Brianna watched Yolen as he stood at the bar. He waited for a couple of pints and as always her gaze fell to his gorgeous ass tucked into snug, sexy jeans. He worked out and it showed. He had massive shoulders that tapered to a lean waist.
She had such a thing for him.
He wore his long, wavy brown hair in the woven clasp more typical of the Vampire Guard than the local police force. Decades earlier, he’d been a Guardsman for a while, but had found he preferred working in a city setting. He knew Ethan, the Mastyr of Bergisson, really well and in years past had done some serious bar-hopping with him, though that was well before her time.
She wished like anything she didn’t have to break up with Yolen, but her relationship had moved into a difficult no-man’s-land, the one involving what she needed and just how much he wasn’t willing to budge.
Not a single inch.
He wasn’t even coming to her exhibition, her first in a year, the one that could possibly define her entire future. And all because he had their relationship in a tidy little Friday night box. And in-between, he had a no-call policy so that for six days out of seven she was lonely as hell for him.
She watched him chat with friends at the bar, other vampires getting drinks for their dates. He laughed and smiled. He had an easy charisma that reminded her of Ethan, that kind of charm with a broad smile, handsome teeth, eyes that carried a lot of life and intelligence.
And this could well be their last date.
&nbs
p; The man had his reasons. She’d give him that. He swore that keeping their dating life limited kept her physically safe. Even if on an essential level she disagreed with him, she couldn’t fault him for being capricious. Just unyielding.
He worked hard, in a dangerous line of work and had lost a good friend, Alec, a year ago to an enemy attack shortly after the friend had reached mastyr status. That Alec’s woman had died with him had affected Yolen deeply.
Yolen contended that Alec’s death had been premeditated, that the Invictus had targeted him because he’d gained a new level of power and had become an even greater threat. So the Invictus had singled him out because the fiendish element in the Nine Realms made up exclusively of bonded wraith-pairs, had become more organized in recent years. Brianna had no difficulty at all believing that Alec’s death had been part of a plot.
Yet despite Yolen’s reasons, every ounce of her being cried out for a greater connection to him.
Her throat grew unbearably tight at the thought of never seeing him again, so she got busy removing her shawl and draping it over the back of her chair.
The Long Tooth bar was their usual spot, full of warrior-types and the fae women who went for them. She waved at a few friends, smiled, and looked for some excuse not to break-up with her man.
The door behind her opened and a sudden cool rush of air flowed into the bar. She turned, as most everyone did, to check out the latest arrivals.
Two vampires walked in, one of them a mastyr with a swagger in his step, Mastyr Keynes. He didn’t belong to the Bergisson Guard, but he could have, he was that big and had that much power.
Without understanding exactly why, her gaze flipped to Keynes and for some reason got stuck. Was it her imagination or did he have a new and very intriguing aura going on? Even her heart started beating harder just looking at him.
She knew who Keynes was, of course. Everyone in Cameron did, though she’d never met him. He was a man of considerable wealth, who had a number of business interests in the city.
The funny thing was, she’d always thought him a bit arrogant for her tastes, very full of himself. But tonight somehow he seemed different. She’d never noticed before how much his mastyr status appealed to her.
Some said that if Yolen ever finally tapped into his mastyr calling he’d be equal to Ethan who ruled all of Bergisson Realm because of the level of his power. She knew that when a vampire accepted his mastyr calling and embraced the new mantle, the Sidhe Council measured his ability in order to determine if he should become the new ruler of his realm.
Nine Realms law was simple: the most powerful vampire ruled.
Brianna didn’t need Yolen to embrace his power, not if he didn’t want to, but she did need more from him. Although she supposed it was possible that the two concepts were somehow connected, though she truly hadn’t considered the idea before. Did Yolen’s unwillingness to become a mastyr vampire have something to do with how much he held back in his relationship with her?
Keynes met her gaze and narrowed his sharp, hawkish gray eyes as he watched her. She couldn’t look away. She didn’t even want to.
He whispered something to his wingman, who nodded, glanced at Brianna with a knowing smile, then headed toward the bar.
Keynes drew close. “You’re the artist, Brianna, right?” He had a resonant voice, though not as deep as Yolen’s.
“I am. And you’re Mastyr Keynes.”
He nodded. “You go out with that tall detective who works one of the eastern districts, if I’m not mistaken.”
She still couldn’t drag her gaze away from Keynes as she gestured with a toss of her hand the opposite direction. “Yolen’s at the bar.”
Keynes smiled. “That’s it. Detective Yolen. But why would he leave you alone for even a second? He seems to be taking some pretty serious risks with you.”