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Not then, not when he tried again five minutes later, or the two dozen times over the next several hours.
He’d gotten her voice mail each time and left several messages, some of them irritated as hell.
Finally, he gave up. He didn’t need this kind of shit. He had more important things to do than chase after a woman. He had a city to protect, cases to solve, and a dangerous kingpin to get rid of before more lives were lost.
He didn’t try reaching her on Thursday, but by early Friday morning just before dawn, when he was finishing up interrogating one of the new kingpin’s lieutenants, he became seriously alarmed. Brianna still hadn’t returned any of his calls.
Not one.
Though it went against the grain with him, instead of heading home for the day, he set a course for Brianna’s home, flying straight to her backyard. But what he saw there sent chills straight through him.
She was in her studio at the back of her house, in her paint-splashed smock, sitting on her stool. Next to her and looking smug as hell, Keynes leaned against her tall work table. He held a mug, smiling at her over the rim as he took a drink, wearing the look of a vampire chatting up his next donor.
She pushed a strand of her long bl
ond hair behind her ear, the one with the three thin rings. She looked happy and relaxed, except that while she talked more than once she pressed her hand to her chest. She’d been doing that a lot in recent weeks. Keynes followed the movement as well.
Yolen’s first impulse was to throw himself through the back windows and battle Keynes to the death.
But the fact that he’d so thoroughly misjudged the situation with Brianna caused him instead to fall to a place of deep vampire stillness. He’d thought himself so secure with her that it had never occurred to him for even a moment that she could be interested in another man.
But why, Keynes? She’d always disparaged his character yet here he was somehow having wormed his way into her house within the space of a few days. To Yolen’s knowledge, the first words Brianna had ever exchanged with Keynes had taken place last Friday night. Now he appeared to be setting up camp in her home, drinking from her mug, smiling at her.
But dawn was coming and a warning streak of pain shot up his spine. He needed to get himself home and so did Keynes, which meant like hell Yolen would leave until that bastard got out of his woman’s house.
Without hesitation, his feet began to move in an orderly fashion across the back lawn, onto the brick walkway, and up the brick steps to the back door.
He could be civil.
He didn’t bother knocking, however, but moved right into her studio.
Brianna’s eyes went wide. “Yolen, what are you doing here?”
Keynes, on the other hand, didn’t look all that surprised and it was to the bastard that he said, “Isn’t it about time you took to the skies, Mastyr Keynes? You know, before the sun hits your sorry ass and fries you to a crisp? Because like hell you’re staying in this house for the day.” He lowered his chin and let the other vampire feel his battle vibration. If he wanted to fight, Yolen would happily take him on, even if Keynes did have the upper hand because of his mastyr status.
At the same time, Yolen’s mastyr calling began to vibrate heavily, a sensation deep inside his body like the rumble of a Corvette. At no other time in the past few months had he ever wanted to embrace his mastyr calling more than he did in this moment.
* * * * * * * * *
There were so many things wrong with this situation, that Brianna didn’t know where to begin to put it right. Her heart had leaped at the sight of Yolen, but an equal reaction had her mad as fire that he would finally show up but only because another man had stepped on his perceived territory.
Just like a man!
But she wasn’t his territory anymore and he needed to get that figured out fast
On the other hand, Yolen had spoken accurately about dawn being way too close for either vampire. They both needed to leave. She might be ready to start dating other men, but she didn’t want Keynes in her house all day.
And she really didn’t want the men doing battle in her studio.
She slid off her stool. “I need you both to go.”
Keynes turned to her, setting his mug on the table. “But I’ll see you tonight?”
She nodded. “Eight o’clock.”
“I’ll pick you up then.”
She glanced at Yolen who stared hard at her. He even ignored Keynes as the mastyr vampire walked past him, headed into the backyard and took off into what was left of the night.
