She loved Danny. It was clear as the sky after a hard rain. While her anger was like that of a goddess, fearsome and destructive, what he was seeing was little different than two sisters in a blue, one more experienced and angered by the younger one’s inexperience and folly. Unfortunately, that was a reassurance that his lady, as the recipient of the earbashing, didn’t seem to be feeling.

Danny had flinched at the tone, but now her hands slowly closed into balls at her sides. She faced Lyssa square, her blue eyes holding the green ones. “No one will ever do that, my lady. I can assure you. But I will learn. I promise you, if you support me as Region Master for the Northwest Territory, I will not fail at it.”

Lyssa studied her a long, long moment. “Fine, then,” she said at last. “But you owe a debt to Alistair and me of a magnitude I expect you will keep in mind if he ever needs a favor.” Her glance shifted thoughtfully now, to Dev. “I will collect my payment now.

It has two parts. First, I will feed on your servant tonight, because I am going to second-mark him. I will have access to his mind when I wish, so I may check in on your progress.”

When Danny’s gaze flickered, Dev was interested to see cobalt fire there, a different kind. “My lady, you have my blood. You can have access to my mind as you wish. I would deny you nothing, but . . .” Lyssa raised a brow. “You act as if I was offering you a choice, Lady Daniela. I will take your servant’s blood. Second, for the remainder of this night, you will follow my direction as if you were a servant yourself. I have one more lesson to teach you. To teach you both.”

Once things were settled in the household, Lyssa retired to one of the guest bedrooms, and had Dev and Thomas help Danny get there. Frustratingly, Lyssa still hadn’t permitted Dev to offer his lady blood, but she allowed him to help Danny stretch out on the bed while the queen took a seat on a nearby chair, laying her hands on the arms in a regal pose.

“Remove her clothes,” she instructed Dev. “And clean up the rest of her. You will lie still as he does it,” she commanded Danny.

Dev obeyed, because Danny appeared to be willing to submit to Lyssa’s demands, though he chafed at it on her behalf. For quite a bit after that, Lyssa was a silent presence in the room, a sensual weight like an exotic scent.

It was then he realized this was more than a lesson or payment. This was a punishment, making Danny submit to her own servant in front of the queen, forcing her to share that servant. He wanted to keep bristling at it, but as he took care of her, he sensed a quiet acceptance in Danny. As if it was a consequence to her actions she was willing to bear, much like a child realizing that the punishment could have been far, far worse. Of course, it could be his fiery lady was out of fight, worn-out by blood loss.

As for him, he had no complaints, except he wished his lady had not been so abused. When he gently divested her of all her clothes, he used a basin of warm water, salts and herbal additives provided by Thomas, gathered from the kitchen staff, to sponge over the wounds. She quivered under his touch, sometimes at the pain and sometimes at something else he sensed going on beneath the surface of her otherwise smooth face. When he turned her over, did the back, he was angered anew to see it all, to imagine what the past day must have been like for her. And he was torn between wanting to paddle her, something similar to Lyssa’s reaction, and feeling a bit amazed by her.

He was a traditional man, used to protecting women, as Danny had implied more than once. But she was different. It was almost as if Danny and he were . . . well, they were like mates, on a lot of levels. He could fight beside her, drink with her. But he could also hold her, love her. He’d known he couldn’t handle a soft one again. But her, he could want. Did want, with a fierceness that had nothing to do with logic. Thomas might be right about the vampire-servant connection being predestined, since nothing exactly explained it, but here he was regardless.

When he had finished cleaning his lady, Lyssa at last shifted. “Set aside the basin, Devlin. Take off your clothes, and then I will tell you what I intend you to do next.”

It went without saying that she overrode his lady, but he still wasn’t completely reconciled to the idea she could override him. He wasn’t sure he’d even accepted that from Danny. But as he turned toward the vampire who had implied she could rip out his heart almost as soon as he had the thought, he saw something in Lyssa’s face, the way her eyes rested on Danny’s mauled flesh, the many bruises and bites, mottled areas where bones had broken and then re-fused. Mutely, he removed his shirt, then sat on the bed to pull off the boots. Behind him, Danny remained on her side, turned away from him. He’d found it odd she hadn’t turned at Lyssa’s words, but drew her legs up closer to her body, making him think she might have dozed off. He was sliding the trousers off when he heard it. The smallest of noises, a caught breath, a tensing of her shoulders.

“Ease her pain,” Lyssa said quietly. “Start at her feet, and work your way up with your mouth. Leave no part untouched. Cherish her with your lips and fingers.”

As punishments went, he thought there might indeed be worse. Putting a knee on the bed, he noticed Danny’s tiny shudders coming closer together and more frequent. She was fighting, as hard as she fought Ruskin, to keep the sobs from becoming noticeable.

Bending, he placed his lips on her arch. The foot flexed, pressing against his cheek, another tremor.

Easy, my lady. It’s all right. Just feel.

I killed them, Dev. Him, and them. Ian.

Yes, you did. Let it go. It’s done, and we’ll make it right with the little ones. Though he knew nothing ever really made it right.

The most damnable thing about the soul was that it went on, no matter what things it had done. Would keep doing.

As her body jerked with the next sob, he put his hands along her calves, sliding up toward the backs of her thighs. He didn’t leave an inch untouched with his mouth. Giving her his heat and comfort, he emptied his mind of everything but the need to take away those tears, the determination that he would do so. She’d drawn up her legs farther, gone to a fetal position. In some part of his mind, he realized despite her pain, this was an incomparable gift of trust, letting him see her this way. Letting Lyssa see her this way.

The three of them were enclosed in this quiet, still place in the universe, lit by candlelight as he cosseted her with his mouth.

I know this isn’t what you wanted. He made the thought gentle, soothing . But I’m here. I’ll be with you.

This isn’t what you wanted, Dev.

You’re exactly what I want, my lady.

He coaxed her to loosen her thighs, let him stretch out one leg, kiss all the way to the hip, slide a hand beneath to lift her, brush his mouth over her sex. He took the pleasure of a deep draught there before turning her to her stomach, licking his way over the arse and to the tender lower back area, her long, freed hair teasing his nose.

She’d clutched her hands on the pillow now, and he traced his lips up her spine, between her shoulder blades, moving the hair to the side and wrapping the silk of it around one hand as he reached her neck. Turning her on her back again, he worked back down the sternum, mouth worshipping the high curves of breast, tight nipples and tender crease beneath. Then the slope of her abdomen, the navel. His turgid cock brushed her thigh, leaving a track of moisture, he was sure.

“Now inside her, bushman. Sink deep. Danny, your hands over your head. It is all him, what I am ordering him to do to you.” Danny held Dev’s gaze, tear tracks on her face, and slowly lifted her hands over her head, taking hold of the iron rails. Scratches on the bars told him someone had been chained to them before. It might have been Danny.

He pushed that away. This moment wasn’t about rage or fear over what-ifs. Though this was Lyssa’s punishment, he wanted Danny to feel cherished, to reduce her to mindless, trembling release, let everything bad about this night wash from her. So maybe they both wouldn’t be haunted by what could have happened.

“No, don’t hold on to the rail,” Lyssa ordered. “It’s far harder to simply let your hands lie above your head, surrender to what is inside you.”

New tears welled up and he turned his head to Lyssa. “Is that bloody necessary?” The queen had blown out several of the candles, so was sitting in shadow. “Yes.” Yes, it is, Dev. I need this. I need you.

Turning back to face Danny’s expression, he saw it there, the anguish and exhaustion, the fear she hadn’t allowed to show, the revulsion with herself. She needed him. He realized she likely had never done anything so violent in her life as what she had plotted and executed since he’d known her. The vampire that, according to Lyssa, was considered little more than an excellent arm adornment with a good pedigree.

They’ll never think that again, love. Not after this gets around.

“Do not kiss her until you are inside her.” Lyssa’s voice arrested him in midmotion, his face halfway to hers. “Hold right there, and put your cock inside her, slowly. I want to see it happen, and I want her to stare into your face while you do it.” He swallowed and began to do just that. It was harder than burying his face in a girl’s neck and sliding in, that was for sure. There were so many expressions crossing Danny’s face, he couldn’t track them all. She was having a difficult time keeping her hands lying loose on the bed, and he missed them, touching his back, grasping his arse sure and steady, telling him what she wanted. But God, her cunt was heaven itself, distracting him from all of that.

So empty . . . I’m so empty, until you’re inside me, making me feel real again . . . Alive. Like I can feel, and love, and laugh . . .

It was all there in her eyes, her mind, offered to him, only he wasn’t sure which of them was offering it or, like their hands when he reached up to clasp one in his, their fingers intertwining, it was what they became together.

He was all the way in, her body having tilted upward to take his girth and length. The tiny tip of tongue touched her lip in the way that bespoke the concentration and effort it took to accommodate his size. The way that drove him crazy with need.