Taken by a Vampire (Vampire Queen) - By Joey W. Hill Page 0,68

of reasons now. She looked a little disappointed, and he hoped to make that up to her. For now, though, he finished up his breakfast. He liked how she waited on him to gather his thoughts, realizing he needed that pause. Evan was silent as a corpse, suggesting he was dead asleep. Given the sun was well up in a bright blue sky and he’d stayed up longer than he should have done, that was pretty likely.

Leaving the wife question alone, he backtracked. “When Evan and I met, he was just over a hundred. He told me having no servant was like a human not being married at a certain age. Everyone starts tae wonder what’s wrong with ye.”

Female vampires get a little more latitude, because they’re expected to be choosy. Most males are itching to take one by the time they’re fifty, to have the feeding trough close. We tend to be lazy in food and sex. Plus, we go through full servants more quickly in our first century or so. Random fights and typical young man deviltry.

“I thanked him for his honesty,” Niall said dryly. Alanna gave him a polite smile, but he couldn’t tell if she saw the humor in it. “At first he wanted a scout in Scotland, to help him on his scavenger hunts for subject matter. But he was also looking for a lad with hunting and tracking ability, one who could pick up the lay of new terrain swift-like and serve the same purpose in unfamiliar lands.”

He shrugged. “I’ve no doubt there were others, better fed, more educated, who could have done for him, but that’s the why he gave me. He also said if he was going to have a servant about, he preferred the straightforward company o’ a male. At least at that time,” he added quickly, not wanting her to think Evan didn’t welcome having her here. As for Niall’s thoughts on the matter, her soft arse and her biscuits made her well worth the company. He wondered if she had any more of the latter stored in the oven.

“And your wife?” She asked it softly, obviously understanding it might be a tender subject. Since he hadn’t guarded his tongue as he should, he’d pay the fair price for it. That was the danger of women. They opened up things, dug into them.

“I didnae know I was one of Evan’s subjects, weeks before he met me, but I had a prickly feeling on the back o’ my neck during that time. When I told him about it, the feeling matched when he started following me about. A scout’s instinct, he called it, which confirmed his opinion of me.” That initial meeting flashed through his mind, the glen, the deep, cold creek, the touch of Evan’s hard hands, holding him pinned, but he pushed that away.

“A few weeks after we had our proper meeting, I was injured in a battle. It was a mortal wound. Evan carried me from the field, told me what the whole servant thing was about, which of course meant he had to let me know what he was. Said he could try it to save me, but he wasnae going to expend the effort if I wasn’t interested, if I believed he was condemning me to eternal damnation.”

Though Niall was as devout as the next man, that issue hadn’t figured into it. All he could think was Ceana and the two bairns would be left without him. The village was already near starving. Though others would do what they could for them, it wouldn’t be enough. They’d be turned out of the croft, unable to pay the rent. He’d already seen children starve to death in his short life, and he would sell his soul to the Devil to keep it from happening to his own.

“So we struck a bargain. If he could save my life, I’d serve him when my wife passed and the wee ones were grown up and able to care for themselves.”

“I’ve never heard of such a thing,” she murmured, the truth of it reflected by the wonder in her expression. “A servant doesn’t age once they reach their thirties. How did you explain that to your family?”

“It wasnae an issue,” he said shortly.

As he’d already noted, she had a fair intuition. Reaching out, she touched his hand. “I’m sorry.”

Straightforward sympathy, no pity in her gaze. It is what it is. The vampire servant’s creed. At least he understood that much about