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Will she try to take control? Or will she submit like a little lamb and bare her neck and body to me? How far will she let me explore under the guise of letting me feed from her?
My cell phone vibrates in my pocket, yanking me from my indiscretions and back to the present. It’s Kasar. I look at Eloise as I bring the phone to my ear, swiping it as I do. Her wide eyes are boring into mine, her lower lip trapped between her teeth.
“Kasar.” With his name, her back straightens and she closes her laptop.
“I’ve got the girl,” he replies, straight to the point. “There was no way to avoid casualties. I’ve sent Lan and Malachi the coordinates to deal with the mess.”
Damn. I’d hoped to have two vampires alive for questioning. I clear my expression as I hold Eloise’s gaze.
“And Deidre?” I ask, more for Eloise than my own care. Eloise stands, her laptop almost tumbling to the floor before she catches it. I hold up a finger, silently ordering her to wait, but the woman moves until she’s at the side of my desk. She’s close enough I could reach out and pull her onto my lap.
Kasar hesitates, which is telling. I wait him out, not breaking eye contact with the woman beside me.
“Has Deidre ever used Rapture?” my most trusted vampire asks at last.
Only Eloise can answer that question.
I gentle my voice, in spite of Kasar being able to hear. At least, I lower my voice enough to prevent others from hearing our conversation, my inner circle still vacated from the house.
“You said Deidre isn’t using Rapture,” I begin, taking in every slight change in Eloise at my words. “How certain are you of that, and has she ever used it before?”
Eloise shakes her head, her eyes hard. “No.” Her voice is full of conviction. “Deidre and I have tried weed, but she doesn’t like not being in control. She doesn’t even have more than two cocktails unless she’s at home.”
I nod once sharply. “You heard her,” I say into the phone.
“Why—what’s going on?” Eloise pushes, taking a step closer and I shoot a warning look, making her freeze in place but now without a scowl.
“They drugged her then,” Kasar replies. “I’m taking her to a safe house now, but I’ve had to bind her for her own safety. She’s fucked-up high.”
“Do what you must to keep her safe and alive,” I order. I refuse to accept that Eloise may walk away from me in the next forty-eight hours because she dies from an overdose of the drug I’m supposed to control.
“Noted—fuck!” Kasar bites out the curse, snarling viciously.
“Kasar?” His name is a command.
“I’m being pursued. I’ll call later.”
The line goes dead and I toss the phone to the desk with a scowl.
“What’s going on?” Eloise demands and I hold up a finger again as I reach for the phone. As I do, it lights up with a notification—a message from Malachi. Unlocking it, it takes less than a glance to note the confirmation of Kasar’s assignment. I respond with the information that Kasar’s being pursued but didn’t request backup, though he and Lan should be ready to do so.
Lan, no doubt, will be hoping to be let off his leash and wet his teeth.
Turning the screen off, I return my attention to the increasingly irritated Eloise. Her arms are now crossed, and I can’t help appreciating how the pose pushes her breasts up as if offering them to me to worship.
“Well?”
I steeple my fingers before I reply. “Kasar has Deidre. Her captors are dead, though others are now in pursuit. He is taking her to a safe location.”
Her face pales when I tell her of the pursuit, then frowns at the last. “He isn’t coming here?”
I raise an eyebrow, giving her a sardonic look. “And have the fight brought here? That is not how war works, little lamb.”
She rolls her eyes. “This isn’t war—”
I stand up, pressing a finger to her lips to silence her. “It is, in fact, war, Eloise. It is a war that started months ago, before your friend ever stumbled into it. Kasar will keep her safe. If not, you will be free to leave as I agreed.”
I move the finger from her lips over her cheek and then along her jaw, taking in every inch of her face. She’s beautiful; soft, filled with life and fire, a spine of steel wrought from a life of hardship. Something in me screams to protect her, to spoil her, to take care of the lioness before me who should never have needed to grow claws.
