Particularly when it was off to such a promising start.

The chandelier was a waterfall of glass shards brought to shimmering life by the low-toned bulbs hidden somewhere among their curtain. Gideon expected it was probably worth as much as the college education he"d refused, despite the football scholarship he"d been offered.

Somehow, the idea of hanging out in dorms, drinking beer and indulging in the starry-eyed academic idealism that the world could be changed if you wished hard enough, like Dorothy in Kansas, didn"t sound as appealing once your girlfriend had been ripped open like a downed deer. The people who said you didn"t dream in color were full of shit. He hated the recurring nightmare where Laura"s pastel yellow dress glowed like neon mustard, the arterial blood like graffiti paint.

He guessed he should have expected his immediate surroundings would plunge him into those kinds of memories, but with effort, he tried to bring his mind back into the present.

The dining table was probably twenty-five feet long, with the Council members, Daegan and Anwyn placed at generously spaced intervals. He deliberately kept his attention away from the centerpiece as the waitstaff brought out appetizers and small portions of gourmet meals in several courses. The vampires would savor those morsels through smell, sight, and discerning bites before sending the bulk of it back to the kitchen. It would probably be enjoyed by the serving class of the castle, like him. Maybe Daegan or Anwyn could ask for a doggie bag.

Particularly if his stomach started growling.

Vampires.

The one bright spot so far, with some reservations, was that the Council had invited Lord Brian to join them. In their flurry of preparations, Gideon had forgotten Brian had returned to his main laboratory and research facility in the Berlin compound by now. What made him uneasy was that Brian wasn"t high enough on the totem pole to be invited to a Council private dinner, unless there was a specific reason for him to be there. It was likely that Vincent had reported on the incident with Anwyn earlier and they wanted their resident pet scientist to observe her.

While predicting a vampire"s loyalties was never foolproof, it wasn"t likely that Brian had told the Council about his time with them earlier, since that had been a favor to Lady Lyssa, one Brian had agreed to keep discreet. His behavior confirmed it, because he greeted Daegan and Anwyn as if it were their first meeting. It made Gideon like the scientist even more, but he wasn"t going to bank on it too heavily. If the Council requested an evaluation of Anwyn, he knew the man would be honest with them on what he found, no way around it. In truth, the fanged geek was probably itching to have her come to the lab so he could track how his serum was doing on her.

Of course, despite the vampire propensity for hiding emotions, Brian couldn"t completely disguise the brief flash of utter shock that went through his green eyes when he saw Gideon attending Anwyn as her servant within the Council walls.

Yeah, you and me both, buddy. It’s a weird world.

Debra was with him, of course. Compared to the fetish wear and more seductive fashion statements worn by the other servants, positioned along the wall behind their Masters" or Mistresses" chairs, Debra was classic sensuality. She wore a formfitting deep crimson sheath and heels, simple jewelry and a ribbon choker that dangled a bloodred stone. Her blond hair was piled up. Though she looked pretty, Gideon had the sense she"d thrown the outfit together after a long day in the lab. He wanted to smile at her, but knew they had to pretend not to know each other. She gave him a cool, polite nod, which was actually far better than the vibes he was getting elsewhere in the room.

Just as she"d warned him, the scrutiny of the other servants was decidedly unfriendly, a “you have no business here” message, loud and clear. While vampires didn"t hold a grudge about his acts of sabotage against their kind, apparently servants did. Servants bonded closely with other servants, an exclusive little trade union, and a lot of servants had died during the attack on Mason"s estate.

He"d never understood servants. Even now, he"d chosen the path he had because Anwyn, a victimized human, needed him, not because a vampire had asked for his loyalty. Turn ownership of your soul over to a creature who already saw your species as inferior, who would consider you their property once those marks were in place? Crazy. And yet most servants who entered a vampire"s service willingly seemed to embrace it.

He understood that Jacob and Lyssa loved each other, even though it was an oddly intense, brutal sort of devotion. But most vampires weren"t Lyssa, who"d been willing to die for her servant. So he still didn"t get it.

Think of knights and their liege lord or lady. Or both.

Cute. His attention returned to Anwyn at her murmur in his mind. Her profile was enticing, the sweet rise of her breasts over the corset as she responded to something Lord Uthe said, a smile playing on her lips. It distracted him from the irritating soreness of his back, kept him from twitching over it. He wouldn"t give the bastards that satisfaction. Plus, if she could handle this without flinching, so could he. When she turned her face toward him on occasion, he could tell her smile didn"t reach her eyes. A large part of what she did at her club had to be performance, but there he"d sensed her full heart was in it. She wanted to be anywhere but here, but she was doing a good job at portraying herself otherwise. He didn"t think anyone other than he or Daegan could tell, except maybe Brian. For all that the scientist tended to immerse himself in his research to the point that Debra had to be his communications liaison, he didn"t miss much that was important. He probably knew Anwyn"s emotional fluctuations as well as they did.

Anwyn had also taken Gideon"s warning to heart, not expending any energy on keeping the curtain of her mind drawn between them tonight. Fortunately, he was getting better at sifting through multiple sources of information in his head.

She was pouring all her effort into holding it together in this environment, as well as giving him the maximum ability to recognize another seizure coming upon her. They"d devised several different ways to handle that, but none of them had anticipated the Council trapping them into a formal dinner where she was the center of attention. What they could do in this situation, he wasn"t sure, but he hastened to add in his mind that he would be resourceful enough to come up with something. He was sure Daegan was staying just as close to her gray matter.

Her lips curved, a faintly rueful gesture as she tossed him a surreptitious glance. It sucks, knowing I can hear “I haven’t a fucking clue what I’ll do,” right?

Yeah, but that’s the way I handle most crises in my life. I’m still here to talk about them.

Her gaze sparkled with a trace of humor. Noted, and reassured. Thank you. I notice you haven’t been appreciating the table centerpiece.

Sex slaves surrounded by spring foliage is so last year. Martha Stewart’s mag says so.

He heard her laughter in his head, was warmed by it and the ever-so-slight easing of her tense shoulders, before she turned her attention back to the conversation. He"d need to give her a massage tonight, take out some of those kinks. He could do that passably well. He hadn"t ever had any training, just somehow knew where the knots were, and how to untie them. And touching her was no hardship, ever.

Brian had been placed across the table from Anwyn. Daegan was seated at one end, Belizar at the other, Anwyn to Daegan"s right. Gideon of course was against the wall behind his Mistress"s chair. He"d covered every inch of the terrain, but now, against his will, his eyes were tugged back to that centerpiece she"d teased him about.

Just beneath the impressive chandelier, two males were on display. He assumed they were servants who belonged specifically to Council members, because Barbra and Carola had no one standing at attention behind them. The men had been oiled down so every muscle gleamed. They were manacled flush to each other, one"s chest against the shoulder blades of the other, hips nested together so intimately it was clear that the blond guy in back had impaled the redhead"s ass. The bands of steel holding the arms to one another allowed the slight difference necessary to compensate for the width of their bodies, but if one of them moved his arm, they"d both be moving it.

Of course, they weren"t moving much of anything, because they were locked on a rotating dais. A steel pole rose from it with a short, horizontal, wood platform for the man in back to lean against. Of course he was strapped to it, because that platform had been fitted with a dildo so his ass was impaled as well. Their arms had been drawn together forward and low, so their two sets of hands encircled the erect genitalia of the man in front. The blond in back clasped the cock at the base while the redhead cupped his own balls.

The guy in back had been instructed to pump into his companion"s ass and ride the phallus up his own backside in slow, methodical rhythm with the classical music filtering into the room. He"d been commanded to follow the beat, no matter how agitated either one became, so the Council was treated to what Gideon assumed they"d feel was an artistic display of smoothly flexing buttock and thigh muscles. As well as the rise and fall of broad chests as their arousals waxed and waned.

They both wore condoms, which was good since they"d already come once or twice during the second and third courses. While the vampires noted it with flashes of lust or approval, they continued on with their conversations as if it was no more exceptional than seeing the waitstaff move in and out of the room.

Fortunately, there was female eye candy. As he"d noted from entering the room—acute observer that he was—all of the female servants in the room, other than Debra, were dressed in ways that would have made a porn movie look tame. Lord Stephen had explained his servant was being punished for an unmentioned transgression, so she was as naked as the men, except she wore a chastity belt fitted with a clit and anal stimulator. Breast and nipple clamps had her already ample breasts distended with the constriction. She also wore a full neck collar that allowed her head no mobility, and a ball gag almost too large to get past her teeth had been shoved in to stretch her jaw muscles hard.

She was rasping around that gag because Stephen had control of the pace and power of the stimulator. She never came, but at different times she was excruciatingly close. Then he would dial her back again. Gideon noted the males in the room couldn"t help responding to her agony.