Toxic

I bit down on his tongue, gentle enough so as to not break skin, but hard enough to grab his attention. The idiot man groaned, and for a moment his grip on me tightened. Why, oh why, did I suddenly have to acquire morals? I pushed at him and he stepped back. His eyes burned with arousal, but all too quickly, his usual placid expression slid back into place. I wish I knew how he does that because I am anything but calm right now.

“That was interesting,” he said breaking the silence.

I scowled. “You shouldn’t have done that.” I lied. I wanted him to kiss me again, naked while fucking me.

“Why not? Sexuality seems to be a large part of your persona, a fact you’ve made blatantly obvious.” He brushed a knuckle across my bare nipple and I shuddered, for a moment fervently wishing he’d follow with his mouth.

I mentally shook myself. “Fine. I made you kiss me because I’m a vampire slut. Now write it down in your little notebook and don’t do it again.” I hopped off the bed, afraid to look back and see the puddle of my desire soaking the sheet.

Raphael, though, wasn’t ready to let me go and he caught my arm as I went to flee his presence-and to find something I could fuck without killing.

“Why are you so upset? Are you involved with someone?”

I peered back at him incredulously. “No.”

“Then where’s the harm in a kiss?” he asked, trying to reel me back into his arms. I just braced my feet and let my superior strength keep me away from temptation. To my surprise, he was stronger than I’d given him credit for and I almost went stumbling back against him.

I scowled at him. “A kiss is fine. It’s the rest that’s dangerous.”

He grinned at me, a masculine smile that seemed out of place on his scholarly face, or had I misjudged my sexy scientist? “I think I can handle some hot sex.”

“Not with me you can’t,” I replied shaking my head even as my hormones cried for me to give in. “I’m toxic.”

He frowned. “What do you mean toxic?”

“Sex with me is toxic to humans,” I replied with a shrug. “Or more accurately, my orgasms kill your kind.”

The jerk laughed. “If that’s a boast of your prowess, then I’ll admit I’m intrigued.”

I growled. “Idiot. While my saliva causes euphoria and my blood given in a certain sequence can turn a human, my pussy juices, especially the fluids released during climax, have something in them, some deadly ingredient. If it comes in contact with the skin of a human, it kills them. There is no cure. So while you can kiss me, you’ll never fuck me, not unless you want to die.” He gaped at my announcement.

Upset with myself and him for having the nerve to be born human, I whirled on my heel and left, hitting my room for a change of clothes. I stomped down to my office, my annoyance simmering the further I went without him chasing me down. I don’t care how petty it is of me. A part of me kind of wishes he’d overlook the whole death by pussy thing just for a chance to get with me. Jerk.

In order to stifle my aroused libido, I buried myself in some printed reports of daemon sightings. They were arriving more frequently as the barrier between our world and the demonic dimension thinned.

So far, with the help of the dark faeries, we were keeping ahead of the invasion. But I knew it was only a matter of time before a large wave broke through. I knew our queen was working on bringing the humans and their armies into the knowledge loop, but I wondered if we shouldn’t speed things up. We needed the human scientists to start work on weapons that would prove effective against the repulsively strong daemons. And on that same note, I also wished more special beings would step forth to join the fight.

The merpeople had yet to respond to our request to patrol the seas, but I couldn’t imagine them not defending their territory, so I wasn’t truly worried about them. The dwarves refused to involve themselves, claiming the affairs of man did not concern them. They further claimed that if the horde poured into the world bent on destruction, they would wall off their surface accesses. So helpful. It also made me send a note to the gardener to buy some more garden gnomes. They looked enough like the troublesome dwarves that I’d have fun venting some frustration in my next training session. The pixies and faeries of light stubbornly refused to listen to our warnings. They tilted their stubborn chins, claimed we were evil and thus not to be trusted.

I gnashed my teeth as I imagined showing them how evil I could be if they kept pissing me off. I’d gladly pluck their little wings off until they agreed to join the coming fight.

Negotiations with the shifters were progressing well, but given their divisiveness among the varied animal clans, it was slow moving. But if we could get them on our side they’d provide an invaluable source of strength. I’d also heard tantalizing rumors that they were capable of withstanding sex with a vampire. An intriguing idea which, if true, would increase the pool of available lovers.

But back to the primary problem. Daemons and the difficulties we’d encountered killing them.

What I really needed to do was capture one of the pesky creatures and bring it back for testing-the deadly kind. In order to fight the enemy we needed to know more about it. Find its weaknesses. So far we weren’t faring well in our battle with them. For every daemon we took down, we lost at least one or more of our kind. The humans, without our inborn weapons, wouldn’t stand a chance unless they were forewarned and armed themselves. Therein lay the reason for the whole coming out fiasco. Get to know your friendly neighborhood monster so you can team up when the bully comes to town. I still thought we should have just glamored those in charge to do our bidding. But, many of my kind were eager to escape the shadows and join society. Idiots. They could live in the spotlight and make targets of themselves. I intended to return to hiding in the shadows as soon as my roles as spokes-vampire and guinea pig were over with.

Thinking of my current role made me think of Raphael. I scowled. Blasted man. Why couldn’t they have sent me some old, grizzled scientist instead of Mr. Hottie?

A lightbulb-a dim, none-UV kind-went off in my mind. The best way to get his focus off me and, in return, me away from him was to give him something new to play with. Say, like, a daemon. Not only could I vent some frustration hunting down one of the beasts, Rafe could prove useful dissecting it. Besides, at this point, I’d cooperated as much as I intended. He knew enough about my kind to compile a report. So why not send him away?

I shushed that voice in favor of the one that said Rafe could help us in our fight against the Legion coming. Tearing daemons limb from limb was well and good, but against the horde we’d face, not too practical, not given our current kill ratio. As general to the queen-and in a sense, all of humanity-I needed to know their weak spots. Where to ram my fist through their flesh and pull out their beating heart-or if they didn’t have a heart, whatever passed for one.

I also needed to find out more about their powers. Like other than their nasty stench and extremely bad breath, did they have the power of beguilement we enjoyed? Or the ability to cloak themselves in shadows? So much I need to know, and yet, I was stuck in the mansion with Dr. Temptation.

Although technically, I wasn’t restricted to the house. In order to keep my promise to the queen, I just needed to keep myself available to the doctor. The fact I didn’t plan to allow any more testing didn’t enter the equation. Much as he made me want to ride him like a cowgirl while I sucked on his jugular didn’t erase the fact that his knowledge and skills were needed. He’s an invaluable tool, and I would be doing my queen a disservice if I were to send him away just because he makes me hornier than a rabbit in heat.

Illogical or not, I liked my decision. Now, the next question was did I bring him with me as I hunted down the daemon? Or should I leave him at home and bring back the unconscious carcass for him to play with?

Of course, either way, first I’d have to tell him what the real motive in our declaring ourselves was. How did you tell a human that the Mayans were right? The end was coming. We’d just translated the date wrong. And it wasn’t outer space we needed to fear, but another dimension, the Hell realm.

It made me wonder if maybe Heaven also existed. After all, Hell ended up being a real place, just blocked off a long time ago from accessing our world due to planetary rotations and whatnot. Thinking of Heaven, though, led to the question of were angels real? And of even more interest, what would they taste like?

A knock on my study door had me calling out a sharp, “Come in.”

I expected Annabelle, my late night snack, instead I smelt the delicious aftershave of one not-on-the-menu doctor. I hid behind my reports, not wanting to face him yet, not with the memory of his kiss-his achingly hot touch-still fresh in my mind.

“I’m sorry,” he said his low timbered voice shooting shivers down my spine.