Page 1

Chapter One

The snow started to fall as Lachlan crossed the courtyard. Tiny flakes that swirled in the icy air. Beside him, Sean, his second-in-command was humming under his breath.

Goddamn Jingle Bells.

Again.

Everywhere he turned someone was singing a Christmas carol.

And he knew exactly who to blame for that.

He gritted his teeth and shoved his hands in his pockets. Goddamn Christmas.

“You’re going alone?” Sean asked as they stopped beside the Porsche.

About to climb in, Lachlan paused. Sean had been with him a long time. Long enough to know not to question his decisions. “Yeah, I’m going alone.” What was the alternative? Listening to fucking Jingle Bells all night long? “You have a problem with that?”

Sean pursed his lips. “You know the guys reckon you have a death wish?”

Pretty difficult considering he was already dead. Had been for nearly three hundred years. He opened his coat to show Sean the two Glocks at his hips. He wasn’t worried about a rabble of disorganized werewolves. Even if they had killed his predecessor.

That was why he was here as the Council’s representative and had been for three long months. Because, the stupid fucker who had been here before him had allowed a pack of dogs to take him down. Otherwise, Lachlan would have happily never set foot on Scottish soil for the rest of eternity.

Lachlan wasn’t part of the Council, but Darius, his sire was, and he’d asked Lachlan to step in and cover until someone else could be appointed. The Council had been in disarray at the time, recovering from some sort of internal coup. And Lachlan wasn’t able to deny a request from his sire. However much he wanted to.

He climbed into the car, was about to shut the door when Sean leaned down and spoke again. “Lola asked if she can go into town. It’s Christmas Eve. She wants to go to the carol service.”

He didn’t even think about it. “No.”

“She won’t be happy.”

Like he gave a fuck. “Our job is to keep her safe. Not happy. Lock her in the goddamn dungeon if you have to.”

The snow fell faster as he drove out over the drawbridge. Thick, heavy flakes, that splatted against the windscreen, cutting off the view. For a second, he considered going back. Changing the vehicle for something more appropriate—the Porsche was hardly suitable for extreme weather conditions. But only for a second.

It was seven in the evening, but he had already been up for hours. In some ways Scotland was the perfect environment for his kind. At this time of year, the days were short and the nights long.

But it was cold. And when it wasn’t raining, it was snowing.

Christ, he hated Scotland and not only for the bad memories.

The wheels slipped on the icy road, and he fought for control, skidding to a halt, then pulling away again. It wasn’t as though the crash would kill him. Though it would make him late for his meeting.

Scotland was bad enough, but then two months ago, Darius had asked a second favor, and if Lachlan had known what it involved, he would have said a categorical no. But he hadn’t, and so Lola Morgan had landed on his doorstep.

How could someone so small cause so much havoc?

She’d wrapped his men around her little finger. A bunch of the baddest-ass vampires in the world, and she just had to smile and wrinkle her cute little nose to have them all falling over themselves to do her goddamn bidding.

An image flashed in his mind. A glossy cap of black hair, pointed face, red lips. And witch’s eyes, silver rimmed with black, that could no doubt see into a man’s soul, and rip it out.

Truth. He wanted her. Had from the moment he first set eyes on her. It was unexpected and undesired. But he wanted to fuck her and feed from her and lock her in that dungeon for his own personal dark pleasures. But that wasn’t going to happen because…he made a mental list of all the reasons why:

She was too young. Only twenty. A baby. Even he didn’t mess with babies. Actually, he hadn’t messed with anyone in a long time.

She was a witch, and everyone knew that witches were evil creatures and not to be trusted.

She was Darius’s sister-in-law, and Lachlan was supposed to protect her. To keep her safe.