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“Sweetheart, you read my mind.”
26
RAFE
We spent most of Sunday in bed catching up with our sleep. I woke before Zoe and lay there, looking at her. I was sloppy in love, and I didn’t care. She was so beautiful to me.
My dark-haired, golden-skinned vampire princess.
When she finally opened her eyes, we took a shower together. I indulged myself by washing her all over and then taking her against the black granite wall. We were both starving by then, so we went down to the Village and the Ruby Speakeasy, a Kral vampire club where we could feed.
We spent most of the night looking for Zaq in both vampire and human clubs. My brother wasn’t good at conjuring a glamour, but he had a way of blending in with humans that was almost as effective. He had to know I was in New York, but if he was here too, as he’d told Zoe, he was hiding, even from me.
It hurt, even though I knew he’d been brainwashed by Philippe and Tomas.
We returned to my penthouse and made love again. Zoe fell asleep at dawn, but I stayed up for another few hours, trying everything I could think of to track down Zaq. I even went looking for him online, although I knew he was too smart to leave digital traces. If he wanted to hide, he’d stay offline and use cash.
My eyelids grew heavy. I ran a hand down my face, then shut my laptop and crawled into bed with Zoe.
Around dusk, the buzzing of my phone woke me. I grabbed it from the nightstand.
It was Father. Zaq had contacted Gabriel.
I snapped awake. “How is he? What did he say?”
“He’s okay, as far as Gabriel could tell. But he wants me to call off the hunt.”
I rubbed my forehead. “Why?”
“That’s all he said, other than that you and Gabriel should be careful, too—that whoever was behind this wanted to bring me to my knees. He told Gabriel that he couldn’t talk long, that he was afraid the call would be traced.”
I shook my head. “I don’t like it.”
“He wouldn’t have asked if he didn’t have a good reason. I want you to stop searching for him. I’m calling off my people, too. For now, we’ll play this his way.”
I hadn’t told Father that I’d been conducting my own search for Zaq, but I wasn’t surprised he knew. What bothered me was that he didn’t seem to consider Zaq a threat.
I blew out a frustrated breath. “And if he’s been fucking brainwashed? What then?”
“I’m on my guard, thanks to you,” was the cool reply. “And you’re no longer Philippe’s prisoner, which gives your brother some breathing room. I believe Zaquiel is doing everything he can to find a way out of this. I’m still alive, aren’t I? Now stand down. That’s an order,” he added.
I swallowed an exasperated growl. “You’re the boss.”
“I’ll be in touch,” he said, and cut the connection.
Zoe stirred sleepily. “That was your father?”
“Yeah.” I looked at the phone, tempted to throw the damn thing across the room, but there was no point in taking out my frustration on an innocent device. I set it on the nightstand instead. “You heard what he said?”
“I did.” She held out her arms to me.
I went into them, and she wrapped them around me. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I know how worried you are.”
“I just want to talk to him myself. I don’t know why the hell he didn’t call me, too.”
“Maybe he can’t. Maybe they’re watching him too closely.”
“Yeah. Fuck, I wish this was over.”
