"I'm in love with someone else. If you really are Carollina, you wouldn't do this."

"I am Carollina!" She bared her incisors, her eyes gleaming with fury. "Do you know what pain and darkness I've endured to find my way back to you? You think after all I've endured I'll allow another fem to have you? No! You belong to me."

She lifted her hips and slammed her p.u.s.s.y all the way down on him.

His c.o.c.k pulsed in response, but his emotions remained untouched. He clenched his hands into fists and closed his eyes, his thoughts on Tat. He had been a fool to leave with angry words between them. Tatiana...I'm sorry.

Carollina hissed and used her p.u.s.s.y to tighten painfully around his c.o.c.k. "I can read your thoughts, and I won't have you thinking about that b.i.t.c.h when we're making love," she warned.

He felt her invading his thoughts and threw up the mental shields Wilfredo had taught all the hunters to wield to protect themselves against the superior mental power of full-blood vampires. As she continued to thrust herself up and down on his c.o.c.k, she held his hands locked at either side of his body. Her efforts to smash through his shields increased with each pa.s.sing moment. He feared once she had full access to his thoughts she would force his complete surrender.

If that happened, he knew she would draw him into the world of darkness she now inhabited. He took a deep breath and reached out with his thoughts to the one person he was most afraid of losing. Tatiana!

You are weakening, my love. Make it easier on yourself. Surrender to me and I promise you an eternity of happiness and pa.s.sion. You've been calling to that b.i.t.c.h and she hasn't responded. She is either afraid to face me fem to fem, or she knows you belong to me. Surrender to me, my Jace, and let me teach you the power of dark pa.s.sion.

"Never," he ground the words out between clenched teeth. He'd been a fool not to listen to Tatiana and discard the charm. Now he feared the only way to keep Carollina from dragging him into h.e.l.l with her was the last retort of mental suicide. "Release me or I promise you the only thing you'll end up with is a shadow. You were one of us. You know Wilfredo taught us all how to protect our minds against even the most powerful full-blood. I will not be enslaved by you."

I won't allow that, Jace. He felt her hot breath against his neck. If I have to, I will rip out your jugular and take you to within seconds of death. Then when imminent death has lowered your defenses, I will force your final surrender. And then there will be no one and nothing that can keep me from making you mine for all eternity.

He heard the steel in her voice. Certain he was moments away from either death or worse, the loss of his soul, he offered a silent prayer and sent a final message to Tat. I love you, Tatiana. I'll always love you...even in death. Goodbye, my love.

There's no need to be afraid, my Jace.

He opened his eyes and stared at Carollina. "I'm not afraid. One way or another, Wilfredo will find a way to undo this. Either he'll rescue me from you or he'll consign me to a merciful death."

She licked his neck. There will be no way for him or anyone else to reclaim you once I make you mine.

"Then we had better make sure that doesn't happen."

Carollina gave a startled cry as she was ripped off of him. Exhausted from the rape and mental battering, Jace scrambled to his knees, blinking rapidly.

Tatiana, wearing a black one-piece cat suit with her long hair held in a ponytail, hovered several feet above the bed, the fingers of one hand tightly closed around Carollina's throat.

He gulped in a long, aching breath. You came.

Easily holding the struggling Carollina, she looked at him, her mind brushing gently against his like a soft, sweet caress. Did you think I would not?

After the things I said...I didn't know...

Of course I came. She tore her gaze away and stared at Carollina. "I have two scores to settle with you, fem. First, you nearly entangled my most precious sibling in your web, and now you think I'll allow you to drag Jason into your dark pit of despair?"

Carollina wrapped her hands around Tatiana's neck and Jace stiffened. He was uncertain his legs would hold him up, but he couldn't stand by and watch while the two females he cared most about battled over him.

Tatiana shook her head and, using her free hand, forced Carollina's hands away from her throat. "No, Jason. Do not interfere. This is between us. Not only will she answer for what she's been doing to you, but she'll answer for what she's been attempting to do to Andrei."

Carollina made a small, startled sound.

"That's right," Tatiana said. "I know who you are...Veelee...Lina, Carollina and however many other names you've called yourself over the last fifty or so years. Tonight, your games end here."

"Think again," Carollina croaked as she arched her body and jerked back, managing to break Tatiana's hold. Vaulting through the air, she landed lightly on the other side of the room, near the door. Caught off guard, Tatiana dropped to the floor beside the bed.

Moving with a speed that Jace had rarely seen anyone younger or more skillful than Wilfredo manage, Carollina flashed across the room and struck out at Tatiana's face with a clenched fist. "Die, you b.i.t.c.h!"

Before Jace could move, Tatiana matched Carollina's speed and managed to jerk her head aside. Even as Carollina's hand missed its target by inches, Tatiana's right hand shot out and fastened around her neck.

"I've already done that once. I know you've done it as well, but it's time you died again-this time permanently."

She slammed Carollina onto her back and straddled her body. Holding the struggling Carollina on her back, Tatiana lifted her left elbow and brought it down with blinding speed on the other fem's bent knee.

Jace heard the unmistakable sound of breaking bones.

Carollina screamed in pain.

Jace froze, feeling as if his blood had been turned to ice.

Transferring her choking grip from her right hand to her left one, Tatiana used her right elbow to break Carollina's other knee.

Jace! Help me!

At her cry for help, Jace exploded off the bed and hurried across the room toward the two women.

Tatiana turned and gave him a brief glance. Her eyes glowed and her incisors were bared. "Stay out of this, Jason!"

He faltered, torn between the only two women he'd ever loved.

Carollina reached out to him, invading his thoughts and flooding him with memories of the good times they'd shared. Help me, my Jace. Together we can defeat her. She is not who you think she is. She is the one who has been invading your dreams, pretending to be me. Help me thwart her attempts to turn you against me for her own selfish reasons. Draw on the strength of the talisman around your neck that connects us.

Caught up in the rapture of the memory of how much he'd loved her and how her death had devastated him, he clutched the charm around his neck. A flash of heat infused his body, clouding his senses. The need to protect Carollina against the nocturene attacking her dominated his thoughts.

He moved forward. Together he and his beloved Carollina would defeat the nocturene. When his fingers brushed against the nocturene's neck, a shock of electricity danced down at his spine and his head cleared.

He blinked. "Tatiana? What are you doing here?"

Reaching back, she ripped the chain from around his neck.

No! Carollina screamed. You mustn't allow her to weaken our connection, my love. Take our talisman back from her. Do it now before it's too late. I'm growing weak. I've never needed you more, my love.

Struggling to wrench free of her, he felt her invade his thoughts with a ruthlessness he couldn't resist. You failed me once, Jace. Don't fail me again. You must get the talisman back.

As if they had a mind of their own, his hands shot out and closed around Tatiana's neck.

"Fight her, Jason!"

He tightened his hands around Tatiana's soft flesh, determined to still the pulse under his fingers.

"Oh, Jason." She brought her forearm up and knocked his hands away from her throat. She rose and levitated in the air, dragging Carollina along with her. She looked down at him, her gaze soft and caressing. "Snap out of it. Her hold on you is broken."

Carollina laughed. "You think taking the talisman will free him from my control? You're wrong. He's mine now and I'll never give him up."

Tatiana bared her incisors and violently shook Carollina's slender body. "He won't do you much good once I've killed you, b.i.t.c.h."

"You can't win, Forester. You've lost him. If you kill me, he will hate you and love me forever. Either way you'll never have him."

"Neither will you, b.i.t.c.h." Eyes blazing, Tatiana spun around in the air. With an angry roar, she tossed Carollina toward the window. Hovering in the air, she brought both clenched hands up from her sides and thrust forward, opening her hands as she did.

Carollina, who had hovered helpless in the air, cried out. Jace! Mike, help me!

Jace watched in dismay as, pushed by an invisible force, Carollina crashed through the window in a shower of broken gla.s.s and aluminum. He heard the sickening thud as her body landed on sold brick several stories below.

Jace...Mike...avenge me, my loves.

"Caro! No!" Unable to swallow his rage, Jace leapt into the air, grabbed Tatiana's ankles and jerked. "You're going to pay for that."

"You are so right."

Jace released Tatiana's ankles and dropped down into a crouch at the sound of the male voice. He only had a moment to locate the blond male Tatiana had told him was important to her before the man brought a loaded crossbow up from his thigh and fired.

"You b.i.t.c.h! You attacked my mistress."

Tatiana, a bolt protruding from her chest, stared at the man with a surprised look on her face. "Tim. Why?" she whispered and crashed to the floor, where she lay unmoving.

"No!" Jace exploded to his feet and raced across the room.

The man turned to him, a look of triumph on his face. "We've avenged our mistress. Let's go see if there's anything we can do to help her."

Roaring with rage, Jace knocked the crossbow he recognized as one of his from the man's hands. Then he spun him around so that the man's back was to his chest. Hooking his elbow around the man's neck, he placed his free palm on the man's head and using all his strength, he tightened his elbow around the man's neck and pulled back against his forehead until he heard the man's neck snap.

Then he tossed the limp body aside and rushed to Tatiana. Tears stung his eyes and bile rose in his stomach at the sight of the widening bloodstain around the bolt protruding from her heart.

He kneeled beside her, gently lifting her head onto his lap. "Tatiana?" He touched her cheek. Her eyelids fluttered but didn't open. "Oh G.o.d, please." He lifted his gaze and stared out into the night. Wilfredo! Wilfredo! I need you. Help me, please!

Dacoda lay on her side in the moonlit cabin bedroom with one of Andrei's arms tossed possessively across her body. He had fallen asleep soon after making love to her for the third time. Although she was tired, she was too excited at the discovery of his rampant s.e.xual hunger for her to sleep.

It was too early to speculate on whether she would be able to maintain his longterm interest. Given that he preferred slender blondes, she decided not to think too much about the future. For now, she planned to fully enjoy each moment with him and hope her feelings for him were enough to rouse a more lasting interest in him.

Maybe... just maybe, the jealousy and rage he'd shown when he found her with Evan at least signaled the possibility that he liked her more than he was prepared to admit. Recalling how he had awakened her that morning by serenading her with a soulful, s.e.xy rendition of You Are So Beautiful, she smiled. He had a sweet baritone that had sent chills down her spine as she listened to him singing a cappella, perfectly on key.

Her smile widened as she remembered turning her head to find a dozen red roses on each nightstand. He had even made her breakfast, which he fed her between deep, moist, p.u.s.s.y-tingling kisses. When she'd asked what he would eat, he had parted her legs and pressed a series of openmouthed kisses against her bare p.u.s.s.y.

Lord, he was the sweetest, most romantic man she'd ever met. Man? She frowned. He was definitely male, but was he a man? Were vampire males considered men?

He stirred at her back. She felt his c.o.c.k against her b.u.t.t and shivered. Even asleep, he made her wet. Who cared what he was considered? She pressed her a.s.s back against his groin, closed her eyes and- Andrei stiffened behind her and then let out a piercing scream that sent a chill of fear through her. She rolled over and looked at him. "Andrei? What is it? What's wrong?"

He bolted up in bed, clutching his bare chest, a look of fear and horror in his blue eyes.

"Andrei!" She shook his arm. "What's wrong?"

He blinked and stared at her, his eyes filling with tears. "It's Tatiana."

"Where?" She cast a quick look around the room before staring at him again.

He pulled away from her and stumbled out of bed.

She sat up and turned on the light. She saw his hands trembling as he pulled on his pants. She climbed out of bed and crossed the room to put her arms around him. "What is it? Please, Andrei, tell me what's wrong?"

He turned and buried his face against her neck, his arms tightening around her, hurting her. "It's...oh, G.o.d! She's been hurt."

"Tat?" She stroked his hair. "How do you know?"

"I know. I felt the blow. It's bad... she's been wounded... in the heart." He pulled away from her. "She's dying. I have to go to her."

She caught her breath. "Dying? But... but how it that possible, Andrei?"

He moved around the room in a blur, s.n.a.t.c.hing up his remaining clothes. Then he flashed from the cabin.

She stood where he'd left her, her heart racing with fear for him and Tat. Moments later, he reappeared in the room and handed her the keys to his SUV. "You take the SUV and drive yourself back."

She clutched his arm. "Just give me a moment and I'll throw on my clothes and come with you."

He shook his head. "I can move faster if I fly."

She blinked at him. "Fly?"

He nodded impatiently. "I have to go."

She tightened her hand on his arm. "If she's hurt, I want to be with her and you."

"She is hurt and it's better if you're not there because there is no power on earth that will prevent me from slaughtering her killer."

Eyes blazing and incisors bared, he raced from the room.

Trembling, she dressed quickly and ran out to the SUV to start the two-hour drive back to Philly. Half an hour into the drive, she realized she had no idea where Tat was, or where Andrei was heading.

Blinking back tears, she pulled over to the side of the road and stopped the SUV. She closed her eyes. Andrei...oh, Andrei.

Jace felt a sudden searing heat fill the room. He looked up. A tall, handsome blond man he recognized as the one Wilfredo had called Lord appeared.

Jace eased Tatiana's head onto the floor, rose and went down on one knee, bowing his head. "My Lord, help her. Please. Help her and I'll spend the rest of my life in your service. I'll do anything...anything. Just please help her."

Before Luc could respond, Wilfredo appeared in the doorway. He saw Luc, dropped to one knee and murmured, "My Lord."

Luc inclined his head, his voice warm. "Santiago...you have begun to remember?"

"Yes, Lord."