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As Gideon watched, she put the broken manacle welded to the bars around the befuddledthe locking ets stuck and won’t come loose easily" Her voice was that velvet fuck- him like an alarency, that trigger needs to release instantly I expect one of our ladies put a very strong, deterave hih I’et free You should be able to straighten this latch back out and then lubricate the mechanism so the pin will slide in and out, the same way you’d--"

"Mistress" Gideon cut in before theat theout to hear what she was saying, fell to his death "There’s ayour attention"

The , because he didn’t see the expression Anwyn snapped to Gideon A trace of red in her gaze, the tips of her fangs showing

Thank God for training All thoughts of guilt and self-doubt vanished Body and y Deadly cal closer, Gideon leaned in, so his throat was close to that baredher ear with his lips, he er Useyou, Mistress"

Carefully, he slid his ar her close to him as he nuzzled that ear, teased the soft neck beneath it Despite his intent, his cock couldn’t help swelling further as her hip brushed it, but that reaction helped Her fingers closed on his upper arms

A jerk told hi her realize she was in a red zone "Easy," he whispered, feeling a flood of relief hih her panic flooded through it Those bastard gremlins apparently couldn’t hold the block indefinitely, not when she was focusing "What’s the closest private place?"

"There" He had to angle his head to see where she was looking, because her face was turned in toward his sternum On the opposite side of the dance floor there was a small corridor

"Okay We’ll move slow Hold on to it"

"I can’t, Gideon" Her body had started to shudder "Oh God, what if I--"

"You won’t" In oneher in his ar swiftly toward that hallway At the surprised look of the waitress he passed, he snapped, "She’s fine," hoping that would do, then shouldered through a curtain of beads into the narrow hall He saw there were a series of private roo rooms, they were probably a temporary place for people who needed a quick moment with one another or alone to relieve sexual tension

In each space there was little but an elegant chair, a wide mirror and a table The table held tissues and a pitcher and basin, like an old-fashioned bordello And of course the fresh, exotic flowers that Anwyn f avored

He took the room farthest down the hall, shouldered in and slammed the door When her hands clamped down on his shoulders, he heard that o her on his lap, he caught the back of her neck and brought her ent encourageht rip out his throat When she hesitated, he pulled his knife andthe smell of the blood fill her She knocked the knife out of the way in a flash of response Latching on like a viper, she went deep and hard enough that the pain nearly overcaony, he held her with one ar down into a silky scrap of panties, he found petals of darowled against hiers into her, working his thu, his heart thundering in fight-or-flight dey; focus the violence of that bloodlust Selfishly, he wished she’d worn a skirt so he could have just thrust her down on his own aching cock, and thereby distracted hi about whether he was about to be sucked dry in a less pleasant way than a ine, at the mercy of those luscious lips

But even if she’d worn a skirt, he kneouldn’t have done it So her do, what she’d done to him before they’d come up here, told him that he wouldn’t do it Hell, she’d made it clear he had to wait for that until she was ready for it, and it challenged hie her desires

He didn’t want to think too much about the why of it, and fortunately he didn’t have ti flesh He closed his eyes tight as her hand squeezed his shoulder, and he heard the collarbone groan in protest Another ainst her shoulder as it fractured, and her bloodlust rolled over hiht on the heels of it, but he wasn’t in a position now to get her out of there The shadow creatures screamed in triumphant frenzy as the red haze bathed the walls of her mind He could almost see the essence of her mind in the middle of them, like the sacrifice at an insane bacchanalia, confused and unable to separate reality fro to hi, seeing that twisted in his gut She hadn’t deserved this It wasn’t going to go away Those daone beyond her brain, into her heart and soul, just as he thought It was hard enough to fight the battle in her brain How could she fight an ene wherever she was vulnerable, where her deepest self resided?

He kne He could an had known it, still probably knew it, the bastard The wo a bloodthirsty rasp Even with his help, shevampire