Toxic

vampires always ended up consumed by blood lust. It would take many years for her to regain her mind, if she found it again at all. I’d miss nibbling on her when that happened; her blood was quite tasty since she followed a strict diet. My version of chocolate. Mmm.

I pushed aside my hunger as I returned my focus to the email currently pissing me off. “Read this,” I said, sweeping my hand towards the screen.

Annabelle sat up and leaned forward. She read aloud, “As expected, our coming out has caused quite the furor, but so far no signs of mobbing humans or an increase in stake production. However, the call to understand us is great, thus in the spirit of openness and goodwill, the regency has decided to allow one of its loyal subjects to answer the questions of one highly regarded scientist and doctor. As general, I expect you to put yourself at the discretion of Doctor Raphael Angelus. Be candid and allow him to conduct his tests. We already know what he will find. Oh, and Elizabeth, don’t eat him, please. By order of your queen.”

Annabelle laughed.

I glared at her. “It’s not funny.”

Annabelle tittered louder. “Oh, please, she signed it with a happy face. Like how can you say no?”

I growled. “I’ve just been ordered to be a guinea pig for some human.” I said the word human with distaste. The queen seemed determined to test my loyalty and this latest harebrained idea was really pushing it. I didn’t submit to the pawings of humans. They submitted to me.

“Hey, it could be worse,” she said with mischief glinting in her eyes.

I arched a brow at her. “How could this get any worse?”

“He could be old and ugly.”

“I take it he’s not,” I replied dryly.

Annabelle jumped up and leaned over to tap furiously on the keyboard of my laptop. “I read an article about him recently and it had a picture of him. Here, see for yourself,” she replied as she tilted the screen towards me.

I wanted to pretend disinterest. Who cared what he looked like? But dammit, with more lives than a cat, I couldn’t fight curiosity. My deep seated need to know everything made me look.

Oh, he is a handsome devil. Tousled blond hair, clear blue eyes hidden behind a bookish pair of lenses and a sensual mouth made for biting. Just the type of snack I liked to enjoy when my hormones craved something carnal-what a shame my partners never survived. “Good looking in a nerdy way or not, I’m still not crazy about the idea of letting him poke and prod at me.”

Annabelle shrugged. “Suit yourself. Me, I wouldn’t mind stripping for him and letting him search all of my cavities with any of his body parts.”

I laughed at her shameless comment before I dove on her for a satisfying nibble on her neck. As her rich blood rolled down my throat, warming me and speeding up my heart, I wondered if I’d get a chance to snack on the good doctor, in the interest of science, of course.

Yum.

* * * *

Several days later

The doorbell rang and I scowled. My dreaded guest had arrived.

I smoothed down my silk blouse and already wrinkle free skirt. I recognized my nervous gestures as a way of controlling my environment-or so the psychiatrist I’d eaten and absorbed claimed. I didn’t like my queen’s plan of offering me up as a white rat for human experimentation. But I couldn’t disobey a direct order.

I’d managed to get my way in at least one respect and that was the doctor would reside here with me while he probed me. It took some finagling and an investment in medical equipment that my kind didn’t require, but I refused to put myself in a strange location under the control of humans. To my surprise, I didn’t have to argue long, and so the time had quickly arrived along with the man who would dissect me without killing me.

Talks with my queen also ended up with the decision that broaching the coming menace would be at my discretion. In other words, if I didn’t kill the doctor and he wasn’t a complete moron, I’d let him in on the secret. We needed to start getting some outside views on the situation. Our usual tactic of eat the enemy was not exactly feasible given what we would face-and the fact the marauders tasted bad.

Would this Dr. Angelus end up owning half a brain or would he be an intellectual idiot? I’d reserve judgment until I met the man.

In the meantime, I’d done my own research on the fellow only to grudgingly admit the man had some impressive credentials. He came with all kinds of degrees and masters from medical to psychological along with some science. My head ached already imagining all the big words he’d force on me to prove his human superiority. Still bottom of the food chain, though, I thought with a smirk.

I heard the front door answered by Adolphus. Too old to feed me, but still useful in other matters, he acted as my butler. From my spot in the parlor I waited and listened impatiently to the murmurs. After what seemed an interminable wait, footsteps approached and I posed against the fireplace. First impressions were everything.

In a pompous tone only prideful servants achieve, my elderly butler announced my dreaded visitor. “Dr. Raphael Angelus to see you, ma’am.”

“Thank you, Adolphus,” I said in my snooty lady-of-the-manor voice.

In walked the doctor and out whooshed my breath. Somehow, he’d looked a lot smaller in the pictures. In person though, the man towered-good thing I’d worn my stupidly high heels, it put me at his chin. His blond hair was trimmed shorter than the image I’d seen, but his eyes were the same clear blue behind his scholarly glasses. His lips quirked into a smile at my perusal-I’d soon wipe that look from his face.

As I glided towards him, my hips swishing hypnotically, I took in the rest of him from the broad shoulders stretching the ill-fitting suit jacket, to his big feet encased in scuffed loafers. The man looked like a text book case of geeky professor, and given his many layers of loose clothing, I couldn’t tell if his width derived from fat or muscle. Not that I truly cared, because after all, his only purpose was to test and observe me as the first vampire guinea pig. Once he’d learned the truths we’d selected as safe to impart, he could relay his findings and thus calm the human masses. Lulling them into a false sense of security. I almost bit my lip as I tried not break out into a villainous laugh.

More nervous than expected, my mind rambled in circles trying to distract me. It didn’t work. I was still much too aware of him. His scent tickled my nose, clean and fresh with a mouthwatering maleness. I inhaled deep. The sound of his heart beating drove me wild. It thumped in my mind like a sensual music. He came across as utterly delicious.

His gaze slid up and down my frame as thoroughly as I’d inspected him, but unlike other human males, he didn’t flush or tent his pants even though I oozed sexuality-on purpose of course. Like a tap, I could turn on beguilement with just a thought. To no avail with the good doctor, it appeared. I found his lack of reaction odd. I cocked a hip, licked my lips and smiled at him. And again, he didn’t respond as he should have. Instead, as if I were asexual, he thrust out a hand.

“Countess Bathory, thank you so much for agreeing to see me.”

Taken aback at his lack of interest in my feminine charms, I didn’t immediately respond. Then, in a lightning flash, I understood. He’s a man lover. “I am delighted to be of service, Dr. Angelus,” I said with false enthusiasm as I stuck my hand into his to shake it. A shiver shot up my spine as our skin connected, a warm tingle that ran up and down my body before it centered itself in my cleft-a surprisingly pleasant sensation. Startled, I took a step back and let my hand slip from his. He seemed to notice nothing amiss and turned abruptly from me to head back out to the hall.

I gaped at his retreating body. Where is he going? I didn’t give him permission to leave. With the choice of yodeling after him like some fisherwife or scurrying after him like a peon, I chose neither. He was here to examine me. He’d have to come back.

I draped myself on a couch and had little time to ponder my strange reaction to him and his lack thereof to me. He returned almost immediately-his gait smooth and unlike the shuffle I’d expected of a man who spent days in labs. A thick briefcase dangled from one of his hands and a laptop case from the other. He set them both down and opened the fat one. He rummaged for a moment and pulled out a notepad. He immediately jotted some notes. His head bent over his task, he said not a word to me.