Free The Vampire With the Dragon Tattoo (Love at Stake) by Kerrelyn Sparks Page A

Lee had done. “Then what was malfunctioning—the hand or your mind?”
    Dougal winced. “My mind, I think.” He rolled his right shoulder. “I’m no’ crazy. I just lost control. I’m no’ sure why.”
    Well, at least he seemed honest. It would have been so much easier for him to claim mechanical failure. “How did you lose your hand?”
    “In battle.” He shifted his weight. “I’m no’ a bad swordsman. I was outnumbered. Five to one.”
    “You were fighting with swords?”
    “Aye. I lunged at one, and another one sliced my hand off. It turned to dust.”
    Leah grimaced. “That had to be awful to see.”
    “It dinna feel verra good, either.”
    “You can . . . feel pain?”
    He gave her a wry look. “Ye think my feelings are dead?”
    “I don’t know what to think.”
    He lifted one brow. “I can feel anything ye can.”
    One look at his expressive eyes and she knew that was true.
    He stepped closer and lowered his voice. “May I have a word with you, lass?”
    Her heart fluttered. She hadn’t been called a lass since the last time she’d seen her grandfather. Odd, but this man was probably older than her grandfather, even though he looked fairly young, only a few years older than herself.
    “In private,” he added.
    “Not a good idea,” Emma said. “We can’t have you scaring her away.”
    He cast an annoyed look at her. “Verra well.” He turned back to Leah, and his dark brows quirked slightly with a questioning expression. “Do ye wish to leave?”
    Her breath caught. “Leave?”
    “Aye. If ye want to go home, I can take you.”
    He was on her side. A burst of warm hope spread through her chest. She could go home. Dougal would help her.
    “Dougal,” Emma warned him.
    “Aye, I ken.” He shot her an irritated look. “Ye want to drag the puir lass into our world and our problems. But has anyone asked her what she wants?” He shifted his gaze back to Leah. “We have no right to keep you here. If ye want to go, I can teleport you home right away.”
    Leah blinked. “Teleport?”
    “Dougal,” Emma spoke more sharply. “We need her.”
    “She doesna need us.”
    Emma sighed. “We can’t simply let her go, not when she knows about us. There’s protocol to follow—”
    “You mean erasing my memory?” Leah asked.
    “I willna do that,” Dougal said.
    “What?” Emma stiffened. “That’s against regulations, and you know it.”
    “To hell with yer regulations,” Dougal growled. “If ye trust her enough to expect her to help us, then ye can trust her to keep our secret.” He turned back to Leah. “Am I right? Do ye plan to make us public?”
    She shook her head. “Everyone would think I was crazy. And then I’d have a really hard time getting another job.”
    The corner of his mouth tilted up. “Aye, there is that.” He moved closer. “Shall we go?”
    She stepped back. Her prior reluctance to remain had stemmed from feeling forced, but now that she actually had a choice, she wasn’t sure she wanted to leave. Any other job would seem boring compared to what she could do here. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to get away for a few days to think it over. “How does this teleportation work?”
    “I hold onto you and read yer mind to see where ye want to go. Then we go.”
    The prospect of him holding onto her was intriguing, but she had serious doubts about the mind reading or going part. If he read her mind, he might see how attractive she thought he was. And the going part simply sounded impossible. “You mean we disappear and rematerialize?”
    “Aye.”
    “That can’t be safe. What if our bodies get accidentally fused together?”
    He leaned forward and whispered, “Lass, if our bodies fuse together, ’twould no’ be by accident.”
    Her mouth dropped open, and she stepped back. Was he referring to sex? The gall of the man. He certainly wasn’t as shy as everyone thought. “How could I rely on you to take me home? You might take me to . . . to your