Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

S everal nights later, she was ready to depart, and full of anticipation. Adan had called and said he'd be the one guiding Ruth through the portal. He'd handle her introduction to Lady Yvette personally.

The thirteen years he'd been in the bowels of the Underworld, with a slim-to-none chance of surviving Guardian training, had been agonizing, for all of them. Though he was out in the world doing Guardian work now, Ruth still treated a chance to see him like being handed water when on the brink of fatal dehydration.

She tried not to show it too obviously, because he was her brother, which meant she had to give him a lot of shit about things. With the Light Guardian mojo, he'd become way too insightful, aka "pretending to be a know-it-all."

Catriona, his mate and third marked servant, was visiting her adopted father, Lord Keldwyn, in the Fae world, so he'd be alone. However, on the call, he'd promised Mal and Elisa they'd both be at the next family holiday. If he managed it, Ruth would make sure Lady Yvette knew she'd need time off to join them.

She viewed Catriona as a sister-in-law, with a heavy emphasis on sister. Considering the first time they'd met, Ruth had done her best to kill the slim Fae, their relationship had progressed pretty well.

Last night, Ruth had attached a fastener to one of the feathers and strung a chain on it. Before that, she'd returned to the savanna environment to give the others back to the wind. And to give the male one more chance to return.

He didn't, but Tau had pounced on one of the released feathers, sniffing it suspiciously.

"Yeah. He was pure trouble." The remembrance of just how much trouble shivered over her skin.

Now she was headed for the creek portal, located in the mountain lions' habitat. Mal drove, Elisa in the back seat of the Jeep, her hand on the seat next to Ruth's shoulder.

Fragile humans climbed mountains and jumped out of airplanes. Ate bad food. They could be erased in an instant, and they did those things because their lives were so short and fragile. She wasn't going to be outdone by a mere mortal.

As they pulled up, Adan was already there, waiting.

Her twin had Mal's sculpted cheekbones and jaw, his build and a light bronze skin tone, but Elisa's captivating blue eyes and thick waves of molasses colored hair, though Adan kept his short. Ruth had her father's straight black hair and dark brown eyes with hints of gold, but her mother's barely five-foot height. However, while her mother was an ample-bosomed, tiny waisted hourglass, Ruth's leanness, taut as a steel cable, also came from her father. She'd enhanced it through refinement of her fighting skills and building as much strength as her body would let her have.

She possessed a vampire's usual arsenal of tools. Her compulsion ability allowed her to draw in a random human for blood needs. She could make their mind hazy enough to forget the event afterward. Most of her life, she'd had access to the blood of willing second marks on the island, making those abilities unnecessary, but she knew how to use them.

While she had a woman's curves and her sexual appeal was as distracting as her brother's and father's, she didn't give that much thought. Well, up until the other night, when the male's attentions said how much he desired her. His touch made her aware of every curve, the softness of her skin, the thick weight of her hair. She'd thought of how it would feel, caught in his hard fist as he shoved into her.

Stop thinking about that, right the hell now . Vampire families were open about sex. They had to be. Until she'd learned control, her father had to be within range to supervise, so she didn't kill the blood donor she was enjoying that way. It had been the same for Adan.

But they could detect arousal as readily as the smell of fresh blood, and her feeling worked up right now would draw curiosity and questions. Fortunately, the timing worked as a good distraction. Elisa was out of the Jeep almost before Mal parked it. Adan caught their mother in a warm and laughing embrace, lifting her off her feet.

Becoming a Light Guardian had made Adan look harder and stronger. Even as a young vampire, he hadn't been a pushover, but he was connected to powers that could create or destroy, and his serious eyes said he'd more than once faced the difficult decision of which to choose.

He clasped his father's hand, their elbows bending to pull one another in. Mal cupped his son's head briefly before drawing back. "You're looking well."

Adan smiled, a wry expression. "Don't tell Derek. He'll think he's not working me hard enough. I swear he goes out and starts cosmic trouble, just to make sure I don't have a day off."

In addition to being the Light Guardian who'd mentored Adan during his early magic-user training, Derek Stormwind had helped Mal set up the island's portal and fault line magic years ago. He'd also done what he could to ensure Adan survived Guardian school, when the Unseelie Fae Queen had drafted him into it far earlier than any other enrollee in history.

Yeah, Catriona was cool, but the Fae Queen fit Ruth's low opinion of most of the race.

Derek and his wife, Ruby, an accomplished witch, brought their son, Jem, to the island often. Elisa and Jem had a special bond; Elisa reacted to his presence the way Ruth expected a human would to a beloved grandchild. Which was good, because with the low vampire procreation stats, it was unlikely Adan or she would ever offer their mother that.

Their parents had stepped back so Ruth could have her turn to hug Adan. "Whine, whine, whine," she said, addressing Adan's complaint about Derek. "Don't pretend you don't love not having to shovel out the rehab enclosures."

"How long is it going to take Da to realize he'd be better off feeding you to the cats? Or is he worried you're so rotten, you'd give them fatal indigestion?"

She was going to punch him in the side, pull his hair or at least make a face, but instead she held onto him an extra moment. God, she missed him so much, so often.

Her other half.

Would there ever be a time when she didn't fear that emptiness she'd felt all those years, his soul beyond her reach? A vampire mind link only reached so far, but his life force was so intimately connected to hers that, as long as he was on the physical surface of the earth somewhere, she could feel that connection.

The Guardian school training was in the Underworld, so the bond awareness had vanished as soon as he was enrolled. The only thing that helped her hold the terror at bay, until Derek told her it didn't mean he was dead, was remembering it wasn't the first time it had happened. Adan had been kidnapped by the Fae as a child, and it had disappeared then, too.

When he returned from Guardian school, she'd had half a second to hold onto the hope she'd never have to feel that awful emptiness again. Then Adan had let her know whenever he and Derek went between worlds, dimensions, wherever the hell they were, it would likely happen again.

She'd mostly adjusted to it, knowing it was part of his job, but she would never like it. If he died, that was what it would feel like. Permanently.

Adan's arms were secure around her. Don't be morbid, sis. I've proven how hard I am to kill. Twice now.

Eavesdropper. And you're a cream puff. I could kill you with a sun lamp. On its lowest setting.

He drew back. When she goaded him like that, he rarely answered in kind. Instead, he insulted her prickly personality, barbed tongue, or music taste. Now, his eyes upon her, he didn't hide where his thoughts had gone. She'd asked him never to do so, and he'd promised.

"This is a good decision," he said quietly.

"Yeah. I hope so."

Adan glanced toward Mal and Elisa. "Lady Yvette has someone who wants to meet with Ruth, before she's officially accepted under her care."

"I didn't think I needed anyone's permission other than hers. She's ranked like an overlord, right?"

"Yes, but she does answer to the Council."

Mal's expression tightened. "Who?"

Adan paused, glancing at Ruth. Don't lose your shit, sis. If you freak out, he will.

"Lady Lyssa."

Mal respected Lady Lyssa, arguably the most powerful vampire in their world, and the current head of the Vampire Council. Many Council members and higher-ranking vampires had visited the island over the years. Most stayed a few days, and some even pitched in to help with the island's daily labor-intensive operations. Mal knew the value of having such influential patrons, while grumbling over the disruption of the sanctuary's routine and the need to hone diplomatic skills that didn't come naturally to him.

In the 1990s, Kohana had noted the vampires viewed the island as an "eco-vacation." A place to reconnect to the earth and slow life's pace. Mal had scowled at the term and inflicted another scar in the doorframe.

While Mal fortunately didn't seem too disturbed by Adan's announcement, he wanted to know why such an important vampire needed to sanction Ruth's presence.

"It has to do with the woman she's protecting," Adan told him. "Ruth's going to be fine, Da. Promise."

On that note, Ruth allowed herself one last hug from her parents and then stepped up beside Adan as he called the magic that would open the portal.

She'd never traveled that way before. Adan had told her how it would be, but he'd framed it in a context she would understand. Which wasn't accurate at all.

Her recent experience, being plucked off the ground effortlessly and accelerating through the air at a speed that made it impossible to have any thoughts at all, came far closer. Adrenaline, a dash of terror, and a heavy dose of oh, that cup of blood for breakfast was a really bad idea .

When her mind stopped spinning, she was kneeling on an unfamiliar forest path. Adan held her hair back as she coughed and bent over double. Thank the Great Father and Mother that Adan hadn't portaled her directly into the audience with Lady Yvette and Lady Lyssa.

When she straightened, Adan pulled a handkerchief out of the bag slung across his body. "Portal first aid supplies?" she rasped as she took it in a trembling hand. "Oh, fuck."

"What?"

She glared down at herself. She'd chosen her outfit carefully. Snug black jeans with a cream-colored tank, the jeans tucked into calf boots. Her belt had an ornate buckle Adan had brought her from a Cherokee festival. Around her neck was a collar of turquoise nugget ovals set in silver frames. Below it rested a bolo tie with a matching silver and turquoise pull on it.

Because Adan had warned her the Circus's current in-between portal campsite was in a colder climate, she'd donned her calf-length inner fleece and outer cowhide jacket. It had a rich camel color and was quilted, the squares edged with the same cream-colored fleece.

Some of her hair was pulled up in a top knot, the rest loose down her back, the strands Adan had held out of the way. Silver rings adorned the shells of her ears, and another turquoise and silver nugget adorned the top knot.

It was a stylish, sexy and professional outfit, now baptized with several drops of bloody vomit. No time to fix it; no one with any sense of self-preservation kept high-ranked vampires waiting.

"Here, stay still. Don't tell Derek I did this. He's anal about using magic for trivial purposes."

"I want to see Derek tell Lady Lyssa an audience with her is trivial. Double crap. Where's my case?"

"I found out where you'll be quartered before I came to get you. I sent it there as we came out of the portal. Another thing Derek would ping me for, but I figured it would be easier to stride through camp with a determined, badass bodyguard look if you weren't dragging a giant suitcase behind you."

"Good thinking." As he focused on the several drops, Ruth closed her eyes and tried to come up with an alternative plan if he couldn't fix it. A brush of heat and an amused voice broke into her mental scrambling.

"I can protect the world, but you think I can't get a bloodstain out of cloth. You're all set."

Opening her eyes, Ruth saw with relief her clothes were pristine. "I'm allowed reasonable doubt. Sgidoda built an entire bespelled sanctuary with Derek that connects to portals all over the world. Yet if he puts his Jeep keys down anywhere but the hook in the entryway, he can't find them without Etsi's help."

"You know why. She told us."

"‘Women have the magic ‘find-things' uterus. Men have the ‘fix-anything' pecker.'"

When Elisa had made that proclamation, Kohana had laughed so hard he nearly fell off the bench at the dinner table. He roared even louder when Mal entered moments later to demand, "Where the hell are my pliers?"

Elisa had calmly found them on the railing by the porch swing. He'd laid them there a couple hours before, when the two of them had shared a glass of lemonade. She'd been curled up against his side, her hand resting on his thigh as he tasted the tartness of the fruit in the glass, then moved to sample it from her lips.

First a light brush, then deeper, his knuckles brushing the side of her ample breast, moving up to her shoulder and throat, where he put his own mouth to take a meal from the vein that pumped harder in response to his touch. Like every part of her, striving to please him and offer what he needed.

Whenever her father mislaid something, nine times out of ten it was because the pleasure he took in his servant had captured his attention to the exclusion of anything else.

Yep. There wasn't a species on the planet that could match the vampire sex drive. Except maybe the male Ruth hadn't physically seen.

Stop thinking about him.

Adan gave her a critical look. "You look dynamite, sis. Sexy as hell and twice as kickass, gotta say. You put thought into the look."

She had. She might have her issues, but she could protect a human female and wanted to look the part. The boots were flat, the soles thick rubber. Two knives were concealed within easy reach.

She knew several fight disciplines, and practiced the forms regularly. Plus sparred with anyone who could be trusted with the knowledge of the extent of her abilities. The vampire world was all about power. Who had it, who didn't, and who could take it from someone else.

The thought brought a wave of nerves and a reminder that she was really doing this. Leaving the shelter and protection of home.

She'd be fine. But still… She gripped Adan's biceps and touched her head to his chest, gratified when he dropped a kiss on her head. "Thanks," she said. "Thanks for reminding me you're still my dumbass brother, even if to the rest of the world you're an all-powerful Light Guardian."

He snorted. "I'm a bottom of the totem pole Light Guardian who Derek routinely kicks around to remind me of it. He says humility is the most important skill for me to learn right now. Except when I need my reservoir of ‘I-can-save-the-world' arrogance to back him up in a firefight."

She grinned, linking her arm through his. "I'm available to spar with you whenever you need to hone those firefight skills. Just to make Derek happy, I'll include a full scoop of humility."

"Dream on." Adan rolled his eyes, but he gave her hand a squeeze and escorted her toward the forest line, beyond which she saw an open field populated by large tents.

He didn't need to give her any direction on the upcoming meeting. The flow of important visitors on the island meant they'd been coached as children on vampire etiquette.

But she did yank free from him, an involuntary reaction, as she noted what vomiting up her last meal had caused her to miss. It was daylight.

"It's all right," he told her, as she peered warily up at the sky through the interlaced tree branches. "Remember, I said the in-between portal space is a magically manufactured environment."

"There's a sun," she said.

"It's not our real sun," Adan said. "The light doesn't harm us here, just like in the Fae world, though we can't really explain why for either. You won't have to sleep underground here, but your body will remember the cycles of day and night. When the Circus comes out of the in-between spaces for a performance, Lady Yvette times the emergence for after dark. You and she will come back into a place like this for your daylight rest and rejoin the Circus at dusk."

"Okay. Sorry." She took his arm again.

"A lifetime of knowing sunlight is fatal to us isn't so easily discarded," he told her. "I get it."

As they stepped out of the tree's cover, she tried not to crane her neck to keep looking at the "fake" sun. It was chilly, as Adan had warned her, making Ruth glad for her coat, but she could feel the sun's mellow heat against her face and throat.

"The portal area where we emerged looked a lot like the island side," she noted. "With the creek and same trees."

"When the Circus is in an in-between location," Adan told her, "I structure the current portal on their end so it looks like where we came from. It helps me remember what the current setting is."

"Makes sense. Does Derek know you got lost on the island where you grew up?"

Teasing him helped steady her. She hoped he'd understand.

"I was a lot younger than I am now." Adan shot her a mock look of offense. "Pretend like you respect me in front of Lady Lyssa and Lady Yvette, and I'll give you candy afterward. If your mouth doesn't get you killed. In which case, I'll eat it all myself."

To uphold the sibling code, she offered no promises. But truthfully, she'd be on her very best behavior.

On Lady Lyssa's first visit to the island that Ruth remembered, the vampire queen had lifted Ruth onto her hip. Ruth had threaded small hands through the straight dark hair that looked like her own. It felt like strands of satin ribbon. Though Lyssa's jade green eyes were warm and smiling, Ruth had detected a vibration of power around the vampire queen, overwhelming enough she'd ducked her head shyly, making sure her father was near.

Lady Lyssa's servant at that time, Thomas, had played with her and Adan after dinner, a card game that taught them bible verses. He'd gravely asked them about the animals on the preserve and seemed suitably impressed with their knowledge. Before he came into Lyssa's service, he'd been a Franciscan monk.

As Ruth and Adan grew up, Lyssa returned to the island several times, often with Council members. The liberties a child could take gave way to an uber-respectful deference for the thousand-year-old plus vampire. She was slim and no taller than Ruth. Yet the still way she watched everyone and everything around her reminded Ruth of the big cats, if they were on the hunt…constantly.

Thomas had died some years ago. Jacob, her current servant, had a keen intelligence and gift for insight comparable to her monk, but he was a fighter, not a scholar. He was protective of his lady, but also amiable and level-headed. He'd sparred with Ruth to help improve her fight skills, and she'd tailored her speed and strength to make it an even match and learn everything she could.

Lady Lyssa and Lady Yvette were going to see a vampire female capable of being a bodyguard. Not the girl who fell asleep in trees with a book in her lap.

They'd entered the Circus campground, which distracted Ruth from the nerves the thought tried to poke to life. Colorfully painted wooden wagons, the 19 th century ancestor of the modern RV, were scattered over several acres, arranged around large pavilion tents.

One of them had its flaps pinned up, revealing that it was a cook tent for the Circus troupe. A buffet was set out, and the picnic tables surrounding it were partially occupied. The buffet was attended by a handful of busy men and women wearing aprons. They moved between it and the prep area. Cooks monitored Dutch ovens and skillets on stovetops, chopped ingredients and stirred deep stockpots. She smelled some kind of chicken soup and fresh bread. Several camp dogs—possibly also performers, since one was a poodle doing an impressive, give-me-a-treat whirling dervish on his back legs—closely watched the goings-on.

"Why does it look like we stepped back in time?"

"In-between portal locations adapt better to less technology." Adan gave it all a fond look. "When the Circus emerges into our world to do a performance, the wagons become RVs, and the cooking appliances update to the latest in shiny outdoor equipment. Unless Yvette wants it to stay old-timey looking for the parades they do when the Circus first ‘comes to town.'"

"That kind of set up takes a lot of work."

"Yvette's a damn good sorceress," Adan said.

"Is she more sorceress than vampire?"

Adan shot her that patented predatory look of their kind, showing her the gleaming point of a fang. It reminded her that when he'd returned from the grueling years of Light Guardian training, his first order of business had been claiming Catriona for his own, making her his third mark servant, bound to him forever.

Even before seeing Ruth or their parents.

"One doesn't exist without the other," he said.

"Oh…wow." Her attention was pulled to the sky. What her peripheral vision had suggested was a pair of large birds, maybe turkey vultures, turned out to not be that at all. Two young dragons, swooping and teasing one another, had changed course. They plunged toward the ground, on a straight line toward a plucked chicken sitting on a table, waiting for the cooking pot.

A screech cut the air, ten times louder and more ear-shattering than a hawk's. What appeared in the sky, as abruptly as if it had materialized there, had Ruth readying herself for the unwise decision to fight or, the more prudent one, to run for her life. Adan clamped a strong hand on her arm, keeping her still.

"It's best not to move," he advised.

The really, really large female dragon, with teeth that looked longer than Ruth's forearm—a lot of teeth—swooped downward, though not as precipitously as her young. She also didn't come as close to the ground.

It was enough, however. The young dragons banked so close to their target the move rippled the cooks' apron strings. They shot up into the air above the mother, then dropped like stones, landing on her back and hooking themselves to the layers of gleaming scales.

She grumbled at them, a sound that would make a pit bull's snarl sound like the yip of a teacup Pomeranian. As she rose back into the air, continuing on, Ruth noted she dipped her wings at the lead cook, who gave her a respectful bow and sign of gratitude.

"Holy shit."

Adan grinned. "Yeah. That's Jetana. Welcome to a normal day at the Circus. There are lots of species and races here, most with their own protocols. Be sure to learn them. I don't want to find out if a partially digested vampire sister can be restored."

"Will Derek consider that trivial?"

"Let's not test it." Adan elbowed her.

She noticed everyone had stopped their conversations and eating with the appearance of the big female. They didn't return to either until she was well on her way. An apparent sign of respect—and caution.

As they proceeded on, she took mental snapshots to consider or investigate later. Roustabouts sat on buckets, playing cards. A smithy, a muscular dwarf, worked under a smaller tent, shaping metal and offering advice to another man repairing a pulley system.

Acrobats practiced on open ground near jugglers. One woman was reading a book while in a Chinese split, her elbows on the ground between her spread thighs. She sucked on a Tootsie Pop, the purple wrapper creased in her fingers.

Ruth was getting her own interested glances. She didn't act too friendly, but offered courteous nods when eye contact was made. The responses were a mirror of her own. This was a place where she'd have to earn her spot. She didn't mind that. She preferred it.

When the hairs on the back of her neck rose, she glanced over her shoulder. She saw nothing but open ground between several of the wagons, but then a flock of starlings flushed out of a bank of long grass outside their perimeter. It reminded her of the warning signs when one of the big cats was in the area.

A shadow passed behind her, the brush of feathers against her thigh, sliding over her hip.

"Still say no?" A whisper in her ear, echoing inside her body.

Ruth spun, knocking against Adan as she did so. Her brother immediately went on alert, one hand on her arm, not to hold her, but to tell her where he was, like soldiers entering a battle zone. His other hand had lifted, ready to point a magical defense. "What?"

She paused, heart pounding. Gazed around her. The blacksmith was studying her with cool eyes. His companion was noting her exposed fangs and asking a low question of the dwarf, his brow lifted.

She saw nothing to explain her reaction. Damn it. But she knew she hadn't imagined it. "Just a voice," she said, low. "I thought I heard someone. Felt someone."

Adan gave her an odd look. "Do they have a version of hazing for newbies?" she asked.

"Yeah, but pretty good-natured stuff, for the most part. And they wouldn't do it before they know who you are or why you're here."

"Well, they sure as hell know what I am now." Embarrassingly, she'd not only bared her fangs, but triggered their defensive lengthening. She retracted them, and did her best to look at ease so everyone would go back to what they were doing.

Why did she feel like he was here, close by? Laughing at her. Waiting to mess with her some more. She thought of a reason for it, and then cursed her own weakness. That damn feather she'd kept…

"I like it when you run away. It makes me want to catch you all the more."

How could Adan not hear that? She could tell he couldn't, because his concerned expression didn't change as the words slid along the side of her neck, shivering straight over her collar bone and the upper rise of her breast.

"Seriously, fuck off," she muttered. "Just getting my head on straight," she told Adan. She put her hand on the bolo tie. Not to grip it, but to press the point of her wrist against what lay beneath it, nestled between her breasts. The wing feather she'd tucked under the band of her bra, for fuck-all knew what reasons.

She'd ignored a basic tenet of magical practice. Direct contact with objects of power was one of the strongest ways to feel their influence. The incubus or whatever-he-was had had magic oozing out of his pores. And apparently from his feathers.

"Ruth…"

She shook her head. "It's okay. Let's go. I don't want to be late for my job interview."

Adan wasn't buying it, but with the Council head waiting, he didn't have much choice. Fortunately, there was no repeat of that weirdness as they arrived at Yvette's quarters. The yurt's frame was crafted of sturdy wood, the sloped circular roof larger than the circumference of an amusement park carousel. The fabric that created it was painted in a marble swirl of black and red.

The entryway to the yurt was an open archway. They could hear two female voices conversing within.

Jacob sat to the right of the opening. He was sanding a dagger, one of six blades on a small table before him.

"Gundar put you to work?" Adan asked.

Jacob's midnight blue eyes under dark brows showed amusement. "I admired his works-in-progress, and he told me if I sanded these, he'd give me one of the final products. Plus, Yvette prefers everyone enjoying the Circus to earn the privilege, no matter how short the visit."

"Everyone, including your lady?"

Ruth held her breath at the impertinence, but Jacob chuckled. The easy familiarity said Lyssa's bound servant considered Adan a friend. On the island, he was just her brother. Here he was a Light Guardian, treated on par with the company he was keeping.

"I leave that question between her and Lady Yvette," Jacob said. "A place I wisely stay clear of."

Jacob's thick brown hair had traces of russet and was long enough to reach his broad shoulders. His trained fighter's body moved with grace and deadly intent. Yet his face held a mild amiability—until something more dangerous was required. He coupled his intelligence with self-restraint, all elements vital to serving a queen. Particularly one who'd dealt with the cutthroat politics and violent tendencies of the vampire world for a very long time.

His attention moved to Ruth as he rose to give her a courteous bow, observing the required courtesies. In their world, the highest-ranked servant still fell below the lowest-ranked vampire.

Jacob had chosen strategic times to ignore such protocols, risking the ire of other vampires. Sometimes even his own formidable lady's. However, those incidents had only added to his reputation, ultimately on the side of respect, because such acts were always done in the name of protecting Lady Lyssa. Her well-being meant everything to him. She meant everything to him.

Such devotion from a servant was appropriate. A vampire feeling the same way toward their human servant? That was a sticky problem, one that plagued the Council and the vampire world.

For a long time, the accepted thinking—and arguably still the prevailing feeling among most vampires—was that a vampire didn't fall in love with their servant. Such "weakness" made the vampire vulnerable to dangerous influences from the human, and that would undermine the vampire world in unacceptable ways.

Depending on the rank of the "misguided vampire," their overlord, Region Master or the Council itself, would order the execution of the servant. The vampire would be placed under the direct supervision of a vampire who could "reinforce and reeducate" them as needed.

Then, over a decade ago, Lady Lyssa had declared her love for Jacob before the Vampire Council itself. Since then, Lord Mason, who also currently served on the Council, had made a similar declaration about his servant, Jessica.

While Ruth didn't know how she felt about the matter, she couldn't deny a twist of satisfaction over Lord Mason's announcement. It had set back on their heels those who'd always claimed the "malady" was a female vampire problem. Because female vampires were more susceptible to emotional manipulation by male servants. Of course. Cue the eye roll.

Around the same time Lord Mason had made his declaration, Lord Brian had presented strong proof that vampires and servants with "closer" bonds had a more likely chance of successfully reproducing. With less than five thousand vampires in the world, and a disturbingly low percentage of those being born vampires—considered genetically stronger and more vital to the overall survival of their race—things that might aid their survival carried a lot of weight.

The proof had driven the framing of a comprehensive policy which would improve the standing of servants in the vampire world, giving them certain protections and rights they'd never held. Originally introduced by Lord Mason, it had been stalled ever since, as it was subjected to multiple revisions and "cooling off" periods, depending on what else Council was handling.

With immortal beings, debating a society-altering piece of legislation for over a decade wasn't unusual, but recently, a push to finish it, to call it to a vote, had been growing. Not just within the Council, but from Region Masters and overlords. It was hard to tell how it would go, because strong feelings existed for and against it.

Adan hadn't had much interest in vampire politics, except as needed to navigate the magical studies he wanted to pursue. Until Catriona, he hadn't even given any thought to being in love. And though Catriona had Fae and human blood, her Fae side was given far more weight, so the subject of vampire-human power dynamics didn't really apply to their relationship.

But Ruth thought about it. Some of the stories about Lady Lyssa and Jacob were probably exaggerated, but seeing them on the island, she knew many were not.

She'd wondered what it would be like to have that total bond of physical and mental intimacy, not just what could exist between a vampire and servant, but between two souls, as it obviously did for Catriona and Adan. His devotion, his fascination with his Fae, their protectiveness and love for one another, was evident. Undeniable.

Why the fuck did that bring the invisible male back to her head? It had been a chance meeting, a game, driven by healthy lust and the fun of a good fight. If he was lingering in her mind, it was because of the mystery attached to him. That was all.

Earth to Ruth. Wake the fuck up.

The mental jab from her brother snapped her attention back to her immediate surroundings. Jacob was giving her a puzzled but too keen look.

He asked you how your portal jump was.

"Dizzying," she said. "Apologies. I may still be a little disoriented."

Jacob dipped his head toward the yurt's interior. Ruth recognized Lyssa's even voice. Whatever she said caused a short burst of sensual laughter. It rolled over Ruth's skin even as it prickled, a warning of the power of its owner. Yvette, she assumed.

"Sometimes a portal jump can deplete your energy," Jacob told her. "If you carry a blood reserve with you, I recommend taking a couple swallows before going in. This isn't an audience where you want your attention to wander."

No kidding. She removed the flask she carried in the hip bag she wore. As Adan exchanged a few comments with Jacob about the daggers, she took a couple discreet swallows. Elisa had packed it, telling her daughter, "I know, you don't think you'll need it, but just in case."

Etsi never stops being Etsi. Are you all right? Adan asked.

He hadn't stopped talking to Jacob, but vampires learned to split their mental attention to communicate with servants or, in their case, a vampire with whom they had a mind link.

Yes, I'm fine. I'm ready to do this.

Whether it was true or not, a different expression crossed Jacob's face, indicating he'd received his own missive. He glanced at Adan, a telling look, before he spoke. "My lady and the Lady Yvette are ready for Ruth. Lady Yvette thanks you for bringing her, but assumes you have other matters to handle for Derek."

Adan's expression shuttered. Ruth put a hand on his arm. "Of course."

If I need a protector for a job interview, I'm not going to be much of a bodyguard, am I?

Adan met her gaze. I'll check back in on you soon, sister.

She felt love for him for his care, but also a slight resentment at the implication she needed the backup. She was going to prove herself here, damn it. Her brother might be the big, bad Light Guardian, but she had her own gifts.

"I'll be fine. Go away. We women have serious business to discuss."

Adan's eyes twinkled as Jacob chuckled. Good. That was the response she wanted from them both. Squaring her shoulders, she stepped inside the yurt.

And saw the male who'd left a handful of feathers in her grasp.