I Hunger for You

by Susan Sizemore

  “Fine,” she said. “Lead on.”

  Mia walked toward the door, but Domini put a hand on her arm before she could leave.

  “One thing,” she said. “The medical tests came back. The good news is that you’re not pregnant. At least, I assume you take it as good news.”

  Mia flushed deeply, appalled and embarrassed. She shook off the woman’s touch. “I didn’t ask to take any tests,” she reminded Domini. And what was the bad news? she wondered. Were they testing her for some sort of disease? She was too proud, and scared, to ask.

  “I don’t mean to seem rude,” Domini said. “And of course you don’t think this is any of our business, but believe me, it really is for your own good.”

  “And Colin’s,” Alec added. “Shall we?” He gestured toward the door.

  All Colin could do was pace like a trapped animal back and forth across the thickly carpeted bedroom, which got boring very quickly. He’d been furious when they’d brought him to the Citadel, and his mood hadn’t gotten any better in the long hours since.

  No windows. The door was guarded. Other people were allowed in and out, but Colin Foxe was trapped in another clan’s stronghold.

  He was angry at this intrusion into his privacy. He was impatient at the interruption of the hunt for the Patron. He was annoyed that Mia had been brought to the Shagal house, and even more angry that he was not allowed to see her. He was infuriated at the long hours he’d been made to wait, all but a prisoner in a guest room, without any explanation.

  Even the usually forthright Dr. Casmerek had refused to tell him anything, other than to say that the blood he wanted from Colin was for tests.

  What sort of tests? None of this made any sense. What by the devils of darkness had his involvement with Mia gotten him into?

  And worst of all, when lovely Cassiopeia, Matri Serisa’s only daughter and heir, had come into the bedroom and offered to spend the night in his bed, he hadn’t even been interested. She was a beautiful, sensual, exciting vampire woman who no Prime in his right mind would turn down. Yet Colin had barely been able to keep his rejection polite enough not to cause offense.

  “What is the matter with me?” he asked, turning to face Anthony Crowe as the door opened and the other Prime came into the room.

  “We’re scheduled to discuss exactly what’s wrong with you,” Tony answered.

  “I turned down Cassie Shagal,” Colin went on. “Can you believe that?”

  He was totally stunned at his uncharacteristic behavior. He wasn’t going to ask himself why. What he needed was to get out of here, get away from all this Clan crap, and get his head together on his own.

  “Can I go now?” he demanded.

  “Not yet.”

  “There are rules against this kind of treatment!”

  “Yep. But there are extenuating circumstances that have to be worked out involving you and Miss Mia.”

  “Have you sent Mia home? Did Matri Serisa make her forget about us?”

  That would be the best thing for her, even if Colin did resent anyone else touching Mia’s mind but him. If he let himself think that perhaps some Prime had probed the mortal woman’s thoughts, he knew a jealous red rage would overtake him. He did not want to be jealous of Mia. He wouldn’t let himself be.

  He took a deep breath, and made himself say, “I’m sorry I acted like I did at your place. There was no reason for it. Was there?” he added, as jealousy shot through him once more.

  Tony shook his head and looked at him steadily for a moment before he said, “A few things have to be settled before you two can leave. Come on.”

  Colin suddenly caught his breath on a scent, a sense.

  “Mia.”

  Colin pushed out of the room ahead of Tony. Though he hadn’t been able to feel her presence for hours, he was now keenly aware that she was close by. But there were two other Primes waiting in the hall, and Tony at his back.

  He was ready to start a brawl with all three to get to Mia, but she appeared around a corner and ran toward him a moment later. He had her in his arms before he noticed Alec and Domini following her. Tony grabbed him and pulled him back before he could kiss Mia, then Domini stepped between them.

  “Hey!” Mia complained.

  “Hands off!” Colin shouted. He was surprised when Tony let him go. The problem was now getting around Domini, since there was no way he would use force on a woman.

  “No way,” Domini said before he could think up a plea or a cajoling word. “Serisa—”

  “Actually, there is a slight change of plans,” Tony broke in. “Serisa and the other ladies want these two to have a little talk before they get on with other matters.”

  Colin spun to face Tony. “Talk? I don’t want to talk to the woman.”

  “What?” Mia asked indignantly behind him.

  He turned back to her. “I want to get you safely back home,” he explained.

  He could tell she was scared, and covering it up with her usual bravado. The others couldn’t see it, or didn’t care, but he knew that Mia was upset.

  “She might be home,” Domini said.

  Colin hadn’t a clue what Alec’s bondmate meant.

  “Who’s Serisa? And what does she want us to talk about?” Mia shot a look at Domini. “What do you mean, I might be home?”

  It occurred to Colin that Mia was following the enigmatic thread of conversation better than he was. She was no fool. Out of her depth, of course, but sharp.

  “Don’t worry, you will get explanations,” Tony told Mia. He concentrated on Colin. “But first Serisa wants you to explain everything about us to her. Everything,” he added firmly. “Truth first,” he added, with one of his annoying grins, “then consequences.”

  “The truth?” Colin was appalled. “She can’t handle the truth!”

  “Aaron Sorkin, A Few Good Men,” Domini muttered. When everyone stared at her, she smiled at Alec, then focused her attention on Colin. “I handled the truth, didn’t I?”

  “But you’re one of us,” Colin objected.

  “I wasn’t then.”

  “Yes, but—”

  “Will you people stop arguing, and tell me what’s going on?” Mia demanded.

  Colin hated that every gaze was on them. Even worse, Mia’s needs called to him all tangled up with his own.

  “Fine,” he finally agreed. “She’s going to have to forget it all, but I’ll tell her.”

  “Everything,” Tony admonished. “Including what you’ve done to her.”

  “What have you done to me?” Mia asked.

  Colin was far too aware of the crowd. “Not here.”

  Tony pointed toward the bedroom. Colin grabbed Mia’s hand and hustled her inside. This time he was glad when the door shut behind them.

  Once they were alone, he turned to her and gave her the blunt truth.

  “I’m a vampire.”

  Chapter Eleven

  “No, you’re not.”

  Her response certainly wasn’t unexpected, but Colin couldn’t help but be indignant. “What do you mean, No, you’re not? I ought to know what I am: a vampire Prime of Clan Reynard.”

  She shook off his hand and backed away to look him up and down. “That’s not possible.”

  Colin did his best to see the situation through her eyes, and tried to sound soothing. “I realize that you’re confused.”

  “Oh, yes, I’m confused. But don’t try to tell me that you’re a vampire.”

  “It’s not only me,” he told her. “Everyone in the house is a vampire. Except Domini, and maybe a couple of the Primes’ mortal bondmates, but they’re special cases.” He sighed, and held up a hand. “Never mind, I’m going too fast. Let’s concentrate on you and me, and get this over with.”

  “Yes,” she said. “Let’s.”

  There was a gleam of anger in her eyes and in her spirit that stabbed at him. Maybe he was choosing his words wrongly, not being tactful enough. It was hard to tell with women. They were hard to talk to, but h
e’d been told to be honest.

  “You’ve seen vampires,” he reminded her. “I tried to make you forget that we exist.”

  There was a long moment where the sense of anger and betrayal sizzled around her, but she got it under control. “It didn’t work. Not for long, anyway.”

  He was surprised by her mental resilience, and rather proud of her, despite the inconvenience. “That’s the trouble with trying to manipulate psychics,” he explained. “You can never be certain it’s going to work. You seem to be getting stronger. What did you do, go to Tony when the false memories wore off? And why Tony? How’d you find him?”

  A stubborn mask came over her features, and her mind. “Aren’t you the one who’s supposed to be doing the talking?”

  “There’s plenty of things you need to answer for.”

  “You first.”

  Her tone cut like a knife.

  More than that, it excited him. Every fiery look from her, every word, stimulated him more. Though the passion that seethed inside her was from anger, Colin knew instinctively how to channel and change it to the kind of passion that brought pleasure, and completion.

  “Mia. We can do better things than fight.” His voice was full of sultry promise. He took a step toward his beautiful human, reaching for her. She gasped when his fingers touched the side of her throat and slid across her shoulders, and the familiar, delicious crackle of desire passed between them.

  Then she danced away to the far side of the room. She held her hands up before her when he would have followed. “I don’t make love to vampires.”

  He smiled and glanced toward the king-sized bed in the center of the room. Just because they were stuck in here didn’t mean they couldn’t have some fun. He nodded toward it, all cocky and sure of himself. Mia always came to him in the end, no matter how much they fought.

  “Then maybe I won’t confess to being one.”

  “Good. Because—”

  “But that would be a lie. And I’m told that’s not allowed.”

  He sat down on the end of the bed and patted the spot next to him for her to join him. “You’ve been making love to a vampire for months, Mia. Come and make love to one again.”

  Mia slowly turned her back on Colin, though she could still feel his gaze on her. For hours all she’d wanted was to be with him, but now she couldn’t bear to look at him. But that didn’t keep the memories from rising up to haunt her through all the layers of confusion.

  She didn’t take strangers home; she wasn’t that kind of woman—but here they were in her bedroom, with no more conversation than the words they’d exchanged in the hospital. Somehow he knew the way to her home, into the most private place where she lived. She welcomed him into this sanctuary, and gave herself up to the desire that had been waiting for him to kindle.

  He didn’t touch her like a stranger, but as the lover who knew and fulfilled her every desire. When she touched him, she knew every hard-muscled inch of him. The scent and heat and taste of him was a homecoming rather than a revelation.

  They were meant to fit together, and they did, falling onto the bed, ripping off each other’s clothes, moving together, mouths and hands finding all the right places with frantic, fulfilling urgency. There was no gentleness in this coupling; they both rode the wildness, loved it. There were moments of pain that only intensified the pleasure. They clawed at each other as he thrust into her. Clawed and scratched and—

  Bit.

  Mia touched her right breast, as the memory of the first time it happened washed over her with erotic intensity that almost sent her to her knees.

  “You bit me.”

  “Upon occasion.”

  How could he sound so damned smug?

  She whirled around and glared at Colin. His biting her wasn’t the only thing she remembered about their wild lovemaking, but she wasn’t ready to face the rest of it.

  “You bit me!”

  “I tasted you,” he corrected. “That’s what we call it. We never take more than a few drops of blood at a time, but it heightens our partner’s pleasure, and ours. You remember the pleasure, but not what we do.”

  How could he say that, when she was remembering it right now? She also remembered the taste of copper in her mouth. “You are so obtuse, Colin Foxe.”

  “But I’m sexy.”

  Sex had been the basis of their relationship. But sex with a vampire? Her stomach twisted at the thought.

  “Biting me doesn’t make you a vampire,” she said. “And vampires aren’t sexy. Except maybe Angel and Spike, but they’re fictional. Real vampires are monsters. I’ve been attacked by them.”

  “Tribe vampires are monsters. I’m Clan.”

  Tribe. Clan. Family. She’d heard the terms. Her great-grandfather had told her that vampires divided themselves into three distinct types. He’d also told her that the distinctions made no difference. Vampires of any type were inimical parasites, meant to be killed by humans. That Colin knew about the different kinds of vampires frightened her.

  “Is this some kind of test? I’m trying to find vampire hunters, but when I think I find the hunters, I’m told they’re vampires. That doesn’t make sense.”

  Colin stood up slowly, and he looked very annoyed. “What do you want with hunters?”

  “Vampires have been attacking me,” she reminded him.

  This calmed him a little. “How do you know about the hunters?”

  She wasn’t ready to answer this. “I’ve seen you in the sunlight. Vampires can’t bear the light.”

  She remembered being with him on the beach on the hottest day of the year. She remembered making love at midday in her garden, laughing about getting their butts burned if they weren’t careful. They’d rubbed coconut-scented sun-block all over each other. She remembered the way his skin felt, slick with the cream and warmed by the sun.

  And she remembered talking to Tony Crowe in his courtyard, how he’d turned his face up to the clear California sky. And how Colin and he had faced off in the middle of the bright Los Angeles afternoon.

  “How can you all be vampires when you run around in the daylight?”

  “We take drugs. Lots of drugs. This is the twenty-first century, woman. Do you think we haven’t changed with the times?”

  That was one of the things her great-grand-father wanted to know. That’s why he wanted a live vampire to study. Maybe she should take Colin to her great-grandfather.

  And if she could think like that, it must mean that she was beginning to believe he really was a vampire. Which would mean…

  That she’d been sleeping with the enemy.

  A wave of self-loathing overtook her, strong enough to drive her to her knees. Colin was beside her almost before she hit the floor. Then his hands were on her.

  “Monster!” she shouted. “Get your hands off me, you disgusting parasite!”

  He backed off, and there was hurt in his voice when he said, “Hey!”

  She looked up at him, realized she was on her knees in front of a vampire, and got to her feet. She wasn’t going to show weakness in front of him—in front of it. Looking at him, even knowing what he was—what he proudly proclaimed to be—she still had trouble seeing past the man she’d cared for to the beast he truly was.

  It made it worse that she couldn’t look at him without wanting him. She’d have to put the yearning down to some sort of telepathic glamor he exerted on her, which made her want him. Because if wanting him was something that came from inside her, then she was a weak, perverted fool.

  Mia was looking at him as if she’d never seen him before, and Colin accepted that. What ground on his temper was that she radiated intense hatred and anger—not only at him, but at herself. What was that about?

  Maybe she wanted him to apologize for what he was, which was not going to happen. “I’m proud of being a vampire. We’re faster, stronger, longer-lived, and have better sight, hearing, and vision than humans. We’re psychic as hell.”

  She sneered. “You’re bet
ter than humans, is that it?”

  “The Clans are protectors of humans, Mia. We look after your kind.”

  “My kind. What arrogance.” She crossed her arms. “And what’s the bill for being so tenderly looked after by your superior species? Do you do it for free?”

  “Yes, of course. Well—”

  “Do you look after us like shepherds with their flocks?”

  “Yeah,” he answered. “Like that.”

  “Sheep end up being slaughtered, Foxe. They’re protected until the shepherd decides they make a tasty stew.”

  “Oh, come on!”

  “How many people have you slaughtered?”

  “I’m a cop.”

  “Cops kill people, and get away with it. What a great cover for a vampire. Didn’t you just shoot a couple of bank robbers in the line of duty?” She laughed bitterly. “And to think I was worried about how you reacted to killing those men. How many innocent peoples’ blood have you taken while wearing the uniform?”

  For now he’d accept that in her ignorance she could ridicule what it meant to be a Clan Prime. But there was no way he let her get away with accusing him of being a bad cop!

  Colin took a furious step toward her, only to spin toward the door when it opened.

  “Time’s up,” Tony Crowe announced.

  Chapter Twelve

  “Not now!” Colin shouted at Crowe.

  Mia was relieved to have Colin’s attention diverted from her. The wild look in his eyes when he came toward her had scared her. She’d never been frightened by him before, and she cursed herself for rousing the temper of a monster when she didn’t yet know how to defend herself against him.

  Damn it! Why hadn’t her great-grandfather been more helpful? Why hadn’t she found the human vampire hunters before running into this nest of monsters?

  She was such a fool for mistaking Colin, Tony, and all the rest for hunters just because they’d fought off the other vampires. Had she stumbled into the middle of some territorial dispute?

  “I’m just the messenger,” Tony answered Colin. “Did you tell her about us?”