“Great, I would ask you in, but I’m tired, and you have somewhere to be, so I guess I’ll just see you tomorrow night.”
He took a step forward, and I jerked back, only to be caught by the apartment door. His head dipped, and I thought he was going to kiss me—I wanted him to kiss me, but instead, his mouth moved to my ear, and in that dark, sexy voice that made my insides tingle, he said, “Your parents were fools not to realize what a prize you are.” My heart galloped wildly inside my chest as he turned and started down the hallway. When he reached the stairwell, he paused. His eyes came back to me, and his lips split into a wicked smile. “Just so you know, Ayden prefers men. Goodnight, Diortha.” He winked, then let out a sexy-as-fuck roar, and was gone.
I stood there with my mouth gaping open. Oh. My. God. He had read my mind! It took a moment for his comment about Ayden to sink in, and I burst into laughter. Ayden loved men about as much as I loved women—as in, not at all. Jealous vampire. I considered going after Zack, but then Tymon called, and I got caught up in filling him in on my meeting with Zack and what happened after. I didn’t tell him about the bite, or that Zack could read my mind. I definitely didn’t mention the insane sexual attraction, or how I turned into a crazed nympho whenever the guy touched me.
After the call, I took a long, hot shower—where I touched myself as I fantasized about Zack. Feeling somewhat better, I then hauled the stack of books from my living room into my bedroom. I found the book titled “Vampire Life Through the Ages” and turned to the section on nourishers. Within five minutes, I was asleep.
Something woke me. It wasn’t a noise, per se, but more of a feeling, as if I wasn’t alone. As if someone was watching me. So why couldn’t I feel them? It took a moment for me to realize my shields were up. I’d been shielding in my sleep. As I was on my side and facing away from the door, I couldn’t see who it was. Slowly, I lowered my shields and was instantly accosted by what felt like a million fire ants inside my brain. Jerking my shields back into place, I screamed inside my head. Shitfuckityshit, that hurt!
“I know you’re awake, little human,” a female voice drawled.
Fear seized my body, my heart stuttering wildly at her menacing tone. Lenora was back. Something told me she wasn’t here for mani-pedi’s and girl talk but to cause me serious bodily harm. She was close, way too close for comfort. My gun was out of reach, but I had a silver-tipped knife strapped to the underside of the bed. It was either me or her. I chose me. Tucking my legs, I rolled from the bed. Luckily, I landed on all fours. My fingers barely grazed the knife when she pounced, and I found myself pinned to the ground with my face pressed to the floor.
I screamed as I felt her fangs scrape across my neck, my pulse racing as I frantically tried to buck her off, but she was too strong.
“You were in my house tonight,” she whispered. “You touched Zacharias, then used my name in a lie against my people. Why would you do that, little human?”
My body froze at the chilling tone of her words. This wasn’t Lenora; it was Victoria. Shit! Zack hadn’t told her about me. “I’m an officer with the PHD. I’m working on a case with Zack.”
“Zack?” she mocked, her voice barely a whisper. I was so dead. If only I could get to the damned knife. “I can smell him on you. I’m going to erase him from your body, and then I’m going to drain you dry.” Like a venomous snake, she struck. I screamed as a bomb of liquid fire detonated through my body. The fire increased with each suck, and I screamed for her to stop while at the same time screaming inside my head for Zack to save me. My thoughts fragmented as she drew the blood from my body, then slowly scattered to the wind.
The last thing I remembered before blacking out was hearing Zack inside my head. “Hold on,” he whispered. “I’m coming for you.”
7
I woke to total darkness. That was my first indication that something was wrong. Where are my nightlights? I had two of them: one in my bathroom and the other beside my bedroom door. During tactical training, the only thing that had nearly broken me was when they dropped us into a pitch-black hole and told us to find our way out. It wasn’t the depth of the hole that bothered me; it was the darkness. Bad things happened in the dark—things that crept on silent feet and struck when you least expected. The fact that I was lying in a strange bed without a stitch of clothing on was disturbing but not nearly as much as the damned darkness.
A trickle of fear rippled down my spine. I tried to draw in a breath but all I could manage was short, choppy pants as tiny tendrils of panic began to dig their ugly claws into my sanity. I was verging on a meltdown when I heard a voice whisper, “Drop your shields.”
The surprise at hearing Zack’s voice inside my head jerked me out of my panicked state. It also kind of freaked me out. Where are you? I thought back at him. He didn’t answer. My fingers grazed across silky sheets. Better yet, where was I? The last thing I remembered was opening the book on vampire living. Everything after that was a blank. The fact that I was once again shielding in my sleep was interesting.
