“Do we have a problem, gentlemen?” she asked icily.
Bene stuck up his hands. “No problem. Not at all.”
My head spun. If she wasn’t human, what was she? I’d spent a night curled up beside her and hadn’t sensed a thing. No trace of shifter, definitely not a vampire… Maybe a witch?
My gut roiled in a mixture of joy and fear.
If Mina were human, she would be marginally easier to resist. But supernaturals lived, loved, and lusted on a totally different level. If she was half as attracted to me as I was to her, the pull would be impossible to fight off — for both of us.
“Shifter? Witch? Psychic?” Henrik demanded.
I glared. He had no right talking to my woman — er, a woman — like that.
Mina turned on her heel and marched out of the room, muttering over her shoulder as she went.
“Dinner’s in five minutes. Don’t be late.”
Chapter Ten
MINA
I piled my plate with food and exited the kitchen through the side door. Madame Picard gave me a sharp look but didn’t say a word.
At least someone around here had a bit of sense.
The sound of the men filing into the dining room faded away as I spiraled up the stairs, then down the long hall to my private quarters in the east wing. I’d had enough of the men for one day. I’d had enough of Marius. Or not enough, maybe.
God, was I mixed-up.
I balanced my plate and silverware in one hand to dig out the key from my pocket. Yes, I’d taken to locking my door, just in case. Having a few other souls around beat being alone in all the potentially spooky space of the château. But since one of the other souls was a vampire — if a vampire had a soul at all — I was taking precautions.
Pushing the door open, I entered my private suite and continued out to the tiny balcony nestled beside one of the château’s ornate towers. There, I sat in my bistro chair and lit a candle to dine by. Long after I’d finished eating, I sat quietly, letting my mind wander.
At first, it wandered to Marius. What was he doing? Did he hate me or like me? How did I feel about him?
Confused, I decided.
The moon was barely a sliver, and the stars were shining bright, so I did my best to gaze out and clear my mind — an effort that lasted exactly thirty seconds before Marius popped into my thoughts again. I glanced over to my bedroom. He’d carried me there and spent the night at my side. What did that mean?
He likes me! He likes me!a hopelessly juvenile part of my mind cheered.
Otherwise, he hadn’t laid a hand on me. So, he was either a gentleman — an image completely at odds with his gruff exterior — or he was absolutely uninterested in me.
The glow in his eyes suggested the opposite, but it was hard to tell with dragons. From what I knew, any kind of extreme emotion could do that, from anger to hate…even arousal.
My pulse skipped a few beats.
An hour later, the candle had burned down to a nub, and my skin was starting to prickle with the night’s chill.
Nothing like a good evening walk to clear the mind,my grandmother used to say.
We used to walk together, she and I, out to the gardens and around the lake. So I grabbed a sweater and headed downstairs. Detouring to the kitchen, I added an extra clove of garlic to the two already stuffed in my pockets, then stepped outside, wrapping my arms around my body and tilting my face toward the stars.
“Wow. Beautiful,” I murmured aloud.
I wandered away from the house, remembering all the times I’d walked with my grandmother. The chirp of crickets rising from knee-high grass… The whisper of the wind over the forest… The bright, hopeful pulsing of the stars… It felt like nothing had changed since then or since the previous generation or even centuries past. But when I turned to gaze at the house…
I sighed. In my grandmother’s day, the lights in every room had been lit, giving the place a grand air. She’d loved hostingold-fashioned soirées with live music, card games, and copious food and drink. Music and laughter had drifted outside, and the château exuded a positively regal air.
