Taken by a Vampire (Vampire Queen) - By Joey W. Hill Page 0,146

to someone else before you were even born, so she’s like you. She not only has to act a certain way, she has to be that way, feel it. You were never hers. You were hers to train, to guide, to teach, to prepare. If she doesn’t do it right, it could go badly for you, be harder for you. Your dedication, your ability to compartmentalize and focus on one goal utterly . . . you got it from her. Adam had told her that.

Chloe was looking at her expectantly. “Yes,” she agreed. “I’m sure it would be difficult for most mothers.”

Chloe nodded. “Brendan is blood and bone on the submissive side of things, like you, if it doesn’t offend you for me to say it that way.” When Alanna shook her head, thinking it was the greatest compliment anyone could give her, Chloe forged onward.

“He has this desire to serve, to please, but he’s a guy as well. So protective, always thinking about what’s best for me. It took me a while to agree to marry him, because I wanted to wait, to be sure he’d be happy with me. He was such a dedicated sub at Tyler’s club. So many Mistresses wanted him, I was afraid I wouldn’t be enough for him. I can play at it and have a good time, but I’ll always be just Chloe. Never ��Mistress’ Chloe.”

She straightened, doing a credible imitation of an imperious Mistress, an obvious emulation of Marguerite. “But even when you decide you’re sure, you’re not really sure, right? You have to take the leap of faith that it’s going to work out, that you’ve done everything that you can.”

When she stopped and looked expectantly at Alanna, Alanna thought it through before answering. From what she’d learned about Brendan—and she was fairly sure Chloe had crammed everything about the purportedly most wonderful man on the planet in those twenty minutes—she could see why he’d fallen for her. Chloe had qualities that would attract a certain type of submissive male. The kind who was ultimately more interested in service and care, in making a woman happy, than in having a Mistress wield her power over him. Alanna had seen a few of them in the InhServ program. If her evaluation of her soon-to-be husband was accurate, Chloe had been his unlikely and unexpected deepest wish.

“I think you’re right,” she said, and received a grateful look from Chloe, another impulsive hug that warmed her. She really was a genuine spirit, her optimism infectious. Even the stressed-out Gen bent to kiss the top of Chloe’s head.

Alanna thought of Evan, his decision to make Niall a third-mark servant. She was fairly certain that, unlike Chloe, Evan did nothing impulsively. Niall might have been on death’s doorstep, but Evan had weighed the choice, determined if Niall would truly be able to accept the life of a vampire’s servant and find value in it. Though she’d seen friction between the two men, she also saw the synchronicity that existed in vampire–servant pairings. Niall had told her Evan taught him to read; Evan had told her he’d merely improved Niall’s literacy.

As she imagined the two men sitting side by side by candlelight, Evan watching Niall’s profile as he worked through a page of words, she realized every experience they’d shared had integrated their personalities to create that synchronicity. But it wasn’t an automatic result of such a pairing, as Stephen had proven.

There were times early on, when he was frustrated with our arrangement, that I might have released him from his oath. It was before the Council’s restrictions on such an act. But I didn’t. It was the first time I realized I’d truly become more vampire than human.

She hadn’t expected Evan to be listening in. But she thought her Master might be wrong. If a human had the power to hold on to something they wanted, the way a vampire could, she expected they would . . . and did.

Therein lies the issue of moral character.

She didn’t think about morality when it came to vampires. There was what they wanted, and that was it. Mortals were absorbed in issues of right and wrong. In the vampire world, there was no room for it.

That’s not true, Alanna. When Stephen became a traitor to the Council, you embraced your moral character, rejecting his lack of one.

Where was he that he could conduct this involved conversation with her? Of course, vampires could multitask. He might be doing a tango