Night Seeker by Yasmine Galenorn Page B

the whole vampire thing, so far? He thirsty? I hear newborn vamps have an incredible thirst and they don’t care who they suckle from.”
    Erik nodded, paling. “Yeah, he’s been working Geoffrey’s stable, all right.” He turned to where he must have guessed Rhiannon stood. “Honestly, I didn’t want to bring you in. Leo’s pissed at you right now, but he said he’s willing to take you back if you apologize. And you”—he looked in the direction of my voice—“he hates. He told me…Never mind.”
    I could just imagine what Leo had said about me. I’drather be locked in a room with Lannan any day now that I knew Leo had gone over to the Crimson Court. He wouldn’t last long, though, if he kept up his snotty attitude.
    “Yeah, I know what he thinks of me. What does Geoffrey want with me?” As if I didn’t know. I had the feeling that our prestigious Regent was looking to turn me as per his original plan.
    “He doesn’t tell his day-runners all his plans.” He squirmed a little as Kaylin dropped the blanket over him, but then his teeth stopped chattering. “What are you going to do with me? You going to kill me, too?”
    “See, we have a problem here, Erik. We can’t really let you go back to Geoffrey now, can we? Or maybe…maybe we can.” I circled him, longing to give him a punch or to twist his hair or pinch him—anything to pay back what he’d threatened to do to Peyton.
    “Send him back as a messenger?” Kaylin wasn’t as hesitant as I was. He reached out and gave Erik a sharp slap on the cheek. “Buck up, old boy. Maybe you won’t die after all. At least not until Leo gets his fangs in you.”
    “Yeah, maybe he won’t die right away.” I nodded. “Erik, listen to me.” I leaned down and spoke gently into his left ear. “Does Lainule know that Geoffrey sent you here?” I watched him squirm as he tried to avoid my breath hovering around his neck. I reached out and played with the jugular vein. “My lover Grieve could easily take a nip out of you. Or Lannan, perhaps. You know we have Lannan Altos on our side?”
    “Please, not
that
freak. Though I don’t know if Leo’s going to be much better.” Erik fidgeted and then his head lolled forward and his voice was soft but clear. “No, the Summer Queen doesn’t know about this. Geoffrey told me to keep it all on the down-low. That we weren’t to let anybody know what we were doing. She—they—had a big argument the other night. I heard them. She threatened to stake him and he ordered her out of his mansion.”
    So there was trouble in paradise.
    “Do you know why they were fighting?”
    “Not really, but it was about you. She was saying they’dmade a huge mistake. Geoffrey was yelling at her, saying that if she had let him take you by force, the plan would have gone off without a hitch.” He stopped, then breathed very slowly. “Are you going to kill me? You might as well. Geoffrey will know I talked, and he’ll punish me. Or he’ll give me to Leo, who’s going to be pissed out of his mind that I’m coming back without Rio.”
    “You’re quite the loyalist.” Rhiannon walked over and gave his leg a sharp nudge with her toe. “I’m disappointed in you, Erik. I thought we were friends.”
    Erik shrugged. “Day-runners have no friends. You should have figured that out by now. We’re bound to our masters and there’s no getting away. The only way out is either to become a vampire, if they’ll agree to it, or a bloodwhore, or die.”
    Rhia knelt by his side and lightly put her hand on his knee. “Leo always planned on this, didn’t he? He wasn’t doing it just for the money.” Her voice sounded strained, and I realized that all her illusions about Leo were crashing to the floor. Even if he wasn’t her true love, she
had
loved him. And betrayal hurt.
    Erik hung his head again and when he spoke, I had the feeling he genuinely regretted what he was saying. “Yeah…he told me when he first started that he wanted to