Were they in the training arena waiting for me? No. Not even one of them. Were they all plonkers as well?

I ventured around the squads' grounds, but there was no sign of any of them. Nor were they in the gymnasium or training with the other squads in the rainforests or even lounging lazily at the beach. After twenty minutes of wandering aimlessly, I tried the canteen. There they were having a freaking food fight. Yes, they really were plonkers as well.

"Oi!" I hollered. "There better be a very good reason why you're all in here instead of in the training arena."

Some of them sighed, some of them whined, some of them snorted, and the others whistled as they suddenly found the decor to be fascinating.

"Well?" I demanded.

"Easy there, Commander," said Max the Slap-head. "It's nothing personal, okay, we just don't think we need tutoring on our powers. Commander Michaels told us that usually when squads are a.s.sembled the recruits' gifts are raw so they need a lot of training. We were selected for having such good control of our gifts already seen as Antonio needs us ready soon. So Commander Michaels said it's up to us whether we go to training with you or not."

"I'll bet he did," I said through gritted teeth. I so wanted to put Jared on his backside again.

Max flashed me a flirtatious smile. "Why don't you come and join us, me and you could -"

"Don't even finish that sentence, Slap-head."

"Hey, I told you, call me Max."

"While you're being a w.a.n.ker, you're Slap-head." I glanced around the ten blokes. "So that's how you all feel?" Again I was talking through my teeth.

There were nods and yes's.

"It's lucky for you lot that right now I'm fuming more with Commander Michaels than I am with all you, but I'm warning you now and don't take this lightly if you're not at the training arena tomorrow I swear to G.o.d I'll put every one of you on your lazy a.r.s.es."

I could have kicked their backsides right this minute, but all I could think about was snapping Jared in half. It was one thing to mislay the files or other menial c.r.a.p like that, but it was another thing altogether to undermine my authority to the recruits. Besides, kicking their backsides wouldn't make them think of me as an authority figure while they were in this mentality.

Lucky for me but terribly unfortunate for him, Jared was in the office fumbling through papers when I entered. Enraged to the point of feeling homicidal, I hadn't even bothered bidding Fletcher hi. "What do you think you're playing at?" I growled loudly at Jared as I barged in.

Even though he had his face down in the papers, I could see his mouth twitching as he strained to contain a giggle. Oh he knew what this was about, and he'd been looking forward to this dispute. "Training session not go well?"

"You think you're being clever? You think it's funny?"

"Sorry, Sam, but I've no idea what you're -"

Sucking the energy around me into my palms I sent a gust of wind at him, blowing the papers from his hands. "You look at me while I'm talking to you."

He looked up. "I wouldn't call this talking."

"You told them they didn't have to come to training!"

"That's not what I said. I told the guys that I thought they had good control of their gifts and that if they didn't think they needed extra training then that was up to them, they're mature enough to decide for themselves."

"Mature? Know where they were? The canteen, having a food fight! You gonna try to tell me they're models of maturity?"

His mouth curved into a smile; he didn't even try to hide it.

"You know, I expected you to make things difficult but I really didn't think you'd go as far as to undermine my authority like that. Now is not the time for fun and games, The Hollow's walls are going to be attacked! Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

"I already told you that I didn't think I needed your help, you already knew that."

"Is this still about your pride? After what you did today you shouldn't have any."

"Look, Sam, here's how you've got to look at it: if the guys had respected your authority then it wouldn't have mattered what I said to undermine it, they'd have been in that arena waiting for you. If you can't control them enough to even get them to show up then you've got no chance of managing them in a training arena."

I took a long breath. "You're right. They don't respect my authority. They respect you more than they respect me."

"Yeah."

"Then that leaves me only one option."

"What's that?"

"I'll just have to whip you silly so they see exactly who they should respect." Instantly I absorbed the energy around me and moulded it into my energy whip.

Jared raised his arms, palms out. "Now, Sam, hang on a minute."

"Fletcher!" I called out.

Looking like a bag of nerves, he peeked through the door. "Yes?"

"Shut that door and lock it."

"Right, luv," he said nervously.

As soon as I heard the telling click I began to run my whip through my fingers, enjoying the feel of the energy buzzing against my skin.

"Sam, don't do this."

"Why Commander Michaels? You f.u.c.ked me over. You don't want equality in this business relationship. I'm giving you what you want just not the way around that you were hoping for." I cracked the whip at him, catching his bottom lip.

"Sod of a b.i.t.c.h," he cursed, wiping at the blood just before the wound healed.

I cracked the whip again, catching his left ear.

"Sam, stop! I don't want to fight you again."

"Well you're gonna." The whip split the top of his right ear open this time.

"Sam." The word dripped with warning.

I snickered and lashed the whip again. He yelped as it ripped through the sleeve of his top and sliced the skin of his forearm. His expression said fine then'.

A spray of electric sparks abruptly came at me from shaking fingers. I held my palm out straight, slamming a protective shield in place. The sparks bounced back at Jared but he leapt in the air and did a perfect summersault over me. However by the time he had landed on his feet I was facing him with an energy ball in hand. He ducked, making the ball hit the filing cabinet behind him.

My wrists suddenly sizzled with pain; Jared had gripped them tight and was sending electric shocks through my hands and up my arms. Which would have been clever had it not been for the fact that the source of my gift wasn't my hands; they were just my preferred outlet. Closing my eyes I inhaled deeply, concentrating hard on breathing in the energy around me, and I then whistled out a current of air strong enough to send him crashing into the already broken filing cabinets. Again he cursed at me.

In less than the time it took me to blink, Jared was behind me pinning my arms to my sides. I realised he had teleported himself there. Not as clever as he'd thought it was. I absorbed more energy into my palms and then wiggled my trapped arms enough to allow my hands to slide behind my back. If it had been anyone but Jared I might have felt guilty about what I was about to do, but I was sick of him being so s.e.xist, sick of the way he looked down on me, and sick of how I still found him to be the most gorgeous bloke I'd ever seen. I slapped my hands over his crotch and emitted the energy I'd absorbed in the form of boiling heat.

Jared cried out and released me. When I turned he was on all fours, coughing and making noises that were a mixture of pain and total aggravation. Finally he peered up at me, his irises red. I expected him to try to electrocute me again, or curse at me, or growl at me, or maybe even strike me. Instead, he abruptly grabbed my leg and yanked. Suddenly I was lying on my back, my head the only thing not connecting with the floor, being slid toward him. And then he was on top of me and his mouth had closed over mine.

I might have fought him if there hadn't been a blast of heat inside me the very second that his lips touched mine. And then bang; self-control gone.Conscious thought gone. Rest of the world gone. All I was aware of was this moment.

The kiss was hungry, dominant, possessive, demanding everything from me. His hands slithered into my hair and tugged and pulled, causing the sweetest pain. Each time his tongue stroked mine the heat just intensified until my whole body was burning. The feel of him was entirely too much but at the same time was nowhere near enough. I slid my arms around his neck and pulled him tighter against me and he growled into my mouth.

It had been so long, too long, since anyone had touched me like this. But nothing in my vampire life or my human life came remotely close to this moment. His hips rocked against mine, feeding the ache that was ruling my body and making me arch into him. And, G.o.d, the way he was kissing me...It was like he was claiming me, and the kiss just kept deepening and deepening, taking me down to a place where nothing but Jared and the feel of him mattered. I was ready to moan in protest when his lips left mine, but then they began to kiss their way down my throat and my body practically turned to liquid.

Sam, I heard in my head as he sc.r.a.ped his teeth over the pulse in my neck. I want you.

And G.o.d I wanted him too, but suddenly I had the sensation of someone splashing cold water on me and of another voice in my head. A browbeating voice. My conscience. Then a face flashed in my mind and I remembered that none of this should feel right.

"Joy." That was all I managed to say. I breathed it more than I said it. I might see her as a twig-witch, but Jared was her boyfriend and here I was kissing him while she was wherever she was, none the wiser. That was so unlike me, but reason and rationality had just gone the second his lips united with mine.

"She's just a consort," he said against my neck, kissing it attentively. "I'm not committed to her, just like I'm not committed to Daniela or Tammy."

Daniela and Tammy? There wasn't just Joy? I didn't know what was worse; the idea of sleeping with someone who I thought was already claimed, or the idea of sleeping with someone who would consider me nothing more than a notch on his already very busy bedpost.

He must have felt me tense beneath him because his mouth paused. "Sam?"

"Sounds like your dance card is already full." I wriggled under him and pushed on his chest. Reluctantly he moved away.

He was gazing at me incredulously as we stood facing each other. "I don't get it."

Blokes! If he was a woman he'd be considered a bit of a s.l.u.t, but apparently because he was a bloke it was completely normal and acceptable. "I suppose you probably don't."

"Look, if you're offended that I haven't asked you to be one of my consorts yet then, believe me, I was going to ask. I've wanted you since I first saw you." He said it as though I should be so unbelievably flattered that I'd be bouncing on the spot with excitement like someone who had just won X-Factor.

"Well then you won't like this: the answer's no'."

"You are definitely one of the most confusing women I've ever met in my entire human and vampire years." His tone didn't suggest this was a bad thing.

"Seriously, Jared, did you honestly expect to hear yes, yes, a thousand times yes' to being a live-in prost.i.tute who does it for free, to make things more insulting." I waved him away from me. "If you're h.o.r.n.y, you have three women on call for s.e.x for whenever you need them so you know where to go."

"You want me, I want you. I don't see what they have to do with what just happened. They're just consorts. They don't even share my apartment with me. They share a separate one together."

That made me laugh.

"What?"

"It's just the idea of it. You having three women all living together just waiting for you to come along and have s.e.x with them at your leisure, probably all at the same time. I'm actually offended that you think I'd be up for anything like that. Well, I don't work well as part of a group, sorry."

"Lots of vampires have consorts."

"I know," I said bitterly.

"You were one," he realised.

"I won't be again. If I slept with you when you're the kind of person who has three women at your beck and call for s.e.x then I'd feel no better than them."

Jared ran a hand through his chestnut hair, releasing a breath with a long puff. "Sam, I -"

"Let's just not talk about it anymore, alright. It would have been stupid to s.h.a.g when we've got to work together anyway."

Jared shrugged. "Okay, we won't talk about it."

I nodded and paced toward the door. Just as I reached it, I heard Jared's voice in my head.

But you'll still want me. And I'll still want you. That won't change.

Life's full of changes, I replied as Fletcher unlocked the office door and I waltzed out.

(Jared) A loud grunt escaped me when I sank into my office chair. I looked around the office at the mess that the scuffle, to put it lightly, had left in its path. Broken cabinets. Cracks in the plaster of the walls. Doc.u.ments scattered everywhere.

Then my gaze fell on the spot on the floor where only moments ago I'd had Sam underneath me; my mouth on hers, my hands in her hair, teasing her tongue with my own, and tasting her skin. I'll never know how I managed to reign myself in and not skate my hands over every single part of her; my control had completely shred when that blast of heat circulated through me on just kissing her. It'd felt even better than I'd imagined it would. She had felt even better than I'd imagined.

Then she had pushed me away.

Obviously she'd had to put up with a lot of s.h.i.t from her Sire that got me p.i.s.sed. Sure it made sense that she wouldn't want to be another consort if things had been that c.r.a.p in the past. But I had the feeling that there was more to it than that. The emotion in her voice...It was like she didn't like that I hadconsorts and didn't want there to be anyone else. Could it actually be that she wanted me to herself? Maybe. I wouldn't want to share her with anyone else whether it was casual s.e.x or not.

Internally I slapped myself, wanting to stop stressing over a woman and hoping to just blank it all out for now. But I could still smell her on me. Still feel the burning that the heat of the moment had left behind. Still taste her skin on my tongue. And I knew then that I'd never be able to be around her without wanting her. Not great.

(Sam) f.u.c.k. t.w.a.t. s.h.i.t. c.r.a.p. b.o.l.l.o.c.ks.

Each profanity burst through my mind as I clambered out of bed. I'd only been awake for ten seconds and a flashback of what had happened with Jared was all over me! Wasn't everything supposed to feel better and clearer after a good sleep? If that was a rule, I was clearly an exception to it.

Two red grape flavoured NSTs later and I still felt like I'd spontaneously self-combust any second now. Maybe I should go back to bed. It's not like the recruits had any intention of showing up at the arena anyway. I'd then have to set their backsides alight and I seriously doubted that Antonio would be okay with that.

Three pounding knocks on the door made me jump. "Sam, luv, it's me."

Fletcher. If anyone was capable of pulling me out of my irate state it was Fletch with his relaxed personality and funny ways. I opened the door to find him stood there with his hands on his hips and an eyebrow arched. "Um-hmm."

"What?"

"I knew you'd procrastinate," he said as he shrugged past me and marched through the apartment. Not exactly the relaxed, humorous bloke I was expecting.

Confused, I raced after him and found him in my bedroom flicking through one of my now full wardrobes. I'd unpacked my bags last night in pretty much a daze so I doubted that it was well organised.

Seconds later Fletcher thrust an outfit into my arms. "Dressed, lady, now."

"I'm quite capable of picking myself something to wear, thanks. And since when do you have this right to order me about?"

"Since you and Jared had a fumble and you now want to hide in your room." His expression dared me to deny it.

"We did not have a fumble. It was just a kiss."

"So that's why you're so uptight? You didn't actually get to the fumbling."

"I'm not uptight." We both giggled since my tone had contradicted my words. "Believe me when I say that I do not want a fumble with Jared, I think he's a s.e.xist pig."