Luther's Return (Scanguards Vampires Book 10) (18 page)

The three men from Scanguards were pacing in the living room when he entered followed by Katie. He walked up to Blake, but before he could start explaining, Wesley took a few steps toward Katie.

“What the fuck happened to you?” He pointed to the bloodstained shirt. Then he charged at Luther, fists raised. “You hurt her, you fucking asshole?”

Luther blocked Wesley’s punch with ease, pushing him back without fighting back. He didn’t think it wise beating up Katie’s brother. “I didn’t hurt her,” he ground out.

He felt Katie’s hand on his arm as she moved to his side. “I got injured. It wasn’t Luther’s fault.”

Well, that was a blatant lie on Katie’s part, because it had been his fault. He hadn’t kept her safe like he’d promised.

“How?” Wes hissed, his eyes narrowed in suspicion, approaching slowly.

“I got stabbed by a prison guard.”

“A prison guard?” Blake interrupted.

Before either Luther or Katie could answer, Wesley snatched the edge of Katie’s shirt and lifted it by a few inches. “You’re healed.” He turned his head to look at Luther. “You gave her your blood.”

Not a question, but a statement. Though it sounded like Wesley wasn’t pleased about it.

“I had no choice. Her lung was punctured. She would have died.”

Next to him, Katie sucked in a breath and grabbed his elbow. “What?” She shook her head in disbelief. “Why didn’t you tell me how bad it was?”

“I didn’t wanna worry you. Besides, you’re fine now.”

“Fuck!” Wesley cursed. “Jesus Christ, Katie, what did you get yourself into?”

“How much did you give her?” The question came from Blake.

Luther exchanged a look with the vampire. “Enough.”

“Well, that explains that. So you decided to get quid pro quo for saving her life, didn’t you?”

He knew Blake was referring to the fact that Katie would have been aroused by his blood, whether she was attracted to him or not. Considering that her brother already seemed to be annoyed with her, Luther decided to shoulder the responsibility for what had happened in the last hour. After all, it was his fault. He’d given into her demands to have sex when he knew full well that she wasn’t in the right frame of mind to make a decision.

“Yes, I did. I took advantage of Katie.” Though he didn’t regret it. Making love to her had been the best thing he’d done in over twenty years. And if he had to pay for it now, so be it.

“You didn’t!” Katie shot back at him, bracing her hands on her hips. “I told you already, it had nothing to do with your blood. Idiot!”

“Let me handle this,” Luther said through gritted teeth. “It’s better this way.”

“But you’re distorting the facts!” Katie protested.

“Stop!” Wesley raised his hand in a plea for silence, his face red with rage. “I don’t think I wanna know the facts about what happened in there.” He motioned to the bedroom in the back. “I have a feeling I know more than I ever wanted to know. But what I do wanna know is what the fuck you’re doing with him and why you got stabbed by a prison guard. Maybe we should start with that.”

Blake folded his arms over his chest, looking at them expectantly. “I’d like to know that, too. And start from the beginning.”

“And you’d better not leave anything out,” Grayson added, aggression rolling off him.

Luther caught his look. There was no love lost between them. No surprise. The young hybrid clearly knew all about Luther’s past, how he’d tried to kill his mother. Hell, Grayson wouldn’t even be here today if Luther had succeeded. Somehow he couldn’t blame the guy, though that didn’t mean he had to like him.

“You got my message about the letters?” Katie asked, looking at Blake.

He nodded. “I called you back right away, but got no answer. When we couldn’t find you, Haven searched your house, but found no sign of the letters.”

Luther tossed her a sideways glance. “So there are no copies in existence.”

Katie gave him a sheepish smile. “I bluffed.” Then she looked back at Blake. “I have the letters. They’re in my purse in my car.”

“We didn’t see your car outside,” Wes commented.

“We had to abandon it when we fled the prison,” Luther explained. “I can give you the exact location.”

Blake nodded, then motioned to Katie. “By prison I’m assuming you mean the vampire penitentiary near Grass Valley.” He shifted his gaze to Luther. “From which our friend here was just recently released.”

“Yes, the vampire prison. When I couldn’t get a hold of you and ran into Luther…”

Luther clasped her forearm. “Maybe I should explain from here.” He looked at the three Scanguards men. “When I saw the letters, I realized that somebody connected to the prison had to have sent them. So I decided to help Katie locate the person who wrote them.”

That Katie had practically blackmailed him by threatening to set all of Scanguards on his ass and use witchcraft on him—witchcraft she didn’t even possess!—was immaterial. He was certainly not going to admit to the men standing in front of him that he’d been tricked by a woman.

“You could have let us do that. No reason to get involved. Samson told you to stay out of our way,” Blake said.

Luther scoffed. “Yeah, and the moment you learned about the letters coming from the prison, you would have put two and two together and chased me instead of the real culprit. Samson isn’t acting rational right now. He would have just—”

Grayson jumped at him, baring his fangs. “How dare you talk about my father like that?”

Luther didn’t budge an inch. “You’re just like him, hothead!”

“You fucking—”

“Shut up, Grayson!” Blake ordered and pulled him back. “He’s right. Samson would have pulled resources off other leads and chased down Luther. And considering that Katie is still alive and Isabelle isn’t here, I’m inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt that he’s got nothing to do with Isabelle’s kidnapping.” He lifted his chin. “Go on.”

“I’d seen a cell of one of the V-CONs plastered with posters of Katie. I figured he was obsessed with her. Had to be him. I had to find out his name, and I could only do that from inside the prison. So we broke in.”

“How?” Blake asked.

“You don’t need to know the details about that. What’s important is that we got the information we were looking for and got out.”

“Apparently you ran into a few problems.” Blake motioned to the bloodstain on Katie’s shirt.

“They kind of don’t like it when you break in and then try to break out again,” Luther said nonchalantly. “Anyway…” He turned to Katie. “The printout.”

Katie dug into her jeans pocket and pulled out the folded sheet. Blake reached for it and unfolded it. His eyes flew over the information printed on it.

“Cliff Forrester. You sure?” he asked.

Luther nodded. “Has to be him. He was released a week ago. He had ample time to plan this. And the letters he sent to Katie over the last year seem to suggest he was preparing to come for her.”

Blake looked up. “Good work.” He handed the piece of paper to Wesley. “Call HQ and give them this information.”

“And what do we do about him?” Wesley asked, glancing at Luther.

Blake took a step toward Luther. “Thank you for your help. In light of all this, let’s forget what happened here. But I think it would be best for all involved, if you left the area like Samson suggested.”

“Well, that’s just not gonna happen,” Katie snapped.

Luther spun his head to her, as did the others.

“Excuse me?” Blake said.

“You heard me. Luther risked his life to get us this information, and now you’re gonna just dismiss him?”

“By the looks of it, he risked
your
life, too!” Blake grunted. “So excuse me, if I’m not too keen on having him around. Nor will Samson or Amaury tolerate him getting involved in this.”

“Well, he’s
already
involved. Without him, you wouldn’t have anything! Maybe his methods are a little unorthodox, but at least they produce results. We now know who’s got Isabelle. Now we just have to find him.” Katie crossed her arms over her chest. “So you have a choice here: either you let Luther help us find Isabelle, or you turn around now and I’ll investigate with Luther on my own.”

“Out of the fucking question!” Wesley interrupted, grabbing her bicep. “
You
are coming home with us!” He glared at Luther. “You’re not staying with him! It’s gonna get you killed!”

Katie tore her arm from her brother’s grip. “He saved my life! So make your choice.”

Luther tapped Katie on the shoulder. “Katie, just out of curiosity: were you gonna ask me whether I wanted to stay involved in this?”

“No.”

“Thought so.”

And strangely enough the fact that she didn’t give him a choice in this turned him on. Katie was a force to be reckoned with. A woman who knew what she wanted.

Luther grinned and exchanged a look with Blake. “No use fighting her. I tried. And look what it got me into.” What exactly he’d landed in, he wasn’t quite sure yet. But it was a welcome change from the monotonous life he’d spent in prison.

“Yeah, that’s our Katie,” Wes confirmed. “Once she’s got something in her head, you can’t stop her.”

And oddly enough, Luther didn’t want to stop her. Had they been alone, he would have pulled her into his arms and continued where they’d been interrupted, because a strong woman like Katie was a bigger turn-on than anything else he’d ever encountered.

29

“My father will never allow it!” Grayson protested, glaring at Luther. “He hates you!”

Blake put a hand on the young hybrid’s arm, then looked at Luther. “I’m afraid Grayson is right. There are several people at Scanguards who’d rather drive a stake through your heart than let you get anywhere near this investigation,” Blake stated calmly. “Unfortunately we’re running out of time. We know the kidnapper already knows that he’s got the wrong woman.”

Katie’s breath hitched. They had news from Isabelle? Why hadn’t anybody told her? “How? What happened?”

Blake took his eyes off Luther. “We were able to identify the vampire who kidnapped her.”

“Cliff Forrester?” Katie asked. “So you already knew.” She pointed to the piece of paper, then glanced at Luther. “I got you into all this trouble for nothing?”

Blake shook his head. “It wasn’t Forrester who took Isabelle. It was a guy named Antonio Mendoza. He was a hired gun.”

“You think Cliff Forrester hired him?”

“It looks like it. Mendoza took Isabelle and was waiting for the man who hired him to take her off his hands, but when the guy showed up, he realized immediately that Mendoza got the wrong woman. He killed Mendoza and took Isabelle with him.”

“How do you know that?” Katie asked. Her heart beat as loud as a drum, and she knew the vampires in the room could hear it.

Blake motioned to Grayson. “We sent four of the hybrids to Mendoza’s house when we identified him from the surveillance video. The house was empty, but apparently Mendoza didn’t trust the man who’d hired him. He turned on a voice recorder before he let Forrester into the house. It recorded everything. The moment he saw Isabelle, he knew she wasn’t you. He killed Mendoza for his stupidity. But we know he’ll keep Isabelle alive.”

Katie swallowed hard. She knew exactly what that meant, even if Blake didn’t say it. “He’s going to want to do an exchange.”

Silence descended on the room. Nobody said anything. Nobody moved.

Luther’s voice cut through the quiet. “It won’t come to that. There’s another way.”

Katie lifted her lids to meet his gaze. “It’s my fault that he’s got Isabelle. I put her in danger. Had I not changed roles with her, this would have never happened. If I—”

“It doesn’t matter whose fault it was,” Luther interrupted. “I won’t allow an exchange. Once he’s got you, what’s to stop him from killing Isabelle anyway?” He shook his head and looked past her to the other men in the room. “We’ll find him. I know how.”

“And what do we tell Samson?” Wesley asked calmly.

“Nothing,” Blake said. He nodded to Grayson. “Are you with us?”

“Do I have a choice?”

“No.”

“Guess you have my answer then.” He took a step toward Luther, lifting his chin. “One false move, and you’re dust.”

Katie caught how Luther acknowledged the threat with a simple nod.

“How will we find Forrester?” Blake asked.

Suddenly Blake, Luther, and Grayson snapped their heads toward the door. A moment later, Katie heard it, too. A sound outside. Their sensitive vampire hearing had picked it up a few seconds earlier. Wesley drew his weapon, just as Blake and Grayson did, while Luther grabbed her and pushed her behind his back, shielding her from whatever was outside the door.

When the door opened, Katie peeked past Luther. Relieved, she went around him, though he tried to hold her back.

“I’m fine.” She pointed to the new arrival. “That’s John, he’s with them.”

The tall vampire with the southern accent stepped into the room, his eyes quickly scanning the room. Apparently satisfied with what he saw, he addressed Blake, “Somebody’s approaching.”

“Vampire?”

“Yeah.”

“That must be Striker,” Luther said. “He owns this cabin. I sent him out to get info on Forrester.”

John furrowed his forehead. “Are you talking about Striker Reed?”

“You know him?”

“I know
of
him.” John tossed his colleagues a sideways glance. “I’d suggest you lower your weapons, guys, because that dude is trigger happy, and if he finds you in his house uninvited and armed, he’ll shoot first and ask questions later.”

“Your friend has a point,” a voice came from the hallway behind them.

Katie spun around and stared right into their host’s glaring red eyes, a gun leveled at them.

Luther’s arms locked around her, pulling her into the protection of his body. “Striker, don’t!” Luther yelled. “They’re friends.”

“Then tell them to put down their weapons.”

“Guys, please,” Luther said over his shoulder, his arms still around her, pressing her against his warm body.

The gesture made her feel protected, and the knowledge that Luther’s first instinct had been to protect her, sent a pleasant tingle through her body.