Zane shuddered. Went rigid above her as her mouth worked the small cut. When the ruby throbbed once more, they gasped. She forgot about his blood and struggled to meet the reawakening demands of her body.

They started again.

Zane listened as Nicky struggled to breathe without panting. Over the last few hours he'd explored, touched and turned-on her body...from the top of her head down to her toenails. He was feeling rather smug.

"Get that d.a.m.n ruby away from me!" she cried in horror.

Zane chuckled, pushing the ruby off her stomach and under the couch. He stayed on the floor by her side, too replete to move just yet.

"What the h.e.l.l is that thing?"

"I don't know. But as soon as I can move, I think I might make a call to find out." Rolling onto his back, he pulled her body tight against his and waved his hand in the air. A blanket floated out of nothingness to cover them.

Nicky gasped. "About that little trick..."

"Vampires have a little magic. We can dress ourselves this way, or take our clothes off. Summon simple things like blankets and books. It's not as if I can make a person or a car appear."

"How about food? I had a handful of trail mix this morning and I'm famished. You wore me out."

Laughing, Zane flicked his wrist and a wooden platter with cheese and fruit appeared beside Nicky's hip.

"Works for me," she said, grabbing an apple and a slice of Gouda. Snuggling back down beside him, she turned her head and smiled.

Her delight robbed him of breath. It was a strange thing to feel a punch in the gut so hard it drove the air out of his lungs. The ruby-induced s.e.xual marathon had taken everything out of him. Before that smile he would have sworn it would take several hours for his body to recuperate enough to respond to any stimuli. He was wrong. "You know, I'm really into s.e.xual diversity, but do you think next time we could do this in a bed?"

Grinning, Nicole poked him in the rib. "As long as it's a few hours from now. So what other magic can you do, besides locking and unlocking doors?"

"Turning the lock at JJ's house was just making something move. Like opening doors or windows, or bringing us pillows." A quick movement with his hand summoned two pillows from the couch. He caught them as they flew overhead. "The most basic vampire powers are the ones most likely to get us killed, so we rarely use them."

"What do you mean?" Nicole frowned.

"Every vampire has the ability to clean themselves, change their clothing, use a little mind control when they feed to keep..." How did he put it without scaring her?

"Their meal from remembering the bite?" she said sarcastically.

Zane winced. Obviously she hadn't forgotten what he'd said about the first couple times he'd bitten her. "Yes. Anyway, those are the gifts we're born with. They take little energy and no thought. However, there are other gifts. Those we acquire with age, like the ability to go out in the sun or fly."

"You can fly? Cool!"

"Yes. Some vampires get something extra when they're turned, as if the power was locked inside their psyche and vampirism released it. I have an affinity with animals, an ability to communicate with them. Which is one reason why the horses I train do so well. Those gifts are, for lack of a better word...special. Not every vampire gets a special gift. The point I'm trying to make is all these other powers, from age or special gifts-take concentration and a great deal of energy. I'm not going to forget where I am, jump out a fifteenth-floor window after a business meeting and fly home."

"But you might spill gravy on your shirt and clean it without thinking." She nodded.

"Yes. Cleaning myself is easy and deadly. Before plumbing was invented, cleanliness of any kind was perilous. It was difficult to keep from waving away the dirt when it would solve the G.o.d-awful smell emanating from my body. And with preternatural senses, well...I can tell you it was a vampire who coined the phrase 'cleanliness is next to G.o.dliness'."

Nicole laughed.

"In the past we had to wait for someone to fill a tub, or go outside and take an icy bath in a nearby body of water. Or wait two days for clothes to be washed and dried. In this day and age, vampires take showers, or at least run the water so it seems like we have. A couple times a day we go in a bathroom, wait for a few seconds and flush the toilet whether there are mortals surrounding us or not. You never know who might be paying attention and a few precautions help us appear human."

"So the simple things get you killed. What about never growing old?" Nicole thought of the pictures Mike and JJ had shown her.

"In the last few decades our age-related problems have become both easier and harder. Easier because we used to be limited to ten or fifteen years in one place before we were forced to move. The advent of plastic surgery allows us to stay twenty-five or thirty years now."

"I would imagine pictures, the Internet and coming up with pa.s.sports reflecting what you look like versus how you should appear would make it harder."

"That's not as difficult as it seems. We have vampire geeks just like there are human geeks. It amazes me what they can do with a computer and a printer. It's easy to leave your worldly goods to a fantasy son if the paper trail can withstand scrutiny. Our biggest problem is a shrinking world. A hundred years ago, if you moved halfway around the globe you didn't worry about running into someone you'd met forty years before on another continent."

"So you're always worried someone will recognize you?" She shifted her body into his, propping her chin on his chest to stare into his eyes.

Zane nodded. "Airplanes and a mobile society have made this danger a very real concern. But the same technology that makes it difficult to hide has other benefits. Before the invention of telephones and email, I could go for decades without talking to longtime friends. Because traveling to another's territory would take weeks or months, I rarely saw other vampires. Now I have daily, sometimes hourly contact with friends even if they live on the other side of the world. It's a simple thing to visit them, or have them visit me." Zane winced. Which reminded him-Vlad said he and Ronnie were going to visit soon.

"Another's territory? Vampires have territories?"

"It's not really a geographical territory. Not like marking a specific s.p.a.ce they defend. A newly made vampire can live with their sire or an older vampire for a decade or so. As vampires age and acc.u.mulate power, it becomes impossible for them to share households or spend time with each other. A physical separation of a few blocks might work if they're careful not to cross paths. The older a vampire gets, the more s.p.a.ce they seem to need. Visits with old friends have to be kept to a few short weeks."

Thinking of Vlad's desire to have him take the position of Sentinel for this area, Zane realized the lessoning of the territorial impulse was a tangible job perk.

The ritual binding of a Sentinel to their region would ensure that the one responsible for the area could tolerate other vampires for longer periods. It would defeat the whole point of being a Sentinel if the one chosen couldn't spend enough time with the region's other vamps to protect them or determine whether or not someone posed a threat.

It also meant that with a Sentinel mystically bound to the land, other vampires could attend meetings without the inherent urge to fight. It still didn't make them capable of living with each other, but there was a general easing of tension.

Nicole wrinkled her forehead. "What about Thomas? He lived here and you said he made you a couple hundred years ago."

Zane smiled. She certainly had a great memory. "Unfortunately, after several centuries of solitude and hiding what we are, a vampire can regress-or become completely crazy. Thomas never found joy in his life as a vampire, becoming melancholy and a little unstable over the last few decades. His power began to fade, which allowed us to live together."

"So, why didn't Thomas get married so he wouldn't be alone?"

Her voice wrapped him in silk and heat and thinly veiled compa.s.sion. Zane kept his gaze on Nicole's questioning blue eyes. He could drown in those eyes. And while he wanted to look away, he owed her the truth.

What he hadn't counted on was how much it would hurt to say the words.

"Vampires can't have long-term relationships. Females become just as territorial as males, Nicole. If Thomas had turned a lover into a vampire, he'd have had a decade or two with her before one of them needed to move on."

Wincing at the thought, Zane continued, "What kind of torture would it be, to love someone with your mind yet be instinctively incapable of living with them? And if he left his lover mortal, it would mean every day they shared brought her closer to death. In too short a time he'd be left alone again. To what? Find another human and watch her die too?"

He could see her struggling with the explanation. Watched her compare his sire's loneliness with their situation. He could sense the emotions overwhelming her. Because he was touching her, it was a simple thing to feel the compa.s.sion she had for Thomas, for him. She understood without him telling her that he would always live his life alone. He shared her sadness when she realized their time together was limited. He could explain the one-in-a-million chance he had of finding a true bond. But that would be cruel. It would give her something to hope for when there was no hope.

Nicole could never be more than a short-term lover for him. As much as he'd like another option, it wasn't up to him. He was relieved when she pushed her pain aside and changed the subject.

"So. You're not the soulless undead-I can feel your heartbeat. I've seen you drink coffee and you're awake during the day."

Zane snorted. "More ridiculous myths. Vampires are neither undead, nor sp.a.w.ned by the devil. Some are good, some bad. But it has more to do with what they were like when they were human. I'm not exactly sure how we came to be. We have simply existed since the beginning of time. There are ancients among us who have lived for thousands of years. Although I have to tell you, based on their reputations, I wouldn't want to meet one."

"I have one more question. I've felt you in my mind. Is that normal?" Nicky's gaze had turned even more serious.

"Some vampires can read minds by just meeting someone's eyes. I can't. I have to be touching you and then I only get surface thoughts or impression. Which is why I couldn't get any information from Mike or JJ last night except for what they spoke aloud. I'd have to take their blood to get a peek at their thoughts, to influence them or make them forget. Or at least that's normally what I have to do." He fell silent.

"When we have s.e.x, somehow we connect. I can feel what you're feeling, not emotions but the physical sensations. Is that a vampire thing? Is it because you're touching me?" Nicky shifted in his arms.

Zane started. He'd felt her physical responses as well, but he'd never considered that she might be sharing the same. That kind of bond explained why her book, Blood Red Ruby, so closely mirrored what he'd experienced with the stone. He supposed it made sense. Through their link, his thoughts could have bled into hers, inspiring her dreams. If he'd somehow caused her dreams, appearing as a vampire, it might explain why she wasn't afraid of him. h.e.l.l. He had no idea.

He'd a.s.sumed the connection was one-sided, a weird anomaly that allowed him to hear her s.e.xual fantasies and share in her physical response to s.e.x. It would be easier on both of them if he let her believe this was normal. Something all vampires shared with their lovers. Only it wasn't. And he couldn't lie to her. "No. It's not a vampire thing that I've heard of and we aren't connected because I'm touching you. Every time you write a s.e.x scene, or think about s.e.x, I'm right there with you."

"What?" she exclaimed. Setting her hand on his chest, she pushed herself into a sitting position. "What do you mean 'you're there' when I'm writing s.e.x?"

"No matter where I am or what I'm doing, when you start to write s.e.x scenes I see the words you type on a page or the vision you're creating in your mind. It started about a month ago, at the same time you started having the dreams about the ruby. Which makes sense I guess, since that's when I received the ruby for safekeeping."

Nicole was silent while she tried to reason it out. She couldn't wrap her mind around it. "That's just creepy." Looking at Zane, she frowned. "Now when I write, I'm going to feel like you're looking over my shoulder. Critiquing my performance."

Zane snorted. "Imagine how I feel, sweetheart. Last week I was clear across town in the middle of a meeting with a real estate developer. You started writing a detailed scene of your heroine-who had black hair and looked an awful lot like you-giving head to a guy who sounded an awful lot like me. I had to cut the meeting short. I spent an hour in my car, sweating through all the little nuances!"

Nicole giggled.

"It's not remotely funny. I walked around with a hard-on the rest of the afternoon."

Nicole stilled. Intrigued by the possibilities, she closed her eyes and thought about taking a shower. The steamy, hot water cascading over my b.r.e.a.s.t.s as my hands soaped every inch of Zane's body. I'd run my fingers over every rib. Then sliding between his legs until I was in front of his groin, I'd open my mouth and lick- "Nicole!" Zane growled at her. Scooping her up in his arms, he made her squeal as he raced up the stairs and into her bathroom. "d.a.m.n it, woman! Now look what you've done."

When he set her on her feet, she slid down his body and stepped away. "Okay, let me see." Slowly lowering her eyes, she spent a long time looking. A light dusting of black hair swirled around his bellyb.u.t.ton. She let her eyes drop to take in the sight of his fully erect c.o.c.k, jutting proudly at his groin. His heavy ball sac hung loose and then tightened under her gaze. Shaft bouncing, it expanded under her perusal. The deep skin tone flushed with blood and heat, the dark-blue vein pulsing along his length. She licked her lips in antic.i.p.ation.

Zane groaned and a drop of clear fluid glistened on the head of his shaft.

"Oh, look. Someone's ready to play," she purred. Reaching around him, she pressed her naked body against his and fumbled to turn on the water. Sticking her tongue out, she licked his nipple. The hair on his chest tickled her nose and abraded her tongue.

Zane wrapped his arms around her and guided them into the shower. Nicky pulled away to fill her hands with soap. Once she had enough lather, she smoothed them down his chest, over his bulging biceps and around his back. Pressing her b.r.e.a.s.t.s against him, she slid them from side to side, giggling when he moaned and captured her hips in his hands. Tilting her head back, she reveled in his kiss for long moments.

Breathing heavily, she stepped back and reached out to trail a soapy hand down the center of his chest. She took her time, slowly gliding over muscled contours. Trailing her fingers through his chest hair, she paused at his nipples to rub and tease. Plucking at them, she picked up the showerhead and rinsed his chest. Leaning into him, she licked his nipple and suckled. She felt Zane sway, brace himself against the wall with his hands and spread his legs apart. When he moaned low in his throat, she smiled.

It was time to move on. Tracing each one of his ribs as she'd done in her fantasy, eventually she reached the thickening path of dark hair that narrowed to his groin.

"Oh G.o.d!" Zane hissed when Nicky reached out to take his shaft and run slick, warm hands down to the root. He felt his c.o.c.k swell within the confines of her grip. Groaning in ecstasy, he spread his legs farther apart and clenched the bar on the shower wall. His body sensitized to the slightest touch by the water running down his chest adding to the carnal pleasure.

With hands playing along his shaft, Nicky leaned over to follow one of the water droplets with her tongue. Watching from heavy-lidded eyes, Zane sucked in a breath when she dropped to her knees and took him in her mouth. "Jesus, Nicky. Your mouth is killing me!"

She hummed around him, nearly sending him over the edge. Dropping one hand to the base of his c.o.c.k, he encircled the root with his thumb and finger in an attempt to throttle an explosion.

Legs shaking, it took everything he had to hold himself upright when she pulled back and pinched the head of his c.o.c.k with her lips. Pushing his hand away, she clamped her fist around his shaft and pumped from the base. Opening wide, she slipped his c.o.c.k down her throat until mouth and fist met in the middle. She began a slow, pumping rhythm, stopping to swirl her tongue along the vein underneath. Pulling back, she licked around the head, opening her mouth once again to surround him in sweet heat.

Looking down, Zane watched her head bob. His gaze locked on her glistening lips sliding up and down his straining flesh. The sight of her pink tongue darting out to tease the small slit in his blood-engorged crown made him bite his lip hard enough to draw blood. The effort to keep from howling didn't work.

"Nicole!" The single word burst from him in a near shout.

Bringing her other hand up to cup his b.a.l.l.s, she squeezed gently and Zane couldn't take any more. "Enough," he growled. Reaching down, he pulled Nicole to her feet. Pulling her into his arms, he kissed her with intense hunger.

Licking the blood from his lip, she moaned, "G.o.d you taste good."

Inserting his hand between their slippery bodies to palm her breast, he pinched her nipple between his thumb and finger and tugged. Shifting slick flesh against him, she dug her fingers into his back. He felt her shudder.

Drawing back, Zane turned her around and guided her. Showing her how to rest her hands against the small seat in the shower stall, he grabbed her hips and used his knees to open her stance. He took his c.o.c.k in hand and pressed forward, angling into her clenching heat.

Rocking his hips, he plunged in and out of her tight channel. Faster and faster until he could feel his b.a.l.l.s draw up in preparation for his release. Leaning over her back, he wrapped his arm around her waist. Smoothed his hand down her stomach until he could delve between her folds and stroke her c.l.i.t. He played with her, rubbing and pulling the tight bud until he felt the first vibrations of her o.r.g.a.s.m.

Nuzzling the side of her neck with his lips and tongue, he felt her body tense. Sinking his fangs into her vein, Zane rode Nicole's climax. When she shattered a second time, he pumped his c.o.c.k furiously into her clamping p.u.s.s.y and allowed his body to explode.

Pulling her back against him, he rested with her under the water. Finally picking up the soap, he gently washed her body. She leaned against him, body limp. Eyes closed. She was completely worn out.

After shampooing her hair, he turned off the shower. Propping her against the bathroom counter, he gently dried her with a towel before scooping her into his arms and carrying her to bed. Once he had her under the covers, a quick wave of his hand clothed him in dark sweats and a t-shirt. He bent over and kissed her forehead, watching as she snuggled into the covers and sighed. There was a small drop of dried blood at the side of her mouth.

Frowning, he reached out to wipe the spot away and then headed downstairs to find his cell phone and that d.a.m.n ruby. While he stashed the rock and tried unsuccessfully to call Yuli, he worried.

Nicole had tasted his blood. Fingering the small mark on his chest, he then pulled his bottom lip into his mouth and felt the tiny cut with his tongue. Twice. In the heat of pa.s.sion, it hadn't seemed like a big thing. Both times she couldn't have taken more than a few drops. Nowhere near enough to turn her into a vampire.

Zane frowned, rubbing the area over his heart with his hand. Without determined mental restraint on his part, the blood could turn her into something else. Something he wanted no part of.

With a simple thought, he could tie her to him. In one unguarded moment, creating a human servant bound to him for all time with blood and s.e.x. She'd lose her self-ident.i.ty. Her every thought and move would be to please him. Nicole would become his personal dress-up doll and s.e.x slave, unable to decide even the simplest things for herself.

He couldn't just f.u.c.k her and exchange blood to make her one. He had to use his mind and blood to form a servant bond. There had to be intent on his part. A will to keep Nicole locked to his side for all time.

And that was the problem.

The thought of having Nicky bound to service him for eternity had some appeal. If there was some way to tie her to him where she wouldn't lose her sense of freewill or right and wrong-h.e.l.l, it was a temptation.

And the fact that he would even contemplate it drove home the trouble he was in.

G.o.d, she made him laugh. Made him ache for what he could never have. In all the decades of his life he'd never wanted a human servant. Not even of the blood-only variety, those dedicated individuals bound simply by blood who retained their personality, character and sense of right and wrong. Forcing a blood-only HS to do the vampire's bidding without the servant's consent could be done, but it took a ton of energy.

But tie the person with both blood and s.e.x-and a mere thought was enough to have the human servant on their knees. The HS would crawl over hot coals without a whimper of pain if that was what their master desired.

b.l.o.o.d.y awful thought. And not what he wanted from Nicole.

Would one unguarded yearning to have her with him for eternity be enough to set the process in motion?

Since he'd never wanted to create a human servant of any kind, he'd never bothered to ask how difficult the process was. He could ask Vlad if it was that easy to initiate the transformation.

Wouldn't the man get a kick out of that?

Until he had that conversation, he couldn't take the risk. The sensation of having her take his blood would be impossible to resist. He had to stay away from her. For her sake. For his. Zane knew the more time he spent with Nicky, the harder it would be to leave. It would kill him to see her grow old and die.

Zane sighed. Just as walking away from her now would kill something inside him. How could he go back to the life he'd had before? Where creating an empire of land and wealth in an effort to keep the humans from rising up with modern pitchforks was his only goal.

He wanted her-to keep.

Forever.

Since vampires didn't get forever with a mate unless an extremely rare true bond was formed-and he certainly had no control over creating one-the only way to bind her to him would be to give in to the temptation to make her a mindless blood zombie. Not an option.

So. This was it. He hated to leave her without saying goodbye or giving her some reason for not seeing her again. But he didn't think he could look in her blue eyes and not want to hold her to him. Maybe it made him weak. It definitely made him an a.s.shole. But he wasn't strong enough to make something up. To lie and say he didn't want her any longer. No. He would take the coward's way out and just stay away from her.