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wasn’t the only one dealing with a radical transition to what her life had been. Gideon’s conflicts could destroy him faster than a whole club full of vampires. He was her servant. She should be helping him. Though he always put her first, that dark side of him was getting stronger.
    The Mistress in her had recognized it in him the first time he’d come into her club. A gravitational pull toward self-destruction.
    If she didn’t figure out how to face her fears, find a balance with the bloodlust and shadow voices, she wouldn’t be the Mistress that helped him overcome that. She’d be the vampire that hastened it.

Present Day

    T HE phone by her bed was making a dovelike trilling. Belatedly, she realized it was the ringtone she’d programmed for Daegan’s calls. Anwyn groggily groped for it, but a male hand reached over her, far more coordinated upon waking. Gideon was used to sleeping lightly, in case his enemies tried to gut him. She’d pointed out, more than once, that most would prefer to torture him first. Therefore, he could probably afford to sleep more deeply.
    He opened the phone, tucked it in her hand and dropped a lingering kiss on her bare shoulder before sliding out of the bed, headed for the bathroom. He didn’t always sleep with her during daylight hours, but yesterday had been a little rough. Brian had tried a different variation of the blood cocktail. It had worked in reverse, making her seize four times. Or was it five?
    “ Cher ? Are you awake?”
    “Yes.” It took a moment to speak, and not just because she was having trouble getting conscious. That dream of their meeting had lingered, along with a tight ache of need for Daegan in her chest. In real time, that ache was wrapped up in the barbed wire of those things that still lay between them. Things that couldn’t be resolved over a phone, damn it. “Is everything okay?”
    “Yes.” But there was a pause, as if Daegan was considering the answer. “I’ll be here a little longer, but I wanted to check in, see how you were doing.”
    “Brian can give you a full report. Gideon has the spectator version.” Stop it , she chided herself. God, what was it that turned her into a shrew every time she talked to him? In her dreams, she gave herself to him as if none of that was important.
    “I’m sure. But I want to know how you are doing, cher .” His tone, that deep timbre, sensual and stroking, rippled along her nerves. “I wanted to hear your voice.”
    She shifted to a sitting position, pushing her hair out of her eyes. “Lord Brian is helping me, just like you said. He’s letting me work in my upstairs office for a couple hours each day, as long as I take these vital readings every fifteen minutes and keep my mind open to Gideon the whole time.”
    “I’m glad. It will keep getting better, cher . You’re strong. Is Gideon taking good care of you?”
    “He sleeps with me when it’s bad. And he’s always there . . . yes. He is helping.”
    A silence, full of too much being unsaid. It made her head hurt, made her want to curse, because she knew it was impossible to miss the resentment in her tone. She hadn’t meant for it to be there. Goddamn it, yes, she did, but that shouldn’t mean anything. “Daegan—”
    “I’m glad he’s there, and that Brian is making progress. I’ll let you go back to sleep.”
    “Come home,” she snarled. “And stop being such an ass.”
    She slammed the phone down on the night table, forgetting her strength. It still wasn’t natural to her, having the ability to easily demolish an electronic device and split the cherrywood top of the table, sending a slender crack snaking six inches toward the edge.
    “Damn it. Why couldn’t I have found a typical, shortsighted, clueless male?” Anwyn pressed her fingertips to her temples, wondering how it was possible for her to be developing a migraine. Vampires didn’t get migraines. Of course, her transition from human to vampire hadn’t followed the