by Cynthia Eden
“If you bite me a third time, will I become a vampire?”
Her shoulders stiffened.
See if you can tell when she’s lying…
“Will I, Savannah?” Mick pushed.
She squared her shoulders and turned to face him. “Yes.”
Fuck me. “Didn’t you think that was important? That I know that fact?”
Her hand raked through her hair. “I wasn’t planning to bite you again. I didn’t intend the first bite—it was just an emergency and you offered. The second time…” Her hand fell. “Heat of the moment,” she mumbled.
Yes, it had been. But she still should have told him that shit. “If I become a vampire, what happens?”
Savannah swallowed. Her smile was hesitant. “You live forever. You stay young. Any injuries you have are healed and—”
“Will you control me?”
At his question, her words tumbled to a halt.
“If you give me that third bite, and I change into a vampire, will you have control of my mind? Will you be able to tell me exactly what to do, and I’ll have no free will?”
She glanced away from him. “Do you think I would do that to you?”
“I don’t know, just how badly do you want a—wait, what did you call it before? A companion.” Anger burned through him because he’d been falling for her. Fast, blindly, stupidly. And she’d been holding back on him all along. Damn her.
Damn him.
Damn them both.
“That’s the way it works, if a born changes a mortal,” she said, still not looking at him. “But, despite what you so obviously believe, I wouldn’t do that to you. I’d free you from my control the instant you were a vampire.”
His laugh was bitter. “I’m supposed to believe that? When you’ve been keeping all of these secrets from me?” And he couldn’t stand it. He needed her to look at him. Mick stalked toward her. He caught her chin in his left hand and turned her head toward him. Even then, the move was oddly tender. Why? Because I am under her fucking spell.
“I figured learning about vampires was enough for the first day,” Savannah said slowly as her dark gaze locked on him. “I was going to bring the other stuff up in a less-freak-you-out manner.”
“I’m pretty damn freaked out.”
“I can see that.”
Silence.
Then Savannah licked her lower lip. The move looked nervous, so did her stare. “What else did Kale tell you?”
“That you were lovers.” Actually, he hadn’t said that, but Mick was guessing.
Her eyelids flickered. “That was a lifetime ago. Several, if you want to get all technical.”
“You could have mentioned that the asshole looks like me.” You could have mentioned that he—specifically—was the vamp we were after.
Her brows shot up. “What are you talking about? Kale looks nothing like you. His eyes are beady and cold and yours are deep and soulful. His chin is weak. Yours is square and sexy. His nose makes him look way too arrogant, but you—you look like a fighter. Strong and hard and—” Savannah cleared her throat. “So he has dark hair and his build is vaguely similar to you. Big deal. Your shoulders are way wider, and you’ve got a much better ass.”
His cheeks were burning. He’d come in there, pissed as all hell at her, and now—now they were seriously off topic. “Kale said you’d killed those two men.”
“No, no, I didn’t! It was him! He’s the vampire that we’re after, and I’m sorry I didn’t tell you all about him before, but it’s really not easy to just say, ‘Hey, you know the psycho killing in the city? He’s my ex.’” She blew out a hard breath. “And I could have been wrong. I hadn’t seen him.”
Mick had seen the bastard, and he wouldn’t be forgetting that little visit anytime soon. “How did you know I could become a vampire?”
She looked over his shoulder. That wouldn’t do. “My eyes, Savannah,” Mick snapped. “Look at me. Look me in my eyes, and tell me the truth.”
Her gaze came back to him. “When you injured in the shoot-out, I was at the hospital. I caught the scent of your blood in the air.” Her laughter was mocking. “But do you have any idea how many injured patients were there that night? Tracking you down was nearly impossible.”
His guts twisted. “Ben and Steve were also at the hospital that night.” A guess.
“Yes.”
“You tested them. You bit them, to see if they could be changed.”
“They weren’t you.” Her confession was soft.
“Did that mean they were expendable? You tested them, you found them lacking, so you just drained their bodies and tossed them aside?”
She’d gone so still before him. “Is that what you think I would do?”
No. Yes. Shit! “I think there’s a lot I don’t know about you. I think you could kill, Savannah. I think anyone could kill under the right circumstances.” He had, when a stand-off had gone to shit and he’d found himself full of bullets. He’d had to fire back because the killer had been closing in on his partner. There had been no choice. But his partner had still died—he just hadn’t been able to get help fast enough. He’d bled out right next to Mick.
Shut down that memory. Focus on the madness happening now.
“I should have killed Kale when I had the chance,” she whispered.
His eyes narrowed on her. This was a story he would be hearing.
“I told you that my parents were burned. Want to know who led the charge against them? Kale’s parents. So maybe I got a little revenge crazy when I came of age. Or rather, when I stopped aging. Because I was suddenly dealing with a world I wasn’t prepared for. And it would have been so much easier, if they’d been there.” She swiped her hand over her cheek. “They could have guided me. Helped me. But Kale’s parents took them away from me, so I thought…maybe I’d take something away from them.”
Okay, so perhaps he didn’t want to hear this story. His fingers slid away from her chin.
“I’m not perfect. I’m not some innocent princess,” Savannah said. “I never pretended to be. I’m a vamp and I let you know that from the beginning.” Her chin notched up. “I told him what I was, too. But he wasn’t scared. Kale liked it. He seemed to like me, and suddenly, my plans for revenge—for hurting Kale in order to get at them—they were stupid. No, wrong. Using Kale was wrong. Then I bit him, and I realized just what he could become.” Her breath heaved out. “He wanted me to change him. He promised me forever and swore that he loved me.”
Mick really hated this damn story. “What happened?”
“I changed him.” Her breath heaved out. “And the next night, Kale murdered his parents.”
Mick swore.
“I-I thought that maybe he was reacting to me. To the hate that I’d had for them. That hate had been part of me for years. I never said anything to him about killing them. But I was afraid I’d still been responsible, and the guilt ate at me.” She swallowed, the small click almost painful to hear. “So I immediately freed him. My parents had left an old journal—in it, they’d told me how to free a turned vampire. It’s just words and a blood exchange. To break the control link, I need to give my blood, freely, to the newly turned vamp. With Kale, I did it without hesitating. I made him free.”
Mick waited.
“And the next night, he killed his sister and his brother.”
Fuck.
“The night after that, he murdered two women in town. He was a killer, plain and simple. Operating under no one’s control but his own. He told me that he…liked killing. He liked having that power and tasting the rush that came from a victim’s death.” Her voice had gone ragged. “Too late, I realized exactly what I’d done. I’d created a real monster, and I had to stop him.”
This shit was heavy. And dark. And so beyond the reality that he was used to experiencing. “He didn’t look particularly stopped to me.”
“No.” She wrapped her arms around her stomach. “I tried, though. I nearly took his head. I did manage to
trap him in a burning barn. The flames raged around him, and I stayed there all night, making sure he didn’t come out.”
So Savannah played rough.
“Don’t look at me that way,” Savannah suddenly blasted. “I was trying to protect the town from him. He was on a killing rampage. When he didn’t come out of that barn, I thought he was dead. Fire can kill a vampire, fire and a good beheading always work. It was a century later before I caught sight of him again. And since then, he’s been running and dodging me. This is the first time…the first time that he’s come after me.”
“You and Kale sure tell different stories.”
“My story is true. His is twisted to serve his own ends. I don’t know why he’s gunning for me now. Unless—” Her eyes widened. “It’s you. He must have gotten word of you…he knows what you can be, and he wants to be the one to change you. That way, he could control you. It would be two vampires against one. He thinks he can kill me, through you.”
Mick shook his head. “And how would he know just what I am?”
“Maybe he had someone following me. I told you before, vamps often get humans to help them, especially during the day. I told you that,” she muttered as she gave a hard shake of her head. “But you still went running out of here after my warning, and I had to search for you, all day long, convinced I was going to find your dead body!”
She actually sounded upset. And the tears on her cheeks had been real.
“That’s the problem,” Mick said as he locked his jaw. Then he gritted out, “I look at you, and I don’t think right. I look at you, and I want you. I want to fuck you and I want to protect you, and as crazy as it is, I think I even want to kill for you.”
Savannah shook her head. “No, that’s not what I want, not for you.” And in a blink, she was holding tightly to his arms as she stared up at him. “When Ben and Steve wound up dead, all I wanted to do was find you and protect you. I never wanted you to kill—I never wanted you hurt. There’s something about you…” Her lips curled in a sad smile. “I think you remind me of what it was like when I was human. Before I lost—well, before everything changed on me. When I still thought I could have a life that was normal, with a man by my side who loved me.”
Mick didn’t pull away from her. “What is it that you want from me?”
“Right now, I want to be with you again. Once more. I want to make love to you one more time, because this night isn’t going to end well. I know that with utter certainty.”
“I didn’t let the joker follow me—”
“He’s a vampire, Mick. He would have moved so fast that you wouldn’t have even noticed him. He knows where my home is now. And he’s planning his attack.” She spoke with chilling certainty.
“Then we should get the hell out of here.” Obviously.
“We’re safe inside. He won’t get in here, but if we go out there now…if we go into the open, he’ll have the advantage.” She shook her head. “We have just a little time together, and I want to spend these last moments with you. You said you wanted me.” Her hair trailed over her shoulder as she tilted her head back. “I want you. More than I’ve ever wanted anyone. Take me, Mick. Here, now. And let me take you. When the smoke clears…we’ll figure out everything else.”
He shouldn’t. If there was a killer vamp stalking just outside the door, what they needed was a plan of attack. And maybe he couldn’t even trust her. Maybe this was just some trick so that she would be able to bite him again. Third time will be the charm.
“Unless you don’t trust me,” Savannah said as her hands fell away from him. “Unless you let Kale’s words come between us.” She turned her back on him. “If that’s the case, then I understand. Well, no, actually, I really don’t. But whatever. Just stay here until dawn. I’ll deal with Kale and—”
He grabbed her. Locked his hand around her shoulder and spun her back to face him. Mick’s mouth crashed down on hers. He kissed her hard, deep, and with all the fierce lust he had burning inside of him.
And she kissed him back the same way. Her lips were soft and lush beneath his. Her tongue stroked against his. Her nipples pressed against his chest, right through the material of their clothes, and he wanted in her. She mattered. They mattered. The world was chaos, but he needed her.
Mick wasn’t ready to let her go. But he did have a rule. “No biting,” he ordered, his voice a rumble. “Don’t even think about it.”
Instead of pulling away, she laughed. God but he loved that sound. Then she was ripping at his clothes and he was yanking the skirt of her dress up higher. He should be using some kind of finesse. She’d asked him to make love to her, not attack her like a starving man. But there was a desperation riding him that he couldn’t ignore. Mick felt as if a clock were running out on them, quickly ticking away the seconds. He had to have her. Needed so desperately to connect with her again on a basic, primitive level.
What’s real? What’s a lie?
He pressed her shoulders to the wall. Lifted her up. Her long legs wrapped around his hips and he shredded her panties as he tried to yank them out of the way.
What’s real?
He positioned his cock at the entrance of her body. He held her easily and he drove deep, thrusting hard and heavily into her. Her moan was freaking music to his ears. He stared down at her and saw the flash of her teeth.
What’s a lie?
But she pressed her lips together and turned her face away from him. He plunged into her, over and over.
He was the one to kiss her throat. The one to lightly nip her with his teeth. Because maybe…maybe he wanted to mark her, too. She gasped beneath his light bite, and he felt the spasm of her release as her sex squeezed tightly around him.
Mick was right with her. His orgasm hit him with shuddering force, slamming through his entire body as the pleasure lashed and lashed against him.
His heaving breaths seemed too loud in the silence that followed. His heartbeat was a drum that wouldn’t slow. Savannah’s head turned toward him. She gave him a faint smile. “Guess I’m not the only one who likes to bite.”
“I—” Shit. Okay. He needed to explain this. “Savannah—”
But in the next instant, her eyes went wide. Her nostrils flared and he saw the alarm on her face. “Smoke,” Savannah said.
“What?”
She shoved against him. In a flash, she was free of him and across the room. And he was still standing there, wishing she was right back on top of him again. Dammit.
“The bastard started a fire!” Savannah said, her voice sharp. “I can smell the smoke. He knew he couldn’t get past my security—so he’s trying to burn me.” She gave a hard shake of her head. “The same way I tried to burn him.”
Mick yanked up his jeans and grabbed for the shirt he’d tossed aside. Or maybe Savannah had tossed it. He didn’t remember. He dressed as fast as he could and ran for the door.
But Savannah grabbed his arm. “He’ll be waiting for us outside. He knows we can’t stay in here. It’s a trick. A trap. Damn him.”
Mick took the gun out of his holster. “Wooden bullets, baby. He isn’t the only one ready for a fight.”
But instead of looking reassured, uncertainty flashed in her eyes. “You…you had those the whole time?” She backed up a step. “You…came here with them?”
Oh, hell. “Savannah, no, it’s not like that. I never intended to use them on you!”
“Are you sure of that?”
“I—” An explosion rocked the building. One, then another. Savannah screamed and grabbed for Mick. The whole warehouse was shaking, and he realized that Kale must have rigged bombs around the place.
While I was distracted by her.
The place was literally burning around them. They couldn’t stay there. They had to get out or they’d die, but when they ran to the stairs, Mick saw that they were already engulfed in flames. Smoke filled the air, heavy and dark, and he choked, trying to breathe as he realized that escape wasn’t coming that way.
“Fire escape,” Savannah said. “To the right. The window there—”
He yanked open the interior shutters and shoved that window wide open. Sure enough, there was a fire escape leading down. He headed out onto the narrow ledge and pulled Savannah after him. The heat from the blaze seemed to race across his skin.
“Go!” Savannah said. “Go!” He rushed ahead, wanting to reach the ground first so that he could provide cover for her. He knew Kale was waiting, and Mick wanted to protect Savannah. His feet touched down moments later. He backed away from the fire escape ladder, looked up for her—
But Savannah wasn’t on the fire escape. She wasn’t on the ledge. And the fire was bursting from the windows of her home.
“No!” Mick roared.
And then something—no, someone—slammed into him.
Chapter Eight
Mick rolled across the ground. He’d been tackled by one damn powerful SOB, but Mick wasn’t about to stay down. He leapt to his feet, the gun clutched in his left hand.
Kale smiled at him. “Thanks for leading me right to Savannah. It was nice to watch her burn for a change.”
No, no, Savannah wasn’t burning. She’d been right behind him. The whole time. She—
“You left her up there, huh?” Kale taunted. “A save-yourself man, are you? Can’t say I blame you. Savannah is really more trouble than she’s worth—”
Mick fired at him. Once, twice. He aimed straight for the vamp’s chest, and those bullets tore into Kale. The guy jerked under the impact and he staggered back, seemingly stunned that Mick had actually attacked him. Dumb SOB. What had he thought would happen? They’d stand there talking while that fire raged?
“She’s worth plenty to me,” Mick snarled. Then he whirled toward the fire. “Savannah!”
“It’s all right, Mick, I’m here,” she said. Her voice came from close by—very close. His head shot to the right and he found her standing over Kale’s prone body. Vamp speed. He’d never even seen her run toward he guy. She shook her head as she stared down at him. “You got his heart. I can’t believe it. I rushed over to save you…” Her head lifted. “But you saved me instead.”