Page 25

Where to go? What to do? I tapped my claws on the edge of the bench. The blue room was out of the question, unless I was looking to throw down with a couple of vampires. I could just walk out the front door and run for it, but I was barefoot in pajamas and I’d lost the protective cuff Coco had given me. My own mind wasn’t safe or fully my own.

Moving silently across the darkened library, I opened the door, holding it ajar. I slowed my breathing and stilled my thoughts, listening intently. There. Clive’s voice, coming from down the hall. He’d told me to call for Russell if I’d needed help, but as there were at least two vampires in the house trying to kill me, it seemed wiser not to let them know where I was.

Waiting, sure I was alone, I closed the library door after me and flew down the hall. Two seconds from door to door. I didn’t breathe until I was in the room where I’d heard Clive’s voice, my back against the door.

There was a moment of charged silence and then, “Sam? Is something wrong?” Clive was sitting behind a desk, a blue-suited man across from him.

The man turned. He had black hair and eyes, olive skin, and an arrogant set to his handsome face. “Well, who have we here?”

Clive stood. “Sam is one of my people. If you’ll excuse me a moment. I’ll take care of this.” He glided around the desk and made straight for me.

The other man stood, too. “Strange. She doesn’t smell like one of us.” His tone was smug as he looked me up and down.

“I am Master of this city. They are all my people,” Clive said, his expression carved in stone.

“Yes, of course.” The man walked toward us, clearly not intending to give us a private moment to talk. “Is this the scarred little wolf I’ve heard so much about? I must admit,” he added. “She’s more casually dressed than I would have expected for someone requesting an audience with the Master.” Smirking, he leaned against the wall next to me. “Love the jammies.”

Standing stiffly, I ignored him, my gaze on Clive, my hands balled at my sides, claws hidden. “I apologize for interrupting, but it’s important.”

The other man reached out a finger and ran it over my shoulder. “Silky,” he breathed.

My jaw tightened, teeth elongating in my mouth. I slid my eyes to the vampire, assessing the threat. I wanted his blood between my teeth. I wanted it very much. A deep growl filled the room.

“Santiago, I’d suggest you step back. I’d hate for a visitor to have his head severed from his body.” He looked down at the floor. “And I’m rather partial to this rug.”

The vampire snapped to attention, his focus on Clive. “You dare to threaten me? Me?”

Clive’s eyebrows lifted. “I’m not threatening anyone at the moment. I’m also not the one whose personal space you’ve invaded, nor the one you’re touching without consent. I would think, given the reputation you say you have, you’d have noticed the six-inch claws, the mouth distended by a wolf’s teeth, and the warning growl. Clearly, the one you should be worried about is the one in the silk jammies. Now, as Sam is at her breaking point, and I’d prefer you left the city alive, I’ll ask you again to please excuse us.”

Santiago’s eyes flew to my hands. He stepped away with a forced laugh. “Fine. Fine. Take your time.” He pulled out a phone and dropped back into his chair.

Clive ushered me out of the office and into the next door down the hall, which turned out to be a bathroom. I looked up. Yep, chandelier. His decorator really had a thing for them.

“What’s happened?” Clive bent his head, trying to make eye contact but I was looking everywhere but at him, mortified he’d seen the claws, the misshaped jaw.

“I—” The word came out slurred, my mouth contorted. Tears rushed to my eyes, and I turned away from him.

He leaned in, his lips at my ear. “It’s okay. Talk to me.”

I tried again, speaking as slowly and clearly as possible. “I was in the library. Two vampires came in. They didn’t see me. They started talking about which room I was in, how I was an embarrassment that made you look weak. They’re planning to attack me in the blue room, kidnap me while you talk to that vampire, and leave my dead body someplace you’ll never find.” There was spittle on my lip. Cringing, I raised a hand to wipe it away and then remembered the claws.

“Sam.” He turned me around and took my hands in his, lifting them to his lips. “You’re beautiful, but more importantly, you’re strong.”

I rolled my eyes.

“A fierce warrior.”

I chuffed a laugh. “Right. A fierce warrior who hides in window seats and reads Bront?.”

He leaned in and kissed my neck. “My favorite kind.”

“So,” I breathed. “Are we just ignoring the death threats?”

“No, indeed. Russell is taking care of them right now.” He kissed his way down my throat.

“How? It just happened. How does he know?” It was becoming very difficult to concentrate on killer vamps.

“I can communicate telepathically with my people.”

I smacked his shoulders. “Get out!”

“I won’t,” he said, before nibbling on an earlobe.

“But then why the phone, the talking out loud?” Shit! Did that mean he could read my mind?

Leaning away, he took off his charcoal gray suit jacket and draped it over my shoulders. “It doesn’t do to show off.”

Giggling, I shook him. “Tell me the truth. Can you really do that?”

“Mind the claws, darling, and yes. When you told me what you’d overheard, I sent Russell up to your room to wait for them.”

“Won’t he need help?” I didn’t want Russell getting hurt on my account.

“The day my second can’t handle two vampires is the day I need a new second.” He kissed my cheek softly. “Please don’t worry.” He tipped his head to the side, his gaze drifting. “Anton and Michael. How very disappointing.”

“They said you’d kill them if you caught them.” Please, let that have been hyperbole.

“So, they’re not complete morons.” He caught my look. “I can’t allow two of my people to conspire against me. They not only disregarded my order to protect you, they actively tried to hurt you. No. I’m sorry if it causes you concern, but they will not survive this night.” A few minutes later, Clive leaned around me to open the bathroom door.

“Sire. They are downstairs awaiting you.” Russell stood in the doorway.

“Thank you.” He glanced at me, presumably to make sure I’d heard him say ‘thank you.’ I guess that racist twat comment really got to him. “Could you please escort Ms. Quinn back to the library to get a book and then to her room.” He sighed. “I’m afraid you would’ve been safer and enjoyed more sleep if we’d left you in your bookstore.”

“That’s what I said!”

Grinning, he kissed my forehead and stepped out of the bathroom. “Russell, I’m trusting you to protect her.”

He nodded. “It would be my honor.”

After Clive left, Russell and I walked down the hall to the library. He hit the lights as I went to retrieve the lucid dreaming books from the window seat. I detoured to the shelves before returning to Russell. I might look at that one on the power of the mind, as well.

“This used to be a ballroom.” His voice echoed in the large room.

I grabbed the book I’d seen earlier, and then turned back to him. “A ballroom?” Looking around the grand library, I tried to picture it and couldn’t. “I thought this was original to the house.”

His lip twitched. “No, indeed. It was quite the grand ballroom. Very impressive. When the Master—”

“Quick question,” I interrupted. “Does it bother you to have to call him that?” Because it was making me super uncomfortable.

A huge grin overtook Russell’s face. I’d never seen him relaxed enough to do that before. “It grated for a century or so.” Chuckling, he leaned back, his ear to the door. “I must admit, I heard you ask Clive if his turning his back on me while I bowed was some colonial racist bullshit and I laughed like hell. On the inside, of course.”

“Of course.”

He watched me for a moment, and then, seeming to come to a conclusion, spoke. “You’ve had a good influence on him.”

Me? “He hardly ever spoke to me before all this let’s-kill-Sam stuff started.”

Again, he was silent a moment. “Clive doesn’t personally visit the supernatural-owned businesses in town. That’s what he has people for, and they only visit when there’s a problem. Clive went to check on The Slaughtered Lamb.” He smiled. “You. Every month for seven years. He may not have spoken, may not have even appeared to be paying attention, but he was. You have—I don’t want to say soften, because he is every bit as ruthless and powerful as he ever was. He has, though, regained some humanity.”

Looking around the library, he added, “So the very impressive ballroom was scrapped, and the library installed.” A brilliant smile split his handsome face. “He may not have realized why he’d done it, but it was always clear to me. He was hoping to lure you here with books.”

I wasn’t sure what to do about that tickled feeling in my chest. “It’s a really good lure.”

“Isn’t it, though? Come, let’s get you settled in a room not filled with killer vampires.”

“Yes, please.”

True to his word, I was dropped off in a vampire-free blue room. I locked the door after he left. Thinking better of the flimsy lock, I dragged the writing desk over to barricade the door. It was surprisingly heavy, given the delicate design. I knew it wouldn’t stop any of the predators in house. I just wanted an alarm, so I wasn’t killed in my sleep.

Placing the books on the nightstand, I realized that the claws were gone, and my jaw no longer hurt. Huh. I tore open the bedding, just to make sure there wasn’t a wolf’s head or a severed finger or some other sick threat left for me. Thankfully, I found only soft, white linens. I climbed in and opened to a chapter on manipulating dreams. I may not be able to extricate myself from the visions, but I hoped to learn how to better alter one while inside it.

I was so engrossed in the book, I almost missed the strange, soft noise. I put down the book and slid the bedding aside, in case I had to move quickly. Straining, I heard nothing. Flicking off the lamp on the nightstand, I waited for my eyes to adjust and then slipped from the bed.

Once the room was dark, though, I noticed something interesting. There was a faint light under a panel in the wall. Why would there be light behind my wall? Visions of creepy spy cameras floated through my mind as I quietly approached the wall. Maybe it was a closet, like the one in the bathroom. There wasn’t a conventional door, just a panel. Using that as my working theory, I tapped the wall at about the same height I’d seen Clive do it. There was a quiet snick, and the panel swung open, revealing a short passage to another room. A secret passageway! This place was awesome. Other than the killer vamps, of course.

I tiptoed down the dark passage, hearing a rustling in the next room. At the doorway to the new room, I paused. Why wasn’t there a closed panel on this side of the passage, too?

Movement. And then Clive stood in the middle of the room, his shirt unbuttoned as he pulled it from his trousers. I must have made a noise, because his reaction was immediate. One moment unbuttoning a shirt, the next in a fighter’s crouch, eyes vamp black, fangs out.

Well, shit.