It had only been a little over a week since Sabrina’s father had left to establish the Racine coven, leaving Sabrina behind as master of the Chicago vampires and Tobias as her consort. As far as Tobias was concerned, the transition had gone off without a hitch. Had they done something wrong in such a short amount of time? Tobias hadn’t heard any complaints from Sabrina’s fellow vampires or the humans they dealt with managing the city on a day-to-day basis.
He flipped on the Christopher Spitzmiller lamp beside the bed, and a warm glow permeated the room. The Chicago vampire coven lived forty feet below the surface in a series of tunnels that branched all over the city. It was the perfect place for a vampire to sleep, safe from UV light as well as interference from humans during the hours they were most vulnerable. Even though Sabrina, as the only human/vampire hybrid, could tolerate sunlight, as master of the coven, she chose to keep the same hours as her people. And Tobias, as a bonded dragon, kept the same hours as his mate.
“I’m getting dressed and hitting the coffee. You cannot expect me to face Calvin or whatever major drama is coming our way without being fully caffeinated.” Tobias bounded out of bed and started pulling on his pants.
“I’ll text Chef and say we need a full human breakfast, pronto.” Sabrina tapped furiously on her phone. Chef Allison was new to their world. Sabrina’s father, being a full-blooded vamp had only fed on humans when he was master. But although Sabrina could feed on blood and often fed on the energy of her mate, she enjoyed regular meals as well. Thank goodness their longtime security detail, Paul, had a wife who had studied the culinary arts. She was more than happy to come into the fold.
In a matter of minutes, they were both showered, dressed and presentable and had just sat down in front of a meal fit for a vampire master when Paul opened the door to their luxury underground flat and announced, “Calvin Bishop to see you.”
Two men carried in her father’s coffin and set it down beside the table. They cleared out of the room fast enough to make Tobias’s spine tingle. This was not good. Not good at all. Paul locked the door behind him.
Tobias took a slow drink of his coffee, studying the long black box that contained his mate’s sleeping father. His gaze darted to Sabrina’s. He drank more coffee, ate another bite of toast, pushed his eggs on his plate, drank more coffee.
“Okay, I give. Are we supposed to open this thing or wait until he wakes up?” he asked.
“The sun is setting now. It shouldn’t be long.” Sabrina had no need of either window or watch to know that. Her vampire instincts distinguished the exact moment of sunrise and sunset without any external help. She’d told him she could feel the night in her blood. When the sun set, she described it as a shot of tequila coursing through her veins.
“He should be…” Sabrina raised an eyebrow in his direction and carefully lifted the lid.
Calvin sat up with a creepy factor worthy of Bela Lugosi, stiff backed and in a manner that seemed to require no effort at all, as if gravity did not restrain him as much as it did everyone else. Tobias dropped his toast.
“Sabrina, my darling.” Her father swung his legs over the side and, in one swift move, leaped to his feet and pulled her into a hug. He turned to shake Tobias’s offered hand and greet him as well. “I see Barnard and Max were able to reach you with my message in time. Thank you both for meeting me here at this hour.”
“We live here, Dad, and it’s nightfall. Where else would we be?” Sabrina asked.
He shook his head. “Obviously I feared that when you got the message from the Forebears, you and Tobias might do something foolish, like run.”
“What message? What’s so important that you risked traveling in daylight?”
Calvin frowned. “Haven’t you been checking the coven’s messages?”
She held up her phone. “Only like every five minutes. Ask Tobias.”
“I think her phone is permanently attached to her left hand,” he confirmed.
“Not those messages. The old system. The official system?”
“The tubes? No. We haven’t gotten anything that way in ages.”
At the look on her father’s face, Sabrina stood and rushed toward the room that used to be his office. Tobias followed after her. They’d been renovating the apartment, and Calvin’s old desk had been removed, but they were still waiting on furniture. The room felt empty and cold in its current state. Tobias hadn’t spent any time in there since he’d moved in with Sabrina.
“What are the tubes?” Tobias asked.
Approaching the one bookshelf that was still crammed with books, Sabrina lifted one leather-bound volume and patted the wall behind it. Tobias’s eyebrows lifted when he saw her open a small metal door, perfectly hidden. He would have never guessed it was there. Chewing her lip, Sabrina pulled a canister from a pneumatic tube inside.
“Just like the bank,” Tobias said, trying to lighten the mood.
Her expression turned grim. Tobias knew that look. Sabrina only made that face when she was deeply worried about something.
“Only one group of vampires still uses this system of communication—the Forebears.”
Tobias swallowed. The Forebears were the vampire rulers, the most ancient and dangerous of their kind. He waited while she twisted the top and read what was on the roll of parchment inside.
To all coven masters in all world territories,
It has come to our attention that a reliable dragon sighting has occurred in the Midwestern United States. Dragons are extremely dangerous and pose a significant threat to the future of our race. By royal decree, any vampire who delivers the dragon(s) to the Forebears, either dead or alive, will be rewarded.
She lowered the parchment and looked at her father. “It’s signed Turgun. I didn’t even know he was awake.”
