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alert.”
    â€œOf course, master.”
    Viper smiled at the swift obedience. No questions. No arguments. No lethal glares.
    His employees were far better trained than his new slave.
    â€œWho is on duty after you?”
    The vampire glanced toward the list that was set by one of the monitors. “Santiago.”
    â€œGood.” Viper gave a nod. Santiago was still a young vampire, but he was well-trained and capable of thinking on his feet. Nothing would be allowed to slip past him. “I want you to warn him to keep a close watch on the grounds.”
    The redheaded vampire regarded him with a curious expression. “Should he keep a close watch for anything in particular?”
    â€œI have a guest staying with me,” Viper confessed with a smile that refused to go away. “A very special guest. I fear she might decide to wander off while I sleep.”
    â€œAh. You want to have her captured and returned?”
    Viper gave a slow shake of his head. “No. If she is seen trying to leave, I am to be awakened immediately.”
    The vampire gave a surprised lift of his brows. “You don’t want her halted?”
    â€œNot unless Santiago suspects there might be something dangerous lurking nearby.” Viper glanced toward the monitors. “I think it might be interesting to discover just where my guest decides to go.”
    Â 
    It shouldn’t have been surprising that Shay overslept.
    She had paced the floor of her bedroom for over an hour before she had at last accepted Viper was not coming back. That there wasn’t going to be any torture, or tormenting, or rape.
    At least not yet.
    She wasn’t nearly ready to believe that it wasn’t in her future.
    Still it was a shock when she at last awakened and realized that it was already past five in the afternoon.
    Good God. She had not only slept, but her sleep had been deep and utterly free of nightmares.
    It was unheard of.
    It had to be the soft, feather mattress. Or the silence that drenched the estate, she reassured herself as she muttered a few choice curses and scrambled to the bathroom to toss water on her face. It certainly couldn’t be that she felt at peace in the home of a vampire.
    That would be beyond ridiculous.
    She managed to find a new toothbrush and toothpaste in the attached bathroom, as well as a hairbrush that she used to smooth her long hair before she braided it and hurried down to the kitchen.
    With no change of clothing, she was forced to remain in the harem pants and glittering top, but as she moved toward the back door she noticed the heavy velvet cloak that Viper had tossed aside the evening before.
    She was not as sensitive to the brisk fall air as a normal human, but she didn’t possess the ability of a true Shalott to ignore the elements.
    Neither one nor the other.
    A mongrel.
    The story of her life.
    Gathering the soft material around her Shay ignored the tantalizing scent that was so uniquely Viper. She had a promise to keep, and no time to allow herself to be distracted. Especially not by her annoying reaction to a damn vampire.
    Leaving the house with a silence that few could match she managed to elude the guards that Viper had mentioned patrolled the grounds. Once at the high gates that protected the estate she paused to toss the cloak over before easily climbing the smooth bricks and landing on the other side.
    It was her last barrier and gathering the cloak about her she took off at a steady run that would lead her back to the city and the auction house.
    Settling into a swift trot she could maintain for hours if necessary, she headed south. In the distance she could see the looming skyline of Chicago and she kept her gaze fixed on the Sears Tower as she crossed the rural fields that lay well outside the sprawling city.
    She did take one detour to collect the bag she had hidden when she had first felt the compulsion to return to Evor. She hadn’t known then what she might need,