But…hungry.
The bloodlust, rising again.
She’ll drink from any fool she wants. Drink, drain, and fuck—and you’ll be just as screwed as before.
No, Leo had been wrong about her. She would have control and she would have Simon. “Stop risking death for me,” she whispered and the words stuck in her throat.
A sad smile twisted his lips. “Don’t you understand? I’d risk any damn thing for you.”
He kissed her. Still gentle. Still soft.
And the hunger grew.
Her hands clamped around his shoulders and she pulled him closer.
His tongue thrust into her mouth. She moaned, eager, and arched toward him.
Taste.
His hands eased up, sliding under the shirt that still covered her breasts. His fingers skimmed over her bra, over the nipples that were pebbled and hard, thrusting up against the cotton.
She could smell her own need in the air. Feel him all around her.
Simon’s head lifted. “I want your throat.”
Drink.
Asking, not taking. The lust was there, brimming in the eyes gone black.
For vamps, blood was about power, control, life.
In Simon’s eyes, she just saw need. The same stark need that she knew would be reflected in her own gaze. Dee tipped back her head.
Should have been repulsed. Horrified. Even with what she was—
His teeth scraped over her neck.
Her sex clenched.
Should have been afraid.
His teeth pierced her flesh. Her nails dug into his skin. “Simon!” A bolt of pleasure shot straight to her core. Her belly quivered, her knees shook, and she wanted.
Dee’s hands pushed between them. Fumbled with the snap of his jeans.
Dee wanted his flesh beneath her fingers. She needed more. So much more.
Her hands shoved inside and she found his cock. Fully erect, thick, so hot to the touch.
“Inside,” she managed to gasp, “Inside, Simon, I need—”
His tongue swiped over her neck and he lifted his head. “Take from me.”
Her lips parted and her tongue pressed against a fang. Sweet blood.
Simon.
She rose, and her hands pressed him back against the mattress. He went willingly, letting her have the control she needed then.
Power.
No, not about power.
The hunger. The lust.
Craving.
She didn’t take his neck, though he offered his throat to her. Dee yanked off her shirt. Tossed her bra aside, then straddled him, her legs resting over his powerful thighs.
Her fingers trailed down his chest and she leaned forward. A dull thudding filled her ears. Her heartbeat? His? Her mouth pressed against his flesh. Not in a bite. A kiss.
Pleasure.
She closed her lips around his nipple. Swirled her tongue over the hard nub. His cock pushed up between her thighs, rubbing at the crotch of her jeans, and the pressure had her rocking back and forth.
More.
“Take, Dee. Take from me.” Guttural. A demand.
But he wasn’t in control anymore.
Her tongue swiped over him and she let him feel the press of her teeth. Not a bite. Not yet.
Maybe he’d beg for that.
His hands clamped over her hips and he ground her against his cock. Oh, damn, but that was good. Just not—
Enough. Not even close.
“Don’t play.” An order given as her fingers crept down the hard plane of stomach. “You don’t want to push me, you don’t want—”
She looked up at that and knew her eyes would be black. “I want everything.”
“Then you’ll get it,” a harsh whisper. “Hope you’re ready.”
So did she.
But she had the power, she’d be in control.
Her teeth sank into his chest. His growl filled her ears even as the hot warmth of his blood slipped over her tongue.
Life.
Power. So much power.
Her hips lifted and her fingers curled around his cock. She pumped him, once, twice, felt his length swell even more in her grasp. Felt—
Dee stood in an alley. One hand on her hip. A vampire hissed at her, and that preppy fool holding the vamp blinked his eyes.
“Just how long do you think it’s gonna take me to shove this into your heart? A minute? Less?”
She pulled back from him. Her memory, seen from his eyes. No, his memory. “Simon, why do I—”
“Not now,” he gritted. “Ditch the jeans or I’ll rip them off.”
She didn’t have any backup clothes then and—
“Fucking rip them off.”
Dee rolled off him. She shimmied out of her jeans and panties even as she licked her lips and tasted him.
His hands, warm, strong, closed around her thighs. He pushed her legs apart and his breath blew against her damp curls.
“Your smell.” His nostrils flared. “I could devour you.”
Um, now, since he was a vamp that could—Oh, damn.
His mouth took her sex. Lips, tongue. Tasting, claiming. Her hands fisted in the sheets. Dee heard a hard rip. Didn’t care.
That mouth.
His tongue swiped over her clit and Dee nearly came off the bed. She squirmed, trying to get away, no, get closer, but his hold stayed tight and strong.
And he took. His tongue drove into her sex.
She climaxed against his mouth. A long, hard wave that trembled through her body.
But he didn’t stop. That tongue tasted and licked and stroked and Dee realized she was calling his name.
Nearly freaking begging. Her.
She swallowed and her nails dug into his back. “Simon!” Demand there.
Command.
One more swipe of that tongue. Her calves stiffened. Oh, sweet hell.
Then he rose above her. Positioned his cock and drove into her.
Yes.
Her legs clamped around him and when he began to thrust and retreat, she shoved right back at him. Harder. Harder.
The bed banged against the wall. Simon’s gaze burned hers. So much fire there. So much need.
He lifted her hips higher, plunged deeper even as his fingers bit into her flesh.
Marking her.
She’d marked him.
Another climax bore down on her. Her sex trembled, tightened, and she tossed back her head.
Simon came, pouring into her.
She watched him. Watched the pleasure, the near-pain of it sweeping over his face.
Then she came, pulsing, throbbing, breaking, beneath him.
Pleasure. So much pleasure.
Enough to nearly die from.
Good thing they were both already dead.
Zane Wynter didn’t glance to the left when he exited the Night Watch building. He didn’t need to look to know that blood still stained the sidewalk.
The blood of hunters.
The scent teased his nose and a growl built in his throat.
Vampires. Hitting here.
Come and get me.
The stakes he’d taken from Dee’s stash were slung in a pack that dangled from one shoulder. He hadn’t needed to sharpen them. Dee always kept her babies in such fine form.
He’d find the assholes, all right.
An eye for an eye. He’d always thought that way.
“Zane!”
He swore at the call. Not one from another Night Watch hunter, but from the cop he sometimes called friend.
A mistake that. Taking humans for friends just led to trouble.
Tony hurried to his side. The guy’s badge flashed. It hung from Tony’s hip. All official-looking. The cop had to be on the clock.
Or hunting, just like he was. Pity they didn’t always play by the same rules.
“I need to find Dee,” Tony said the minute he reached him.
Zane didn’t stiffen. Just stared back at him. “Good luck with that.” Dee. Pak ha
dn’t called him in when she’d been hurt. Hadn’t told him about what happened, not until the bastard had given Dee a running start.
Pak had always had a soft spot for her. He wouldn’t do what needed to be done. The guy just didn’t understand…
“I—if something ever happens, you’ll come for me, won’t you, Zane?” He could see her so clearly. One hand tight around a stake as she stared down at the still body of a teen, a young girl with blond hair and blood all around her. A girl who’d gone on a killing spree and attacked her two younger sisters. “I’d never want to be like them.”
Dee’s nightmare. One some bastard had made come true.
Pak said she’d adjusted. That she’d maintained control. And that she had a pack of vampires after her ass.
But could any vampire maintain real control? What happened when the bloodlust grew too strong? What happened when Dee turned on an innocent?
“You’ll come for me, won’t you, Zane?”
Good thing they’d never fucked. If they had, knowing what was to come would have made the job so much harder.
Impossible.
Tony grabbed him and shoved Zane back against the side of the building. The bricks bit through his shirt. “I need to find her!”
Tony had slept with her. There was pain there. In his eyes. On his face. “Haven’t seen her.” Truth. Though he had a good idea where to start looking.
Dee would be licking her wounds. She’d need shelter. Someone she could trust.
Mistake.
Tony’s face mottled. The guy had always been so in control. So restrained. One of the reasons why he and Dee hadn’t lasted.
She’d needed a guy who didn’t understand control.
“That bastard Leo bit his own wrists open and the fucking guards didn’t check on him. He was in a padded cell, they thought he was safe. The vamp bled out, bled out!”
Zane blinked at that. Yeah, vamps could die from blood loss, but he’d never heard of a vamp taking his own life that way.
You had to want death pretty badly to take that route.
“Last night, he said some SOB named Grim was after Dee. She needs help. I’ve got to find her, help her—”
At that, Zane knocked the cop back. Tony staggered, nearly fell to the cement. “And how are you gonna help her?” He demanded. “Offer to be her snack?”
A muscle flexed along Tony’s jaw. “She’s not like that. She wasn’t crazy, she was just…Dee.” Sadness again.
Fucking shame.
Tony’s chin jerked up. “I don’t want her to wind up like Gomez or Grace. I don’t want—”
He stiffened. Okay, yeah, this was one of those moments in life that sucked. “Grace was working with the vamps. She lured the hunters out, got them to lower their guards.” Then served them right up to the vampires.
A woman he’d known for years. He’d laughed with her. Talked with her about her dumbass dog. Stolen her coffee more days than he could count.
And she’d set them up.
“What? No, man, she was a vic, same as the others, Grace wouldn’t—”
“We hacked into her hard drive today. Did interviews with family, friends, and we got her doctor to talk.” Patient confidentiality, his ass. That old rule stopped the moment the patient got zipped up in a body bag. “She was dying. Cancer. She had about six months left to live.”
“Christ.”
“You know humans,” Zane said softly, watching the cop carefully. “Once the clock starts running out, they get desperate. They’ll try anything.”
“Hell!” His throat worked. “Grace saw Dee.” He ran his hands over his face. “She was here. She saw Dee change, survive—live.”
Vampire. “Guess it was too much temptation for her. The bastards sent her an e-mail. Told her to bring a trade outside to them. The vamps promised her a new life.”
But just gave her death.
“They’re going after Dee. You know they won’t stop until she’s dead.”
No, they wouldn’t. “It’s time for you to step back, Tony. You’re not strong enough to handle the hell that’s coming.” Not with a Born Master playing in the game.
“I’m not leaving her alone.”
His brows shot up. “Who says she’s alone? Word I have is that Dee’s got a new lover, a vamp who risked the fire for her.” Interesting. In his experience, vamps really didn’t like to burn.
“I don’t trust that bastard.”
Neither did he. “You think he’s setting her up to die?” Grim. That was the Born’s name. Old as frigging dirt. And the older the vamps were, the stronger they were and the harder to kill.
Dee was a newbie. So easy for her to die.
“No,” Tony gritted out. “I think he’s setting her up to kill for him.”
Footsteps shuffled and a woman with short, red hair appeared, rounding the corner. She drew up when she saw them, her eyes widening.
The scent of smoke teased Zane’s nose.
She hurried past them, and he caught a whiff of…blood?
Hell of a combination.
“Zane. Shit man, forget about your dick right now, okay?”
He yanked his gaze off the woman’s ass and zeroed his stare back on Tony. “Go home. Leave Dee to me.”
But the cop’s head started shaking, hard. “I’m not abandoning her, I’m not just—”
“You want to be her prey?”
“What? No, she’s not like that!”
“Every vamp is ‘like that’ when they get hungry enough.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “You want to find her? Go inside and talk to Pak. You know that guy always has info about this city.”
Tony’s dark stare measured him. “And where the hell are you going?”
He brushed by him. Didn’t meet his stare. “Hunting.”
“Who are you hunting?”
Zane ignored the question and kicked up the stand on his new motorcycle.
“Who are you hunting?”
A flick of his fingers, a press of his foot, and the engine roared to life.
“Not her, you got me? Not. Her!”
The motorcycle shot away from the corner, racing right in front of an old, gray truck.
“Tell me about your change.” They probably didn’t have time for this. She should be getting dressed. Finding weapons. Figuring out what the hell they should do next.
But she needed to know more about Simon. Wanted to know and she didn’t want the blood link to tell her. She wanted him to talk. “Your parents, the vampires attacked them.” Killed them. Just like they’d killed her family. “Is that when you changed? Did they trans—”
He rolled away from her.
A chill rose on her flesh. “Simon?”
He sat on the edge of the bed, giving her a view of his strong, powerful back. “Don’t make me into something I’m not, babe.”
She pulled the covers up to her chest and waited.
“I was already a vampire before my parents were killed. I’d been a vamp for a year before the attack.” He glanced back at her. “You thought I was forced to turn?”
A nod.
His lips twisted. “No. I was one of the ones who chose to change.”
“Why?” The word came out husky, rough. To choose to be a vamp, to drink blood, to kill?
He rose, gave her a fine view of his ass and stalked to the jeans they’d tossed aside at some point. He yanked them up. “I was working in the Middle East. The shittiest and hottest place the world ever forgot.” Simon turned toward her. “One night, my men were ambushed. Cut down in the road by bullets and bombs.”
Dee didn’t move. Couldn’t.
“They died around me, their screams in my ears.” His fingers brushed over his stomach. “I bled out on the ground. My leg was shot to hell. My chest torn open. Every breath I took tasted of fire, and I knew, I knew I’d wouldn’t make it off that road.”
“But you did.”
His eyes darkened to black. “A man came out of the rubble. He walked str
aight to me. Asked me if I wanted to live or die.”
He’d chosen to live, as a vampire. Her lips parted.
“I heard the thump of a helicopter’s blades then. Whirring in the air. They were coming to help us, but I was the only man still living.”
So he could have made it without the change? He could have kept being human?
“I knew about the Other.” He swallowed. “I’d been to so many places, seen things people wanted to pretend didn’t exist. War brings out the monsters, Dee. It brings them out like you wouldn’t believe.”
“I’d believe almost anything.” Sad and true.
“I knew looking up at him—I could see his fangs, see his eyes changing. I knew what he was, and I knew I wanted to be like him.”
She sucked in a sharp breath.
“The medics could have tried patching me up. Could have saved my ass—and maybe, maybe I would have pulled through. But my job was to fight. I had to be strong. He could make me strong. Stronger than I’d ever been, and I’d never have to worry about choking on my own blood as bullets and hellfire took me down on a dirty road ever again.”
No, he’d just have to worry about getting his head chopped off and having a wooden stake driven through his beating heart.
“You don’t understand, do you?” His voice was grim. “Vampires are always young, always strong. That’s a deal a man dying on a battlefield isn’t gonna refuse. I wanted the bite. I would have done just about anything to keep living right then.”
“But the helicopter—”
“I wanted the bite,” he said again. “I wanted forever.” His shoulders lifted, fell. “I’m not gonna lie to you. Not gonna say the change was forced on me. I chose.”
“And would you choose the same thing now?”
His lips thinned. “Would you?”
“I didn’t choose this, I didn’t want—”
“Getting out is easy, Dee. Bleed out. Let the fire take you. Every single moment you live, you’re choosing.”
She knew he was right. She was choosing this life because for her, there was no alternative. “I’m not killing myself. That’s not me.” Too easy. Fight. Survive. Pak had taught her that. You survived, no matter what. You lived.
“It’s not me, either.” Soft. “I didn’t know—didn’t understand about the Borns when I was brought over. After the exchange, I woke up, strong, thirsty, so thirsty, and I didn’t even feel the Born’s power at first.”