The door closed behind him, but not before Jinx caught it and entered quickly to let it close and lock automatically.

Canzone faced Jinx, a calm expression on his face, but his hand gripped his empty gla.s.s too tightly. "What now?"

Jinx had the wisdom to defer carefully to his employer.

"An update, sir, and, uh, it's not good. All of the docks are under surveillance. Nothing obvious, but we know they are. L.A.P.D. is riding you now."

Drawing a long slow breath, Canzone stepped deeper into the room furnished with six computer desks and six state-of-the-art computers.

Setting the gla.s.s on one of the desks, he whispered, barely audibly, "One, two, three," and released a long measured sigh. "So, go get her. You kept her under surveillance, right?"

"Yeah, but there are cops all around the area where she and Huerta are staying."

"Huerta's with her? Splendid. Your a.s.signment is as follows. Jinx, this is your last chance, you understand? Don't mess it up. Once you find them, bring her to me, to the white room, unharmed, if possible, sc.r.a.ped-up is okay if she fights. But don't kill her. Huerta. Him, you kill. Make sure she sees it if you can. If that can't be arranged, get video. I'll make her watch. Don't come back to me until it's done. Now get the f.u.c.k out of here; I'm having a party."

Jinx nodded, and with an awkward bow, left quickly, the door repeating its action of automatically closing and locking.

Canzone wandered to the window and watched the city spread before him. At night, like this, the smog defrayed enough to let him enjoy the sparkling city lights. It was lovely.

Then he turned and shoved one of the computers off of a desktop, smashing it beyond repair.

Why, why did she have to push him?

Mal had fallen asleep on the sofa, and woke sharply, startled. Had she been snoring? Maybe, but she had been having that delicious dream again.

Moaning as the memory returned, she felt a sensation against her thighs, delicious, sensual, erotic. The dream?

No, she knew she was awake. But the sensation persisted. As her eyes opened, the first thing she saw was the top of her dream lover's head, the long shiny hair spread out over her thighs.

Startled, she pushed herself up on her arms. The shirt she wore was unb.u.t.toned halfway up from the bottom.

His head raised and he looked into her eyes. "Good evening, my lady," he said. "It was time for you to awaken, but you looked so delicious, lying there, waiting for me. I couldn't resist. May I finish?"

He lowered his head again, and she felt his tongue moving along the inside of her left thigh, his fingers sliding back and forth from near her center to the crease where the thigh began. All she wanted was to lie back and close her eyes again. Good G.o.d, he knew what he was doing!

But she couldn't let this happen again, it had to end.

Mal put her hand on Ahmose's head and tried to push him away, but instead her fingers curled into the ebony ma.s.s of satin.

"How are you doing this to me? And why do you smell so f.u.c.king irresistible? What is that cologne you're wearing? s.e.x on a stick?"

"It is my natural scent. We do not use fragrances. Vampires have highly sensitive noses. You, now, you smell like chocolate and summer rain."

"For a crazy man, you're a ridiculous romantic. But you need to get off me...ohhh."

Sweet mother of...

Mal dropped her head back on the pillow. "There, Ahmose...G.o.d..."

What he was doing...she couldn't stop him. No, that wasn't right...she wouldn't stop him, yeah, that was the truth.

This was the crazy s.h.i.t that her life had come to. Unbelievable s.e.x with a man who probably should be behind locked doors in a psychiatric ward. Or jail, since he had abducted a police officer.

On a moan, she closed her mind off. This needed to be attended, all of her attention on what he was doing to her. Time later to reflect on what and why and how. No one had ever made her feel this good. And probably never would again.

Mal opened her legs wider and Ahmose smiled up at her as he moved closer and lifted her b.u.t.tocks higher.

"There, my lady, now I can show you my best work."

His tongue was hot and fast, then slow and deliberate, dipping deep where she needed him to be. He pushed her to just the edge, his tongue tickling the sensitive b.u.t.ton, then moved away to bite at her thighs, all the while his fingers caressed the hyper-sensitive skin along the bottom of her b.u.t.tocks, then back again to nip and lick her.

When it came, finally, when she came, the o.r.g.a.s.m forced her body up and Ahmose held her, his face buried against her taunt belly, both of her hands now twisted in his hair.

Moments later, her eyes opened slowly, and she smiled at him.

"Okay, you get a pa.s.s for...oh, f.u.c.k, everything."

Ahmose lifted her body and perched her on his lap.

"Then may I do that again before I go?"

"You may do that again anytime anywhere, public indecency be-d.a.m.ned. That's magic, crazy-man."

"Oh, no, Detective. I haven't used magic yet. When I do, you'll never get out of my bed again."

Mal stared at this man that, in spite of the evidence that he was insane or deeply confused, she was beginning to get attached to, to have feelings for. Uh, oh, Stockholm syndrome.

"You're an incredibly charming man, Ahmose. Let me help you. I want to help you through this."

"You're kind. Beautiful, smart, s.e.xy, with a generous heart. I'd take you home with me and keep you forever. But you don't belong to my world, and I don't belong in yours. I will never forget you, though." He paused, soul-deep dark eyes to clear greens. "You've already helped me. This is the best vampire vacation ever, I think."

With a long sigh, Mal pushed herself off his lap. "You make me sad."

"I'm fine. In fact, once I take a second blood meal, I need to release you and go. I'm in danger, and because of that, I fear you may be too. So the sooner I'm out of your life, the better. Please, come back to the bed with me."

"No. Ahmose, come back to L.A. with me. There are good doctors there. I will stay with you and help you understand why you seem to insist you're a mythical monster."

d.a.m.n, that was the most disarming smile in the world. Ahmose lifted her in his arms, Mal felt a head-rush, and was lying in the center of the bed again, the shirt gone now.

"I need one more blood meal, and I would like to be inside of you one time more before you have to forget that I exist. I won't use compulsion. Please agree. I know that you want me."

Mal looked at his body poised above her, as perfect as he possibly could be. She knew she would never have s.e.x with any other man as beautiful or as skilled as this one. In all her experiences, she'd never had the response she did with him last night.

He was ill. More than that, he was the victim of a terrible crime, so he was her duty. Her eyes went to the center of his forehead, which was nearly unmarked. How this had happened, she was sure she would never know, but in all of this, all that she knew, the overwhelming fact was that she couldn't say no to him. One thing that he said that was true, was that she likely would never see him again after she got out of here.

So she pulled his head down and began a kiss. Ahmose took over when he lowered his body down to cover hers. His tongue glided through her mouth as if it had always been there and knew exactly what to do. Slowly, he drifted down and nuzzled under her hair. She knew what he wanted. It was f.u.c.king crazy. Still, she arched her neck towards him, he moaned and then she felt the already familiar p.r.i.c.ks that heated and excited her right down to her center. Her c.l.i.toris swelled, and waited.

Ahmose drew her blood in, for healing, he thought. But if he was honest, he needed to taste her again. Something about her blood...he didn't know what, but it did things to him. It made him almost euphoric in a way he'd never felt before. And it made him want her, worse than any other feeding in his life. He didn't understand it, but he decided that it must be his body telling him how desperately he needed her blood and s.e.x in order to heal.

That must be it. What else would it be? She was beautiful, and compellingly attractive, but she wasn't anything that would cause this reaction in a first blood vampire. Was she?

This brave, lovely woman was human, and that was all.

And yet as he drank from her, his c.o.c.k already swollen and ready to enter her, he knew she was much more. Somehow, she'd gotten inside of him.

He felt her hands on him, her fingers reaching for him, and he pulled his fangs from her as he lifted his head.

"You want me? You need me inside you?"

"What do you think?" Her voice was raw.

"Say it, so that you may know I did not compel you, say what you really want."

"I want every amazing inch of you moving inside of me right now, you crazy vampire," she said quietly, calmly, as if she was ordering from a menu. "Now."

"Now," Ahmose repeated as he fitted himself to her and pushed, his fangs popping again. This time, Mal saw them come, and her eyes opened wide in shock before he sunk them back into her neck, and the heat tore through her body. Somewhere in the back of her mind, the idea that he really was a vampire tried to push forward, but all Mal could think of right now was what his body was doing on top of hers. The thick c.o.c.k that glided in and out of her stroked and teased. A thought shoved into her mind that this is what she'd needed, that he belonged inside of her.

It couldn't be true, he was just a stranger to her, and would always be. Her body didn't care, it accepted him one hundred percent. Once the o.r.g.a.s.m began, grew, intensified to its final explosion, she grabbed him and held onto him for fear he would evaporate into the night like some erotic dream.

But he didn't.

His o.r.g.a.s.m hit, hard, she could feel him pump into her, and his body locked against hers, forced now into the third most satisfying o.r.g.a.s.m of her life. If he kept his promise, she would be gone soon and would forget he existed.

"I don't want to," she whispered, her arms still tight around his shoulders.

"What? What don't you want, my lady?"

He'd pulled away from her neck just as the o.r.g.a.s.m peaked, and now lay beside her, stroking her hair.

Mal rolled her head to her side, away from him. G.o.d, this was humiliating.

"You're lovely, my detective. I will miss you terribly," he said. "You won't remember, but I want to say this anyway. Thank you. For saving me. For healing me. For giving me the best o.r.g.a.s.ms in ten centuries."

Mal almost choked. "Funny," she said, quietly, then she was the one who sought his gaze. "I saw something, this time, when you...before you... Do you have fangs, Ahmose?"

He pulled his gum back and Mal stared, wordlessly, as sharp teeth, currently seated back higher in his gums, proved she wasn't hallucinating.

"You're serious. You aren't human." This time, Mal couldn't get any volume. Every word came out in a whisper, because she couldn't believe she was saying them.

"I'm human, Mal. Mostly. But much more."

"Tell me about you."

"It won't matter. Once you leave, once you walk out that door, you will not remember me. I will leave you with a sense of a good memory, a sensual one, but you won't remember me or any details of what we've done together. It has to be that way, for your protection and mine. You are an officer of the law, you understand practical duty."

"Tell me anyway."

Ahmose stretched out comfortably beside Mal, who still lay on her back, and began to draw circles on her skin, starting at her shoulders, and worked down.

"We're powerful. The most powerful animal on the planet. We're smart, and built to be the best and fastest of the human race. I'm not bragging, it is just so. I was born vampire. We are called first bloods, self-explanatory, and all vampires who are made since come from our blood."

"So..." Mal was trying to wrap her mind around the implications, heavily distracted by Ahmose's skilled fingers on her skin. "People can be turned into vampires, instead of being born one like you."

"Yes. Not often. Siring a vampire is an important decision. It usually involves someone a vampire wants to spend their life with. Most often, it's for love."

"But you have to die."

"No. Vampires are not dead. But we are extraordinarily long-lived and heal extremely quickly."

He tapped his forehead, which was perfect now.

Mal's eyes lingered on the unmarked skin, then her fingers smoothed across it. "Wow," she whispered.

"You see why we stay unknown. There are very few of us and we guard and protect our families and friends pa.s.sionately. Our lives depend on it."

"I've seen the worst in people, I understand. You would be targets everywhere you went. People are frightened of what they do not know. Or what they can't control. You would be used."

Ahmose shook his head. This woman had incredible intuition and a brilliant mind. He wanted to take her home so badly. "But you're not a puppy," he whispered.

"What?" Mal asked. "I didn't understand that."

"Nothing. Just a lament. Anyway, I live in South Africa, in a village protected just as I have protected this house, with first blood magic, so that it doesn't exist to those not allowed to see. That's how your partner could look right at you and not know you were there. I'm sorry."

"I am too. But, I understand. G.o.d, look at me, accepting fairytales as fact. The next thing you know, I'll be waiting for a prince to ride up on a white horse."

"I would love to be your prince. But you have your own kingdom and it's not mine."

"I know. Still, thank you, for this, for s.e.x like I've never experienced. Even if I won't be able to remember it."

"I'll leave the sensation. You'll see what I mean when you go home."

"I'd like to remember this. Remember you," she requested quietly.

"That would make me happy, as well. But it isn't wise, not only for my people's security, but for you, so that you can move forward in your life without memories of something unattainable."

Mal pushed up onto her elbows, one of her hands stilling his, which had been circling a nipple.

"You were good, but not life-changing." Actually, she thought he might be, but she wasn't one for letting arrogance slide.

He sat up higher. "Would you like me to give you another ill.u.s.tration?"

Mal smiled into his mirror-bright eyes. "No. You're right, you're the best I've ever had, and I'm certain no one will likely exceed this night." She covered his hand with hers, and held his gaze. "But isn't it time for you to let me go? I'm really worried about my partner."

"It is. You must go, and so must I. Would you like a shower first?"

Mal nodded. She didn't want to go back to Luka, and potentially half of her division's force, smelling like s.e.x.

"Would you like to shower with me?"