Luther's Return (Scanguards Vampires Book 10)

Ice shot through her veins at the thought.

“He denies having anything to do with it, and from what I’ve seen so far, I’m inclined to believe him.”

Haven pointed to the monitor to his left, and Katie followed his gaze. An image of a corridor was frozen on the screen. She recognized it. It was the area near the dressing rooms.

“He denies knowing the guy who took Isabelle. And from the partial face we have, so far we haven’t found a match in the databases. We’ll know more after the lie detector test. But no matter what the result is, Luther is dangerous. He’s not like us. He’s a criminal.”

Katie involuntarily shivered at her brother’s assessment. She could blame the air conditioning in the room, but she knew it was her body’s reaction to the man who was being interrogated.

Thomas and Eddie stepped back from Luther, giving her a good view of his scarred torso once more. Her fingers itched with the need to caress the marred skin, to feel for herself the damage that had been done to his body. As if she needed proof that he was somebody she had to stay away from. Somebody she should not find as fascinating as she did.

The phone rang, and Haven answered it. “Yeah?”

In the interrogation room below, Thomas gave Eddie a sign to switch on the machine. Next to Katie, Haven jumped up.

“I’ll be right there.”

She spun her head to him. “What’s wrong?”

“We have a lead. Somebody spotted a woman being dragged into a car not far from the University.” He was already at the door, when he looked over his shoulder. “Stay out of sight and out of trouble.” Then he sighed. “And Katie, I know this whole thing has to be particularly hard on you. But don’t let it drag you back to that dark place. It’s behind you. It’s over.”

She nodded automatically, shuddering at the memories, and watched the door fall shut behind him. Then she turned her eyes back to the window. Though Thomas spoke to Luther, there was no sound. Haven had probably switched off the speakers before leaving the observation room. Not wanting to alert anybody below that she was up here watching them, Katie didn’t dare try any of the buttons on the console to find the right one to listen in on the room below.

Instead, she turned to the computer screen and shifted into Haven’s empty chair. With a click of the mouse, she hit the play button on the screen and watched Isabelle’s abduction unfold.

She strained to get a better look at the kidnapper, but the grainy black-and-white picture and the camera angle didn’t help. Besides, the man kept his head down as if he knew that there was a camera. Isabelle struggled, and it was evident that she was using her vampire strength against the attacker, but the man seemed stronger than she. A vampire or a hybrid himself.

“Oh God, Isabelle,” she murmured to herself. “I’m so sorry.”

She reached for her student’s face on the monitor, wanting to comfort her, to tell her that she would do anything to find her, when she accidentally touched the mouse again, restarting the video from the beginning.

It was almost too much, having to look at it again. Helplessly, she stared at Isabelle, when she noticed her lips move, repeating the same thing over and over again. Kimberly. There it was, Katie’s stage name. Was she calling for help?

Katie used the mouse to go back in the video and played it again. This time she only looked at Isabelle’s lips. During her time on the stage, she’d learned to read lips—mostly because at the beginning of her career she’d had a hard time remembering her lines and had often needed the help of a prompter.

I’m not Kimberly.

Katie drew back in her chair. Isabelle hadn’t called for her to help her. She’d told her kidnapper that she wasn’t Kimberly. That she wasn’t the one he was after.

The vampire taking Isabelle had mistaken her for Katie.

“Oh God, no. It is my fault.”

“What are you doing in here?”

At the male voice, Katie whirled around and stared at the tall vampire entering the room.

“I’m Haven’s sister…”

“We’re on lockdown. Only Scanguards personnel are allowed.” Not too gently, he grabbed her by the arm.

She tried to pull free, but he was too strong. Furious, she glanced at the badge dangling from his breast pocket and read his name.

“My brother authorized me to be in here, Jake, and I’m sure he won’t be pleased that you’re throwing me out.”

Jake grinned with an air of superiority. “Nice try, lady, but Haven knows better. Let’s go!”

“Goddamn it!” she cursed under her breath. Just as she’d discovered something, some idiot was throwing her out.