Prince of Power by Elisabeth Staab Read Free Book Online Page A

here?”
    Really glad. “I’ll come now.”
    He clapped Lee on the shoulder. “Thank you.” He crumpled the note in his hand and pointed a commanding finger at his friend on his way out of the room. “No more talk of you leaving.”
    ***
    â€œThis is a terrible idea.”
    Tyra fought the good fight, but in the end she rolled her eyes at Anton anyway. “It’s a perfectly good idea.”
    â€œYou can’t possibly believe that.” Anton dropped his plastic garbage bag on her bed. He all but sneered at her walnut Ethan Allen dresser and sleigh bed like they were beneath him. “We are in your home. On your brother’s estate. On the vampire king’s estate. This is the most hideous idea in the history of bad ideas. Trust me, I’ve been party to plenty.”
    The eggshell-painted wall was comfortingly cool against Tyra’s skin when she leaned against it for support. What was wrong with her? She’d slept far longer than any vampire had a right to, and yet that teleport had left her a little woozy. Anton seemed to have handled it fine for a first-timer, bad attitude aside. Folks didn’t always.
    She could blame the light-headedness on extreme frustration. Maybe also stress and anxiety. Bringing him to the estate had been a nerve-wracking decision. No plan was perfect in situations like these. There wasn’t exactly a Planning a Secret Takedown with the Scion of All Evil rule book.
    She rubbed her eyes. “They were kicking you out of the shelter. We had to move you in a hurry, right? I don’t recall you coming up with a better idea.”
    His long fingers curled into a fist. “I suggested a hotel. Even one of the abandoned buildings downtown would have been better than this.”
    â€œLook.” Tyra pressed her palms against her closed eyes for a moment. Neon-looking lines appeared in her field of vision from the pressure. This entire experience was as surreal as those lines. Talk about conversations she never expected to have. “Okay, first of all, sit down. You’re standing there like you expect my bathrobe to jump out of the closet and attack you.”
    Instead of sitting, he stepped forward. “You’ve put me behind enemy lines here, you know.”
    Tyra pushed away from the wall and crossed her arms over her chest. “Of course. I know what I’m doing, Anton.”
    For a while they stared at each other, both with narrowed eyes and flared nostrils. Anton swallowed, rubbed the back of his neck, and looked around some more before finally—slowly—his butt landed on her rose-colored silk duvet. He perched on the end of her bed, as ill at ease as before.
    â€œAnton, it’s the middle of winter. We’d have both frozen our asses off in an abandoned building. The key problem,” she said as she crossed to sit on the damask settee opposite Anton’s position on the bed, “is that right now pretty much anywhere is behind enemy lines for you. You couldn’t stay at the shelter, and I couldn’t have protected you very easily anyplace other than here.”
    Anton looked a little like she had just struck him across the mouth, but she kept going. “You’re as safe as you can be here. It’s daylight, and I’ve told everyone I need to rest, so nobody’s going to bother me for a while. This place is like Fort Knox inside Fort Knox. We’ll get you situated by nightfall, get some rest, and then work on a plan. It’ll be fine.”
    He kept staring. His tongue made a slow, thoughtful sweep over his lips. Her body heated a little, remembering that he’d been touching her face when she woke from torpor. That he’d been leaning so close to her face that he practically could have kissed her.
    Was it really possible that he loved her? It couldn’t be.
    She almost snorted at the thought. The idea that he believed what the wizards were doing was wrong and wanted