“She was like this before,” Elias drawled, earning him a playful flash of Roksana’s fangs. “Anyway, the point is moot. We are mated. I couldn’t give her up without sentencing myself to a painful death.” Elias blinked, studied Tucker more closely. “We had a suspicion that Mary might be your mate. The way you reacted to each other at the club…”
Tucker remained silent, staring straight ahead.
Elias shoved to his feet. “Jesus Christ.” He paced away, whirled around and came back. “Have you drunk from her?” He shook his head. “No, it’s not possible. I can’t hear your heart beating.”
“It’s there.” He pushed open the sides of his leather jacket, the low sound of his pulse slothful in his ears. “It’s just quiet without her.”
Elias was visibly stricken. And when Roksana jerked back, Tucker knew she’d heard the organ laboring to perform. Already. After just forty-eight hours without his mate. “But I don’t understand. You can’t be without Mary now. Why would you bring her to Hadrian?”
Tucker rubbed at his gritty eyes. “My animal instinct might have been to keep her so I could live. But I didn’t want her life with me to be less than she deserved. I made the decision I would have made as a human.” He dropped his hand away and conjured up the best smile he could manage for both of them. “We all know I’ve always been more human than vampire. The human side won.”
“But we all lose,” Roksana breathed, her eyes awash with moisture.
“I’m going to make sure that doesn’t happen.” Tucker patted her on the crown of her head and stood. “You make sure to pour out a cold one for me every year, huh?”
He hated walking away from Elias and Roksana when they were visibly reeling, but he simply didn’t have enough strength in his body to do anything about it. He could only focus on putting one foot in front of the other and completing the mission he’d set out for himself.
Maybe this was the purpose he’d been waiting for as far back as he could remember.
The family, home, the porch and the sense of belonging was never in the cards. But giving Mary her happiness and helping good overcome evil was.
A man could be remembered for far worse.
He found Jonas outside the factory looking out over the surrounding barren field. When Tucker approached, the king didn’t even turn around, letting Tucker know he’d been expected.
“Did you find a way for me to get to Hadrian?”
Jonas turned to Tucker, conflict heavy in his expression. “You don’t have to do this.”
“Come on, man.” Tucker took a half-smoked cigar out of his coat pocket, lit it and took a long puff, letting a ring of smoke out into the air. “I’m going out either way. Let me go out doing something useful.” He looked Jonas in the eye. “It’s my decision. Not yours.”
The king stared at him long and hard. “Then, yes. I found a way to get you in.” He chewed the inside of his cheek, brow heavy with a furrow. “One of our own is posing as a supporter of the dark uprising. He’s been at Hadrian’s manor for weeks. Training. It took some convincing, but he’s willing to switch places with you.”
Tucker nodded. “That’ll do.”
Jonas heaved a humorless laugh. “He is impossible to defeat alone. It’s very likely you’ll never get close enough to take the amulet.” He paused. “Though I’ve learned not to underestimate a mated vampire.”
“Tucker?”
With a jolt, Tucker turned at the sound of his father’s voice, finding Carl sidling slowly out of the factory’s shadow, a duffel bag clutched to his chest. “Dad?” He took a step forward. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“I followed you.” Carl split a look between Tucker and Jonas, his expression nervous but…stubborn. “I could tell something was wrong. Thought you might need me.” His chin went up. “And frankly, I’m tired of waiting around, fiddling with satellites, waiting for something to happen. I want to be a part of what’s happening. Not on the sideline. Not anymore.”
With a hot poker twisting in his throat, Tucker turned back to Jonas and gave a sheepish wince. What was that fullness in his chest? Was it pride? Yeah, he reckoned it was. “Jonas, meet my father. Carl Moore.”
To which the king sighed and said, “You’re lucky I have bigger shit to worry about right now than human discovery.” He nodded over Tucker’s shoulder. “How do you do, Mister Moore?”
“Very well, thank you.”
“This is Jonas,” Tucker explained. “He’s sits on the throne of the High Order.”
Carl nodded jovially. “And that means?”
Tucker puffed his cigar. “He’s the king of the vampires.”
When Carl staggered on his feet, Tucker shot forward to catch him before he could faint and smack his head off the asphalt, but there was no need. Carl pressed a hand to his sternum and straightened, raising his chin. “Ah yes, the vampire king. Of course.” He gulped and transferred his dazed attention to Tucker. “What did he mean? That he found someone willing to switch places with you? Where?”