I’d spent the day at River’s. He’d slept, since he worked the night shift, so I’d tried to sleep as well. Hadn’t worked. I’d ended up pacing most of the day, and then, when Riv left for work in the evening, I paced some more.
Now the sun was rising.
I was sleep-deprived and blood-deprived. River had the same animal blood in his refrigerator as Bill. I drank two cups but was still not sated.
I knew what I needed.
I needed Erin’s blood.
Erin, whom I had rejected for her own well-being.
Erin, whom I couldn’t trust myself with—again for her own well-being.
Erin…who hadn’t turned me in that first night when she’d had every right to.
Erin…who never left my mind.
I wasn’t in love with her. Was I? I couldn’t be. I didn’t even know what love was or whether I was capable of the emotion.
But something about her drew me, pulled me…
Her scent, the sweet sound of her blood flowing through her veins to her heart, and then the higher-pitched whoosh of it flowing out into her body through her arteries.
Yes, human arteries. The pipeline to life for a vampire.
I’d had a slight taste of her when she nicked her tongue on my fang that first time. The memory flooded back into my mind. An earthy ambrosia that bubbled over my taste buds and then flowed into every cell of my body, making my fingers and toes tingle.
Perhaps my lust for her was purely blood lust.
And blood lust could be sated elsewhere.
But not with bagged animal blood that was days old.
I needed fresh blood.
Fresh…from a human. A female human.
I’d been brought up not to feed on humans. Some vampires did, Bill said, but those who had evolved found it distasteful.
Morally distasteful, that was.
Physically, it was not distasteful at all. In fact, he warned, do not ever do it, or you might not be able to stop. It would become an addiction.
I’d learned that lesson when I was old enough to recognize the urge for blood. I’d been only five years old, but in truth, I’d known the urge for much longer, after I’d been weaned from my mother’s breast. I just hadn’t been able to put it into words.
Bill had drummed that truth into Em even more so than me. Because our mother had died birthing her, she didn’t have the benefit of mother’s milk to lessen her urge for blood. She was only a toddler when she fed on a neighbor’s cat.
Luckily, Bill had stopped her from killing the animal, and our neighbor saw her pet safely returned.
But now I understood more than ever how Em had felt.
An uncontrollable urge.
I hadn’t had the last ten years to learn to control the combined blood and sexual urges that came with adulthood. Em had experienced only the blood lust of a toddler who hadn’t had the benefit of mother’s milk.
What I was feeling went so far beyond that.
I lusted for Erin’s blood, God yes, but I also lusted for her body. To embed myself so far within her that Dante didn’t exist anymore, to join our souls.
I needed to be saved—saved from the horrors of my past, saved from the uncontrollable lusts kaleidoscoping through my body.
Being with Erin would save me. I didn’t know how, but I knew it with every molecule within me.
I needed her.
I’d suppress my blood lust with her. I had to find a way. Because not having her was no longer an option.
I left River’s home and began walking. I had no idea how to get to Erin’s place, but somehow I found it. Some inner drive propelled me to where she was. Her scent was a part of me now. All I needed to do was follow the path laid out for me.
I knocked on her door. When no one answered, I threw it open.
Unlocked again, thank God.
“Erin!” I yelled. “Erin. Come to me!”
I sniffed. Yes, she was here. Upstairs. Along with…
The back of my neck prickled as my fangs descended.
Someone was with her.
I couldn’t pick up his scent, oddly, but I picked up hers, heavy with oxytocin. She was aroused, and not by her own hand.
I raced up the stairs.
Erin came running out of her bedroom clad in jeans and a shirt. A shirt that was unbuttoned, exposing her bra and her breasts bursting to tumble free.
I snarled low in my throat.
“Dante! What are you doing here? How did you get in?”
I willed my fangs to retract. It took more effort than usual. “Your door was unlocked. Again.”
“That can’t be. I remember…” She glanced over her shoulder. “You need to leave.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” My veins turned to boiling rivers beneath my skin. The itching in my gums grew unbearable, and a growl rumbled low in my throat.
She advanced toward me. “You kicked me out of your place twenty-four hours ago. Now I’m returning the favor. Get. Out.”
I inhaled. She was ripe. Whoever was here intended to get inside her.
He would not.
I brushed past Erin and headed to her bedroom.
He was there, standing by her bed, his face shiny with perspiration, an erection apparent beneath his pants.
He was tall, but I was bigger. Stronger.
And mad as hell.
I held my blood lust in check, keeping my fangs from protruding. “Get out!” I growled.
“You! Wh-Who are you?”
Erin came running back in. “Dante! You can’t break into my home and go running into my bedroom like a lunatic. I won’t have it!”
“Try to stop me, Erin,” I said. “Just try. You won’t be able to.”
“Don’t you threaten her,” the man said, his voice cracking slightly. “You heard her. Get out of here.”
I laughed maniacally. I could take him out with a hard look, and right now, his blood was filled with testosterone. I could bite him, drink from him, and make myself even stronger.
My gums itched.
Yes. All that testosterone from a male on the cusp of becoming a man. It’s intoxicating.
“Get out of my head, you bitch!”
“Call her that again, and I’ll—”
I hadn’t been talking to Erin, but still I pushed the man against the wall, my hands gripping his shoulders. “And you’ll what?”
I inhaled. His testosterone had fled, replaced by the sharp scent of adrenaline.
“Look,” he said, “whatever is going on, it’s a misunderstanding.”
“You will leave this bedroom,” I said. “Now.”