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daylight hours would have greatly improved his rest—and his mood.
    “Will?” Robin came to stand in the doorway and looked into the room. “Where is Chris?”
    “Do you mean the human female from last night? I cannot say, my lord.” Will shut off the taps and dried his hands. “I assume that she returned to her home after she departed.”
    “She left?” His master sounded puzzled. “When? How?”
    “’Twas near dawn; I secured the elevator after she used it. I saw no car, so I presume she went on foot. I sorted through the mail, and it seems you were summoned for jury duty again. We can hide from mankind for near a millennia, but try as I may I cannot seem to purge your name from the county courthouse mailing list.” Will’s wry frustration faded as soon as he turned and saw his master’s expression. “What is wrong? Did something happen with the female?”
    “Yes. No.” Robin walked away.
    Will followed him into the bedchamber, where his master paced around the bed, examining the carpet before he went out to the front rooms. He returned muttering under his breath and disoriented, as if someone had clubbed him over the head.
    Will set the glasses aside. “Rob? Why do you look that way? Did she take something?”
    Robin ignored him, wandering about the room listlessly, as if lost in it.
    Whatever had happened between the mortal and his master, it had not left a favorable impression. Will was just about to inquire of him again when Robin focused on him.
    “How did she appear to you when she left?” he demanded. “Was she disoriented? Did she seem upset?”
    Will thought back to what he had seen the night before. “I watched her through the security monitors only long enough to assure that she left the building, but she seemed well.”
    “How well?”
    “She was tidily dressed and moved with purpose. She did not weep or drag her steps. She did not take anything, and she did not look back.” Will didn’t like the change in his master’s expression. What the bloody hell had that female done to make him like this? “Did you not send her down?”
    “No.” Robin caught a glimpse of something and moved to the bed, taking from the linens a short length of gold chain. He held it as if it were made of copper—the one metal that could wound the Kyn—and yet examined it as closely as if it were fashioned of priceless diamonds. Then, even stranger, he twined it about his fingers like a lock of a woman’s hair. “I never bade her to go.”
    “You…” Will stopped as Robin’s meaning sank in. “I do not understand, my lord. You never allow humans to stay the night.”
    “This one I did. Or should have.” Robin put his hand on the bed, smoothing it over the rumpled silk sheets. “I slept with her, and she left me.”
    “I’m sure it was for the best. Had she remained and awoken before you—”
    “You do not understand me,” Robin snarled. “I fell asleep with her. With her in my arms. I slept with that woman and did not wake, did not dream. I slept as I have not since my human lifetime.” The golden chain disappeared inside his fist. “How could she go like that?”
    He was, Will saw, entirely besotted. Utterly enraged.
    “You must have compelled her to leave before dawn,” he assured his master. “She would not have departed herself, not while be spelled.”
    Robin made a contemptuous sound. “I begin to doubt that she was ever under my power.”
    If the female had been impervious to his scent and his charm…“Could she be a Brethren operative?” Will asked. “We have known them to be resistant to l’attrait. ’Tis said they are bred that way.”
    “Why would one of those zealots seduce me,” his master countered, “much less leave me alone and sleeping in my bed, when she could kill me or have me taken?”
    Will’s worry eased. “True.”
    Robin seemed to notice something, and walked over to the bedside table. He lifted the lamp and removed a small square of paper. He unfolded