I keyed in the short text message and then sent it to the disposable cell phone I'd bought Stevie Rae. If felt like an eternity before she answered.
Im ok
Hang on I replied.
Hurry she texted back.
Will do
I closed my phone, leaned against the wall, and, feeling like the entire world was pressing down on my shoulders, I burst into sobbing, snotty tears.
I cried and shook and shook and cried while I hugged my legs hard to my chest and rocked back and forth. I knew what was wrong with me. It surprised me that no one else, not one of my friends, had figured it out.
I'd thought Erik was dying, and it had brought back the night Stevie Rae had died in my arms. It was as if it was happening all over again—the blood, the sadness, the horror. It had completely blindsided me. I mean, I'd thought I was over what had happened to Stevie Rae. After all, she wasn't really dead.
I'd just been fooling myself.
I'd been bawling so hard that I didn't know he was there until he touched my shoulder. I looked up, wiping tears from my eyes, trying to think of something reassuring to say to whatever friend had come back for me.
'I could feel that you needed me,' Loren said.
With a sob I hurled myself into his arms. He sat beside me, pulling me onto his lap. Holding me tight, he murmured sweet words, telling me that everything would be okay now and that he'd never let me go. When I finally got myself under control and hiccupped instead of sobbed, Loren handed me one of his old-time linen hankies.
'Thanks,' I muttered as I blew my nose and wiped my face. I tried not to look at myself in the wall of mirrors across from us, but I couldn't avoid catching a glimpse of my puffy eyes and red nose. 'Oh, great. I look like utter crap.'
Loren chuckled and shifted me on his lap so that I was facing him. He gently smoothed back my hair. 'You look like a goddess who has been saddened by stress and hardship.'
I felt a little hysterical laughter bubble up from somewhere inside my chest. 'I don't think goddesses snot on themselves.'
He smiled. 'Oh, I wouldn't be too sure about that.' Then his expression sobered. 'When Erik Changed you thought he was dying, didn't you?'
I nodded, scared that if I said anything I'd start bawling again.
Loren's jaw clenched and unclenched. 'I've told Aphrodite over and over that
'Does it hurt as bad as it looks like it does?'
'It is painful, but it's a good pain—if that makes sense. Think of it like sore muscles after you've worked out. They hurt, but it's not a bad hurt.'
'Looked like a lot more than sore muscles,' I said.
'It's not that bad—more shocking than painful actually. Sensations rush into your body and everything becomes hypersensitive.' His hand caressed the side of my face as his finger lightly followed the line of my Mark. 'You'll experience it yourself some day.'
'I hope so.'
Neither of us said anything for a moment, although he continued to caresses my face and trace the Mark that decorated the side of my neck. His touch was making my body relax and tingle at the same time.
'But something else is upsetting you, isn't it?' Loren spoke gently. His voice was deep and musical and hypnotically beautiful. 'It's more than just Erik's Change bringing back the memory of your friend's death.'
When I didn't say anything, he leaned forward and kissed me on my forehead, touching his lips softly to the crescent-moon tattoo. I shivered.
'You can talk to me, Zoey. There's already so much between us that you must know you can trust me.'
His lips brushed over mine. It would be really nice to tell Loren about Stevie Rae. He could help me, and god knows I needed his help. Especially now that I'd kinda decided that Stevie Rae might be healed by my asking Nyx, which, of course, meant that there was going to be a circle casting involved, and that meant either getting Damien, the Twins, Aphrodite, and me to Stevie Rae or getting Stevie Rae to us. Neferet's protective spell would not be helping that, but maybe Loren knew some adult vampyre secret way around it. I tried to listen to my gut—tried to decide whether if my instinct was still screaming at me to keep my mouth shut—but all I could feel were Loren's hands and lips.
'Talk to me,' he whispered against my mouth.
'I—I want to …' I whispered back breathlessly. 'It's just so complicated.'
'Let me help you, love. Together there's nothing we can't work though.' He kisses got longer, hotter.
I wanted to tell him, but my head was spinning and it was hard for me to think, let alone talk.
'I'll show you how much we can share … how completely we can be together,' he said.
Loren took the hand he was fisting in my hair and pulled at his shirt so that the buttons popped, exposing his chest. Then he drew his thumbnail slowly over his left breast, leaving behind a line of perfect scarlet. The scent of his blood wrapped around me.
'Drink,' he said.
I couldn't stop myself. I lowered my face to his chest and tasted him. His blood surged through me. It was different than Heath's— not as hot, not as rich. But it was more powerful. It pounded through me, along with a desire that was red and urgent. I moved against his body, wanting more and more.
'Now it's my turn. I have to taste you!' Loren said.
Before I realized what he was doing he'd wrenched off my dress. I didn't have a chance to freak about the fact that he was seeing me in nothing but my bra and panties because he took his thumb and this time sliced it across my breast. I gasped at the sharp pain, and then his lips were on me and he was drinking my blood and the pain was replaced by waves of amazing pleasure so intense that all I could do was moan. Loren tore at his clothes while he drank me, and I helped him. All I knew what that I had to have him. Everything was all heat and sensation and desire. His hands and mouth were everywhere and still I couldn't get enough of him.
Then it happened. His heartbeat was under my skin and I could feel my pulse pounding in time with his. I could feel his passion along with mine and hear his desire roaring inside my head.
And then, somewhere in the back of my jumbled mind I heard Heath screaming,
My body jerked in Loren's arms. 'Ssh,' he whispered. 'It's okay. It's better this way, love, much better. Being Imprinted with a human is too difficult—it has too many ramifications.'
My breath was coming fast and hard. 'Is it broken? Has my Imprint with Heath been broken?'
'It has. Our Imprint has replaced it.' He rolled so that I was under his body. 'Now let's finish it. Let me make love to you, baby.'
'Yes,' I whispered. My lips found Loren's chest again, and as I drank from him, Loren made love to me until our world exploded in blood and passion.
CHAPTER 23
I was lying on top of Loren in a delicious fog of sensation. His hand caressed a long sweep down my back, stroking over and over the line of my tattoos.
'Your tattoos are exquisite. Like you,' Loren said.
I sighed happily and nuzzled against him. Turning my head, I was mesmerized by our reflection in the floor- to-ceiling studio mirrors. We were naked and there were smudges of blood on both of our bodies, which were twined together intimately, my long black hair only partially covering us. The filigree of my tattoos looked exotic stretching from my face and neck down along the line of my curving spine to my lower back. The thin film of sweat on my body made them glisten like sapphires.
Loren was right. I was exquisite. And he'd been right about us. It didn't matter that he was older and a full-
