Witch Upon a Star (A Midnight Magic Mystery) by Jennifer Harlow Page B

companion. I just blushed. “Where is your coat?”
    “I don’t know. I gave it to the valet. Why?” I responded in French.
    The man headed toward the stairs, past the rutting couple, dragging me beside him. He opened a closet. “Which is yours?”
    “Why?” I asked, yanking my arm from his grasp.
    “Because it is past time for you to leave. He should never have brought you in the first place.”
    “Look … thank you for stepping in back there, but I really had it under control—”
    “If you truly believe that, Anna Asher, then your head is not simply underwater, you have already drowned.” He shook his head. “Asher has either grown crueler or stupider with old age.”
    “He has not. And who are you to say such nasty things about him?”
    “A cautionary tale. One of the countless victims affected by his selfishness and spite.”
    “Alain?” I asked, finally able to recall the name.
    “He has spoken of me?” Alain asked, surprised.
    “Just to tell me I should avoid you. Excuse me.” I attempted to step past him, but he moved to block me. “Please let me pass, or I’ll scream.”
    “Scream all you desire. None here will come to your rescue. If anything, they will join in the torment.”
    “Asher will—”
    “Asher is far too distracted by our host and hostess to give you a momentary thought. But I have no intention of harming you. Quite the opposite. Now retrieve your coat, and I shall escort you to a cab.”
    “I am not going anywhere with you. I do not need your help, and I am not leaving. Not without Asher.”
    The vampire glared, nostrils flaring. “Foolish girl. He has you mesmerized. You see an angel where only a devil lurks. Did he save you? Pluck you from a life of misery? From some deep loneliness only he can fill? Made you his whole world as you did him?” I was about to ask how he knew but stopped myself. Alain read my face like a book though. A cruel smile crossed his face. “I have known him for seven centuries, ever since he forced this life upon me. And do you know why he did? Why he damned my eternal soul to hell against my very will? Because I bested him on the battlefield. I did naught but wound his pride, and he made me pay the ultimate price. You believe you are special. That he loves you above all others, and at present perhaps he does. But love wanes. Time is a cruel mistress, eroding the luster and excitement of new love and revealing what lies under the surface. It shall reveal who he truly is. Who you truly are. You are young. Your desires will change. He will not. And should you cross him, or betray him, or even wound his pride as I did, he will make you rue the day you ever set eyes on him. I have witnessed it before, Anna Asher, many a time. I would not wish their fates on anyone. So go home. Go anywhere, but get away from him. Before it is too late.”
    I stared at the crazed vampire, attempting to find some artifice but only saw belief. Pure, total belief in every word he uttered. This stranger was genuinely frightened for me but I refused to believe. He hated Asher. Alain would say anything to harm him, would even make himself believe to sell the lies. And whatever Asher did in the past, no matter how horrendous, he would never hurt me. Not a hair on my head. And regardless I would never give him a reason to.
    “You don’t know me,” I said in a low voice, “and you certainly don’t know us . Now, please excuse me.”
    That time he let me pass. Eyes downcast, I hurried past the still wildly shagging couple toward the parlor. He wasn’t there. I checked the sitting room and still no sign. Where was he? Did he leave? There was one room remaining on the first floor where the music, Elton John, played. My own yellow brick road ended in the library, but I couldn’t enter. When I saw him and … them on the sofa, I couldn’t move. I couldn’t blink. I couldn’t turn away from the horror show.
    Minnie straddled and writhed on my Asher’s lap, his hands kneading