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Their luck see but bad Dammit, the bastards had shot him He shouldn&039;t have risked it Should have just left the damned car and taken off on foot He&039;d been an idiot, thinking like a ht Rhiannon&039;s constant chiding had cured him of

As he blinked his eyes clear of the pain-induced haze, he realized Angelica was driving She&039;d pulled hih he had no hway as if the devil were on her tail He hadn&039;t even realized she kne to drive Had never bothered to ask her But she was driving, and burning the paveht off the da turns later, when she apparently thought she&039;d lost her pursuers, did she slon Her gaze kept dancing over hi nervously into the mirror first, she pulled the car off the road, and turned to hi to consciousness with everything in him He&039;d passed out once or twice already He was sorely afraid that if he did it again, he wouldn&039;t wake up

Her pretty eyes widened when he thought that "You&039;re getting better at it," he hts"

"You&039;re too weak to prevent it," she said, and she tore his shirt open, and he recalled drea very similar Only under radically different circuh her teeth, and that ed tear in his side, an inch or so above his hipbone, which pulsed with blood at an alar rate A flesh wound that would barely threaten a elica whispered "It isn&039;t that bad Why won&039;t it stop?" And as she spoke she began searching the car, looking in the glove co over into the back seat

"Any wound can kill a vampire," he told her Her teacher, that&039;s what he&039;d become Someone older and wiser, whom she needed in order to survive And that hy she was so worried about hi anything else "We tend to bleed like hemophiliacs when our flesh is torn deeply I&039;el, that I&039;ll be dead within elica had already reached the sa, she yanked his shirt off hi the fabric in the process She tore off a sleeve with her teeth, and balled it up, pressing it into the wound The rest of the shirt, she twisted into one long band, then wrapped it around his htly he could barely inhale She pulled it hard to apply pressure to the wound, and hehi it, too, an oddity he still hadn&039;t figured out Maybe Roland could explain it

As for the pain, it couldn&039;t be helped Though he had thought she&039;d be a bitit on hih Hadn&039;t even flinched, and it was probably a good thing

He&039;d die otherwise When she&039;d finished the job, she waited, watching the e

"Don&039;t bleed," she muttered, half to herself and half to the wound in his side "Don&039;t bleed, don&039;t bleed, don&039;t bleed"

"It doesn&039;t dare," he told her Then he leaned back in the seat and closed his eyes

"Don&039;t leaveBut she said noat him-at his face, anyway The wound, she perused often She popped the clutch, then, and sped back to Eric&039;s house as fast as Jaine could take her there And then she put her luscious arled to pull hiot his feet out the door and onto the ground She anchored one of his arms over her shoulders, and helped him inside No doubt she could have carried hih he wasn&039;t certain she are of it yet Still, he hadn&039;t been a vah not to feel a bit odd at the prospect of being picked up and carried by a feed to do so Barely

She took hie, and then inside, and she activated the locks after she closed the door

"Jesus, Angel," he said, pausing for a few shallow breaths before going on "That was stupid" She eased hiently onto the bed

"What was?"

"The locks You don&039;t know the code How the hell will you get out if I die?"

"You&039;ll just have to stay alive, Vampire If you don&039;t, I&039;ll be stuck So buck up and tellto slip away, she was leaning over hi his shoulders

"Da in her eyes

She was, once again, the woman he could not hate The woman who needed him He&039;d always had a weak spot for wo once to take on a grown ht when he&039;d been no more than a scraelve-year-old, to protect her Even Rhiannon, the strongest woman he&039;d ever known, had her weak moments, and Jameson would have taken on the world to protect her

And now, this one This dark angel who seemed to need him more than any of them ever had He didn&039;t want to feel protective of her, but it was unavoidable He felt it He couldn&039;t do otherwise Even though he was the one lying here at death&039;s very door, he felt her need He wasn&039;t going to drop dead and leave her on her own He was going to fight, so that he could stay alive He wanted to be with her when they found their daughter again He wanted to see those violet eyes when they were alight with joy He never had

Hell, he was actually beginning to like the woman

He stroked her hair away fro the day sleep," he told her "All you have to do is keep me alive until then"

"How?"

He tried to s Replace what I&039;ve lost You led to keep his eyes open

She blinked "What if I can&039;t?"

"Look in the bathrooel There should be soency" She touched his face, checked the wound and then, biting her lip, went into the bathroom in search of supplies Jameson had no doubt she&039;d find what she needed there Eric kept this place stocked with everything anyone ht conceivably need And his friend didn&039;t let hies, and even needles and silk thread The bandages would have to do No as he lying still while she stuck that needle into him And she wouldn&039;t have time, anyway It would be dawn soon

She returned to the bed, removed his makeshift tourniquet and watched with horror in her eyes as the bleeding began all over again With one hand pressed to the wound, she tore strips of bandage with the other, and her teeth Pinching the jagged edges of his torn flesh together, she taped the the wound And when she finished, and blood still seeped through, sheit tightly around his

He assu had stopped

While he lay there, thinking this was going to be all right after all, the woman picked up a needle and some of that silk thread

"No," he said, his voice a rahisper "That&039;s not necessary"

"I didn&039;t think so either, at first," she told hi the needle&039;s eye with her thread "But I see now that I rong If you so ain," she told hi the needle, and loosened his bandages again "Hold on," she told hi to hurt like hell"

He passed out froash in his side That and the blood loss I hadn&039;t realized pain was different in all of us, not just in e Now I kneas part of this new nature of nified, just as every other sensation was And for some reason, I could feel his pain I hadn&039;t felt the pain of those other vaside my own Nor that of my maker, when I&039;d set him afire and watched him burn But I felt Jameson&039;s pain

It didn&039;t seem so odd The man was in my blood, in rowing stronger and spreading throughout

In a very short time, I&039;d somehow become quite attached to this un, of course, with the physical sensations I&039;d experienced when I&039;d taken hi for more of that It had deepened, I believed, because of the child we&039;d shared I&039;d carried his very flesh and blood within me for months, nurtured it Loved it

How could I not be attached to hi an unrepentant monster, and despite his violent hatred for DPI He&039;d spared the ht Because I asked it of him, he&039;d spared it Surely, he was not quite as horrible as I&039;d believed him to be at first Certainly not the sa about that as well Jah there was, deep inside, a small part of me that wished he would For then I would be able to experience the fulfill the choice to do so

The thought heated my face, and made me sweat I pushed it aside and focused on the matter at hand I sewed the wound very well, and then cleaned and wrapped it And then I just looked at hi was stopped It would stay stopped And if what he had told enerative qualities of the day sleep were true, he would survive Maybe

But he needed to feed, to replenish what he&039;d lost And then to rest The wound, according to the vampire, would be healed when he woke I needed only be sure it didn&039;t break open again before then

The sweater I as soaked in Jareat deal of blood His were in worse shape than h And I kneould have to clean him up

There was no one else here to do it And the task excited me I know it is shaht of undressing hiood would it do ain in the process? I dived beneath the shower spray very briefly, just long enough to rinse the blood away from my skin I donned the robe he&039;d worn earlier, and hurried back to his side All told, I wasn&039;t away froht

Lifting hiently, I peeled what remained of his shirt over his head and dropped it to the floor As I turned back to him, I went completely still Naked from the waist up, he washe was beautiful

I had never looked upon a man&039;s form before Not this way He was firraceful His skin lay taut and supple and I longed to touch it To run my hands over his chest, and flat belly, and feel hi, and yet I was growing used to it I&039;d never experienced such attacks of lust before My curiosity had been answered by the sisters, who sis were sinful and unsuitable for a young wobody, forbidden to explore it, and learn the secrets of its pleasure But now, they were secrets I longed to know Never before had I been so absorbed with physical desire Only with him His body held my eyes prisoner And while I was e uedain

He needed ht now, not my passion, I reminded myself But my hands trembled as I unfastened his jeans And my entire body shook as I stood over hihs, and finally worked it free of his feet I wouldn&039;t look I told myself that I would not look at hi back to the bathroom for a basin of ater and a clean, soft cloth But there was no helping it I had to look at hiently washed the blood away I washed his arms and his chest as my eyes feasted on the s abdomen, and the narrow curve of his hip as I stared down at those powerful thighs and the dark curls between them And the root of him, at rest now, but beautiful and filled with erotic proin to understand Dark Mysterious And I wanted to touch hian and see it come to life in response to my touch I wanted to feel it, explore it Learn the secrets of his pleasure as well as hts I bit , I knew, to look at hi And it would be evento touch him while he rested Because perhaps if he could object, he would I knew all too well that he held no tender feelings for ht resentliberties with his, but even this was a sensual pleasure; running ain, with only the soft cloth between his flesh and ood Sinfully, wantonly good

When I finished, I was hot I was breathing too rapidly, and beads of sweat dampened my face and my neck My pulse fluttered in my throat, and ry for him I told myself that it was ridiculous, that I didn&039;t even like him That he detested me in return That I could very easily have been his o, and that it wasn&039;t soive

But it didn&039;tto dampen this desire that blazed to life inside me I wanted him How could any woman not want him, when he was laid out before her, naked and beautiful and utterly helpless? Even a virgin, even a nun, even a saint, would have been stirred to a sensual awareness And I was none of those things, right noas none other than a vampiress A creature of pure sensuality A creature in whonified a thousand times And for the first ti this new nature ofmore of it

What would it be like, I wondered, to make love to this man?

Foolish notion, of course Oh, I could look on him, even touch hie But I certainly couldn&039;twaylaid by my newfound fascination with the er froet that

He needed to feed And there was plenty of sustenance in neat little bags just in the next roo to go and get him some But then I stopped as I realized how difficult it would be to feed hiht be able to rouse hih toit to hilass, cold and stale and weak I knew the difference between that and warht of drinking fro with desire as much as it had me And I wanted to feed hi intomy very essence into hiher I knew that, sensed it, because of what had happened to me each tiive me such intense pleasure that I could not resist

This craving for his touch had driven h I would explore it a bit nohile he was unconscious, and unable to ridiculeeyes I would let him take from me, because I wanted to knohat it felt like And because I was feeling free and uninhibited with hi there completely unaware

Boldly, I stretched out on the bed beside his naked body Wearing only his robe, I lay there, and I pulled hiently, onto his side, and then lower, so that his head and shoulders lay acrossin the feel of hisuish at the feel ofcrushed beneath his bare chest These were feelings I&039;d long ago decided that I would never know The weight of a man on top of me It was forbiddenit thoroughly beforeainst theood I ranmy eyes as I learned his shape I cupped his buttocks They were so perfect and s ainst me

Yes, erection He was hard now Not even conscious yet, but responding to my touch as if he were I&039;d sensed this desire ran both ways between us Now I kneas true

Iit over the perfect curve of hishis face to my chest With my mind, I reached out to his, in just the way he had shown me Feed now, Vampire Take what you need what you cravetake it from me

And he did His mouth moved over my skin, and I closed my eyes He kissed my breast, and then his lips parted, and his teeth pierced that tender skin I cried out in pleasure and pain and he drank from me, took from me, as I had taken from him His movements were slow, and cluently His hands fumbled upward, like the hands of a sleepwalker, and they founda cat, over and over as he fed And lust for hi rowing stronger Feel hiup my arms to settle on my shoulders And then he lifted his head, opened his eyes

Hungry eyes, glazed with passion, heavy lidded They met mine for only a moment, and there was no inhibition in them No resistance No hesitance Just desire

And a jolt of fear surged inside me, as I wondered what sort of beast I had roused to life I should end this, right now, I thought I should gently ive him the chance to come fully awake

He licked his lips slowly, and then lowered his head again, and all of ood intentions dissolved His fevered lips traced a path to the roundest part ofteeth drawing blood, and I tipped ain, down over ain He sae, and my belly, andand biting athis way back up ony