“Darling, no…No!” The deep voice waschoked now, it sounded like whoever was speaking was on the edge ofpanic.
I’m okay, I wanted to tell the ownerof the deep voice—I was sure he was someone I knew. I’ll be fineif you’ll just let me sleep. So tired. So…tired…
“No,” I heard him saying again. “Gods,no—what have I done?”
I tried again to tell him that I was finebut nothing came out. The darkness was eating the world, sucking medown into the void. I was leaving…floating away…
Suddenly something warm and wet was pressedagainst my lips. I felt it dribbling down my chin and then stronghands were prying my jaws open, forcing the hot, sticky stuff downmy throat.
I wanted to cough and gag but for a long,horrible moment I could do neither. I could only lay there, mymouth filling with the rich, salty liquid, feeling like I wasdrowning.
Then someone lifted my head and massaged mythroat, forcing me to swallow whether I wanted to or not.
“Drink it,” he muttered. “Damn you, Addison,drink it.”
I swallowed convulsively and felt a littleless like I was drowning. The warm liquid rolled down my throat andexploded in my belly like expensive single malt Scotch.
The effect was amazing—like someone hadgiven me a shot of instant energy. A tingling warmth started in mycenter and radiated outward until even my fingers and toes feltlike live wires. It was like my entire body had beenelectrified—like every hair on my head was standing on end.
My eyes popped open and I saw Corbinhovering over me, a look of fear and determination stamped on hisface. He was holding his wrist against my mouth and there weretears of blood standing in his silver-blue eyes.
“Corbin?” I asked, when I finally managed topush his wrist away. “What…what happened?”
“You know exactly what happened,” he saidthickly. “Just drink for now—we’ll talk about it later.”
“Yes, but what—?” I started to say but hepushed his wrist against my mouth again, forcing me to take great,salty mouthfuls of his blood.
But now that I realized what the salty stuffwas, I started to gag. What the hell was he doing? Vampires tookblood, they didn’t give it—ever. Unless…was he changing meinto a vamp? Was I becoming what, until recently, I had alwaysfeared and hated the most? Things had changed for me—I could love avampire—I did love Corbin, with everything that was in me.But that didn’t mean I wanted to be one.
My eyes widened and I fought to push hiswrist away.
“No,” I gasped, shaking my head. “No, notthat. Anything but that.”
“Anything but that, eh? Fine. You shouldlive now, anyway. ” His eyes were hard when he finally pulled hiswrist away.
“Corbin,” I started to say but he shook hishead and looked into my eyes.
“Sleep,” he commanded and I felt him slipthe suggestion under my mental shields. In my weakened state, Icouldn’t stop him from glamouring me.
The last thing I saw was his angry face andthen the world faded to blackness.
* * * * *
When I woke up I was lying in a small, darkspace on a narrow, uncomfortable cot and it seemed like my wholebody ached. Someone had dressed me in a silky kimono type robe thatfelt cool and soft against my skin. I blinked, looking arounduncertainly.
“Where am I?” I muttered aloud, notexpecting an answer.
“Here, in my room.” A dim light popped onand Taylor was suddenly hovering over me, an anxious look on herpale face. “Addison, are you all right? Are you finally awake?”
“I guess so.” I tried to sit up and was toodizzy to manage at first. Taylor helped me considerately and thensat beside me on the cot.
“I was so worried about you,” she said,taking my hand and squeezing hard.
I winced, expecting to feel pain at hertoo-tight grip but for some reason I didn’t.
“How long have I been out?” I asked, lookingdown at my new robe which was a nice shade of dark green. At leastit wasn’t crimson—I’d had enough of that color for a while.
“All day and most of tonight. You were sostill…barely breathing. And I thought…I was so afraid I’d lostyou.” She made a little sobbing sound and a single droplet of bloodwelled in her eye but refused to fall.
It was my turn to be concerned about her.Was she really so dehydrated she couldn’t cry? Her blue eyes lookedhuge and her face was even thinner and paler than last time I hadseen her. She was wasting away before my eyes.
“Taylor,” I said, grasping her arm. “Honey,you look terrible.”
“I look terrible?” She gave a littlesobbing laugh. “Addison, you should look in a mirror.”
“What? Why?” I felt my face with my hands,as though whatever was wrong would be immediately apparent to mytouch.
“It’s not your face so much—although yourneck is kind of torn up,” she said. “It’s your body—you’re bruisedalmost from head to toe. You look…” Her voice dropped. “You looklike somebody beat you. Addison, what happened between you andCorbin last night?”
“Corbin…” Suddenly it all came rushing backto me—the way I had chained him down, foolishly thinking my punyrestraints could hold him. The way he had turned into a mindlesscreature, bent only on sex and blood. The rough sex that hadfollowed and the way he had made me come until I felt like I waswrung inside out, completely spent and exhausted…
But the question was—had it worked?
“Corbin,” I said again, grabbing Taylor’shand. “Is he…alive?”
“Yes, of course, he is. He’s back to hisnormal self—although he’s in a horrible mood. I’ve neverseen him so angry.” She shivered. “Luckily I’ve been staying out ofhis way back here with you. He’s been checking on you every once ina while but even though he said you’d be fine I was stillworried.”
I was still worried myself. Had my actionsreally broken the power of that damn soul eating stake? Or had Ionly delayed the inevitable?
“Addison,” Taylor began. “What—?”
“She’s in here. The master said to put herwhere he didn’t have to see her.” The snotty voice outside Taylor’sdoor couldn’t be anyone but the annoying barmaid, Bambie.
There was a cursory knock and then the doorwas flung open to
