Colin the Conqueror Page 5

  “Are you awake?” Heather asked after a moment.

  “Mmhmm,” Colin murmured, still not wanting to move.

  “I need the bathroom,” she said, her fingers tapping his arm.

  Colin sighed. “Alright,” he said, reluctantly removing his arm from her waist. He rolled onto his back and opened his eyes. It was time he got up anyway.

  Heather slid from the bed and disappeared into the bathroom.

  Colin threw back the covers.

  It was time to start his day. Today he was starting it off right—with a smile.

  It felt good to be in love.

  * * * *

  After agreeing to meet for lunch, Heather left to return to the wing she shared with Holt and Ivy but not before a lingering goodbye kiss, that made Colin want to drag her right back into the bedroom.

  Colin dressed, putting on a pair of black jeans and a white t-shirt, figuring that he may end up out in the woods again today looking for traces of Ramsey. Colin really didn’t think they were going to find anything on the grounds at this point. Ramsey had gone missing two weeks ago and they had yet to find any trace of him.

  As Colin exited his wing, he made his way to John’s office where they had been meeting every morning since Ramsey had disappeared, he thought about his role as a member of the Unkindness of Ravens and the recent dangerous situations they had all been a part of.

  Colin had been the Raven Clan’s legal representative for over ten years now. When he had first been hired by the family, Colin had been barely thirty-three and was amazed at the salary they had offered him to give up his law practice and have the Raven Clan as his only client. Colin had jumped at the offer. It had taken him quite some time to acquaint himself with all of his duties. He was responsible for the family’s taxes, stock holdings, insurance and, of course after they explained to him their main purpose in life—the destruction of the Horde of Vampires—Colin took care of any ‘issues’ that needed to be cleaned up after an assignment and the destruction of any given Clutch of vampires the Ravens had happened to dispose of. More than once, Colin had to wrangle one of the boys out of jail, the most recent being Drake.

  He shook his head, a small smile playing on his lips. Drake had managed to land himself in jail charged with multiple counts of murder. The charges were bogus. The supposed ‘victims’ were actually the carcasses of vampires that had been dispatched on a previous mission. The only reason the bodies had been found was due to the slight carelessness of Drake and Holt, when they had been sent in as backup for Dirk. But after Colin had arrived in Kentucky where Drake was being held, he was surprised to find that Drake had ended up having a relationship with his captor—Sheriff Grace Shanley.

  Colin turned a corner, entering the hallway that would lead him to John’s office.

  The Raven Clan was an enigma to Colin.

  The brothers—John, Eric and Dirk—along with their cousins Drake and Holt, were a fierce combination when he thought about it. Even as different as they were from each other, they all shared the same devotion to their cause: the tradition of the Unkindness of Raven’s war against the Horde of Vampires. Centuries ago, a young daughter of the Raven Clan had been attacked by a vampire and turned. The family considered her to be damned. They destroyed her, if only to save her soul. Then, the Ravens had sworn themselves to vengeance. That oath continued to this day.

  The five Ravens that were left were all very different in personality and manner. Colin was constantly amazed at the fact that they could be so different, yet so much the same.

  They were all devoted to Lark Raven, the last surviving elder of the Clan and also the mother of John, Eric and Dirk. They were completely devoted to their woman. John, to his wife, Madison and their baby girl, Skylar. Eric to Lydia, their resident biologist and all around researcher. When it came to anything having to do with vampire venom, Lydia was like a cat with a mouse—toying with the problem until she found an answer to it. Dirk was deeply in love with Casey, a dark-haired beauty that had been held captive by one of the most powerful vampires they had ever faced. Holt Raven, the almost completely silent one, was a contradiction in terms. Intimidating by just occupying space, but when it came to Ivy Green, Holt became putty in her hands. The two were a constant source of entertainment as they sparred with each other, both of them having such strong personalities, but it was usually Holt who rolled his eyes then gave in to Ivy’s demands. Colin got to visit with the couple quite often since Ivy was Heather’s sister.

  Drake Raven, Holt’s younger brother, had been known as the ‘wild one’. That was until Sheriff Grace Shanley took control of him. After cleaning up the alleged murders in Kentucky, Drake had brought Grace back home to Ravencrest and the two were almost inseparable.

  That’s where Rogue Raven Shanley entered the picture. Rogue was Grace’s nephew, had been raised by her in fact, and when Grace had come to live at Ravencrest with the Clan, Rogue had come too. He immediately jumped into the fray, eyes wide open, declaring that he was destined to be one of them—hell, his middle name was Raven.

  Colin shared his wing of Ravencrest with Rogue and found him to be a more outspoken version of himself. They joked around often, Colin letting his more adventurous side reveal itself with Rogue and they both enjoyed tormenting Holt, who had such a dry sense of humor.

  On the last assignment, Rogue had accompanied John but had broken the Unkindness’ cardinal rule: Don’t get involved with a vampire. That’s exactly what Rogue had done. He had fallen fast and furiously for a lab technician by the name of Kaitlyn Gale. The problem was, Kaitlyn was a newly turned vampire who had been pilfering blood from the hospital where she worked. Rogue had a very difficult time convincing John not to destroy her. If it hadn’t been for the fact that Lydia had developed an antidote to vampire venom and was in need of a vampire to test it on, things between Rogue and Kaitlyn may have turned out very differently. Luckily, the antidote had worked when it had been administered to Kaitlyn here at the infirmary at Ravencrest. Lydia was overjoyed that she had managed to find a ‘safeguard’ in the antidote, just in case one of them was turned by a vampire a while waging their continuing war. But now, though Lydia had a small stock of the antidote in storage, she wanted to manufacture more. To do that, she needed the source of the blood from which the antidote was derived.

  She needed Ramsey.

  And Ramsey was missing.

  Colin walked into John’s office. “Sorry I’m late,” he said, quickly taking a seat beside Rogue.

  Rogue leaned close and whispered, “Thought you went to bed early last night, ole buddy.”

  Colin shot an elbow into Rogue’s arm.

  “Ouch.” Rogue straightened back up, rubbing his bicep.

  John stood behind his desk, his palms flat on its top. He glared at Colin then Rogue for a brief second.

  Colin immediately sobered at the unspoken warning.

  “As I was saying,” John said. “Eric and Dirk left yesterday for New York. We can’t stop investigating vampiric activity while we continue to try to track down Ramsey.”

  Colin glanced around at the others. Rogue sat beside him in a chair, one leg crossed over the other, looking very relaxed. Drake sat in another chair to the right of John’s desk, his eyes narrowed as he listened to John. Holt leaned against the wall behind Drake, arms crossed over his massive chest, his face as always—expressionless.

  “We have to check out the club where Kaitlyn had her encounter with the vampire who turned her,” John continued, taking his seat behind the desk. “Dirk checked in last night. They’ve got the club located. Tonight they’ll pay it a visit.”

  “So we have a good description of this vampire?” Drake asked, raking his hand through his spiked blue-black hair.

  John nodded at Rogue. “Rogue has questioned Kaitlyn in detail. She described his looks down to a scar he has on his chest on the left side, just below his pectoral muscle.”

  Drake snorted. “Wonder if the scar is from someone trying to stake
the bastard.”

  “Kaitlyn didn’t say,” Rogue said. “She didn’t ask the guy too many questions.”

  Colin took note of the strain in Rogue’s voice. Very unusual. Then he remembered. Kaitlyn had been seduced by the vampire from what Rogue had told him during one of their private conversations, Kaitlyn had spent the whole night with the vampire and there had been little talking involved. Colin had to admire Rogue. He was dealing with this conversation about someone his woman had sex with very well. He hadn’t lost his temper—so far.

  “She described the vampire’s looks as tall, dark black hair and very black eyes,” Rogue said.

  Drake let out a chuckle and waved a hand toward John, then Holt. “That could be either of them,” he said. Then he tapped himself on the chest. “Or me, for that matter.”

  “Yes, that’s what I gathered,” John added. “From Kaitlyn’s description, the vampire could very well be mistaken for one of us.”

  “Do we have a name?” Drake raised an eyebrow.

  “Just ‘Nicolas’,” Rogue said. “She didn’t get his last name.”

  “So, what do we do now?” Colin asked. Not only did he want to know what their next steps would be, he wanted to take some of the pressure off Rogue.

  “As far as the Clutch that we think exists in New York, headed by this Nicolas—we wait for word from Eric and Dirk,” John said, leaning back in his chair. He clasped his hands together, his elbows on the arms of his desk chair. “And Ramsey—we’ll just have to wait until he surfaces.” John shook his head slowly. “I still find it hard to believe we found no trace of which direction he went.”

  “I can’t believe it either,” Drake said. “We’ve got cameras all over this place. You’d think one of them would have picked him up.”

  It was Colin’s turn to speak up. “One of them did,” he said. “But all it showed was Ramsey skulking outside the mansion. Moving across the camera angle. That’s it.” Colin had spent his share of time looking at the tapes from the night Ramsey escaped. There just wasn’t anything that would give them something to go on other than the fact that Ramsey was outside.

  “Which camera was it?” Rogue asked.

  “The one at roof level,” Colin pointed toward the window behind John, “just about straight up from that window. It looks down on the grassy area below.”

  John sat forward. “I checked the tape for that camera early this morning,” John said.

  “Did something happen?” Colin asked, an alarm sounding in his mind. John wouldn’t have checked that particular camera if he didn’t have a reason. Something must have occurred during the night.

  John cocked his head. “I was working last night here at my desk and I had the strangest feeling at my back. Felt as if someone was watching me through the window. Then, I heard an odd noise. I got up to look but I didn’t see anything. When I checked the tape this morning, the only things that were out there moving were a squirrel and a large black bird.”

  “What was it that you thought you heard?” Colin knew that the Raven family had taken on some strange characteristics over time. John had an uncanny sense of smell. Dirk could move in almost complete silence. Eric could project his thoughts into your mind. The battles they had fought with the vampires had taken their toll. Most of them had been bitten, all the way back to their ancestors. Over time, though the current generation of Ravens was not immune to vampire venom, it was still detectable in their blood. Their DNA had been altered, allowing them to glean some vampiric power without becoming one.

  “I wasn’t sure what I’d heard until I saw it on the tape,” John said. He let out a laugh. “It was the bird. I knew what it was as soon as I saw it. What I heard was a raven’s caw. The bird was a big black raven.”

  “How ironic,” Holt said, breaking his silence.

  “It was nothing,” John said. “Just an odd feeling I had.”

  Colin wasn’t so sure it was ‘just an odd feeling’ to John. If it was, why would he bother to check the tapes? Colin made a mental note to check the tape himself. Out of curiosity, of course.

  Colin cleared his throat, the subject of the Ravens’ altered DNA still lingering in his mind. “With Ramsey gone, has Lydia been continuing her research?”

  “She’s still doing tests on Kaitlyn,” Rogue said. “Making sure everything is okay with her.” Rogue’s eyes revealed a hint of worry. “So far, things are going good but then, you never know how being completely turned is going to affect her down the road.”

  There was definitely something about the subject of Kaitlyn’s recovery that was troubling Rogue, Colin noted. Maybe he would catch up to him later and ask if there was something wrong. Something Rogue would prefer to discuss in private. He and Rogue had grown fairly close, being the only two hunters that were not related to the Raven Clan by blood. They had went through their training together under the watchful eyes of Holt and though Colin had an advantage over Rogue by starting his training earlier on, Rogue had caught up quickly. It was as if Rogue had been bred for vampire hunting. He was young and headstrong—fearless when it came to danger. But since Kaitlyn had come into the picture, Rogue had changed. In a subtle sort of way, he had become a man.

  A new question struck him. “Has Lydia tried to use Kaitlyn’s blood to make a base for the antidote?” he asked.

  Rogue shook his head. “She’s tried. Since Kaitlyn was so slow to turn once she was bitten, Lydia thought she may have something in the order of Ramsey’s immunity.” He shrugged. “She did have something—I mean when she first turned, she could still walk in daylight—but Lydia said that by using the antidote on her, Kaitlyn’s blood was changed. She can’t work with it.”

  Colin turned to John. “What about you?” he asked. “Your DNA has been altered. Has Lydia ever tried to extract anything from that?”

  John’s dark eyes met his, the corners of his mouth quirking up. “You’re always so analytical, Colin. Always the lawyer, firing question after question.”

  Colin smiled. “If you don’t ask…”

  “…you’ll never find out,” John finished for him. “Lydia has done blood work on all of us, I believe.”

  “Yeah,” Drake said with a grimace. He rubbed at the inside of his elbow. “For a while there, she was constantly coming at me with a needle.” He shuddered dramatically.

  John shot him a look. “Lydia is a definite asset to this family. Before she came, Mother was the authority on total blood transfusions and she is becoming too frail to handle that kind of stress. Lydia can now take on that role, should one of us ever need it.”

  “I wasn’t going to say anything bad about Lydia,” Drake said. “Good grief, John. Get a grip.”

  Colin watched John take a long cleansing breath, then settle himself. Colin didn’t like to see any of them at odds with each other. “We’re all under tremendous stress,” Colin offered. “I’m sure that all of us will be relieved when we do get word of Ramsey’s whereabouts. We should have a little patience with each other until then. It won’t do any of us any good to bicker amongst ourselves and alienate each other, especially now that we have Eric and Dirk out in the field and our families here at Ravencrest to protect.”

  “The voice of reason,” Holt said, his voice gruff and low.

  John nodded. “Holt’s right. Colin’s right.” He sighed heavily. “I just wish Ramsey would show up. Somewhere. Anywhere.”

  “How about here?” Ivy Green said from the doorway.

  Everyone turned toward the small, dark haired woman with the wry smile plastered on her face. Holt pushed off the wall he was leaning on and came to attention.

  “Sorry to interrupt your meeting, boys, but I thought you’d like to know that I just saw Ramsey on one of the monitors,” Ivy said.

  John shot up out of his chair. Colin did the same. “Where?” they asked in unison.

  Ivy looked at them with a bland expression. With a flip of her hand, she said, “Walking up the driveway. Just like he owns the place.” Then she wiggl
ed her fingers at Holt in a sassy wave. “Go get ‘im, honey.”

  They all rushed for the door.

  Chapter Five

  Ramsey strolled up the gravel driveway, hands in the pockets of his jeans, whistling. Jesus, it was taking them long enough to notice him. He had figured that they’d be on him within minutes of when he had scaled the gate into the compound half a mile back. They must be slipping, he thought, walking along, gazing up into the trees. All the better for me.

  As he rounded a small, barely perceptible curve in the driveway, Ramsey got his first glimpse of angry Ravens. He slowed his pace as five of them approached him from the front of the mansion. He ticked their names off, noting which of the Clan were no-shows. John, Drake and Holt strode purposefully toward him, their faces grim, their eyes as black as night. Colin and Rogue flanked the three on either side. Dirk and Eric were either holding back, hidden, or not at Ravencrest. Ramsey took them all in with a sweeping glance then looked them over one by one a little more closely. There were no weapons visible but Ramsey wasn’t stupid. He knew they could take him easily. Ramsey wasn’t a true fighter and even though his build suggested that he worked out regularly, he didn’t. He was just naturally slim and muscled. The women loved it and Ramsey loved the women. Especially ones of the ‘undead’ persuasion.

  Ramsey stopped his forward progress, removed his hands from his pockets and spread his arms wide.

  “Honey, I’m home.”

  * * * *

  Colin sat across from Ramsey in a wingback chair facing the couch.

  Ramsey didn’t look the least bit flustered as he sat on the couch, one ankle over the opposite knee, his arms spread and draped across the back of the couch.

  “I told you once but I’ll tell you again,” Ramsey said in a voice that suggested he felt like he was talking to a small child, “all I did was hitch around and get laid.”

  Colin didn’t believe him. And from the looks on the others’ faces, they didn’t either. John, Drake, Holt and Rogue were stationed around the room, just in case Ramsey had the foolish idea to take flight. They had elected Colin to do the questioning.