“Of course. It’s his, or her, job. A leader must always be willing—Okay, fang boy, I see where you’re going with this now. But, one, there aren’t millions of vamps at risk—”
“Relatively speaking, with our smaller numbers, there is an equal percentage of vampires at risk in this war.”
“—and two,” Cyn continued, ignoring his reasoning, “you aren’t their leader.”
“But I am,” he said, cupping her face in his strong hands. “I am, for better or worse, the most powerful vampire on this continent. With great power comes great responsibility, my Cyn. You know this. You would demand this of any other leader.”
Cyn’s eyes filled with hot tears. “But you’re not any other leader, you’re mine. My lover, my mate, my life. And I can’t lose you, Raphael. I just can’t.”
“And you won’t. Trust me.” He rubbed his thumbs under her eyes, wiping away the tears that overflowed.
“Fine,” she snapped, knowing nothing she said was going to change anything. “I trust you. But I’m also going with you.”
“Of course you are. Because, my Cyn, if the shit hits the fan—”
“When the shit hits the fan.”
“—I trust you to be there to turn the damn fan off.”
THE NEXT NIGHT the four of them met again, but this time in the conference room where everyone could sit around the big table and discuss which airplane and which pilots, which house and which personnel. It was as if they were going on vacation instead of flying off to hand over Raphael’s head on a platter.
Jared and Juro had shown up with all the relevant data already on their iPads. They hadn’t needed to be told what Raphael’s decision was. As soon as they’d seen the invitation the previous night, they’d known what he would do. In her heart of hearts, Cyn admitted to herself that she’d known, too. The difference was that she, at least, had tried to talk him out of it.
She didn’t know why the other two hadn’t. Maybe, she thought viciously, because they’d already done the same math as Raphael and they were willing to sacrifice his life to save their own. But the thought had no sooner formed than she knew it wasn’t true. Not for Juro, anyway, and not for Jared, either, she admitted reluctantly. He might have been willing to go along with Raphael getting shot by a human assassin—assuming in his typical vampire arrogance that no human could outwit or outshoot vampire planning and reflexes—but she didn’t honestly believe that even Jared would casually risk Raphael against a whole team of master vampires who wanted him dead.
No, the two of them were going along with what Raphael decided because he was their Sire and their lord, and the decision was his. There were no messy human emotions clogging up the works, just obedience.
“Should you bring another vampire lord with you?” she asked, interrupting their discussion of flight times and available housing.
Raphael swiveled his chair around to face her where she sat next to him.
“They didn’t say in their fucking bloody letter who you’d be meeting with,” she continued. “But we all know they’ll send more than one vamp to negotiate with you. They’re too scared to meet you one on one. And the vamps they send won’t be a bunch of desk clerks. At least one of them, and probably more than one, will be a vampire lord, or at least powerful enough to be a lord. After all, the reason they’re doing this is because they have too many powerful vampires and nowhere to put them. What better way to shuffle a few off the scene than to send them to confront you?”
“The letter specifies only that I may bring a security team of my own.”
“Fuck the letter. Who says they get to dictate terms? You should take Lucas or Duncan,” Cyn insisted stubbornly. “Either one of them would be happy to go with you. If it will make you feel better, you can say they’re part of your security team.”
“And if this is a ruse to pull Lucas or Duncan away from the continent along with me, so that the Europeans can attack? Who will defend their territories?”
“Well, who’s going to defend yours? Maybe that’s the plan. You’re the one with the biggest territory, after all.”
“Jared will hold the West in my absence. Lucas will assist him as necessary.”
Cyn gave Jared a flat look, then, just to be obstinate, argued, “What if Lucas is under attack too?”
Raphael gave her an amused look and tugged her chair closer to his. “Then Aden will assist Lucas,” he said patiently. “And Duncan will assist Aden, and Vincent will assist Anthony. We don’t believe Mexico will come under threat, at least not immediately. We think they’ll wait to see if Vincent will follow Enrique’s lead or choose to ally with the rest of us. He’s already allied himself with me privately, but they don’t know that yet.”
“So you’ve thought it all out.”
“As much as it can be,” Raphael agreed. “Juro will have my back in Hawaii, and so will you.”
Cyn nodded, giving up the argument for now. But privately, her thoughts went in an entirely different direction. If she was going to have Raphael’s back, if she was going to be anything other than window dressing, then she had some thinking to do. Cyn had proved more than once that she was someone to be reckoned with, but very few in the vampire community knew about those events beyond rumor. These foreign vamps certainly didn’t. And even if they’d heard of her role in Lord Jabril’s death, they’d have discounted it.
“Their mistake,” she muttered to herself.
Raphael glanced over, but she only smiled and leaned back in her chair. The vamps had plans to make for the trip? Well, so did she. Backups for when their plans went to hell and her plans were all they had left.
Chapter Three