Blood Born by Linda Howard Page A

think you are, you’ll have a very good explanation for this,” Theodore growled, his thick black brows drawing together. He sat down with a thump, drawing his extravagant ceremonial robe around him. He was the only one who had taken the time to put on the Council robe; the others were dressed in whatever had been at hand. Granted, with vampire speed they could have found anything they wanted and been dressed in it in almost the same length of time, but Theodore was the only one who had bothered. Being on the Council was a huge ego stroke to him, and he always dressed the part.
    From the scowl on his face, it was obvious Theodore didn’t like that Luca had arrived without his knowledge; as the one tasked with giving Luca his assignments he looked on himself as Luca’s supervisor. Much as the humans had comforted themselves with completely useless bits of folklore about what worked to repel vampires, some on the Council, and especially Theodore, had convinced themselves, or were tryingvery hard to, that Luca was
their
tool,
their
employee, and subject to
their
orders.
    Luca, on the other hand, regarded Theodore as nothing more than a pain in the ass and had made his opinion plain on several occasions. What was the Council going to do? Fire him? They could certainly stop giving him assignments, as well as the very nice payment that went with those assignments, but in the larger picture Luca would scarcely miss the income—and they would have to find someone else capable of doing what he did.
    His reasons for taking the jobs weren’t complicated; he saw a need for what he did, and he liked to fight. He was at heart a creature of war, and if living over two thousand years had taught him anything, it was to keep things simple and uncomplicated inside himself, no matter how tangled and problematic life on the outside might become. So long as pursuing rogue vampires gave him an outlet for his battle skills, he’d keep doing it.
    On yet another side of the equation, the Council members looked to him for protection, if need be, and none of them would like it if he were no longer available, so while Theodore might posture and growl, he certainly didn’t want to push Luca into quitting. He’d do just enough to satisfy his own ego that he hadn’t been a wuss. The mere knowledge that Luca stood ready to meet any threat had undoubtedly, over the years, dissuaded many hotheaded, ambitious vampires from hostile acts.
    The Council members were powerful in their own right, but having Luca as a deterrent was definitely a bonus even though that meant
they
then had to deal with him. Luca had played nice over the years, taking their assignments and not giving them cause to worry about him, but each and every one of them was aware that playing nice had always been his choice, not theirs, and he could change his mind at any moment.
    Mutual distrust made for an interesting working relationship. To Luca’s way of thinking, it kept him on his toes, kept him aware, on edge—and alive.
    “Hector’s been murdered,” he finally said, ignoring Theodore’s bluster and watching the faces before him. Vampires weren’t known for their lively expressions, merely because of all those years of practicing self-control, but there were still small flinches and gasps, and not even a vampire could control whether or not his or her pupils dilated.
    Darnell blinked her eyes once, slowly. “How do you know? Did you find his dust?” No one except she knew what name she’d been born with, in what was now Ethiopia, or why she’d chosen an Irish name. She was deliberate in manner and intensely private. She had always voted to maintain the status quo, but at the same time she was so contemptuous of humans that Hector had never been certain of her vote.
    “I could tell,” he replied, his tone flat. If they had no idea
how
he could tell, that was their problem, not his.
    “From thousands of miles away? You
were
in Scotland, weren’t you?”
    “Enoch