Nathan awoke at dusk, naked and alone in the bedroom. He sat up on the bed, propping his back against plush goose-down pillows. The feel of the silk sheets caressing his thighs made his body ache for Guillermo. That alone was enough to scare him. His cock twitched with the memory of Guillermo inside him. The attraction was undeniable, but now, in the darkness of a new night, Nathan wondered if his need and desire was for Guillermo or for the power he gave.
He had taken blood from the master the night before and had never felt such raw energy from a feeding. Guillermo had been the last person, alive or undead, that Nathan wanted help from, but he’d had nobody else to turn to for guidance. Needing Gui then had been bad enough, but now, wanting him was even worse.
He could feel his stomach begin to shrink. His normal routine would have been to get up, go to his fridge and swallow down a pint of O negative, but since he wasn’t home, feeding would have to wait until after a shower. The bed was comfortable, just the right amount of firmness under a luxurious quilt. Sighing, he slid out of bed and headed to the bathroom.
The shower stall was enormous with black marble tiles and frosted glass doors. Nathan relaxed into the warm, pulsating spray of water that massaged his taut muscles. He turned his face into the stream. The heat felt good against his temples. He reached for a bottle of body wash and began to scrub down his arms and chest. It didn’t take long for the sensual scent of ylang ylang and sandalwood to reach his nose. Nathan had always been an Ivory soap kind of guy but he had to admit, this was nice. He rubbed the creamy suds over his genitals. The feel of the smooth substance brought back a vision of Guillermo and his organ began to stir. He laughed. “Down, boy.”
He heard the shower door slowly slide open and he froze.
“Well, well. Isn’t this a pretty sight.”
Nadine.
Nathan didn’t turn around. He detested her for what she had changed him into, an animal—human on the outside, but pure Beast on the inside. And she hated him.
“Get the fuck out, Nadine.”
“But lover, you’re mine. Don’t you know that? I made you. I can do anything that I want.” A nasty smile spread across her lips. “And right now, I want to hurt you.”
Nathan turned quickly enough to see that Nadine was wearing a red latex bodysuit, but not quick enough to prevent her from ramming a spike-knuckled glove into his abdomen. Air escaped him with a whoosh. She followed up with a hard kick between his legs and a downward punch to his jaw. “Have I got your attention now? Guillermo is mine.”
Anger and pain crept over Nathan’s skin like a boa constrictor threatening to squeeze the life out of him. Relentless, Nadine delivered a vicious kick to his kidney. Nathan could feel his Beast close to the surface, ready to emerge and attack. For the first time, he didn’t try to stop it. His eyes slipped to a glowing green, his forehead became ridged and his fangs protracted to full length. The Beast was ready—and set—to kill.
The Beast sprang up toward Nadine, throwing her against the shower wall, shattering the glass doors. Her latex suit, ripped by the fragmented shards, showed bared and bloodied flesh.
“You want pain?” his Beast asked. “I’ll show you pain.”
Nadine’s eyes widened with surprise. Just before they slipped from lavender to ultraviolet, her bony ridge shifted forward and her fangs dropped. Now they were both ready for battle. Nathan’s Beast knew that he would have to dominate her or both of them would die.
Nadine surged forward and managed to shove Nathan back against the tiles. She latched onto his arm with her razor-sharp teeth, tearing a chunk from his bicep. The Beast turned her around so that her ass was pressed against him. He held her arms down with one of his and used his free hand to jerk her head to the side. With her neck bare, he sank his fangs into her jugular vein.
Nadine screeched with pain as he greedily fed from her. “Stop, Nathan. Stop!”
The last time a woman had said those words to the Beast, his host had managed to pull him back. But not this time. “Nathan doesn’t live here anymore.” The words came out in a feral growl, no longer human.
The Beast sucked harder on the wound, wanting to taste her until the last drop, wanting to feel the life slowly dry up and shrivel her body. Steam filled the stall as the spray from the shower heated his skin and her hot blood filled his empty organs. He could feel her fear and wanted more.
“Detente! Stop! You are killing her!” A blur of a man blazed into the shower, knocking Nathan off Nadine. She slumped to the floor. When he could focus, the Beast noticed that the man was Guillermo and suddenly went submissive, as if he knew that the lead dog had arrived.
Guillermo dragged Nadine from the shower and carried her out of the bathroom. The Beast could feel the anger ebb. “No!” it screamed against the change. It was being put back into its box, tidily packed away.
Nathan was coming back. He sagged down onto the shards of glass and marble floor, more from shock than weakness. The water continued to pour down on him as he watched the blood—his and Nadine’s—swirl down the drain. He found it hard to believe he had been fighting with a woman, and to top it off, fighting with a woman over a man. “God help me.”
Guillermo appeared before him, turned off the shower and gently lifted Nathan in his arms. “God may or may not, but I will, amante. I will.”
Guillermo was only slightly taller than Nathan and much leaner, but he carried him easily as if he were a small child. Gently, he laid Nathan down on the bed.
“Where’s Nadine?” Nathan looked around, feeling much stronger since feeding on her. “I hate the bitch. But I’m not sure she deserved what just happened.”
“She is being attended to and will heal.” Guillermo moved closer to Nathan. “Con su permiso, I’d like to look over your wounds.”
When Nathan had fled to the Corazon de la Muerte the night before, he had not expected the master vampire to treat him as much more than an amusement. He saw now how he’d been wrong. Guillermo cared and was treating him with more respect than Nathan had ever given him.
Nathan reached out and took Guillermo’s hand in his. “You have my permission.”
Guillermo looked over the cuts on Nathan’s face, stomach and arms. The worst wound was the arm where Nadine had taken a chunk of flesh. The rest of the injuries were already beginning to heal. “I think you will live as well.” Guillermo rubbed his hands together. “About Nadine. I am sorry. It is my fault that she…”
“She’s jealous, because she thinks you…” Nathan couldn’t believe what he was about to say. “…you want me, more than you want her.”
Guillermo paused. “What do you think?”
Nathan, his wounds on his stomach and face nearly closed, saw heat and desire rise in Guillermo’s eyes. “I think that you do want me more than you want her.”
“What do you want, Nathaniel?”
Nathan considered what he should say. “Well, I know I don’t want to be out of control. I’m not a killer. I can’t let this thing that I’ve become make me one.” He knew that wasn’t the question Guillermo had asked. But it had been the truth, at least part of it.
The Hispanic vampire closed his eyes. “You have the power within you to control this, Nathaniel. The conflict lies in your inability to recognize you are vampiro. It battles not to control you, but to just merge with you. You treat it as if it is a separate animal, but on the contrary, it is you. Like your hair, your eyes and your mouth—like the legs you walk on. It is a part of you.”
The Beast was separate from him, wasn’t it? “I don’t know if I can accept that.”
“If you cannot, you will become the thing you most despise.”
“How did you learn to control the bloodlust?”
“Don’t you know, amante? The bloodlust only lasts a short while, but unlike you, I learned to exalt in being vampiro. Unlike you, I was made, not changed.”
“What do you mean?”
“I asked for this life. It was not forced upon me.” Guillermo ran his fingers through Nathan’s hair. “I can help you, but only if you are willing to acknowledge that you are a vampire… a creature of the night. That means never being what you were. But if you do this, I can promise that it will be so much more than you ever imagined.”
“Is that it? All I have to do is give up everything that made me who I am and I can be the great and powerful Oz?”
“It does not change who you are deep down, Nathaniel. You are so concerned with what you must give up that you fail to see what you gain.”
“I’m a doctor, damn it, and a good one.”
“You can still be a doctor.”
“How? For whom? The undead? The way we heal, they certainly don’t need my help.”
“No. You have a shift tomorrow night at the Truman Medical Center Emergency Room.”
Nathan shook his head. “After I almost killed Sandra, there is no way I can go back now. Hell, I should be thinking about getting out of the state.”
“I was coming to tell you, before I stopped the fight between Nadine and yourself, that I’d had word from Sandra.”
“What?” Fear crept its way into the pit of Nathan’s stomach. Had Guillermo done something to Sandra to silence her? “What did you do?”
The master vampire smiled indulgently. “It is not what you think, amante. Doctor Jackson knows of our kind. Apparently, she has even had one as a lover.” Guillermo laughed at the shocked look on Nathan’s face. “She told the administrator that you came down with the influenza and that you were taking several days off work to recover.”
Nathan laughed. It came more from relief than mirth. “So, I can go back to work tomorrow?”
“Si.”
“And I can go home if I want to?”
Guillermo lowered his eyes. “Si. Yes.”
Nathan grinned. “Well, maybe not tonight, but eventually.”
“You are my guest for as long as you want.” Guillermo knelt on the floor by the bed, eye-level with Nathan’s naked body. “I ask again. What do you want, amante?”
Nathan wished he could say “nothing” but his cock was already starting to swell, thickening into an erect position. “I think you know.”
“Is telling me so hard?” Guillermo looked down at the floor.
Nathan raised an eyebrow. “Not as hard as my dick.”
Guillermo smiled, but it was a sad smile that didn’t reach his eyes.
That vulnerability made Nathan’s desire for the master vampire even stronger. “I want you, Guillermo.” Nathan placed both his hands on the sides of Guillermo’s face, tilting it up to meet his gaze. “I don’t know what that means, but right now, I do want you.”
Nathan leaned in to give a kiss that was meant to be reassuring, but turned to liquid heat as their tongues mingled in a passionate dance. Guillermo’s arms slipped around Nathan’s neck as he pulled himself onto the bed. Guillermo kissed his way down Nathan’s neck, onto his shoulder and across his wounded arm. The blood had coagulated and flesh was already beginning to fill in. Guillermo licked over the new delicate skin. Nathan moaned as a tingle ran from his arm straight to his erection.
The teasing tongue moved to his chest as Guillermo played his nipples with gentle tugs and light teeth. The licking moved down to his lower regions.
On impulse, Nathan pulled Guillermo up into a fiery kiss. “I want to taste you, Guillermo. The night is young and I want to see to your pleasure first.”
Guillermo’s brown eyes swirled like molten liquid. He swiftly stripped, standing naked, pale and beautiful. His straining erection stood out like a divining rod, seeking Nathan’s moist lips. “As you wish, amante.” He entwined his hands in Nathan’s hair and guided the young vampire’s enthusiastic mouth over the long length of his shaft. “I am yours to command.”