FOREVER KNIGHTS: #6 Malevolent Attentions
Telling Anna Something is Wrong

“Did you see Brandie hanging all over him despite his efforts to shake her. She’s a vampiric parasite…Only more draining.” Anna proclaimed.

It’s true. She was.

“When he turned and looked at me-” Mera still spoke in her daze.

“It was true love?” Anna offered.

“Why did I call on you?” Mera glared.

“I don’t know. You usually call on Nora about this stuff.”

“Can you just listen?”

Sigh. “I am listening.” Anna’s serious voice.

“When he looked at me his face changed.”

“To more handsome?”

I didn’t change shape. What’s she mean I ‘changed?’

Mera counted to ten under her breath.

“He was gorgeous. Come on admit it Meralee Carter!” Anna persisted. “Tall and dark. With a grin to melt a maid’s heart…” Her voice turned wistful.

“I don’t wish to think of such things.” Mera cleared her throat. “His face it-it…blurred. Like he was something else...Like…a creature…”

Mera paused. “Please don’t say any of that going on in your mind right now.”

He imagined Meralee pointing a finger around Anna’s lascivious expression. That girl was the animal…

“What?” She finally asked, innocently.

Mera pressed on. “He found me resting in the gazebo-”

“Gazebo?” Anna was horrified.

“Not getting much sleep lately.” Mera reiterated through gritted teeth. “Anyway, he asked me to marry him. Of all the ludicrous, ridiculous things...”

She makes it sound so dirty…Lucien winced.

I was trying to offer her a willing way out.

Even Anna was stunned into momentary silence. “Was he serious?”

“Well, I thought he was kidding but he just stared at me…Waiting.”

“What’d you say?” There was justifiable fear in Anna’s voice. “Was it awful?”

Yes.

“I told him it was clear he was either conceivably delusional or manic. But either way it’d be in his best interest to stay the hell away from me.”

Anna grimaced. “Was he terrified?”

No. Intrigued.

Women are not generally hissing snakes when I’m near…

“I got up and left but he just laughed. Like it was all of great amusement.” Disgust entered her voice. “Like-like I was adorable.” Disgust entered her voice.

You were. Kissably adorable…

Anna choked a little.

“Anna, he looked at me like...I... I was some kind of prey or something.”

“Prey? He obviously doesn’t know who you are. Nobody looks at you that way.”

I do. Lucien thought. I’m not afraid of a gorgeous brunette spitting nasty words like throwing cottonballs.

“But he acted like he did know me. Or wanted to. I don’t know...Ever since the dance I can’t-I can’t-his face…I remember those black eyes. And the one that like’s Nora...I saw him. But I can’t remember what he looked like…” She blew a breath. “It’s very startling. They are startling.”

“You’re startling me!” Anna proclaimed.

“I’m sweating Anna.” Mera wiped the sheen from her forehead. “I never sweat.”

Lucien instantly imagined that smooth honey-toned skin shining under a sheen of sweat. It made him shift against the fence. Changing position.

“Read the dream interpreter.”

“For what? Nothing in here translates seeing-seeing-” She huffed. “Someone dying. It leaves little to interpret.”

“It’ll be okay, Meralee.” Anna said reassuringly. “It-It was just a dream. Only a dream.”

“Thank you, Anna.” Mera sighed. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“Okay. We’ll talk in the morning. Get some sleep.” She really did sound concerned.

Mera emerged from the house, pausing to look at the stone dial on the lawn, declaring the early hour. She groaned before climbing into her carriage.

Go home and sleep. Lucien thought. Pitying her a little. I didn’t mean to scare her. But he didn’t regret his attempt to persuade her to go with him.

She could do it willingly. And let me save her life…He leaned off the fence to turn into the wolf and follow her back to the Carter House.

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