Page 44 of Brushed By Moonlight

Henrik scowled. “I didn’t get a clear look, but my guess is it was Szabo.”

The tussle in the bushes replayed in my mind, along with the sound of fleeing footsteps.

“Who is Szabo?” I demanded.

“A vampire.” Henrik regarded his fingernails with distaste.

Which really didn’t bode well — a vampire looked down upon by my sneaky, night crawler of a client.

“A Carpathian,” he emphasized, as if that explained anything.

Roux rolled his eyes. Clearly, he’d heard this before.

“A vampire on a social call…in my garden?” I snipped.

“You call that a garden? More like a jungle,” Bene chuckled.

I glared. “It’s on the list.”

He stuck up his hands.

“Also, I could have died,” I said.

Henrik yawned. Apparently, my near-death experience hadn’t been near enough for him.

“Well, it wasn’t a social call,” he said in a voice as dry as the decade-old roses stuck in a vase by the piano. “He was snooping around.”

“Snooping around because…?” I stirred my hand impatiently.

Henrik shrugged. “Reading the mind of a Carpathian is like reading the mind of a human.” He wiggled his hands in the air. “Nothing but a jumble up there, if anything at all.” Then he spotted me and added a weak, “No offense.”

I leveled a flat glare at him.

He stared into my eyes, then froze. “Wait. Why is it I can’t read your mind?”

“Why is it that you’re trying?” I shot back.

He shrugged. “Habit, I suppose.”

“Well, break it,” I muttered, then returned to the matter at hand. “How do you know Szabo?”

The door flew open, and Marius strode in. He’d shifted and dressed, but yikes. As far asaurawent, that was still a dragon storming into my drawing room. A very big, very angry one.

His eyes swept over the room, then screeched to a halt on me. A wave of emotion followed, andboom!I grabbed the back of a chair before I stumbled.

My first instinct was anger, and maybe his too, because that’s what ran on the heels of relief when you worried about someone close.

Wait. Someone close? I barely knew the man, and he barely knew me.

I let out a long, shaky breath, figuring now was not the time to examine that.

Everything is okay,I did my best to radiate cool, calm vibes. Because… Well, dragon shifter standing awfully close to my grandmother’s china cabinet. And for other reasons, too, like that inexplicable ache in my heart.

Everything is all right. I pushed the unspoken words toward his mind.I’m mad as hell, but everything is all right.

“Did you get him?” Bene asked in a casual tone suitable for asking,Did you get the newspaper?

Marius turned his piercing look to the window. “No, but I swear, I will.”