The Scientific Method: A Vampire Queen Novel (Vampire Queen Series Book 10) by Joey W. Hill

piece.
    Her cheeks turned pink. "You do, my lord. Or a college professor. I like how you dress."
    "Because it gives you the opportunity to make fun of me. I liked how you were dressed this morning." He caressed her chin. "It gives me the chance to tease you a different way. Think I'll have you dress that way again. Maybe for a future Council update. Then they won't care if I get every blasted number wrong."
    She blushed even more prettily then. He'd forgotten how she showed everything on her face. Christ, had he really had his head that much up his ass, like Jacob said?
    It wasn't a full Council meet, thank God. That would have interfered with the whole day's schedule. This was just Lyssa, Lord Mason and Lord Uthe who, as her right hands, were visiting on other matters and had requested a quick update on their active projects. It didn't mean he could treat it with any less respect than a full Council meet, though. When they arrived, he was surprised to see another attendee he hadn't expected. But then, this male didn't usually announce his schedule. Beyond the Council members, most vampires who knew his identity didn't live very long to tell anyone about it.
    Daegan Rei was the Council's assassin, charged with hunting and executing vampires who'd broken the vampire code to the point it endangered the species as a whole. Unfortunately, due to some unwise policy decisions from previous Councils, he'd been busy these past couple years, mostly dealing with the sires of made vampires who'd been turned without Council permission. Then there were the made vampires themselves, many too unstable to be allowed to survive.
    Daegan was a dark-eyed, intense lean shadow of a vampire. Though he wasn't as old as Lady Lyssa, their ages weren't far apart. If ever Council made an enemy of him, he'd be a formidable one to overcome. It might take both Lyssa and Mason — the third oldest vampire — to take him down.
    Fortunately, Daegan Rei was a strong supporter of Lady Lyssa. Plus, they were bound by familial relations, of a sort. Glancing left, Brian saw Gideon, Daegan's servant as well as Jacob's brother, leaning against the far wall, since servants weren't typically invited to sit during formal vampire occasions. Though Gideon was full servant to two vampires, Anwyn wasn't in the chamber. As a fledgling, she wasn't part of Council sessions, even those where the servants of Council vampires were. Brian expected she knew all that went on in them regardless, since she was fully capable of scouring Gideon's mind. Excluding her was more of a procedural issue.
    He made a mental note to see how her seizure management was going while she was here. Though he didn't have his mind open to her, he saw Debra making that note on her tablet. She was probably also making a note to check in on Jessica, his very next thought. Mason's servant would have their daughter with them, explaining her absence from the meeting, and Debra knew Brian would want to review the health of both mother and child.
    She anticipated his every need. Whereas he...ignored hers.
    "Lord Daegan has a situation in Oregon," Lyssa said, breaking into his thoughts. "A full servant that needs to be unmarked before he terminates her Master."
    Brian tuned in to the discussion, admonishing himself to concentrate. Regardless, he found himself staying particularly aware of Debra, the lingering musk of her arousal, a combination of her climax and his she hadn't had time to clean from between her legs. Every male in the chamber would know he'd taken her recently, and he didn't mind the feeling at all. Maybe he was going through some type of hormonal surge for young male vampires. Or maybe he was just suddenly noticing what was his and reacting to that.
    Fortunately he was a very good at multitasking. He recommended that Daegan bring the marked servant to the research facility. That way he could ensure the proper dosage and compound would be administered to reverse the marking effects and erase the