s twisting thoughts, the vicarious thrill when he’d heard about Marco and Preston being murdered, the sick twist of perverted arousal at the news of Mariane’s brutal rape. Raphael growled and dug deeper, going farther back in time. Pulaski was in a tavern of some sort. It was small and dark, with no lights except over the bar and only a few tables cloaked in heavy smoke and deep shadow. It smelled of beer and sweat and old cigarettes, with the lingering scent of a toilet that had run over in the not too distant past. The only noise was a low hum of conversation, too low to hear. A few words popped out, though. Enough to know they were going to hunt some vamps, going to hit ‘em in daytime while they slept. No one would know a thing until it was too late and they’d be long gone by then.

Raphael forced Hugh to look deeper, to see details, things he passed over without paying conscious attention. Details about the bar—the sign advertising some beer, the brand indistinguishable because half the bulbs were burned out, the dusty deer head above the cash register, a plastic lei twisted in its antlers. Details about the conspirators—men Hugh knew well, and others he didn’t. But it was the men he knew that Raphael was interested in. He dug further, pushing until an involuntary whine rose from the human’s throat and his back bowed from the ground with effort.

Raphael released him.

A stench filled the air as Pulaski wet himself. He rolled over in the dirt and curled up into a ball, weeping piteously for his own suffering.

Raphael stepped away, shaking dirt from his coat. “Don’t forget, Hugh Pulaski,” he said, watching dispassionately as the human froze, listening. “You’re leaving this area tonight. And make it permanent. I’ll know if you come back.”

Duncan walked with him back to the SUV, while Juro waited, standing over the whimpering human. Once Raphael was in the truck with the door closed, Juro followed, climbing into the driver’s seat without the slightest reaction to the human or his suffering.

He looked up, meeting Raphael’s gaze in the rear view mirror. “Sire?”

Raphael considered how much time was left before morning.

“Locate Wei Chen and Loren,” he told Juro. “Tell them to meet us at the compound.”

Juro spun the SUV in a tight circle, the tires coming close enough to Pulaski that he was pelted with bits of dirt, close enough that he screamed, cringing away from the big truck. Raphael glanced at his security chief and caught a slight upward twinge of the big vampire’s mouth. Juro was very fond of Cyn. He respected her, which was saying something. There weren’t very many beings Juro respected, human or vampire.

As they drove back to the main road, Raphael considered everything he’d learned from Pulaski’s muddled brain. There was useful information there, but it would require interpretation. He’d originally wanted to meet Wei Chen and Loren, because they were local. But what he really needed for this was someone local and human. Someone like Colin Murphy.

* * * *

Raphael spotted Elke as soon as he came through the glass doors. She was standing on guard in the precise position she’d occupied when he’d left earlier.

“My lord,” she said upon sighting him.

Raphael tilted his head in question.

“She came up for a few hours earlier. We played cards,” she added disparagingly. “I think she did it on purpose.”

“No doubt,” Raphael agreed. “But it won’t work. How long ago?”

Elke didn’t have to check her watch. Like all vampires she measured time by the sun’s next arrival and knew exactly how much time had passed, because she knew how much time was left. “An hour, my lord. A few moments more.”

He nodded, turning when he heard more vehicles pulling through the gates. Standing near the doors, Juro turned and said, “Wei Chen, Sire. Loren is not with him.”

Raphael paused in taking off his coat. “Where is he?”

Duncan was already on his cell. He said a few words, hung up and turned to Raphael. “He was checking out a lead, my lord. He’s on his way back now.”

Raphael and Duncan shared a skeptical look. Loren was Raphael’s own child. The vampire couldn’t lie to him, not successfully. Still, the situation bore watching. He finished removing his coat and threw it across the long couch not far from Elke before crossing to the meeting room. “We’ll be in here,” he told her, signaling Duncan to accompany him.

They settled to one side of the big doors, Raphael sitting at the end of a huge, antique sofa, his legs crossed at the knee, his arm stretched out along the back.

Duncan sat at the other end. “Other than Mister Pulaski’s close affiliation with his tree-dwelling ancestors,” he said, “did his brain reveal any reliable information?”

Raphael smiled slightly. “The man’s a worm. He sat within a few feet of the humans who planned these murders and was too terrified to even look over his shoulder. Instead, he eavesdropped like an old woman in a marketplace.” He shrugged dismissively. “Unfortunately, the music was loud and the conspirators careful.”

Duncan met his gaze knowingly and Raphael’s smile grew.

“I know your skill, my lord, and your determination. If it had been necessary to tear Pulaski’s meager brain out through his ears and spread it on the ground to examine it, you would have done so.”

“Colorful. But accurate. The worm knew two of the people involved. One he called by a nickname. Junior. It was a taunt of sorts, something the conspirator had been called as a child and apparently hated. The other is Curtis. I don’t know if that’s a first or last name. And I don’t think our people will be too helpful on this.”

Duncan eyed him thoughtfully. “But Colin Murphy would be.”

“Exactly. Let’s give him everything I got from Pulaski, not just the names, but the description of the local bar where they met. Pulaski spent a fair amount of time there, so anyone familiar with the place should be able to ID it from what I got.”

“And Cynthia?”

“What about her?”

“Will you also inform her of these new findings?”

Raphael drummed his fingers on the tufted back of the sofa. “I don’t want her anywhere near this, but she’ll be well and truly pissed if she finds out from someone else. And we both know she will. So, send her the same info, but copy Robbie on everything. At least she won’t be able to pull a fast one on him and go after it herself. And tell Robbie if anything happens to her, he’d better be dead before I know about it.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

Colin watched Sophia walk toward him, laughter warring with desire in her deep brown eyes. Her hips swayed as she crossed the room, one long curl of hair falling over her shoulder to caress her breast. She looked terrific. Sexy as hell. Just looking at her made his dick hurt. It always had. Nothing had managed to change his reaction to her—not the years, not the lies, not even the knowledge that she drank blood to stay alive. He tried to imagine what it would be like to have her licking his skin, to feel her teeth sinking into his neck, drinking his blood. His erection grew harder.

Fuck that! He forced himself to remember the months he’d grieved for her, the guilt and pain he’d endured, thinking she was dead.

He looked away and took a good, long draught of whiskey, hoping it would wash away the taste of her, still so fresh despite the years.

Sophia slid gracefully onto the couch to sit facing him, her feet tucked under her thighs. She reached for his glass and he let her take it, watching as she drank, her plush lips closing around the rim, her tongue slipping out to taste before she let the whiskey roll into her mouth. Christ, what was wrong with him? He looked away, desperately trying to think of something, anything except what it would feel like to have that tongue licking other things.