she had him there, but only because the sun was still burning in the sky, and it wasn't as though he could walk down to the butcher. "thank you, once again, for bringing them. but the reason i don't eat human food is because i don't particularly relish having to regurgitate it. i find the whole process rather disgusting."

"it tastes the same coming up as it does going down. well, unless you forget for a week or two. that's not pleasant, let me tell you." she pinned him with one of those feminine looks that said she was onto him. "but back to the subject you're trying to avoid, i think spending a little more time with odin would do you some good. he adores you, k. i've never seen him protect anyone the way he does you."

kerestyan drew in a deep breath. while he appreciated his brother's protective instinct, he also wished he'd realize it wasn't necessary anymore. "is he awake yet?"

"oh, he's awake and armed again." she snickered. "but he isn't a happy camper, that's for sure. i don't know why he keeps harassing vouclade. you'd think he'd get tired of losing body parts."

kerestyan often wondered the same thing. he'd heard a short summation of the days' events when he'd requested the steaks from alfred, but his version of brief was simply that odin had attacked vouclade. no more, no less.

"do you know what happened today?"

she grinned. "between vouclade and odin?"

"yes. alfred didn't elaborate."

she flipped the steak once more and set the tongs down. "i guess after vouclade popped in here and saw your, shall we say 'compromising position', he stormed back into dad's chambers in a huff. he was yelling about a breach of nelek decorum and, well, you know how he gets. but odin heard him, and to make a long and bloody story short, it ended up in yet another odin versus vouclade rumble."

he cupped a hand over his eyes. "please tell me they weren't in father's chamber when they started fighting."

she let out a purely wicked laugh. "of course they were. v ripped off odin's arms. odin kicked v across the room. then dad played referee and sent the bad children to their rooms. v stalked off to his lab under his own power, but odin wasn't quite as lucky. he wasn't down long though, if it makes you feel any better."

kerestyan lowered his hand and pushed the salt shaker across the counter, listening to the dull scratching sound. "it would make me feel better if he'd realize i don't need him to be my first line of defense anymore."

"old habits die hard, k." he glanced up to see her studying him, but then she turned and pulled a plate down from the cabinet. "i know i've said it a hundred times before, but you two really are night and day. were you like this when you were kids?"

he nodded. "i've always been the more serious one."

"isn't that the truth?"

kerestyan swiveled as logan's quiet voice touched his ears. standing at the edge of the hallway, eyes slightly swollen, she'd dressed in the jeans and long sleeved, navy blue t-shirt odin had made for her, both of which fit perfectly.

she tipped her head back and sniffed the air. "please tell me there's another one of those for me. i could smell it from my room and i think i left a trail of drool down the hallway."

kerestyan pushed out the stool next to him as trinity set the plate on the counter. hopefully logan would accept his peace offering and the silent apology it was meant to be. "it's all yours."

delight filled her eyes. "really?"

he nodded. "and there's more if you can talk trinity into cooking them."

trinity set a knife and fork on a napkin then slid it next the plate. she smiled at logan, her eyes slowly tracing her long, lean frame. "i'm trinity, kerestyan's younger sister. and i'm easy, all you have to do is say please."

kerestyan drew in a sharp breath when he felt logan's warm hand slide down his arm as she sat on the stool next to him. she smoothed down a wrinkle in the black fabric covering his forearm before she stared at her hand, scrunched up her nose, then withdrew and folded her hands in her lap.

either she didn't approve of the shirt he'd chosen to replace the one she'd so eagerly ruined, or she was disgruntled by her seemingly absent gesture.

whichever reason, she quickly recovered, her green eyes twinkling like a child with an ice cream cone as she returned trinity's smile. "damn, i'd have been willing to get down on my knees and beg if that's what it took."

after setting a glass of ice water in front of the plate, kerestyan couldn't help but notice how intently trinity watched as logan cut a piece of steak and slowly placed it in her mouth. and when she moaned in obvious appreciation, it was trinity who shivered.

trinity leaned across the counter in front of logan, the rounds of her breasts spilling over the top of her red lace corset. "in no way would i be opposed to you dropping to your knees in front of me, and i'd most certainly be willing to return the favor."

when logan arched a brow in mid swallow, kerestyan felt he should be the one to offer a complete and expedient explanation. "trinity is bisexual, logan."

she took a sip of water then chuckled. "yeah, kerestyan, i kinda picked up on that when she started staring at my tits the second i stepped into the room." she grinned as she sliced the rest of the steak into small cubes. "and had she not already told me all it takes is please, i might have let her touch one as payment for a baked potato with butter and sour cream."

both kerestyan and trinity laughed, but it was trinity who recovered first. she picked up the apple she'd been sniffing earlier and twisted off the stem. "my orientation doesn't bother you?"

logan simply shrugged. "no. i guess i assumed all vampires were bisexual in one way or another."

by the way trinity's head kicked back, it was obvious she found a great deal of amusement in logan's comment. she pointed at him then smacked a hand against the counter. "what did you and your brother do to make her think you're gay?"

kerestyan prepared to respond, but paused when logan's fork clanked against her plate and she glared hard at trinity. "they didn't do anything to make me think that. it only makes sense that a smart vampire wouldn't care if their blood came from a man or a woman." she pointed at the apple in trinity's hand. "if the only thing i can eat is apples, and though i might prefer red, all i can find in the store is green - i 'm going to eat the green apple. it's still an apple."

a strange and unexpected sensation of warmth rippled through kerestyan's blood. had logan just defended him? unfortunately, his feeling chilled as trinity's smile, once derived from simple appreciation of logan's human form, faded into something easily two hundred times more dangerous...

her exotic eyes glowed with a very dark and very ancient admiration. "you are definitely one of a kind, logan. very, very few humans would see it that way. most young vampires don't even see it that way."

logan retrieved her fork and stabbed at another piece of meat. "yeah, well, the longer i'm here the more i hear how inhuman i am." she smiled in a rather mischievous way and cast him a sideways glance. "however, i suppose it's better than being morally bankrupt."

he smiled back at her. "i told you, i am not morally bankrupt."

"i am, and i'll happily admit it to anyone," trinity announced. she tilted her head to the side and peered up at the ceiling. "i'm not even sure i was born with morals."

"see," logan said, motioning to his sister. "at least she admits it."

he laughed at that. "trinity nelek is hardly a model vampire, unless of course the supermodel is on his or her back, blissfully screaming her name."

trinity's full lips thinned into a smile. "very nice, k, your brother would be so very proud of you for that one."

"you don't have much room to talk, lord vampire," logan teased. you had me half naked and pinned against an appliance, and you don't even know my last name."

kerestyan inhaled a deep, calming breath. if unnecessarily loud and extended laughter could kill a vampire, trinity would've been dead where she stood. but when she stopped abruptly and straightened, her face a mask of concentration, the calm he'd been searching for slipped away. trinity was speaking with someone telepathically, he could sense it, but only one person made her straighten like that.

trinity chewed at her bottom lip. "did you want another steak, logan? i need to leave, but i'd be happy to cook another before i go." at the same time she was speaking to logan, kerestyan felt an intrusion in his mind. "k, that was dad. he's demanding i return to the castle. he also told me to tell you he expects logan at his feet in two days time."

panic rolled through kerestyan in an icy wave. "what? two days? the withdrawal process takes longer than two days! why the hell didn't he tell me himself?"