would bring a Master ease.
“If you’d rather follow Niall, go be with him and Evan, that’s fine.” Chloe touched her arm. “I can tell you want to.”
“Niall said I should wait here.”
“I don’t think they mind if you disobey a little. That’s part of the fun, right?”
Perhaps in the human world. But Niall had particular reasons for wanting to keep her where he knew where she was. But there was no danger here, and Evan knew where she was at all times. Still, she waffled. She listened to the conversations, participating when invited to do so, but she had an increasing sense of needing to go to Evan, needing to go now.
When she rose at last, her mind made up, Brendan squeezed Chloe’s shoulder, rose as well. “I’ll go with you, make sure you find them.”
Safely hung in the air. It seemed absurd, since Tyler’s staff were everywhere, and they were in a rural environment well off the main roads, but her uneasy feeling was growing. Perhaps Brendan had picked up on it. She thought about speaking directly to Evan in her mind, but he was in a meeting. There was no concrete evidence that she should disrupt him.
“Thank you. I’m sure that’s unnecessary, but . . .”
“Not at all.” Exchanging a look with Chloe that showed the couple were in agreement on it, he offered his arm to Alanna. As he guided her away from their group, he put a warm hand over hers in the crook of his elbow. “I recognize when a Master has a specific concern with respect to his property. Niall had that concern.”
Niall had said he wasn’t her Master, but her mind wasn’t concerned with correcting semantics. As Brendan skirted past the pool house, and took the winding path by the river that led up to the west gardens, her heart started to beat more rapidly, her pulse rate increasing.
She stopped, scanning the darkness. “We need to go back toward the pool house, Brendan,” she said, low. “Please. Right now. But . . . don’t look like you’re hurrying.”
Nodding, he took a more secure hold of her hand, his other one moving to her waist, altering their direction but maintaining a casual pace, taking them toward where the swimmers were. “Who is it?” he murmured.
“I’m not sure, but . . . it’s best to be where more people are.”
“I’ll let Tyler know once we get—”
“No.” She caught hold of his arm, squeezed hard enough to earn a startled glance from those vivid hazel eyes. “It doesn’t concern Tyler or . . . any of you. I’m seeing shadows. I’m on some medication that makes me a little more . . . nervous. It’s nothing. I just need to find Evan.”
Sub or not, this male had a broad protective streak, just as Chloe had intimated. It was obvious from his expression he didn’t believe her. He was going to let Tyler know, putting all the human guests, including himself, at risk.
Evan? Master, forgive my interruption, but there is a vampire close by. It’s not Stephen. He’s detected your presence and is investigating. I don’t know how bold he will become.
Most vampires avoided human gatherings like this, but the very fact that a vampire not normally part of this territory had been detected had brought him closer. He also might call a few other vampires to help him investigate. Like Niall, she knew there were vampires far less civilized about Council directives on territory crossings.
Understood. Stay where you are. I’m coming.
She realized then Brendan had slipped away from her. He was a few yards away, talking to Tyler, who’d come out of the pool house. Damn it. Though the men’s backs were to her, Tyler’s posture changed to one she recognized very well, a male preparing to defend his territory and what was his within it. Why couldn’t she have acted less concerned, so as not to tip Brendan off? She was so rarely around humans uninitiated into this world, she had no skills in that regard.
Tyler might be a dangerous human to cross, but he’d have no chance against a vampire. Chloe would be widowed before she finished her honeymoon, Tyler torn apart. She imagined Marguerite standing over his body, that austere demeanor forever shattered. No matter her strength as a Mistress, the unique submission Marguerite gave Tyler suggested he was her foundation, the strength that helped her with everything else.
InhServ training had always been that for Alanna. Her fail-safe. She realized it was also