Taken by a Vampire (Vampire Queen) - By Joey W. Hill Page 0,61

hadn’t even turned on the lights, her breath sweet and warm on his face as he took her against the wall, glad he was nowhere near the underground room and bed he would share later the same night with Evan.

He’d been a little rough about it, feeling somewhat out of sorts. Usually if sex was involved, Evan wanted to share his choice. Fortunately, the girl was one who liked it a bit rougher, more demanding, wanting her lover of the moment to hold all the reins.

“I enjoyed experiencing her through your mind. Her blood would have tasted better than the agent’s. The dog didn’t like me much.” Evan shrugged. “Anyhow, to the point.”

“Please God.”

Now it was Evan who gave him the narrow glance. “The dog was trained with food. He only ate when he sniffed out an explosive material. Hence, even on their days off, Rudolph had to divide the dog’s daily food portion into fifteen search exercises. Food is only associated with performance for the beast. If you threw a steak on the ground next to him, he wouldn’t eat it.”

Evan tossed the lens in the trash. “We have to figure out how to undo thirty years of training and help Alanna understand the benefit of her having a will other than ours.”

Ours. Evan didn’t use words casually. Rising, the vampire went to the wall where a half-finished painting was stretched on a large frame, as big as that side of the cellar. It was the moon, rising above a river. Its light made such a glowing, clear track through the water, the viewer felt beckoned into the picture. Within that light were hundreds of wee lanterns, an earthbound Milky Way. It was from a toro nagashi they’d attended in Japan, commemorating the dead on the last day of the Obon Festival. They’d sat on the bank together, shoulder to shoulder, watching all those lanterns head toward the moon, like gifts offered to the souls they remembered. Evan had explained the people believed that humans came from water, such that the lanterns represented their bodies returning to it.

“Humans are mostly made up of water, so the logic is sound. Vampires are creatures of blood, so I expect that’s why we turn to ash, returning to the earth.” Opening a jar, Evan used the pad of his index finger to dab out a bit of paint and add a swirl over one section of the water. Now it seemed the wind had touched that spot, or a fish had disturbed the surface. There were always details within details in Evan’s work, but none of his pieces ever seemed cluttered. It was like looking at a natural landscape, seeing something different each time the eye passed over it, but never being overwhelmed by it. Each feature was praised and distinct, unique and yet complementary to the whole.

Evan glanced back at him. “Thank you.”

Niall grunted. Shifted his feet. When Evan looked around for a cloth, Niall picked one up, stepping close enough to wrap it around the other man’s hand. As he massaged the paint off Evan’s finger, he realized he hadn’t been doing things like that lately. Never one given to lots of impulsive, affectionate gestures, he’d nevertheless done more of them in the past. For some reason, seeing Alanna, how she perceived things about vampires, he wanted to offer one now.

Evan met his gaze. A quick brush of his knuckles against Niall’s jaw suggested he was pleased, but then he took the cloth and his hand away, finishing the task himself. “You want more clarification.”

“Not to put too fine a point on it, but aye. I want to know where you’re heading with this.”

Evan lifted a shoulder. “When she sees me, she shuts down. Everything is ‘If it pleases my Master.’ You’re my agent, so she’ll obey you, as long as she sees it’s my will. That’s my part to handle. You’re a servant with a long history of serving me, but also a very different kind of servant from what she’s been. You keep her off-balance. Show her, help her. Touch her. Help her learn how to feel again.”

Niall considered that, turned toward the ladder.

“You don’t like the idea.”

He stopped, glanced back. “Nae much point in restraining my opinion if you’re reading it.”

“Not true. If you hold your tongue, I can decide which thoughts I want to deal with, and which to ignore. What’s bugging you so much about this, Niall?” Evan set the cloth aside, gave him a