Hunted (A Cyn & Raphael Novella) by D.B. Reynolds Page A

determined to be the voice of reason.”
    “And what does that make you?”
    “Alive. Because everyone knows the voice of reason is the first to die when the monsters come.”
    He blinked, then shook his head. “I don’t want to know. Tell me where this house is, and I’ll let Lucas know. Magda is his child, after all. He’ll want to deal with her.”
    “But we have to go back there, too,” she said urgently, raising herself enough to stare into his face. “Robbie’s waiting for us.”
    “We’re leaving tonight. You can call Rob, have him meet us at the airport.”
    She gave him a narrow-eyed look. “You’re doing this on purpose, to torment me.”
    “Am I? Maybe it’s a test of your new cautious nature.”
    Cyn made a dismissive noise. “I never said anything about being cautious, fang boy, so put that idea right out of your head. We could easily have taken Magda’s human guards, but I know how you feel about killing vamps while they sleep, so there was no point in going inside. So there.”
    He laughed. “Welcome back, my Cyn .”
    “You’re awful. How am I supposed to become a better person?”
    “You don’t need to get any better,” he said, his voice deep and silky as he buried his face against her neck. “I love you exactly the way you are.” Without warning, he rolled her beneath him. “You’re wearing clothes.”
    “You’re not,” she said, flexing her hips playfully, feeling the hard length of his arousal.
    “I need to shower.”
    “Hmmm, I’m feeling a bit gritty myself. That explosion site was pretty gruesome.”
    “We could shower together.”
    Cyn flexed her hips again. “It might take longer that way.”
    Raphael stood, taking her with him. “Then we should get started.”
    * * * *
    “What’s taking them so long?” Cyn sat with Elke on the stairs of Lucas’s big house, watching Raphael and Lucas discuss how to proceed with the night’s hunt, and thinking Kathryn would be sorry to miss this. Especially if it turned out to be Magda in that house. Cyn had gotten a clear impression that there was no love lost between the two of them. Unfortunately, Kathryn had been called into the agency this morning, so she was going to miss the big takedown.
    Assuming it ever happened.
    The vampires all stood at the bottom of the stairs, near the several big SUVs which were waiting to take them away … once they finished negotiating . Jared and Juro were there with Raphael, and Nicholas from Lucas’s side. It was all terribly civilized, which struck Cyn as rather anticlimactic under the circumstances. They were about to hunt down and kill some rogue vampires, not rendezvous for dinner at the local steak house.
    “What the fuck?” she demanded irritably. “Robbie’s been sitting on that house all alone for hours. We need to get there.”
    “It’s a question of precedence,” Elke said. She sat one step higher than Cyn , leaning back on her elbows with her legs stretched out in front of her. To all appearances, she was completely relaxed, but Cyn knew she could be on her feet in mere seconds if a threat manifested. She also could probably hear every word the two vampire lords were saying.
    “What precedent?”
    “Several actually, that’s the problem. Raphael is Lucas’s Sire, which gives him precedence. But this is Lucas’s territory, and Magda is his child. And though Raphael was followed from the airport, most likely with nefarious intent, the other far more dangerous attacks affected both lords equally, whether intentionally or not.”
    “Jeez, sign a fucking contract why don’t they? If I’d known they were going to call in a mediator, I’d have taken care of it myself while the sun was up. Can we go now?” she called loudly.
    Raphael said something that made Lucas laugh. She gave him a squinty look. “What’d he say, Elke ?”
    “I couldn’t hear.”
    “Bullshit.”
    “You’re like a sister to me, Cyn —”
    “I hate my sister.”
    “Okay, bad analogy, but