“I love you. I would never betray you like that.”
He gathered her in his arms and sat them both down on the loveseat. “Oh, my sweet Kate. I know that and as I said before… I overreacted. I was so very wrong and I lov—”
“Oh my God.” My sweet Kate…
“What? What is it?”
“My sweet Kate,” she murmured.
“Kate, what the hell are you talking about?”
“He knows I was there.” She had completely zoned out and Dev was shaking her gently.
“Who knows you were where? Kate, you’re making no sense.”
“Xavier. He knew I was there. He talked to me. He…he—”
“He what? Knew you were where? What did he do, Kate? Look at me.” His entire body had gone rigid at the mention of Xavier.
She turned toward Dev.
“I just had another dream. I saw him. And he knew I was in the room with him. He called me by name. He—” She swallowed and whispered, “He killed a young girl in front of me. He threw her across the bed and it looked like she was dead. He told me the awful things he was going to do to me once he got his hands on me. He called me his sweet Kate.”
“Fuck.” He grabbed her arms, turning her fully toward him. “You listen to me, love. That will never happen. Do you understand? He will never lay a single finger on you. I would die before I let that happen.”
She nodded.
“You have to trust me, Kate. I won’t let anything happen to you. We’ll kill the bastard and he won’t be any threat to you. I promise you.”
Kate spent the next few minutes telling Dev about the rest of her dream, including about the newspaper she had found and the numbers she had seen on the computer screen. She described all the young women she had seen held in rooms similar to Sarah’s. She explained the way the compound looked and how she’d been drawn to Xavier’s room.
Dev surprised Kate with a slow, sensual kiss. She melted into him, her anger completely dissipating.
“I love you. I’m sorry I haven’t told you before now. You are an incredible woman. I’m proud and lucky to have you as my mate. I’m sorry. Please forgive me for my mistakes.”
She put her finger on his lips.
“I’m plenty pissed with the way you handled it, but I understand why you did it. It’s okay.” And she did. She understood that, as a Vampire Lord, he had great responsibility for his people and she wasn’t sure that she wouldn’t have reacted the same if in his position.
He kissed her, slowly, reverently, breaking away all too soon.
“Now, I know you must be tired, love, but we need an emergency meeting with the other Lords. Right now. We need to act quickly on your new information.”
Kate looked down at the sports bra and tight running shorts that she was still wearing from yesterday.
“If you don’t mind, I’d like to change and shower quickly. I’ll be ready in less than ten minutes.”
Dev smiled sinfully. He grabbed her hips, pulling her tightly to him. She could feel his hardness throbbing against her stomach. He leaned down to run his nose along her neck, nipping with his sharp teeth along the way. Arousal flushed through her body and the butterflies constantly residing in her stomach took flight once again. Her core clenched. Oh my, she wanted him desperately. She had been without him for far too long.
“Oh, I don’t mind at all, love. But I’ll be joining you. And we may be a tad longer than ten minutes.”
He was right.
Chapter 54
Dev
In the boardroom as everyone dispersed, there was a lot of excitement that they may finally be closing in on Xavier. After Kate had given the details of her latest dream, Dev, Rom, and Damian had each called on some of their best men to scout out the Door County area.
Dev knew that Xavier’s lair was likely shrouded with magical assistance, but Kate had some very good markers between the two most recent dreams, so he felt positive they’d be able to at least narrow down some areas to investigate further. Plus, he had a secret weapon on his side. Manny had the ability to see through shrouding, but only within close proximity. That was how they located Xavier before and foolishly thought they’d destroyed him in the fire. That was also why they’d been unable to locate him again. Using Manny’s abilities without focus would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Virtually impossible and highly ineffective.
It would be a difficult task now, as there were certainly lots of old barns, windmills and trees in the area, but if they could get close to Xavier’s lair, Manny would find it, of that he had every confidence. In fact, the shrouding actually helped, by acting like a beacon to those very few vampires who possessed the ability to see through it. Not a lot of vampires shrouding. Not many vampires he knew enjoyed getting into bed with a witch. It was a danger to one’s long-term health.