Luther's Return (Scanguards Vampires Book 10)

Blake peeled his lips back from his gums, flashing the nineteen-year-old just enough fang to demand respect. “Isabelle was playing a different part from the one she was supposed to.”


Katie expected Blake to point the finger at her, but to her surprise, he didn’t. Instead he took the blame on himself. “I didn’t adjust her security detail in time.” He narrowed his eyes at the hybrid. “But I can assure you, Grayson, I will find your sister. She’s my responsibility, and I don’t—”

“It’s my fault,” Katie cut in, putting her hand on Blake’s forearm. “I’m to blame. She begged me to change roles with her. And I agreed.” She turned her head to Samson. “I’m sorry. It was all last minute. I—”

Samson cut her off with an abrupt movement of his hand. Then he looked back at Blake. “Search every inch of this building and the grounds. She has to be here. She has to.”

“Samson!” Delilah’s strained voice came from behind him.

He spun around.

Katie noticed their wordless exchange. As a blood-bonded couple they were able to communicate telepathically. Seconds passed in silence. It made Katie even more aware of the goings-on around her: stagehands rummaged through the area where spare furniture was kept, turning over each item. Scanguards staff rushed through the corridors, opened every door, checked every closet. Different voices calling for Isabelle could be heard throughout the building. Katie knew that others would be outside the building, searching the surrounding parking lot, adjacent buildings, and streets. There was any number of hiding places, though Katie knew that Isabelle wasn’t hiding. She sensed it in her gut. Could feel it in her veins. Just like Samson and Delilah sensed it.

With every second that passed, reality encroached on the make-believe world of the stage behind her: Isabelle was gone.

Katie watched as Samson pulled his wife into his arms and pressed her to him, gently caressing her head.

“We’ll find her, sweetness,” he promised.

More people now crowded into the backstage area. Zane, the bald vampire who could scare the living daylights out of anybody, marched toward Samson, clearly agitated. He had a special connection to Isabelle: he was her godfather, the first person Isabelle had ever bitten. Besides her parents, he was the closest confidant she had.

A sob tore from Delilah, and Grayson exchanged a look with his father. Samson nodded and transferred his wife into his son’s arms.

“She has to be here, Mom,” Grayson comforted her.

“Nothing in the basement,” Zane reported to Samson, then turned to Blake. “How about the surveillance cameras?”

“I’ve already sent Eddie to check the video footage,” Blake replied, just as Amaury joined them.

The linebacker-sized vampire with the shoulder-long hair exchanged a quick glance with Samson. “The upper floors are clear, too.”

Blake touched his mic and listened for a moment. Then, “Bring him in! What are you waiting for? Now!”

Instantly, Katie could see all the vampires backstage go on alert. Their eyes started to glow, and she could see their mouths become fuller as their fangs extended.

“Who?” Samson asked Blake.

“My guys found an unknown vampire lurking in the parking lot. They’re bringing him in now.”

When the assembled vampires’ eyes narrowed a few moments later, Katie realized that they could already hear the intruder being dragged in, though it took another few seconds for Katie’s ears to perceive the sound of the struggling individual.

Everybody was rushing toward the door, anticipating the suspect’s arrival. Their broad backs obstructed Katie’s view. Anxious to find out what was going on, Katie stepped onto a footstool and looked over the vampires’ heads, just as three of Blake’s men brought in a defiant vampire.

Oh my God! He looked ferocious, and the black hair, black lashes, and dark complexion made him look like the devil. His eyes glared red, and his fangs were extended. He was big, broad-shouldered and muscular. He wore casual clothes, but there was nothing casual about his demeanor. Power and strength radiated from every pore of his body. She was inexplicably drawn to that power. Drawn to the vampire beneath the surface.

The sudden silence in the room pulled her out of her observation and made her snap her gaze upward, back to the captive’s face. The strange vampire had stopped struggling and was staring at Samson.

“Luther!” Samson hissed.





4


It had been a bad idea to show up in San Francisco wanting to make things right, Luther realized now. Apparently twenty years had done nothing to lessen Samson’s hatred for him. Nor Amaury’s. Both his former friends glared at him as if they were ready to rip his head off. Maybe they should. Maybe it would all be for the better.

“Oh my God, it’s him, it’s Luther,” the tearful voice of a woman broke the hate-filled silence.

He didn’t have to break eye contact with Samson to recognize the voice: Delilah, the woman he’d almost killed so many years earlier.