Page 12 of Sylas's Captivating Mate

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Georgia nearly dropped the phone in her rush to get to the internet browser. She pulled it up and did a search for Felicia. It took a few minutes of scrolling before she found the article she remembered reading when she joined up with Caleb.

“Here,” she said, turning the phone toward Sylas. He took it and read the article, which was from a website that reported on supernatural happenings in the state. There was an article written about Felicia’s death because she’d been killed by a human, and it wasn’t something that normally happened because vampires were stronger and faster. According to the article, Felicia was survived by her younger brother Julian, who’d been traveling when his sister lost her life.

Sylas stared at the screen for a long moment, then said, “If he’d been here when Caleb went after the people who’d killed his parents, he probably would have taken out Julian as well.”

“Definitely. I’m not sure Caleb even knew about Julian. The only reason it clicked for me is that I looked up Belle Terra online before I joined up and read the article about her death and then his takeover of the kiss.”

“If Julian has been laying low since his sister’s death and Caleb taking over, and no one’s seen him since those events, then he may be striking back now,” Sylas said.

She nodded. “We should talk to Caleb. I’ll call him.”

She reached out to her master, who immediately asked her and Sylas to join him and Lia at their suite to discuss the situation in person.

As they got dressed to meet up with the heads of the kiss, Sylas gave her a long look.

“What’s that for?” she asked, reaching for her undergarments from the dresser.

“Because I’d wanted to spend the night in bed getting to know you better, and we have to go stop a coup.”

She grinned. “I’d love that, trust me. After we help make the kiss safe, we can get right back in bed.”

“Now that’s the best idea I’ve heard all day.”

They finished getting dressed and she led him out of her apartment toward Caleb’s. “I can hear your stomach growling,” she said with a low voice.

“I was so distracted by your sexiness that I forgot to eat.”

She couldn’t help but smile. “I’ll get the place stocked. Unless you want to live at the hotel? We’d have to move to one of the suites that’s made for vampires and is light tight with automatic shutters.”

“I don’t mind either place, so long as we’re together.”

She took his hand and gave it a squeeze. “I feel the same way.”

Chapter Six

Lia opened the door for them, shaking his hand and giving Georgia a hug. “I’m so happy you found your truemate,” she said as she shut the door behind them. “Sylas are you hungry? I’ve got amazing chocolate croissants and plenty of coffee.”

“That would be great, thank you. I was a little distracted by my beautiful mate today.” He winked at Georgia, who gave him a gorgeous smile that made him want to carry her right back to their place and forget about all the bad stuff happening.

But, keeping the kiss safe including the master and mistress, meant that Georgia would be safe too, and that was definitely the most important thing to him.

They all sat at the kitchen table. He grabbed a croissant and fixed coffee for himself, as did Lia. Caleb and Georgia both had heated synthetic blood.

When everyone was settled, Caleb said, “I read the article you forwarded. I can’t believe that no one ever pointed out Felicia’s brother being missing. I had no idea she had any family at all.”

“I think you were pretty tied up in your grief and dealing with being master of the kiss,” Lia said, giving his hand a squeeze.

“I didn’t think of it until Sylas and I were talking about what’s been happening.”

She walked the kiss leaders through their conversation, ending with finding the article.

Caleb scrubbed a hand over his face and leaned back in the chair. “I think I’ve been fortunate to not have anyone come after me the last few years that I’ve been master. Before I had Lia in my life, I would have welcomed the challenger. But now there are too many lives on the line, too much at stake for this sort of thing.” He looked at his mate for a long, quiet moment. Then his features hardened and Sylas saw the predator planning his next move. “We need to first confirm it’s Julian, but I have no doubt that it is. Why he’s moving against me now is anyone’s guess, but he might have been amassing an army to come against me.”

“How easy is it to take over a kiss?” Sylas asked. “I don’t know a whole lot about vampires.”

“There’s no true hierarchy, every kiss is different,” Caleb said. “Some of them have only the master in charge, some have a setup of ranks like shifters, and some have a group of elders to help with policy and enforcement. I have Nash as my right-hand, but our kiss doesn’t have a hierarchy. When I mated Lia, I enacted a new set of laws about inheritance, so that when I step down as master, one of our children will take over. Since vampires are immortal, there aren’t a whole hell of a lot of ways to take us out. Beheading, for example, which could happen in an accident, would mean that Lia would take over until one of our children was old enough to lead, then the kiss would pass to them. If someone kills me with the intention of taking over, though, then the kiss belongs to them, period.” He paused, looking thoughtful, then said, “When I took out the previous kiss master, there were no laws about succession. I think he assumed he’d be master forever, and when we’re immortal we tend to think in those terms. If he’d had a successor and laws in place, when I killed him, I would have had to battle his heir as well. As there were no laws, and no one to succeed him in his family line, I only had to take him out.

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