"You do what you have to."

I growled my torment. "Do you trust me? I can't...bite you unless you do."

"I trust you. While you tried to push me away I trusted you," she said, as she lifted me up and bent down meeting my lips.

My antic.i.p.ation peaked, and my c.o.c.k sprang to life. Her artery pulsed like a beating drum. It called to me begged me to partake. I bit down.

Ilida couldn't stop the tiny quakes in her pelvis. She could barely understand the need she had to let him do this. It was strange, but she felt compelled. As his teeth penetrated her flesh, she gasped. The pain astounded her then a curious heat invaded her neck, streamed down to her shoulders then to her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and torso. Her nipples hardened to nubs. She reached for his arm and held him.

His muscular arms tensed under her hand, as if he was holding something back. He drew blood form her neck slowly with soft suction. Then she felt his fangs dig in deeper.

Somewhere in her subconscious, she knew it was penetration. As his p.e.n.i.s bulged and knocked against the zipper of her jeans she ached for it and his mouth worked against her neck.

Chapter Twenty-six

I woke up, my body buzzing with life. My c.o.c.k pulsed. I held it, watching it jerk. Pre-s.e.m.e.n and blood beaded on the tip of the head. My brain nagged me. Ilida?

I saw her. She lay in a puddle of her torn clothing. Her clothes ripped from her body. Her legs open, s.e.x exposed. Arousal glistened on her hairy folds. Then it came back to me-how I ripped into her neck and her body. She gave and I took and took. I wanted more.

I shuddered looking at my hands. My hair fell off. I was in human form. We're both vulnerable to the cold. I picked her up brought her to the couch. My blood evaporated off the couch and blankets. We didn't need any more barriers to keeping warm.

Ilida's a hardy one. The bites I gave her were barbaric. She should be no more than a pretty corpse. I'd bitten her neck twice. p.r.i.c.ks decorated her shoulders. Blood smears colored her nipples. Her waist...I nipped there, too. She was still breathing. I'd heard of those bites before-the mating bites of the Hymeneal ritual.

I should have been angry but... I have a l.u.s.t for life, s.e.x with many women. I lead a dangerous life. Now I'll be tied to a woman who'll want forever. I can't give it to her. I don't want to give it to her. I can settle for s.e.x and an occasional rescue of her, but that's it. I can't deny I have a protective streak when it comes to Ilida.

I flinched. Her body was cool, too cool. I caressed her shoulders and arms. I had to get rid of these hideous bite marks. I licked her neck, shoulders, nipples. A light moan escaped her lips. She wasn't awake but in a twilight slumber. I have an internal clock, as all vampires do. It was somewhere between two and three o'clock. A while before dawn, before I fall a sleep. Then she'll have to keep me warm.

I watched her chest gently rise and fall. Her nipple touched my left rib then receded. The lamplight, still burning, gave her skin a warm glow of orange and purple, making her nipple seem all the more appetizing. Just then, the memory of the taste of her nipple in my mouth nudged me. Instinctively I licked my lips, bent down, opened my mouth. I stopped, held back, gritted my teeth. My hunger was powerful, like a lion unable to hold back from its fresh kill. Yes, she was mine to take whenever, in whatever way possible, but I 'm not a beast.

I ran my hand over my face, gripped my short hair. My body protested my need for restraint. Something warm and wet impinged on my struggles. Ilida's tongue darted out at my nipple, moistening it. I looked down, ignoring my fight, with my body, to see Ilida licking my nipple. Her muscular leg wrapped around my hip. My c.o.c.k ready as ever rose toward her waiting hole. Was she awake? Was she dreaming? I couldn't move until I knew for sure. Then her mind fed me blocks of images of what she wanted-what her body ordered. Like a mindless s.e.xual thing, I happily entered her.

Slick, hot folds rubbed against my c.o.c.k. I pressed in her, wanting to feel everything about her, wanting to remember every b.u.mp of her inner walls.

The friction blew my mind. She was tight. Her hips rose to greet me with perfect precision. Like angry frantic pistons, we bucked. My b.a.l.l.s slapped against her. Our thighs rubbed against each other in some tortured dance. Her leg muscles quivered in my hands. Her body deliciously tensed around me. I kept moving, wanting to prolong her beautiful torment. Hot cream exploded from her around my c.o.c.k. Her inner walls pumped me until I screamed, shooting my c.u.m inside her.

Her scent made me wild with a consuming pa.s.sion. She lay there limp from desire. A lazy smile touched her face. I couldn't be sated. Grasping her a.s.s, I pulled her to me, lifted her legs over my shoulders, and lowered my head. I pressed my nose and mouth to her honey scented folds. My reward: her deep shudders and trembling thighs. I licked all the moisture from between her legs while holding back the need to bite her c.l.i.toris and gorge from that little thing. Oh h.e.l.l! I bit down ceasing to care.

A jolt went through her body, zapped me as I bit and sucked from her. Her body gave that glorious stiffening and she came. Cream drowned my nostrils, coated my fangs.

Ilida jumped, feeling something long, hard, and cold on top of her. She felt it, felt him. Daedalus? His hair caressed her chin. His soft, short, wavy hair. It wasn't a dream. The whine of the wind, the groan of the walls... It was real. So was the moisture between her legs.

She rubbed her chin against his hair, his forehead. He was so cold. Still. While she felt hot, lazy, sated. The evidence was between her legs. Her neck ached as if he did bite her there. Her b.r.e.a.s.t.s equally sore. She became aware of his mouth at her nipple; his wisps of cool breath blew against it. Moisture from his mouth ran down her breast. She held his cool motionless head to her, and felt for a pulse. If she could hook him up to a monitor, his heartbeat wouldn't register. He's legally dead.

She knew better.

It was ridiculous.

It couldn't be true, but it was. Daedalus, a walking, breathing vampire. The evidence lay on top of her.

He did unimaginable things to her last night without a twinge of guilt. She invited him into her body. He did things to her she never allowed the previous men in her life to do. Every inch of her body he used for her gratification and his, and she gave back to him.

His body was hard as a rock. His abs six-packs of ice. She didn't think he had this in mind in keeping her warm. This had to be dangerous for him. Tentatively she reached out and caressed his back. It wasn't that bad really. His skin was immovable but it felt like skin-hard skin. She continued to caress him, getting to know his body, and his scars. They were thick and raised. He'd been whipped? Maybe? Repeatedly flogged. The scars weren't given a chance to heal. Chunks of flesh had to have been removed to produce scarring like that. If that thing were alive, she'd kill him for what he did to Daedalus.

These d.a.m.n scars. What was he like before that vampire hurt him like this? She felt as if someone took her most prized possession away, messed it about, and then gave it back to her.

That's okay. She clutched her stomach; it roared and rolled. She couldn't move to do anything about it. Daedalus unknowingly had her pinned down to the couch.

I shot upright from the sounds of Ilida's stomach protesting it's the lack of food. She turned her body over, facing the couch. She raised her knees. A human reaction to pain.

"Starving. Stomach hurts."

I couldn't let her linger like this. I had to bring her over fully.

"You can't, please. Not yet."

She'd read my thoughts. The idea made my c.o.c.k harden. I kept my thoughts deeply hidden, but she culled them out like harvest pulled from the earth-like marrow from bone.

She grasped my arm. Her skin cool. "I have food in the trunk of my car."

She was right. It had gone too far already. I feared we were going to fall off the G.o.dd.a.m.n cliff with the blood and s.e.x. "I'll find your keys."

"You can't go out there. You'll freeze to death before you get to the car."

"I won't. I hate the cold, but I can take it better than you." I found her keys in what was left of her coat. Feeling beastly and triumphant at the sight of our s.e.xual carnage, I declared, "Be right back."

As I ran to the door barely seen, I commanded my body to morph to bat form. My wings sprung out. The extra hair would shield me from the cold, but I'll need more blood to recover from changing so much.

A foot of snow covered the roof of her car. A snowdrift barely three feet tall blocked my way to the trunk. I kicked and sc.r.a.ped the snow out of the way. I felt like it took me hours to do it, but it only took ten minutes.

My hands were blocks of hairy ice. My talons were numb, so were my feet. I willed my body to continue. Soon I'd be in the not-so-cold climate of the cabin. I unlocked the trunk, found the cooler. The wind carried the scent of food.

I pushed the door open and slammed it shut behind me. The thin walls of the cabin groaned and shook with the force of it. We'll be lucky if the ceiling doesn't collapse on top of us.

d.a.m.n! I had to heat up the food somehow. I almost fell into despair when I spotted the fireplace. I remembered watching while Ilida tried in vain to patch me up.

Floorboards nailed to the fireplace covered it. I pulled them off, one by one. Nails scattered. I felt Ilida's eyes on my back watching my every movement. She was curious about me. I've had s.e.x with numerous women. They and I never let it go any farther than that. I shouldn't entertain her curiosity, but it felt good to be thought of.

I broke the floorboards in half, quarters, then tossed them into the fireplace, snapped my fingers and the wood burst into white and blue sparks. Cinders crackled. Soon we had a roaring fire, safely contained. I laid the food, still wrapped up in its foil, next to the fireplace as close as possible without it burning up.

I met her eyes. She gazed back at me. It was only matter of time before I f.u.c.ked her again. For now, I had to keep her warm.

Chapter Twenty-seven

We're one of the most powerful creatures in the world and we get snowed in by a blizzard," Alec said.

"Daedalus will be all right, Alec. You would have felt it if he were dead."

"That woman is with him."

"You mean, Ilida."

"That woman."

"Why do you distrust her so much? What has she done?"

"She..." Before he could complete his sentence, the doorbell rang. "Who is that? My night gets better and better."

Alec opened the door not needing to ask who it was. Vampires sensed each other even a vampire/werewolf hybrid, the only one in the world so far, could be detected. "Gauge."

"Where is he?" he said as he walked into Alec and Tania's apartment without being invited. "Come in, Gauge." Alec counted to ten. He would tolerate Gauge for Daedalus' sake. "Stuck in Riverhead, Long Island."

"s.h.i.t! That must be driving him nuts."

"Not anymore than it's driving me nuts."

"You're worried about him."

"He's my brother, too. He's stuck with...Ilida in an abandoned cabin."

"He'll be fine. I can imagine what they're up to now."

Alec recognized the feral gleam in Gauge's eyes. Daedalus and Ilida were bonding.

"You aren't worried about the outcome."

It wasn't a question. They both knew Daedalus to be an acrobat. Alec only wanted to be sure his brother wasn't getting in too deep. But he is.

"He can take care of himself."

"Until he gets into trouble."

"You two are having a decent conversation. I never thought I'd see the night." Tania said in pa.s.sing.

"You aren't Radu," Gauge recognized.

Alec heard Tania's footsteps freeze.

"I hated him, still do. In that, we have something else in common."

Gauge nodded. Layers of wild, long, black hair swung around his face. It was startling how he and Daedalus are paternal twins but didn't resemble each other, except for the occasional turn of the head. A simple gesture they shared. Both brothers were loners and ruled by pa.s.sions.

"Can't you sense his thoughts? It should be natural since you are twins."

"Daedalus is an exceptional blocker. I do know he's been getting the ride of his life, so I wouldn't worry about him."

"Too much information, again," Tania said. "I'm going upstairs to read a book. Try not to kill each other in the meantime."

"How is your stomach?" he asked, quietly.

"Ga.s.sy. It's been better," Ilida said.

It cramped from lack of food. So, she was alive for another freezing night, and the struggle to keep her in that state showed on his face. Something had to give soon.

His face spoke volumes to her.

"I'll be fine soon, Daedalus."

"You should let me change you."