Read In the Heat of the Bite for Free Online Page B

formidable indeed.
    “She was a friend of yer father’s?” Cait asked. “Ye should introduce me ta her.”
    “There are a lot of things I
should
do,” Eynsford replied. “And yet, I’ll avoid it just the same.”
    “She canna be that bad,” Cait insisted.
    “I believe you made a similar prediction about my father, love. I assure you she can be that bad, and she is. Her opinion can make or break someone.”
    Cait giggled. “Then there’s nothin’ ta worry about. Everyone adores me.”
    “
Men
adore you,” the marquess informed her. “I’ve not seen the same devotion from women, unless they’re of the witchy variety.”
    Rhi would rather avoid this conversation if possible. Besides, she couldn’t spot Ginny from her current position. “I’ll just take a stroll about the room and see if I can find my sister.”
    “I think not, Miss Sinclair,” Eynsford said quietly, a low rumble in his voice. “Not unattended at any rate.”
    “It’s a good thing she’ll not be unattended then, isn’t it, Eynsford?” a familiar voice said from behind them. Rhiannon looked up into the smiling face of Alec MacQuarrie. He held out a hand to the marquess and laughed as the Lycan scowled at him.
    “I can’t imagine what you’re doing here,” Eynsford grunted. Everyone knew there was no love lost between the two as they’d both vied for Cait’s hand. But her hand wasn’t what was important, because it was quite obvious who had her heart.
    “Lady Eynsford,” Alec said respectfully, with a small bow. However he never looked Cait in the eye. And there was tension about his mouth that wasn’t normally there. Clearly, he was still hurting. Rhiannon placed a hand on Alec’s sleeve. It wasn’t until he smiled down at her, his black eyes glittering beneath the chandelier light, that she realized he was most assuredly different, and her hand dropped from his arm. “Are you quite all right?” he asked pleasantly, but the lines around his mouth deepened.
    “I could ask ye the same thing,” she shot back.
    “As well as I can be, considering the circumstances.” He took her hand and placed it back on his arm. But what circumstances did he refer to? The fact that he’d somehow become a vampyre? Or that Cait had married another? “Take a stroll around the room with me?”
    “Of course,” Rhi said immediately. Cait gave her a small nod and her husband shot Alec a look that made him chuckle, which seemed completely inappropriate. Nothing about this situation was humorous in the least. The very thought of Alec changing into one of the undead made Rhi immeasurably sad.
    “Chin up, Miss Sinclair,” Alec whispered dramatically as he led her around the perimeter of the ballroom. “Or else you’ll shock the insipid English right out of their finery with the little storm brewing over your head.” Rhi looked up and, sure enough, a small storm cloud hovered high above the chandeliers. She forced herself to take a deep breath. The cloud dissipated as quickly as it had arrived.
    “How did ye ken?” she asked. No one knew about her powers. Not outside the coven. And yet every vampyre she met seemed to be apprised of the fact.
    “When I went after Blaire,” he began, but then shook his head slowly. “It’s a very long story, Rhiannon. I couldn’t even do it justice in this setting.”
    “Will ye give me the shortened version?” she suggested. “Then we can meet tomorrow so I can hear the whole tale.”
    He inclined his dark head in agreement. “Cait was concerned about Blaire. Said she was being chased by something with dead eyes. So I went after her. I followed the Lindsays to Briarcraig, the captain’s castle.”
    “I thought ye left because yer heart was broken,” Rhiannon said, but instantly regretted her words when his cheery façade melted away.
    “That, too,” he grunted.
    “And ye became one of them?”
    He nodded slowly. “I did.”
    Rhiannon wasn’t quite sure what to say to that.
    “Tell me