“I have plenty, but given the circumstances, I"m going to wait until we"re home to start imposing the no-clothing-except-when-I-allow it rule.”

He couldn"t tell if she was serious, God help him. He decided to leave that alone as well and rose to go to the closet. “Where"s Daegan?”

“One of the Council servants came and got him about two hours ago. You"ve been out awhile. I"m not sure what it was about. He told me not to worry, that no matter what, we leave here when he gets back.” She nodded toward her laptop, open on a desk. “I"ve been working on some billing issues and logging messages to James and Madelyn, though I have to go up top for them to go through. For some reason, stone walls don"t lend themselves to good Wi-Fi reception.” She attempted a grim smile. “I really do need to get back. We have an annual VIP

reunion coming up, and it"s always our busiest weekend. I need to be there.” At his look, she lifted a shoulder. “Insane, isn"t it? Daily life goes on despite this kind of thing.”

He grunted, a noncommittal acknowledgment. But when she rubbed her arms, he saw an ink mark and gestured. “Did you get yourself with a pen?”

She glanced down at it. “No. I was asked to accompany Lord Brian to his lab so he could take some tests. This was a needle marker.”

“Ah, hell. It was because of what Vincent saw, wasn"t it?”

She nodded. “Daegan said I shouldn"t be concerned about it. But then, he says that about everything, doesn"t he?”

Gideon gave a gruff snort at that, and she managed a half smile. “I don"t know what will come of it, but at least it wasn"t that difficult. It was actually pleasant to see him again. It was private there, so we didn"t have to pretend we"d never met.”

Though Anwyn wouldn"t say the conversation had been entirely comfortable.

Still shaken from the dinner, Anwyn had gratefully received the injection Brian had prepared for her, which he said also included a vampire version of a sedative.

“I can tell you need it,” he said gently when she at first balked. “It has no sluggish side effects. It won"t dull your wits. I know Gideon is still unconscious, because you get a particularly strained look to your face when you"re having to manage the gremlins by yourself.”

“After that dinner, how can you tell the difference between that and your standard nervous breakdown?” She gave a harsh chuckle. “Daegan can help, but they"re intimidated by his presence in my head. They cower, but they"re sullen and angry about it, testing. With Gideon, they calm, lie down like birds in the grass. I haven"t quite figured out why.”

“It"s likely a mixing of their psychology with yours. When you"re agitated, Gideon calms you because he is your servant, not a threat to your dominance.” Her lips twisted. “Early on, Daegan said something similar. He always has to be right.”

“Well, he"s about seven hundred years old, I believe. There"s a theory, not entirely proven, that there"s a connection between time and the accumulation of wisdom.” She slanted him an amused glance. “Did you know that Gideon went out and found me a stuffed toy from that old movie Gremlins?” She"d put it on her night table. Sometimes, when he got up to get a shower or otherwise had to leave her, she"d wake to find he"d placed the plush creature in her arms, like a protective totem.

“It doesn"t surprise me.” He sat down on a stool, his slacks pulling attractively at a length of thigh as he braced a hand on it and leaned forward, studying the slide of her blood. He"d also taken some saliva and a skin swab. His forehead creased, but the firm line of his mouth was approval.

“Good. The serum is helping, isn"t it?”

“Yes, it has been. You"re right—it"s only extreme stress that knocks it off-kilter. And Daegan and Gideon both think I need to figure out ways to release stress, rather than trying to block it.”

“Wise idea. But I"ll keep working with the injection serums to see if I can"t help with it as well.”

For the first time, Anwyn was calm enough to notice something amiss. “Where"s Debra?”

“In the hallway.” Brian straightened, made a few notes on a small laptop at his elbow. “With vampire hearing being so acute, I wanted to ensure you could speak freely. She"ll warn us if there"s anyone lurking about.”

“Hmm.” Anwyn studied him. “I"m surprised you had this injection ready.” He shrugged. “I told you I"d keep working on it, refining it. It"s unfortunate that you had a seizure here, but it may become a blessing. Vampire events like these will be far less stressful if you don"t have to worry about concealing your seizures to protect yourself. In my report, I intend to suggest, with a great deal of truth, that your unique situation could hold answers to other medical challenges we face.” He gave her a direct look. “My opinion does not carry much weight on many things, but it does on the science. It may make them far more tolerant of your existence, and once you"re out of sight, safely under Daegan"s care, you"ll be mostly forgotten as they pursue higher-priority objectives.”

She drew deep breaths as she felt the injection work with those rattled nerves, the snarling whispers in her head. Brian"s warmth and reassurance were a godsend, but also puzzling. She wasn"t the cynic that Gideon or Daegan could be, but Brian was an ambitious, eighty-year-old vampire. And she was too protective of Gideon and Daegan to keep from asking.

“You"ve helped us so much, so please don"t be offended, but I can"t imagine your favor to Lyssa extends to you risking your backing by the Council.”

“You"d be surprised,” Brian said dryly. “Plus, the favor is a two-way street. There"s no harm in having the friendship of the Queen of the Far East Clan and her mate. Or that of a vampire assassin.” He gave her a look that came the closest she"d seen to mischief, somber in tone though it was. “The second-most powerful vampire, Lord Mason, also owes me a significant favor. Having that triumvirate—Daegan, Lyssa and Mason—interested in my well-being can only be a good thing, if my work here runs afoul of the Council. I do support their governance, but I"m not blind to their weaknesses, or how they could hurt my species.” At her look, Brian inclined his head. “Many scientists will lie to you, Anwyn. Tell you that science isn"t political. The truth is that vampires and humans both are intensely political by nature. Politics is the concern with the balance of power, and there is no living creature that can claim exemption from that, because those interactions and relationships are how we survive. Much of science, ironically, has been about denying our connection to Nature and how important it is to stay balanced with it, but I won"t block myself from any possibilities.

That"s because I have one objective. To help my species survive.” She"d been told that eighty years was young to vampires, but seeing the sudden intensity in Brian"s gaze, she thought that he might be maturing at an accelerated rate. With his intriguing mix of distracted professor and Machiavellian awareness of his actions and the actions of those around him, she suspected far more tangled issues than medical cures were being worked upon in Brian"s agile brain. Because he was a vampire, she knew that could be highly amoral ground. He would bear watching. At the moment, he was a friend, but she was a close observer herself, and the way Daegan interacted with all vampires, even one like Brian, whom he claimed to trust, told her there was an unpredictability to them that shouldn"t be underestimated.

It was as if the entire world she inhabited had become like her most volatile dungeon sessions, where the senses had to be on high alert, always ready for anything.

“There are so few of us, Anwyn,” Brian continued, more quietly. “While it may not seem that way, that"s because you"re part of our world now. We"re cloistered together because we"re so interdependent. But at last count, there are no more than five thousand vampires in the world. That is why, as feudal and barbaric as it may seem, the Council built the Region and overlord system to keep everyone working closely together, something not entirely easy for those of a predatory nature. We"re more like cheetahs, who hunt and live alone, than wolf packs. Lady Lyssa had a remarkable, chilling ability to understand what structure would ensure our survival and progress. She allowed room for both compassion and cruelty, the art of war as well as the art of velvet-over-steel diplomacy.

“To keep my eye on that ball, I must stay clear of the politics. Which, ironically, means I must stay very cognizant of where all the interweaving threads are. It"s like negotiating a laser beam security system around a large diamond.”

“So it"s like that adage, isn"t it? The best person to lead is the one who doesn"t want to be the leader.” She gave him the teasing prod without a smile, but he shook his head.

“A true leader does want to lead, because he or she believes the goal is important. The more appropriate adage is that a person takes a leadership role, not because he or she wants to be important, but because the job itself is important.”

She sighed, put her head down into her hands, drew another deep, shuddering breath. “I don"t think I"ve ever done anything that horrible . . . or astounding, in all my life. And Gideon .

. . I don"t know what to say to him. I"m learning how to be a Mistress in this world, and though Daegan said I"m uniquely suited to it, this is different.”

“Hmm.” Brian cut and transferred several lines of powder into a waiting beaker. “You know, I remember having a conversation with Gideon one of the times you were unconscious, after a seizure. I told him I wasn"t concerned about how he would handle helping you within the boundaries of your apartment. I was worried how he would handle the vampire world. He told me, in that charmingly brusque manner of his, that you"d get another servant for that. That he was just here to patch you through your transition.” Brian gave her a sidelong glance. “He also informed me he didn"t give a shit about my rule spouting on „letting a servant go." He said that Daegan, or I, or even one of the Council, could kill him—or try—but no one was locking him into anything. Do you know what I found interesting about that?”