Bound by the Vampire Queen Read Online Free Page A

that for certain herself. He’d had exceptional intuition long before he had the ability to delve into her mind.
    Demonstrating it now, he closed his hands over hers on his chest, with enough pressure that her blood stirred at the challenge. “Even before I became a vampire, lying to me usually didn’t work out so well for you, my lady.”
    “Take care that you don’t overestimate what you know of me, Sir Vagabond.” But her mouth softened.
    “Jacob, there’s Kane to consider. Would you abandon him?”
    Letting out an oath, he set her aside, getting to his feet. “That’s unfair, and you know it.”
    “I never said I was fair. If Keldwyn is not telling the truth about the time distortion, or if I don’t survive this, or can’t get back for any reason, Kane needs one parent in his life. We both know how critical it is to have at least one blood parent watching over a vampire infant. As great as our feelings are for each other, he is the summation of those feelings. He comes first.”
    Jacob strode a few paces away, his fists clenched. After a long moment, they eased and she heard his dry chuckle. “You almost had me, my lady.” He glanced over his shoulder, those blue eyes shrewd. “What would Kane think of me if I didn’t do everything to protect his mother? We both know Mason is just as capable as I am of protecting Kane.
    More so perhaps, though I'll deny it if you feed his overinflated ego. Plus, Kane has an uncle who will defend him to the death. An uncle who—by some unprecedented miracle or freakish aberration in the universe—is the bonded servant of one of the most powerful vampires either of us know. This has nothing to do with Kane, and everything to do with you protecting me. I thought we were past that.”
    “As much as we are past you always trying to protect me?” She rose. From the stubborn set of his jaw, she knew her eyes were flashing fire. “Set aside your damned code of chivalry, Jacob. It’s far more likely you could be kill ed in the Fae world. What if we step through that doorway at night, and it’s bright daylight on their side, with no cover in sight? That’s the capricious type of cruelty the Fae excel at.”
    “Then they'll have barbecued vampire fumigating their pretty, sparkly world.”
    Now it was her turn to curse. He looked impressed by the sound of it, the number of syllables. “What was that?”
    “A particularly virulent oath Mason taught me, years ago. I just insulted twelve generations of your obstinate Irish heritage.”
    That made him smile. The handsome charm of it never failed to make her heart trip a little faster, but now her reaction made her frown, at herself as much as at him. “Earlier, when you challenged Keldwyn, you said, ‘Lady Lyssa’s son.’ Not ‘our son’ or ‘my son.’ Why did you say it that way?”
    He sobered, eyes becoming flint. “It’s the lesson a human servant learns early, my lady. Keldwyn doesn’t view me as an equal, no more than the Council did when I was human. However, I can challenge him—or them—on your behalf. It suits my purpose to do just that, in every instance where you suffer insult.”
    When he spoke like this, he reminded her of a medieval courtier. After he’d stopped working for his brother as a vampire hunter, he’d traveled with a Ren Faire, but the Faire hadn’t taught him the principles of chivalry and honor. Those things were magnets already lodged in his soul, elements of a past life drawing him to the circuit. She remembered the knight who had moved over her in the dim light of a desert tent centuries ago, making her feel his strength and fragility at once— and her own. She’d never forgotten that knight’s eyes, the soul they revealed. A few hundred years later, that soul had stared at her out of Jacob’s blue eyes. As a result, she’d embraced the unlikely idea of taking a former vampire hunter, drifter and Ren Faire player as her next full servant. And the fact he was easy on a