When Alison awoke, Nick was still fast asleep next to her. Sometime during the night he’d managed to wrap his leg and arm over her in a possessive manner.  Although confining, it felt nice.She slid from beneath his muscular limbs as gently as she could.  She was still tender from their love making, but the bleeding stopped.  A wave of relief swept over her as she remembered Vanessa’s fear that Nick might have torn her.Dressing as quickly and carefully as she could, she slipped out of the bedroom, taking one last look at the gorgeous man she left sleeping. With a satisfied smile on her face, she went to Vanessa’s room to see if she was awake.Vanessa’s face was buried in the pillow as she lay naked on top of the bed. “Did you come to ravage me?”“Are you talking to the pillow or me?” Alison teased. Vanessa rolled onto her back and stretched her sinewy body in a catlike manner, mindless of the

Martin stood in the doorway of Alison’s bedroom with a scowl on his face. “That’s what he gets for trying to beat me through the gate.”Alison gave him a puzzled look, while Vanessa quietly scolded him that now wasn’t the time.He smiled meekly before going to Nick and inspecting his condition. “He’s too heavy for me to carry back to the guest house and he’s going to be like this for a few days,” Martin said with certainty. “I can, however, help make the room, bed, and him more presentable before Wilma returns.  What excuse you give her for him being comatose in your bed is your business.”Martin rolled Nick back and forth so that Vanessa and Alison could pull the bedding off the bed and remake it. He slowly shook his head and closed his eyes at the sight of the blood and semen stained coverlet, but said nothing.  Even so, Alison wanted to crawl underneath the bed and not come out.

Wilma shook her head.  Either she was a fool who was just sweet talked by a suave shadow walker, or Martin was genuinely smitten with Allison and wanted to help. She hoped, for all their sakes, it was the first because, if Martin was going to compete with Nick for Alison, it could ruin their plans.After asking to speak with Martin alone, he and Wilma spent a considerable amount of time behind closed doors. During that time, Martin spoke openly and honestly about his jealousies and competitiveness where Nick was concerned.  He confirmed Elsie and Beth’s fears of him coveting Alison for his own personal gain.  He even admitted that, in the beginning, it was exactly why he approached her. Then, to his amazement, he discovered he genuinely had feelings for the girl.  He told Wilma about his conversation with Nick and Nick’s fears of the possibility that Alison just might like him better.  After all, the elders had connected their families, no

Vanessa hurried outside as Martin’s McLaren 570GT pulled up in front of the grand estate house.   She stopped, briefly, to admire the expensive sports car before babbling about the cold breezes in the house when it was all closed up.“You’re right about this place,” she said to Alison as Martin helped her from the car. “It’s super creepy. I’m ready to leave.”“You can’t leave me,” Alison practically screeched as she pulled away from Martin’s light embrace and firmly grabbed Vanessa’s upper arms. “Please, not yet.  In two days Martin will be leaving for his retreat thing and I’ll be all alone.”“You’ll have Wilma here,” Vanessa said. “That’s not the same and you know it,” Alison said.“I have to go back tonight, or I’ll lose my job,” Vanessa said apologetically.  “I told

Martin paced the drive of Alison’s estate while he waited for them to return from their joyride. It was hours since they left, and he was getting concerned.  If he was able to discover who she was and why she was there, then others could too.  With Nick’s mundane body lying inert in her bedroom and his shadow self not available to defend it, he held that responsibility; as well as keeping watch for rogue shadow walkers wanting to destroy Alison before she could take the throne; as well as their mundane counterparts who knew about the shadow walkers and wanted to see them destroyed.  There was also the recruiters for the darkness to consider.  Getting their hands on someone of Alison’s station would be an enormous feather in their cap.  ***  They were too young to get served in a bar, but the fake I.D. Vanessa produced was good enough to fool the young clerk at the liquor store i