Taken by a Vampire (Vampire Queen) - By Joey W. Hill Page 0,148

or did the mark allow an illusion of what Marcus and Thomas had?

Hearing Alanna’s words, the Scot now looked toward Evan, his tawny eyes reflecting the same strong emotions her feelings stirred in the vampire.

We cannae let Daegan kill him, Evan. She’s nae dying with that bastard.

I know. He just didn’t know how to stop it. He’d already been back in touch with Lord Uthe, exhorting him to protect her as much as he could, but for a human servant, only so much could be asked.

Niall shot him a look, but then his face became bland, pleasant, as he turned back to Thomas. His thought came through as sharp as a knife drawn across a major artery. Yet the bloody lot of you dinnae hesitate to ask everything of us.

A human wedding was a fairy tale. Caught up in it, Alanna sat between Niall and Evan. The men had tried to give her the aisle seat so she could see even better, but Niall needed it for his long legs and she insisted. Being on the back row, her view of the bride’s entry would be unimpeded regardless. Plus, she didn’t mind being between the two most handsome men at the event. Evan wore a yarmulke, which surprised her, but Niall explained that Evan still observed certain tenets of his faith, like wearing the small skullcap for sacred occasions. In his well-tailored tuxedo, his hair styled in rakish disarray across his brow, the vampire looked like he’d stepped out of a black-and-white 1920s film. All that was lacking was the cigarette in his elegant fingers.

His eyes gave her a start. He was wearing colored contacts, a vivid green. Niall quietly reminded her that close proximity to large numbers of humans could trigger his bloodlust. “He can control it, but he cannae control his eyes. The gray starts turnin’ red. So he wears the contacts.”

Whereas Evan had the elegant polish and dangerous style of an early film star, Niall carried himself with the self-assurance and raw power she’d expect of a clan chief, no matter how romanticized he claimed her notion of that was. He wore the dress shirt and silk black tie of a tuxedo, but his jacket was what he called a Welsh Charlie, with gold buttons and a fly plaid pinned over the shoulder. Instead of slacks, he wore a kilt and rabbit fur sporran gilded with silver, his feet clad in the long socks and ghillie brogues.

She saw more than one woman give the two men a lingering look. Given that Tyler Winterman and a variety of other handsome men were in attendance, including the groom himself, that was saying something. Brendan was every bit as handsome as Chloe believed, with his swimmer’s physique, silky dark hair and jewel-toned hazel eyes, but Alanna only had eyes for her own escorts. She had an irrational desire to clasp both their hands, to make it clear they were with her.

Then the bride arrived, saving her from that embarrassing impropriety. As she turned for that vital moment, Niall’s arm was on the back of her chair, so she gripped his solid biceps. Chloe was a perfect match for her groom. The upper part of her dress was a glimmering corset the color of old ivory, highlighted by an antique garnet necklace that looked like it had belonged to an Egyptian queen. Alanna suspected it was a “borrowed” item from Marguerite. Her silk ribbon in Chloe’s hair was the color of taupe, and the way the ends trailed over her bare shoulder worked well with it, softening the severe look of the necklace. It also fit Chloe’s softness, the glow in her eyes, the smile on her lips. The skirt had an overlay of lace embroidery that split at the thighs to cut over the hips, etching their shape, before rejoining at the point of the buttocks and tapering down to the train.

Looking back toward the altar, Alanna saw Brendan was overcome by his bride as she came toward him, ready to join together as man and wife. Chloe was no different, her happy eyes glistening with tears by the time she reached him. It made Alanna’s throat thicken, her own eyes sting.

While he’d been waiting for the ceremony to begin, Brendan had been talking to some of the guests, and she’d noted how deferential he was toward obvious Dominants like Tyler. He was clearly in love with a woman who was not a Mistress, so Alanna hoped her first impression