Veil of Midnight (Midnight Breed 5)

Mira reached out and grabbed Lex's arm. "But I don't want to go anywhere with him. I don't want to leave Rennie - "

"There, there, now, sweetheart," Fabien cooed. He stroked his palm over the top of her head. "Go to sleep, child. No more fussing. Sleep now."

Mira fell back, caught in the vampire's trance. Fabien snatched her into his arms and cradled her like a baby. "A pleasure doing business with you, Alexei."

Lex nodded. "And with you," he replied, following the Darkhaven leader out of the lodge and waiting as he and the girl disappeared into a dark sedan that idled in the drive.

As the fleet of vehicles rolled out, Lex considered the evening's surprising turn of events. His father was dead. Lex was free from blame and poised to take control of all that he had deserved for so long. He would soon be ushered into Edgar Fabien's elite circle of power, and he was suddenly two million dollars wealthier.

Not bad for a night's work.

Renata turned her head to the side on her pillow and cracked one eye open, a small test to see if the reverb had finally passed. Her skull felt like it had been hollowed out and stuffed with wet cotton, but that was a major improvement over the hammer-and-anvil agony that had been her companion for the past few hours.

A tiny pinprick of daylight shone in through a small weevil hole in the pine shutter. It was morning. Outside her room, the lodge was quiet. So quiet that for a second she wondered if she'd just woken up from a horrible dream.

But in her heart, she knew it was all real. Sergei Yakut was dead, killed in a bloody assault in his own bed. All the grisly, gore-soaked images playing through her mind had actually happened. And most disturbing of all, it was Nikolai who stood accused and was arrested for the murder.

Regret over that gnawed at Renata's conscience. With the benefit of a clear head and being some hours removed from the blood and chaos of the moment, she had to wonder if she might have been too hasty to doubt him. Maybe they all had been too hasty to condemn him - Lex in particular.

Suspicion that Lex might have had some role in his father's death - as Nikolai had insisted - put a knot of unease in her stomach.

And then there was poor Mira, far too young to be exposed to so much violence and danger. A mercenary part of her wondered if they both might be better off now. Yakut's death had released Renata of his hold on her. Mira was free too. Maybe this was the chance they both needed - a chance to get somewhere far away from the lodge and its many horrors.

Oh, God. Dare she even wish it?

Renata sat up, swung her legs over the side of the bed. Hope buoyed her, swelling large in her chest.

They could leave. Without Yakut to track her down, without him alive and able to use his link to her by blood, she was finally free. She could take Mira and leave this place, once and for all.

"Mother Mary," she whispered, clasping her hands together in a desperate prayer. "Please, give us this chance. Let me have this chance - for the sake of that innocent child."

Renata leaned up near the wall she shared with Mira's bedroom. She rapped her knuckles lightly on the wood panels, waiting to hear the girl's answering knock.

Only silence.

She knocked again. "Mira, are you awake, kiddo?"

No answer at all. Only a lengthening quiet that felt like a death knell.

Renata was still wearing her clothes from last night, a sleep-wrinkled long-sleeve black T-shirt and dark denim jeans. She threw on a pair of lug-sole ankle boots and hurried out into the hallway. Mira's door was just a few steps down...and it stood ajar. "Mira?" she called, walking inside and taking a quick look around.

The bed was unmade and rumpled from where the child had been at one point during the night, but there was no sign of her. Renata pivoted and raced to the bathroom they shared at the other end of the hall.

"Mira? Are you in there, mouse?" She opened the door and found the small room empty. Where could she have gone?

Renata spun around and headed back up the paneled corridor toward the main living area of the lodge, a terrible panic beginning to rise up her throat. "Mira!"

Lex and a couple of guards were seated around the table in the great room as Renata ran in from the hallway. He spared her only the briefest glance then went back to talking with the other males.

"Where is she?" Renata demanded. "What have you done with Mira? I swear to God, Lex, if you've hurt her - "

He pinned her with a scathing look. "Where's your respect, female? I have just come back in from releasing my father's body to the sun. This is a day of mourning. I'll not hear a word of your bleating until I'm damned good and ready."

"To hell with you, and your false mourning," Renata seethed, charging toward him. It was nearly impossible to keep from hitting him with a blast of her mind's power, but the two guards who rose on either side of Lex, drawing their weapons on her, helped to keep her anger in check. "Tell me what you did, Lex. Where is she?"

"I sold her." The reply was so casual, he might have been discussing an old pair of shoes.

"You...you did what?" Renata's lungs squeezed, losing so much air she could hardly draw another breath. "You can't be serious! Sold her to who - those men who came for Nikolai?"