19

“I concur,” he said.

We slid along the hallway, close to the wall, sticking to the shadows that seemed to blanket every surface. We reached a door with a worn brass doorknob and I stopped.

“I think this is it.” I pressed my hand to the wood like I’d somehow be able to feel her, and I automatically turned the handle to go in. “Is the door being locked a good sign?”

It had to be. Anxiety squeezed my heart. I had no idea what Francois was capable of—I hadn’t thought him capable of even this. I simply had to hope Leia was most valuable to him alive and unharmed.

Kyle motioned me away from the door and Jason checked his watch.

“We have to step this up, guys. Nic nearly getting his throat ripped out cost us more time than we planned for.”

Without further hesitation, Kyle destroyed the doorknob in the same way he’d crushed the one downstairs. He didn’t pretend clumsiness this time, swinging the door open instead as he stepped forward with his gun raised. I shoved him aside.

But the room was empty.

Her scent was strong, along with the bitter scent of her fear, and something that tasted like pity, but Leia wasn’t there.

“No.” I ground my jaw. “No. Fuck, no.”

I glanced at Jason and Sebastian, but their eyes were wide like maybe we’d reached the end of the road. We hadn’t planned for this.

“Now what?” Surely we hadn’t missed them again?

“Now, we keep looking.” Kyle’s voice was grim as he bent to peer beneath the ugly, raised bed then strode to a door that revealed a closet packed with ugly, antique gowns. When he tried a handle on the only other door in the room, rattling it to see if it would open, something squeaked on the other side.

“Wait.” I held up my hand to stop him before he wrenched his way in. Leia didn’t know Kyle. If she was in there, he couldn’t be the first face she saw.

Putting aside any illusion of skill or grace, I ripped the door open and strode into the room, my heart beating more wildly than ever before. I sucked in a lungful of air as the squeak sounded again, and I moved forward until I spotted a curled-up bundle of black and red fabric.

“Leia?” Relief almost stole my voice, her name little more than a disturbance in the air.

Her natural scent was almost entirely saturated in fear, and her face was pale when she lifted it, her hands shaking as she twisted her fingers together. “Holy crap. You came.”

Her words were almost voiceless too, but I heard the disbelief and relief.

I forced out a chuckle as I moved forward, like this was just another day in the life of any of the Baton Rouge vampires.

“Of course I did.” My voice was rough with the emotions I was trying to keep at bay. “You don’t get out of a one-month contract with me by running off with rival vampire royalty.”

I wanted to fall to my knees and worship her, but I stopped and gathered her to my chest, cradling her against me. She said something, and I bent closer.

“What was that?” I pressed my ear toward her mouth to hear her reply.

“I’m willing, I’m willing.” Her breath caught on a half-sob. “Take me.”

I tightened my grip and pressed my lips into a tight line as I strode from the room, the all-conquering king once again.

For fuck’s sake. What had Francois done to her?

“Let’s get this show on the road.” I nodded my head to the bedroom door as my men looked at me. “I’ve got her.”

She weighed practically nothing in my arms as we jogged back through Francois’s house—as much a mausoleum as where his father lay in stasis. In front of me, Kyle fired his gun, clearing our path from the house. When I glanced behind me at Jason, he had his gun in his hand, too, and even Sebastian was armed.

“These were the backup plan.” Jason grinned. “Wooden bullets. Anything to keep you safe.”

“It’s for Leia,” I called back, as we burst from the house, a trail of unknown dead and injured vampires in our wake.

“For both of you,” Sebastian added as we sprinted toward the portal, not bothering to conceal ourselves on the return trip.

Francois would likely be back any moment, and I wanted to be on the jet before he thought to travel to the airport.

“Jason—” I started

“Already on it.” He clutched his cell phone to his ear and issued instructions to our pilot to prepare for our arrival at the jet and a quick departure. The pilot would probably compel someone at air traffic control to bump up our place in the line. We always got away in pretty good time when we needed to, anyway.

We flung ourselves through the crackling purple portal, and Lettie looked at us. Her gaze lingered on Leia then skimmed my neck, and the dried blood coating my skin.

“Everything okay?” She raised an eyebrow.

“Nothing we couldn’t handle.” Kyle scowled as he spoke.

Lettie didn’t take her eyes from me. “Only the worthy deserve a true mate, Your Majesty. Keep her out of the shadows.”

Leia hadn’t moved or made a sound as we’d escaped Francois’s house, but I looked down at her now, rearranging the fabric bunched around her neck and face, and her brown eyes were wide and scared in her pale face, her lips a vivid slash of red. Her soft breaths came in rapid spurts.

“I need to get her home.”

Lettie almost grinned, her wrinkled face folding along the well-worn creases. “And I need to go. Our business is concluded. I suggest you don’t hang around either.