"You almost sacrificed yourself to dig Winkler out of that field."

"Yeah. Stupid, huh?"

"Lissa?"

"What, Gavin?" I turned to look at him, then.

"Don't talk about walking into the sun to me. Ever again." He stood and stalked away.

* * *

"We're going to the movies and that's that." Winkler had gathered us inside the beach house. Phil was there but I was doing my best not to look at him. Why was Winkler doing this to me? He didn't need more than three or four people and now he was taking Glen, Phil, Davis, a new hire named Leon, and then Gavin and me.

"Calm down," Gavin whispered in my ear. I wanted to slug him. Winkler picked the film, of course. We all piled into both SUVs and went to the movies. At least it wasn't a horror flick. I hate those things. They sling buckets of fake blood around and slice off body parts made of animals or something. I don't find that entertaining. It was an action/adventure and almost as bad—it still had fake blood and improvised body parts in it. I just turned my head while that was happening. Gavin, who sat next to me, started stroking my spine until his fingers were at the small of my back and then he made slow circles there. I shivered. Nobody had touched me that way in a long, long time. Don had heart problems and with the medication and everything, the risk was too great. It had been more than seven years since I'd had sex. I missed it at first, before resigning myself to the fact that that part of my life was over. Gavin was trying to wake something that should be left sleeping. I gently removed his hand and he didn't try again.

Winkler wanted to eat afterward, so we ended up at Outback Steakhouse.

"Why didn't you just order an entire cow?" I asked Winkler. There was enough beef on the table to assemble a cow, I figured.

"Can you survive on beef blood?" Phil chewed a huge chunk of steak.

"I have no idea. Can cows have orgasms if a vampire bites them?" Gavin snickered beside me.

"Is that what happens?" Glen was now interested.

"I leave everybody with a smile on their face," I said.

"You're kidding?" Davis said in disbelief.

"Not kidding. And no, I'm not about to let you find out in person."

"Do we need to have this discussion now?" Winkler cut into his steak.

"Hop Along started it," I nodded at Phil. "You know, I went to a restaurant in San Francisco, once," I went on. "And they brought out this huge, live lobster on a tray so everybody could stare at him and decide if that's what they wanted for dinner. My husband, God rest his soul, stood up and shouted Let my people go! Of course the restaurant asked us to leave."

"You were married?" Davis asked.

"I was, for twenty-three years. He died the same day I did."

"I knew that already," Winkler said.

"Lissa, enough," Gavin admonished.

"All right. If I leave now, I can be home in a few minutes. Let me out, Gavin." I bumped my hip against his so he'd let me out of the booth.

"No. You will sit there and be polite," he informed me. "I don't know what has gotten into you."

"Me either," I muttered sullenly.

"Lissa, you should be more circumspect. You never know who may be listening," Gavin lectured me later after we drove home.

"I know," I mumbled, ashamed. "It's just that there hasn't been anyone to talk to about any of this, nobody to tell me what's right or wrong and I've had to hold it inside me all this time. It hasn't been easy and there are still times I want to scream my lungs out because I'm so angry. I didn't ask for this, Gavin. And now, my brother-in-law and his wife have everything that was mine that I worked for—everything I put together and held together, even when my husband was too sick to work anymore. I'm here because Winkler still wants to use me, there are two out there who want to kill me, possibly three—Phil would still like to take me down, I figure. I have nobody who wants to be friends because they like me or anything. I'm a useful tool, Gavin. That's what I am." He didn't say anything or argue with any of my statements. Swell. I walked away from him to make my rounds. Any other guard would need a flashlight to do what I did. I didn't need one. Useful tool, indeed.

* * *

"You cannot allow this!" Gavin was shouting again.

"It's already done," Winkler said, resignation in his voice. "He called this morning. The arrangements have already been made. She'll be back in two weeks."

"Tell me why you agreed to this." Gavin was growling, now.

"I don't have a choice. I take orders from him, in a manner of speaking. I have to abide by that."

"This is untenable," Gavin stalked out the French doors.

"Lissa, Winkler wants to see you," Gavin announced when he walked inside the guesthouse.

* * *

"What does he want?" I asked. "Cookies?"

"I wish it were cookies," he said. "Go. Find out for yourself."

"What is it?" I asked, the minute I made my way inside the beach house.

Winkler was sitting at the kitchen table when I walked in. He looked a little rumpled, to be honest. "Lissa let me start out by saying that if I had a choice in the matter, I would have said no. As it is, Weldon Harper is an important man and I have to follow his orders. He will be flying you to North Dakota where he lives and you will provide security for him as a personal bodyguard. You must do this, Lissa. You must guard him and his son, if he desires, as zealously as you ever guarded Whitney or me. Do you understand?"

"Does he know about me?" I swallowed nervously.

"He knows. He knew when he was here. He hasn't become powerful by being stupid, Lissa. We will ship blood with you. If you run out, he will provide for you. All right?"

"No, it's not all right," I huffed. "But since you're pulling the strings attached to your little vampire puppet, I suppose I have to go."

"Lissa, you know that's not what you are," Winkler raked fingers through his hair. He was sitting at the table near the kitchen and turned his dark eyes up to me. "Life isn't fair, Lissa. Ever. Do I wish it were better for you? Yes. I do. But wishes don't go very far, do they?"

"Where and when?" I asked. He'd given his permission. I had to go.

"I have to take you to the airport tomorrow evening. The private jet will fly you to Grand Forks. Someone will be there to pick you up."

"Fine," I grumbled and walked away.

* * *

"Honored One, they are sending her to act as bodyguard to Weldon Harper. I know you recognize that name. She called herself a puppet to the secondary. He disagreed with her but that statement is not far from the mark. Things should have been different for her. She should have had a solicitous sire. She has nothing. She might count the taking of her life in the end as a blessing.




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