“Adrian, please…help me!”

  He leaned over, swept her hair to the side, and licked her neck. She heard the sizzle of her skin, then the stinging burn when he bit down on her flesh. Relief flooded her as he began to drink her life force, but then it got worse. She cried and tried to push him away, but he held firm to her neck as he continued to suck at her neck.

  The orgasm slammed into her, freezing her to the spot as wave after wave of climactic rushing pleasure overcame her. She shuddered and screamed through it, tears flowing down her face. She’d never known pleasure like this, pain and ecstasy combined.

  Adrian growled against her throat and filled her pussy with cum as he pumped deep in her. Again she felt that force within her, and Adrian flipped her over onto her back, staying connected to her, still pumping his cum into her. He released his bite on her neck and bared his throat to her.

  “Take it, now!” he commanded.

  Without thought, operating on instinct alone, she felt the long fangs drop down over her eyeteeth. A feral hunger flamed to life when she saw the beating pulse of his throat, a thirst she couldn’t control. The need to feed was so overwhelming a tight knot formed in the pit of her stomach and she screamed.

  “Feed, dammit!”

  She closed her eyes and took what Adrian offered, her fangs slicing into the column of his throat, the coppery scent of his blood filling her nostrils as the hot taste of him burst into her mouth and she drank.

  This. This was her ultimate power. Finally, her lust sated, she closed her eyes and knew she had found it, had found what she sought.

  Eyes clenched tightly shut, Adrian was barely able to hold onto his strength as the orgasm continued to rocket through his body. He held on as Harlee’s ferocious sucking took what little blood she knew how to take, as she merged with him in a way that shocked him even as he knew it completed them both.

  She only drank for a few seconds before she released him, instinctively licked him to close the wound then promptly passed out. He dropped to the bed next to her, drawing her to him and curling his arm around her, totally dumbfounded at what had just happened.

  Fucking hell! What just happened? He had not only mated with her, not only bitten her beyond just a passion bite, he had claimed her! Now what was he supposed to do about that?

  A claiming wasn’t something that could be hidden. It was a blood bond, a joining that went beyond the ritual. Without the sharing of a regular sexual bond they would both die. It was what kept mated vampires together.

  Fuck! He inched out of her slumbering grasp and into the bathroom, turning on the cold shower, hoping the icy water would shock a little clarity into his sex-soaked mind.

  She’d been wild. Hell, the entire night had been. He hadn’t expected the magnitude of her sexual response to the ritual, hadn’t been prepared for that. She’d turned into a wildcat, both demanding and responsive. Despite the arctic chill of the water, despite the number of times his sore dick had pummeled her, he was still getting hard recalling what they’d shared.

  He shut off the water and stepped out, drying off and slipping on some clean clothes so he could find Duncan.

  No doubt the vampire side of Harlee had revealed itself as dominant. Her need for blood had been more than her need to bond with Duncan. That much he could report to Robert. And he’d also have to tell him about the blood bond, unsure how Robert would react to the news since that hadn’t been in the plan.

  He found Duncan downstairs in the kitchen staring into a cup of steaming coffee. He poured a cup and sat next to him.

  “She sleeping?” Duncan asked, not even looking up.

  “Yeah.”

  He nodded and took a long swallow, seemingly content to sit there without talking. Adrian was fine with that too because at some point there were things he needed to explain to Duncan. Duncan had to be told what he had done to Harlee, how things had changed between them.

  Now wasn’t really a good time. First Adrian had to tell Robert.

  First they all needed some damn sleep.

  Adrian blew out a breath, about to suggest they all get a couple hours rest, when the guard at the front gate buzzed in. Adrian picked up and turned to Duncan.

  “We’ve got visitors coming.”

  Duncan frowned but just then the front door flew open. They both pushed back their chairs and stood, tense and on instant alert. Sara flew into the room with a dozen of Robert’s sentries trailing after her.

  This couldn’t be good. Her face was pale, her lips pressed together.

  “What?” Adrian asked.

  “Robert,” she said, her lips trembling, her face tear streaked. “An attempt has been made on his life.”

  “What? How?”

  “I’ll explain in the helicopter. It’s on the pad and still running. Get her. Let’s go! He’s near death and I don’t know how much time we have. He has asked you to bring Harlee. Hurry!”

  Harlee stared at the sleeping form of Robert, so pale and lifeless and looking so frail in the huge bed. So much had happened since last night, it still hadn’t all registered in her mind.

  This man who might die really was her uncle. These people gathered around the bed really were her family, and she really was a vampire.

  Well, half vampire anyway. She couldn’t begin to process everything that had happened with Duncan and Adrian. When Adrian had shaken her awake with news of Robert, that was all her mind could handle. She’d taken a quick shower and dressed, then sat mute in the helicopter, her hands clasped tightly together to still the trembling. They’d rushed right here and kept vigil over Robert and she’d prayed she wouldn’t lose yet another member of a family she had yet to know.

  Her heart ached, her stomach rolled and she fought back tears. She’d grown close to these people. They’d crept into her heart and become her family and she hadn’t realized it. She didn’t want to lose them. Any more of them, that is. She’d already lost her father, a man she hadn’t even had the chance to know. She’d lost two parents she’d never had the chance to mourn.

  She refused to lose any more family.

  “How?” Adrian asked, turning to Sara.

  “Some kind of blood poison. It was found in his donor drink last night.”

  Adrian frowned. “How could that happen? Blood is always thoroughly tested.”

  Sara shrugged and wrung her hands together. “I have no idea. It was just his glass too, and all the staff have been thoroughly questioned. Security is on it now. The lab is testing everything that came through the past twenty-four hours. We don’t get to eat or drink anything that isn’t thoroughly scanned first.”

  Harlee watched the play of emotions on Adrian’s face. She knew he blamed himself for not being here. But why? He couldn’t have done anything to prevent this from happening. She wanted to go to him, wrap her arms around him and offer him comfort but sensed he wouldn’t welcome it right now.

  “Harlee.”

  The sound of a strained whisper and the weak squeeze of her hand startled her. She turned her head to Robert, her heart pounding when she saw his eyes open.

  “You’re awake!”

  She started to move out of the way so the doctor could examine him, but he held onto her hand. “He can wait. I’m fine, feeling stronger already.”

  “Really, Robert, it’s necessary—” the doctor started, nearly jerking Harlee from the chair. She hurried out of it to give him access to her uncle.

  “I said I’m fine!”

  The strength, the commanding tone, was already returning to his voice. Harlee exhaled a sigh of relief. The doctor hurriedly backed away and nodded and Harlee resumed her seat next to his bed, sliding her hand in his. “Obviously everyone sees you’re feeling just fine,” she said with a wink. “I’m glad.”

  “And you seem fine yourself,” he said. “I trust you had a fruitful evening?”

  “I have a lot to talk to you about,” she said, keeping her voice a whisper. “There’s plenty of time to talk when you’re feeling better. I’d really like you to rest now.”

  He nodded. “Spoken like a true member of our clan. On that, I will sleep well.” He drew her hand up to his mouth and kissed the back of it, then looked to Duncan and Adrian. “Guard her well. Someone wants us all dead.”

  Adrian and Duncan both nodded.

  “We’ll need to get out so he can rest,” she said, for some reason feeling empowered to take charge. She nodded at the doctor as she passed by, ignoring the wide-eyed stares of those in the room.

  Adrian just smirked at her and followed her out the door.

  She, Duncan and Adrian assembled in the living room, where she felt it was time they had a serious conversation about what occurred last night. She had to talk to both of them about her feelings, about her dominant side and what it meant for both their nations. And they had to figure out who was trying to systematically eliminate the leaders of the vampire and lycan clans.

  “Something’s been bugging me since that day we were attacked in the SUV,” Duncan said when they entered the small room and shut the door.

  “What?” Adrian asked.

  “I was hit with a silver-laced bullet. Understandable since we left from the lycan mansion. If it was government assassins and they had made the house as a lycan location, it would stand to reason they would use ammo to take down werewolves. But they also used the laser light grenades and were shooting UV laser fire, which meant they were also targeting vampires.”

  Adrian sat back and stared at Duncan. “I hadn’t considered that with everything that had been going on, but you’re right. Why the hell were they firing both?”

  “Unless they weren’t from the government,” Harlee finished for them. “I have something I need to tell both of you and you aren’t going to like it.”

  “What is it?” Adrian asked.

  She blurted it out before she lost her nerve. “I work for the government. I worked…for the government, as a psychologist. Interrogating lycans and vampires, trying to learn about them, about their minds, so the government could use what I could find out about them…use what I could find out against them.”

  They stared at her as if she’d just sprouted horns and claimed to be the child of Beelzebub.

  “You work against us?” Duncan asked.

  “No!” She stood and wrapped her arms around her middle. “I mean yes. I mean I used to. I didn’t know! About you, about Adrian, about any of this! I didn’t know about you, about us. How could I? The government told us that lycans and vampires were vicious, savage creatures out to take over, to kill all humans. We didn’t know otherwise, how could we? I only knew what I was told.”

  God, please believe me. She prayed they understood. But they just stared at her as if they contemplated whether to trust her or not. “When you first brought me here, I thought you knew I worked for the government. I thought I was being kidnapped. When Robert told me I was Stefan and Amelia’s daughter, I thought it was bullshit. I wasn’t raised as a vampire or lycan, I was raised human. I didn’t know any differently. I was raised to think that vampires and werewolves were my enemy, not my family.

  “And now?” Adrian asked, his brow arched.

  She knew what he wanted to hear. Now she had to hope he believed what she was about to tell him came from her heart. “Now I’m part of all of you, all of this,” she whispered, tears filling her eyes.

  Don’t make me leave. Not when I just found you. Not when I love you.

  She waited what seemed like an eternity while they both looked at her, deciding her fate. Her stomach rolled, pain coursing through her. What if they made her leave, or something even worse?

  “Tell us everything you know,” Adrian said, sitting down and pointing to the couch. “Now that you’re one of us, your inside information can help us free the hostages.”

  She hadn’t realized she’d held her breath so long until she finally expelled it, her legs so weak she fell onto the couch next to him.

  Finally, she felt like she belonged.

  Harlee told them where she worked, her security clearance, everything she’d done and found out about the lycans and vampires that were being held at the government location.

  “They’re fine. They’re fed and taken care of. As far as I know, they haven’t been harmed, but my clearance isn’t that high. All I do is talk to them. I’m not privy to a lot of the experimentation that’s being done on them.”

  But she was guilty by association. The government had held them against their will for years, trying to find out the whereabouts of the lycan and vampire nation headquarters by hypnosis and by drugging them and by God only knows what other methods she knew nothing about.

  “But as far as you know they hadn’t revealed anything,” Adrian said.

  She shook her head, feeling miserable that she had taken part in these experiments. How could she have known, though? Still, why didn’t she feel the part of her that was lycan and vampire? Why didn’t that part of her prevent her from persecuting her own people? She felt miserable inside. Miserable and guilty.

  “Okay,” Adrian said, standing and pacing. “This is what we have to do first.”

  Duncan’s cell phone rang and he pulled it to his ear, then shut it just as quickly and turned to them. “An attempt has been made on William’s life. Silver bullet. Lester’s frantic. I’ve got to go.” He looked to Harlee and then back at Adrian.

  “Go. I’ll grab Sara and Annmarie. We’ll guard Harlee.”

  Duncan nodded and hurried from the room.

  “Shit. This isn’t good. Something is going on and it’s happening all at once. This is a concentrated effort to take down all the higher-ups in the lycan and vampire organization. Come with me,” Adrian said, holding out his hand to Harlee and leading her from the room.

  FOURTEEN

  William was only slightly injured, the silver bullet grazing his ribs, but not penetrating. Already closing, the wound had left him weak, but fortunately not enough silver had penetrated his bloodstream to kill him. He was resting but would recover.

  Duncan sat in the lycan offices with Lester, more irritated than worried. Things just didn’t add up.

  Why hadn’t an attempt been made on Lester’s life? Why William instead?

  Unless Lester wasn’t made a target because Lester was involved in planning the systematic assassinations. And maybe William wasn’t dead because Lester didn’t have the guts to go through with it and kill his own son but wanted to take the suspicion off himself by making the attempt on William’s life.

  Lester sat behind his desk, looking pale, grief-stricken and anxious.

  “I really would like to return to my son’s bedside if you don’t mind, Duncan,” Lester said, tapping his fingers on the desktop.

  “In a minute,” Duncan said, trying to get his thoughts straight. “Tell me again where you were when William was attacked.”

  “Right here in my study, as I told you earlier.”

  “And who else was here?”

  “No one.”

  “How convenient.”

  Lester’s eyes narrowed. “Just what are you implying, Duncan? That I would harm my own son? For what possible purpose?”

  “You tell me.” None of this made sense, but the options were narrowing and Duncan couldn’t rely on what made sense any longer. He had to look at all the possible suspects. With Robert and William and Harlee out of the picture, Lester would control all of the holdings of Dark Moon. He didn’t want to look at Lester as a suspect, but he had to start somewhere and Lester was the highest on the list.

  “I love my son, Duncan. You of all people should know that.” Lester stood and walked to the window, staring out at the full moon above. “I loved my brother as well. I will mourn his death until the day I die. Investigate anything you like about me. My life is an open book and I won’t stand in your way.” He turned to Duncan, genuine grief evident in his eyes. “I have nothing to hide.”

  Duncan nodded and rose from the chair. “I need to head back to the vampire mansion. You going to be okay?”

  Lester nodded. “I ordered extra security all around the perimeter and on both myself and William. You can put your own top people on me if it makes you feel better. The people you trust the most. Do whatever makes you comfortable. I understand your investigation is for the good of our people, Duncan. I don’t fault you for that.”

  He saw the sincerity in Lester’s eyes and nodded, still not sure whether to believe him or not.

  Duncan left and took the elevator to the basement parking garage, lifting his keys and punching the button to disarm the alarm on his SUV. He reached for the door handle when something sharp struck the back of his head. A sticky wetness rolled down his neck and his knees began to buckle.

  Fuck! He’d been had. How stupid.

  Then all he saw was blackness.

  Harlee paced her room, hating being confined and watched like a caged animal.

  “Are you sure the lycan side of you isn’t dominant?” Annmarie teased. “I think you’re about to growl at all of us.”

  Harlee stuck her tongue out at her.

  Annmarie laughed. “I’m sure you meant to point that weapon at Adrian, honey, not me.”

  Annmarie fell back onto Harlee’s bed and stretched, the diamond jewel in her belly button like a multicolored prism under the overhead lights.

  “This is boring,” Annmarie said.

  “You could try knitting,” Adrian said, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms.

  Sara snorted.

  “Fuck off,” Annmarie replied with a bored yawn. “That’s more Sara’s pastime since she can’t get laid these days.”

  “You’re such a whore, Annmarie,” Sara said, shaking her head.

  Annmarie leaned up on her elbows and grinned. “Why thank you, Sara.”

  Harlee rolled her eyes but couldn’t suppress her grin. “How long are we going to have to hole up here, anyway?”

  “I’m waiting to hear from Duncan,” Adrian said. “In fact, he should have been back here by now.” He pulled out his cell phone and dialed, then frowned, then dialed again. “Nothing. Odd.” He dialed again then frowned again.