Taken by a Vampire (Vampire Queen) - By Joey W. Hill Page 0,164

Trad scoffed.

“No. But this might.”

At the sound of a fourth male voice, Alanna lifted her gaze in time to see the lethal silver blade of a katana slide along the Trad’s collarbone, notch against the side of his throat in the same way his razor-tipped nails were against hers. A long-fingered hand wrapped over his opposite shoulder, holding him firm. “I’ve no problem removing your head from your body, Colin. Remove those razor tips from her throat. Very slowly. I might shift my weight and cut through your spine.”

She knew that ice-cool voice, despite the fact that she’d only heard it several times. “Alanna, return to your Master’s side.”

The Trad released her. As she rose on shaky knees and stepped back, she came up against Evan. In the blink since Lord Daegan’s appearance, he’d closed the distance between them. Her Master handed her off to Niall without a word, the Scot pressing her down to her knees just behind him, so that she saw the wooden stakes thrust into the back of the kilt, as well as a wicked knife scabbarded on his calf. Evan didn’t appear armed, but she wouldn’t trust her eyes on that, not with the menace emanating from him.

Though she had her hand pressed to her neck, blood ran over her knuckles. The Trad had cut too deep. It wouldn’t kill her, but she could pass out. She increased the pressure, willing herself to stay upright. If an opportunity presented itself to help Evan or Niall, she wanted to be ready to take it. The memory of Adam, here one moment, gone the next, gripped her with terror now.

“You know me, but I do not know you.” Colin’s gaze narrowed, but he was prevented from turning around by that hand locked on his shoulder. “You, too, are traveling where you shouldn’t be. I will have your name.”

“Most of those who know it are dead. Are you ready to pay that price? You’ve broken no laws. Yet. Leave without looking back, and the matter is concluded. Turn around to see who or what I am, and it will be the last thing you do. Evan and his servants are under the Council’s direct protection, as he said. I am his proof.” Daegan adjusted his grip, and blood started to seep out from beneath the blade.

Colin bared his fangs in a hiss but, true to vampire nature, he accepted he was outmatched. In a brief flash of movement he was gone, the trees whispering of his passing. All three men, the two vampires and one hunter, listened in alert silence, making sure he was taking a path away from the house. Alanna felt the Trad’s presence dissipate like an acrid smoke blown away by a clean wind.

Daegan’s blade disappeared back inside his coat. Though there was moonlight in the clearing, he stayed where the shadows still claimed him. “It’s a good thing I came looking for you, Evan.”

“Yes.” Evan’s response was short, tight. “My thanks, my lord. Is there a problem?”

“Stephen is within a hundred miles of his InhServ. That can’t be a coincidence. He was never fond of the North American continent.”

Alanna’s heart leaped in her throat as she thought once again of the unprotected humans here. But Lord Daegan was already ahead of her. “You need a more protected location.”

“We planned to go to the art colony after this,” Evan said.

Daegan lifted a brow. “With Nerida and Miah?”

“Yes.”

The Council’s assassin nodded. “A defensible position. Head that way as soon as you can travel and plan on staying there unless I indicate otherwise to you. I’ll maintain a perimeter of a few miles and watch for signs of him. He’ll likely bide his time. He has nothing else at this point.”

“She gains him nothing.” Niall spoke now, the frustration obvious in his voice. “It only makes him vulnerable to capture.”

“Stephen isn’t linked to a stronger vampire, Niall. Even his original overlord, the one who took Stephen’s blood before he started rising in the vampire ranks, died of Ennui some time ago. She’s the only living link to his whereabouts. He knows that’s why she’s being kept alive. She’s bait, yes, but once she’s gone, he can disappear, go to unpopulated areas like that Trad. Wait for the times to change and vampires to forget.” Daegan paused. “That’s the practical side. But at heart, Stephen is a vampire, and an excessively arrogant and unforgiving one. He wants her head.”

It was what she herself had thought, but hearing it