Taken by a Vampire (Vampire Queen) - By Joey W. Hill Page 0,215

forehead to his, then tilted to brush her lips to it.

“Go care for our Master. Care for the man you love,” she whispered.

He squeezed her hands, hard enough to be painful. Planting an abrupt kiss on her temple, he rose, turning toward the door, where Evan still waited for him.

When she saw their gazes meet, a painful peace spread through her chest, in all her vitals. She shouldn’t delay them, not for an instant, but wasn’t it Evan who taught her to accept her desires?

“Master?”

Whatever he saw in her face, she didn’t need to explain. Putting his hand on Niall’s chest, a brief caress, he strode back to her. She made a soft sound against his mouth when he put his lips over hers, a gentle but lingering kiss. He gripped her chin with firm fingers.

“You obey whatever Debra tells you. If you don’t, I’ll hear of it.”

“Yes, Master.” She brushed her cheek against his, her nose against his jaw, as much of him as she could touch in that brief moment.

Somehow, she would let them both go when the Council made their decision. But she would never let go of them in her heart. No one could make her do that. Even Stephen hadn’t managed it.

The bath knocked her back out for six hours. It filled her with despair that Niall might be right, that she wasn’t up for this, but she was determined. All she had to do was imagine the Council assembled around her bed, Lord Belizar staring down his hooked Russian nose at the small lumps of her feet under the covers, and the dreadfulness of the idea gave her strength.

So they did it in stages. Debra dressed her two hours before the dinner session. Once she was in underwear and a simple copper-colored dress that wouldn’t wrinkle while lying down, she was back out for another hour. When she surfaced, she asked about makeup, the possibility of putting a scarf over her bare head.

“It’s best not to do that,” Debra said.

“May I see a mirror? Please?”

Debra glanced toward the door. Alanna’s heart leaped, seeing Niall there, and not simply because of his reappearance. He was in a different version of what he’d worn for the wedding. White dress shirt with dark kilt and plaid, high white socks and ghillies laced over them. The gray rabbit fur sporran with its handsome silver ornamentation hung from his belt. With his dark brown hair loose on his shoulders, brushed to a silken sheen, she wasn’t surprised when the unflappable Debra blanked on Alanna’s question.

“You look . . . like you have . . . a date.” She tried to speak using her voice, a practice run for Council, but slipped back to a whisper when her vocal cords protested.

Sleep had done him a great deal of good, his face far less haggard. But he also looked . . . easier. She envied him, what that meant. Evan feeding from him for the first time in three weeks, his strong hands holding his servant possessively, plunging both fang and cock deep inside him, reasserting that claim. Niall would have gotten lost on that tide as well, likely turning once the feeding was done to clash with tongue and teeth, tasting his Master, kissing him, starting it all over again.

“I wish I could have been there,” she said.

“Ye’ll be there soon enough. And then you’ll really ken what exhaustion is.” His eyes smiled at her, but his mouth was firm, serious.

“I want to see a mirror,” she repeated. Debra stepped back, deferring to Niall on it. “I need to know what I look like, Niall. Please.”

“Ye look like a woman who’s been to hell and back,” he said shortly. “You’ve no meat on your bones, ye have no hair, and you’re as pale as . . .”

“A corpse? So putting makeup on me would make me look more like one?”

Her big Scot flinched. “Aye.”

“Well, I’ll eat,” she said resolutely. “And get back in the sun. My hair will grow.”

“I know, muirnín. But no mirror. Nae right now. See yourself as I see ye. Beautiful, alive, brave . . . everything a man could want.”

She did see that in his eyes, warming her inside and out. Unfortunately, female vanity wasn’t assuaged as easily. She looked to Debra. “Will anything help me look better?”

“The Council needs to see what your loyalty to them cost you,” Debra said. “Under the proper circumstances, they are not without compassion.”

Debra was usually as dutiful as an