Taken by a Vampire

Author:Joey W. Hill
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Penguin Group, USA
Published: 2013-05-07T21:00:00+00:00

14

IT left her with a mix of emotions when they pulled back into the cabin site. Evan was on a fairly precarious perch, along the northern rocky slope above the cabin. Niall muttered something about how nice it would have been if he waited until he had the ropes to start scaling cliffs. “Impatient bugger.”

To Alanna, it looked like the vampire was evaluating the sky, which still held various dark streaks, residue from the long-past sunset. Since he didn’t acknowledge their arrival, Niall nodded to Alanna, indicating they would unload the car and leave him be.

However, after she put things away, she couldn’t shake a sense of foreboding. When Niall was occupied, she slipped out to figure a way up that slope. Before she could set her foot to a likely path, though, Evan’s voice came into her head, clipped and short.

I have no need of you right now, Alanna.

Yes, Master. I apologize. Chagrined, she turned back.

Of course, if he’d be consistently one thing or another, maybe she could keep up with how she was supposed to act. She immediately chastised herself for making her Master responsible for her proper behavior, but confusion was an acceptable reaction. He’d given her what couldn’t be called anything but what it was—affection, attention, approval—none of which he was required to do. She’d been acclimated to doing without those things from her Master. But getting even a taste of it was like a drug.

She remembered her resentment toward Adam, the brusque answer she’d given him. Two months later he was dead. She was mature enough to know that one moment didn’t destroy their love for each other, but she regretted it was the last face-to-face conversation they had. And not just because she loved him. It was as if that simmering regret held a wealth of other messages for her, important things she couldn’t decipher.

She sat down on the path. Evan wanted her out of his field of vision, and here, sitting among the silent trees, she accomplished that. She should cook something for Niall’s dinner, for Evan’s later sampling. She also hadn’t completed her two hours of “me time” yet. Maybe she’d draw a picture of Adam. She’d tear it up of course, because it was one of the InhServ’s top rules, not to have any possessions. But why would anyone other than her want a picture of a servant’s face? A servant who was gone.

Putting her head down on her knees, she freed her hair, letting the wind blow it over her shoulders and forward so it hid her face. Her shields against the terrifying reality she was facing were thin, but since she’d been taking the blockers, she’d been managing them better. However, today’s error had cracked them back open, such that the fear kept coming back at her like a boomerang, refusing to let her be, especially with no current occupation for her thoughts.

The waiting was the worst part, wasn’t it? Everyone feared the unknown, but she feared certainty. She would be with Stephen for all eternity.

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