Misled (Carnal Thirst #1)(13)
Author: Sylvia Day

“Damn, so the Federation didn’t find her that way.”

“It doesn’t appear likely,” Stein agreed. “As I searched deeper into the President’s account, I noticed we aren’t the only ones who’ve been delving into his information.”

“Hoff.”

Stein’s mouth fell open. “How the hell do you do that?” he asked, startling Derek with the rare curse.

“Hoff asked me some odd questions the last time I saw him and he knew about the attack against Sable’s ship.”

“So you’ve discovered the culprit. Ms. Taylor was the key after all.”

“I suppose that’s true, but not in the way I had originally assumed. Can you prove Hoff had access to the tracking device information?”

“Without a doubt. I’ll send a security team to apprehend him immediately.” Stein smiled. “Now that the traitor’s been discovered, sir, will you be dropping your cover and returning to the Security Council?”

“Soon,” Derek said evasively. He damn well wasn’t returning anywhere without Sable. “Did you get a copy of the video from the concourse on Rashier 6?”

“Yes, sir. I downloaded it to your ship just a few moments ago.”

“Excellent. I’m on way to Sarjon to check on another Drake residence. Comm me if you have any trouble with Hoff.”

“Of course. Good luck, sir. I’m looking forward to meeting Ms. Taylor. She sounds like a remarkable woman.”

“She is,” Derek murmured. “Atkinson out.”

He took a deep breath before playing the video taken by docking security on Rashier 6. Even though he knew deep in his soul that Sable loved him, part of him still feared what he would witness on the video.

He froze as the screen flickered and Sable appeared, standing on the cargo ramp of her Starwing speaking with Marius Drake. Stein had done an excellent job of filtering out the background noise and Derek listened in rapt attention as Marius blackmailed Sable into breaking off their relationship.

“I love him,” Sable told Marius on the tape.

And Derek’s heart swelled. He hadn’t misread her. He rewound the video and played her words again. And again.

The tiny seed of doubt that had tried to take root, insidious and punishing, urging him to think that maybe Sable’s note had been the truth, withered and died and would never return.

“I’m coming for you, baby,” he whispered to her beloved face, frozen on the screen. “I’m coming.”

* * * * *

It was approaching midnight when the transport cab pulled away from the large house. Sable waited a few moments more before leaving her hiding place in the bushes, just to be certain they wouldn’t return for something they’d forgotten. She’d finally solved her investigation. Now she had only to capture the culprit. She’d wondered how this hunt would go down when Captain Hoff had come out of his house with his family in tow. But then he’d kissed them goodbye and sent them on ahead.

Now it was just the two of them.

She crossed the moonlit circular driveway and rounded the side of the house. Knowing how trigger-happy some agents were, Sable had waited until just a few moments ago to comm in her call for backup. She couldn’t risk them arriving too soon and scaring her prey away. Not after the last two years of hard work.

Marius had done his worst to screw up her life, so it was ironic that he’d really helped her instead. Living with him had given her access to his computers and his passwords. With those advantages, she’d planted information under his access code. She’d created two secret Council files—one with a reference to a fabricated new weapon and one with a nonexistent “cure” for vampirism. Knowing that both of those items would be invaluable to the Federation, she’d deliberately left a back door to those files open and waited for the traitor to make their move.

It had been a risky gamble, but one that paid off. The traitor hadn’t bothered to hide his personal information when he’d downloaded the files. It would have taken weeks to circumvent the Council anti-hacker programs with an anonymous identity, and since Sable had set the files for automatic deletion in a couple days, she’d forced his hand. He’d used his own unique access code and revealed his identity in his greed.

And now his gig was up, as the archaic saying went.

Sneaking into the house through the kitchen door, Sable moved into the living room and crawled up the wall to the ceiling. She could hear Hoff packing quickly, shoving documents into a bag along with a few articles of clothing. Her fingers twitched restlessly around the hilt of her lasersword, preventing it from slipping out and crashing to the floor below. She walked toward the hallway with noiseless steps.

Waiting.

Hunting.

Hoff fell silent and her senses heightened. She crouched low, hugging the ceiling, as the hairs on her nape stood on end. And then she heard it, the sounds of transports moving into the drive.

Damn it, how did the Task Force get here so fast? With a smothered curse, she crawled from the ceiling to the floor without a sound. Preparing to pounce, she was startled by a steely arm wrapping around her throat.

“Vamp bitch,” Hoff hissed in her ear. “I’d hoped those Federation ships would kill you! They would have too, if you hadn’t had Atkinson on board to assist you.”

Sable stilled, but she wasn’t afraid. She could easily break the human male in half with her bare hands. “Not a wise move,” she said casually. She felt a sharp prodding against her back.

“Feel that?”

“Yeah, don’t rip my tank. It’s my favorite.”

“I’m going to rip your heart out,” he growled. “And then I’m going to stake it through. The Federation is working on a program to eradicate your kind. I can only hope the information I sold them will speed up its inception.”

Sable rolled her eyes, grabbed the arm that crushed her windpipe and broke it.

The wooden stake in Hoff’s other hand pressed against her skin and then sank in an inch. It burned like forged metal and she hissed, her fangs descending, her animal nature springing to the fore. She spun on him, furious and prepared to kill. Vamps didn’t get defensive. They killed. Fully a predator, she lunged for his throat and was tackled from the side, the force of the blow carrying her across the room. In pain from the stake wound, Sable fought viciously against the men who held her down.

“Taylor!”

As she registered the sound of her captain’s voice, she felt the red haze of fury drain from her. She stared up at the STF agents who struggled to restrain her.

“I’m fine,” she growled. “I said I’m fine!” she repeated when they refused to release her.

“See?” screamed Hoff. “You can’t trust them! You can’t control them! They’re infected, diseased, rabid animals that need to be put down. They’ll kill us all. We’re nothing but food to them.”

Sable leapt to her feet and glared at the wild-eyed, red-haired man who struggled between the grips of two agents. “Get him out of here.”

Captain Donnie stepped into the doorway after the agents dragged Hoff away. His countenance was grim as he came toward her. “What the hell is the matter with you, Taylor? You’ve never lost control like that before.”

She winced. The captain was right. She’d let her personal turmoil affect her actions at a time when she should have been in control. And she knew why. Living with Marius was driving her insane.

“I’m sorry, Captain. You’re right.” Her shoulders drooped. “I’ve been having some…issues. They got the better of me.”

Donnie shook his head and sighed. “I promised you three months leave of absence when this case was over. Why don’t you start them now? Just send your report to me by the end of the week.”

Sable nodded. “Thanks, Captain.”

Then she headed home to Marius.

* * * * *

Sable entered one of the dozen ostentatious, opulent mansions that belonged to Marius Drake and was grateful that she’d never have to enter it again. While she’d been in the database under Marius’s access code, she’d stumbled onto something that had shattered her heart. Derek wasn’t at all the man he’d said he was. She’d been staying with Marius trying to protect Derek and it turned out he didn’t need her protection at all. That meant neither of the master vamps had a hold on her anymore. She was free and once she packed up her stuff, she planned to hole up for a while and wait for her broken heart to heal.

She was two steps up the staircase on her way to pack her bags when the growling and crashing in the expansive ballroom halted her ascent. Weary, but curious, Sable lifted her nose and sniffed the air. She smelled the two Master vampires immediately. Their territorial hormones filled the air, their heady and intoxicating blood pervading her senses, making her heart race and her palms damp.

She moved to the open doorway of the ballroom and surveyed the damage. The place was a mess. The heavy, three-story tall velvet drapes hung in tatters and every piece of furniture in the room lay smashed to pieces.

Her gaze searched for and found the combatants over twenty feet above the floor. They were clinging to opposite walls of the room, panting and snarling, their handsome features distorted with rage and bloodlust. Both of their nostrils flared as she entered, smelling the blood from her wound. They became even more enraged, more animals than men, their hormones and instincts running the show. By her assessment, the battle for a mate had begun hours ago.

The battle for her.

She drank in the sight of Derek, noting the minor injuries he bore. He was obviously winning, because Marius was in far worse shape. A relieved breath escaped her in a sigh. She was furious, yes, and terribly hurt, but she would never wish him harm. In fact, she couldn’t bear it if something happened to him.

If Marius weren’t so stubborn, he’d admit that she wasn’t the mate for him. He needed a wife who relished power and politics as much as he did. Sable liked action and a hands-on approach. Political sidestepping just wasn’t something she could spend an eternity doing. They also didn’t love each other anymore, if they ever truly had. It was time for him to move on, too.

And Derek… What the hell was he doing here? Hadn’t he gotten everything he needed out of her? The hollow ache in her chest became nigh unbearable and she lifted a hand to shelter her heart. Her stomach did a little flip at the thought of him coming after her and fighting for her, but she squelched the tiny hope ruthlessly. He’d lied about who he was, he’d used her body to get what he wanted, he’d demanded the truth from her and then hadn’t given her the same courtesy. Everything they’d shared had been a lie. It didn’t matter if he still wanted to f**k her. He didn’t love her. Not like she loved him.

Despite all this, her body softened, responding instinctively to the scent of her mate and the pheromones he exuded in his battle to win her. Looking at him and needing him with every breath she took broke her heart a little more. She loved him desperately, but she couldn’t trust him and there was no future to be had with someone you couldn’t trust.

She remembered their conversation in the hotel on Rashier 6…

“At least you’re honest.”

“Because that’s what I want from you in return, Sable—your honesty.”

“And I’ll give it to you.”

What a fool she’d been. And these two were even dumber for fighting over her when she didn’t want anything to do with either of them.

“You’re both idiots,” she said scornfully.

Then she turned on the heel of her boot and left.

Chapter Nine

Derek’s senses were inundated by his mate’s proximity, his body recognizing her scent and adjusting to it. He stared at Sable’s beautiful face with a soul-deep longing. Three weeks. Three damn weeks since he’d last seen her. He waited for her to smile, to show some pleasure at seeing him again. Instead she looked at him impassively for only an instant before leaving the room.

Filled with the animalistic need to claim his woman, he was no longer even remotely human. Moving with extraordinary speed, he crawled along the wall and out of the room, following her up the staircase. Marius did same, wisely keeping to the opposite wall.

The blond Master was badly cut and bleeding profusely, but remained determined to fight. Derek felt a reluctant admiration and a tiny grain of pity for the other man. To have once had Sable and then to have lost her—he could only imagine the pain of that. But his imagination was enough.

Sable climbed the stairs with a casual, unhurried stride. She had to sense the two territorial Masters crawling along the walls above her, but she ignored both of them. That worried Derek a lot, but not nearly as much as he worried about the scent of her blood.

Sure, she was tough and could take care of herself, he wouldn’t try to shield her because she’d hate that and resent him. Still, he knew he was going to be terrified every time she was endangered. But he accepted that, because he loved her the way she was.

As she entered her bedroom, she left the door open and Derek preceded Marius into the room behind her. As she pulled a bag out from under her bed and began to pack, Derek felt the rage boiling in his blood reduce to a steady simmer. He shot a glance at Marius. “She’s coming with me,” he growled triumphantly.

Marius hissed at him and crouched for another lunge when Sable’s calm voice stilled them both.

“No, I’m not, President Atkinson.” She snorted in disgust. “You’re so damn arrogant you didn’t even attempt to disguise your name.”

Derek winced. Shit, shit, shit. She’d found out before he could tell her.

He felt his spine straighten, his muscles lengthening, his fangs and claws withdrawing, as the animal retreated and allowed the man to emerge. He reached out to her with his calling, tossing it over her like a warm blanket. Sable, love…