Taken by a Vampire (Vampire Queen) - By Joey W. Hill Page 0,95

item on the to-do list was to make Evan “a sugar cookie.” In parentheses, he’d added, “and three dozen more.” That list item was accompanied by a picture of a bear sitting with all paws curled possessively around a cookie jar.

While she was sleeping, he’d spent time on this. Vampires did not go out of their way for their servants. Any servant that expected them to do so didn’t deserve the honor of being a servant. But this made her feel warm, good. And somehow her reaction seemed to feed his. It pleased Evan and Niall both to see her . . . happy.

The revelation was so far outside her milieu, she couldn’t take it any further than that, so she decided it was time to work on those cookies. While she waited on them to bake, she put together a short grocery list for the next time they went down the mountain, planning a few meals ahead.

It was somewhat pleasant, being in charge of a kitchen. She wondered if Niall would let her take the Rover down and do the shopping herself. She remembered the route and felt sure she could handle the vehicle. Then she recalled the reason she was supposed to remain close to them. It startled her that she’d forgotten. Her fetal-curled subconscious never let her forget what shadow loomed over her fate. Apparently, cocooned by the memories of last night, the two men curled around her, she’d been given a respite.

Was that another reason Evan had given her such an extensive to-do list? As Niall had said, most of the time Evan did for himself. Had he realized having too much idle time could make her feel like a victim on a chopping block, waiting for the fall of the axe?

Once again, vampires didn’t make such effort for servants. Except maybe one of them did. A vampire who not only provided her such a list, but illustrated it with cartoon characters of bears to make her smile.

She looked through his basket of unopened mail, tossed there by Niall when they’d brought it up from the mountain post office, which also happened to be Henry’s store. Finding a case knife to use as a letter opener, she went to work on Evan’s correspondence. Most were notices of automatic check deposits from a New York gallery, probably the art dealer Niall had mentioned. The surprisingly large amounts were signed in a bold hand by Marcus Stanton, a handwriting she matched to the Post-it note stuck on the latest one.

Cell phones were invented a decade ago. Heard of them? Use smoke signals, Morse Code or a damn medium, but send me info about next project. Have buyer on line, but wants to know what he’s buying. Such pesky details will keep you solvent! And—much more important—keep me in fucking Gucci.

She put that on top of the pile for Evan to see first, though the tone of exasperated affection in the note suggested it was a routine nudge. At the bottom of the basket, she discovered a wedding invitation that had been opened some time ago. Since she wasn’t sure if he’d responded to the RSVP, she added it to the top as well. She couldn’t imagine he planned to attend, but all his correspondence suggested he had far more human interaction than vampires she knew.

Seeing it was seven o’clock, she stopped to put together dinner. While she’d slept, Niall had added a pair of rabbits to the refrigerator. She appreciated that he’d already turned them into meat, not sure if she could handle soft fur and dead staring eyes. Finding a recipe that cooked the flesh in apple cider, she coated the parts in flour and got started. The recipe included a side dressing of apples and potatoes, as well as a cornstarch and spice gravy for the meat.

It was past dark when she finished, so she was listening for Evan’s footsteps, but he reached out to her with his mind first. I’m going to join Niall at the location he’s found. Pack up dinner and I’ll take it to him. It’s a bit remote, so I want you to stay here for now. And I want my cookie.

She was a little disappointed not to be going, but feeling that she was part of the household, rather than something they had to make plans around, helped soothe the feeling. That, and his amusing request for the cookie. She also put a bit of the rabbit dish in a