Reign of the Vampires by Rebekah R. Ganiere

had a major withdrawal yesterday. I wanted to make sure everything was all right.”
    “Yes, everything is fine, thank you for checking.”
    “Do you mind telling me what you needed to withdraw over ten million dollars for yesterday?”
    “You told me to purchase a new slave. I did.”
    Chase sucked in a breath and Danika rolled her eyes. As if he hadn’t already heard the news.
    “Danika? Ten million dollars for a slave?”
    “Three.”
    “What do you need three slaves for?” His voice held a condescending tone.
    It was like trying to convince her father that she did need a new toy. “Two were for me. An assistant and a guardian. The other I bought as a baby present for Lance and Sinya.”
    “A guardian? Nika, are you in trouble?” Chase’s voice softened.
    Danika massaged her brow. She didn’t want to go into it with Chase. He’d think her suspicions were silly that Xenock hadn’t been working alone when he’d attacked her. And she wasn’t about to tell him of her nightmares and visions of Xenock.
    “My position is becoming more and more public, Chase. There are other lords who I’m sure would be more than happy to have me out of the way. That and with my ever-increasing appellate duties, I need more protection.”
    Chase was silent for a moment. “I agree, but ten million dollars? I wonder whom in the world you had to bid against.”
    “Garon.” She glanced over at William. He stared out the window. She wasn’t used to people overhearing her private conversations. It was something they’d both have to get used to.
    “How did you find that out?”
    “Non-private auction.”
    “Danika! That was very unwise. And bidding against Lord Garon is even more unwise.” His Russian accent had become heavy, as it did every time her uncle got upset. He’d spent hundreds of years trying to rid himself of it, but anger tended to bring it out in him. He sighed. “Can I assume then the auction had something to do with the memo I received this morning, stating that you’ve authorized the delivery company to charge us for his shipping for the next six months.”
    “I wanted to keep this personal, but unfortunately I was unable to.”
    “Yes, well, I fear that he’ll make this more personal yet. Lord Garon is not someone to trifle with, and now that you have something he wants, you can believe me that he’ll come to collect sooner or later. You need to be extra careful. How can you be sure this new guardian will be up to the task?”
    “He’s with Neeman.”
    “That’s good, but I don’t even want to know what you had to do to pull in that favor.”
    “I gave Neeman thirty days.”
    “Hopefully that’ll be enough time,” Chase said. “On another note, we have a storage facility that I need to check.”
    “Is there a problem?”
    “You’re welcome to come. I need to take an inventory of the stock, as well as the employees, that’s all. And we may need to do an audit on it to see if it’s worth keeping.”
    An audit, no thank you.
    “Let’s have lunch together so I can meet your new assistant.”
    “That would be lovely.” Danika pushed the button on her Bluetooth. William still stared out the window. “William, relax.” She laid a hand on his arm, and then pulled it away. “You’re my assistant now. What I know, you will know. You’ll hear my conversations and sit in on many of my meetings. Only the most private moments of my life will be kept from you. Yet through our bond, you will get the gist of what is going on. There’s no getting around that, I’m afraid.”
    “Did you purchase Mason?”
    “Yes.” Danika shifted in her seat and pushed at her hair. “Do you know him?”
    “We were in the same encampment. We were together when we got caught.”
    “How do you feel about him?” She watched his expression. Several different emotions played over his face: fear, admiration, joy.
    “Mason is a great leader, and if you have gotten him as a guardian, you couldn’t have done