Most vamps that emanated this type of power had a few centuries under their belt. In this section of the country, Gideon should have heard some whisper about him. The way Daegan handled himself, like some kind of supernatural Special Ops, Gideon knew he had to be dealing with a vamp who had a trained purpose. Would Lyssa know who he was? She was still privy to a lot of Council secrets.

His T-shirt and weapons were still on the chair. Before he could reach for either, Daegan picked up the shirt with two fingers, staying away from the firearms and knives. When he held it out to Gideon, he was close enough the cotton slid across his bare sternum. Gideon snatched it away.

“You were wearing that inside out when you came into the alley,” Daegan observed.

“I was more concerned about getting here than offending yourGQ fashion sense,” Gideon responded.

“You're not going after this guy without me. No matter what's crawled up your ass you don't want to share.”

He refused to step back, even though Daegan had crossed his personal space barrier. Which, given how he felt about vampires, was somewhere in the next state. This one in particular made him feel boxed in.

Daegan eyed him critically, as if evaluating his ability to chew food and tie his shoes. Therefore, it surprised Gideon when the vampire at last gestured to return to the reading room. After pulling on his shirt and jacket, Gideon followed him in there. Daegan closed the door, putting another sound barrier between them and the bathroom.

“Before long, she will be able to hear conversations anywhere in these rooms, but for now this should be sufficient. Can you detach yourself enough to do what needs to be done, vampire hunter, even when it's something you cannot bear?”

“Believe me, when it comes to this piece of shit, I'll take him out singing ‘Howdy Doody' and go to Chuck E. Cheese afterward to celebrate. What, is this bastard some kind of friend of yours? If you think—”

Damn it, it was the second time the asshole had gotten the jump on him. This time, though, Gideon was flat on his back on the floor, Daegan's rubber sole on his throat, before he even knew what hit him. He stared up into eyes that had gone bloodred. All right, thiswas the scariest vamp he'd ever seen. Perhaps even scarier than Lyssa in a temper, and that was saying a great deal.

“Shut up, human,” Daegan said with quiet menace. “Or I swear by all the Holy Relics I will rip out your tongue so it will cease annoying me.”

Gideon grabbed the shoe, twisted hard enough that Daegan was forced to pull back. When he rolled, reaching for his blade, Daegan spun with his movement, picked him up by the scruff and knocked him face forward into the chair. He held Gideon there, his body crowded up hard behind him. Personal space barrier completely eliminated. Gideon didn't care to feel any man's groin up against his own ass, particularly when it had been naked not too long before, but Daegan's hiss of annoyance in his ear told him it wasn't his virtue in danger.

He was being an idiot. He'd been captured by vamps before. Once they had you, you couldn't go toe-to-toe with them. You had to wait for an opportunity. This was just a stupid, dumb-ass pissing contest, the two of them venting their frustration about what they couldn't do for the woman behind the door. Who was probably going to come out at any moment and kick both their asses in that demeaning way that only women could, with a disappointed look and a sharp tongue.

As if coming to the same conclusion, Daegan let him go with a shove and a curse, and stepped back.

“While I am gone, the whole time I am gone, she will have to be restrained. Heavily restrained. Chained.” Gideon rose to his feet, gazing at him warily. “Why?”

“You know why. You've been through this with your brother, as you said.” Daegan gave him a grim look. “When I took her blood in the bathroom, I exercised the right of a sire. I gave her a locater mark, vampire to vampire. If she gets away, I can track her, but that's just a safety net. Under no circumstances can we allow that to happen. She will kill during fits of bloodlust, and she won't care if it's a three-year-old or a drug dealer.”

Gideon did know that. Jacob's bloodlust had lasted a good several months, but they'd learned to anticipate its cycles. Keeping him at Mason's estate during the worst of it, away from people, had allowed him more freedom. They'd had to restrain him only periodically for the first couple weeks.

But restraining her, after what she'd been through . . . Realization dawned.Something you cannot bear . ..

Daegan nodded, seeing Gideon's comprehension. “It's going to be far harder on her than it was on your brother. Not only because of what happened tonight. I have a bad feeling about this transition. It feels different from others I've witnessed. I can't leave her alone during this. While you would not be my first choice, you are my only choice. Even that would not sway me, but she trusts you. Anwyn trusts no one lightly.”

“You're giving me such a warm fuzzy feeling. Should we hug now?”

“Don't push it,” Daegan warned. “One of us must go get the blood and one of us must stay. Someone must be here to reassure her. I'm best equipped to go get the blood.” Gideon gave him an incredulous look. “Yeah, look under ‘nurturing' in the dictionary and you'll find my phone number.”

Daegan blew out a breath through his nostrils that should have billowed steam. “You are successful because you take time to plan your attacks. I will track them, find them and get that blood. That's the extent of the plan, and it's one only a vampire can execute, particularly when the odds are one against three.”

“Pretty confident, aren't you?”

Daegan shook his head. “These vampires are not old. They are depraved, vicious and likely unstable.

That fledgling I killed was young and his Master's residual blood tasted weak. I can kill them as easily as you could decapitate three toddlers.”

“Thanks. The day hasn't had enough disturbing images in it.”

“Will you stay with her?” Daegan said impatiently.

Gideon studied him a long moment. “It's more than that. If something unexpected happens, I'm the only one who will know how to end her suffering the quickest way.”

“Yes.” Daegan held his gaze. “I also know, despite your feelings about my kind, you will make it as painless as possible. When you touch her, your hands are gentle, vampire hunter.” Gideon cleared his throat, looked down at the carpet. “Okay,” he said at last.

“‘Okay'? You will no longer argue with me on this?”

“Your logic's sound. You're not making up bullshit to keep me out of harm's way, the usual ‘humans don't know how to fight vampires' crap.”

“Believe me, I would not hesitate to put you in harm's way.”

“Likewise.” Gideon shrugged tense shoulders. “And though I couldn't care less about seeing you again, for her sake, come back. I don't want to make that choice.”

“Nor do I. Though I almost prefer walking into a nest of vampires to what we are about to do.” Daegan looked toward the closed door. “She'll agree to it to protect those she cares about, but few things are as sacred to her as her control. When we have to restrain her, the stress will certainly trigger another episode. A very bad one. We need to prepare.”

When the door to the bathroom closed after them, some distant part of Anwyn was aware of it. In that area of her mind, she felt steadier, calmer. She'd made a reasonable request, and Gideon and Daegan had reasonably respected her wishes. No matter what had happened in that alley, she was still Anwyn.

Mistress Naime.

She jumped as the shadows moved, and gripped the edge of the vanity.No. She wasn't seeing anything.

There weren't dark creatures slithering around her, hovering at the corners of her eyes, snickering at her.

We saw you. You were nothing. A piece of meat to them, and they cut you up and ate you in little bites .. .

She stared into the mirror, at that fading image. As far as symbolism went, it was an in-your-face, direct upper cut. A fist across the cheekbone.

Was Barnabus so diabolically intelligent to know that by turning her, he'd denied her the protective fog that severe physical injuries could provide? Somehow it was worse to have the memories of what happened in the alley in her head, and yet look at the half-healed scars and not feel their pain. When her fingers slid over the puncture at her neck, she forced herself to think of it as Daegan's bite. The pain had been unusually sharp, like biting into an infected area, but she'd reveled in it, because he was driving Barnabus's mark away.

Daegan said she needed the sire's blood to be okay, but she didn't think so. The wounds weren't fully closing, but they weren't gaping or running blood, either. Her hair was softer to the touch, as if she'd conditioned it, and her undamaged skin was almost glowing, as if she'd dropped ten years and returned to the unlined freshness of her teens.

She'd often kidded Daegan about his beauty, about the beauty of vampires in general.The cost savings in hair and beauty products alone . . . Goddess, the crazy thoughts she was having, when madness hovered so close she felt its heat on her nape. That heat boiled in her blood, a poison making her feel faintly nauseous. When it had seized control, such that she'd almost sunk her fangs into Gideon's neck, it had scared her to the marrow. But that had been hindsight. In that moment, all that had mattered was his blood.

“I can't do this, Daegan. I can't. I can't.” She pressed her forehead against the mirror, looked at double images of herself. “I'm strong, I'm so strong, I'm the strongest goddamned woman in the universe. I can do anything; I can be anything . . .” A sob caught in her throat. “I won't let this beat me.” In the roiling fire in her blood, slowly building toward another eruption, she didn't sense any trace of what Daegan was. It was as if the creature she was becoming was something far more monstrous and out of control. Not a vampire at all, just a demon of blood and hunger. She couldn't survive being out of control like that.