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brAX

Brax stared into the darkness, waiting to see if the thing with glowing red eyes would appear.

He had no idea what Serenai had seen but he did actually believe that she had seen it.

He wasn’t the kind of male who would dismiss a woman’s fears as frivolous or stupid—in part because he had been raised in a Kindred household and the Kindred considered males and females to be equals.

So if his new Mistress said she’d been menaced by something in the night with glowing eyes, he believed her.

Still, about an hour into his watch, he began to wonder what was going on. So far all he could see was darkness. Cheeky , who was still perched on his shoulder, had fallen asleep. His tiny, squeaking snores seemed loud in the dark room but at least they were keeping Brax awake.

He was just beginning to think that maybe the thing—whatever it was—that had come after his new Mistress might not show that night, when he heard a breathless scream from the bed.

“Mistress? Little one?” He rushed to her side immediately.

Serenai had the covers drawn up to her neck and she was looking to the far side of the bed.

“There!” She pointed a trembling finger and he saw something red darting through the darkened room. How the bastard had snuck by him, he didn’t know but he was off like a shot after it.

The red eyes—because now that he saw them, he could tell that they were, indeed, eyes—rushed past him and through the bedroom.

Thanks to his Kindred night vision, Brax was able to follow the eyes without bumping into anything.

He chased them into the walk-in closet adjoining the bed chamber… but then they disappeared.

Brax cursed and called for the lights, which came on at once in the closet. He searched all over the place, behind the racks and rows of expensive clothing and through the shoe racks as well but he couldn’t find a thing.

The eyes and whatever it was they belonged to had vanished.