“I wish I had time to give you pleasure, cher, but perhaps this sorry servant of yours can finish what I started, keep you occupied until my return.”

“Or perhaps he"ll do such a good job I"ll have no need of you in my bed at all.” She tossed her head, and then managed a short laugh as Daegan caught her hair in a less gentle hand and branded her with a harder kiss that stole away all smiles and laughter, left her gasping and Gideon aching from the raw sexuality of it, his cock tight against his jeans.

“We"ll see about that when I return. For now, cher, I need you to promise me something.

Try not to listen to your servant"s mind while I take him outside and talk to him a moment.”

“Is it something you think I can"t handle?” Her blue-green gaze narrowed.

“No. You can handle anything. But I think there is some information that shouldn"t be known to you, but should be to him. If you need it, it will be yours, but I think it will help protect you in certain ways. Plausible deniability. You understand?” She nodded, though she looked confused and vaguely dissatisfied. He kissed her hands, backed away. “I will see you in a day or so, cher. All will be well.” Gideon arched a brow. As he followed Daegan out and shut the door, they moved down the hallway until they were out of her fledgling-vampire hearing range. “What kind of bullshit was that?”

“The kind that will keep her alive.” Daegan turned to face him, all traces of humor gone.

“Despite your display of . . . loyalty, apparently the question of your fate is still undecided.

Some still want you dead, even if Anwyn is allowed to live.”

“Son of a bitch.” Gideon shook his head, but now he understood. If Anwyn had thought he was still in danger . . .

“You are safe until my return, just as she is,” Daegan said. “They know the impact on a vampire when her servant is abruptly terminated. I"ve convinced them that Anwyn would need me here to support her if that is the decision they make. Her well-being will give them pause where yours will not. It, and Uthe"s guarantee, will keep them from acting prematurely.

However, if anything happens to me—”

“Whoa. You said this was going to be an easy mop-up.”

“Yes, it is. But we both know there"s more to it than it seems. Even if it"s not, every fight can go wrong. If that is the case, tell Anwyn to appeal to Uthe"s protection. Tell him my last wish is that he honor my mother"s memory by protecting the woman to whom I gave my heart.

Let her keep the servant best able to care for her in my absence.” Though the words were spoken in a businesslike, brusque manner, Gideon was taken aback by them, the directness of Daegan"s gaze. He cleared his throat. “So if I"m just as safe, why didn"t you tell me this in front of her?”

“Because we both know she is far more fragile than she will acknowledge. She is nearing the end of her patience with this Council, and that would be the final straw. You understand why it is important for her to be accepted before we leave. She does not.” Daegan lifted a shoulder. “If the time comes that she needs to know everything, you will know when and how to tell her.”

Gideon digested that. “You asked me if I felt you were being misled. You were willing to trust my judgment over Uthe"s loyalty.”

“I have a great deal of faith in your precognition, Gideon. Don"t let it go to your head, though. You"re still dumb as a post on most other things.”

Daegan put a hand on his shoulder, forestalling a retort. “As long as you tuck these thoughts in your mind somewhere and don"t dwell on them, she won"t see them. She hasn"t mastered mind manipulation as well as all that yet. As before, Lord Brian will be useful if she has a seizure and you need a vampire"s strength to help contain her.” Gideon still didn"t like any of this. He agreed with Anwyn. He"d never wanted to be out of a place more, and Atlantis was looking as close to a home as he"d had in a long time. But he sighed, curled his lip in a half snarl. “Get your ass back here as fast as you can, then. Any other reassurance you want me to give her?”

Daegan nodded. Quick as a striking snake, he caught Gideon behind the neck, giving him a hard, thorough kiss, as thorough as the one he"d given Anwyn. When he let him go, Gideon was appalled to find he was clutching the male"s waist beneath his duster, feeling the metal of his sheathed sword, the weapons he wore. His throbbing cock was pressed hard against Daegan"s thigh in insistent need. Daegan pushed him back gently, but with pleasure in his gaze.

“If I wanted to be a cruel Master, I would order you and Anwyn not to take your pleasure with each other until my return. But I think you"ve suffered enough for one day. I"ll enjoy arousing you twice as much when this is over.”

Tangling his fingers in Gideon"s hair to give it a hard tug, he offered one more sexy smile, a flash of fang, and then was gone.

If he"d had any intention of doing as Daegan had suggested, finishing with Anwyn what the vampire had started, it was halted by the immediate arrival of Lord Brian. The scientist wanted to run a few more tests and question Anwyn further on her current state, to fill in more blanks for the Council. After a couple hours of that, Gideon left them talking and prowled the suite restlessly.

Yeah, he couldn"t settle down in a castle full of vampires. But that wasn"t it. Those rare instances he"d ignored his gut, it had always been a mistake. Sometimes he"d very nearly not lived to regret it. Something was wrong with the whole setup.

He looked at Anwyn again. While he always worried for her, nothing raised his hackles, not even Brian"s proximity. Daegan"s belief in Uthe"s and Brian"s trustworthiness was apparently sound, because his internal concern compass showed no flags when it pointed toward her. And while Gideon didn"t like keeping Anwyn out of the loop, Daegan had been right. Gideon understood a great deal about the myriad contradictions of the vampire world that she didn"t yet. He and Anwyn weren"t a threat to the Council. Their fate had everything to do with Daegan and the power games the Council was playing with him.

However, as he turned his thoughts to Daegan, chills ran through his lower belly. Danger was headed his way, not theirs. And Daegan thought he was goddamned invincible.

When a quiet knock came on the door, Gideon already had his weapon out. He kept the knife at the small of his back as he went to answer. Lord Brian rose, drawing Anwyn behind him with firm courtesy. It upgraded him a notch in Gideon"s estimation. The vampire"s face made it clear that if there was a threat, despite Uthe"s assurances and Brian"s service to the Council, the young vamp was ready to fight.

Gideon opened the door. His suspicions ratcheted up tenfold at the sight of Stephen"s servant, Alanna.

“Let me in, quickly.” She was already moving across the threshold. Gideon allowed it, mainly because she wasn"t wearing much to hide a weapon, a diaphanous creation that would have made her more at home in an Arabian Nights tale than a drafty Berlin castle. Still, he grasped her arm, controlling her movement into the room as he closed the door. “Don"t touch me,” she said sharply. “I"m not armed, and I only have a few moments to tell you this.” He ignored her request, but his touch did ease when she seemed willing to stay standing in the same place, far from Anwyn. Of course, logically, Anwyn had the strength to snap a human servant in half. “Here to deliver a message for your Master?”

“No.” Her color was pale, her eyes feverish, making Gideon even more uneasy. When he worked with cells of vampire hunters, some had carried that kind of expression. They"d usually just lost someone they loved, and that fuck-it-all look made it almost a certainty they wouldn"t come home from the next fight. Because that was the way they wanted it.

“Lord Stephen has deceived the Council. He is sending Daegan Rei into a trap.” Anwyn stepped forward then, heedless of Lord Brian"s hand on her arm. “Tell us what you mean,” she said sharply.

“Lord Daegan was told this was a disorganized, weak group of made vampires. That group actually left Lord Stephen"s territory some weeks ago. Instead, Daegan Rei has been sent to the stronghold of a vampire called Xavier.”

“Xavier?” Brian"s brow creased. “He has no stronghold. He"s one of the lower-ranked vampires of Stephen"s former overlord territory. Last I heard, he was living quietly in the North.”

“No.” Alanna shook her head. “That is what Stephen wanted the Council to believe. Xavier has only gained in strength. Stephen allowed him to recruit and organize a military-trained force of vampires.”

“To what end?” Brian demanded.

While Gideon knew Lord Brian had seniority here, and the ear of the Council, he silently hoped he"d get past the politics and find out more about Daegan, before he or Anwyn—

especially Anwyn—blew a gasket.

“I won"t speak to Lord Stephen"s motives. Those are obvious enough.” Alanna turned her gaze to Gideon, surprisingly. “Xavier is a well-educated man who prefers to act as a mercenary. He and his vampire force own and operate out of a fetish club called the Coffin. I don"t know his ultimate plans, but Stephen has allowed him to act as if it is his territory within a territory, so to speak, in return for the favors Xavier"s vampires do for Stephen—”

“Son of a bitch.” The missing motive fell into place at last. Gideon gritted his teeth.

“Barnabus was a test run, to see how Daegan operates. Stephen wants Xavier to take out Daegan.”

“Yes. Because Daegan terminated Ella Maher. Stephen did not know until he came onto the Council how she died, when he learned of Council"s use of Daegan Rei. Ella Maher was a lover of Stephen"s. They were close, as close as my Master comes to affection. He wants the Council to cease using Lord Daegan for assassination of made vampires, but he also wants personal vengeance.”

Damn if Daegan hadn"t been right about that as well. I may have been assigned to kill someone they considered a friend or a preferred lover . . . “How does Barbra figure into this?”