Taken by a Vampire (Vampire Queen) - By Joey W. Hill Page 0,209

the girl, but think of Niall’s well-being. Your own sanity.

His sire was right. He hated it, though. There’d been no way to help her. Not until now.

“If this goes on much longer . . .” He cleared his throat, met Daegan’s gaze. “If we can’t sever their link, I’m going to ask the Council to spare Stephen’s life. I’ll take over any care and expense associated with that.” He’d devote his life to being the vampire’s jailer. “I want to free her the only way we can, for as long as we can.”

The second part was much harder to say. “If the Council agrees . . . you know how to take a life without pain? Any pain at all?”

Daegan’s dark eyes were fathomless, but in them, Evan sensed the poignant understanding. Gideon rose, coming to his Master’s side.

“Yeah, he can.” The servant’s midnight blue eyes revealed an empathy with Evan’s plight that almost cracked him open, then and there. “He’ll make it as gentle as a mother laying a baby down for a nap.”

Evan couldn’t speak, so he nodded, turned away. He’d never believed in that nonsense about the servant following the Master into the afterlife, but he wasn’t going to take a chance. It might be the only thing he could do for her.

Fifteen minutes later, on his way back to the lab, he felt a stabbing pain through his chest, a disorienting dizziness that drove him to his knees in the hallway. A castle servant stopped, called for help, asked him what he needed. He bent forward, fingers tented on the wall to steady himself. No. Niall. No. Not now.

Then he felt his servant, the thread there as strong as ever. It wasn’t Niall. Alanna. The connection had broken. His marks had been erased.

When he was steady enough to regain his feet, he’d run for the lab, despite the fact he had to stop and throw up into what he was sure was a very expensive vase. He wiped his mouth, kept going. Debra met him at the lab doorway, eyes alive with tentative hope. “I was just coming to get you. There’s been a change. She’s saying your names.”

He saw the welcome sign of an open door to Alanna’s soundproof room. As he came to her side, her eyes were still closed, but that mantra was a whispered song coming straight from her embattled soul.

Dear God, thank you. When he met Niall’s gaze, there were too many things that couldn’t be said in his Scot’s face. “Try touching her,” Brian said quietly. He and Debra were watching the monitors on her vitals.

Niall’s hands quivered, but Evan nodded to him. “Try it, neshama.”

Niall slowly laid his hands on her brow. It creased beneath his touch, but then she murmured their names again. The wrenching in Evan’s heart nearly drove him to his knees again. Forcing himself to take his time, he closed his fingers over her pale, thin ones. When she didn’t react by screaming or flinching, it overwhelmed him. He didn’t care that Brian and Debra saw the tears fill his eyes. As he put his hand on Niall’s head, his servant was openly weeping.

Coming back to the present, Evan realized they’d come full circle, from that absurdly short time ago when they’d first met Alanna in a lab like this one, touching her, soothing her. The thought made it bearable, barely, waiting for Lord Brian to announce the results. Had Stephen’s marks been removed? His second-marking wasn’t as strong a bond as Stephen’s third mark, so the former’s removal hadn’t been a guarantee of the treatment’s success. But it showed the treatment had had an effect, which meant they could give her more time. If she was plunged back into the nightmares again, though, would that make him any better than Stephen, tormenting her with no sure end in sight?

Brian lifted his gaze from the microscope, met Evan’s. He kept his grip on Alanna, his other holding Niall’s shoulder.

“The marks are gone,” the scientist said. “All of them.”

Niall choked on another sob, and Evan tightened his fingers on the man. He had to swallow the ache in his own throat. Over three weeks of watching her writhe and cry, enduring horrors they couldn’t see. It was over.

“Until she truly wakes, we won’t know what neurological damage she’s suffered,” Brian said. “Her vitals are dangerously low. She’s fully human again, no protection or added strength from vampire marks.”

Evan understood Brian’s warning. They’d watched her turn into