Taken by a Vampire (Vampire Queen) - By Joey W. Hill Page 0,137

waist.

“One day I said I was goin’ to get a stake and put us both out of our misery. We were in some godforsaken corner o’ the world, a swamp where the mosquitoes could drain ye faster than a vampire, but he wanted to take pictures of it during a bloody fog, which took about two weeks to happen. Long as I stayed near him, the mosquitoes didnae bother me, since vampires are bug repellents. Have ye noticed?”

She shook her head. “We weren’t in outdoor situations much.”

“Aye, Stephen’s not really the outdoorsy type, is he? Anyhow, having to stick that close or be sucked dry brought my temper to a boil. Coming back tae camp one day, I found he’d collected a fair pile of cypress knees. Evan told me to make as many stakes as I’d like, and that he’d let me stake him with all of them, but for the love o’ God to please leave off my carping and complaining until he got this one shot done.”

“So whenever you’re mulling on something about him that irritates you . . .”

“I carve a stake. ’Tis therapy.” He grinned at her. “’Tis also a useful thing to have. We’ve several occasions where we’ve had to use them.”

“You’ve killed a vampire?” Alanna’s eyes widened at the thought.

“That’s an executable offense for a servant, aye? Unless I’m aiding my Master in a fight.” Niall inclined his head. “The vampire had him down, and I’d cut his servant’s throat. Bastard wasna expecting that. While he was recovering from the shock to his system, I took my shot, right between the shoulder blades.”

Niall recalled it, that moment of squeezing panic when he thought he was going to be too late. As Evan had met his gaze, recognized the possibility of it, Niall had seen regret in the vampire’s gaze, as well as felt it in his mind. Regret that he wasn’t strong enough to preserve his own life, and thereby protect Niall’s. Niall had staked the attacker with a savage vengeance, pulled his body off Evan’s before it stopped twitching.

“If anyone’s goin’ to stake him,” he said, forcing himself to sound casual again, “it’s going to be me.”

She touched his arm. “You didn’t even think of your own life, did you? Just his.”

“Aye.” But that hadn’t surprised him. What had surprised him was that Evan had done the same.

“You two are like brothers . . . but not.”

“Thank God. While I’m hoping He’s a bit more flexible than I was taught, He’s pretty clear on incest. Plus . . . Evan as my brother . . .” He shuddered as if touched with a slimy worm, making her chuckle. She covered it with her hand, though he saw the dancing light in her serious brown eyes. “He didnae tell ye what I told him when I first found out he was a vampire, did he?”

She shook her head.

“He’d already marked me, so the deed was done. But after he explained what he was, I thought it over, then told him I was relieved. I was far more worried about being indentured to a Jew than a vampire.”

She couldn’t bring her hand up fast enough this time and he caught it, grinning at her as she laughed. He’d been right. Her laughter could turn a man’s heart over in his chest.

At length, though, she sobered. “Do you think there’s a Hell?”

He knew where her thoughts had gone. Reversing their grips, he held her firmly. “I dinnae care what the vampire world says. It may be that ye follow your Master into an afterlife. But if there’s the kind of God there should be, He willnae be tying you to that bastard for eternity, Alanna.”

“I wish . . .” She looked down at the bear he’d given her.

“Tell me, muirnín.”

“I wish Evan would give me the third mark. I don’t care what it might do to me. Even if it tore me apart, even if it’s not strong enough to hold me here, maybe it would hold me . . . somewhere, until he came. I’d wait forever. I wouldn’t mind.”

“I know you wouldnae.” He slid his knuckles along her face. “Though you’re not thinking this through properly. You’ve known Evan only a short while, and Stephen suffers in comparison to cow manure, let alone an obsessive-compulsive artist who has no clue what a proper vampire is supposed to do.”

Her lips curved. She turned in his arms, putting her own around his shoulders and staying