Master of the Shadows by Lynn Viehl Read Free Book Online

it slowly and, after staring at it for some time, said, “She wrote a note.”
    The gingery scent of the woman still radiated from the bed, the strongest concentration of it in the room. Will went over and pulled the coverlet over the sheets to mask some of it. “You would be wise not to contact her again, my lord. A mortal who cannot be compelled is unpredictable, even dangerous.”
    “She does not offer me her phone number or contact information,” Robin said in a blank tone. “She thanks me.”
    Christ Jesus, she’d used him and left. Will almost laughed at the irony of it—Robin had done the same thing to countless mortal females—until he saw the glitter in his master’s eye and instead cleared his throat. “That was very, ah, polite of her.”
    “Am I no one to her, then? Someone she must thank in writing? For what? A mistake she never intends to repeat?” Robin crumpled the paper and tossed it away. “She used me. A mortal. A mortal used me. ”
    “The stone-hearted bitch.” Will busied himself with tidying the bed pillows. “Shall I track her back to her lair and offer her a sternly worded rebuke, my lord?”
    His master kept speaking as if he hadn’t heard him. “She did not purchase anything at the auction last night, but she did register as a bidder. She would have had to show her identification and give them a credit card. You will go to the auctioneer’s office and obtain whatever information they have for her. I particularly want her full name and where she resides.” He frowned. “She told me that she recently transferred here from Chicago. Once you have her full name, call Jaus and ask him to run a background check on her.”
    Will often performed background checks on the mortals who did business or came in regular contact with his master; it provided a measure of safety for his lord and sometimes identified potential conflicts before they could happen. But never in all the centuries of serving Robin of Locksley had he investigated one of the females he used for sex. His master’s habits had not changed in seven hundred years: He spent one night with a woman, pleasured her, and then never saw her again. The females he slept with simply didn’t merit any sort of attention from Robin, other than now and then using l’attrait on those who became too spellbound, but only to remove their memories and assure that they would not return to bother him.
    “Rob.” He stepped into his path to stop his master’s pacing. “It was ill-mannered of this mortal to leave in such haste, but her actions are hardly worth so much trouble. Forget this.”
    “No. I was not finished with her.” Robin went around him, opened the closet, and ripped a shirt from its hanger, rending a sleeve from it in the process. He tossed the ruined garment aside before taking another.
    The display of anger startled Will; he decided to choose his next words with more care.
    “You know that women of this time are not like Kyn females. They have much freedom and independence, and they do as they wish. They do not respect men as we expect they should, but that is how things are in this society—”
    Robin turned on him. “When have you known me to sleep the day through, from dawn to dusk? With a mortal in my bed?”
    “Never.”
    “Just so.” Robin pulled on the second shirt. “She did something to me, this female. I shall learn exactly what it was.”
    He would not allow that the bloody female had simply taken what she wanted and left satisfied. Robin had never dealt very well with resistance or rejection; both reminded him of Marian, the great love of his life, who had neither wanted nor loved him in return.
    “She could not drug you or exhaust you.” Will collected the torn shirt from the floor. “Could it be that she made you happy?”
    Robin turned on him. “Do I look happy to you now?”
    “Not in the least, my lord. Forgive me for suggesting otherwise.” A signal came over the radio Will carried, and he