Luther's Return (Scanguards Vampires Book 10)

She suddenly turned her gaze back to him. “But if you say you never met him, why do you think he wrote those letters?”


“His cell. It was plastered with pictures of you, posters.” He pointed at her hair. “Your hair was different. Blonde. That’s why I didn’t immediately recognize you.”

She caught a strand of her hair between her thumb and index finger and twirled it. “I dyed it blonde for a long time. But this is my natural hair color.”

“It suits you better.” The words were out before he could take them back. To cover the compliment, he added quickly, “One of the guards was cleaning out his cell the day I was released.”

“And the V-CON? Didn’t you see him?”

“Apparently he was released a week earlier.”

Katie nodded to herself. “Enough time to plan this.” A haunted look crossed her face. “Stalkers. They love planning. They love the anticipation. It turns them on.”

With every word, Luther realized that Katie wasn’t talking to him anymore. She was reminding herself of something. Something she’d experienced before.





13


Blake entered a ten-digit code into the dashboard of his black-out SUV and waited for the garage door to Samson’s Nob Hill mansion to lift. As the head of Scanguards’ personal security, he had access to all the houses where his charges resided, including Samson’s.

The early morning sunlight did not penetrate through the specially tinted windows of his SUV, keeping him safe.

When the gate lifted, Blake drove inside the spacious underground garage. Samson’s house had changed significantly in the past twenty years. After Grayson’s birth, Samson had bought the neighboring house and combined the two houses into one in order to have enough space for his growing family. Now the old Victorian could truly be called a mansion. At over six thousand square feet, it not only housed the Woodford family, but also boasted a garage, which could accommodate up to eight cars, and a command center connected to Scanguards’ headquarters, as well as large entertainment and meeting areas on the first floor.

Blake parked in the spot permanently reserved for him, and glanced at the other cars. He wasn’t surprised to see Amaury’s sports car and Gabriel’s SUV parked next to the Woodford family’s three cars. But he was surprised to see the BMW Z4 of Amaury’s twins. While Amaury could certainly afford to give each of his sons his own car, there’d been no point: Damian and Benjamin went everywhere together.

The moment the garage door closed behind him, shutting out the mid-morning sun, Blake jumped out of the car and marched toward the stairs leading to the first floor. He heard the voices before he even opened the door to the hallway. When he entered, he walked straight into the open-plan living area where most of the visitors were assembled.

Samson, Amaury, and Gabriel stood near the fireplace, talking, while the hybrids were centered around the dining room table, gobbling down mountains of food. Unlike their vampire parents, who only consumed blood, they could sustain themselves on both.

The twins were stuffing their faces, while Grayson paced back and forth. His younger brother, Patrick sat at the table, head in his hands, while next to him, Vanessa, Gabriel and Maya’s fifteen-year-old daughter patted his arm in sympathy. Her brothers, seventeen-year-old Ethan and eighteen-year-old Ryder, watched Grayson as if they expected him to explode at any moment.

Neither Delilah, nor Nina, nor Maya were anywhere to be seen. Blake listened intently and perceived the faint sound of footsteps from the upper floor. Well, it was best anyway that Delilah was upstairs with her girlfriends. She was too agitated. And right now, cool heads were paramount. Decisions had to be made.

The door to the garage fell shut behind Blake. Several pairs of eyes immediately landed on him as he walked into the center of the living room. The hybrids jumped up and approached, and the three adult vampires stopped talking and looked at him expectantly. Blake felt the weight of responsibility on his shoulders and the tension that came with it, but he was determined not to let anybody down. This was his greatest trial, the one he’d trained for countless times.

“Any news?” Samson’s tight voice cut through the silence.

“We have a positive sighting. A security camera at a gas station. It picked up her red dress. That kind of gown is hard to overlook.”

Samson came closer, hands clenched, shoulders lifted. “Is she hurt?”

“We don’t know. We couldn’t get a visual of her face, and because of the dress’s color… Sorry, we couldn’t tell if she was injured or not, but we know who her kidnapper is.”

Several relieved sighs echoed in the room.

“Who?” Samson ground out, his fangs descending, most likely without him even noticing.

“We ran his picture through facial recognition software and got a match. A small time crook by the name of Antonio Mendoza. Thomas is hacking into the DMV right now to get us an address for him.”