Kristin Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1 - Kristin | 40 Years Later

  Chapter 2 – Hugh

  Chapter 3 – Angelina

  Chapter 4 – Kristin

  Chapter 5- Hugh

  Chapter 6 - Zander

  Chapter 7 – Kristin

  Chapter 8 – Lena

  Chapter 9 – Hugh

  Chapter 10 – Kristin

  Chapter 11 – Joshua

  Chapter 12 – Angelina

  Chapter 13 – Kristin

  Chapter 14 – Zander

  Chapter 15 – Angelina

  Chapter 16 – Kristin

  Chapter 17 – Hugh

  Chapter 18 – Angelina

  Chapter 19 – Zander

  Chapter 20 – Kristin

  Chapter 21 – Hugh

  Chapter 22 – Angelina

  Chapter 23 – Kristin

  Chapter 24 – Josh

  Chapter 25 – Zander

  Chapter 26 – Lena

  Chapter 27 – Kristin

  Chapter 28 – Angelina

  Chapter 29 – Hugh

  Chapter 1 - Kristin

  40 Years Later

  I stared at the picture on the wall of my office as I slowly swiveled my chair back and forth. So much had changed since that single moment in time. Forty years had passed, and wars had been fought—both human and vampire. Things were vastly different than they had been, and I found myself missing those simpler times.

  I was now in charge of the United States VMF territory and had been since Alex’s death eighteen years earlier. Twenty-five years ago, there was revolt within our world, and while previously there had been only three masters around the world, now there were twenty-one. Each of us had territories, some smaller than others, but we oversaw the race that resided and visited under us. We also stayed in close contact with one another and, for the most part, got along.

  A few years after the revolt, our entire race broke into two main factions. Even the smallest territories had rebels that attempted to overthrow the current masters. There were many here in the United States that were opposed to me being the master of our territory, and they had divided off. There were many more that were on board with the changes and stood behind me—or at least pretended to do so.

  Sadly, about three years ago, our breed and lifestyle had become known to humans, and even after three years, fear and violence was sparked when it came to humans and vampires. Most of our breed spent more time in the shadows hiding from those who wanted to remove us from the earth.

  It was a constant fight with the humans to prove that we weren’t hell-bent on destroying their race. It didn’t matter that we had been around for centuries, or that it had taken them this long to learn we existed. They didn’t want to accept that we preferred to live in coexistence with them—at least our side did.

  I continued to stare at the picture as I dwelled on the past. It hung right beside the door and served as a constant reminder of how quickly life could change. Friends could become foes, lovers could leave. Mates could die, and everything could be turned upside down in an instant. Well, an instant in my lifetime, not to humans.

  There was a knock at my office door, and Joshua pushed it open. “It’s time to go, Mistress.”

  I stared at him for a moment. Over the last few years, Joshua had become a very important person to me. His broad shoulders, deep-set dark-green eyes, and quiet nature had become a constant in my life, along with his unwavering support. I stood, then walked around my desk to pause in front of the picture. I took in every smiling face, and my heart ached for all that was lost, the people I loved, the friendships that I had once cultivated.

  “Mistress?” Joshua said softly, and I turned to him.

  “I’m ready.” He gave an abrupt nod and allowed me to pass him before stepping to my side and putting his hand to my lower back. After we entered the elevator, I stared down the hall, wondering what I would find when the doors opened two floors down.

  “How many people are here?” I asked Joshua.

  “Sixteen. Eight of ours, eight of theirs,” he stated with a brief glance my way.

  “Eight, huh?” I laughed slightly, hoping it would ease the tension in my own shoulders.

  Joshua snickered as he turned my way, and our eyes locked. Many years ago, I had met Joshua when he had worked for Alexander. He had the ability to hide his presence from most of our kind, and his assistance had been instrumental in helping to rescue Trent, Mick, and his wife from Leo and his gang of thugs when human-turned vampires were just being discovered.

  In the back of my mind, I truly believed that incident had been a turning point in our history. Somehow Leo had discovered that human-turned vampires had special abilities, at least the females did. Back then, my sister, Angelina, had been working with him. In fact, Leo and Angelina had both worked with my father, Burke.

  I was glad that Angelina had changed her ways. Of course, if I hadn’t killed our father, she might never have, but she did, and that’s what counted. She was an important part of our society, and after getting to know her so well, I didn’t ever want her on opposite sides of the battlefield.

  And a battlefield was what we were dealing with now. “Did they say what exactly they wanted?”

  “No, Mistress.”

  I sighed. I really hated being called Mistress, but sadly, I was stuck with the title. Since Alex had been known as the Master when he was in charge, I’d received the title when I’d mated with him twenty-four years ago.

  The door to the elevator opened, and I stepped out. Once again, Joshua put his hand to my lower back. It was for more than just being gentlemanly; he was protecting me. Almost anywhere that I went, Joshua was at my side, always touching me. His ability to hide his presence from others now leeched into me if we were in contact since I had taken his blood—I continued to feed from him quite regularly to keep that bond between us strong. He couldn’t do that with everyone, only Angelina and me. We believe that it had something to do with our reborn genetics.

  Joshua escorted me down the hallway. Two human men in suits stood at the door to the conference room, both eyeing me carefully.

  “Josh, did we remove their weapons?” I asked in his mind.

  “Yeah, Kris, we removed them. They balked at it, but they gave them up.”

  I gave an abrupt nod and cast a wide smile over the two men at the door. Both of them tried not to return it, but one cracked, and a handsome smile filled his face. I gave him a wink before I walked past.

  In the conference room, there were six more men that I didn’t know, but I quickly figured out that only two of them were there to speak with us. The other four were for protection. Did they really think we would hurt them? Humans were so simpleminded.

  “Evening, everyone,” I said as I rounded the table and took my seat. Clayton Larkin sat to my left and beside him were two other male elders, Beckett and Henry. To their left were Scarlett and Hazel, two of the female elders on our board. In the corners of the room were more of my people: Jett, Ryker, and Lorna. All of them worked for the VMF as sentinels in the field but spent more time these days protecting us here—my very own secret service—oh, yeah—not!

  Joshua stood behind my chair, and I let my gaze drift over the four men giving protection to the two seated at the table. My god, did we really need all this muscle in one room?

  “Gentleman.” I smiled at the men at the opposite end of the table. “I’m Kristin Armstrong. I’m sorry for being late. I was on a call.”

  The older gentleman nodded. “Thomas Singer, and this is Hugh McMurphy.”

  I nodded. “Pleasure to meet you, gentleman. Do you mind telling me what government agency you are with?”

  Singer shifted slightly in his chair. “I’m with U.S. Immigration and
Customs; Hugh is with Homeland Security.”

  I tried not to frown as I leaned further into my comfy, high-backed leather chair. “And what can we possibly do for ICE and Homeland?”

  The two men glanced at one another, and I took a moment to study them both. Thomas Singer was an older man with a full head of white hair, probably in his late fifties or early sixties. His nervous energy flitted about the room, and I didn’t need to peek into his head to see what he was thinking. He didn’t want to be here, and he was scared to death of us.

  Now, the other man, Hugh McMurphy, was quite the opposite. He was staring at me as I shifted my gaze to him. His dark-blond hair was peppered with a little bit of silver around his temples, and I would peg him for being around forty, maybe forty-two at the most. He had an attractive round face and light-blue eyes that studied me almost as hard as I did him. He wasn’t nervous, and as I reached out to him, I saw inside his mind that he thought I was very pretty for a dangerous woman. I couldn’t help but chuckle softly. If he only knew just how dangerous I was.

  “Well, it’s more what we can do for you,” Singer finally responded gruffly and collected my attention again as I raised a questioning brow his way. “With the knowledge of your kind becoming more pronounced, people are still concerned.”

  “We’ve been around for a long time, Mr. Singer. People should realize that we are not here to hurt them.”

  “How long have you been around?” Mr. McMurphy asked in a low, husky tone that made me take another long look at him.

  Clayton spoke up. “Thousands of years.” Singer and McMurphy glanced at one another again. “And we have been peaceful, law-abiding people all that time. I don’t know what angle you all are working here, but just spill it already.”

  “Well, I don’t know about law-abiding or peaceful,” McMurphy said slowly. “Your people wouldn’t have come to our attention if you had been living that way.”

  “Just like any other civilization, there are bad people,” Hazel replied dryly.

  “Funny that you call yourself a civilization,” Singer said.

  Beckett asked, “Why is that?”

  Singer shrugged. “Because you all act as if you were your own little country. You have your own government, your own laws, your very own leader.” He lifted his hand toward me as he spoke as if to prove a point.

  “It has been necessary since the start of time to have a governing body, Mr. Singer,” I stated. “Our hierarchy has been in place for a long time to oversee our breed and keep them in line.”

  “You haven’t done so well recently, Mrs. Armstrong,” he replied tersely.

  “Do you want to start quoting statistics, Mr. Singer? Because I’m pretty sure that the human population is responsible for a much higher percentage of criminal activity,” I said, trying to keep the annoyance out of my voice.

  Mr. McMurphy put his hand up. “It’s not about statistics or criminal activity. We want to help you, Mrs. Armstrong.”

  “That was mentioned previously, but I have yet to hear what it is that you wish to be of service for,” I stated.

  He glanced at Singer. “We’d like to work with you and have you assist us by providing a census of your people and any of their special skills.”

  My brows jumped ever so slightly, and all four of the elders turned my way, protesting into my head. “Enough!” I snapped back at them mentally.

  “A census? You want a list of my people? Why? So that you can herd us all into a confinement camp, while you tell us that you are trying to protect us?”

  Both men shook their heads, but McMurphy answered, “No. We do not want to put you all into a camp.”

  “Then what the hell does ICE and Homeland think they are going to do with that list? We aren’t breaking any laws, and those that do, are dealt with.”

  “Yes, through your justice, but not ours,” Singer stated hotly. “You have previously said that your people are no different than ours. If that is the case, they should be required to follow the same rules of justice.”

  Clayton laughed loudly. “You want to run them through a court of law? There isn’t a jail out there that could contain one of our kind.”

  McMurphy spoke slowly. “No, that’s not what we are saying. We want to make sure that your justice is fit for the crime. The fact that you kill members of your society makes you your own court of law—judge, jury, and executioner. We want to make sure that your people, citizens, whatever you call them are protected by their constitutional rights.”

  You have got to be kidding me. “I’m sorry, gentleman, but you don’t seem to understand the world we live in—have lived in for centuries. While our people follow our rules, it is to protect them and the human race. The only time someone is removed, is because they have violated those laws. Kind of like your death penalty.”

  “You don’t have the right to put someone to death.” Mr. Singer sneered my way.

  I felt the anger beginning to simmer inside of me. “I have every right as the Mistress. Those of our breed that harm humans are removed. We do not tolerate that—we never have—and we sure as hell won’t allow you to control how we have done things since the start of our time.”

  McMurphy was staring at me, and I knew he noticed that my eyes had changed color. I let my steel-gray gaze linger on his for a moment.

  “Gentleman, if that’s all you came here to discuss, I believe this meeting is over.” I went to stand, but McMurphy held his hand up.

  “Wait, Mrs. Armstrong, we seemed to have gotten off topic here. We really did want to speak to you about ways to protect your people.”

  I stared down at him. “Your concern is noted, Mr. McMurphy, along with Mr. Singer’s disdain. We aren’t interested in your assistance. Thank you for your time.”

  I heard the other elders get up from their seats as Joshua escorted me from the room.

  “She can’t just walk out on this,” I heard Mr. Singer growl.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll find a way to talk to her, Tom. Calm down,” Mr. McMurphy said as I walked down the hallway. Yeah, good luck with that, I thought to myself as I reached the elevator.

  Lorna was behind the other elders, and I knew that Jett and Ryker were still in the conference room and would show our guests out. We loaded into the elevator, and it wasn’t until the doors closed that Scarlett began to speak.

  “They want more than what they are asking for,” she said.

  “Yeah,” Beckett replied, “I am pretty sure they want to use our people, the ones that might be able to assist them, anyway.”

  “Well, that’s not happening,” I stated. “I have no plans to get into bed with the U.S. government.”

  The elevator doors opened, and I stepped out, Lorna and Clayton behind me. I was pretty sure the rest were going to head down and out of the building now.

  “Lorna, can you ask Lainey to come to my office, please?”

  “Sure, Kris,” she replied before she split off down another hallway near my office.

  Lorna had come to work with me several years before she went through her transition. When Julian and Lyssa had been killed during a raid on the VMF office out west, Clayton and Lorna had moved here to help me. It had been thirty-five years since they were killed, and my heart ached as I thought of Julian. It always ached when I thought of him.

  Now Lorna was a full-blooded vampire mated to Paul, one of our traveling sentinels. Their daughter Lainey, who was twenty, was my current assistant.

  Joshua left me at my office door, and Clayton came in with me and took a seat on the side couch. “I have a bad feeling about this, Kris.”

  “I do too, Clay. I’m not sure if it’s because they want to know what we are capable of, or because they think they can gain control of us, but I don’t like it.”

  I took a seat in my chair and glanced at Clay. His gaze was locked on the large photograph near my door. His voice was soft, sad, as he spoke. “I sure wish we could go back in time.”

  I lifted my eyes to it. “Yeah, so
metimes I wish that too, Clay.”

  Chapter 2 – Hugh

  “She can’t just walk out on this.” Tom snapped as Mrs. Armstrong left the room.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll find a way to talk to her, Tom. Calm down.” One of the men that had shown us into the conference room waited at the door for us to follow. Tom and I left without saying anything further, our entourage of unarmed guards in front and behind us.

  I hadn’t wanted to bring them, but Tom had insisted. He said that we needed protection walking into the viper pit, but I had little doubt that the six men with us could have taken the two vampires that were leading us out—especially unarmed. I’d seen vampires fight before, and I knew they were no match for the men with us.

  Perhaps if we hadn’t shown up with so many, Mrs. Armstrong might have been more comfortable talking to us. Or maybe she’d never be comfortable speaking with us. I sighed as we reached the elevator and piled in—all ten of us crammed into the metal box. Talk about a lot of testosterone in one place.

  When we got down to the first floor, we were led to the lobby, and our guns were returned to us. Tom and I went out front and stood on the sidewalk leading to the parking lot.

  “I’m going to stay here.” I told him.

  “Why?”

  I shrugged, “Maybe if it is just me, she’ll be more open to talking.”

  “I doubt that,” he scoffed, “But it might be worth a try. Keep these men with you.”

  “No, Tom. You take them back to the office. They aren’t going to do anything to hurt me, besides, like I said, if it’s just me, she might talk.”

  “You’re insane to go back in their alone.”

  I laughed, “No, I’ll be alright. I’ll give you a call later and let you know that I’m still alive. If I don’t call you by eleven, you can send a search party for my bloodless body.”

  He shook his head, “That’s not funny.”

  I slapped his shoulder, “I’ll be fine, Tom.”

  “Make sure to call me later, Hugh.”

  “I will.”

  I watched him walk away. There was something inside of me that was telling me to stay. I wasn’t sure if she would speak with me or not, but I had a strong desire to find out. Was it because I had been instantly attracted to her, and felt that maybe she had felt the same? It wasn’t like anything would happen between us, but still the desire was there.