As Vampire Lord of the Midwest Regent, the responsibility on his shoulders was immense, heavy and never-ending, but he surrounded himself with loyal and trustworthy friends. A true leader acknowledges and trusts in the value, input, and talents of others, and Dev was a leader to the core. He had been challenged for his position as Vampire Lord many times over the past several hundred years and no one came close to taking what was his. What would always be his. He had been Vampire Lord of the Midwest Regent for over three hundred seventy years now. And he planned to be Vampire Lord for several hundred more.
He was well over five hundred years old and, yes, he appeared to have it all. When one was as old as he, one had enough time to acquire everything he desired.
Wealth.
Success.
Power.
Appearances were deceiving though sometimes, weren’t they?
Devon did not have it all. And it wasn’t for lack of trying.
He had yet to find his Moira, his Destiny, the other half of his soul. He knew she was out there. He’d been searching for her a very long time and his patience was waning and Dev was not a patient man.
Oh, he had his pick of willing women, like Delia, and countless, nameless other faces. He had needs after all, but truth be told, he longed for more and had for quite some time.
He often wondered what his Moira would look like. Would she be lithe and athletic or curvaceous and buxom? Would her hair be fairy golden or black as night? Would her eyes shimmer like the sun bouncing off the ocean waves or be dark pools of mystery? Would her personality be soft and submissive or hard and combative? He tried avoiding this game of ‘would she’ because once he found her he didn’t want to draw comparisons to any preconceived notions.
He’d been back about an hour when Ren gave a cursory knock while striding into his office.
Lounging in his luxurious Italian office chair behind his large cherry desk, Dev cocked an eyebrow at his friend’s intrusion. “Knock much? I was busy.” Though that was true, he’d read the same paragraph three times and still couldn’t retain it. His thoughts were somewhere else entirely.
Ren threw the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel down his desk and began pacing. “We have a big problem, Dev.”
He continued without waiting for a reply. “There is another missing college student. Sarah Hill, age twenty-two, psychology major at Northwestern University. Parents reported her missing on Monday, after she didn’t make her usual Sunday call and they couldn’t reach her. Local Evanston police found her car on campus, abandoned, multiple parking tickets on it.”
“Shit.”
“Right. This brings the total of missing college girls to eleven in the last two weeks alone in our Regent. All are between the ages of nineteen and twenty-two.”
Fuuuuuck. Dev grabbed the newspaper and quickly read the article about the local missing woman. He’d had a gnawing concern lately that something was just, well…off. And he always trusted his gut.
Dev looked up, meeting Ren’s icy blue eyes. “Have you heard from Thatcher?” Detective Mike Thatcher was a Milwaukee detective with whom they had an…understanding.
“Not yet. I have a call into him as well.”
Dev sighed, scrubbing his hand over his face. “Have you spoken with Damian and Romaric?”
Damian DiStephano was Vampire Lord of the East Regent and Romaric Dietrich was Vampire Lord of the West Regent. Together, they ruled the United States.
Ren blew out a breath, nodding. “Just got off the phone with Damian. He hadn’t heard of anything unusual, but said he’d check it out. I have a call into Romaric as well, but haven’t talked to him yet.” Ren stopped wearing the carpet thin, leaned toward Dev and slammed his large hands on the expensive desk, the items on the desk rattled, threatening to fall. Dev arched one thick brow in response, but didn’t say a word. They exchanged knowing glances, having been through this once before.
“I have a really bad feeling, Dev. I think that motherfucker is up to his old tricks again.”
As Vampire Lord, Dev was ultimately responsible for enforcing their only two laws within his Regent. Except in very controlled instances, do not expose their entire race to the human population and do not kill your blood donor. Most vampires lived easily within those two confines and those that didn’t were swiftly dealt with.
But it appeared that Xavier, the most depraved offender of both laws, had finally resurfaced. It was almost as if he were taunting them. The question now was, how were they going to find a rogue vampire that had remained elusive for the last one hundred years?
Chapter 3
Kate
Kate walked into the Milwaukee Police Department, a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. She wanted nothing more than to turn, run and forget she knew what she did. She wanted to, but she wouldn’t. She couldn’t. She should have come yesterday but spent the entire day trying to convince herself the girl in her dreams was just that…another bad dream. She wasn’t real. She wasn’t the same missing girl that she had seen on the news the other evening.