As Lord Raphael rises, he knows that something, well
someone, has killed two of his own vampires. Raphael is
outraged and has sworn that this tragedy will be avenged!
Raphael will stop at nothing to find the murderers and make
them and anyone who stands in his way pay for what has been
done to his family this day. Traveling to Seattle, Cyn and
Raphael find that this horror was just the beginning as the
mate to another vampire has been tortured and raped by men
trying to locate him. Can all this destruction be coming
from one group of humans? Is it truly possible that a white
supremacist group has turned their hatred toward the
vampires? Finding one security breach after another, Cyn
knows that she must venture out during the daylight to find
the missing link and name the humans who have destroyed the
peace that this small suburb of Seattle once knew.
As an ex-military man Colin has been the unofficial law in
this quite suburb for as long as he has resided there.
Running from the demons in his past, Colin never thought
that a new demon would threaten his future. Never one to
run from danger, it seems that Colin finds himself
surrounded by vampires out to hunt down the threat against
them. Colin can stand on his own two feet, but keeping the
beautiful mate to the Vampire Lord alive just may be his
undoing. It appears that Cyn finds danger around every
corner or is it just that danger seems to be hunting for
her. While running from the bad guys Colin finds the one
woman he never thought to see again. The one woman he has
ever loved, the same woman that he mistakenly thought
burned in a fire a decade ago -- Sophia.
Sophia has been called from her home in South America to
Vancouver by her Sire, Lucien. A Sire that no one seems to
be able to locate as he has simply vanished into thin air.
Strategy and fighting have never been Lucien's strong
point, he has virtually filled his world with vampires who
need little care and ask next to nothing of him. As the
strongest amongst Lucien's children, Sophia has been left
with a letter outlining the horrific deeds that her
cowardly Sire has left behind him. Coming to Seattle to
right the wrongs done by Lucien was not the brightest idea,
but it was something that Sophia knew only she could do.
Playing nice with the other vampires was not on her list,
but when faced with a Vampire Lord who is infinitely more
powerful that you...well what's a girl to do? Running into
the one person in her life she has ever regretted leaving
has definitely thrown a wrench into her plans. Sophia never
imagined that she would see Colin again, or that he would
still be able to call to something long dead inside of her.
SOPHIA is the fourth in the Vampires in America series. I
thought that this was an exquisitely well written addition
to the series. I was thrilled to have Raphael and Cyn star
in this book as I had been missing them. Colin and Sophia's
relationship was complicated by past events which added to
their allure. However, as a character I did not feel that
Sophia was as strong as I wanted her to be. Being selfish,
as I am, I wanted to know the rest of the story. What
happens after the end of the book? I wanted another
chapter, an epilogue if you will, letting me feel that
Sophia and Colin's story was closed. Not having enough
pages was my only complaint. I really loved the plot lines
in this book, I have never imagined that a white
supremacist group would be hunting vampires. In a way it
makes sense and I must give Ms. Reynolds credit where it is
due. SOPHIA was another stunning addition to the series and
I find myself longing for Duncan...keep writing Ms. Reynolds
we are waiting for more!
The Pacific Northwest . . . home to lush forests and
constant rain, to lumberjacks and computer geeks,
especially those of the vampire kind.
Sophia, beautiful and deadly, has spent the last hundred
years dancing her way through the balmy nights and hot-
blooded men of South America. But when her Sire sends an
urgent summons, Sophia rushes home to Vancouver only to
find he has disappeared, leaving nothing behind but three
dead vampires and a letter with Sophia’s name on it.
Colin Murphy, a former Navy SEAL, came to the Northwest
seeking a quiet place to heal the scars earned in more than
a decade at war. But when someone starts killing local
vampires and torturing their mates, Colin takes on the
mantle of a warrior once again as he sets out to find the
killers and do whatever it takes to stop them, even if that
means hunting with vampires.
Following her Sire’s trail of death to a small town in
northern Washington, Sophia unexpectedly discovers the heat
of a South American night in Colin’s arms. But too soon
Sophia and Colin find themselves in a race to uncover the
killers before the next dead vampire becomes Sophia
herself.
Excerpt
North of Seattle, Washington
Colin Murphy downshifted as he made the turn onto the
narrow driveway. New gravel had been laid here a couple
years back, but the rains had washed away much of it by
now, leaving potholes big enough to swallow small animals.
The truck dipped hard to one side and he gripped the wheel,
his tires sliding on the uneven surface before the heavy
4X4 dug in and forged ahead. Say what you will about
American-made cars, he thought to himself, but no one made
a better truck. He gave the dashboard an affectionate pat
as he leaned forward, squinting through the rain-spattered
windshield.
Lillian Fremont had called to say she’d heard gunshots
over here. Colin wasn’t really a police officer—more like
an overqualified private security guy—but the good people
of Cooper’s Rest paid him to deal with incidents just like
this one, so he’d geared up and headed out. He didn’t
really know what to expect, though. Mrs. Fremont had been
adamant about what she’d heard, but the woman was more than
ninety years old and her house was a good two miles away.
Granted, sound was a weird thing, and situated as she was
on the opposite side of a shallow dip in the forest floor,
it was just possible she could hear quite well over there.
Especially if what she’d told him was true.
Of course, in his experience most people didn’t know
what real gunfire sounded like, expecting it to be like
what they heard in movies and on television. But this
wasn’t the big city, either. Most people up here had guns
of their own and knew firsthand about gunfire.
And screams pretty much sounded the same everywhere.
Jeremy’s house came into view, a newer ranch style,
single story with high ceilings and a fire-retardant
shingled roof. The blinds were drawn behind the few
windows, but then he’d expected that. Jeremy was a vampire,
after all, so sunlight was hardly a priority. On the other
hand, Jeremy’s significant other, Mariane, was human, and
Colin had seen her in town often enough during daytime to
know that she didn’t always sleep away the days with her
lover.
Colin pulled up in front of the house, his eyes scanning
the area as his fingers automatically switched off the
ignition. He was getting a bad feeling about this. And if
he’d learned one thing in twelve years as a Navy SEAL, it
was to trust his feelings. Especially the bad ones.
He opened his door quietly and stepped outside, standing
perfectly still for a moment to listen. There was no sound.
None at all, except the patter of the ever-present rain.
He backed toward the rear of his vehicle, his gaze never
leaving the silent house in front of him. He grabbed his
Sig Sauer P228 from where it rode in a holster on his right
hip and ejected the magazine, dropping his eyes just long
enough to check it carefully before slapping it back in
with the ease of long practice. Popping the hatch on his
Tahoe, he leaned into the cargo area and brought out a
Benelli M4 S90 shotgun, a combat shotgun designed to kill
humans. Or vampires.
Colin pulled the cargo door down, leaning his weight
against it so it closed with a muted click. And still not a
sound from the house.
He didn’t like this. Didn’t like it at all. It had to be
nearly sundown. It was difficult to tell sometimes with the
heavy cloud cover, and he hadn’t exactly checked his
Farmer’s Almanac this morning to find out the precise time
of sunset. But it had to be close, and he sure as hell
didn’t want to be snooping around Jeremy’s house when the
vampire rose for the night, hungry and probably pissed if
he found Colin lurking about uninvited.
But, he couldn’t walk away, either. Not with those
screams Mrs. Fremont had reported.
Shaking his head, Colin racked the shotgun and rounded
his truck, circling slightly to the left of the house.
Finding nothing amiss, he crossed to the right and
maneuvered through crowded trees around to the back. The
rear of the house came into view and his stomach muscles
clenched as adrenaline flooded his system.
Goddamn if Mrs. Fremont wasn’t right.
The back door, what was left of it, stood wide open,
looking like someone had taken an ax to it. There was no
other explanation. It was made from heavy, solid core
construction without even a decorative window—or it had
been. Nothing but shards and splinters of wood were left,
hanging crookedly from those heavy duty hinges. Jeremy was
serious about his security; all the vamps were. Someone
else had known that and come prepared. But whoever it was,
Colin was pretty sure they were long gone. There wasn’t a
sound coming from inside the house.
He approached carefully anyway, moving along the house’s
back wall, well below the high, narrow windows. When he
reached the wooden porch, he darted his head out for a
fast, oblique look inside before stepping up. A triangular
pane high above the door had been destroyed, scattering
glass all around. It crunched beneath his boots and he
paused, waiting for a reaction. But there was none. Shotgun
at the ready, he stepped quickly into the house and out of
the doorway. A scan of the kitchen showed even more
destruction—cabinets trashed, probably with the same ax,
dishes broken, refrigerator hanging open and blood
spattered over the floor in front of it. Seeing that blood
sucked the air out of his lungs until he realized it was
Jeremy’s food supply, that among the litter were plastic
donor bags, ripped and torn.
Did Jeremy need blood beyond what Mariane could provide?
Apparently, he did. Or maybe it was for guests. Who the
fuck knew?
Colin took a cautious step toward the archway on the
other side of the kitchen, mindful of the slippery goo
covering the floor. The next room was much bigger, with a
high, angled ceiling and lots of furniture. A huge
entertainment center took up one entire wall, now blasted
to bits like everything else. Colin cleared the room
carefully, aware of a sick feeling building in his gut.
Where was Mariane?
He entered the back hallway. There were only three doors
here, two of them open. One was a bathroom, obviously
empty, but he cleared it anyway. The second was an office
of some sort, the equipment trashed, files overturned in
what was by now a familiar pattern of destruction. The
trashed equipment in this room alone was worth thousands,
which made him think this wasn’t a simple case of breaking
and entering. Either that or they’d been after something
other than easily pawned electronics.
Colin stepped back and eyed the final door. "Dammit," he
mouthed soundlessly and made his way down the hall.
The door was pulled closed, but not latched. Colin
paused for a moment, listening and hearing nothing. He
stood back against the wall and pushed the door open with
the fingers of one hand. A quick look showed more of the
same, an almost random trashing of the room and everything
in it. He stepped through the doorway and immediately put a
wall at his back.
"Ah, shit," he swore softly.
Mariane lay in the middle of a big bed, blood soaking
the sheets beneath her. Colin closed his eyes briefly,
letting a wash of grief sweep over him before steeling
himself for what had to be done. Every human instinct he
possessed told him to rush to her side. Instead, he cleared
the room, stepping into both the walk-in closet and
attached bath before crossing to the bed and propping the
shotgun within reach.
"Who did this to you, baby girl?" he murmured. She’d
been beaten, tortured it appeared, her arms and legs
covered with shallow knife cuts, designed to hurt like hell
without killing the victim. None of the individual cuts
would have been fatal, but the cumulative effect of so
many . . . They’d left her lying naked, her legs spread
wide. The blood and bruises on her thighs and vaginal area
told him she’d been raped, and Colin gritted his teeth
against a wave of anger so strong it nearly brought him to
his knees.
If she was breathing, he couldn’t see it, but he leaned
over and placed two fingers against her neck, expecting to
find nothing but confirmation of what he already believed
to be true. Instead, he felt a weak pulse—barely there, but
she was alive!
He straightened immediately, pulled the cell phone from
his belt and speed dialed 911. The closest trauma center
was a good sixty miles away, and most of that was twisting
mountain roads, but he didn’t know what else to do, who
else to call. He knew battlefield medicine, had spent
hundreds of hours in training sessions. He’d dealt with
bodies torn apart by guns and explosives, but this . . . He
forced himself to think clinically, to ignore the brutal
nature of the attack. Okay. Shock was probably her greatest
enemy right now. He cast about for something with which to
cover her. He needed to raise her body temp and keep her
warm. But all he could see were blankets as bloody as she
was. Towels. He ran back into the bathroom as he waited for
the 911 operator to come on the line. It would probably
play hell with any forensic—
"Nine-one-one, what is your—"
The rest of her spiel was lost as the roar of an angry
vampire filled the house.
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