Belonging

B
elonging

A Regent Vampire Lords Novel

K.L. Kreig

D
edication

To my sister, Tara. I would be lost without you, my Irish twin.

P
rologue

Three Months Earlier…

Xavier

The look on Devon’s face was priceless. He could barely contain his laughter. Xavier had Devon’s mate in a stronghold, one arm around her neck, another around her midsection. Her slim, sleek neck was nicely bared for his teeth. One little twist and her spinal column would be permanently severed.

He mentally patted himself on the back. The power-extracting amulet his witch provided operated brilliantly. Since it only worked when he was touching another vampire, his plan was to draw Devon closer to him, and he had just the plan to do that. He also knew it would easily control any power Devon’s mate had obtained so far.

He was confused with the power he could feel coursing through her. Since their bonding only recently occurred, she shouldn’t be this potent this fast. But he didn’t have the time right now to figure out this conundrum, he had more important things to do. Like capture Devon Fallinsworth.

“You broke our deal, brother,” Xavier sneered. Devon wouldn’t look at him, focusing solely on his mate.

“If you’re trying to talk to your luscious mate, I’m afraid Katherine can’t really communicate at the moment. You see I have some tricks up my sleeve, too,
brother
. I’ve spent the last five hundred years fantasizing about the day I would end your life, Devon. The same way you effectively ended mine when you ratted me out like the slimy traitor you are.”

Devon remained silent, but Xavier continued anyway. “We could have ruled the world together, Devon. We are among the strongest, oldest and most powerful vampires alive. We could have had it all. We could have been kings! But you had to have a fucking conscience. How can you stomach living side by side with humans? They are animals! They are our food! They are not our fucking equals!”

Devon foolishly told his mate, “It’s going to be okay, love.”

“Hmmm, I’m not so sure it
is
going to be okay, my sweet,” Xavier whispered in her ear. Licking her cheek, he studied Devon the entire time.

He noted every nuance on Devon’s face, relishing his anger. Devon made a slight move toward Kate and Xavier jerked her back toward him more firmly, making her wince.

“You’ll never make it in time before I snap her neck. And I’m not sure how much fun I would have fucking a vegetable. Never tried it before, but it could definitely be worthwhile. But I really do like my bitches to put up a fight.”

Devon’s mate started sobbing softly.

“You are one sick motherfucker.”

Devon was trying to keep his cool, but was failing miserably. Christ this felt
gooooood
.

“Yes. I am.”

“Me for her. That was the deal,” Devon demanded. Like he had any leverage in this situation. Xavier was holding all the leverage he needed.

“Me for her, Xavier,” Devon begged. Now
that
felt better than he’d thought it would.

“Yes,” Xavier sighed. “That was the original deal. Until you broke it by trying to sabotage me. Now I’m afraid there is a new deal on the table. Well…the
only
deal, really.”

“And what might that be?” Devon’s jaw ticked back and forth.

“I have been forced to spend the last five hundred years living underground like a lowly sewer rat. All thanks to you. My body has been ravaged beyond any repair, also thanks to you. I have spent the last half a millennia waiting, plotting, anticipating my revenge. And I couldn’t have written a better ending to our rivalry if I’d tried. I am going to relish watching you suffer as I fuck and bleed your mate right in front of your eyes. I will let my men line up and use her over and over again. You will watch the life slowly leave her body, unable to save her. And when her body finally gives out and you watch her die, I will enjoy torturing you to the brink of death, only to bring you back again so you can suffer her loss in perpetuity. I will show you no mercy.”

Xavier unleashed a tad bit of power, pushing it toward his enemy. But…
nothing happened
.

What.

The.

Fuck.

Was.

Going.

On?

Not wasting time trying to solve the puzzle of why his powers wouldn’t work on Devon, he sunk his fangs into Katherine’s neck, and with the first pull of blood, white-hot acid burned his mouth, his esophagus, continuing its way down into his gut.

Poison
.

Her blood was poison.

He threw her across the room, clawing at his throat. More concerned about his mate, Devon turned his back toward Xavier, which was a fatal mistake for him. Putting his agony aside, Xavier lunged across the room grabbing for the one vampire he’d waited centuries to capture. Only, instead of securing his nemesis, his hands slipped silently through the hologram in front of him.

Devon wasn’t there and neither was Katherine; it only appeared they were. Seconds later the vision disappeared into thin air.

Xavier roared, the deafening sound destroying the rest of his already ruined compound. Fucking Devon and his goddamned illusionary power! But the distraction worked. Devon had gained the precious time he’d needed to grab his mate and run.

________

Xavier flashed to his lair on the far outskirts of Buffalo. That was one lesson he’d learned so many years ago, courtesy of the lords. He no longer had just one lair. He had multiple, spread out all over the country. Girls were sprinkled everywhere and their children safely tucked away, only a handful of those closest to him knew where to find them.

As he nursed his scotch, which further burned his already scorched throat, he thought back to what he’d discovered just a short time ago. That dreamwalker, Katherine Martin, was his flesh and blood. She was his daughter.
How could that possibly be?

Since he had a fucking genetic anomaly that only allowed him to produce females and female vampires couldn’t reproduce, his offspring were supposed to have been eliminated. The last thing he’d needed was a constant reminder of his inadequacies roaming the earth.

He’d been duped by that beady-eyed doctor. That was the only explanation. He’d foolishly trusted him to get rid of the evidence so his army would be none the wiser. Show no weakness. Marcus had assured him they were taken care of. Xavier was absolutely furious with himself and his misjudgment. He knew better than to trust a lowly human and yet he’d done it anyway.

He’d lost so many vampires tonight. It was a complete blow and it definitely put a dent in his army. He’d also lost a large chunk of his medical staff, although he had several others spread throughout the other facilities. He’d lost many of his records, but he had backups. And backups to back those up. But the problem now was they were also in his fucking enemies’ hands and they would quickly figure out what he was up to. Fortunately, he had another little trick up his sleeve even those physicians weren’t aware of.
Never put all of your eggs in one basket.

Thinking about this new predicament, he remembered the other information he’d discovered when he bit into Devon’s mate…his
daughter
. She was with child. Devon’s child. His grandchild.

The more he thought about it, the more he decided how wonderful this little twist of events was. This could be used to his advantage. He had to build reinforcements. He needed to take a step back. Regroup. Rebuild. And maybe it’d be nice to start a little ‘family’ business.

As he finished his scotch, an idea started blossoming. Yes. Yes…this was a far better plan than the one he’d had before anyway.

C
hapter 1

Present day…

Analise

“Order up!”

Analise sighed. Her feet hurt. Her back hurt. She had the mother of all headaches. And she had three hours left on her shift.

“Order up, Analise!”

“Effing hold your horses,” she mumbled under her breath. Just her luck the prick of a night manager, Henry, walked by at that exact moment.

“Is there a problem, Ana?”

She’d asked him repeatedly not to call her Ana.

“No, sir.” She smiled sweetly when all she wanted to do was kick him in his pint-sized balls. Not that she knew from experience they were pint-sized…
eww.
Scrubbing her eyeballs was the first priority when she got home.

“Good. Then pick up the pace. Table seven has been waiting twenty minutes for their order. Table eighteen needs a refill on their drinks. And you were two minutes late tonight, so you’ll make that up on the back end of your shift.”

“Yes, sir.” What she really meant was, shove your cock up your ass and fuck yourself with it. Unfortunately, she didn’t dare say it. She needed this job, as lousy as the hours were, the pay and the management were.

She turned to fetch table seven’s order when she felt his hand on her ass. It was a full-on grab this time, with an almost painful tightening of his fingers around her curves. She gritted her teeth, moving to get the order. He’d done this repeatedly, getting bolder every time. First a nudge, then a brush, next a pat. Whenever he worked, after her shift she’d ask one of the other waitresses to walk her to her car. She wouldn’t be surprised to see his face blaze across the evening news with the caption,
“Flashing suspect arrested. Full story at ten.”
He seriously gave her the creeps.

“You okay, my dear?” Cara was a sweet little old waitress that had worked at Ollie’s Diner for the last thirty years. They would have to drag her out of here dead. Even then, she would probably haunt the place. How she loved this job so much, doing it day in and day out for thirty years, Analise would never know.

Analise forced a smile. “Just living the dream, Cara.”
You need this job, you need this job, you need this job
. She kept repeating those hollow words to herself.