Daegan, Gideon. They"d promised to protect her. Where were they?

Was it possible for her to conjure them so they landed fully formed onto her brainpan?

Gideon was suddenly there, shoving through the dark, fearsome bodies, scooping her up. She heard Daegan"s snarl, even more frightening than all those creatures combined. But another one grabbed her away from Gideon, filthy hands and fetid breath. It was going to tumble her into an abyss from which there would be no return. She could see it, a hole in her mind so deep and dark it would be a living death. It was where Henry Barnabus had cowered in his childhood closet, his own personal hell.

“Gideon,” she cried.

He spun, wrapping his arms around her waist, heedless of the demons beating on his shoulders and back. He refused to let her go, even to defend himself. Instead, he tried to cover her with as much of his body as he could.

“Daegan,” he bellowed.

What came out of the darkness toward them was what she imagined the Grim Reaper must look like. His eyes flashed bloodred as he loosed something silver and wicked from his hand, a blade that sliced through the air toward the creature still trying to drag her from Gideon"s grip.

The blade severed the creature"s throat, inches from her face. It fell away, tumbling into that darkness, but she was falling, too. She"d been too close to the edge.

Gideon was holding her, though, and he didn"t let go. As they fell together, his whisper was in her mind, his body sure and unafraid under her frightened grasp.

You’ll never be alone. I won’t leave you alone. Not now, not ever. And wherever we fall, Daegan will find us.

Fucking A, it was a good thing Anwyn had encouraged them to play computer games on the plane, because the idea had sparked to the forefront of Gideon"s mind when she went down.

The darkness rose up in her mind in a way it never had before, like an invading army, and he"d reacted on instinct. Plunging into her mind, fighting those shadows as if they were flesh-and-blood enemies, had been a split-second decision, as abrupt as her seizure, and motivated solely by his gut. Thank the indifferent gods, it had taken Daegan less than a second to catch on and join him.

Now, moments later, he emerged from the astounding experience of putting his mind fully into hers. He"d seen those shadow creatures up close and personal. Freakishly, they"d seen him, recognized him as an enemy. Unfortunately, Gideon had no time to marvel at it.

Daegan turned her over to him, now that it was down to shakes and quivers rather than hard convulsions. As reluctantly impressed as Gideon was by many of the vampire"s skills, his ability in this moment to appear unperturbed bordered on loaves-and-fishes miraculous.

Gideon was still dumbfounded by the fact there wasn"t a mark on either of them, though he"d felt the fists and teeth of those shadow creatures as if he"d been under attack by wolves.

Daegan turned his attention to the flustered servant, who"d been firing questions throughout as to what he could do. Of course, all he"d seen was the two of them on the floor with her, Daegan containing her stronger movements, Gideon with both hands on her head, trying to hold that connection. The servant didn"t realize they"d been off playing World of Warcraft in her brain.

“She"s fine. Just part of her transition. Before long, she"ll be good as new.” Daegan kept his expression aloof, that fuck-off-I"m-a-vampire-and-you"re-a-lowly-human frosty politeness.

“Please tell the Council we"ll be there in a half hour. I apologize for the delay.”

“Very good, my lord. Are you . . . are you sure I can"t get anything for you?”

“No. Her servant will take care of cleaning up.”

Gideon didn"t mind being treated like a janitor. Neither of them wanted to give anyone an excuse to pry around their rooms.

“Fuck, we had no warning of that one at all,” Gideon hissed as the door closed behind the servant.

“Yes, we did. I was careless,” Daegan said grimly. “We both were. She"s just too damn good at internalizing stress. I should have known from how she was acting on the plane, like she was going to a fucking cocktail party. I should have warned you to stay at a deeper level of her mind. Those damned things in her brain knew. The very absence of them was a warning to us.”

He was right. He"d thought it himself on the plane. It made Gideon just as pissed off for overlooking what now seemed obvious. But, like Daegan, he knew there was no time for guilt.

“I think she threw up her last three meals. Is she going to need more blood?”

“It works differently for vampires. She absorbed the nutrients, which is what she needed.

She"ll be a little weak, but she should be all right. We"ll get her cleaned up.” He glanced at Gideon"s pants. “At least you were wearing latex. Easy enough to wipe clean.”

“Yeah, I"m Teflon.” A muscle in his jaw twitched, but Daegan laid a hand on his shoulder.

“You did well, Gideon.”

They both regarded the woman in his arms. “I"ve never seen or felt anything like that,” Gideon murmured. “Does that . . . Is it getting worse, or is it like the darkest-before-the-dawn shit?”

“Do you want an opinion from the floor?”

Anwyn spoke the question in a hoarse voice. As she raised her lashes, they were wet from tears, the stress of her vomiting. Daegan stroked the moisture from the corners of her eyes as Gideon held her upper body. “You"ll be fine. Nothing has changed from a moment ago.”

“Putting me down is no longer an option,” she said, as if he hadn"t spoken. “Gideon"s life is dependent on mine. You"ll have to treat me like Barnabus, lock me away in a cage—”

“Anwyn.” Gideon tightened his arms around her, drew her gaze. “You never need to worry about that. It"s not going to happen, but if you couldn"t get better, we"d go together. It would be that simple. I wouldn"t let you suffer just so I could live.”

“I thought I"d made this very clear.” Daegan"s hands were gentle on her face, but the expression he gave them both was implacable. “No one is dying; no one is being executed; no one is going to sacrifice themselves in an act of pointless nobility. We are going to get through this. It is going to be difficult and terrible at times, but we are going to do it. As soon as the two of you can accept it and stop having these morbid fantasies, the better. Gideon, get her cleaned up, and yourself as well. I"m going to go change my shirt. We leave this room in twenty minutes.”

Rising, he strode into the next bedroom. Gideon lifted a brow. “You"d think he was the one with something stuck up his ass. Which, by the way, means I should get extra credit for what I just did. I could feel that thing the whole time.”

Anwyn tried for a smile, but instead laid her hand on Gideon"s face. “That was amazing, what you both did. How did you know that would even work?”

“The usual. Good old intuition and dumb luck.” He lifted his shoulder. “When I"m not tracking vampires, I have to do something. Arcades are great places for anonymity, and practicing hand-to-eye coordination. Your quip about computer games helped me remember it faster.” He stroked her hair from her face. “You need to stop holding it in, Mistress. Don"t internalize the stress. Those bastards feed on it like candy.” Anwyn shook her head. It was the only way she could do it. She wouldn"t accept that control was an illusion. Perhaps they"d wrest it periodically from her hands, but she wouldn"t hand it over to them without a fight. She drew in a deep breath. Though it felt beyond the realm of possibility at this moment, she knew they were right. She couldn"t let this shake her confidence. Not tonight. She had to reclaim the feeling she"d had before she opened the door.

Daegan was right to be irritable with her.

Gideon grunted. “You know, for a smart lady, you"ve still got a blind eye when it comes to him.”

“What do you mean?” As she struggled to her feet, Gideon helping her, she tried not to look at that puddle of blood she"d left soaking the stone floor and what was likely a very expensive Persian rug. “I"m sorry.”

“You should be. I provide you perfectly good meals, and you go wasting them.” He cupped her face, pressing an unexpected kiss to her forehead. “Don"t be stupid. Mistress.” She curled her hand over his thick wrist, tangling the chains, using the support to steady herself. “What did you mean about Daegan?”

“He has no family, no close friends. It"s obvious even the vampires don"t fully claim him.

Just you. You"re his family, Anwyn.”

“Not just me,” she said. “You"ve got one of those blind sides yourself, Gideon.”

“Yeah, he and I are best girlfriends.” He snorted. “If it wasn"t for you, we"d probably have killed each other by now.”

She arched a brow, even as he firmly guided her into a chair, probably because he could tell her knees were shaking. “He knew you before I did,” she said. “Maybe he made a connection to you long before you were ever introduced formally. He told us to stop dwelling on dying.

Not just me. Since you die if I die, it would seem redundant and unnecessary to tell us both, right? Unless he values both of us.”

“Or he could be shaken up and wasn"t thinking straight. He can get insecure too, you know.” At her dubious look, he snorted. “Regardless, loving and doting big brother just left me with you and this blood to clean up, and wants us ready in twenty minutes. If he values me any more highly, I may stick this broken chair leg up his uppity backside.” Anwyn began to rise to help him, but her servant made it clear she was going to sit on a chair while he did everything else. Bringing a cloth, he cleaned her up first. Fortunately,

projectile vomiting like Linda Blair meant she hadn"t gotten enough on her to warrant changing. Gideon then cleaned the floor as only an impatient man could, with a haphazard use of the good bath towels that made her wonder what curses the cleaning staff would be heaping on him. But it was better than dwelling on what else the night would bring.