“Why?” she murmured into his bulky shoulder. “My God, he knew this. He was so afraid he was going to die soon. Who would do this to him? Why?”
Lazaro gently pulled her away from him, his ebony brows knit in a tight scowl. “Your father feared for his life?” Confusion flashed across his features, then settled into suspicion. “Damn it. Why didn’t he tell me this? We spoke several times before the meeting. He had plenty of opportunity to say something if he felt he was in danger in any way.”
Melena shook her head, heartsick. “He didn’t know who he could trust. He’d been having premonitions, sensing some kind of betrayal. He knew he was going to die soon. He didn’t know when, or where the betrayal would come from. He wasn’t sure of anyone anymore.”
“Not even me,” Lazaro replied. “Jesus Christ, why didn’t he cancel the damned meeting? He could have made any excuse.”
“I told him the same thing. But it was too important to him. And he didn’t know what would happen tonight. Neither one of us knew.” She thought back on the time she and her father spent with Paolo Turati. She had detected no hidden agendas. No duplicity or harmful intent in any one of them.
Lazaro was studying her in unreadable silence. “You need to tell me the truth, Melena. Beginning with why your father brought you with him tonight.”
She gave him a weak nod. There was no more reason for her to keep it from him. Her father was gone. He had nothing left to lose if word of his paranoia became public. Melena no longer needed to protect him. “I’ve been traveling with him everywhere for months now. He can’t bear to go—he couldn’t bear,” she corrected herself quietly, “to go anywhere unless I was there to assure him no one meant him any harm.”
“How so?”
“You were right that it wasn’t only my translation skills that brought me here tonight. It was my ability to see people’s auras. I can tell at a glance if someone’s intentions are good or not.”
“Your Breedmate talent,” Lazaro murmured. There seemed to be a trace of relief in his tone. “So, when you looked at Turati and the others on the yacht tonight?”
She shook her head. “There was nothing to fear from any of them.”
“Did your father voice his concerns to any of his colleagues in the GNC?”
“No.”
“Anyone outside the Council?”
“No one,” she replied, certain of it.
Lazaro grunted, and she could see his gaze go distant as his mind began to churn on the information. She knew he and the Order would not let this attack go unmet, and there was a vengeful part of her that longed to see the guilty tortured to within an inch of their sadistic, cowardly lives.
“Make them pay, Lazaro.”
“They will,” he answered solemnly. “Whoever had a hand in this, they will be found. There will be justice.”
Her tears started up again, but they were quieter now, filled with more rage and resolve than bereavement. She hadn’t been prepared for Lazaro’s tender touch. She held her breath as he caught her chin on the edge of his fingertips and lifted her gaze to his. He stroked her cheek, his thumb sweeping away the wet trail of her tears.
She could sense his tenderness went deeper than mere concern.
She could see the evidence of that truth in the crackling sparks of amber that were lighting in the deep sapphire of his irises. She could see it in his dermaglyphs, which surged with dark colors across every muscled inch of his torso and arms, the intriguing swirls and arcs of the glyphs’ pattern changing hues before her eyes.
And if all of that weren’t enough, she could see his intent in his aura, which formed a smoldering glow around him now, confirming the astonishing fact.
Lazaro Archer wanted her.
No sooner had the thought entered her mind than he leaned down and brushed his lips over hers. Her breath was already shaky and thin, but as his mouth pressed against hers, her lungs dried up on a slow moan. The kiss was tender, careful, no doubt meant to console or soothe her.
It did both, but it also inflamed her.
Heat raced through her at the feel of his mouth on hers. She didn’t want to feel it—not now, not when her heart was breaking over the loss of her father and fear still held her in a firm grasp.
But Lazaro’s arms were stronger than any of that. His gentling, but arousing, kiss made her melt against him with a desire she could hardly reconcile.
And he broke away much too soon for her liking.
His Breed pupils had narrowed to the thinnest vertical slits. And when he ground out a vivid curse, the tips of his fangs gleamed white and razor-sharp.
“Fuck.” He let go of her. “That shouldn’t have happened. I apologize.”
“Don’t,” she murmured, her voice a raspy whisper. Desire was singing through her veins—uninvited, maybe, but too powerful to be denied. “I didn’t mind, Lazaro. I...liked it.”
“Christ, don’t say that.” He blew out a harsh breath, then drew back from her as though she had scorched him too, and not in the good way he’d ignited her. “You do not want to say that to me, Melena. For the good of both of us.”
He got to his feet in abrupt, stony silence. As he stood, she noticed that the gash in his thigh was still bleeding. While he’d been looking after her these past few hours, he’d neglected his own injuries. He seemed oblivious to it, walking over to examine a comm unit that lay on a nearby rock. He shook the device, swearing as water dripped out of it.
“That wound on your leg needs attention, Lazaro.” He was Breed, Gen One besides. She knew his body would heal itself, but even a vampire needed help sometimes. “You need to feed soon.”