Taken by a Vampire (Vampire Queen) - By Joey W. Hill Page 0,86

strode past Niall and picked up the canvas, easel and paint supplies the Scot had set by the door. As he left the cabin, Alanna looked toward Niall, who was considering Evan’s back, but then he moved across the cabin, gripped her wrist.

“Come with me, lass. Best get it over with.”

Niall swung her up on his shoulder, clamping a hand on her backside as he moved toward the door with strides as purposeful as Evan’s. “I can walk,” she protested. “I don’t plan on avoiding punishment, Niall.”

“Better if ye dinnae see this one coming.”

He crossed the front yard. She had a brief glimpse of Evan, setting up his canvas, his back to them both. What did he want Niall to do—

A moment later she was airborne. Though she managed not to shriek during that part, it was impossible not to do it when she landed with a resounding splash in the creek. A frigid mountain creek that drove the breath from her like a thousand daggers through the flesh, especially since she dropped below the waterline like a cannonball before she floundered up, gasping.

“Over here, lass. I’ll give ye a hand out.”

She paddled that way, the chill making it hard to coordinate her movements. She was desperately glad for the warmth of his hand, wished she could curl up inside it. Her hair was dripping, clothes clinging to her in a most unpleasant manner.

“You’re lucky it’s a first offense,” Niall observed. “For a second or third, he’ll make ye stay in there for about fifteen minutes. Turns your balls blue.”

He hauled her out. Once he had her on her feet, he kept her wrist manacled in his, and guided her back up the hill. Evan was at the picnic table, sketchbook before him. Because she was so disoriented, Niall put out a hand to make her stop a few feet away, so she wouldn’t drip on it.

“I’m s-sorry, M-master. What more can I d-do t-to p-p-please you?”

“Nothing.” His tone was indifferent, almost bored. “I require nothing from someone like you.”

10

THE distinction brought her head up. “Excuse me, sir?”

Though it was an effort, given he could hear her teeth chattering, Evan ignored her for several moments, continuing to study his in-process sketch. He felt Niall’s gaze on him, ignored it as well.

“Did I . . . have I done something to offend you, sir?” He was surprised she dared the follow-up, but it gave him the opening he needed.

“How could you possibly offend me? You’re as capable of that as this blank pad. No will, no interests. You can’t even say what you want.”

“I want your will.”

He cut across that with a snort. “Do I look like I want a plastic doll as a servant? No thoughts or feelings of her own? One whose responses to my touch are like a trained circus poodle? Do I look like I want to fuck a dog?”

“Evan.” Niall’s fingers tightened on her wrist. “Stop.”

Evan tossed him a look. “Holding her leash now? If I told her to sit, stay, roll over, sit up on her hind legs and bark, she’d do it. Wouldn’t you, Alanna?”

She had her free hand in a tight knot at her side, her face now a hard brittle shell. “I will do whatever my Master commands.”

“No, not always.” He pinned her with his gaze. “For one very vital, very significant moment, you didn’t do what your Master commanded. You turned him in to the Council. You crossed a line, because you have a line. Find it, Alanna. Where is it? What do you want? Tell me one thing you want. Salt instead of pepper, to dance instead of sleep, bread with or without butter. What the hell do you want? Say it. Tell me. Your Master is commanding you to have a will, to have a soul, to be a fucking human being.”

“Evan, for God’s sake.” Niall released her. In another moment he would step forward, as if to shield her from the words with his body.

Stay where you are. He rarely used such a sharp tone with Niall, such that it brought him up short, but it wouldn’t hold the protective Scot for long. Evan couldn’t blame him.

Alanna was disintegrating. The cold water had shocked the body, and he’d delivered the same dousing to the mind, intending to knock her off-balance. Shuddering, hands clenched, she had tears dripping down her face. She had the desperation of a drowning person, trying to find an answer to save her life. To