She sighed as she recalled his touch. Never before had Adara l.u.s.ted after a man so completely. Andnever in her life had she received, not to mention performed, oral s.e.x on a man she'd just met. Sheflushed, but grinned slightly as she realized she now belonged with the bad girls who wrote in to ChicVenture about their 'dirtiest deeds'.

She couldn't imagine James and Marci being so bold, she thought with a huge grin. But at thoughts of James, her mind shifted to Meg Cabot. Her instincts humming, she wondered just why in the past few months so many women had disappeared from this area of the country. Sure, over the past few years there had been instances of women disappearing in record numbers, all apparently beautiful but with surprising secret lives. But things had been rather quiet for the past year.

Adara shook her head. That was a story for Sue, she thought with a grin. Sue had been completely forthcoming about all of her details with John the day following their excursion into Vampland. She made what Adara and Trey had done look like harmless foreplay. Of course, Adara had told Sue that nothing had happened. Sue had believed her. After all, Adara didn't do things like that, never had, and to Sue's mind, never would.

Adara shook her head. At least Sue's story and the tour of Vampland had been great for her first article. She'd gone so far as to use some of Sue's experiences in article one, but didn't want to give it all away and s.p.a.ced out the more juicy details for the next few articles. She'd changed names and some details, using her imagination to fill in other blanks.

She sighed and sat back, needing a gla.s.s of water. Suddenly she felt very thirsty.

Adara moved to the kitchen and guzzled a gla.s.s of water, then quickly grabbed another. Yet still she felt thirsty. She blinked and stumbled when a vision a.s.saulted her. She moaned as she struck the floor, remembering that it had been twenty years since she'd last been hit so hard.

In her mind's eye, she watched as a woman, a svelte brunette in a crotch length skirt and hooker heels, fired into a crowded room. Blood splattered the room and bodies fell over like dominoes. The woman then looked into her purse for a mirror and dropped the gun, putting on her lipstick as the police arrived to take her away.

Adara blinked and was about to get up when another vision hit her, this one darker and more vivid.

She watched as the woman, Brenda something, walked around her cell, pacing like a caged tiger. She tossed her long brown hair, her lewd mouth cracking at the guard serving her dinner. She tossed the plate back at the guard and threw herself onto her cot.

The room darkened to night and the women in the cell next to Brenda fell into sleep. Brenda lay half asleep herself when suddenly a large man covered her. He whispered something Adara couldn't hear and she watched as he pulled the woman to her feet. The woman didn't struggle, merely stood like a weed waving in the breeze. As if aware of Adara's stare, the man looked over his shoulder and Adara gasped in recognition. Trey Blackthorne blinked remorsefully, as if saddened that he recognized her. But then he turned back to the woman in the cell. With astonishingly long nails that crooked like talons, he rent the top half of the jumper from her body, baring Brenda half-naked, her white skin shining in the darkness.

Trey bent his head and grazed one of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s with his mouth, a thin trail of blood seeping down her body when he lifted his head. The woman sighed blissfully and tugged him closer as if she enjoyed his touch. Then he raised his head and stared down at her. He spoke in a soft language Adara could not understand and the woman shook her head slowly.

Then all gentleness left him and he roughly bent her head to expose her neck, his hand gripping her hair in a tight fist. He bent his head to her neck and Adara watched in astonishment as his teeth lengthened, their bright points impossibly white before they plunged into Brenda's neck. She watched in horrified fascination as he sucked ravenously, soft sounds of need echoing in the dark cell.

Brenda's body seemed to grow blacker, the white of her skin speckled under a shower of darkness as the vampire fed on her. When Brenda stood completely enshrouded in a black glaze, Trey let go of her neck, his teeth fitting neatly back into his mouth. He watched as Brenda sighed, her eyes closed. Her body suddenly shimmered into a dim glow until the blackness that had overtaken her body returned to envelop her. Adara thought she heard a vague shriek as a sudden flash of light popped. And then all was silent.

Chapter Five.

Adara blinked and stared at her hardwood floor in confusion. Then her vision came back to her and her eyes widened in fear. She had to get out of here, she thought wildly as she hastily got to her feet. She believed in what she saw, knew the truth in her psychic gift.

"Oh, my G.o.d," she said aloud as she hurriedly threw a duffle bag onto her bed and threw clothes into it haphazardly. Trey Blackthorne was a vampire, a blood-sucking s.e.xual creature that had done something decidedly wrong in that prison cell. The woman, Brenda, had completely burned up or vanished, popped out of existence, Adara thought worriedly. And somehow Trey had seen her--Adara--watching it all.

She quickly zipped her bag and stuffed her laptop and folders into her briefcase. Then grabbing everything, she hurried to the front door and threw it open.

"Going somewhere?" Trey asked with a bland expression, his large frame looming dangerously in her dark doorway. Adara dropped her bags and backed away. But she gasped as he stepped over her door.

"I didn't invite you in," she said. "You're not invited," she repeated firmly, remembering the old vampiremyths, her panic growing. "You can't come in!"

"But I'm special," Trey said quietly and closed the door behind him, locking it with an ominous click. "Idon't need an invitation."

He stalked her, moving noiselessly over her hard flooring.

"What do you want?" Adara asked, trying to think of a way to stop him. Vampire, he's a vampire, she told herself. She nimbly leapt towards her bedroom, locking the door behind her. Adara raced to her jewelry box even as she heard the doork.n.o.b rattle.

Finally, she thought as she clutched the cross in her hands. The door shot open, the lock clearly broken, and Trey stared at her with disappointment.

"I expected better from you, Adara. You're different," he said shaking his head. He moved closer to her when she thrust her crucifix at him.

"Stay back," she said fearfully.

Trey reached out and gently enfolded the crucifix and her fist in his hand. Adara gasped.

"Shouldn't you be smoking or something?" she asked.

Trey's gaze widened, a hint of humor flashing in the serious depths of his eyes. "You watch too muchtelevision, Adara. No, love," he said softly, his stare impossibly intense as he watched her. "I'm on Hisside," he said and held the cross out to her.

She shook her head, her dark brown eyes deepening to black as she studied him, confused. "But I saw you kill a woman tonight." As she heard herself say this, her brain suddenly pieced together the strange mystery of the vanishing women over the last few months. She gasped. "It was you all along." She swallowed audibly. "You murdered all those women."

Trey shook his head. "And I thought those with the Sight were gypsies dressed in long skirts and bangles," he replied, staring down at her curiously. "How did you see me there tonight?" he asked, not commenting on her accusations.

Adara merely watched him, seeking a way to escape. She wondered if any of this was real. Prior images of Trey's raw s.e.xuality and care with her mixed with the violence of this night. She didn't know what to believe.

Trey watched Adara with something akin to compa.s.sion. "Adara, please sit down and let me explain what I can," he offered in a quiet voice. Something about this woman called to him and he couldn't let her see him as he did, as a monster. Seeing little choice for herself, Adara quickly sat as far away from him on the bed as she could get.

"I'm a vampire," he began. "This you know. I was born a vampire, but of mortal parents. It's a very odd circ.u.mstance." He saw her eyes widen and knew she hung on his every word. "Whether I live to pay back the sins of my ancestors or am destined to make right a wrong I once committed in another life, I cannot know.

"It is an existence I have come to hate. I used to only feel the urges to feed, to survive. But lately the urges are stronger, more intense. The blood is not enough. And the only thing more I can do to quench those urges is to find release in s.e.xual pleasure," he said in a husky voice, his eyes roaming her curvy body, remembering everything about her smell, her taste.

"The hunger is impossible to resist, the darkness a lure that beckons the most stalwart and n.o.ble of fools," he said with a bitter curve to his mouth. His eyes stared into hers, his an inky black that seemed to have no ending and no beginning.

"Lately, Adara, things have changed. More and more I see the blackness of those I am sworn to destroy. I can do no other than send them back where they belong."

Adara stared at him and he wondered what moved through her mind. "You see the blackness around them, literally? Like a projection or an aura?"

"Yes."

She paused a moment. "Is my soul black?" she asked quietly.

"No," he said, his hunger growing as her colors swirled and blazed around her. "Yours is unlike any other I've seen. It's a rainbow of light," he said and stared at her, looking at her fully. Even now his body listened and matched her heartbeat, needing to feel her around him, sheathing him in her warmth.

"So you're not here to kill me?" she asked, her voice wavering. He could tell she tried to appear brave but the violence she'd seen this night had truly shaken her. He wished it could have been otherwise, but perhaps she had needed to see the truth. But could she reconcile that he was the same man who only nights before had taken her to ecstasy?

"No, Adara," he purred, trying to soothe her with his voice. He watched as she shivered under his words, her nipples hardening into small beads of want. His eyes lingered there, needing more from Adara tonight, much more.

"Adara, I need you more than you can know," he admitted, his body hardening and begging him to take her.

"For what?" she asked, licking her lips nervously.

"Adara," he murmured and closed the distance between them. She froze under his touch, but he did nomore than stroke her arms, her neck. "You don't understand, love. I don't like what I have to do, whatyou saw tonight. But I must. For the first time tonight, however, I didn't need to take from the womans.e.xually." Adara's eyes blazed and he wondered if she could possibly have felt what he suspected.Jealousy? He shook his head. No, impossible.

"Why not?" she asked, moving slightly. Her breast brushed against his forearm and she gasped.

"Because of you, Adara," Trey said in a low voice. "You sated me the other night, more than I'd ever thought possible." His breath quickened as the memories a.s.saulted him. "You took me in your mouth and sent me as close to heaven as I've ever been," he said huskily. He reached down and unsnapped his trousers, freeing his engorged and throbbing member to her gaze.

"Trey," her voice wavered. "What are you doing?" she asked in confusion. Yet Trey could see she knew exactly what he wanted from her, what he needed. Her own l.u.s.t warred with her sense of right and wrong, and he knew he wouldn't last until she figured out the truth.

"You want me, Adara," he said as he stared into her eyes. "And you need me. Just as I need you. Your light shimmers and beckons to me, even as my darkness cries out to you." He stroked himself and watched as her breathing quickened. "Touch me, Adara. Touch me the way you want to. Forget about everything but the hunger raging in you," he whispered seductively.

He watched with narrowed eyes as Adara reached out, enthralled by his voice and his close body. She hadn't fought overmuch and Trey felt supreme satisfaction knowing she wanted him almost as much as he desired her.

Her hand wrapped around his erection and he closed his eyes in wonder. He hadn't imagined the pure feeling her touch evoked. Her small hand moved over him, her grip tight and purposeful as she stroked him.

"Ah, Adara," he said with a sigh. "What you do to me." He reached out and opened his eyes, quickly doing away with her clothing and his until nothing stood between them but air.

She continued to work him with her hand and Trey groaned his pleasure. Then he moved forward and kissed her hard on the mouth, bringing their bodies together. She gasped at the contact and Trey stopped her hand, worried at how fast and how close he came to o.r.g.a.s.m.

He wanted to savor this night, no matter that he forced her into it. Another mark against his soul, he thought tiredly. And though he knew it was selfish, he couldn't help the utter need that coursed through him at the thought of the fulfillment she would give him and he would most certainly give her.

Trey brought her body down on the bed and leaned over her, his mouth still kissing her ripe lips. His tongue slipped into her moist mouth, touching her teeth and mingling with her tongue. And while he caressed her lightly with his tongue, he slid his body over hers, grazing her hard nipples, his p.e.n.i.s rubbing erotically over her dark curls, parting her thighs only to rub between them, tormenting himself even as he brought forth her frustration.

She moved against him. "Trey," she whispered when he finally freed her mouth. "I need you in me." She trembled as he thrust between her thighs, his erection sliding in and out of the warmth there, made even smoother by the wetness of her body that coated him. But still he remained outside of her core, outside of her tight sheath.

"No, Adara," Trey said thickly. "Not tonight. I want to love you in your entirety," he whispered against her ear. "I want to feel your breast in my mouth, your c.l.i.toris full and near to bursting when I put my mouth over it. I need to feel all of you warm and wet before you come all over me," he said, his breath heaving as he aroused both of them with his words.

Then he bent his head to her neck, tempting himself with her warm scent. He could see her pulse beating, crying out to him. His fangs lengthened considerably, his body nearing her wet v.a.g.i.n.a, the tip of his p.e.n.i.s dipping in just slightly.

She moaned and urged him forward and Trey moved further inside of her. Then he stopped and forced himself to withdraw, at a great cost to his willpower. She was destroying any control he had, her hunger almost overwhelming his own. Trey swore and trailed his mouth past her pulse down to her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

He pressed his hard length along her thigh, unable to stop himself from stroking against her. And as he did, he drew his mouth down to her breast, to the taut cherry nipple awaiting his caress. With great skill, he suckled at her breast while his hand toyed with the other aroused peak. Adara moaned and arched into his touch, her hands running through his hair making him sigh with need.

"So good," he murmured as his lips left her breast. He blew a soft breath against her nipple, watched it harden even more and groaned. Then he kissed her again, this time his teeth nipping lightly at her, drawing a thin trail of blood. He had given her pleasure in his touch and she felt no pain at the bloodletting, only a further sense of ecstasy as he sucked from her.

Chapter Six.

The taste of her sweet blood on his tongue as Adara's naked body pressed into his was almost too much for Trey. He forced himself to let her go and sealed the small pinp.r.i.c.k on her nipple. Then he suckled at her other breast, his mouth quickening as his body pushed towards completion.

She continued to arch into him, her lithe body hungry for his own. Trey's lips trailed over her tight stomach, lingering at her navel, wanting desperately to bite into the tender, fruitful flesh but resisting.

"Oh, Trey," Adara moaned. "I want you so," she said and gasped as his mouth blew over her wet arousal. He parted her soft curls and pushed her thighs further apart. And then, memory repeated itself as his mouth moved over her c.l.i.toris, teasing the nub into a hard little pebble.

Adara cried out his name as he brought her so close to fulfillment. His mouth and tongue flicked at her, tasting her, and she almost came as his tongue suddenly darted into her moist corridor, but not getting far enough inside. She writhed beneath him, her thighs cradling his head as he groaned, sucking her deeper into his vortex of desire.

"Trey, please," she begged and felt less than relief when his head rose, his blazing eyes meeting hers. A red haze seemed to cover his eyes as he stared at her, his need never more apparent than now.

He rose over her and she looked down to see his thick p.e.n.i.s throbbing over her, moisture beading at the tip. She wanted to taste him again, wanted to feel him in her mouth, but Adara knew neither could wait that long. Then he settled over her, nudging her thighs wider with his knee.

He poised above her wet entrance, staring down at her. "Adara, I will take you to places you've never been," he said thickly as he bore down on her. His mouth covered hers and then he thrust deeply inside of her, not slow now but moving like a man possessed. Adara gasped, her breath stolen by the man devouring her. He felt so large inside of her, so big and empowering as he moved deeply towards her womb.

But he wouldn't be still, his body too charged to stop. He withdrew his entire length and returned smoothly back down into her, grinding his body over hers. Adara cried out as he continued to thrust his entire length into her. He consumed her, his large body priming hers as his tongue mated with hers, his p.e.n.i.s thrusting over and over again into her wet body, sliding through her honeyed cream with exquisite friction.

"Oh, Trey," Adara said as he released her mouth, his breath coming faster and faster as he moved over her. And then she felt her world come apart as his body rubbed her swollen c.l.i.toris roughly once more. Adara screamed and pulsed, her body drawing him in as her contractions of pleasure overwhelmed her.

At her first cry, Trey said something she couldn't understand. Then he buried his face into her neck and plunged his teeth into her skin, the slight pain increasing her pleasure as Adara came again around him.

Trey sucked on her and groaned as his body exploded into light, into feeling, his o.r.g.a.s.m bursting forth as he shot his hot seed into her. His mouth continued to move over her as he thrust inside of her, his body shuddering under her wet clenching. And as he continued to suck her blood, Adara felt herself go lightheaded, completely undone from the intense pleasure.

Trey finally stopped moving inside of her and released her neck, licking at the small drops of blood that escaped. He trembled as his tongue met her salty skin and he sank onto her body for a moment, almost crushing her under his weight.

Then he sighed and rolled over, bringing her atop his body.

"Adara," he said hoa.r.s.ely, his breath still coming fast and furious, his hard member still inside of her. He gently withdrew and Adara moaned his loss. "You give me such pleasure," he said and hugged her to him.

Adara leaned up on her elbows and looked down at him sleepily. She felt more relaxed than she ever had in her life. Something in her mind told her that she ought to protest something, but too tired to do more than rest, she closed her eyes and listened to the steady thrumming of Trey's heart as she succ.u.mbed to sleep.

Trey lay beneath her for several hours, cursing himself for taking her against her will and yet congratulating himself for finally doing what he had wanted to since he first saw her. He had never imagined that he could feel so good after mating and taking blood from a woman.