Page 41 of Forever Touched

It was purely a question, not acommand. Mistress hadn’t used thrall on me yet, and I couldn’t let her. If she tried and found out it wasn’t working, she’d know that I’d consumed vampire blood.

“I was attacked,” I evenly replied, my gaze steady on hers. “Someone jumped Rocky in the parking lot and broke his neck, then went after me.”

Mistress narrowed her eyes, searching for a lie. “And then what happened? You have blood on your sweater, but your neck bears no marks.”

Georgina turned from the fridge with a blood bag in hand, ripping it open to drink straight from the bag. Octavia struggled to grab her own breakfast as her sister leaned against the open fridge and watched us with a bored expression.

“I can’t remember everything. It all happened so quickly. He bit me and drank a lot of blood, I know that much.”

“Why didn’t youstophim? For heaven’s sake, Adalyn. Why do I give you the ability to defend yourself if you’re not going to use it?”

“I’m sorry, Mistress. I really did try, but I got disorientated when he hit my head against a tree. I passed out soon after that, then woke up in the woods hours later, my neck fully healed.”

Almostthe truth. Enough that she might not detect the lie.

She tilted her head, as if listening to my heartbeat. It remained steady.

After a long, uncomfortable moment, she released my chin with a huff. “Guess I can’tentirelyblame you for that. It was probably just an overeager client desperate for more of your blood. At least they did the proper thing and let you live.” She huffed again, only looking mildly put out at the thought of someone almost draining me. “I wonder who it was. Rocky didn’t see a thing. Did you get a good lookat his face?”

I quickly shook my head. A littletooquick. Her eyes narrowed again, so I hastily replied, “He was wearing a mask.”

“What color?”

“Gold.”

“Hmm . . .” She reached up to tap her chin. “One of the males you recently tried to secure was wearing a gold mask. Rocky told me he was furious when his session was canceled.”

I nodded. “He grabbed me last night while I was table dancing.”

Her expression turned thoughtful. “I heard about that too. And then our newest, extremelygenerousclient, Benjamin Osborne, intervened. He’s already become quite possessive of you, Adalyn, which is a good sign. He’s an earl, making him our highest-ranked client yet. He’s also close friends with Prince Everett. Your job will be to target that connection. Make him reveal anything that could help further our cause, you know the drill. But don’t push him too hard. We want himhungry, so focus most of your effort on keeping him happy and wanting more.”

“Yes, Mistress.”

“Good. Heath and I will look into the male that attacked you and see if we can figure out who he is. We don’t want him causing any more trouble. You said he carried you into the woods?”

I nodded again.

“We’ll send Rocky out this evening to search for clues. Maybe your attacker dropped something while feeding on you.”

At that, everything in me went cold.

Myknife. I’d spent a lot of money on that weapon, a purchase that Mistress didn’t know about. Since I could only partially access my magic—and only when I was with a client—having a weapon made me feel a little less helpless. I’d tried to find it earlier when Everett’sbrother had dropped me off, but all I’d been able to locate was my phone.

Well, and Benjamin Osborne’s decapitated head and body. Since he’d been a Venturi, his remains hadn’t burned up in the sun. If Mistress found him, she’d definitely use thrall to pry more information out of me.

“I could go now and look,” I offered, trying not to sound too eager. How I would dispose of Benjamin’s body, I didn’t know. I just needed to get it out of the woods before the sun went down.

Mistress waved a jeweled hand dismissively. “There are a mountain of things that need to be done around the house, so that should be your priority. Besides, I don’t want you wandering off into the woods after what happened. Maybe I should have Rocky drive you to and from the club from now on. At least until we figure out who attacked you.”

“Really, Mother?” Georgina said with a toss of her messy curls. “Thetrollneeds extra protection? I still think you should make her live at the club instead of letting her come backhereevery morning.”

“Don’t forget who cleans your room every day, dearest,” her mother gently replied.

“Why can’t we just keep human servants like we did before Daddy died?” Octavia spoke up, not noticing her sister’s eye roll as she turned to pour her blood bag into a crystal glass.

“Sometimes I wonder if you live under a rock, Tavia,” Georgina responded before her mother could. “Remember when the royal family made an alliance with the SCA six years ago?”

Octavia paused in her pouring to consider. “The Supernatural Containment Agency? Yes, I remember. I’m not stupid, Georgina.”

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