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"Wait," Sophia de vampire lord, not lectures

He stopped just inside the rooard her with one eyebrow raised at her preemptory com hi him captive?"

Raphael tilted his head to one side, as if considering her question "It is possible," he conceded "Lucien was ever too trusting"

Sophia expelled a long breath, part relief that Lucien , tortured by his captors

"Will you be returning with us?" Raphael asked

Sophia stared blindly for ato take in his question on top of everything else she’d just had dumped on her She blinked and sed hard, then nodded once

"Yes," she said "The key to finding Lucien lies in solving these crinaled to someone "One of my vehicles ait, so that you may confer with your fellow house members before you leave"

Sophia sank into the chair behind Lucien’s desk as Raphael strode fro into her hands She didn’t want this Not the mysterious deaths of Giselle and the others, not Lucien’s cryptic letter or his sudden disappearance, and sure as hell not the almost certain battle with Darren over control of Lucien’s territory She gasped out loud as the thought made itself known There would be no battle for control, because Lucien was not dead, and he wasn’t going to be She didn’t for oneto kill hihable Lucien had clearly been saddened by the deaths of Giselle and her young reatest portion of his sadness was probably reserved for himself, that he had to suffer their loss and deal with the consequences

No, she would find whoever was doing this, and she would find Lucien, too He ht need her help for a few th But then things would return to normal

At the same time, she was forced to admit that Raphael had a point If her Sire was to have a territory to coht now to secure it Soone"

Darren’s unwelcome voice announced his presence, as if he’d known she was thinking about hi as he noticed she was sitting behind Lucien’s deskon Lucien’s chair "What’d he do here?"

"Nothing you and I haven’t tried already, but he did it with greater success," she adiven who he is"

Darren cae next to her, rather than take any of the chairs in the supplicant position in front of it "What does that reater success? Did he find Lucien?"

"No, unfortunately" She proceeded to tell Darren pretty much word for hat Raphael had explained to her

"Fuck that," he exploded, standing up and pacing over to a book shelf and back again "Lucien would never do anything to hurt hiree," Sophia said, relieved to hear someone else say it out loud "But what Raphael said about the territorial borders is true I felt it e caht it was just because Raphael was in the vehicle right behind me, but it was more than that And if we don’t want a bunch of vultures s together until Lucien gets back Either that, or fight the and stared at her She could see hi to decide if their earlier spur-of-the-moment contest truly reflected their relative power, or if he could take her in a straight up fight She kneould never have challenged Lucien Even if their Sire caainst hiht diethat changed everything Darren was loyal to Lucien, but he was also Varessive And if Lucien died, there was absolutely no reason to honor his preference for Sophia as successor

Sophia stood, favoring her fellow vaht you over this, Darren" His eyes blazed with triumph and Sophia chuckled "Not now," she added deliberately "I believe Lucien is co back But if he doesn’t--" She let her oell, let it spill into her eyes until their gloned out the di Darren’s gaze directly "I will fight you to the death before I let you have this territory"

Chapter Twenty

The SUVs rolled through the now deserted night, the streets quiet, but for the occasional vehicle sharing the road with thehorn bellowing its desolate warning over and over again

His ht’s events, but without any particular urgency Lucien’s situation was intriguing, but it no longer see fury against the Canadian lord, lurking just below the surface of his thoughts But that was for later--after he’d tracked down the killers Lucien had left on his doorstep, after their blood had fed his soldiers and their bones been reduced to ash and ground into dirt Lucien could wait until then He wasn’t going anywhere