Then Jonathon bit. A quick p.r.i.c.k through her tingling skin. Her hands clenched for one fearful moment in the sheets. Oh-so good! Their mouths were hot at her throat. Jonathon tweaked her aching nipples. Drake's fingers played magic between her thighs.

They took her easily to the brink, and she tumbled over, floating on air as the men drank. No pain...there was no pain...

Only a sense of soaring.

Jonathon and Drake had survived this. She must find the courage not to be afraid. This was what she was meant to be.

Darkness crept around her vision. She couldn't move her arms. Her hands grew numb.

Her lids flickered down, no matter how hard she fought to keep her eyes open. Sleep. She wanted to drift into wonderful sleep...

A finger touched her lip, leaving the sharp coppery flavor of blood. Her tongue licked her lip clean. It was all she could do to move her tongue. But the craving began.

Her mouth tingled. Her tongue pulsed. She wanted more.

First your wrist, Jonathon, then mine, Drake instructed.

With her eyes shut, Serena felt warm, delicious, damp skin press against her mouth. Jonathon's wrist. She licked with her tongue, tasting rivulets of salty, sweet blood. Then she drank.

Chapter Twenty-Five.

Bitten Vampires possessed unearthly stamina, Serena realized as she lay on the bed, giggling up to the canopy. Jonathon and Drake each claimed a breast and nuzzled her sore but aroused and needy nipples. She had made love, and drank, and loved for two glorious nights. If only she could hide in this bedchamber forever...

But tomorrow night was All Hallow's Eve. If Lukos believed his destiny was to claim her and rule the earth, he would come for her.

This might be her last night to be alive...well, undead. A tear drizzled down her cheek, but she didn't want to stop caressing her lovers' heads to brush it away.

Dawn was close...so very close.

"You need blood, Serena," Drake murmured as he suckled her pert nipple.

Blood. The word enraptured her. It even sounded erotic. She wanted it. Heat spiked through her jaw, followed by a sharp pain. One more wondrous than frightening. She probed with her tongue and touched her long canine teeth.

She was vampire. She had been born to be vampire. Now she was to do what she had been created to do and she could not think of it as wrong or right. Her body craved. Her body demanded.

"Your neck looks so utterly delectable," she whispered to Jonathon, for she loved the contrast of his silky dark brown hair against his golden skin.

"I would love to have you drink from me," he answered, and he arched his neck back, willingly exposing his throat- "Ah, but you know where all my blood is now," Drake teased.

Startled, she met his silvery-green eyes. "You can't mean for me to bite you there?"

"I'm vampire. I like both biting and s.e.x play. Combining them is an experience unsurpa.s.sed." Drake, unsubtle as ever, gently pressed down on her shoulder and wore a hopeful expression. He wanted her to sink to his knees, take him into her mouth.

"You must be mad." Jonathon laughed. "I doubt our c.o.c.ks are completely invincible."

To tease, she wriggled down between both men. "Perhaps I will taste Jonathon first. But I won't bite."

Wickedly, she took Jonathon's huge c.o.c.k into her mouth and reveled at his pained groan.

Her quim was presented to Drake from the rear. At the pressure of the large, blunt head of his c.o.c.k against her nether lips, she moaned in pleasure around Jonathon's c.o.c.k.

Drake chuckled. Low, intimate, the unique sound shared by a lover. "Men do enjoy sharing, sweet lark, because one man is certain to get a delectable sucking. And the other man gets to watch."

She'd never thought of that.

"Watching you, Serena, between my legs...watching my pole slide between her your lips..." Jonathon let his head drop back as he moaned.

"And I like to watch her a.s.s wiggle as she does it," Drake added roguishly.

She felt a blush touch her hollowed cheeks. She swirled her tongue around the swollen head of Jonathon's c.o.c.k, then slid him deep into her mouth, savoring the ripe taste that teased her tongue.

Her fangs brushed the rigid length, the velvety head, and he moaned-in pleasure or panic, she wasn't sure. Drake slid his c.o.c.k into her drenched quim, gave two languorous thrusts, then gripped her hips and pounded against her, his hips slapping her rear. He was wild. Untamed. And she loved it, thrusting eagerly back to be rewarded with a mind-numbing erotic jolt each time they collided. She panted fiercely, whimpering around Jonathon's delicious shaft, as Drake set her aflame with his hard, merciless thrusts.

Her mouth filled. Her cunny filled. It was scandalous and wonderful and liberating.

Drake's c.o.c.k sawed along an exquisite spot inside her and Serena tensed, clutching Jonathon's hips, riding each of Drake's magnificent strokes. Both men found her nipples and lovingly pinched, and it was so much pleasure, too much, and she burst.

She came with such fierce intensity that light exploded before her eyes and her body shuddered uncontrollably with each heavenly spasm.

Her destiny...magnificent vampire o.r.g.a.s.ms shared with two men...what a perfect destiny...

Jonathon's c.o.c.k still filled her mouth-hard and rigid and she was screaming around it. She didn't dare bite him, and as she drifted down from heaven, she knew neither man had come. How could they have such control? Sweat drenched her, her hair was a snarl-she was undead and she had never been more alive.

With gentlemanly nods of consent, they traded places. Drake slid his c.o.c.k into her mouth and she lovingly suckled it. Huge, thick, Jonathon's p.r.i.c.k splayed her cunny walls wide as he slid into her. As Drake had promised, lovemaking was different now that she was a vampire. Every sensation amplified, exquisite, so arousing, she found herself instantly in ecstasy. A long, slow climax welled and washed over her. Heavenly.

Bite me now, Drake urged in her thoughts.

His c.o.c.k swelled against her fangs and she scented blood. So much of it filling him, making his c.o.c.k taut and rigid and fat.

Drake thrust forward, apparently not caring that her teeth sc.r.a.ped him. His fevered moan rippled over her. He tasted so rich. So delicious. A thick, juicy delight just waiting for her to bite- Her jaw clamped down. Serena swallowed her own gasp as blood spurted. So much and pumping hard. She saw Drake's head snap forward, saw the flash of pure agony. His hands fisted in her hair. Yes, G.o.d, f.u.c.k, yes.

The hands gripped tight, tugging her curls at their roots, the slight pain strangely exhilarating. Blood flooded, she drank.

"I'm coming!" Drake shouted.

Sour and creamy, his s.e.m.e.n filled her mouth-she drank in his two most intimate flavors. And came once more doing it. Jonathon's large hands clamped tight on her hips and held her as he shoved forward and launched his seed deep inside her.

Drake withdrew from her mouth, his c.o.c.k going slack, and collapsed. Fearfully, Serena watched him tumble back, his eyes shut. Had she drunk too much? Two wounds punctured the head of his poor c.o.c.k.

Drake?

Jonathon slid his hands around her waist to embrace her, but guiltily, she gazed at Drake's c.o.c.k. Oh, his poor sweet member. Two trickles of blood had dribbled down. Spots stained his ballocks- Wonderful, Serena. Drake's voice. Unbelievable. Thank you, little lark.

I feared I'd killed you.

No, but for a moment, I did fear for my John Thomas.

A helpless giggle slipped out. Then Jonathon lifted her. Now it is my turn to eat you. But as he lowered to her throbbing, creamy cunny, a soft rap came from the door.

"You are the lord and master," Drake said. "Answer your door."

"b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l." Jonathon threw on his banjan and left to answer, autocratic impatience radiating. Serena bit her lip to hold back a giggle. Any servant would quail when faced with that glower-and the footman on the other side was pale and trembling. "The messenger insisted it couldn't wait, milord."

Jonathon shut the door and frowned down at the missive. "It is for you, Serena."

Althea, perhaps? But surely Jonathon would have said so. Remaining taciturn and silent, he brought the letter to the bed as Drake helped her to sit up. Sharing a surprised look with both men, she tore the seal open, and read...

Serena, It is I, your mother. I have become aware that you still live. You must understand that I believed you did not. Come to me, so that I may make you understand who you truly are.

Yours, your mother, Lady Draycott Serena read the address. Upper Brock Street. An address of n.o.bility.

"A trap," Jonathon a.s.sessed. "You will not go."

She fluttered the letter in frustration. "Whyever not? Lukos will hunt me tomorrow-whether I confront him here or at my mother's home." She swept her arm toward the window. "It makes no difference."

Jonathon's lashes lowered over his pained eyes. "She might not be your mother."

"I have to know." But even as Serena slid off the bed, she couldn't understand why her heart hammered with the fear that she would not be able to go. Why did she want to know with such urgency? Jonathon and Drake had insisted her past didn't matter.

But without knowing her past, how could she understand her future?

She reached for her borrowed dressing gown.

"Where are you going?" Jonathon jumped off the bed, racing to her side.

She tied the belt. "To find your peerage."

With Jonathon at her side, holding the candle, she found the peerage book in the library. Jonathon cradled her waist, leaned over to read. "It's out of date," he noted grimly. "The only Lady Draycott mentioned died five years ago. Draycott must have taken a new wife."

"A vampire wife. So all I know about my mother is a name. Eve, Lady Draycott. And I don't know if the name Eve is true." She closed the book and realized Drake had joined them. "I will write back to her. If you men will not let me go to her, I will invite her here."

"Madness," Jonathon protested.

"She needs to know," Drake countered. "We can protect Serena. And she needs to have this."

"I will not allow it," Jonathon commanded. And he, of course, expected that would end the argument.

Serena solemnly shook her head. "You do not have that power, Jonathon." And she left them, even as Jonathon strode after her. She heard him stop at the doorway, felt his gaze on her back as she hurried away, and she didn't stop running until she reached the bedchamber to compose her letter.

The men, surprisingly, let her be. Her heart flip-flopped at that-they did understand how much it meant to her to know who her mother was.

An hour ticked by before she sat back in the chair at the escritoire. Crumpled pages surrounded her, but she finally had a brief note that satisfied her. But as she sanded it, a knock came at the door. Expecting Jonathon or Drake, she yanked it open.

The footman bowed. "The messenger came back, ma'am. He says he was instructed to return after one hour."

Frowning, Serena took the small, wrapped package and dismissed the footman. Was her mother mad as well as undead?

Fingers trembling, she opened the velvet pouch and tipped it upside down, and a locket slid out into her palm. Gold and delicate, with a heart-shaped fob-it meant nothing to her. It had no significance. With her thumbnail she pried it open. A small square of paper fell out.

She unfolded the tiny sc.r.a.p, reading it as she smoothed it.

When I gave birth to you, I knew that you would change tomorrow night-your 25th birthday. Perhaps you have become vampire already, but what you do not know is that you will come into your power tomorrow night, at the stroke of midnight. Without my help, you will perish. You must know the secrets of allowing the power to come to you. I suspect you do not want to see me. You must. You must come to me, and together we will help you embrace your new life.

Lukos believes he has the secret-he believes he will be the one to help you claim your power. But there is much Lukos does not understand. He is one of the devil's apprentices and a man-both arrogant and foolish. I will not allow him to take you, Serena. But you must come to me.

Come to the village of Pemberton Hill. There is a mystical standing stone circle there. It is there that you will find your destiny.

It was not signed, but Serena saw at once the handwriting was Lady Draycott's-her mother's.

Jonathon and Drake would never consent to this...

But if they were to share love, she must tell them of this. Nervously, she tugged the bellpull, then sent the servant to fetch them.

"Pemberton Hill," she repeated as Jonathon reread the note. She'd read it aloud once, for Drake. "I've seen drawings, sketches, notations about Pemberton Hill in the Society's library. Pemberton Hill is near one of Lord Ashcroft's estates, is it not?"

Jonathon nodded. "Yes. Ashcroft has studied that ring of stones since he was a boy. I spent time there, with my father."

Drake laughed. A low, naughty laugh. "I heard that Ashcroft practiced s.e.x rites there in his younger days. Hired buxom, talented prost.i.tutes to perform perverse acts with him beneath the light of the moon."

Jonathon linked his hands behind his back, paced. "To go to Ashcroft's would be madness. He wants us destroyed. This is very likely a hoax."

"And if it's the truth, Serena could be in grave danger," Drake reminded.

Serena shivered but felt a surge of enveloping warmth as Drake came up behind her and hugged her.

"Still, I believe we have to go," Drake said.

"I want to go," Serena insisted. "I need to know."

Even as Drake hugged her, Jonathon walked up to her, rested his hands on her shoulders, and kissed the top of her head. "I know how much it means to you to know about your past. I promise I will be at your side to protect you, no matter what."

Aroused beyond compare, Althea twisted her wrists, trying to break free of the knots. Once again, Bastien had outdone himself. She was well and truly bound to the bed. Though she cast a glance down and had to bite back a giggle. With her ripe, round tummy, did she really present an erotic picture? Her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, full and plump, looked magnificent though, and her nipples were now long and full and a seductive berry-brown.

Bastien tied the last knot to the bedpost, then slid off the bed, obviously admiring his handiwork. She giggled as the baby squirmed in her belly, then gasped as Bastien selected a long, slender d.i.l.d.o from her vanity and strolled toward her. He licked the tip of it, and she trembled in antic.i.p.ation- The door swung open, and Yannick marched in, running his fingers through his hair. Bastien, you are supposed to be preparing to leave for the docks.

Sorry, brother, I became distracted while helping Althea pack her erotic toys.

That was not at all the truth, but Bastien shared a wink as Yannick groaned in frustration.

Join me, brother, Bastien suggested, indicating her submissive position with a sweep of his hand. His golden hair hung around his shoulders. They were in the dark, only the soft shimmer of the moon painting his beautiful body.

Yannick, who should have been the voice of reason, shifted to his bat-form to shed his clothing. But he paused at the edge of the bed. "Althea, I have to be honest with you-"