She’d worn casual clothes tonight—jeans, flat-soled boots and a thick sweater. The hunt was likely to involve a lot of tramping through the woods, especially since there wasn’t much other than woods around here. The clothes made her look much younger—something she usually avoided in her never-ending quest to be taken seriously in the male dominated world of vampires.

And it was definitely male dominated. Witness the thumping footsteps outside her door just a moment ago. For centuries vampire lords had chosen their minions with physical defense in mind, which meant the bigger the better, and that equaled male. Modern times made that less necessary, but the tradition continued, because the vampire lords controlled who got turned and the lords were mostly old traditionalists. Raphael’s people were a very good example of the testosterone-laden ranks of Vampire. Sophia had seen only one female among all the vampires he’d brought with him from California.

For her part, Sophia was more powerful than most of the vampires she met, but female still equaled weak in most vampires’ eyes. She could have gone the route of Raphael’s lone female, Elke, who appeared to be every bit as muscled as the males she worked with. But Sophia had grown up in a culture where beauty was a woman’s best, and sometimes only, weapon. And she knew she was beautiful, just like she knew it fed the males’ misperception of her weakness. But then her beauty was something she’d learned to wield long before she’d ever become Vampire. And she’d never enjoyed lifting weights.

But tonight, she’d forgone appearances in favor of practicality. She had no intention of trudging through the underbrush in four inch heels and a silk blouse. Her only concession was her hair, which she’d left hanging down her back instead of the more practical braid she usually adopted in such situations. She told herself it had nothing to do with the possibility that Colin would be around, that he’d remember how much he’d loved her long hair when they were together.

She was usually very good at lying when it served her purposes. But she’d never been very good at lying to herself. She soothed her vanity with a final glance in the mirror, then opened her door to an empty hallway. Apparently Raphael’s vampires were all upstairs already.

Climbing the steep stairs from the basement level, Sophia admired again the degree of security in the compound and the comfort afforded even a visiting vampire like herself. Raphael took good care of his people. That was his reputation, so she shouldn’t have been surprised. But the reality had exceeded even the reputation. She was impressed in spite of herself and feeling slightly disloyal to Lucien because of it.

She heard laughter as she came around the corner, the sound chased into the building on a wash of cold air. Recognizing Colin’s deep voice, she looked up eagerly . . . and frowned. Colin was there all right, but he was with Raphael’s woman, the two of them laughing and talking like old friends, as if they hadn’t just met two days ago. Sophia’s eyes narrowed in displeasure, but she quickly erased the expression. If Colin wanted to waste his time on Raphael’s woman, that was his choice.

Listening carefully, while pretending not to, Sophia heard the woman Cynthia bid Colin a good night and head across the wide expanse of the great room, accompanied by another one of Raphael’s hulking bodyguards, this one human. They were met by the pale, blond Elke, who was dressed in a suit just like the males wore. Sophia watched somewhat enviously as Cynthia and the black bodyguard greeted Elke, spending a few minutes more in cheerful conversation. Did she have any friends like that? Sophia wondered. Or even acquaintances? Anyone with whom she could exchange a few moments of lighthearted conversation? The answer was no. Not in Vancouver, not even in Rio which had been her home for years. She had no one. What startled her was that she had never noticed the lack until now.

She studied the small grouping. Raphael’s mate was beautiful. Sophia had never minded acknowledging beauty in other women. She had her own beauty, after all, and so recognized it in others. But this Cynthia used her beauty differently than Sophia did, less consciously, perhaps, but she used it all the same. It gave her a breezy confidence that made others accept her more readily, that let her take chances a less self-assured person would never have dared.

Sophia glanced around, noting the number of eyes watching the exchange. Eyes which included Colin’s. She frowned, feeling the jagged edge of jealousy scrape across her gut, something she rarely experienced. As if aware of her reaction, Colin glanced over, his gaze meeting hers for a long moment. Sophia started toward him with a smile, but before she’d taken two steps, he shook his head in disgust and spun away from her, pushing through the doors and admitting another gust of cold, damp air to swirl around the sparsely furnished room.

Sophia’s mouth tightened in irritation. So he could spend an entire day with this Cynthia, who was clearly off limits, but he couldn’t spare a moment’s greeting for Sophia? As Raphael’s Cynthia had been heard to say . . . Fuck that!

She scanned the great room and spied Wei Chen heading toward the winding stairs up to the second floor. With a burst of speed, she cut him off before he reached the first step.

He recoiled a bit at her abrupt appearance, but then acknowledged her politely enough. “Sophia,” he said. “Is there something you require?”

“A car,” she said simply. “Not one of those enormous trucks, but a simple sedan will do.”

The Seattle compound leader seemed confused. “It was my impression you would be accompanying the others on the hunt tonight. The trucks are unwieldy but—”

“Later,” she interrupted. “I need to run an errand first. Your Sheriff Murphy and I are old acquaintances.”

Wei Chen’s eyebrows shot up. He couldn’t have missed the obvious tension between her and Colin the other night. No doubt, he’d already had his people searching out every detail of her history and relationships, as well as Colin’s. By now he, and by extension Raphael, knew more about her former lover than she did.

“Of course,” Wei Chen said amiably, recovering from his surprise. “Would you like someone to drive you—”

“No,” she said quickly. The last thing she needed was more witnesses. “Although, I am unfamiliar with the roads here. If you have a car with a GPS device, that would be helpful, and perhaps someone to program the relevant addresses?”

Wei Chen’s already small mouth pursed tightly. “You do know how to drive?”

Sophia gave him a flat stare. “Of course,” she said in as patronizing a tone as she could muster. “We do have cars in Brazil.” Not that she actually drove them, but he didn’t need to know that, the supercilious little prig. In truth, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d driven a car. But there wasn’t that much traffic here in the woods and the darkness would be no impediment. How hard could it be?

“Very well.” Wei Chen took a cell phone out of his pocket and spoke rapid Chinese for several minutes before hanging up. “One of my people will have a car waiting for you on the ground level of the garages just outside to the left. He’ll program Mister Murphy’s address, as well as that of this compound for your return. You have a cell phone, of course, so if you get lost, give us a call and someone will guide you in.”

Sophia narrowed her gaze, feeling a streak of familiar resentment. Wei Chen was an officious little bastard. Probably very good at what he did, but his attitude was typical in its paternalism. She kept her face carefully blank, while imagining all the ways she could make the little prick pay. Not the least of which would be to seduce him and then leave him with a handful of hard dick. She smiled at the thought, letting him see it. He blushed as red as a schoolgirl, which made her feel far better than it should have. He was her host, after all. So, she thanked him prettily and headed for the garages.

Colin Murphy might think he could avoid her. But Sophia hadn’t survived this long by letting others dictate to her. Not prissy, little Wei Chen and not Colin Murphy either.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Raphael felt Cyn’s arrival back in the compound, knew when she entered the building and when she lingered outside the elevator upstairs speaking with Elke and the others. He was egotistical enough—and he knew it was ego—that it irritated him to have her gone when he woke for the night, to have her chatting upstairs rather than coming down directly to greet him. His mouth quirked in a half smile as he considered her probable reaction to his irritation.

The elevator doors opened behind him. He didn’t turn around, but continued dressing, pulling a black long-sleeved t-shirt over his head. Her arms around his waist kept him from pulling it down further, her hands still chilled from outside.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you woke up,” she said, kissing his bare back. “A big rig truck jackknifed, blocking the road. We eventually went off-road and around, but it took time.”

“You weren’t involved in the accident?” he said, eyeing the ruffle of her dark hair over his shoulder, which was all he could see in the mirror.

“No,” she said, looking around to meet his reflected gaze. “It happened before we got there.”

He turned and kissed the top of her head, pulling his shirt down and tucking it into his denims before buttoning the fly. She made a small, exasperated noise at his cool greeting, then flopped down in a chair, watching as he sat on the bed to pull on his boots.

“You’re changing clothes?” she asked, stating the obvious.

“Duncan and I met with the others earlier. Maxime continues to examine the records on the local server, though she’s found nothing and I suspect she won’t. I’m breaking my people into three teams and letting them hunt in the old way for now. Each team will begin at one of the crime scenes and circle out, ending with the town itself. We can cover far more territory far more effectively than any human search team. My vampires are getting restless with this interminable waiting, and angry because of it. This search will give them something to do. I don’t suppose you and your friend Colin discovered anything useful?”

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