Lucien gave her a gruesome smile. “You were always my favorite, child. I sent you away because I loved you, not because I didn’t.”

She nodded impatiently. “I know that, but why—”

Lucien stood abruptly, pushing himself up from the chair, flailing with one hand and grasping a nearby bookcase to remain upright. He shook himself slightly and then straightened to stand unassisted and look Sophia in the eye.

“I surrender to you, Sophia. All that I am, all that I have . . . is yours.”

Sophia frowned. ”What are you saying?”

He closed his eyes.

Sophia jerked as he touched her mind. She opened her mouth to protest.

Lucien shuddered once.

And Sophia fell to her knees, screaming.

Chapter Forty-Five

Sophia’s head was full of voices, crying, screaming, demanding. Wanting answers, comfort . . . love. She fought to make sense of it, to understand what was happening. And suddenly Lucien was there, showing her how to quiet the tumult, to shuffle the pleas and silence the screams. To counter the demands with one of her own. I am your lord. You will be silent.

“Take care of them, cherie,” Lucien whispered. “Be better than I was.” And with a final wash of love, he was gone, the one constant in her life for nearly three hundred years vanished, leaving a gaping hole in her soul.

She opened her eyes, sobs choking her throat as she stared at the pile of thin ash that was all that was left of Lucien. He’d known Raphael would kill him. He hadn’t even tried to defend himself, knowing it would be fruitless to try. Instead, he’d taken the easy way out. He was already diminished by his efforts to hide from Raphael, and if his appearance was any indication, he’d taken no blood nourishment for sometime. Rather than die in agony by Raphael’s hand, he’d simply surrendered his life along with his power.

Lucien had been her parent far longer than the humans who’d given birth to her, had shown her more love and understanding, had taught her more of the world than those two strangers had ever dreamt of doing. But in the end, he’d been true to his selfish nature, leaving Sophia to deal with the carnage he’d left behind, to face the furious Raphael alone.

“Sophie.” It was Colin’s voice, harsh with stress and fear. For her. He was standing over her, his gun drawn, his strong legs bracketing her. And he was facing down Raphael and his vampires. For her.

She was not alone, after all.

“Colin,” she croaked. “Don’t.”

He dropped down next to her, his voice deep and warm in her ear, one arm clasping her tightly to his chest. “I’m here, darlin’.”

“He’s gone,” she whispered brokenly against his chest. “Lucien is gone.”

“I know. I know, and I’m sorry.”

“Take care of the human, Duncan.”

Raphael’s voice had her stiffening to attention, painfully aware of the target she made at this moment. A freshly minted vampire lord, overcome with the shock of transfer despite Lucien’s efforts to ease the transition for her.

She crumpled Colin’s shirt in her fingers, fighting for composure, for the strength she’d need. She loosened her hold and stood slowly, giving Colin plenty of time to adjust to her movements.

Raphael was still standing on the far side of the room. He was watching her closely, his power no longer evident but for the occasional flash of silver in his black eyes.

“Lord Raphael,” she said, her voice still rough with emotion.

“Lady Sophia,” he acknowledged meaningfully. “I propose an alliance.”

Sophia’s heart was pounding, but she met his gaze evenly. She couldn’t afford to show weakness and yet she would do almost anything to get herself and Colin out of here alive. But an alliance? She’d never heard of such a thing. Not among vampire lords.

Her thoughts sped, trying to reason out Raphael’s motives, to calculate her own benefit in such an arrangement. And wondering why he would propose such a thing and what he would expect in return. In all of this, however, one thing was certain. She would be vulnerable for some time as she built her power base essentially from scratch. The weaker vampires in the territory would simply accept her, grateful they had survived the trauma of Lucien’s death and that someone had been willing to step up and keep them alive.

But Lucien’s stronger children, few as they were, would have to be brought to heel, would have to swear loyalty to her in person one by one, and some of them would challenge her. Many of them didn’t know her and even those who did hadn’t seen her in decades and would assume she was weak because she was female and, frankly, because Lucien had chosen her. His preference for beauty over practicality was well known, even among his children.

But if Raphael supported her, if it was known that he at least would not oppose her and would not make a move on the territory as long as she was its ruler . . . That would go a long way toward smoothing her takeover, to soothing doubts and damaged egos.

“What do you have in mind, Lord Raphael?” she asked, making her voice as cool and controlled as she ever had.

Raphael smiled, as if he knew the effort it cost her, the arrogant bastard.

“You rule your territory and I rule mine. But when certain matters come before the Council, matters which are to our mutual benefit—” His black eyes turned flat and cold. “—you agree to be guided by my greater experience.”

Sophia wasn’t fooled by the polite language. Nor was she fooled into thinking he would let her live if she didn’t agree . . . or if she tried to renege later on. But in the final analysis, it was still a good deal for her.

“I accept your offer,” she said, with a formal little tilt of her head.

“Excellent.” He paused for a polite few seconds. When he continued, his voice and manner were both inflexible. “Given the late hour, and our newfound alliance,” he added deliberately, “you have twenty-four hours to leave my territory. I assume Mister Murphy will accompany you back to Vancouver. Arrangements will be made by my people to act as agents in the disposition of his affairs within my territory.”

He didn’t wait for her agreement, but strode for the door, pausing just before he exited into the night. “Congratulations, Lady Sophia.”

And suddenly it was all over.

Lucien was a pile of ash on the carpet.

Raphael was gone.

And Sophia was Lord of the Canadian Territories. She shuddered, a hard, full-body jerk that had Colin wrapping his arm around her in concern. She permitted herself a moment to relish the heat and comfort of his big body, and then she straightened and said, “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

Colin nodded as the two vampire guards followed him out onto the porch and locked the house door behind them. Raphael and Duncan were gone, so was Juro. They’d left right after the dustup and taken the Koepke woman with them. Justin and Aaron, the two vamps who’d followed Koepke home from work for Raphael, had stayed to clean up the house. They’d also disposed of what was left of Lucien after he fucking disintegrated—and that was something Colin could very happily do without ever seeing again.

The two vamps gave Sophie a wide berth as they circled around the yard and climbed into their vehicle. She was sitting on the passenger seat of the Suburban, turned around so she faced the open door. Which was right where Colin had left her after hustling her out of that house.

He waited in the yard, watching the vamps leave, and thinking about what to say to Sophie. Lucien had apparently passed his mojo—Colin refused to call it magic—to Sophie and then offed himself. Or maybe it was the transfer of mojo that killed him. Who the hell knew? It didn’t really matter. If the old guy hadn’t done himself in, Raphael sure as hell would have done it for him.

For a while back there, Colin had thought he was going to have to defend Sophie against that whole bunch of badass vampires. He’d figured he could take out a few before they got to him and had hoped it would be enough for Sophie to get away.

But it hadn’t been necessary because his Sophie turned out to be a badass vampire all her own. He grinned, liking the idea, and suddenly he knew what to say to her.

He waited until the vamps’ SUV made it down the drive and turned left onto the highway leading back to the compound before walking over to see what was up. Because something was definitely up.

“What’s goin’ on, darlin’?”

Colin took one look at Sophie’s face when she raised her head to glance at him and amended that thought. Not up, down. Definitely down.

He edged in closer, resting his hands along the outside of her thighs and rubbing them slightly. “Talk to me, Sophie.”

She didn’t say anything for a few minutes, long enough that Colin was about to nudge her again before she finally pressed her hands against his and sighed.

“When I arrived in Vancouver,” she said quietly, “and discovered Lucien was missing, my first desperate thought was that we had to find him. But my second thought was that if he was dead, I would do anything it took, fight and kill anyone who stood in my way, to seize his territory for myself.”

“Nothing wrong with ambition,” Colin said confidently.

“No, there’s not. But now that Lucien is dead and the territory really is mine, I can’t help wondering what the hell I was thinking.” She shook her head, laughing softly.

“But you took it without a fight. That’s gotta be good, right?”

“If only that were true. But the fight is just beginning.”

Her fingers curled into fists against his, and he shifted, taking her hands in his and smoothing her fingers gently.

“Most of Lucien’s people won’t care if I’m the one who succeeds him, as long as I don’t demand anything more from them than he did. But there are others who will only pretend to offer support while they wait for me to fail. They’ll watch for every mistake, for any shred of weakness. And until I have a chance to create vampires of my own, people I can trust, I’ll have to be on guard every moment, wondering whom I can trust and where the stake will come from. And then there are those who will point to every sign of anger, every tiny mood, every hint of indecision as proof that a woman simply doesn’t have what it takes to rule. It exhausts me just talking about it.”