I glanced up at Antonio and Luther. "Is there anything that'll make it stop?" I already knew the answer would be no.

"You have to think of it as her body grieving," said Luther. "As vampires, our links with our Sires are based on the exchange of blood that occurred during the creation process. Victor drank her to near death and then fed her his own blood. Her body no longer has a living, breathing blood-link and it is grieving it. Grieving is a process painful, draining, overbearing. It must run its course. For vampires who have ended the life of their own Sire, the agony will be no less than excruciating. I'm told that the pain is bad enough that it makes you want to die."

Jared? She sounded weak but there was something else in her mental voice. Hope, maybe? Hold me still.

What?

Just hold me still.

So I did. I tightened my arms around her until she was as still as I could get her. Then I watched, completely baffled, as she moved one of her hands from my arm to her chest. A slight zing went through her body and then she was limp in my arms mere seconds later.

"What's wrong with her?" Seized by panic, I set her back slightly and examined her body with my eyes. The hand she had against her chest flopped down to her lap, revealing something small lodged there. Holding her securely with one arm, I used my free hand to pluck the little thing out from between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

"Is that a thorn?" asked Antonio.

I laughed a little. "I would never have thought of that."

"What is it?"

"When she was coaching the guys she absorbed Chico's power to exhale poisonous thorns. Thorns that knock you unconscious for a couple of hours."

"Smart," said Luther. "By the time she wakes up the effects of severing the link may well have worn off."

"Perhaps you should teleport her to her apartment," suggested Antonio. "I think it will be better for her to wake in her own bed. Oh and leave her a note to the effect that she should avoid work for the remainder of the night."

Standing upright with her in my arms, I nodded.

In a blink we were in the centre of the living area in her apartment. I'd been curious to know what it was like inside; whether she'd tried to put her own mark on it or whether she'd left it to look like a show-home. With books stacked on the shelves, a bowl of gla.s.s sweets on the little table and a throw hanging over the sofa, it had a homey feel to it.

I noticed the tiny, pink, decorate cushions on the sofa and suspected that Fletcher may have had something to do with them. Sam just didn't seem that girly. It was impossible to not also notice, as I walked en-route to her bedroom, that she wasn't the type that had a specific place for everything. The apartment wasn't disorderly or cluttered, but it wasn't obsessively and freakishly tidy; it was lived in. Like mine.

Unfortunately there was no underwear lying around. Whoa, did I really just wonder about that? Shaking off my perverted thoughts, I laid her carefully down onto her bed and covered her with the satin bedspread.

And now I should probably leave. I really should. I really, really should. Especially since she'd be absolutely irate to wake up and see me sitting here next to her. Yes, I was now sitting next to her. I could stay for a while and then just teleport out the second she woke up though, right? She'd never know I was here.

Tentatively I know, since when was I tentative? I brushed that gorgeous curtain of dark hair away from her face and ran my knuckles from her temple to her jaw. I'm pretty sure that I've never done that to a woman before. Not in my eighteen years as a vampire or in my twenty-four years as a human. But, then, there'd never been anyone like Sam around me in all those years. She intrigued me on every level.

I saw then that I had dried blood on my finger. Her blood. It was all over my shirt too from when she'd had some sort of coughing fit. Well that explained why subconsciously my eyes kept dancing to her throat and why I'd gotten so incredibly thirsty out of nowhere. It was that enchanting scent. Christ, even the potent scent of her blood all over me hadn't been enough to distract me from how worried I was about her.

But as much as I was yearning to taste that blood on my finger right now and had almost brought it to my mouth, I didn't want to taste her until she wanted me to. And she would want me to, I'd make sure of that.

At least now I had a good enough reason that would motivate me to leave; I needed to change out of this shirt that was soaked in her blood before I lost it. Tentatively again the tentativeness! I kissed her forehead and ran my hand through her hair one last time.

It was when I stood upright that I heard her.

Jared.

Of course I had to question whether I'd only heard it because I'd wanted to. And I'd have to question my sanity if things were so bad that I wanted to hear her voice in my head for no good reason.

Jared.

I smiled down on her. They say that when you're unconscious you can still hear and stuff, right? Maybe on some level she'd sensed me around her. Or maybe she was dreaming about me. If it was the second, then I'd be interested to know just what was going on in that dream.

And now, just because I'd heard that husky voice saying my name in my head, I couldn't leave. Sighing in defeat, I shrugged off my leather jacket which I knew she loved a little too much so I wore it all the more and hung it over the wardrobe door that was wide open. A lot of skin-tight stuff in there. Good.Definitely pushed on her by Fletcher though.

I peeled off the b.l.o.o.d.y t-shirt, wiped my hands with it, and balled it up before plonking it in the kitchen bin. Then I lay next to her. Yeah, she was going to crack every one of my ribs for this. It was a good thing that I healed instantly. Keeping a respectable distance between us seemed like the decent thing to do considering that she was unconscious and my hands wanted to wander just like they always did when she was around. So I positioned myself on my back with my arms behind my head, and just watched her sleep...wondering if she'd say my name again.

(Sam) I was in that hazy, faraway state that was one stop away from being awake when I felt the body beside me. A chest that was firm and hard, covered in the softest skin. The scent that flavoured it was spicy and masculine. A scent that I'd know anywhere and happily inhale all day long. So what I did next I did without any real thought; I snuggled into him, laying my head on his shoulder and draping my arm over his chest. G.o.d this was comfortable. And right.

A hand then appeared on my arm, fingers tickling my skin soothingly. Another hand was then in my hair, stroking through a patch of it ever so gently. I sighed, content. The skin-to-skin contact was interesting. A kiss would be nice. Really, really nice.

Opening my eyes, I began to raise my head...and that's when I left the faraway land and found myself totally awake and realised my little predicament. My body immediately tensed. Oh s.h.i.t.

There was rumbling in the chest underneath me and a laugh came soon after. I sat up with the bed sheet more or less glued to me. A second later I registered that I was fully clothed but didn't release the sheet. Gaping, I looked down at a laughing, bare-chested Jared. It was a strain to keep my eyes away from the chest but I did it.

He laughed out the words: "Ah, I wondered how long it'd take before you woke all the way up and realised what you were doing. I bet you hate yourself now. Shame I didn't get a kiss."

"What're you doing in my bed?! In my apartment, for that matter?"

"Relax." He was still laughing.

"And why are you half naked?"

"You got blood all over my shirt, remember?" He sobered up then. "I guess you probably don't. How you feeling? Pain gone?"

"Um, yeah." The words came out quiet. Wow, I'd really killed him. My own Sire.

"After you put yourself unconscious which was good thinking, by the way I brought you here."

"And stayed with me half-naked because...?"

He rolled his eyes. "I was going to go to my room and change but..."

"But, what?"

"You don't wanna know."

I tensed again. "Why don't I want to know? What don't I want to know?"

"Seriously, you'll get embarra.s.sed, you don't want to know."

"No, I really, really do. Cough up."

He sighed and sat up. "I stayed because...you said my name."

"I was unconscious. Unconscious people don't gab."

"Not with their mouths. You must have been dreaming about me or something. Was it a good dream? Kinky? I'll bet it was kinky. Tell me about it, I'll a.n.a.lyse it." His smile and arched brow gave him the most impish look ever.

I knew my cheeks were an unattractive beetroot shade at this point, which just made me even more embarra.s.sed. A change of subject was urgently required. "How long was I out?"

He shrugged. "A couple of hours. Not as long as I'd expected."

"So, what, you just lay there all that time?"

"Yeah," he said quietly. "I don't think I've ever seen anyone in that much pain. I don't think I've ever met anyone who killed their Sire either."

A little guilt nipped at me then. My Sire. I'd killed my own Sire. Victor had been right about one thing; he'd made me...And I'd just gone and killed my maker.

"Hey," said Jared as he gently pinched my chin with his thumb and forefinger. "Don't go feeling bad about it. He deserved it. I know they say not to speak ill of the dead but that Victor was one evil son of a b.i.t.c.h. Did he really try to make you want him? As in, like, desire him?" I nodded. "So he could make you h.o.r.n.y, make you want to have s.e.x with him?"

"It's his idea of foreplay. Was. But it was the only way he could ever get me in that bed."

"That's sick. It's basically psychological rape."

Now I didn't feel so guilty. But I was still surprised at myself. I hadn't hesitated in killing my own Sire. Antonio didn't need my protection. He had enough by the way of guards and two Pit Bulls. But it had been like a reflex to protect him. I hadn't even realised I liked the bloke all that much. I tended to get along best with outgoing people, and Antonio wasn't exactly the life and soul of the party.

But he'd freed me from a crazy, cruel, psychological rapist. To think I'd come so close to folding under all the pressurizing emotions... "By the way, what did you say to Victor? I was almost about to snap, and you said something to him telepathically that made him lose all focus on me."

"Oh I, um, told him that I didn't want him to take you back because I wanted to screw you a couple more times first."

My jaw dropped. "You made him think you'd been s.h.a.gging me?"

"It distracted him, didn't it?"

I sighed, conceding that he was right. "G.o.d, I'm thirsty." In the time I'd taken to sling the bedspread off me, Jared had moved with vampire speed to the fridge and back again; now sitting beside me with a red grape flavoured NST. "Thanks," I muttered, a little taken aback. Feeling unbelievably drained, I gulped down the drink. My stomach felt better within seconds but my body had the enthusiasm of a decaying leaf.

"Antonio said to tell you to take the rest of the night off. And I really think you should, you look half dead."

"But then the squad will end up having another evening of lounging around."

"I won't let them lounge, I'll have them repeat the training they were doing with me earlier. Then tomorrow you can blast them into the railings again if they don't turn up at the arena."

"They'd better."

His chuckle was silent. He stared at me for a minute. Not as though he had something to say, but as though it was perfectly normal to just stare at someone. I didn't know how he could be so at ease about it. Before I could comment, he bounced off the bed and retrieved his leather jacket that was hanging over the wardrobe door. My treacherous set of eyes scrolled down from his face to get an eyeful of the lines, curves and sinews of his chest.

Jared I couldn't have expected him to not notice really, could I? raised a brow.

There was really no point in trying to deny it or letting myself fall into a pit of embarra.s.sment, especially when ogling was a favourite past-time of his too. "You look."

"Hey, I don't mind you looking. When you're ready to stop pretending you don't want to do more than that, let me know."

"Will do," I said sarcastically.

Losing his light-hearted air, he sighed as he gazed down at me. "You really don't look great."

"Thanks."

"Take some energy from me."

"What?"

He sat on the bed and repeated, "Take some energy from me. I know you can easy absorb the natural energy around you but it can't be as good for your body as energy from a living thing." He was right. The human body was like a battery. "Come on, the process of severing the link between you and Victor probably sapped nearly every last bit of your energy."

Shaking my head, I told him, "It's okay, but thanks."

"You must have done it before to someone."

I nodded. "Yeah...but it's weird."

"Weird how?"

"Well...you know when you're really thirsty, for any fluid, and you start swigging down a drink but you keep going even when you're not really thirsty anymore just because it feels so good and soothing against your throat?"

"Yeah. Don't tell me you get, like, an energy-l.u.s.t?" He smiled at that.

"I've been known to take more than I need to. I could wipe you out, you'd be just as exhausted as I am now."

"I won't let you wipe me out."

"You won't stop me, you won't want me to stop. It's almost like when you're drinking blood... It won't make you h.o.r.n.y, but it'll make you feel a bit high."

"Really? Go for it then. I'm way too intrigued to let this go. How do you do it?"

"Well, you don't have much excess energy around you so the best and quickest way to do it would be for me to put my hands on your head, but that'll probably make you dizzy."

"That's okay."

I didn't like the idea of repaying him by sending him off all wobbly. "You sure you want to do this?"

"Sam, just do it."

"Hands." I held out mine, palms facing upwards, and he took them. "Right. You don't have to do anything, but it'll work better if you don't resist when you feel the pull."

"I won't," he a.s.sured me in a whisper as he twined his fingers in mine and shuffled closer to me.

"When I say stop, you have to pull away or the connection won't totally break." I didn't actually need to close my eyes, but I did. It was just too distracting to look at him when he was doing that obvious staring thing. It felt as though my entire body was a lung as it sucked in his energy as if it was vapour. Instantly Jared shuddered, but he didn't resist.

Sam. It was a gasp of pleasant surprise; it felt good to him already.

Hungry for more of that force, my body drew in more and more. I felt Jared's hands tighten on my fingers and then his forehead was suddenly pressed against mine. I opened my eyes to find that his own were closed. I could feel what he was feeling; that he was outside of reality, that he was at peace, thatnothing else mattered but this moment. Well he was certainly enjoying himself.

It was as my body began to grow desperate for more of his energy that I knew I had to stop it was like heading toward a cliff at high speed, knowing that if you stopped now you'd be okay but if you kept upping that speed... "Stop."

I tried to pull my hands away but Jared held them even tighter. "No, don't stop."

"I have to." But his hold was unyielding. "Jared, you have to let go." But he didn't, he wasn't even having some sort of inner struggle about whether to release my hands or not. He was completely caught up in the feeling. I thought about b.u.t.ting him but in his state of bliss the pain wouldn't even register.