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A thought carried him to her bedside She slept on her back, her face turned away fro her face in light and shadow She was quite the loveliest creature he had seen in centuries And she was here, in his house In his bed His for the taking…

Though he had just fed, the beast stirred deep within hiently brushed a lock of hair away fro there, slow and steady He stroked it with his fingertip, felt his own heart begin to beat in tithened in response to the turn of his thoughts

One taste

What could it hurt?

He ran his tongue across the silky warmth of her skin, closed his eyes in sensual pleasure, and then, quietly cursing himself, he pierced her tender flesh It was the tiniest of bites, hardlyonly a few drops of blood But it was enough Enough to tell hio

He closed the wound with a stroke of his tongue and then,a vile oath, he turned and fled the room before he surrendered to the demon within him

She dreamed, a dark, sensual drea in the shadows, a tall, broad-shoulderedblack cloak He blended into the darkness as though he were darkness itself She couldn't see his face but she kneas hipre She could feel his supernatural power crawling over her skin, sense his gaze upon her face His loneliness whispered to her, a wordless cry of desolation and pain that sank deep into her heart She reached for hiht that cast silver shadows in his long black hair She saw the sadness in his dark eyes, yearned to coain, felt a sudden rush of ht, and she was no longer standing outside but lying in her bed overshadowed by a dark presence Fear roiled deep in the pit of her stomach She saw a flash of sharp white teeth, opened her s at her throat…

Brenna woke to the sound of her own screaaze darting around the room A faint breeze ruffled the curtains at theShe frowned, certain that she had closed the s before she went to bed

Rising, she went into the bathrooht, then looked into the mirror on the medicine cabinet It was, she realized, the onlyher hair back, she turned her head froealed in the pit of her stomach She leaned closer to the mirror, her eyes narrowed in concentration, and then she frowned She would have sworn there was a bite there a ined it?

With a sigh, she turned off the light and went back to bed, one arrateful for the cat's presence And then she noticed the cat was staring at the , a lol ru in her throat

Fear clutched at Brenna's heart once more "Who's there? Roshan, is that you?"

Hesilver ht cast by the strange laht

"What are you doing here?" she asked

He glanced at her neck "I heard your scream"

The skin beneath her ear felt suddenly hot and she covered it with her hand "What have you done to me?" she asked, her voice hushed "Have you made me what you are?"