My jaw drops open, and I let out a long wail as my canines stretch from my gums. “Ahhh!”

  It’s like fuel to his fire. He’s pumping harder, faster, and I fumble one hand to the back of his neck. His muscles are rippling and strong. Turning my head, he’s right at my mouth. I lick the sweat from his skin, but it’s not like before. His taste overwhelms me. I must have more.

  Feed. The low voice of my demon speaks directly to my soul.

  No! A small voice whimpers back.

  Derek’s heartbeat is loud in my ears, drowning out everything. The strength of his blood fuels my orgasm. He releases my hip with one hand and touches my clit, circling quickly with his fingers, and all my control is lost.

  Another burst of intense pleasure scrambles my brain, and my hips begin circling with his movements. Don’t stop. Oh, god, please don’t stop. My brain repeats the phrase like a mantra as my legs begin to shudder and jerk.

  FEED! It’s a direct command I can’t resist. My extended canines burn.

  “I’m coming,” Derek grinds out. So much raw hunger is bound up in his words.

  “Yes, Derek, yes.”

  I arch my back, grazing my razor-sharp teeth lightly across the skin behind his ear, right at the base of his hairline. A little pinprick, and I pierce him. As my teeth sink into him we’re both swept up in a powerful orgasm.

  “Fuck!” He shouts, coming deep inside me.

  My body goes rigid, as if electrocuted. The onslaught of erotic pleasure blanks my mind. My mouth is attached to his skin as his blood pulses into me. He doesn’t seem to notice I’m drinking him. He groans, and I can feel his cock deep inside me, throbbing.

  I swallow, and my eyes squeeze shut. I’m on another plane where sound and sight—nothing exists but this man. He penetrates me; I penetrate him. It’s the most intense experience of my life. Had I known it would be this way, I’d never have been able to resist it last night.

  His ragged groans are little after-shocks of pleasure. He’s still coming; I’m still coming as I drink. Until, from somewhere, some other place inside me—a place filled with sadness and loss, a place still clinging to the smallest hope of mortality—a word appears: STOP!

  It’s my voice, not the demon’s. I have to stop. I don’t want to kill him. I don’t want to lose him. Pulling out quickly, I swallow the last drops as the haze breaks. As if released from a trance, he pushes us forward into the pillows never once breaking body-contact. His hips rock twice more before we both are able to control our breathing and slowly start to come down.

  “Jesus.” His voice is a hoarse whisper at my shoulder as he makes another slow thrust.

  I can’t move. I’m floating in space, attempting to manage the legions of emotions spinning and warring in my mind. His blood races through me, a slight burning at first. Curious. The discomfort passes as it mixes with my blood in my veins. It’s in my brain, filling my mind with everything about him.

  Derek Alexander. Strong… so strong… so incredibly strong. He’s a soldier. No… a Marine… A commanding officer… There’s something more. Something different. Something… like me? No… it’s not like me, but it’s supernatural. What have you done, my Derek?

  I pull my lips between my teeth to capture any last essence of him lingering there. I want more. I want to swallow every drop of his sensual blood. I want more. I want to fuck him all night. I never want him out of my sight. I want him to be a part of me always. Mine.

  My eyes are pressed closed as all these messages flood my brain, but I realize he’s above me now. He pulls out slowly, moving to his side. I feel his absence intensely. His large palm smooths my skin from my shoulder, down my torso.

  “That was… incredible.” His voice is husky, but I can’t answer yet. I’m still trying to find my feet. “You make me crazy.”

  I make him crazy? He has no idea what he does to me. He sends me to another galaxy. Focusing all my strength, I force my teeth to retract. He can’t know what I am.

  When he speaks again, I hear a smile in his gentle tone. “Did I break you?”

  I have to move. My chin dips, and I push up onto my elbows, hoping to buy time for my mouth to return to normal. I’ll be able to face him in a moment. In the meantime, I allow my long, dark hair to form a glossy curtain between us.

  “I’m not broken,” I whisper. As I say the words, I realize how untrue they are.

  He kisses my lower back, and the scruff of his beard is almost painful against my hypersensitive skin. “Good, because I hope to repeat everything we just did a few more times tonight.”

  It’s safe, and I lift my heavy locks over my shoulder. “A few more times?” I give him a coy smile, and his gorgeous blue eyes twinkle.

  “Naturally, the number of times is up to you, Miss…” His dark brow furrows. “I don’t know your last name.”

  I quickly scan the suite looking for something I only vaguely spotted when we entered—before he had me against the wall. There it is.

  “You have a Jacuzzi.” My chin drops and I lift an eyebrow. “We should test it out.”

  He smiles, revealing straight white teeth. He really is perfect. I feel a strange surge of pride over the few ounces of his blood I’ve stolen, a peculiar possessiveness of him buzzes in my veins.

  “So it’s like that?” He levels that steely gaze on me, and it’s breathtaking.

  “You’re a private investigator?”

  “Yes, Melissa.”

  “Last names aren’t a good idea.” I can never explain the fucked up nature of my existence, and anyway, it doesn’t matter. He’s my last fling, my final heavenly indulgence before I accept my fate and return to Baltimore to die.

  He doesn’t move as he watches me. I wait while he weighs my words against the mind-blowing experience we shared only moments ago. He’ll either insist on knowing more, in which case I’ll leave, or he’ll accept my answer.

  “You want to test out my Jacuzzi?” I release the breath I’m holding with a grin and a nod. “Give me a sec.”

  He pushes off the mattress, and I watch his perfect ass flex as he crosses the beige marble floor to the large tub. Two low steps lead to it, and he sits on one as he opens the faucets.

  No need to worry he’ll change or be like me. We didn’t complete the ritual. I only have him inside me. He doesn’t have me in him. I didn’t force him to drink from my veins the way I was forced. I didn’t rape his only hope away.

  I, on the other hand, am running out of time to complete my transition. I have to kill or die. I’ve already decided which it will be.

  Leaning on one elbow, he reaches out to me, and I stifle a gasp. His body is Michelangelo’s Adam, reaching out for the hand of God. Only he’s reaching out to a devil.

  Horror and guilt hit me like a freight train. My chin drops, sending a dark curtain across my cheek, but I know he saw the change in my expression. I hear him crossing back to the bed at once.

  “What’s wrong?” Concern fills his voice. “Melissa, look at me.”

  He catches my chin, and my eyes travel over his olive skin, his smooth muscles, the light dusting of hair on his chest. I have to leave. Now.

  I can’t believe I would risk my one hope at escaping my fate—not only that, I risked his very life! Has my animalistic nature truly become so strong? I stole from him. I bit him. I can’t rationalize this away any more. I’m too weak to fight my lusts. I’m lost.

  His hands are on my shoulders, pulling me onto his lap. “Stop,” he orders.

  I try to resist his arms, but he’s stronger than me. Or I’m too weak to fight him.

  His stern voice continues. “Whatever you’re saying to yourself, stop it.”

  I shake my head. “We can’t do this, Derek. It’s wrong.”

  “It’s not wrong. It’s fast.” His chin drops, and I watch as he collects his thoughts. I confess, I’m incredibly curious as to what he might say next. “I’m sure this is new for you. Hell, it’s new for me.” His eyes fix on mine, and his expression is so earnest and lovely. “Don’t shut us down yet. Give us a chance.”

  “You don’t know me,” I argue. “We don’t know each other—”

  “So let me get to know you.” He takes my hand carefully in his. “I want to know your mind the way I already know your body.”

  His blood sings in my veins, and my eyes close at the sensation. Tasting him has only made him harder to resist.

  “We don’t have time.”

  “We have plenty of time.” He smooths my hair back, cupping my cheek with his large palm. “My life has been so empty these last six years. This is the first time I’ve wanted to live.”

  Oh, god, the terrible irony. “You want to live?”

  “I’m not explaining it right. I’m jumping ahead.” He takes both my cheeks in his hands, and looks deep into my eyes. “But you feel it, too. I know you do. Please stay.”

  I want to cry. My heart is breaking because I can’t tell him we don’t have a chance. I can’t tell him that if he wants to live, he needs to run as far and as fast away from me as possible.

  I’m either the worst coward or his blood is making it impossible for me to say no, because this beautiful man holding my face overwhelms me with his words.

  “Okay.” My voice is soft, and I feel my cheeks turn pink. It’s a ridiculous response. I know all of this is a fantasy, yet I want to indulge it so badly. “What do you want to do?”

  He glances over his shoulder at the now-full Jacuzzi tub and pushes away to walk over and shut off the water. Reaching into the pool, he tests it. Then he smiles and dries his hand.

  Returning to me, that sexy grin is on his lips. “First, we finish what we’ve started tonight.” Catching me by the legs, he roughly pulls me across the sheets, making me squeal a laugh. I’m in his arms as he carries me to the tub. “Tomorrow, I’m going to buy you brunch.”

  “Brunch? So I’m sleeping in?”

  He laughs as he steps down into the swirling water, me still in his arms. It surrounds us in bubbling warmth, soothing away my tension, making me believe I could be a normal girl with a normal life, who only needs to give this incredible man a chance. As if we have a future. As if I get a happily ever after.

  “You’ll probably be tired after tonight. I wasn’t planning to wake you.”

  I’m on his lap, straddling his waist, our faces close. My hands are on his shoulders, and I wouldn’t push him away for anything.

  “And then?”

  He leans forward and captures my lips with his. Our mouths open to let our tongues touch, and I feel a stirring low in my pelvis. At the same time, energy surges through my chest. His blood is in my heart making me burn for him.

  He pulls back, nipping my lip. “We take it as it comes.”

  6

  Complications

  Melissa

  Nighttime sleep is slipping further from my grasp. We make love in the Jacuzzi; we make love on the table. He takes me from behind, pulling my hair and holding my throat. I ride him reverse-cowgirl, so he can’t see me change when I come, moaning his name as my canines stretch out for him. I use every ounce of willpower I possess to keep my hunger in check. I won’t steal any more of his life.

  He sleeps, his gorgeous form wrapped in the crisp white sheets, and I sit in the darkness watching him, longing for him. My evolving mind has the capacity to focus on him for hours, losing all sense of time.

  What shall I do, my love? You’re mine, but you don’t know it. In my audacity, I stole your essence, but I can’t hold it for long. We’ll share these few days, and then I’ll return to face my fate. As I take my last breath, I’ll dream of your beautiful soul.

  He rolls onto his side facing me, but I can tell he’s not entirely awake. He can’t see me very well in the darkness, but I see him plain as day—the bright day that now hurts my eyes. He blinks slowly at me sitting in the soft velvet chair completely nude.

  “You’re so beautiful.” His deep voice is husky with sleep. “You’re even more beautiful now than you were earlier.”

  “You’re dreaming,” I whisper, using my glamour to lull him back to sleep. He doesn’t know how his blood enhances my appearance, how it causes him to want me more. Sadly, it’s all part of the trap—only I won’t make him my victim.

  He studies me a moment longer before closing his eyes again. A few moments, and he’s drifted away. As much as I want to sit here and gaze at him, I can’t stay any longer. My heart aches as I stand and collect my things.

  Quickly, silently, I step into my dress and sandals. I search everywhere, but I can’t find my thong. It must be wound up with him in the sheets. I’ll have to leave it.

  My lips throb with desire to kiss him one last time. My fingers tingle with wanting to slide through his soft, wavy hair. I can’t take the chance he’ll wake. Instead I go to the door and slip out, down the hall, down the stairs, into the pre-dawn night.

  People roam Bourbon Street even at this hour. It’s the darkest hour before dawn, but I’m not afraid. I’m the most dangerous thing they’ll encounter tonight.

  Not in a hurry to return to my hotel, I take Toulouse Street, away from the bars and the dying noise of revelry, toward the river. I walk slowly up the damp alley, under balconies of black wrought iron. Dark-green ivy climbs the sides of hotels and apartments, transforming their hard edges into rounded black shapes.

  If my night vision weren’t so acute, they would look like hulking monsters, swaying toward the levee. The air is heavy and damp, and even without the sun it’s warm. Could it be another reason so many of my kind come to this city? The heat disguises the cold of our skin. Only, my skin isn’t cold yet.

  My eyes… I’m not sure what my eyes look like this morning. I drank his blood, so it’s possible they have a faint red hue. Oh, god, I hope they don’t. I’m not sure I can handle seeing that, and it won’t help me with Elaine and Mariska. A shiver passes over my shoulders, and I hug my arms across my chest. I’ve never felt so alone in my life.

  I wonder if Elaine is in our room. Somehow I know she isn’t. We’d been walking back from dinner at Antoine’s last night when she asked to take a detour through Bourbon Street. I had no desire to be around loud, rowdy drunks. Still, I went with her to the crowded street.

  She was looking for someone, but she wouldn’t tell me who. I watched as she followed the voice in her head—or the sensation of a voice. I’m not sure how her power works. I’ve only watched her use it since we were little girls. When we arrived at the place, she left me to go to him.

  It was the same man she met in Maspero’s before lunch, and I had the same sickening response to his presence. My stomach roiled, and I couldn’t enter. I could only hide behind the pane of glass and watch them talking, her touching his arm. He was incredibly attractive and seemed very sure of himself, yet when she touched him, he stilled as if she had some influence over him.

  My brow lined as I focused on them, not understanding what was happening. Then Derek appeared, and I forgot Elaine. I forgot everything but him. For a moment, I close my eyes and savor the memory of last night. All of it is as vivid as the sunrise in my mind.

  Turning west, I walk back toward our hotel. When I reach the Hotel Monteleone, a pale glow is just lighting the edge of the horizon. My eyes are heavy. Our room is empty as I suspected. Digging my phone out of my bag, I see a text from her. She sent it hours ago, when I was still blissfully wrapped in Derek’s arms.

  Am with Patrick. See you tomorrow. Lunch with Mariska.

  Crawling into my bed, I study the words. Patrick. The man from the bar. She’ll want me to meet him, and I’ll have to say no. I don’t even know why his presence makes me so violently ill. I don’t know anything about the changes happening inside me. Again, waves of loneliness consume me.

  Lunch. Mariska. If only she has answers. A yawn surprises me. The sun streams through our windows, and with a groan, I pull myself out of the bed to close the heavy blackout drapes. I barely make it back before I fall into a deep sleep.

  * * *

  Derek

  Stuart sits across the booth from me studying his menu with a frown. I touch the lip of my coffee cup, but I’m not thirsty. I’m not hungry. I’m angry and frustrated and miserable. I opened my eyes this morning and Melissa was gone. No note, no number, nothing.

  The last I remember is waking to see her sitting in the silvery moonlight looking like a goddess. She told me I was dreaming, but no dream of mine was ever that beautiful. I wanted to take her, carry her back to bed and make love to her, but strangely, sleep overwhelmed me. When I opened my eyes again, she was gone. After everything we said last night, everything we did, she still walked out.

  I want to forget her. I want to say fuck it and wash my hands of the situation. The problem is I can’t. I’m drawn to her in some inexplicable way. She’s like a drug, and being apart from her leaves me hollow. Without thinking, I rub my stomach.

  “What’s wrong with you?” Stuart snaps.

  I sniff and raise my eyebrows, sitting straighter in my seat. “Didn’t sleep well last night. I was pretty fired up after… what happened.”

  It’s not entirely a lie.

  Stuart nods, accepting my excuse. “Where’s Patrick?”

  “He’s with a woman.”

  “Big fucking surprise. You didn’t stop him?” Stuart cuts angry hazel eyes at me, but I’m in no mood.

  “What Patrick does on his own time is his business.” My tone matches his in sternness, but it changes when I add the last part. “Besides, I think this one’s different.”

  His brow lines. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  “I was with him when he met her. It was strange.” I think back to last night, the pretty girl who walked straight up to him as if she were reading his mind. “She had some kind of… power over him.”

  “Are you trying to say he’s imprinting?”