Matthias approached, stopping at my side to take a quick bow. “My Lord? Is there anything I can do to assist you?”
“You live in the Poseidon building, don’t you?” my father asked.
“Uh, yes?” he replied, glancing at me out of the corner of his eye.
“Good.” My father released my arm and sharply nudged me in the middle of my back. “I need you to accompany Lacey back to your residence and keep her there. She’ll be safe with you. The Poseidon has top notch security.”
“My Lord?” Matthias said, his brows furrowed.
“There’s been a murder. The manor isn’t safe,” my father snapped.
“Father!” I protested. “I don’t need to go anywhere. Nothing is going to happen to me here! There are guards everywhere.”
He silenced me with a sharp glare. “Ivan was found dead in your chambers, Lacey. His body sprawled across your bed, his head on the floor.”
My stomach rolled. “My … bed?”
He ignored my terror and looked back to Matthias. “Until we know what happened here tonight, she will stay with you. I will send guards to accompany you.”
“Ivan?” Matthias said, his face drained of all color. He swore under his breath as he spun around to look at the thinning crowd. “I saw him leaving earlier. He was with Jupiter Reed. Is she all right?”
My father shook his head, “I don’t know about the girl. He was found alone.”
“We have to find Jupiter!” Panic bubbled up and my body went ice cold. For the second time that night, I teetered on the edge of losing consciousness. Sheer will pushed me through and I dragged in a deep breath. For Jupiter’s sake, I had to keep it together.
I looked at Matthias. “You saw her after the announcement?”
He gave a quick nod. “When we went to the bar, I saw them leave the dance floor together.”
“If she was with Ivan and now he’s dead, that means she could be in danger too!” I looked to my father, pleading for him to swoop in and fix it. If there was one thing he was good at, it was crisis management. He wouldn’t have a fraction of his empire if not for his cool head and quick thinking in situations like this one. I’d inherited part of the coolness but also tended to run on a shorter fuse. That was the portion winning out as I thought about my friend and the horrors she might have seen … or, possibly experienced.
My father ignored me and turned to speak with two additional guards who’d materialized at his side.
Fury ripped through me and I clawed at his arm. “If Jupiter is missing, we have to find her! Right now!” I heard my voice pitching into hysterics but couldn’t reign it back in again.
“Control yourself, Lacey. Hysteria is not becoming,” he snapped at me.
Yes, because that’s what I was worried about.
He dismissed me with a flap of his hand. “Go with Matthias. His building is secure.”
“But, you—”
He looked over my head, to Matthias, and lifted his brows. “Lord Hartford. I trust you can take it from here?”
Matthias nodded and pulled at my arm. “Come on, Lacey. There’s nothing we can do to help right now. Let them handle this.”
My father followed his guards out of the ballroom, quickly getting lost in the crowd of vampires streaming away from the party.
“Lacey—”
I rounded on Matthias, my rage pivoting to its new target just as quickly. I hiked up onto my tiptoes to get as close to in his face as I could manage. Through clenched teeth, I spat, “Don’t touch me. I’m not going anywhere until I know Jupiter is safe!”
“She’s my friend too, Lacey. I want her found just as much as you do,” he said, keeping his voice soft and even. For some reason, his calmness only spiked my irritation.
“All the more reason for us to stay!” I fired back. “You can help me look for her.”
“No,” he said firmly, his grip tightening. “Your father is right—we need to get you out of here. It’s not safe.”
“I’m not the one in danger!”
Matthias tilted his head. “A vampire was just killed in your bedroom. On your bed. You don’t think that maybe there’s a chance he wasn’t the intended target?”
The words obliterated my readied argument and a thick layer of ice encased my spine. He was right. My bedroom was locked when Jupiter and I left. It was standard security procedure on nights like this one. All of the rooms not open to the public were locked, and guards were set to regular patrols through the west wing of the house for the duration of the event. If anyone caught a whiff of something out of the ordinary, the full weight of the Vaughn House security force would bear down on them. And no one really wants a horde of vamps on their tail, especially when they’d been trained to kill first and ask questions later.
For someone to go through all that trouble, the payoff would have to be worth it.
I didn’t know much about Ivan, other than that he was in the running to try to marry me. For all I knew, he could have a dozen people gunning for him. However, it wasn’t likely. And it was even more unlikely that someone seeking to kill him would attempt it in my bedroom.
Had they broken down the door? Or did they have a key? It could be anyone.
I imagined the scene in my head and an eerie feeling made my skin crawl.
I met Matthias’s eyes and bobbed my head. “Fine. We’ll go.”
The Poseidon was a mid-rise building in the heart of the New York Haven, the supernaturally concealed community that stood only a magical wink away from Manhattan. Throughout the Big Apple, there were half a dozen entrances into the haven. The Vaughn mansion was located in nearby Tarrytown, which, along with large swaths of Sleepy Hollow, had been annexed into the New York Haven. The commute into the city was made a lot less painful thanks to a series of underground tunnels that my father had commissioned shortly after joining the haven. We took Matthias’s SUV through the tunnels and reached the center of the haven in forty minutes. He pulled up to the curb and we climbed out. He passed the keys to an eager valet and we proceeded to the front doors.
A large and intimidating man stood before them, his mountain-esque form encased in a well-cut navy suit and a pair of shiny loafers. Black leather gloves concealed his folded hands. He was a doorman, but something about him told me he was also at least part security watchdog and that I wouldn’t want to know what those hands were capable of when the gloves came off, so to speak. Matthias greeted him with a polite nod as he held the door open for us.
The expansive lobby was tastefully decorated with muted colors and high-end finishes. We passed a large aquarium on the way to the elevators, and I paused to watch the swirls of colorful fins gliding through the water.
“Lacey?” Matthias said gently, he took my elbow and inclined his head at the elevator doors that stood open and waiting.
With a shake of my head, I hurried forward. “Right.”
Inside, Matthias pressed the button for the penthouse and I raised my brows. Well I guess now I know how he managed to make it onto my father’s radar for his merry band of potential son-in-laws.
Even though House Vaughn would never want for money, there was no such thing as enough when it came to my father. He ran the entire East Coast and yet would happily gobble up more territories if he found a way. In his Napoleonic march, money was the real goal. Money was how he’d come to power, and it was how he would keep it.
As with the car ride, Matthias remained quiet during our ascension to the uppermost levels of the luxury building. I didn’t want to talk to him, but somehow his silence only made me despise him more. He was only doing what my father asked … make that commanded, of him.