I focused my attention on thebracelet of blue veins that pulsed on the underside of his wristand tried to concentrate on one in particular, calling it towardme.
In the week and a half sincerescuing me from Celeste, my new master Corbin had given me sometips on how to be a better, more effective vampire. Most of whathe’d taught me was simple, including calling a vein to the surfaceas I was doing now. If only Celeste would have had the time andpatience to teach me, maybe I would have made a better vampire. Butmy petite blonde ex-mistress had no patience with ignorance orincompetence of any kind so I had remained at the bottom of thefood chain, uneducated and uninformed about my new existence untilrecently.
To my relief, the vein began toswell until it presented a decent target for my aching fangs.Unfortunately, I still wasn’t good enough to give pleasure as Ifed, like a master vampire could, but at least I could strive tohurt my donor as little as possible.
Victor saidnothing to the subtle display of my power. He simply stood therewaiting, his arm at the right height for my mouth. When I gave hima quick glance, his eyes flashed bright gold and he gave me abarely perceptible nod as if to say, do it.
I couldn’t wait any longer. Thewarm musk of his scent filled my nose and under that I could smellthe hot copper of his blood. My empty stomach twisted and my throatwas parched.
I struck, my fangs piercing thebig vein I’d called, slicing through his flesh and digging deep toget the nourishment I craved.
Victor grunted and I could tellI’d hurt him. But he didn’t try to jerk away—he held rock solid asI fed from him, drawing the rich, delicious blood out in great, hotmouthfuls, gulping it down like a starving beggar, feasting for thefirst time.
And God it wasgood…so incredibly goodand different from anything I had evertasted. I had never had were blood before—most vamps haven’tsince we consider each other mortal enemies. To be honest, though,I hadn’t even had much human blood, aside from my friend Addison’s,which was sweet and tasted slightly of strawberries. That was nicebut this was special…incredible.
Victor’s blood reminded me offine, rich, strong wine. Or maybe an expensive whiskey. It gusheddown my throat, quenching my terrible thirst in the first soothingwave and setting a warm fire glowing in my belly. I could feel itseffects immediately—my throat was no longer lined with barbed wireand my stomach wasn’t trying to gnaw a hole in my backbone. I feltrefreshed…healed.
Beside me, Victor shiftedimpatiently and I reminded myself that my miraculous meal had aname and a burning desire to get outside and answer the call of thewild. In fact, he was probably only about two minutes from turninginto a huge, shaggy wolf with appetites of his own.
I could have drunk from him allnight, sipping that warm, rich blood, savoring it like the mostexpensive vintage—but that wasn’t an option. I took two more hastymouthfuls and then drew back, retracting my fangs.
Victor was watching me, anunreadable expression on his stern features.
“I’m sorry,” Isaid, licking my lips to get the last traces of his miraculousblood. “Did I hurt you?”
He shifted from foot to foot,frowning. “It was nothing. Not as bad as I thought. Except—”
“Except?” Iasked, humbly, trying to prompt him. “If you tell me I might beable to make it better for you, uh, next time.”
“Better thanthat?” He looked at me incredulously and shifted again. Themovement drew my eyes to his crotch. With a shock, I saw that hehad an extremely impressive erection pressing hard against thefront of his jeans. Had Icaused that? And if so, how?
“I-I’m sorry,” Istuttered. His blood had had a calming effect on me but suddenly Ifelt nervous all over again. Was he going to come after me now? Washe going to try something?
“No,I’m sorry,” he said roughly. “I don’t know why that, uh…damn. Sofucking weird.”He shook his head, his eyes going hard.“I have to go,” he said abruptly.
“Oh. Of course.”I slid away from him, trying to give him more room. “Um…havefun.”
“Don’t expect meback for awhile.”
“Oh…I—” Butbefore I could finish, he was out the kitchen door and gone intothe night.
ChapterTwo—Victor
I loped a fewyards to the edge of the clearing and then just stood there for aminute, trying to make sense of it all. I could feel the call ofthe Moon, could feel the brand on my skin, burning like a smallsun nestled in my lower back,but I fought it for a little while longer. If I let the wolf comeforward now, I would never understand what had just happened. Thewolf has no words, it thinks in pictures not sentences and it runspurely on instinct. I desperately needed to think about thestrange vampire girl I had somehow found myself bonded to and myanimal form was the worst place to do that.
“What the hell?”I muttered to myself, trying to shut out the silvery voice of themoon and her endless siren song. “What the fuck is goingon?”
It was a fairquestion. I hadn’t been acting like myself tonight and it wasn’tjust the Change coming on me that caused it. It was Taylor—somehowshe was making me act weird.
Driving in the truck with her, Ihad been doing my best to ignore her because of her scent. Mostvamps smell pretty disgusting to me—like the snake cage at thezoo—all leathery and reptilian. And the older they get, the worsethe stink is, at least to my sensitive were nose.
But notTaylor—she had a warm, fresh, devastatingly feminine scent. Nothinglike a vamp but not exactly human either. There was somethingstrange and intensely attractive about
