Desired by Morgan Rice Page A

son. Come with me. You wil see. We wil get Jade together, and we wil leave.”

    Caitlin shook her head, again and again.
    “I could never go with you. You know that. I could never stand to see Sera. And I don’t want to be involved in your relationship with her.”
    “I have no relationship with her,” Caleb insisted. “You have to believe me.”
    “Is that why you’re going to leave me and see her?”
    “Caitlin,” he said softly. “Please, understand. It’s not like that.”
    Caitlin turned, wiping away her tears. With her back to him, she said, “You don’t need my permission. If you want to go
    —go.”
    Several seconds fol owed. He stepped up close, laid a hand on her shoulder.
    “Wil you wait for me? Wil you be here when I return? It wil only be a few days. I promise you.
    I wil return, with Jade in hand. And then we can start our lives together. Wil you wait? Please, promise me!”
    She turned and looked at him, straight in the eye, feeling scorned, and her sadness hardened to resolve.

    “I won’t promise you anything.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
    Kyle stood opposite Napoleon in the smal side chamber of the Pantheon. After his dramatic entrance, Kyle had marched Napoleon off, fuming like a chided schoolboy, surrounded by a dozen of his closest fol owers.
    Napoleon’s men had wanted to come inside, but Kyle had ordered them to wait outside. They looked to Napoleon for approval, and he grudgingly lowered his gaze and nodded, clearly embarrassed he was no longer the one giving orders.
    One of them wouldn’t budge, though, so Kyle walked up to him, picked him up, and threw him with such force that he went flying through the air, out the door, and into the hal way.
    “Wait outside,” he said to the others.
    They abruptly turned, and hurried out, leaving just Kyle and Napoleon facing each other in the smal chamber.
    “You needn’t always be so dramatic,” Napoleon fumed. “I would have fol owed you here if you had only asked. You needn’t order around my people.”
    “ Your people?” Kyle asked. “The only reason you are in power is because of me. I’l do anything I wish. Including stripping you from power.”
    Napoleon final y softened, as if ready to take orders from his commander.
    “Why are you here?” Napoleon asked. “I thought you were waging your war in New York?”
    “I was,” Kyle snapped. “But a girl got in the way. A very annoying girl named Caitlin. And her boyfriend, Caleb. And her brother, Sam. The three of them—they have ruined my plans. I’ve come back myself to take care of them al .”
    “So?” Napoleon snapped. “What do you want from me?”
    “They’ve come to your time and place, unluckily for you,”
    Kyle said. “You and your men are going to help me find and kil them.”
    Napoleon stared back, indignant. “You have chosen the worst possible time. We have no time for such distractions now. We are in the midst of a revolution. My men—I can barely control them.
    They want a revolution. They want democracy. They want to be entirely out in the open.”
    “Perfect,” Kyle said. “We wil give them the war they want.
    We wil attack Versail es.”

    Napoleon raised his eyebrows.
    “Impossible,” he snapped. “We’d never win. They have ranks of vampire soldiers protecting the place. Aiden’s people. My men could not possibly win an attack.”
    “That’s because you’re not as good a strategist as I,” Kyle retorted. “We wil attack. And we wil defeat them. For that is where Caitlin’s people wil be. And once I kil them, I can kil her. But I agree, that we wil not attack head on. Instead, we wil create a diversion.”
    “What diversion?” Napoleon asked, impatiently.
    “The savage seven,” Kyle stated.
    Napoleon’s eyes opened wide.
    “Impossible. They’ve been locked up for centuries. No.
    That’s way too dangerous.”
    “That’s precisely why we’re going to break them free,” Kyle answered with a smile.
    Napoleon paced,