Eli and Sarel

THE HUNTERS 2: ELI AND SAREL An Ellora's Cave Publication, December 2003 Ellora's Cave Publishing, Inc. PO Box 787 Hudson, OH 44236-0787 ISBN MS Reader (LIT) ISBN # 1-84360-700-X Other available formats (no ISBNs are assigned): Adobe (PDF), Rocketbook (RB), Mobipocket (PRC) & HTML THE HUNTERS 2: ELI AND SAREL © 2003 SHILOH WALKER ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part without permission. This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. They are productions of the authors’ imagination and used fictitiously. Edited by Pamela Campbell Cover art by

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cott C arpenter.

THE

HUN

TERS 2: ELI AND S

AREL Shiloh Walker Prologue Elijah Crawford wasn’t on his territory the night he caught scent of a child’s terror, the stench of death, a man’s lust. Not that it stopped him. He prowled around the ramshackle house in Mississippi, his eyes narrowed and grim as he curled his hands into fists. Ten seconds sooner…even five… and he could have saved the woman as well. The child’s scream tore the air as her father stumbled out of the kitchen, drunk and laughing, staring at her with hot, hungry lust in his eyes as Eli leaped from the window to the front door in one single bound, the blood in his cool body starting to pump hotter and faster as a familiar, uncontrollable rage filled him. Striking out, Eli kicked through the door, his fangs dropping down. Taking a deep breath, Eli shoved the

rage back before he looked at the screaming child who was splattered with her mama’s blood. “Sleep,” he crooned quietly, smiling gently. Her lashes fluttered and she fell in a boneless heap to the floor. Eli smiled and said charmingly to the man who spun drunkenly to stare at him, “Invite me in.” The sheer, dumbstruck look on the bastard’s face had Eli’s lips curling in amusement as the thoughts ran through the man’s drunken mind…who is this…why did I invite him in? “You did it so I could kill you.” Eli smiled cruelly, coldly as he said it, his eyes slitting down as the man wheeled around and started looking for an escape route. There is an animal inside us all, one that recognizes the bigger monster, the predator, and he knew he was staring at death in some small part of his mind. Eli laughed as the man rallied and the fight welled up inside him. No quick death for this one…he was a blood relation to that pretty child, no doubt. A blood relation-it was in the scent of his blood, the slope of his brow, the coppery, golden color of his hair. No-not a quick death, as the child shuddered and cried out for her sister-even under the vamp induced sleep. Later, as he washed the blood from his face and hands, Eli stared at his grim reflection. The child still slept in the other room. He would be taking her away. Where

the sister was, he didn’t know. Alive and well, safe, he hoped. But the child was lost to her. Eli would see to it that the little girl never knew pain and loss again, poor little lost one. Terrified screams came ripping from her throat the moment he touched her. Then she threw herself at him, wrapping her tiny arms around his neck, and he could feel brittle bones, smell her unwashed body, poor underfed little child…hot tears stung his eyes and burned a path down his cheeks as she sobbed brokenly, inconsolably. “Shhh…” he murmured, rocking her back and forth, stroking her tangled, deep red hair. Working her back, just a little, Eli cupped her face in his hand and forced her to stare into his eyes as he whispered, “Sleep, pretty child. When you wake, things will be better.” Once the mantle of sleep fell over her, Eli forced his way into her young mind and took the memory of the night and broke it, erased it, until it was gone forever. It had simply not happened. The child would never have any knowledge of it. Some things, even time could not heal. Power rippled through the air. Eli stood staring up at the moon as Tori and Declan crossed the boundaries of his territory. His heart was too heavy for this-but how could he turn her away,

when he hungered for her so desperately? But sad frightened eyes, the stench of blood and death clung to him. He was still there nearly an hour later when Tori found him and stood waiting for him to turn to her with that slow, feline curl of his lips. When he didn’t, she started to move toward him, only to have Declan’s hands on her shoulders hold her in place. “Rough time, Eli?” The rich music of Ireland still rolled through the cop’s voice, danced on the air. Taking his eyes from the moon, Eli turned his head and stared at them, revealing a somber, grief ravaged face. Misreading the look, Declan swore softly and said, “Eli, we can’t save them all.” “I did save her, the child, that is. The one that counted most. Her mother, well, her mother kept her there.” His voice was rusty and his throat felt tight with emotion, all over a child…one child, out of how many? “I did not get there in time to save her mother. And I don’t know that I bloody care. She kept her there, Tori. Allowed her to be beaten, starved, and she would have been raped. She died a few nights ago-and I don’t care.” Slim, pale arms wrapped around his waist and Tori rested her head on his shoulder from behind. Eli s

tood there

in silence as she held him while he grieved. ***** Elijah came awake quickly, the heavy veil of sleep falling aside as though somebody had just jerked a blanket off his tousled blonde head. He didn’t immediately roll from the bed though-instead he reached down and stroked his hand over the pale, smooth arm thrown across his belly. Behind him, Tori slept on, exhausted, and behind her Declan shifted and moved restlessly. The shifter never slept as easily as his mate, nor as easily as Eli did. And even though his shapeshifting abilities were inherentand not induced by the waning or waxing of the moonthe full moon did tend to increase his restlessness. That was because he was a breed-part were, part Inherent. The Inherent abilities were by far the strongest, but the moon’s call wasn’t one he could ever completely ignore. The full moon was drawing near and Eli knew, for Declan the pull was strong. Eventually the shapeshifter would have to give in to the call, and then he’d run the night and hunt. It may not be this moon, or even the next, but soon. The wildness in Declan’s eyes was proof enough of that for Eli. The sun had already sunk behind the mountains and

night was upon them when Eli finally pulled himself away from their sweet warmth. He brushed his fingers across Tori’s peaceful face before he stood. The faint, already healing marks on Tori’s neck made him smile. Eli had fed from her. That was…unfathomable, as far as Eli was concerned. She was something out of legend, not completely vampire, not completely human, but something in between. She could take food and she could walk in daylight, yet he had seen her caught in the hungers of a vampire, had seen her streak across the ground at a pace too quick for human eyes. Tori’s speed was more like that of the shifters thanks to her mate, Declan, who had been her first meal. She also shared his rather voracious hungers. Tori’s heart was larger than the ocean and she was as sharp as a fucking whip. Eli was half in love with her, half in awe of her. He was generally caught between wanting to worship at her feet and fuck the living daylights out of her. Last night she had fed him, the wine-rich taste of her blood lingering in his mouth along with the memory of the sweet cream he had drank from her before he and Declan had pressed her lovely body between them. Eli felt his cock stiffen in memory and he grabbed a robe, stalking out of the room before the scent of his lust could awaken either of them. Neither Declan nor Tori would be here if they didn’t

want to be, but it wasn’t something that sat easily with Eli. Hell, they were more at peace with it than he was. Eli was terribly afraid he was falling in love with Tori. At least with the ideal image he had created of her. He was moving past the half way mark at a speed that terrified him. The thought of having a warm soft woman next to him in bed when the sun rose high in the sky, a woman who would take both his cock and his fangs and glory in the pleasures he could give her. A woman he could love. There lay his problem. Eli wanted a woman of his own. But t

he only wom an who called to him in such a way belonged to his best friend. ***** Eli’s cock was already hard when two female arms closed around him late that night. Dawn was only a few hours away and he had returned to the house rather pleased with the work of the past week. He had intended to get some tedious business and financial matters out of the way-after all, a vampire had to provide for those he took into his home-but the sweet, seductive scent of aroused woman had flooded his

senses as she came down the stairs, laughing and whispering to Declan. Declan stood in the doorway staring at them with hot, green eyes. Eli saw the look Declan sent his assistantand the resentful one Leslie sent back before she left the room-and he suppressed a sigh. Time for the assistant to go. “Tori, is there something you wanted?” Eli teased as he turned in the circle of her arms to look down at her. Wide blue eyes met his as she brushed the back of one hand down the front of his linen trousers-against the hard bulge there-as she slowly lowered her head and kissed his chest through the layers of his clothing. “Hmm. Wanna get naked and I’ll show you?” she asked, her nimble fingers already flying down the front of his shirt, freeing the buttons and spreading it wide over the pale, muscled wall of his chest. Eli couldn’t help it. Even as she shoved and pulled his clothes until he stood wearing only his trousers, he glanced at Declan. Sooner or later, the wolf was going to grow tired of sharing his woman. But the Irishman was smiling, aroused and amused. A ripple of power slid through the room and Eli watched as Declan suppressed the animal that lived inside his skin, suppressed the urge to shift and fall on Tori like a monster in rut. Eli groaned and buried his hands in Tori’s tight brunette curls as she fell to her knees and took his cock inside the wet cave of her mouth.

Declan knelt behind her, reaching around the rip her shirt open and cup her full breasts in his hands, rolling and pinching her nipples while he rubbed his pelvis against her tight little butt. When her mate pressed his hand against her wet cleft she shuddered and pulled away, shooting to her feet and reaching for her jeans, only to have her hands batted and brushed aside as two pairs of male hands ripped her remaining clothes away. Eli and Declan fell to their knees before her as a unit, each taking one swollen, stiff nipple-Eli suckling deep while Declan nipped and nibbled. Eli slid one hand around to grab her ass, sliding his fingers through the crevice between her buttocks while Declan drove two fingers deep inside her wet, tight vagina, screwing deep and hard until she was moaning and shuddering. The scent of the hybrid was enough to drive Eli nearly mad. He drew in the sweet perfume of her hungry body as Declan pulled Tori to the floor. Declan’s eyes were wide and glowing and green, full of unfathomable hunger. The bond the three of them shared was strong enough that Declan’s urgency frequently spilled over to Eli, along with some of the wolf’s more basic instincts-fuck, hunt, eat. Fuck, hunt, eat. Tori screamed breathlessly as Declan pulled her over him and impaled her on his rigid cock. Eli moved

behind her, taking her hips in his big hands as Declan lifted her slim body up and down. Eli pushed on her shoulders and she bent forward, presenting her rounded ass and the tight puckered hole of her rosette. Eli hunched over her, rocking his cock against the pink pucker, only to pull away with a rough growl of frustration. No fucking lubricant“Table,” Declan rasped out before Eli even had time to finish the thought. Moments later-Eli’s cock wet and gleaming-he smeared some of the clear liquid on Tori’s tiny little rosette, working two fingers in and out while Declan shafted her. Tori’s head fell back as Declan caught one beaded nipple in his mouth, biting down gently. She shuddered as Eli started to prod her ass with his wide, thick cock, catching her breath and pushing down just as Declan pushed up inside her and Eli groaned as he forced his way into her tight narrow passage. Emotions that weren’t hers, sensations that weren’t hers prodded her mind through the bond they shared and she cried out under the combined sensation of them both invading her body and the pleasure she sensed from them as they invaded her-the wet, slick heat of her vagina around Declan’s cock, the snug, silken clasp of her ass around Eli’s. Declan’s powerful, lean body arched under hers and he purred against the mound of her breast, “Tight, so

fucking tight and sweet.” A phantom touch caressed his balls, the light brush of Eli’s sac as it just barely touched Declan’s. He bit down on Tori’s breast hard enough that he tasted the sweet, tangy taste of her blood as the scent of it filled the air. Eli’s nostrils flared as he scented her blood. But the bite on Tori’s neck hadn’t yet healed, and even as quickly as she regenerated he couldn’t feed from her twice in a day, no matter how much he wanted to. Feeding his other hunger, he gripped her hips and started to push deep inside her tight little hole, pulling out and driving back in with bruising force. He felt the sharp bite of her pleasure-pain through their bond and grinned, pulling out and driving back into her again as she mewled weakly. The scent of a woman’s climax and her lover’s sperm filled the air as Declan growled and drove his cock upward inside her wet pussy with short, hard digs as she convulsed around him, milking his climax from him while Eli continued to ream her ass. Blood lust and sexual lust made a dangerous pair, and when teamed with the bizarre obsession love Eli had for Tori they were even more so. Pulling away, his cock still wet and gleaming, regenerated vampire blood making it ruddy, he lifted Tori from where she had collapsed against Declan and spread her out on the floor. Crouching between her thighs and lifting her helpless ass into the air Eli drove

back inside her while keeping his eyes on their merged bodies. The sight of his thick cock spearing her tight little hole made his cock swell even more and he fell down against her, riding her snug little anus harder and harder and lifting his golden eyes to stare at Declan. The other man grinned weakly at him and rolled onto his side, staring at his wife’s gleaming face as another man fucked her ass and pulled a screaming climax from her. When his old friend didn’t protest Eli gave in and concentrated on Tori-on the hot satin sheath that held his cock, on the way she cried and screamed and bucked underneath his body as he fucked her, how her sweet little butt would lift pleadingly when he pulled out. Leaning close he whispered into her ear, “So sweet…I love fucking you, listening to you moan and beg for more. I love your taste, your blood and the cream that comes from your sweet little pussy. You stayed away too long this time.” Moaning and squirming against him, Tori searched blindly for the climax, but his weight pinned her down and she couldn’t get the leverage she needed to take him deeper. “Eli, please,” she whimpered as his hands slid under and around her, pinning her arms tight to her body. His cock inside her ass felt huge and if he would just-“Damn it, Eli, let me come.” Eli licked at the tiny healing holes on her neck before

shifting his weight and turning her head so that she could see her husband, who still lay there, his cock semi- erect as he watched them. “He likes to watch, doesn’t he, Tori? Has he ever shared you with anybody else?” She couldn’t speak, just lay there panting and crying out, moaning when Eli drove back inside her again. “Has he?” Declan laughed and answered for her. “Hell, no, Eli.” He reached down, wrapping his hand around his now erect cock and stroking as he stared at them. The blond vampire hunkered low over the body of his wife, his big hands holding her slim hips as he drove his thick penis inside her ass. Declan couldn’t fathom how easily he shared her with Eli, but it didn’t bother him to do so. He didn’t question it, he just did it. Tori screamed with frustration, clenching her muscles and trying to hold Eli’s cock inside her. In response he moved, going from lying atop her body to kneeling between her thighs, still deep inside her ass. The flat of his hand smacked against her naked bottom, a sharp stinging pain left in its wake, but before she could snarl at him in indignation he started to ride her hard and fast, driving his cock completely inside, pulling out to the flared head and then driving in with a force that stole her breath. Three deep, hard, bruising strokes and she was screaming in release. A groan rumbled from Eli’s throat

as he pumped her sweet ass full of his seed as Declan continued to watch and pump his cock until he, too, came, thick jets of creamy semen spurting onto his lean, tanned belly. Tori stared into the dark night. She had watched as Declan disappeared into the woods, his furred, golden hide gleaming under the light of the moon. Somewhere out there was Eli as well, stalking his prey. Only Tori wasn’t compelled to hunt that night. With a tiny smile, she took a moment to appreciate the fact that, being the hybrid she was, if she was actually hungering for steak and a baked potato followed by chocolate, she could indulge, and not just dream. So her belly was full of traditional food tonight, not blood, even though that had been the ticket yesterday when she, Eli and Declan had traveled to Virginia and interrupted a would be gang rape. Yesterday blood has been satisfying. Today, after the fuck-fest, steak had been satisfying. Laying a hand on her belly, she decided, maybe ice cream would be coming later. The two men she adored were out there, one tracking a deer, the other tracking the human garbage that were his favored prey, the men who beat their children or raped their wives. Eli loved taking that kind of life and ending it, loved the fear he could induce as he used his

mind to hold his prey still while he fed. Declan had the same gift. Tori was learning it. Both of her men could induce fear, could induce lusteither emotion-simply with a turn of his head, a blink of his eyes. With her it was always the lust, and it made their mating so much sweeter, so much more. With the hunting-when they prowled and preyed on the scum who preyed on the less fortunate-it was made sweeter as well. The blood that poured from a man who was nearly mad with fear was as sweet as nectar, Tori had learned. And when she was feeding from a man she had just ripped from a woman he had been intent on raping, it was almost orgasmic. You stayed away too long this time, Eli had whispered to her. She wouldn’t admit it to him, or to Declan, but she had no choice. The need she felt for Eli didn’t shame her or bother her really. But if she allowed it, the need would consume them both. While she hungered for Eli and even loved him some, Declan was her heart. The three of them shared a bond, true. But she and Declan were bond-mates, soul-bonded. Each would die without the other. And if she wasn’t careful she feared what could happen between Eli and herself- feared it could hurt all three of them. So she made them go months without this, out of

necessity. Hell, she knew Declan craved it almost as much as she did, but she also knew part of Declan would think like the wolf. If it wasn’t hurting him now, how could it hurt him at all? The sweet ache of sex rode her body like a fine cloak and she reveled in it. Yes, she had stayed away too long

. And she knew she would contin ue to drag it out until the need almost overrode her common sense. But while she was here… Chapter One Five Years Later Eli felt the odd…tingle in the air as another Master entered his lands. It wasn’t Tori. His body went on red alert any time she came within fifty miles of his boundaries. And besides, the hybrid vamp and her mate Declan had only left three weeks ago. Eli knew it would a good five months before he saw her again. Five months before he was able to ride that sweet body again, and take the oblivion she offered when she and Declan allowed him into their bed. But he knew this Master. It was the one who had freed Eli years and years ago. Malachi.

As far as Eli knew, Malachi was just…Malachi. He had no other name and he felt older than the ages to Eli’s mind. They shared a rather uneasy friendship. Master vampires were very few. And a Master who wasn’t a feral…an even rarer thing. Unfortunately, a good many of the men who sought vampirism were the ones who were Master strength, and foul, evil, blackhearted things. Soulless creatures preying on the victims of the world and vampirism simply placed more weapons at their disposal. Most of the ones who were turned against their will, like Eli and Tori, were just fodder, just servants, and were killed off by the Hunters’ Council after they went feral, or drifted off to hole up away from people and starve to death. Vampires could starve to death. Intentionally. It was slow, and eventually, unless the will to die was very strong, the vampire would snap and feed at the first available blood source. All too often, that led to madness. Eli hadn’t chosen to die. The bitch who had made him, Elspeth, had been one of the Masters who had sought vampirism. And she had been powerful. Strong, evil, full of hunger and lust and a need to destroy. She had turned Eli, against his will, more than three hundred years ago and his first fifty years had been spent in a cavern far below the surface of the earth. She had kept him chained, kept him half starved and Eli was certain he would have gone mad

that last year if Malachi hadn’t come. Elspeth had feared Malachi. Bloody hell, Eli was quite certain that everybody feared Malachi. The vampire was older than any other Eli had ever known and held every unusual power a vampire was capable of. He could control a person’s very thoughts, even if that person was a vampire. He could shift from his given form to mist to hawk, maybe even more forms. He could go weeks without feeding and he needed little blood to maintain. And he could take sunlight. How much, Eli didn’t know, but three hundred years ago, Malachi had covered Eli’s body with his own cloak and carried him away from Elspeth’s keep before the sun had set. For the past three decades Eli had been able to tolerate enough sun to watch the sunset, but he could tolerate no more than that. He knew Malachi had traveled for several hours in the sunlight to take him to safety. Nobody was ever quite sure of all Malachi could do because he never did it unless it was necessary. Very little was actually necessary. All Malachi had do was simply show his face and his enemies would most likely die of fright, so why use the weapons is his rather impressive arsenal? Many of the Masters who followed a different, darker path had only to hear Malachi’s name and they fled. Or possibly died of fright.

The vampire everybody feared was now approaching Eli’s territory. Eli rose from his chair and took the stairs at a lazy pace, shoving his own nerves aside in disgust. He often felt like Malachi’s annoying baby brother, eager to please, dying to impress, and most likely, looking like a fool. His newest assistant, and occasional morning meal and bed mate, rose from where she had been waiting for him. The woman had finally stopped placing her naked body in his bed every morning, but she continued to wait at the foot of the stairs like an obedient little puppy. With a head full of long, sunny blonde curls and sweet blue eyes, she vaguely resembled a china doll. Eli had taken her in after he had sent Leslie away years earlier, thinking a woman who was a little more… simple wouldn’t be as likely to become quite so possessive of him. She did her job well enough, typing up the various and myriad business documents and seeing that the house was well tended. But she reminded him of a bloody lap dog, constantly seeking to be petted and stroked, constantly seeking his praise and attention. An evil grin curved his mouth and he wondered if Malachi might need a new companion. The older vamp seemed more appreciative of docile women. Casting her a glance, he said, “I am expecting a friend to arrive shortly, Becka. I’d like you to go bathe and

dress.” “I took a bath when I woke,” she said hesitantly. Yes, she had. Eli could smell the soap and lotion, but he could also smell himself faintly. Even though he hadn’t fed from her in several days, the scent of his touch lingered and if he had any hope of casting her off on Malachi she had best be rid of his scent before Malachi arrived. Becka rose slowly, brushing the low neck of her sweater aside, baring her long pale neck. “Shall I-“ He shook his head before she finished. “My friend and I will most likely hunt tonight,” he told her, dismissing her from his mind. Eli settled in the massive leather chair,

the creamy l eather molding itself to his frame, while he waited for Malachi. And wondered what in the hell had caused the ancient one to seek him out. ***** Malachi was ancient, no longer certain just how old he was. Hell, he had never been certain. A slave child growing up in Rome, he had been serving as entertainment when a lovely young vamp had sired him all those centuries ago. Big, nearly a giant back

then, and was a large man even now, over six feet. Malachi’s purpose in life had been whatever his masters wished of him, whether it was fucking the women in secret to ensure they were breeding, or fighting in the coliseum. Ancient…aye, he was ancient. He barely recalled much of his mortal life, though he did remember when he was taken from his village, his mother raped and killed, while his father was gutted and left to die slowly, watching and unable to help. And Mal remembered Alys. Lovely sweet Alys. Malachi’s masters had sent him out for more wine, more food, and he was certain when he returned, he would be ordered to brawl with another slave…or worse, kill one. So he had tarried and they had forgotten him. He had taken some much needed rest, only to awaken when he felt a cool hand on his brow, followed by cool lips, tasting of sweetness of his. She had come on him in the night like a pale misty dream-singing and humming softly, straddling his body and whispering to him in a tongue he hadn’t understood. Certain he was dreaming, especially after her voice came into his mind as well, Alys promised him a new life, new things, new pleasures, while her pretty blue eyes held a plea for forgiveness. He had fisted his hands in her hair and held back his moans while he drove his cock into her sweet little creamy pussy, wondering why she felt so cool, then forgetting it as she warmed so quickly-as they fucked

under the stars while his masters slept through the night, drunk from their days of revelry. She had ridden him well into the night then she had sung him back to sleep before sinking her teeth into him-taking the first of three bites. The next night, she had came upon him while he was bedding his mistress. With narrowed, wary eyes he had drawn back, his wet cock going from erect to half rigid in his suspicion as the woman he was certain he had dreamed appeared at the door. He could hear but not see as she whispered, “Invite me in, lady of the house. I want to play as well.” And she had done it. While the rest of the household had slept, Alys had come on them like a pale whirlwind-laughing and smiling, while her eyes wept. She had whispered to the mistress, whose name Mal had long forgotten, “Sleep…” and the woman had slept. Alys turned to Mal and in a soft, almost meek voice, in his own tongue, whispered “Your forgiveness, I beg. But I need you, a warrior. He seeks me.” And she had launched herself at him. Strong, like the very devil. That night, Malachi knew she was not mortal, though what she was, he did not know. He was wakeful and aware when she bit him the second time, and even though he fought her and cursed her viciously, she did

it painlessly, sliding inside his mind and whispering to him, singing in a voice that even then broke his heart. Malachi planned to kill her the third night. But as simple as she was, Alys was a warrior in her heart, if not her body. “No,” she whispered as she dodged the spear he launched at her, moving quicker than his eyes could track. He could not know how very close he came, him, a mortal. It was unthinkable. But she beat it, just barely, and hid from him-luring him farther and farther from the large sprawling village his master owned, into the forest, where he was the weaker one. “You see, I am not the first one.” Alys spoke into his mind as she let him chase her, letting him think he might catch her, might win. But he was weak from blood loss, from sleep deprivation, and he was already too close to coming over. “You can kill him, a good man you are, a warrior, valiant and strong. Stop him, you will.” “Foul bitch,” he rasped, wheeling on his heel and snagging a thick branch from the ground, snapping it over his knee. A glimpse of white-he spun and threw the makeshift stake and heard a soft female cry, but she was gone before he could see if he had touched her. Later he learned he had, low in her belly, but she had ripped it out and flung it aside, leaping into a tree, and waiting for him to pass by. In desperation, she had dropped down on Malachi. This was the one, she knew. The one who could free her. The third bite drained him to the dregs, and then as

Alys forced Malachi to feed from her, she sighed and murmured, “Such a pity that you will hate me. But he is coming-my Master. By the time you have changed, he will be here. And already you are stronger than us both. And you will see… “But I wish you did not hate me.” Her blood had tasted bitter, then sweet, but Malachi had torn his mouth away as he glared her, spiraling into a black, soft darkness, staring into her blue, glowing eyes. “To my death, I shall hate you-” After he had been turned, though, all that had changed. His purpose was now tiny, pretty little Alys. She hadn’t been evil-sweet Alys. She had been lonely and frightened when she had sired Malachi against his will and he had quickly lost his hatred of her once he realized just how lonely and frightened the vamp was. The bastard who had sired her years before had done so out of malice, forcing the change upon her after feeding from her and raping her for days on end. And Jacob had indeed come upon them within two days of Malachi’s transformation. Mal had come from the dark, burning sleep full of ravenous hunger, dying to kill the woman who had changed him. And Alys had known, had been waiting with her head bowed… waiting. Malachi had torn out of there with snarling rage and had fallen upon a deer, sating his hunger that way,

unable to understand these new urges, wanting badly to return to what had been home for so long, but unable to leave the woman-child. Then Jacob had come. Malachi had been brooding, in a tree, his belly full of wolf blood that night, but still, a gnawing, aching hunger filled him-so badly he ached and he felt a hot, burning tingle rip through him, followed by an immediate, confusing anger, nay, a rage unlike any he had ever felt. And possessiveness. When Alys came creeping out of the small cave where she had taken him while he went through the changing, Malachi dropped to the earth, his bare chest gleaming in the moonlight as he approached her. Possessive of her, rage of something wrong that had been done to her. “He is coming.” Her eyes were filled with terror and hope and relief. “I do not know why you did not kill me-nay, I know why. A valiant warrior, I found indeed. Though you have much hatred of me in your heart, you can not simply kill me. But him, you will… no… he calls me…please no…” Then Alys fell screaming to the rocky ground, blood pouring from her mouth and nose and eyes. Malachi lifted her and shouted to her and if he hadn’t held her with all his strength, she would have gone running off into the woods, to the man Malachi felt approaching. Malachi had killed a Master vampire-a two-hundred-

year-old vampire-when he merely three days changed. That sweet child hadn’t been broken by Jacob’s treatment of her amazed Malachi. Jacob had been brutal and cunning but not particularly bright and Malachi had enjoyed killing him. After that they had left the place of Malachi’s birth and settled in a land of mountains and green valleys and misty lakes. His purpose was here, caring for her, bedding her with all the skill he had been forced to acquire in his youth and teaching her that the touch of a man didn’t have to be painful. Alys had blossomed, knowing at last true happiness, true kindness from Malachi. She had remained simple, of course, but she smiled and laughed instead of cringing and hiding. Of course, Alys hadn’t lived long enough to truly enjoy her freedom. A priest had killed her a few years later after she had been fool enough to return to his young flock to feed several times in a month. Malachi had been unaware of her visits to the village and he hadn’t arrived in time to save her. His first true failure. After arriving at the charred remains of their home that morning he had become reclusive, hiding deep within the caverns in the mountains and hills of what would come to be called Scotland. Feeding from some of the more blood-thirsty men who roamed those hills and

mountains, he took particular pleasure when he happened upon those men who fought and fucked with equal brutality. Taking those cruel men and draining them near to death, he would leave them with their minds shattered, simple and completely incapable of rutting on any woman. That had been his life. Malachi became something of a legend in those hills and after a time, fewer and fewer men found pleasure in rape. He had been certain he would spend the centuries alone and without purpose. Over time he had learned how to shift from his mortal form to mist and back again, and had gained the ability to walk in sunlight. When the Council had finally approached him they had reckoned his age at more than eight hundred years. Malachi didn’t tell them that he had been able, from his first century, to walk in even mid-day sun. Nor did he tell them he could hear their thoughts, try as they might to conceal them. That had been before the first Crusade. There, in those first years he learned more of what he was, vampyre, nosferatu. He met others like him, many who had been forced into this life, brought over against their wills, though none seemed to have the skills he had, and none called to him or felt like a comrade in arms-in more than name any way. But Malachi learned.

Master Vampires, ferals, Hunters, witches, wolves, so much more than just the mortals out there. The ferals, the vampires that starved and went mad, losing their sense of self and going insane, turning into little more than monster. The Master Vampires who had sought vampirism, like Jacob had, evil twisted things that were sought out and killed before they could change more mortals. Witches and wolves fought on both sides, some with the Council, some hunted by them. And others. Several centuries had passed before he even learned to read or write, or to count. Finally he had gotten a human servant to teach him after he had come to grips with his fate. Malachi had been born to be a Hunter, and now he was a Hunter trained, taken into the Council in those early days, where he found others like himself. And more. Not just vampires, but shapeshifters and witches. There he found a new purpose. To protect, as he had been unconsciously doing, but this time he wasn’t preying on just those within his territory and more often than not, his prey wasn’t human. By the time he had met Eli, he was the only one left from that first council. The shifters and witches, though long lived, weren’t as long lived as a vampire and they had died off, one by one, of old age or in battle.

The handful of vampires were gone as well, replaced by others. Several had died in battle, some had simply grown tired of their existence, and ended it. If he hadn’t hunted down Elspeth and discovered the half mad, near dead vampire in the catacombs beneath her keep, he may well have followed. But something about Eli called to him, a bonding of sorts. When he looked into those half dead eyes he found a brother in heart and soul, not just in arms. And something was threatening that brother. No, not just something. An enemy. Malachi weaved in and out of the various sentinels Eli kept posted. A few vamps, but most were shifters. Inside the house, more people, humans and shifters and vampires. The sentinels could scent him, but he moved between them like a dark shadow, shifting from true form to shadow form and back, eluding them as they tried to track him. He was at Eli’s door when they finally discovered his goal. They launched themselves, eerie howls coming from their human looking mouths, as they swarmed closer to the intruder. “If you had bothered to give some warning I could have prepared them and they would have given escort instead of chase,” Eli said from the open doorway. “My wolves do not like surprises.” Malachi flashed Eli a grin as he asked, “And what fun

is that?” But he was pleased. Most others wouldn’t have eluded the sentinels, so Eli had some protection, even in the day while he slept. The bitch who was hunting Eli was a witch, but untrained and young. She’d be a little easier to catch, as long as Eli stayed on guard. “Surprises are the only things that make life tolerable.” Eli grinned and said, “Not the only, my friend. Not even the best.” Malachi lifted a dark red brow, the same deep red of the hair he wore in a long, thick braid that nearly touched his waist. He could scent, only faintly, the lingering sweet perfume of woman. It was…different. Human, but not. Vampire, sort of. “Still enjoying that young Huntress you brought into the Council? I’m surprised her wolf allows it. Think he’d let me have a taste?” Eli’s face went blank and he said in a flat, cold voice, “Not likely. Stay away from her, Malachi. She’s happy with Declan.” “Then there’s no reason to stay away, is there?” Malachi knew damn good and well there was a reason. All vampires could draw people to them-it was simply their nature, and what allowed them to feed freely and pleasurably. The older a vampire became, the stronger the call. Eli had seen women fall prey to that call, some he never would have imagined susceptible. Nuns, grannies, gay

women, and women who despised the touch of a man, because of a brutal past. Tori may well be able to ignore it, but he wouldn’t see Declan hurt. “Leave her be, Mal. I am asking as a friend.” Malachi was eaten with curiosity to learn more of this woman, but it hadn’t come to pass. Staring into Eli’s serious, somber golden gaze, he rolled his dark blue eyes in aggravation. “Then, as a friend, I will,” Malachi said with a sigh. Flashed him an evil grin, he said, “But tell me, does she taste as good as she fucking smells?” Eli’s mouth curled in a slow smile and he replied, “Better.” Malachi hadn’t changed. Not in the two plus centuries Eli had known him. He still had a wide streak of mischief in him, and a craving for creating havoc. And he still treated their friendship the same. None of the other vampires Eli knew had the somewhat dubious privilege of calling Malachi ‘friend’. Dubious because Malachi was sometimes a harbinger of things to come, and rarely were they pleasant, though he also would alight on Eli’s property every few decades simply for companionship. Of course, not tonight. I couldn’t be so lucky, Eli thought darkly. He lounged against the wall in the bathroom, as Leslie soaped and rinsed Malachi’s body. The bastard had loved the baths of medieval times, and

more often than not, this was how they spent their conversations. Hell, more than once, Eli and Malachi had both ended up in that tub, either feasting on one woman, or bringing in a second so they each had one. But Malachi wasn’t up for sex sport tonight. “Nobody seems to know who the lass is,” Malachi said, eyes closed in pleasure as Leslie massaged his long, muscled arms with talented fingers. As Eli had expected, she had fallen to Malachi’s silent call the moment she laid eyes on him. Of course, the bastard had also refused to take her with him, so on top of replacing Leslie, he was going to have to deal with the pseudo-withdrawal she would suffer when Malachi left. That was worse than anything else. It was unsettling to see how easily a woman succumbed to Malachi. In the early days, Eli had envied it. As he grew older, and started having some of it directed his way, he pitied the women. When Malachi left them, Eli had seen women cry as though their hearts were broken. He used to wonder if Mal even noticed. Now he knew the older vampire did notice, but he was weary. Too damned weary too care. Sometimes Eli wondered why Malachi chose to continue when he was so obviously tired of his life. Maybe, after all these centuries, it was habit. “Are you listening to me?” Malachi asked, his voice

rough with aggravation. Eli forced his gaze back to Malachi and fought down the instinctive urge to fall to his knees in submission. “Wandering mind, so sorry,” he said, his voice clipped. Even after all these years, he still had to fight the urge to submit. And he was a fucking Master. Sometimes, when Eli found himself doubting there was any kind of God or heaven or hell, he made himself think of Malachi. Somebody had once told him, when he was a child, that God’s own angels walked the earth to help those who needed it the most. To protect those who couldn’t protect themselves. That was Malachi. Had Malachi been born with evil inside him, being the powerful Master that he was, he would have wreaked more havoc than the Council would have been able to control. Instead, he had been born a good, decent man, even if he was somewhat demented at times. “There’s a girl who wants ye dead,” Malachi snapped. His accent was odd, difficult, no, impossible, to place. That came from spending too much time in too many places. But when he was aggravated, the burr of Scotland came out. Even after so many centuries, Scotland was still where he called home. “More than one, I’d wager,” Eli said with a shrug. “What of it?”

“This is a girl who can run like the wind and can hide in plain sight. I’ve tried tracking her, but she eludes me. She’s been askin’ ‘bout you, boy, and I dinna see her trying to sell ye a bleedin’ bridge.” “Who is she?” Malachi dismissed Leslie with a glance and leaned forward in the water. “We don’t know, Eli. She asks, she searches and hides. But she asked the wrong person-Agnes Milcher-and Agnes felt the hatred and the power. She’s a bloody powerful witch and none of ours kin find her.” “Looks?” Malachi shrugged. “We don’t know that, either. She wears glamour like you wear your skin, Agnes says her image changed constantly while she tried to break the glamour and it never broke. Some saw a young tiny blonde who looked rather fey, others a strappi

ng red headed Amazon. Agnes saw both of those, plus a dozen more faces.” Eli knew you couldn’t live as long as he had, do the things he had done, and not make enemies. But none of them had gotten to him yet, and he wasn’t going to lose sleep over it. Chapter Two

Eli was going to die over it. He had been out hunting, and hadn’t paid attention. His prey had been a child molesting bastard. He never made it to the pervert’s house. As he stumbled to his knees, agony tearing through him, he decided that was his number one regret. If he had known he’d never see another moonrise, he would have made certain Tori and Declan knew about this kill before he had left the house. But he hadn’t been expecting this. The warning Malachi had issued had fallen to the back of his mind. Hell, it had been nearly a fucking year since Malachi had shown his face and not one sign of this supposed girl who wanted him dead. Until tonight. Now he had a thick arrow-more like a spear than anything else-piercing his chest. Tinged with the scent of human blood, soaked in garlic, rubbed with some herb that he suspected was toxic to a vampire, and he was going to die. Eli summoned what little strength he still had and called out to his people. Hopefully some of his wolves could arrive in time. Quickly he sent a final, urgent command to Jonathan to take care of his prey and the child. Jonathan wasn’t a true Hunter, not yet, but he would be in time and any were could handle one fucking, perverted child molester. At least he could die knowing the little girl would be

saved. Behind him he heard footsteps, smelled a soft, sweet perfume and the musk of woman but he was too fucking weak to turn his head and look at his killer. Soft, pleased laughter filled the air, but a bay rent the night and the woman cursed. “Seeing as how I don’t want to die, and I know how many steps it takes to make sure a vampire is dead,” she whispered in his ear from where she knelt behind him, “I think I will have to run. “But I will see you dead. Until that happens, I have the pleasure of knowing you will suffer.” Eli coughed up blood, gagging, and spat it out as he fell forward, catching his weight on one hand. “Mind if I ask why you want me dead, witch?” “Because you stole someone from me,” she purred, her voice a soft seductive caress even to his dying ears. “Five years ago, a

man and ch ild died because of you…” God help him, if Eli had possessed the strength, and the blood, that low, sexy voice would have made his cock hard as a pike without him even seeing the woman. That was the last thing he remembered before he tumbled into oblivion. *****

Tori awoke with a gasp, fiery pain streaking through her chest, then coursing through her veins with every beat of her heart. Declan mirrored her position and they both cried out at the agony. When she looked down, Tori half expected to see her chest torn open. But the naked pale skin of her breasts was unmarred. Through their bond she could tell that Declan was suffering the same as she. Tori was the one to realize why. “Eli,” she gasped, forcing herself to concentrate and tamp down the bond she and her mate shared with the vampire. She couldn’t think through the pain and she needed to think. Somebody had tried to kill Eli. Somebody just may have succeeded. Stumbling from bed she glanced at Declan. He, too, had made the connection, his thoughts mirroring hers as he climbed from bed as well. “We have to go to him,” she said through stiff lips. A knot had formed in her throat and rage burned low in her belly. Before she had closed their link down she had learned enough. Somebody had shot him from behind with a poisoned spear that had been soaked in garlic. Somebody knew enough about vampires to know what was poison to them. The spear, a very effective stake. The garlic, and the odd poison Tori had detected.

“I’m gonna kill her,” Tori said softly, moments later as she and Declan ran to the car. “Not if I find her first,” Declan growled. His hands closed around the steering wheel and she saw the tips of his nails, lengthened and clawed, as his rage spun out of control. Tori slid her lover a sidelong look and said, “We can share. I’ll rip her throat out. You can have the rest.” “Just like a vampire,” Declan muttered. “Wanting to bleed the body and let the wolf eat the cold leftovers.”His beautiful face was gaunt. Gray. Always so golden and alive, and now he lay like death on his bed. Tori approached, her eyes burning with tears. But she already knew what to do. Tori had spoken with some of the council, telling them what she had learned from her link with Eli before he fell into a comatose slumber. Foxglove and sage. Combined with the garlic, it was enough to kill any vamp that wasn’t a Master, and a good many of the lesser and younger Masters. Drawing the dagger she had taken to carrying, Tori sliced her wrist open, deep, nearly to the bone as she knelt by Eli’s head. Declan stood ready behind her, to take over feeding Eli once Tori grew too weak. Tori held her bloodied wrist to Eli’s mouth as she asked, “Has the witch Agnes promised us called?” From the doorway the werewolf Jonathan-the one who

had fed her only seven years ago, in this same houseanswered quietly, “Yes. She will be here by nightfall. And she already knows what to do.” His handsome young face looked older, angry, weary. A tiny blonde child cuddled on his shoulder and he had shrugged when Tori had sent him a seeking gaze. “Eli had been hunting her father when this happened. He sent me. I took care of her father and now I can’t get her to turn me loose. I think she thinks I’m her puppy. I can’t control her mind the way…the way Eli could. Any time I lay her down, she wakes up screaming and she needs to sleep.” Tori had stroked the tiny blonde head and said, “Find one of the lesser vamps, Jonathan. I know you’re getting-attached, but she doesn’t need to see this.” His jaw had tightened and his reply was, “I am not a child, nor do I belong to you. Eli is my master, and I answer to him. The child is asleep, unconscious actually. She is fine. Now see to Eli.” The were rarely showed anything other than deference and Declan bared his teeth at him. Tori had merely sighed. “Whatever. We need to focus on Eli. Now.” “This witch, she can handle it?” Declan asked, his voice gone deep and rough. Brilliant green eyes dancing and swirling and glowing with his rage, only his immense willpower kept him from shifting. “The bitch will most likely come tonight or tomorrow to make certain she

has finished the job. Tori won’t be able to handle her tonight and I don’t know about myself. Depends on how much blood he takes from me when he is done with her.” “I will feed him,” Jonathan offered. Declan forced a tight smile and shook his head. “We’ve got a bond. He needs it from us, but you will be helping. The wolves will have to do most of the guarding until that slut is caught. The vampires can not risk it. This would certainly kill them.” Then his eyes drifted to the little girl Jonathan still held. “You do have to let the girl go, though, Jonathan.” The were smiled, stroking the tiny blonde head. It was an amazing thing to have a child throw her arms around your neck and cling. “If it will kill them…” His large, luminous eyes drifted to Tori, unable to hide the worship there. His canines lengthened in rage and Declan felt the power ripple through the air as the werewolf fought the animal inside and contained it. Amazing, that he could. So few of the weres could control such rage, with the full moon so close. The young man would be a Master Hunter in time. “Tori isn’t susceptible,” Declan said, watching his wife’s face. She was focusing on the task at hand, concentrating and trying to force the life that was slipping away from Eli back inside his dying body. Her blood wasn’t just intoxicating. Over the years they had discovered it was damn near miraculous and could

heal almost anything. They had learned this after a silver bullet had torn through them both. Declan had lain nearly dead from blood loss, while Tori wept and cried over him, her own blood seeping from the evershrinking hole in her belly. As her blood flowed onto him, his own bullet wound started to heal. It finally closed nearly an hour later, after expelling the bullet that had lodged inside his gut. A wound that should have killed Declan instead laid him up in bed for a week while he recovered from the blood loss. Whether or not it would work on Eli they didn’t know. The young witch looked like Pippy Longstocking, with two long fat braids that lay over her gently rounded breasts, freckles splattered across her nose and her big brown eyes hidden by tortoiseshell frames and thick lenses. A kid…she looked like a mere kid. But her eyes, her eyes looked world weary, and as old as the ages. A nubby brown sweater hung to her hips and she wore clunky hiking boots on her feet. Tori stared at her with suspicion while thinking, this is the best the council has? The witch, Kelsey, smiled at Tori and said, “Not the best, no. But the closest. I’ll do what I can, and if what I do isn’t enough, then I can buy him time until another more powerful witch arrives.” She turned her large eyes to the blood stained clothes and the wooden

arrow, the end decorated with beads, feathers, and magic. Tori watched as Kelsey trailed her fingers lightly, almost timidly, down the shaft of the overlarge arrow, a hiss coming from her parted lips. “Hatred. So much hatred. Need for justice. Grief. And power.” When the girl lifted her eyes, Tori saw that they glowed hot, the brown gleaming and glowing nearly red with her power. “Blood-spell. She forged this herself, cut it, shaped it, breathed her hate into it. Only her blood will completely save him.” Kelsey’s skin was glowing like a pearl in the sunlight as she held one hand above the arrow and uttered a few words in some unrecognizable language. An orb floated from her hand, forming out of thin air, to hover over the shaft making it whirl, and then it stilled, pointing east. Another guttural word from Kelsey and the orb drifted down until it encased the arrow and she whispered, “Got you.” Moments later she stood over Eli’s still body and said quietly, “Your blood has bought him time. But it won’t heal him. It can’t, Tori. She’s cursed him.” Tori rubbed her wrist where the deep cut healed slowly. In a few days, it would be gone. She was weaker from the loss of so much blood. Thank God Kelsey had arrived before Declan had tried to feed Eli. He was in fighting form and not weak from blood loss. He’d be able to hunt the assassin.

“Cursed him,” Tori repeated, staring at Eli’s still face. “Curses are real?” “As real as we are,” Kelsey murmured, staring at Eli with pity. “So handsome. He’s something of a wonder, Eli is. He’s what many of the Hunters aspire to be.” “You?” Kelsey laughed. “No. Not me. I’m a healer, a witch. A damn good witch, if I may say so. But I’m no warrior. I serve the council in my own way.” “How can we break the curse?” Kelsey shrugged. “If it wasn’t a blood-spell, I could probably do it myself. Most curses are fairly simple. But…but a blood spell can only be broken by the one who did it.” Declan had entered in silence and now he stood behind Tori, a hot, angry presence at her back, while he listened to the witch. “So I just find this woman and … convince her to break the spell and he will be fine?” Declan asked. His voice was a low pitched growl in his anger, as it had been for the past day. “Don’t you mean coerce?” Kelsey asked with a tiny smile, and then she shook her head. “Not that simple. She has to give back what she tried to steal. Her life essence to replace his.” “An eye for an eye,” Tori murmured. “Not exactly. She doesn’t have to die. Actually, the way magic works, it’s better if she doesn’t. What she h

as to do is feed him.” “And if we don’t find her?” “He’ll probably die,” Kelsey said baldly, lifting her slight shoulders. “She’s placed-well, think of it as a drain that only she can plug. She’s torn something open inside him that will drain his life-force away. She opened it with her blood. Only her blood can close it.” ***** Sarel stared out into the night at the brightly lit house, a fierce joy surging through her. It wouldn’t be long now. As her blood had caused the wound that would eventually kill the vampire, her blood was linked to him. She could feel his suffering, feel his agony. But there was something missing. Sarel wanted him to curse and rage and fight his coming death. But Elijah Crawford had accepted it. Something was keeping him alive longer than she had expected. The blood-spell should have killed him that day, by noon at the latest, but he still lay, lingering through the beautiful sunrise, and the gloriously bright morning when he received a sudden blast of energy. No damn reason, none, for him to have survived more than a few scant hours. She was glad she had conjured the blood spell instead of just poisoning the arrow. If it had just

been the poison, what-or whoever-had just fed the creature would have allowed him to throw off the poison. Something odd was going on inside those walls. Even though he was dying, that surge of power made her wonder. She dropped from the tree and stood, her long wiry body arching and tensing, forcing stiff muscles to relax as she paced back and forth, nervous as a cat, just as curious, just as mad, her eyes narrowed, hands fisted as she pondered her options. Not that there were many. Sarel was going to the house. She didn’t want to use big magic and warn whoever was inside the house, which meant she had to move closer. An odd tingle slithered down her spine as she crossed the tree line. In her hurry to check out the house, she shoved it aside. The house…she could see the people inside, and distantly hear them. But she couldn’t see them, with the sight that made her witch. If she trusted just the witch-sight, she would have said the house was void of life. But her eyes and ears told her otherwise. People were there. Sarel should have been able to reach out with her magic and coax the elements into aiding her. The wind would have carried their voices and the animals would have whispered their fears. She should have been able to look through the

windows and see not just the people, but what lay inside them. Evil people were always a swirling mass of gray and sickly putrid yellow. Warriors and soldiers were a strong, solid blue. She saw it almost every time she had evaded a cop after she had run away from home. The warriors, while good men, wouldn’t hesitate to detain a young teenager wandering the streets. Teachers were white, not just the school teachers, but the ones who taught, like mothers and writers, and painters. Children were the pale sweet green of spring, innocent and young and easily broken. Other witches, like Sarel, tended to glow a soft, mellow gold. At least, she had once gleamed golden. Sarel knew her aura was no longer gold. Red was now the color of her aura. Red for rage, red for vengeance, red for anger. And black for death. Her aura colored everything she looked at-or maybe discolored. Explaining why the few times she caught a glimpse of Elijah Crawford, murderer, child killer, he gleamed that strong, bold blue to her witch’s sight. Her hatred had blinded her, fooled her, made her see things that weren’t there, or believe things that weren’t real. So, of course, she stopped using that sight around him. When she looked through the windows she should have seen a morass of colors, mostly likely green and sickly grays and blacks. But she saw nothing.

It didn’t dawn on her until too late that one of those people was like her, only stronger. And that witch was blocking her. From the window she saw a woman, long black hair in tight spiral curls. Had to be a perm. Big blue eyes. Contacts, definitely. A bandaged wrist. Some slut feeding her vampire lover. That one was the witch, Sarel figured, narrowing her eyes and trying to figure out a way past her. Another woman. Woman, hell. A freaking teenager with two red br

aids and a conc erned look on her young face. Another child. Like Lori had been. Others moved throughout the room, bringing water and food to the women. One tapped his wrist and gestured to the dying vampire, obviously offering to feed him. Sarel smiled. “Feed him all you want. Only one thing will break the curse. And he can’t have it.” “Wanna bet?” Chapter Three Kelsey’s back stiffened. “She’s coming,” she whispered, her eyes starting to glow with that eerie red-brown fire. In an odd, slow motion, much like a bird of prey turning to stare at a snake, she said to Declan, “Bring

her here.” “She’s a witch,” Tori said softly. “She can-“ “No. I’m stronger,” Kelsey said with certainty. “I can hold her. She may, and probably will, fight physically. But no magic, I promise.” As Declan left, his mouth curved in a violent smile, Tori said, “If he is hurt, so are you.” Kelsey laughed, he

r face ligh tening. “He won’t be. I’m not much of a warrior, but I’m a hell of a witch. I’ve got more ages of practice behind me. And I know my magic.” “Ages?” The lingering doubt in Tori’s eyes and voice was clear for all to see and hear and Kelsey laughed. Winking at Tori, the witch said, “Vamps don’t have the strong hold on the fountain of youth, Tori.” ***** “Wanna bet?” Sarel whirled and tried to grab her gun, but the harshly whispered words were the only warning she had before something sprung out of the shadows and took her to the ground. Landing on something both hard and soft as she went down, she was rolled to her belly and pinned, two large furred hands gripping her wrists. Feeling the power ripple through the air and roll

like water over her skin, the furred hands became smooth and human and male. Gathering her focus, Sarel struck out, intending to knock the man flat on his ass, render him unconscious and do what she came for. Instead the invisible lance of pure power was flung back at her and she writhed, shrieking in agony, certain she was going to die. Oh, baby, I couldn’t protect you. Couldn’t avenge you either, she thought before she gave in to the pain. Declan jerked the young woman up and flung her unconscious form over his shoulder. The little witch had come through, he thought with satisfaction. He had felt something like a thunderstorm ready to hit with violent force, and then it died. No. Not died. It had been redirected. Back into the woman who had sent it. This woman’s magic was rough, much rougher than anybody’s he had ever seen. Powerful, though, and quite deadly, like the power of a tornado. Or maybe like the wild forest fires that sprang up out west and destroyed homes, trees, land, lives. Generally witches had a power that was more like a laser-refined, true, powerful, and under control. Declan strode naked into the house with the little bitch’s backside in the air. He stalked up the stairs and

carried her into Eli’s room, where his best friend lay dying. With a snarl, he threw her unconscious body down onto the floor and lifted his glowing eyes to stare at Kelsey. “Now. What.” He had to force the words out, his throat was so constricted with rage and anger and he knew his control was near shot. Declan had never fed on human flesh before, but this night it had been tempting. He had wanted, desperately, to rip her throat out and feed for what she had done. Not even in the hunt had he fed on a human before. It was a line he feared crossing. When the hunger ran too high he hunted the forest for wild game and satisfied his hunger that way. Or he would shift to his half wolf form and fuck Tori until she pleaded for mercy-another way to sate the animal. Right now, he wanted so badly to feed that his jaws ached with it. Tori stroked his shoulders with soft, soothing hands, pressing a kiss there before wrapping her arms around his waist. Kelsey moved closer and knelt beside the limp body, staring at the sun kissed flesh of the red-headed woman. Her skin was an odd mellow gold, almost like that of a mixed race child. And her coppery-red hair was escaping from its restraining braid to curl around her face. To Kelsey, there was something unnervingly familiar about her. A familiar look about her, like she had seen her before, maybe regularly.

To Declan, she looked hardly more than a child, as he stared down at her, bemused. The witch had seemed much older before he had taken her down and she had unwittingly knocked herself silly with her own magic. Now, she barely looked to be in her twenties. Kelsey continued to crouch by the woman’s head, one hand held out, hovering merely centimeters from her still body. A gasp left her throat and her body spasmed once. Declan moved closer, ready to knock her aside and defend her, but Kelsey’s eyes opened, once more glowing. “She’s no threat to me now,” she said quietly. “Let me work.” Sliding deeper into the woman’s sub-consciousness Kelsey absorbed the information she needed simply by sifting through the woman’s memories. Her name was Sarel. Just Sarel. No last name that Kelsey could find. There had been a young child, four, maybe five. Beaten and battered. The child slowly shifted to a young woman, just a teenager when she had fled a broken down ramshackle house, leaving behind a woman and a crying baby. She had always meant to go back and rescue the child. Had visited, late at night, early in the morning before the father woke. Gave the woman what money or stolen goods she could, urged her to come away with her. When she had gone back the final time, maybe five years ago, the woman was dead. The man was dead. A house

torn apart, trashed and smeared with blood and gore, and the scent that Kelsey knew as vampire, a scent that Sarel had caught, but not known. The baby, then a young girl, was gone. Today would have been her fourteenth birthday. The little girl’s name had been Lori. Lori…a sweet, redheaded little girl, wide eyed and innocent. Kelsey shook her head. Such a child had alighted on the Council’s doorstep just a few years ago, wrapped in Eli’s arms. The vampire had been reeking of blood and violence, his eyes full anguish and pain as he turned the child over to Kelsey, assuring her that the little one’s memory of the night was gone. Kelsey had wished she could do the same for Eli but he had left in silence before she could even offer a shoulder. A gifted child, another witch, one who would be a Healer. The child had often asked of her sister…Sarel. Sarel, the angry powerful young witch who was killing Eli. A tangled path had led her to Eli’s door. Sarel had arrived only hours after her father had killed her mother, before he had turned on his own child. The child hadn’t been killed though. Her father had died viciously, his throat ripped wide open, his blood painting the floor red instead of feeding Eli. The bastard’s body had been pummeled and beaten and

broken, a more brutal, and deadly version of what he had often done to his wife and kids. It hadn’t been one of Eli’s cleaner kills. Standing enraged before the lifeless woman who had let her children be beaten, his emotions, his helplessness apparent as he held the tiny, underfed nine year old in his arms while she sobbed and cried. Eli had resorted to mind control to soothe the child, erasing her memories of that night and taking her away. Sarel had strong, untrained psychic skills, not just the witchcraft. The hunter had left too much of himself, let himself feel too much rage. He hadn’t just attacked and killed-Eli had fought, wanting to feel bones break under his hands, wanting to feel skin tear and blood flow. And he had let his own blood be spilled as he allowed the man to fight-as he let the perverted bastard think he would win before he killed him. Sarel had locked on the scent of his blood, his rage, convincing herself she was tracking a killer. That was how Sarel had found him. Tracking the path of emotions, the line of blood and rage, going without any knowledge of his looks or his name, for more than four years, she had tracked him. Between the blood and the emotion, she was led across the country to Eli. It had taken years, but she had followed the trail of righteous death, not seeing it for what it was, and had landed here.

Every unexplained death, every near bloodless corpse pulled her closer. She hadn’t heard, or if she had-she had ignored-the stories of abuse and neglect and crime that surrounded the supposed victims. Having arrived here nearly a year ago she had hidden behind the guise of glamour while she watched Eli, while she planned, while she researched. While she grieved. Sarel thought Eli had killed her baby sister, the baby sister who was alive and well at Excelsior, learning the ways of Healing, being a happy child, being a witch, being free. “Oh, sweetheart, aren’t you in for a rude awakening,” Kelsey murmured. Under her breath, she murmured the words to a spell of entrapment, one to hold the other witch helpless, both magically and physically, until Kelsey or Kelsey’s death, released it. Not that what she was going do was going to kill her, but it was definitely going to hurt. Lifting her head, she looked at her audience of two. At some point, one of them had sent the others from the room, so there was nobody but Declan and Tori, the unconscious witch, and the dying vampire. Baldly, Kelsey said, “Eli’s running out of time. He’ll die unless she feeds him, and does it willingly, within in the next few hours. I don’t think we have the time to talk some sense into her.” Declan had been standing behind Tori, his arms

wrapped around her waist, holding her against his naked body, his chin resting atop her blacks curls. But at Kelsey’s words he spun away and started to pace the confines of the room, his hands flexing and relaxing. From time to time, the bones in his body would start to shift and power would shudder through the room as he battled the wolf that raged to be free. Tori caught him as he passed by her, stroking her hands soothingly down his arms before turning back to Kelsey. “So what do we do?” she asked calmly. “We can’t do anything, but I can. However, I won’t be worth much afterward. I’ve put a spell on her, so she can’t run, and she can’t fight in any way. That way, in case this doesn’t work, she can’t turn on you while I’m out.” “Out doing what?” Declan asked. “Passed out. Out cold. Unconscious,” Kelsey said, a small smile tugging at her mouth. “This is definitely not going to be one of the smartest things I’ve ever done.” With that she turned and moved to Eli’s side. “I need her on the bed,” Kelsey said as she crawled across the bed to kneel in the middle by Eli’s prone form. She could feel him, still there, but growing weaker. The pain that was ripping through him was enough to make her nauseated, but she had to clamp down and shield against what he was suffering now. It was the suffering from his past she needed, his emotions, his need for justice, his loneliness. Declan

tossed Sarel down carelessly before turning back to his stalking. “If I fail, I know you will kill her,” Kelsey said softly. “But she didn’t do this because she is evil. She isn’t. She’s misled. But she’s also dangerous. Kill her, but do it fast, and do it clean. And-politely, if you can. She’s suffered enough.” “Suffered?” Declan rasped, his voice a painfully deep growl, his eyes glowing neon green and swirling with his anger. “Suffered?” “Yes. She’s suffered. As one member of the Council to another, I charge you with this. Do not toy with her. Do not be cruel. She may escape if you do. And you know we can’t risk that. But I know that she deserves better.” Declan’s words were cut off by Tori. Her blue eyes were glittering and gleaming with the tears she still held back but she promised in a rough, husky voice, “If you fail, I will make certain she dies quickly and cleanly, Kelsey. I promise.” Declan made a rude sound behind her and started to mutter under his breath as he resumed his pacing. Kelsey idly wondered if there would be furrows in the wood from his pacing by the time this was over. Turning she placed one hand on Eli’s chest, dropped her shields and called the magic. Placing the other hand on Sarel’s chest her head fell back and the tips of her long braids brushed the linens. Magic pulsed hot and thick through her veins as she chanted under her breath, heat swirling and filling the

air around her until it felt too thick to breathe. Light built and built and built and then exploded in a blinding flash. Tori flung an arm over her eyes and cried out in shock as the light exploded like a bomb without smoke or fire. Through watery, hazy eyes she searched the room. Kelsey wasn’t there. “Where’d she go?” Declan asked. “I can’t see her.” Then he lifted his head, and flared his nostrils, dragging air in. “But I can still smell her. It’s like she’s…inside them.” Sarel felt the alien presence battering at her sense of self but she was too fucking weak to fight it. It spilled in, flooded her, filled and then drained out, taking her anger and her guilt with it, leaving her hollow. A soft, gentle voice said, “He isn’t what you think or who you think. You saw him with the witch sight, saw the warrior. That is who he is.” “Fuck you.” The woman laughed. Her voice stroked over Sarel, soothing a thousand pains, healing small hurts as she said, “He’s a good man. Didn’t your father deserve to die?” “My sister didn’t.” “No. The child didn’t deserve to die. And she’s not dead. But you won’t believe that. So I’m going to show you.” The hollowness inside Sarel was suddenly flooded. That night-it was like she was there again. The blond,

achingly beautiful vampire had kicked open the door only seconds after Sarel’s father had pumped her mother full of lead, while he stared at sweet little Lori with hot, hungry eyes. Lori was crying and screaming and covered in her mother’s blood. The vampire had cast one look at her and whispered quietly, “Sleep.” And Lori’s eyes closed as she slid to the floor, soft whimpers still falling from her lips. “Invite me in.” Sarel shuddered at the power in those words, recognizing the silent psychic command and watching as her father did so, inviting the man in while his mind frantically tried to figure out why he had just done so. “You did it so I can kill you,” Eli purred, stalking around the room, circling ever closer to the sweating man who suddenly stank of fear. Eli looked like a tawny gold mountain lion, sleek, deadly, predatory. He stopped when he was standing in front of the mortal again, flashing his fangs at him and smiling. “I’m going to enjoy killing you,” Eli whispered savagely. Sarel’s father bellowed and flung himself at Eli, hitting him with a blow that would have shattered the jaw of a human. Eli smiled and said, “This is going to be more fun than I thought.” Sarel watched as the blond vampire slowly, thoroughly, and with immense skill, pounded her father into the

ground the way she had so often dreamed of doing. From time to time he would back off, allow the human to catch his breath, gather his strength and his fear, and launch another attack. Eli would take a few blows, letting the bastard think he could be beaten, and then he would whirl faster than the eye could follow and reappear behind her father, taking him, kneeing him in the kidney or smacking him tauntingly on the head. The final time it happened Eli simply shifted, going from his mortal form to gray smoke, reforming behind the man who had gone white and pale with sheer fear. Eli drank in the fear like it was wine but when he gripped the man from behind and sank his teeth into the human flesh he did it merely to rip it open and make him bleed. The mouthful of blood he caught he spat out onto the floor after he had used his sharp teeth to pierce and rip open the carotid so that the man fell into a puddle of his own blood and died only seconds later. Sarel tried to scream when she saw the man go to the sleeping child and everything inside her went cold as he reached to touch her. But he didn’t. He paused and stared at the blood on his hands and body. “That’s really going to help her mental condition, mate,” he muttered in a clipped English accent as he turned to walk around the puddle of blood. Sarel was still frozen where she had been, unable to follow, but she heard water splashing and when the

vampire returned, the blood still stained his clothes, but not his hands or face. Dull horror bloomed inside her at what she saw on his face when he paused to stare down at her mother’s lifeless body. Helplessness, rage, disgust. The same feelings Sarel had so often felt towards her mother. The horror only grew when he picked up Lori with gentle hands. His touch woke the little girl and she started to scream, huge wracking sobs ripping from her between the screams, and the man’s beautiful face twisted with misery and sorrow. Sarel saw blood tinged tears trickle down his face as he rocked the grieving child back and forth. Finally, he caught her tiny face in one long, graceful hand and whispered gently, “Sleep, pretty child. When you wake, things will be better.” Sarel felt power shudder through the air, and her psychic abilities let her see that he had erased Lori’s memory of that night. Completely erased, not covered, or pushed back until she was older. The night simply hadn’t happened. Nausea roiled in her gut and she wanted to cover her mouth against the urge to vomit but she still couldn’t move. The house, the vampire and her sister faded from her sight, but she was now somewhere else, a million somewhere elses, watching a million repeats of what she had just seen. Yes.

Eli Crawford was a killer. A vigilante. She watched as he took the lives of drug dealers, men and women who sold children, rapists, child molesters. Not all of them were the scum of society she would have expected. Three she recognized-a hotshot movie star who was rumored to have a taste for cruelty, a politician who had used his wife’s money to aid his rise to the Senate while he kept her drugged and locked away as he raped their two children, and an NFL football player who had already done time in jail for battery. His wife had taken him back and he would have killed her that last night if Eli hadn’t intervened. “Not real. You’re making me see this. It’s not real,” Sarel murmured, trying to console herself. The woman’s sigh seemed to wrap around her. “You’ve enough of a gift to be able to tell if I were lying. My psychic skills aren’t as strong as yours, but if you don’t believe what your eyes are showing you, then perhaps you will see what your soul and heart show you.” Feeling as though she had been ripped from her body Sarel could see her herself, clad in black camouflage, smudged with dirt and soot, as she hovered above the bed. Next to her still form she saw the vampire-pale, gray with impending death. And then she was flung into his body. Whatever it was that kept her helpless hadn’t blocked her sight this time. A warm, vivid blue light pulsed all

around her. Warrior. She battled the unseen, unstoppable force that was propelling her straight into his soul. “Stop it!” Sarel screamed. She tried to dig in her heels, but the force that was behind her was far too strong and there was no stopping it. No. She felt Eli, felt his weak surprise, felt how he still battled against the insidious poison she had placed inside him, felt his gradual acceptance. Eli was aware of them, she realized. And he knew who she was, but he ignored her. “Kelsey, have you gone and grown up already, little girl?” “Yes. It’s been nearly forty years, Elijah. Did you still think I was the little girl you carried away from that house before you burned it down?” “Forty years? Only forty?” He laughed weakly. “A witch. How did I know that would happen?” Sarel felt the other witch’s impatience, and heard it this time as the woman said, “Are we going to stand here and exchange small talk?” “I’ve nothing better to do until I die. Takes my mind of the fucking pain, a little anyway,” Eli said. “Don’t you want to live, Eli?” Eli laughed. Sarel shuddered as the sound wrapped around her, sounding both hot and cold, hard and soft. Both a caress and a slap at the same time. “I’m not alive, Kelsey. I’m dead, a fucking vampire.” “You’re not dead, Eli. You’re just not human anymore. But

even if you are willing and ready to die, what about Tori and Declan? You’re bonded with them. They felt pain when you were hurt, and they’re sick now.” “That was a lie,” Sarel thought, startled. She could sense it, taste it. But Eli didn’t seem to notice. She felt his unease grow. “Tori and Declan will be fine,” he said finally. “Haven’t you heard? Tori is Wonderwoman. There is little that she can not do.” “She fed you, too much. Now she is ill.” Eli seemed to shrug. “She will be all right. Both of them.” “I don’t think they will,” Kelsey argued. “Tori tried to feed to you and it weakened her far too much. She’s in a sleep that I can’t wake her from, and Declan’s half mad with fury. If Tori and you both die and he doesn’t, I’m afraid I’ll have to kill him. He’ll lose control, Eli. Even if he doesn’t, what of his soul-bond to Tori? Do you really think he can live more than a few months without her?” “NO.” The fury blazed and pulsed around them until Sarel could hardly feel anything past it, until she was suddenly the focus. “You.” Sarel felt the witch rip her soul back, felt the witch tear herself out of them both as Eli fought his way back to awareness. A low, furious whisper tore past his dry lips, harsh and painful, as she stared at him, “You.”

Eli’s eyes opened. He was too fucking weak to move but he could see the woman next to him from the corner of his eye, could smell her. It was the woman who had shot him, the woman Kelsey had brought into his soul. She sat up slowly, her eyes refusing to meet his. “Get…out,” he gasped, the fiery hole in his chest robbing him of the ability to think. Through gritted teeth, she said, “I can’t.” His eyes moved to the wide-eyed little redhead who stood at the foot of the bed, staring down at them, looking hardly more than the kid he had saved decades earlier. “Let her go, Kelsey. Get…her the…fuck away… from me.” “I’m not stopping her from leaving, Eli. And why are you so eager to maker her leave? She can end this, here and now.” Eli’s eyes closed. God, he hurt. The blood in his veins pumped sluggishly and it seemed to be filled with acid, burning him from the inside out. “Tori…?” He could smell her, that subtle scent of peaches, sex, woman, and vampire. “She’s down the hall. We can’t get her to feed, Eli,” Kelsey said, her eyes closing. She had to close her eyes, never having been much of a liar, if he looked dead at her he’d see the lie. Right now, he was probably too weak to sense it, but he might still see it. “Declan’s tried and she won’t respond to him. I don’t know how to reach her.”

Desperate energy suddenly flooded him as the rage broke open inside. Eli rolled, pinning the woman beside him, staring down into her slanted green and gold eyes. He was so fucking tired, and it wasn’t such a chore to let it all be over after three centuries of walking alone. He would never have Tori and there was no other woman. But he could not let them die. Tori and Declan meant more to him than his own soul. This bitch in his bed could save him and then he could save Tori and Declan. Afterward he could go right on being lonely, but what the fuck else was new? “You owe me blood, darling,” he purred with menace, his muscles trembling with the effort it took to move and hold her even though she didn’t resist him at all. Those rather amazing eyes closed and she turned her head, offering her neck, saying quietly, “I know.” Sarel couldn’t believe she was doing this. Eli was as weak as a fucking kitten, his entire body quaking with the effort it took just to move. She could have thrown him off easily. Whatever bonds had prevented her from moving had been lifted and she could have tried to flee. No magic, that was still being held deep inside her, and would most likely reflect back on Sarel anything she tried to do. But she didn’t try to run, didn’t even move away when the vampire covered her body with his.

His heart beat against hers, but weakly. He was dying. She felt sick. Her magic had done this. Her magic and her hate. Sarel braced herself for the pain, remembering how he had mauled her father. Granted her father had been a murderer and a child molester, but Sarel had just tried to murder Eli, and he didn’t know that she didn’t know and…and…and…she tried to slow the panicked flow of her thoughts as his golden head lowered to her throat. It was going to hurt and hurt bad. And the awful truth was, she deserved it. If she had just looked, she would have seen the truth, right there in front of her, close enough to bite her on the ass. A strangled gasp left her throat when his teeth pierced her skin, quickly, sharply, a sudden burning pain that was there and then gone, replaced by heat. Her mind still ran in confused circles-how much would he take? Would she live through it? Would he let her leave? Would he turn her into a vampire? Then she felt a soft brush on her mind. A gentle shush that calmed the chaos in her brain and turned her body into mush, a seductive warmth chasing away the fear that held her body stiff and cold. The brush turned into a caress that drew her body tight once more, this time with need, and she cried out, arching up, desire she had never known racing through her body as he fed from her, his cool body growing warm, his trembling, weak muscles stilling as strength

flooded back into him. Eli groaned when she moved against him, crying out. Still weak, he knew he wasn’t up for aught but feeding. However, his cock didn’t seem to understand that as the blood he took instantly raced down to his shaft and he couldn’t keep from rocking his hardening cock against the notch between her thighs as he fed. Eli’s hazy thoughts were slowly clearing and his strength was returning. Confused and distracted by the witch’s thoughts, he absently reached out and calmed her while he fed. She was sweet-hot, rich with youth and magic and power. The power that had damned near killed him was restoring him almost as quickly as he could swallow. He understood enough of her chaotic thoughts to recognize the grief and the sorrow, the guilt. The hot young body was another thing he understood, driving his cock harder against her as he fed, swallowing more, her hot blood splashing in his belly, sending fiery strength out through his body. He pumped his hips against her covered mound once more as he pulled away from her neck, pausing to lick the neat little puncture wounds, savoring the final few drops of blood before he pushed away, licking his lips and staring down at his almost murderer. She was young. She was pretty. She was a witch. And she looked…oddly familiar. Sarel’s lids fluttered. One hand lifted and she reached

out for him, a weak moan falling from her lips. Beneath the sturdy cotton of the black shirt she wore, her nipples were hard and stiff. Eli could smell her arousal and he was tempted. If he was certain he had the strength, he just might rip her clothes off and give her a good hard fuck before throwing her naked ass out. But he’d rather know why she had tried to kill him. Even now she didn’t strike him as a nutcase. The chaos of her mind hadn’t made much sense to him, but one thing had been clear. She’d come seeking vengeance for something. Giving her a light mental slap, he cleared the feedinginduced lust from her mind and turned to look at Kelsey who stood smiling broadly at the foot of the bed. “Thank you, Kel-“ A movement, a scent caught his attention. Turning his head, he saw who had been standing in the corner. Apparently the whole fucking time. Tori and Declan. “Dying, brat?” he said, his voice still hoarse. If she answered, he never heard it as Tori flung herself at him, wrapping her arms tightly around him and swearing at him, laughing at the same time. His own eyes stung as Tori buried her face against his naked chest, tears dampening his skin as she cried. “Aw, sweet. Do not cry,” Eli said roughly, stroking her tumbled curls. “Your mate will finish the job if he thinks you care enough to be crying over me.” “Shut up!” she hissed, smacking him in the arm with

her hand as she pulled away to stare at him. Then her eyes widened. “Damn it, Eli. You look terrible.” “Well, that is exactly the thing I needed to hear, thank you very much, sweet,” Eli muttered, shoving a hand through his tangled, matted hair. Declan asked roughly, his voice thick, “How are ya feelin’?” A wave of weakness washed through him and he pressed his palm to his brow. Tossing a look over his shoulder, he said, “Weak. Starving. Hot. I feel sick. How long will I feel like this?” The stranger on his bed opened her mouth but he coldly said, “I was not asking you, girl.” Color flushed her face and her eyes gleamed, but to Eli’s amazement, she remained silent. He would not have expected such…wisdom from her. Kelsey suppressed a smile as she said, “It will fade within a few days, I think. If you feed again now, it will help a lot. You didn’t take much from Sarel.” Her eyes flitted to the silent girl on the bed. “If you fed from one of your people, or from me or Declan-“ “I can feed him,” Tori said softly. “No,” Declan said, shaking his head. “You just fed him yesterday. Too much. This is too soon even for you, wonder girl.” “Declan, I-“ “No,” Eli said, interrupting her. Her wide blue eyes swung his way and he shook his head, silently backing

up his friend. “I’ll feed you,” Declan offered, casting him a silent thank-you when Tori turned away and walked to the window to sulk. She hated when she wasn’t able to help. Pulling a knife from his pocket, Declan made a neat little cut in his wrist, just deep enough to provide a decent feed, and offered his wrist to Eli. Eli accepted gratefully. As weak as he was, he didn’t feel up to feeding from a female. The sexual call a vampire exuded was always stronger when he or she fed, but only if he or she was feeding on their particular sexual choice. Eli, having no homosexual tendencies, could feed from men from now to doomsday and never feel aroused. Oh, he could raise lust in men, if he was so inclined…but the inclination wasn’t there. The only inclination he had right now was to collapse in exhaustion. He did not feel up to the drain it would put on his system to fight the sexual arousal that would come with the women, no matter that he was near death’s door. And besides, if he had to take blood again, it would have to be from Kelsey or one of his people-m

ostly werew olves, some humans. Kelsey seemed too much like a kid sister to him. He couldn’t feed from her. And between an Inherent wolf, like Declan, and a

werewolf…well, hell, that was like choosing between French wine and wine that cost two dollars. No contest. Closing his mouth over Declan’s wrist he fed, groaning silently when Tori decided to return at that moment and curl up against his side, bringing her scent and her sweet body. “Little bitch,” Eli thought fondly as her hand slid down to stroke his thigh. ***** Sarel felt like she was watching a fucking peep show. Well, no. Not exactly. They weren’t exactly putting on a show. The brunette was curled against Elijah Crawford who sat at the edge of the bed feeding from the long, lean blond who had tackled Sarel outside the house. The blond, Declan, didn’t seem the least bit disturbed when his wife-at least, Sarel thought it was his wife-started to stroke and caress Eli’s chest, his arm, his face, not sexually, really, more as though reassuring herself. They cared. All three of them. About each other. And not one of them gave a flying fuck if anybody knew it, or saw it. Finally Eli pulled away from Declan and said softly, “Thank you.” Declan smiled and nodded, holding out his wrist to Kelsey who had come over to bandage it. Once that was done, he sat down behind his wife, pulling her into the curve of his body and Eli dropped down to lay his head

on Tori’s thigh, his pale face lined with exhaustion. “I could sleep for a week,” he said, thickly. “Then do it,” Tori said quietly, stroking his head with a gentle hand. “We’ll watch over you.” Over his head, she stared at Sarel who had climbed from the bed and stood watching them. Sarel squashed down the fear this woman caused. Meeting those wide, deceptively sweet blue eyes, she stared at them unflinchingly as Tori said, “Declan and I will be here when you wake. Nothing will happen, I promise.” Nope. Nothing was going to happen. Cuz Sarel was outta here. “The girl?” he muttered, his eyes flitting in her direction. Kelsey piped up, “She’s not going anywhere.” “Shit. So much for that idea,” Sarel thought morosely. To back it up, she felt a distant snick-a spell felling into place in the distance. She imagined that if she tried to leave, she’d get maybe a half a mile. And then she’d be stuck and could go no further. Tori shifted from one foot to the other. She wanted, desperately, to follow Declan to their room, rip his clothes off and tumble him to the floor. But she didn’t want to leave Eli alone. Declan grinned at her and lifted her chin with his index finger, pressing

a soft, easy k iss to her mouth. “I love you, darlin’,” he said, his voice soft and musical with the faint sound of Ireland. “And I know you like I know my own hand. Stay. I do not trust the girl myself.” The door closed behind him moments later and Tori curled up in bed after shucking her jeans, wrapping her arm around Eli’s waist, who slept obliviously. She lay so that she could see the door. Outside, she could hear and smell one of the wolves. Declan had posted a guard. With a smile, she gave into the urges of her own body and slept. Chapter Four Eli’s eyes closed in bliss as the hot water pounded over him. Nearly a week’s worth of grime and dirt and blood washed away down the drain as he washed and soaped. Long fingers worked shampoo into his hair three times before he was satisfied. When he climbed from the shower, finally clean, he felt almost like himself again. He still hadn’t seen the girl. Sarel. He knew she was there. He could smell her, hear her. But he hadn’t seen her.

That was probably best. Until he could be certain he had his control back he didn’t want to see her. The door opened, steam escaping past Tori as she slid inside, her eyes hot and gleaming, her long slim body naked. Eli groaned as she plastered herself against him, her lush breasts straining against his chest as she kissed him hungrily. Fangs nipped his lip gently, then she kissed the erotic little pain away as her busy hands closed over his naked ass. “You’re wet, naked. Have I ever told you how much I appreciate the body of a wet, naked man?” she murmured as she pulled back to kiss her way down his neck. From the doorway, Declan laughed. “Careful, darlin’. You’ll make me jealous. I thought I was the only one you liked wet and naked,” he said. Eli’s eyes crossed when Tori closed her hand over his rigid cock, moving in sure, certain strokes as she smiled flirtatiously back at her husband. “You’re my favorite, of course. Come over here,” she ordered, flipping her curls over her shoulder. Once Declan was within reach, she clasped one hand behind his neck and pulled him to her, kissing him greedily, sucking his tongue into her mouth, biting down gently and then laughing when he pulled away and positioned himself behind her, pumping his cock against her naked butt. Tori squirmed away and dropped to her knees in front

of Eli, watching him from under her lashes as she licked a wet trail up his throbbing cock before taking him in her mouth. Eli muttered, “Aw, fuck,” when she took his length almost all the way down her throat, the walls of her throat closing around him, vicing over his invading flesh and driving him insane as she slowly pulled off and then slid back down. Behind her, Declan was stripping out of his unbuttoned shirt and jeans, tossing them aside, and tossing a familiar bottle on the bathroom counter. Eli muttered absently, “Carry that everywhere you go, Irish?” “With Tori as my mate, how much choice have I got?” he replied easily, dropping to his knees and then turning to lie on his back, squirming down and under until he had his face between Tori’s thighs. “She’s always so ready for a three way any time we are in your territory.” His voice was muffled now and Eli groaned as Declan put his mouth on his wife’s pussy, which caused her mouth to tighten to the point of pain on Eli’s cock. Eli pulled his cock reluctantly from her mouth as she arched back, crying out. “Lucky bastard, he is,” Eli muttered, glancing down to see Declan’s head between Tori’s thighs. He tumbled her down, dislodging her from Declan’s hold. Declan growled at him, but Eli only settled himself at her

breasts, catching one nipple in his mouth and suckling hungrily so Declan again lay between her thighs, lifting her ass in his hands and burying his face against her. The sweet scent of her arousal perfumed the air. Eli felt his cock harden even more as she arched up and screamed in climax moments later. “Gimme,” he demanded, nudging Declan aside. He shrugged and grinned, rolling to his back, his mouth and chin gleaming with her cream. Eli spread her folds apart with two fingers and drew his tongue up her wet slit in one long, slow stroke, gathering her cream and swallowing it with a greedy groan before thrusting his tongue inside her wet passage. Declan was moving around beside him and Eli rolled his eyes upward and watched as Declan took his place at Tori’s breasts, kissing and nipping at the plump mounds, biting the peaked nipples, before moving up to eat greedily at her mouth. Tori screamed against Declan’s mouth when Eli wetted a finger in her cream and pressed it against her anus, thrusting against the resistance there and sliding past it, before taking up a fast, hard rhythm that had her rocking against him. He held her hips still with his free hand, and growled a warning against her swollen flesh before he caught her clit between his teeth and gave a gentle tug. Eli drank down the cream that flowed from her as she came, shuddering in rapture. Her sweet, sweet

taste….it drove him mad. He pulled away and tugged her up, holding her body against him, stroking her quivering back as Declan moved up behind her, his face tight and hungry, his beautiful green eyes glowing and swirling and shifting with shades of green. Tori groaned as Declan started to prepare her, rubbing her hole with the lubricant as Eli lowered his head to catch one hard, peaked nipple in his mouth. The thick, flared head of Declan’s cock nudged her anus as Eli bit down on her nipple, bringing a gasp to Tori’s throat. Her head fell back against Declan’s shoulder and he angled his head around to take her mouth roughly, driving his tongue in past her teeth and the emerging fangs to tangle with her tongue as he gripped her hips with hard, steely hands and drove his cock completely inside her ass. Eli started to work his cock inside her narrowed passage, groaning as her swollen tissues resisted him. She was crying and gasping and mewling against him by the time he was all the way inside her, her wet, tight walls gripping him so snugly that Eli thought he would come if she so much as breathed. Declan pulled out and pushed back in. Eli echoed his movement, the sensation sending delirious pleasure racing through his body. Tori screamed and squirmed helplessly. “Please,” she gasped, her head thrashing back and forth. “Please what?” Declan growled against her ear, digging

his cock inside her with short hard thrusts, shuddering as he felt Eli doing the same through the thin membrane that separated them. “Please,” she repeated helplessly, reaching behind her and twining her fingers in his hair, holding him tightly against her. “Please what?” Eli asked, echoing Declan as he lowered his mouth her long, pretty neck. The blood vessel there throbbed enticingly and he licked the fragile skin covering it. Her free hand came up to press against his nape, urging him closer. On a shaking breath, she said to Eli, “Feed. And fuck me, hard. Both of you.” Tori’s scream echoed off the walls as they pressed her tightly between them and drove ruthlessly into her body-Eli into her slick, swollen vagina, Declan driving between the tender cheeks of her ass into the narrow little hole that held him so tight and snug. Eli’s fangs slid down and he struck, breaking the skin and the membrane of the artery, her sweet, intoxicating blood flooding into his mouth as he drove his cock inside her, feeling her walls gripping tightly as she moved closer to climax. It broke over her hard and fast and when she convulsed around him he lost control and spilled his semen inside her wet, waiting depths, his cock pulsing and throbbing as he pumped into her, letting her drain him completely. Behind her, Declan growled, low and harshly, as he drove deep and held

still, locked tightly inside her as his climax rolled through him. Moments later, Eli asked roughly, “Is this like a get well soon card?” Sarel’s breath came raggedly. Her face was hot. With disgust and horror, she insisted. They were fucking. All three of them. Kelsey and the others were moving around as though this were nothing, as though it was no big deal. But the three of them were in the room over their heads, fucking and moaning-the bitch screaming, the men moaning raggedly. It’s not that the people in the room with her where undisturbed. Hell, they were hot. The woman sitting next to her was squirming in her seat, her nipples pressed against her silk shirt, her eyes glazed and blind. Finally, she got up and left the room, and shortly one of the men followed her. Sarel left as well when her sharp hearing caught the words, “Feed. And fuck me.” She stomped out onto the porch into the cool night air, hoping it would cool her hot face and bring reason to her suddenly clouded mind. She knew what lust looked like. And for a few brief moments, while Eli had fed from her, she had known what it felt like. But that had been only his vampire powers, him seducing her with his own form of magic. She knew that vampires needed emotions almost as much as blood-and the emotions from good hard sex were

second to none. Not that she would have given it. Of course, it rather stung that he hadn’t even tried to take it. Not that she would have ever admitted that. The door opened and she didn’t need to look to know it was the other witch. “I wouldn’t judge them, if I were you, Sarel.” “She’s fucking two men. Crawford’s fucking another man’s wife. The man is letting it happen. What’s to judge?” she sneered. “Exactly,” Kelsey replied sharply. “They are all consenting. And all three care. But, more so, this is something they need, and it is something that doesn’t concern you. If you hadn’t let your hatred and your guilt cloud your vision you wouldn’t be here, and you wouldn’t have heard any of that. So if it bothers you, it’s on your own head.” “When can I leave?” “When Eli is ready to let you,” Kelsey answered. “Why don’t you run upstairs and ask him?” And see him? Hot and sweaty and wrapped around that slim, lovely brunette that he watched with adoring eyes? Not. If anybody had dared to suggest to Sarel that she was jealous she would have leveled them with a bolt, and be damned the consequences. “Does she really have to have both of them?” Sarel asked reluctantly, her eyes drawn upstairs.

“No,” Kelsey replied with a small smile. “She doesn’t have to have anybody beyond Declan. But Eli, from to time, needs her. He is lonely. She knows that. They… forged a bond, unwittingly, trying to save her life a few years ago. They did save her, but it bound the three of them very close together. Tori and Declan could easily carry on without Eli-after all, they have each other, but he would suffer. And why should he? He saved her.” Lonely, my ass, Sarel thought bitterly. In all the months she had spent watching Elijah Crawford, the beautiful man was never alone. Never without companionship. Never without a woman unless he wanted it that way. Kelsey sighed, shaking her head. “You can be in a room full of people, Sarel, and still be alone. I’m surprised an intelligent woman like you hasn’t figured that out yet,” she said, then she walked back inside. Eli stared across the room at the woman who had tried to kill him. Kelsey had told him why. He had to admire the girl’s courage. Witch or no, she was just a girl. Untrained, she was alone, and all of twenty four. You had to admire somebody who would go after a vampire armed with nothing but psychic talent, magic and wits. And she had damned near killed him. If it hadn’t been for the bond he shared with Tori and Declan he would have died. They had known what had

happened and gotten there within hours. Tori’s rather miraculous blood had bought him needed hours while they waited for Kelsey, and Declan had taken this willful little bitch down and brought her to him. Kelsey. Still a little spitfire, he thought with a fond smile. She had been that way when he had pulled her out of hell forty years ago, kicking and clawing, certain he would try to hurt her as well. After all, everybody else in her young life had. He never would have imagined the waifish little eight year old he had taken from the slums in New York City would grow to be such a fine young woman, never imagined she would turn out to be a witch, or serve on the Council. And a damn fine witch, a powerful one, not even reaching her peak yet. “Well, are you just going to stare at me all night?” she finally snapped, her bravado starting to shatter. He shrugged negligently, his long elegant hands steepled together in front of his narrow, fox-like face. His golden eyes glittered in the fire light and he said, “It is no hardship. You are rather easy on the eyes, even if you did try to kill me.” She flushed a faint, lovely shade of pink from the low neckline of her scoop-necked black tee all the way to her hair line. Eli wondered absently just how far down that flush would spread. Grinning-a quick flash of sharp white teeth in his narrow face-he laughed silently

at her. “You are not the first to try to kill me you know, Sarel. But you are definitely the first to blush over it,” he mocked her lightly. “Am I supposed to say I’m sorry?” she hissed through gritted teeth. “I thought you killed my baby sister. I now know you didn’t. I was wrong. I am sorry.” Eli smiled lazily. “I know.” “Then what am I doing here?” Eli shrugged again with that slow, lackadaisical motion that he knew was making her grit her teeth in frustration. Damn it, but she was adorable. And sexy. And hot. She was making him burn. Her hair was an unusual deep shade of reddish gold, thick and straight, falling nearly to her tight round little ass. She had wide, strong shoulders, large firm breasts, a flat belly, and long, muscled legs he wanted to feel wrapped around his waist. Conceding to himself that he wanted to see her naked, wanted to see those big, full tits, taste her nipples and her blood and her sex, he wanted to see if her passions burned as hot when she was aroused as they did when she angry. She had just tried to kill him-not even two weeks agoand now he was nearly ready to die just to fuck her. And he imagined if he told her that, she would find another way to try to kill him. “You need to be trained,” he finally said, drawing one leg up in the chair, casually, hiding the arousal just

looking at her brought on. She was nervous enough and the last thing he needed was a nervous witch. Especially since he had made Kelsey release the bonds she had been keeping on Sarel’s magic. “You’ve enough raw power to level this house, and that’s dangerous.” “I don’t need training.” Eli smiled, his head falling back to rest on the cushions. Through the veil of his lowered lashes, he studied her. “I figured you would say that,” he mused. A cool, calculating smile settled on his lips and chilled his eyes. “Tell me, don’t you think you owe me more than an apology for nearly killing me? For saving the life of your sister? And not just saving her, but caring for her these last five years? I did not just take her and leave her in the hands of a foster home, or an orphanage. She’s in the finest of schools, being loved and cared for. Do you owe me for that?” Guilt, the best of motivators. Eli laughed silently as her eyes flashed, and her mouth fell open in shock, then snapped closed. “I, uh, well. Fuck.” Eli purred, “Darling, I’d love to, but that is not what I had planned.” Blushing furiously, she whirled on her heel and stomped to the window. “What do you want from me?” she whispered. “The next five years of your life. After that your debt to me is satisfied. You’ll go to the school and learn to control your magic, which will take the entire five

years. Then you are free.” “Five years?” she repeated, incredulous. Sarel wanted to Lori, find her, hold her close, reassure herself she was safe, but-she owed him. For nearly taking his life, and more. “Five fucking years.” “You will not be spending the five years fucking,” Eli assured her, just to see that lovely blush again. He wasn’t disappointed. The flush spread upward and those proud, lovely shoulders slumped. “All right.” Damn it, she was adorable, though she’d hate to hear that, he was certain. There was something about her that drew him. It was almos

t like she had a call of her own. Staring at the dejected slump of her shoulders, he took pity. Eli had spent more than three centuries on this earth and he had never been a stupid man. He was well aware of what she had been planning to do, whom she had been planning to seek out. “Get packed. You’ll be leaving with Kelsey. She’ll be one of your teachers most likely. She leaves in an hour.” “And don’t look so glum.” Just before the door slammed, he added, “Your sister Lori lives at the school. She’s a student as well.” He shifted to an insubstantial mist a second later and

laughed at the look of incredulity on her face. Chapter Five Sarel strolled out of Excelsior in December, feeling the freedom, the incredible release. It wasn’t just knowing she had fulfilled her obligation to Elijah Crawford, though. Until she had come to the school she had not realized how much of a burden her untrained magic was. Assuming her wild magic was what all witches dealt with-that uncontrolled energy that ran through her like a wildfire-she had thought she must constantly battle it, lest it consume her. After less than six months at Excelsior she had realized how wrong she had been. Trained magic was like breathing. It was natural, it was easy, it was controlled. No longer did she sleep in stops and starts, afraid that the magic would pour from her and damage something, but soundly and sweetly. Often she dreamt of the golden, beautiful vampire who had sent her here. Her cleft went wet at just the thought of him. Sarel wanted him. Hell, she had wanted him even when she had wanted to kill him. The vampire had shown no sign of ever wanting her though. No way would she go chasing after a vampire like bitch in heat, being certain he dealt with that far too much. Never would she become like every other woman he

had dealt with, even if she was dying to spend one night under him letting him fuck her within an inch of her life. Blowing a lock of her burnished red hair out of her eyes, feeling the sun on her face as she jogged down the steps away from Excelsior, she at last felt free from the long halls, the endless training sessions and the boring meditation. Of course, if it for wasn’t the meditation, she never would have learned the control that had finally given her the most blissful peace. Though glad to be free of Excelsior, she would come back from time to time. For a visit. Not to teach, hell no, and definitely not as a student. With a laugh, she headed for the path that would lead her away from the school for the very last time. The trail was a long, winding one, leading from the sprawling stone construction down the hill nearly a half mile to the dorms and parking lot. No cars allowed directly on campus-magic tended to have an effect on technology, especially unmastered magic. All rooms were lit by gas lamps and candles for that same reason. Sarel was less than a third of the way when she smelled it on the trail. Her senses had always been very acute, but the training had refined them. Lust. After being around so many hormonal youths she recognized the scent easily now. But she was puzzled, because she smelled vampire as well as a shifter and the sun was blazing high overhead.

She rounded the corner and saw a blond man holding a woman against a tree, her legs locked around his waist, heels hooked together just above his ass as he kissed his way down her slim, pale neck. That shaggy blond head didn’t look familiar, but it was rather fine ass she was staring at. But the brunette who was moaning-she knew who that was. Tori Reilly, bonded and married to Declan Reilly, who Sarel assumed was the blond. But Tori was a vampire. Her impossibly blue eyes opened and she stared directly at Sarel, eyes fogged by lust, but aware enough. “Darling, we have company,” she murmured. “I know.” The words were hardly more than a growl. “Tell her to go away.” “Seeing as how we came here to see her, that’s not very nice, baby,” Tori said, shuddering when Declan rolled his hips and pushed between her thighs, right against her sex, through the barrier of clothes that separated them. Sarel felt the blush start to rise and battled it down. Sometimes-now-it actually worked. She didn’t have a fair complexion, despite the auburn hair, but rather golden skin all over-from head to toe-so why on earth did she blush so fucking easily? She wasn’t na˜ve, nor sheltered. Watching the shifter as he touched his wife, seeing the way she responded made Sarel’s body heat, made the blood rise to her face, and cream soak her panties. Fuck.

Declan slowly lowered Tori to the ground, stroking his hands over her unabashedly, from her hips up her sides, over her rounded breasts to cup her face. Then he kissed her deep and slow, tenderly, so tenderly, it made Sarel’s heart flip over in her chest before he released Tori, and moved to stand beside his wife. Both of them pinned her with hard, cool eyes. Sarel was uneasy. It didn’t feel right, standing here in the cool green woods with these two. Especially since one of them shouldn’t be able to venture outside for hours yet. There were spells, she knew, that a witch could cast that would protect a vampire from sun for brief periods of time, but she scented no magic. Being a young witch- powerful but young-there were many different flavors of magic, so maybe she was mistaken. Absently she reached up and pressed her fingers against the cross she wore under her shirt. It was silver, heavy, almost as old as Excelsior, and it gave her great comfort to wear it. Having learned in the past five years that while Elijah Crawford was most definitely one of the ‘good’ guys, many other vampires weren’t, and Sarel didn’t trust Tori. Granted, most of that was probably just jealousy, but hell. “Isn’t there something about vampires and sunlight?” she finally asked as Declan and Tori continued to stare at her. Tori smiled slowly, a rather disturbing smile that

brought no warmth to her lovely, angelic face. It revealed two sharp, white fangs and it made Sarel’s blood run cold. “I’m a rather unusual vampire. Elijah could tell you all sorts of things about me.” Sourly, Sarel said, “Oh, I just bet.” Declan suppressed a smile. Tori didn’t bother. She laughed outright, her blue eyes glinting with amusement. “Isn’t that-fitting,” she decided. “What?” Sarel asked defensively, crossing her arms over her chest. Her heart was still pounding hard and heavy. Fear, she knew. She was afraid. She should use the meditation skills she had learned and calm the fear. But that would be admitting she was too afraid and she didn’t want to admit that she needed to be calmed down. “You are jealous,” Tori replied, sliding her hands into her back pockets, rocking back on her heels and smiling sweetly. “I don’t normally share details of my sex life, but I’m tempted. Eli’s quite excellent. Want details? How good it feels to be between the two of them?” She slid her eyes sideways to study the sexy form of her husband-the way his pale blond hair tumbled over his face, his large intelligent green eyes, his long lean body, broad shoulders, narrow hips. Declan’s jeans lovingly cupped the bulge of his cock and molded over his long, lean thighs. “I could give you details.” Sarel’s breath caught in her chest, her face went hot. Details? No. It wasn’t details she wanted, she wanted

the experience. And to wipe that smirk off Tori Reilly’s face. Even if that bitch had every right to hate her, just to be petty, she’d prefer the experience to be with Eli and Declan, not Eli and some faceless stranger. “Tori,” Declan said, rolling his eyes. “Don’t be evil.” “But Declan, the little bitch deserves it.” Tori caught her husband’s eye and shrugged, muttering, “Oh, all right.” Turning back, she met Sarel’s gaze, a tiny, pleased smile on her face, having accomplished exactly what she’d intended, after all. If Tori hadn’t had what she had been wanting for the past five years, Sarel just might like the cocky vampire. “We’re here for the Council.” The Council. Sarel knew of the Council. No student at Excelsior didn’t know. Many of the students were recruited by the Council after graduation. Many dreamed of being a Hunter, but most went on to become teachers, healers-like Kelsey-or scholars. Hell, even her little sister Lori was going to go on to serve the Council as a Healer. Lori had completed her training already and even now was with Eli, serving an internship-to see if they were compatible. That really burned Sarel, but she refused to let Lori see. After being separated so long, she couldn’t let anything dampen their blossoming relationship. And Kelsey had

assured Sarel, with mild amusement, that Eli would feel far too…fatherly towards Lori to indulge in any sort of relationship with the young Healer. One sister serving as a HealerAnd the other, possibly a Hunter. Not many witches had it in them to become a Hunter. Witches were healers, teachers. Rarely were they warriors. Sarel had never really thought of it. The Council had not sought her out. Many times, that was what happened. The outside world thought Excelsior was an arts school for talented and troubled children. They found the children who needed them-and those children were definitely talented, and most often troubled-and sent them a scholarship. If the scholarship wasn’t enough, then usually some ‘persuasion’ was used, in the form a light mental touch. The children’s magic needed training, before they hurt someone. Or before somebody who saw the magic hurt them. So the witches had no problem using magic to get the child into the school. Sarel had been much older when she had gone to Excelsior and it had only taken her five years, instead of the normal ten or more. But she had never dreamed of the Council. She had dreamed of someday living a normal life with her sister. Of course, her sister was one of the starry eyed ones who wanted to stay on in service to the Council. She

was serving who she wanted, Elijah Crawford. And she had become exactly what she had wanted, a Healer. What they wanted of Sarel, she had a pretty good idea. She was a fighter, born and bred. Neither Tori nor Declan looked pleased about being here. “You’re a witch. You’ve a gift. Are you familiar with noblesse oblige?” Sarel lifted a red brow, her green-gold eyes lit with a mocking light. “I don’t owe you damn thing.” Tori laughed. “She’s not familiar with it, darling,” Tori said, answering the question Declan had asked of Sarel. “Noblesse oblige is the premise that those who are more fortunate are obligated to help those who are less fortunate. The Hunters Council was founded on such a premise. “And for some unfathomable reason they think you ought become a part of it,” she finished, looking at Sarel like she had climbed out from under a rock. “Tori, enough,” Declan said with a sigh. “She is practically a child. And she was a child when she did ita stupid one, but a child nonetheless. She thought he’d killed her sister. It was mistake. Let it go.” “Let it go,” Tori whispered. Her eyes started to glow. Like neon, Sarel thought. And if she’d had any doubts whether Tori was indeed a vampire, they died in that second.

Tori’s eyes glowed like a neon blue sign-hot and wild and glimmering-full of anger and rage. “Let it go?” she repeated, her wrathful whisper filling the forest, sliding through the trees like a deadly snake, sending icy chills down Sarel’s spine. “She nearly killed him, yet he repays her by sending her here, to the finest of schools, paying Excelsior to take her in. Excelsior wants her, of course. The Council wants her. And all is forgiven because she was just a stupid kid?” “Look, bitch, you got a problem with me?” Sarel snapped, tired, ready to go home, to go to bed. The euphoria from just moments earlier had faded and she was tired, angry and ashamed. Guilty still, after five years. “Let’s just settle it.” Surely, she could handle one young vampire. Tori had only been dead less than a decade andSarel was on the ground under one hundred thirty pounds of furious, deadly female-flashing fangs and venomous anger. She should have been able to throw her easily. She had a good thirty pounds on Tori, and probably five inches in height, but the small, slim hands held her pinned with laughable ease. Sarel waited for Tori to strike. There was a hunger lurking in her glowing eyes and an anger that Sarel knew Tori had every right to. But her neck wasn’t ripped open. Sarel awkwardly spilled the silver crucifix from her shirt and Tori laughed, reached for the chain and snapped it, lifting

the cross to her lips and kissing it. “A lovely piece. My mother would have loved it. You should cherish it.” Then she had the gall to tuck it back into Sarel’s pocket and pat it lightly. Sarel started to mumble lightly. In time, she would be able to cast spells and work magic without words. She no longer needed gestures, but the words-she needed them still. However, she didn’t get the chance to finish them. A fist flew out of nowhere and struck her in the mouth. Then the weight on her waist was gone and she could rise. “Settled,” Tori said, smiling as she daintily licked a few drops of blood from her fist. “Hmm. Female. Female blood just never tastes as good to me.” Declan closed to his eyes. If Sarel had any clue about men, he was praying for patience. When he opened his rather dreamy green eyes, he looked at Sarel with an assessing gaze. “Tori can most likely let this go now-can you?” Sarel sat up slowly, her head aching, her mouth numb and wiggled her jaw slowly. It wasn’t broken. If the vampire had wanted it broken, then Sarel figured she would have been drinking her meals through a straw for the next few weeks, though she could taste bloodbitter, salty, metallic. “She’s a right to one free hit, I’d say. One.” “Honey, if I had wanted more than one, I would have

already taken it,” Tori smirked, dusting her black pants off, smoothing down the short, snug blue sweater she wore. After tossing her hair back she smiled sunnily. “The Council is asking for you.” And you didn’t tell the Council no. You could always refuse to join. But you had to at least listen. Sarel didn’t tell them no . She had known she wouldn’t. She even knew on the trip there why she was being called to the Council. She was a warrior. Witch or no, she was a fighter, and she always had been. All the students at Excelsior had to go through self defense. After less than a month, Sarel had been asked to assist in teaching the younger students. It was on the trip back, flying over the Atlantic, that she had wondered who they were sending her to. She’d been told she would be given to a partner. The Hunters were almost always in pairs. And the newest Hunters were always put with a more experienced Hunter. Malachi, one of the vampires on the council, had told her in a quiet voice her mentor would meet her flight in Chicago. His voice hadn’t sounded of England, the way many of the Councilors had, but almost Irish, like Declan’s. Though not…quite. Maybe Scotland. He had watched her warily, with distrust. Sarel had watched him, knowing the older a vampire

got, the stronger his ‘call’ became. The ‘call’ was what allowed him to feed from his victims without force. Sexual in nature, it drew women to the men, and men to the women in most cases, and it grew stronger with age. And Malachi wasn’t just old…he was ancient. He had a feel of age to him, great age, like the forests in England, the stone circles in Ireland-great age. Most witches had a natural resistance to a vampire’s call, but even Sarel had felt drawn to him. Malachi didn’t like her. She suspected she knew why. Elijah Crawford. They were close, her gut told her. The flight seemed to go on for an endless night, but it wasn’t even two am when they landed. Disembarking quickly, she was ready to meet her new mentor-cripes, what a hokey word-get it over with and find a fucking bed. She was so damned tired. It had been

exhausting, the whole damned week, ever since finding Tori and Declan at Excelsior, the packing, the whirlwind flight to England, the intense, relentless interviews. Needless to say, witches, vampires, shifters had all presided. Kelsey had been there, smiling comfortingly, a silent, soothing presence. Malachi had been there, a very disconcerting

presence. There had been a number of excited phone calls from Lori, filled with nerves, pride, and worry. At least they had wanted her. Until Excelsior had gotten hold of her she had been rough and unrefined, guilty of attempted murder, and had no last name until she chose one at random. Sarel Chandler. Still they had wanted her. No one had ever wanted her before. Chapter Six Elijah wanted her. When he had been lying in his bed, still nearer to death than he liked to think about, he had wanted her. That unusual dark reddish hair, shot through with streaks of pure gold, her widely spaced, slanted green-gold cat’s eyes, and that lush body. She was built like a movie star from the 1940s, lush and sexy. Why in God’s name had men decided that women weren’t supposed to look like women anymore? Sarel Chandler looked like a woman. Big breasts, little waist, round hips, round ass, long muscled legs. And that hair. To be able to free it from its confines and bury his face in it and see if it still smelled like honeysuckle. He grinned. Waxing poetic about a woman’s hair-he had it bad. Elijah stood in the shadows, watching her among the milling passengers, looking tired, confused, lost, and defiant. God, why couldn’t you have sent me somebody a little

easier? Eli wondered. Hell, Eli had never really enjoyed easy. Lately he had been bored, and so fucking lonely. He wanted her, and damn it, he was going to get her. He was briefly distracted by a whisper in his mind… one of his vamps, Sheila touched his mind and waited for his reponse. A brief smile crossed his face as he thought of the newly turned young vampire from Georgia and he answered, “Yes, sweet?” “We have intruders, prowlers. They seek you…I hear them looking for you on the streets in town, and I smell them around our lands. Shall I go and find out more?” “Not alone, Sheila. You’re too young, too new. Take Jonathan-“ Sheila’s mirth filled his mind and he sent a silent query. “He’s too hooked on your new Healer to bother with escorting me into town. Rafael?” Eli suppressed a smile. Sheila was entirely too taken with Rafe, but Eli wasn't about to have the two hundred year old vampire out on the town, so to speak, with a vampire who had been changed less than a year. Sheila was entirely too…charming. Eli preferred to keep Rafe focused when he wasn't around. “Jonathan,” Eli said firmly. “And tell him to leave Lori alone. She’s a child, and too young for him. You can play with Rafe later, sweet. Find out what you can and keep me updated.” Then he focused his full attention back on Sarel, licking

his lips, touching his tongue to the tips of his fangs as they dropped down, his body going on red alert at the sight, the scent of her. They hadn’t told her that he was to be her first, and possibly, only trainer. If Eli had his way she would be his partner. Since his first partner had died, he’d been alone. Caris had been the first and the only partner he’d ever had. When the young werewolf had died, the Council had tried to make him take another, but Malachi had intervened. Malachi was not one you could easily tell no. Even the Council. What had Sarel had thought of Malachi? Wondering if Malachi had fucked her, he discarded the idea. Malachi may have found her physical form attractive, but if he knew Malachi, the older vampire was still too angry. Keeping his anger well hidden, he held onto it for ages, but he cherished women far too much to ever take one in anger, even one he disliked. He would not trust himself not to harm a woman if he fucked her in anger. Had Sarel been drawn to him? Some witches were more immune to the vampire’s call than were mortal women. If Malachi had been suppressing it, chances are, she wouldn’t have felt much unless they were in direct physical contact. Sliding through the shadows as though one of them, his long coat caressing his ankles, his eyes roamed over

her body hungrily. So few changes, and all of them so sweet, her waist trimmer, her breasts just the slightest bit bigger, her rather feline features even more cat-like than before. Watching her green-gold eyes scan about impatiently, he could smell her frustration and see the way her pulse throbbed under the thin shield of golden skin in her neck. Keeping to the rear of the thinning crowd, he moved until he was at her back, tsking under his breath. They would have to have to work on that. She shouldn’t leave herself so easily unprotected. Once he stood a few mere feet behind, Eli just waited, breathing in the sweet scent of her-honeysuckle, the perfume of her sex and blood. Right before she sensed him, he asked in a low voice, “Are you waiting for some one?” Oh, no. They wouldn’t have paired her with him. Was this her punishment? All the teachers knew, of course. She’d had to confess how guilty she felt. And even if she hadn’t confessed, many of them were empathic, and they felt it, just as they felt her hunger for him before she learned the fine art of shielding. Counseling for the troubled was routine for anyone going through witch’s training at Excelsior. You couldn’t train the gifted if the gifted were likely to go postal on you. The

problems had to be addressed, and resolved, first. Of course, she had sensed things from them as well. Not true empathy, that had come later, with training. But it was as she had sensed from Malachi in Englandhis rampant dislike of her-she sensed their distrust of her. She had won many of them over. Even so, most of them were still angry with her on a very deep level. And she knew, deep in her gut, this was her punishment. They were placing her with the man she had to thank for being what she was today-Eli, the man she had tried to kill. “Eli,” she said quietly. The low raspy quality of her voice sounded flat and unwelcome even to her ears. Knowing he could tell she wasn’t pleased, she wanted to kick herself. At the least, she needed to try to make the best of this. Elijah smiled, a slow, lazy cat’s smile that had a bolt of heat striking through her belly, straight down to her cleft. Moisture pooled in her sex and her cheeks heated when his nostrils flared. Knowledge filled his eyes and her heart sank. He knew, damn it. The Master vampire, her new trainer knew how much she wanted him. And didn’t that just beat all? “You sound so unhappy to see me,” Eli purred, reaching out and drawing her carry on bag from her

shoulder, slowly sliding it down her arm, somehow managing to graze the side of her breast with the back of his hand as he did it. She stared at him in silence as he threw the bag over his shoulder. “Did you have anything to do with this?” she asked. “No. I knew beforehand, of course, and I could have refused. But what would be the point of that, I wonder?” He moved a little closer, until the toes of his black boots nudged hers and they stood face to face, nearly eye to eye. “Shall I send you back? I shall, if you like.” “Why?” she asked, her voice nearly soundless. “I do not want an unwilling student.” His breath was a soft warm caress on her face. It smelled oddly sweet, not the way she would have imagined a vampire’s breath would smell. It smelled like clover, and cinnamon. Like tea, she decided. “It would be dangerous for both of us.” “I will never willingly cause you any sort of harm, ever again,” Sarel whispered slowly, somberly. God, she wanted him. Everything inside her called out for him. “Does that mean you are-willing?” Eli asked, that same slow smile of amusement on his mouth. “Yes.” Eli’s head lowered. For one brief moment, Sarel thought he might kiss her. But then, before she even realized he had moved, he was gone.

Elijah Crawford was happy. Not having been happy in so long, he had wondered if he would even recognize the feeling if he felt again. Not only was she drawn to him, she was truly attracted. Sarel was sorry for what had happened, truly repentant. Of course, he wasn’t above toying with her awhile, or seeing if he could make her as mad with lust as he had been for the past five years. It was humiliating-truly. This woman had come closer to killing him than any other in more than two centuries. If it had not been for Tori, Declan and Kelsey, he would surely be dust in the ground right now and sweet Sarel would be as well. Unless she was still in a jail cell, locked far below the earth. They could have locked the magic inside her, made her a prisoner inside her own body, inside her own mind, until she slowly went insane. Then they would have killed her. The Council didn’t actually believe in torture, but they did believe in making the criminal suffer. A quick death for the killer of one of their Hunters would not have been their choice. All in all, Sarel had no idea how much she owed the other three. She paced silently at his shoulder, her unusual cat’s eyes straight ahead, looking neither left nor right. A great many changes had occurred in the past five years, Eli noted. Not physically, but, well, he

couldn’t put his finger on it. She carried herself differently. Having spent most of her teenage years on the street, she had been rough, hostile and unkempt while in his home. That was gone. That raw, rough power was gone-replaced by a magic so pure and gleaming it was like staring at a fine diamond with an inner fire. Sarel glowed with health, with self confidence and a sensuality he burned to taste. His jaws ached, his cock ached. Eli wanted to brush all that gold-shot red hair aside and break the fragile skin of her neck and feed while he shafted her sweet, wet pussy. He had never forgotten the taste of her blood, or her magic. Stifling a groan, he stalked through the terminal, lashing his hunger down tight. He didn’t want her knowing just yet how badly he wanted her. Not yet. Not until he knew whether or not the sweet scent of lust he had scented on her was the vampire’s callinduced lust, or something more. Sarel drew one knee to her chest, leaning her head back against the cushy leather of the limo. A limo, of course. Did a vampire ever travel any other way? She let a small smile of amusement curve her mouth as the sleek car carried her away from the busy airport. “Where are we going? It’s almost morning,” she said. “We don’t

have time to get to your home or catch another flight before sunrise.” “I know. We’re going to a friend’s.” His voice floated out of the darkness, dark, elegant, cool. He turned his face toward briefly, away from his study of the night before saying, “We’ll catch a flight to West Virginia tonight.” “If they had told me where to go, I could have seen myself to your house,” she said. “You didn’t have to go to all this trouble.” Eli’s golden eyes widened as he slid a look her way, those eyes reminding her of the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland. “Darling, I do not think they trust you that much,” he said baldly. Sliding those amazing eyes over her curled up body, as though inspecting her for weapons, he mused, “I’m not quite sure I do either.” Or maybe he was wondering what she would look like naked. “I told you I won’t harm you,” she said, stifling the hurt. She couldn’t really blame him, could she? Eli smiled, a little sadly, she thought. “I believe that you mean it, sweet. However, it is hard to break old habits. Especially habits nearly more than three centuries old.” “How can we be partners if you don’t trust me?” A golden brow lifted. Sarel’s eyes were drawn, unwillingly, to his sexy mouth, the thin upper lip, the fuller bottom one as he said, “Partners? We are not partners. At least not yet. It’s not an unusual thing for a

lone Hunter to take on a new student as a partner, at least for a time. But wouldn’t we make an odd pair, Sarel?” “Eli-“ “Do you think it would work?” he mused. “Why wouldn’t it?” she asked blandly, fighting to keep any emotion out of her face, her voice. “Darling, you tried to kill me, did you not? I realize it was under mistaken beliefs, but all the same, you still tried to kill me. But beyond that, are we compatible?” he asked. Sliding out of his seat and moving across the floor of the limo, his eyes locked on her face. Damn it, he moved like a fucking cat, slinking and liquid and faster than lightning. Before Sarel realized it, he was on her, one hand drawing her pulled up leg down, and pinning her legs in place with his elbows. “Are we compatible, Sarel Chandler?” he purred, sliding one hand up her thigh, her side, over her ribcage. Her breath caught when he cupped her breast, lightly at first, and then more firmly when she didn’t argue. “You tried, and nearly succeeded, to kill me. Partners,” he murmured, lowering his head to nuzzle at her neck. “Do you even know what you ask? To partner with a vampire Hunter? You, a woman? To a male Hunter? We’d fuck, you know that, don’t you? It may not be a rule, but it is almost a certainty. And I’d feed. Are you willing to feed me?” Eli purred as he licked a hot, wet

path across her neck, teasing her with the sharp edges of his fangs as they slid from their sheaths. “The vampires are almost as insatiable as the wolves, have you heard that? We need to feed more than we need to fuck, but not by much. Now my friend Declan…he’d nearly die without sex, or go insane. That’s just the way the wolves are. I can control it better, but I need it almost as much, pretty little Sarel. Blood and sex-they are the mainstay of a vampire’s existence.” Sarel whimpered as his thumb scraped over her nipple. She had heard, yes, but she hadn’t expected him to it put quite so bluntly. Or so soon. And she sure as hell hadn’t expected him to demand an answer. The buttons on her shirt popped open as he grabbed the sides and jerked, shredding the material, staring down at her with glittering eyes. Beneath the red lace of her demi bra, her nipples throbbed and ached, begging to be touched. Lowering his head, he licked a wet trail along the line of her bra, but went no further as he looked up at her from under his lashes and asked, “Are you willing?” He was daring her. And testing her, she suspectedtesting to see if she was, well, safe. She was. Sarel would sooner drive a stake through her own heart than hurt this incredible man. Damn it all to hell, she wanted him. Lifting her lashes, she stared him in the eyes, feeling that hated blush creep up, starting from her breasts and

moving upward until her entire upper body was flushed. Slowly, softly, she said, “Yes,” as she reached forward, underneath where he reclined against her and flipped open the front clasp of her bra, spilling her breasts free to his gaze and mouth. A golden brow lifted and Eli smiled slowly, that lazy cat’s smile that drove her mad, mentally and sexually, with frustration. “Are you certain you know what you’re saying, pretty Sarel?” He lowered his head, catching a plump berry-red nipple in his mouth, mindful of his glistening, sharp fangs. She flinched, unable to help herself. Crooning softly and stroking a hand down her ribcage, he pulled back to murmur, “I’ve never hurt a woman in bed unless it was what she wanted,” before returning to draw her nipple deep into the wet cave of his mouth. Noticing that he felt cool at first, she realized the longer he pressed against her, the warmer he felt. Leeching her warmth. She had heard vampires would do that with a non-vampire partner and had been revolted-but it wasn’t revolting. It was…amazing. Sharing her warmth was like sharing her soul with him. Eli’s teeth, the front teeth, closed gently around her nipple, drawing it out from her body tightly, biting down gently before laving it with a wicked tongue as his hand slid down her quaking belly to pop the button on her jeans. Underneath, he found her naked. Lifting his head, he asked, “No panties, darling?”

Shaking her head mutely, she tugged his head back to her breast, whimpering in her throat. His mouth-sweet heaven-his mouth was unbelievable. Returning to suckle and bite at her breasts until she was writhing against him, his hand slid inside her jeans. Pulling away from her breasts and curling up next to her, he nuzzled her neck. “You never did answer me. Are you certain you are ready for what I will need? Not just a bed mate, and a partner-will you be willing to feed me?” In response, she reached up and tossed her hair over her shoulder, baring her neck. Eli groaned at the simple offering. He could still remember her taste-hot, sweet blood, the taste of innocence, somewhat tarnished, but still innocence, magic, youth, and power. Drawing it out, he licked a path up her neck and sent a silent command to the driver to circle until he told him otherwise. Stripping Sarel out of her boots and jeans, brushing away the shreds of her shirt and open bra, leaving her gleaming golden body naked, he took her down to the floor of the limo. Clamoring with sexual and physical hunger, Eli wanted to make this last. Although five years was nothing to him, he had been waiting for Sarel for a very long time. She was it. This was what he had been waiting for.

Settling back on his heels, he stared at her. First, her eyes-just her eyes-those green-gold eyes, slanting up. The tip tilted straight little nose, her high cheekbones, and her full lipped mouth and sharp chin. And that hair…Lifting a strand of it, Eli drew the honeysuckle scent deep into his lungs, smiling slowly at her, absently tracing a thumb over her nipple, which heated and hardened against him. Her dark, dark red hair gleamed under the dim lights, the golden threads in it winking at him. He loved her hair. Lowering his head, he buried his face against the spot just behind her ear, rubbing his face on her silky locks, just breathing her scent in. The scent of honeysuckle and her arousal thickened as her breathing increased, and when Eli laid his palm over her chest her heart beat thudded against his palm. Sarel’s breasts were big, round and firm-perfect. Not overblown, but lush, topped with large deep-red nipples. Bending his head he caught one in his mouth, humming in appreciation as she gasped and buried her fingers in his hair, pressing them to his scalp and holding him close. Cock and jaws both aching with need, his groin and belly throbbed. Fuck. Knowing that seeing her was going to drive him insane, he’d fed before he had left home. He hadn’t lost control like this since his first century. Not even Tori made him hunger like this. Settling back on his heels, he jerked his shirt off, tossing

it to the corner and struggled to get out of his boots, belt and trousers. He was not going to fuck Sarel for the first time with his pants hanging around his knees. He had to taste her first. Settling between her thighs he spread them wide and licked her once before catching her clit quickly between his teeth as she tried to pull him away. “What are you doing?” she screeched, embarrassed, shoving him away. Or trying to. “Having a snack,” he muttered, groaning and spreading the lips of her sex with his fingers and driving his tongue between her folds. “Eli, stop, damn it. You can’t-“ In response, he screwed two fingers deep inside her, settling his mouth back on her clit, taking the entire bud inside and sucking on it until the words died on a strangled gasp and her sexy, lush body arched up in the air and she screamed breathlessly. Slick, wet walls closed tightly over his fingers and he shuddered as he imagined how tightly they would close over his cock. “Poor thing,” he crooned into her mind as her tight mental shields shattered, letting him inside, letting him feel her amazed, shocked pleasure, her embarrassment, her need. “Hasn’t anybody ever gone down on you before?” “Huh? What?” Eli laughed against her, delighted. He wanted more. But he needed to be inside her and he needed to sate

the hunger that was growing ravenous in his gut. Crawling up her body he mounted her, taking his cock in his hand and easing inside her. Her wet, slick passage was tight around the head of his cock, squeezing him, driving him mad. Crooning to her as she tensed, he knew her tissues were still sensitive from orgasm. He thought. “Um, Eli…I probably oughta tell you something,” she muttered as he was lowering his head to her neck, ready to feed and fuck. Such a sweet little gift, he was thinking. He hadn’t expected this. Especially not from Sarel. And never so soon. “Hmm?” he murmured as he licked her neck. He could almost taste her blood in his mouth, feel the sweet break of her skin as his fangs slid home, feel the sweet, wet clasp of her pussy on his cock as he drove inside. “I’ve never had sex before.” Elijah froze, two inches of his cock wrapped in satiny wet pussy, his mouth pressed against her sweet, warm neck. A rough breath shuddered out of him and he groaned. Part of him, the more noble part-the part that still remained from the English lord he had been three hundred years ago insisted he stop. The other part knew that Sarel wanted to be here. She wasn’t doing this out of pity or guilt or obligation. Some women maybe. But Sarel would not.

He propped his weight on his elbows and stared down at her, resting his forehead on hers, rocking his hips just slightly, letting her sheath acclimate to him. “I feel like I should make sure you want to continue then,” he murmured as her body shuddered. Moving so that he could roll and pinch her nipple teasingly, lowering his head to suck the sweet bud deep into his mouth, he let her feel just the edge of his fangs before lifting his head and staring into her eyes. “If I didn’t want to be here, I’d still have my clothes on,” she said, panting, her eyes glazed. Slid her hands down, she grasped his firm, muscled ass in her hands and tried to pull him deeper. Obliging, Eli slid an extra three inches in and she gasped, arching up, her head falling back, neck exposed. “If you are certain,” he murmured, eyes locking on the vein throbbing in her neck, so sweetly exposed. Hell, he was just a vampire, he could only stand so much. Sinking his fangs deep, Eli drove his cock through her snug, wet, untried body, shuddering as she clasped him wet and tight, the sweet virginal resistance driving him mad as her blood spilled into him mouth. A moan vibrated against his mouth as his jaws worked at her neck. A weak whimper rose from her mouth, and he reached out with a gentle mental touch, unwilling to draw away from the sweet flow at her neck. “Shh, I know it hurts. It will not last, I promise,” he crooned as

he buried himself to the balls, feeling his cock lodge at the mouth of her womb. Cupping one rounded, firm breast in his hand and rolling the nipple, he pinched it lightly when she shuddered. The other hand he slid down her side until he palmed her hip, then her thigh, drawing it up, opening her body more. She stiffened in automatic protest and he calmed her with an absent mental brush. “Trust me, Sarel,” he purred, dropping the shields he held on his call, the subtle sexual beckoning all vampires exuded. Malachi had once likened them to animals in heat-but it was the humans who could sense it and it drove them mad, even though they didn’t realize what it was. A vampire learned to suppress it with time. It wasn’t always necessary to do it-right now, definitely not necessary. Many witches had a natural immunity to it as long as they weren’t touching the vampire in question. Sarel was touching, a lot of touching and her response was instantaneous. Shuddering, she stiffened, her nostrils flaring and eyes glazing, the muscles in her tight, wet pussy clamping down on his cock like nothing Eli had ever felt in all his life. “Bloody hell,” he gasped, pulling from her neck, belly pleasantly full, the blood lust sated, but his cock so hard he ached. He pulled away and sank back into her, his long, lean body shaking with the pure bliss of it, as her satiny wet sheath caressed him. Her head fell

back, eyes half closed as she stared up at him, lips parted, damp and swollen. Two neat puncture marks marred her golden neck. Hard nipples stabbed hotly into his chest. With a growl, he lowered his head to catch one in his mouth. Crying out, she buried her fingers in his hair, her legs coming up to wrap around his waist. Sarel was dying. Nobody could feel this kind of pleasure and live. It just wasn’t possible. Eli’s thick cock inside her shouldn’t feel this good. It hadn’t, not at first. She had thought the burning, driving pain would split her in two until she felt some creeping, hair raising sort of magic roll over her and fill her belly. The pain died, the magic left with it and the lust was all that was left. Never, from the first time she had seen him, had she been able to look at Eli without wanting him. Staring down at him now, his golden head lowered, his hot mouth feeding ravenously at her breasts as he sucked one of her nipples deep into his mouth, his thick, hard cock driving up into her, she felt something rip open inside, something that was even more magical than what she had been born with. A hot ball of fire grew inside her belly, filling her mind, her heart, her very soul. He hovered outside the edges of her soul, and she knew if she allowed it, he would come in. And maybe never leave. She wouldn’t allow it.

Sarel doubted she could stop it. Driving back in, passing over the hot bundle of nerves inside her, Eli made her scream and arch as he licked, then bit her nipple. Tracing his finger up the crevice between the cheeks of her ass, she shuddered. His long, pale body hovered over hers, gleaming in the faint light, his eyes golden and hot, his hair falling into his face, his sculpted mouth swollen. The muscles in his chest gleamed with a fine sheen of sweat, his pectorals, biceps and triceps quivering as he moved over her supine body, driving so deeply inside her she wondered if she could ever let him leave. Sarel couldn’t breathe with it. She started to shove him away. “Do not fight it,” Eli murmured, rising from her nipples to catch her hands. Pinning them by her head, he stared down at her, compelling her to look up at him. Doing so, she watched his gold eyes and pulled her legs down, trying to close herself off. “Can’t have that, now can we?” he purred, shaking his head, his English accent thick and heavy with need and reluctant amusement. Releasing her hands he moved so quickly she had no time to do anything. Before she realized it, he had caught her behind the knees and lifted her legs high, using them to pin her down and open her body-exposing her wet folds and swollen clit to his eyes. Staring down at her, he drove in. Slowly. Watching her.

Ah, what a picture she made, Eli mused, her legs shoved high, opening her sweet, pretty little sex, the tight, silky little red curls that guarded her catching his eye. Looking down to watch, he pulled out and pushed back inside her swollen sheath again. The lips of her sex were stretched taut around him, his cock gleaming wet with her cream. Her narrow waist and ribs shuddered with her rapid breaths as she fought for control. Eli felt a smile tug at his mouth. A useless fight, sweet, he thought to himself. I’m going to drive you insane with need. Bending low over her, he caught one plump, red nipple in his mouth as he continued to fuck her helpless body slow and deep, his shoulders and torso holding her pinned so that he could use his hands in other places. He caught her swollen clit between thumb and forefinger, pinching and stroking until she was mewling and begging and sobbing once more. Releasing her legs and hooking his arms under her shoulders Eli started to fuck her hard and rough, setting his mouth on hers, driving his tongue deep inside, taking more of her taste, a taste he hadn’t even known he was craving. Only when she was shuddering and screaming into his mouth as she came did he let himself come, flooding her spasming sheath with his seed. Sarel sighed wearily as Eli wrapped her in his coat,

stroking her hair, bussing her cheek. She was tired from the feeding, the fucking-both she assumed. Was he always this…considerate, she wondered? Probably so. Even though, logically, she knew she would make a good partner to him once she was trained, she doubted he would ever care for her. Not the way she cared for him. Not after what she did. So he must just be a naturally considerate lover. She read romances. Some men did like to cuddle. Or was that a fairy tale? Maybe three hundred years ago, men were different. Or maybe Eli was different. “If you keep thinking so hard,” Eli mused, stroking the tiny furrow on her brow, “you will give yourself a headache.” After he finished tugging his clothes on, he settled back on the seat-sending a silent command to the driver to head for Byron’s house outside Chicagothen he shifted her on his lap, spilling his coat open so that her back and legs were covered, but her front was bare and pressed to his naked chest. “You have the sweetest tits I have ever seen,” he murmured, cupping one in his hand and stroking his thumb over the nipple. She flushed and he chuckled, watching as the blood started to rise-started at those sweet mounds and rose until her face was that charming shade of pink-her eyes darting everywhere in order to avoid meeting his. He

caught her cheek and made her look at him as he lowered his mouth to hers, taking her gently, the way he had not been able to earlier. Gentle was not something a vampire could manage when he hungered. And Eli had hungered for Sarel like he had hungered for no other. Sliding his tongue past her lips, he tasted her, finding her sweet, tangy and wild-much like the taste of her blood and sex, like her magic had been five years ago. Their tongues tangled and he sucked hers into his mouth, drawing her into the kiss and she moved, straddling his lap and cupping his face in her hands, that glorious auburn hair falling around them like a cloak, the coat falling from her shoulders to the floor. Eli’s hand went down to cup her ass, one finger sliding down to find her cleft wet and slick with her cream and his come. She broke off the kiss with a gasp, her head falling back. Moving to her neck, he kissed and licked his way down to her shoulder. Over the smooth, softly rounded flesh, he saw the eyes of the driver in the mirror, fastened on Sarel’s sweet naked butt. Eli’s eyes glowed, his fangs flashed and he snarled in anger. The man’s eyes glazed, his gaze snapped back to the road and Eli buried both hands in Sarel’s hair, arching her back so that her breasts were thrust up to his mouth and gaze. He jumped slightly when he felt invisible little fingers on his belt buckle, but then he laughed, glancing at up at Sarel and saying, “Clever little witch.”

Grinning, she sighed, “I try,” before tugging him down to her breasts and letting her magic free him from the confines of his pants. His cock sprang free and she rubbed herself against him, still sore and achy, but hungry for him. She had been hungry for him since the first time he had fed from her. Before that even. The fat head of his cock settled on her clit and he rubbed it, slowly, deliberately as he bit gently down on her nipple. Whimpering and shivering, she wrapped her legs around his waist and tried to draw him inside. Eli wanted to slow down, but he knew they’d be at Byron’s in less than twenty minutes. So when Sarel’s heels dug into his ass again, he let her pull him inside, sinking into the slick, wet confines of her tight little sheath, groaning at the resistance and watching her face. Eyes closed, head back, her hair fell around her naked shoulders and breasts, damp with perspiration, curling just slightly, her skin glowing, nipples hard and nearly blood red from her arousal. The muscles in her belly shifted and played as she rode him, her tissues stretched incredibly tight around him. Cupping her ass and sliding one hand down, Eli coated his fingers with her cream before sliding slowly up the crevice to caress the pucker of her anus. Letting his head fall back against the seat, he watched her through slitted eyes to judge her reaction. She shivered and her back arched, lifting her breasts

higher. She moaned and slammed her hips harder down on him. Eli pressed a little harder. Her heavy lids lifted, revealing eyes with pupils so dilated they appeared nearly black. With a voice thick and ho

t, she gasped, “What are you doing?” “I like fucking a woman here,” he replied, pressing even harder until just the tip of his finger entered her. She arched and cried out, and the muscles in her pussy squeezed down on him while her entire body shuddered. “Nuh…nuh…now?” she squeaked. Eli chucked, withdrawing his hand and sliding down to gather more cream. “No, sweet. You’re not ready for that, I would hurt you. But I like it. Does this feel good?” he asked as he slid the tip of his smallest finger into her bottom to the first joint. In response, she bucked against him and came in a geyser, screaming. Groaning and withdrawing his hand, gripping her hips and pushing up into her with hard furious digs of his cock, he let her rhythmic contractions milk his own climax from him. When she collapsed against his chest moments later, he murmured weakly, “So was that a

yes?” Chapter Seven Sarel didn’t have the strength to argue with him when he just wrapped her in his coat when they arrived at his friend’s house. She certainly didn’t have a vampire’s sense of smell and there was no denying they had been fucking. Eli didn’t even bother pulling on anything besides his pants, a flowing black pair of trousers with a wide leather belt that looked like nothing out of this century. Or actually, any century she could recall. He managed to hold her in his arms as he climbed from the car, as though she were a child. Curling sleepily against his chest she stroked the smooth skin there. Sarel didn’t like chest hair. Period. A ribbon of golden hair running down from his navel to widen just around his cock and balls was fine with her, though. Eli’s chest was wide, muscled to perfection, and gloriously smooth. Unable to resist, she leaned forward, kissing his chest, licking it, tasting salty sweat, warm male. Glancing down at her, he lifted a golden brow before looking back to the porch where his friend waited. She felt something in the air and suspected they were speaking mind to mind. When they reached the porch the man greeted her as though she was wearing a Donna Karan formal as he guided them into a large, secluded old home. She spotted, unless she was

mistaken, three werewolves, and one Inherent shifter, a woman. There were also two lesser vampires and another witch besides herself. Not as strong, but a witch and one of the warrior kind-like herself. A stronghold. Eli would be safe here. Odd, that being the first thing on her mind. She looked at her host and blinked slowly, sleepily. His hair was black, cut short on the sides, longer on the top so that it fell in his eyes. Sarel imagined it drove his ladies insane. A human was at his side, hovering, waiting. Smiling patiently down at the human he said, “We won’t be needing anything. Unless, Eli-” “A bath,” he supplied easily. Sarel was too tired to even blush as the human looked at her. There was nothing in her eyes, but normally, Sarel would have been embarrassed at least. Footsteps sounded unusually loud on the stairs and moments later, Sarel’s sharp hearing heard water running. “I’ve rooms-“ “One room,” Eli said. “Change of plans.” “Fine by me,” Byron said. “The room is central, close to mine, actually. Micah will be around while you sleep, should you need anything. I’m fairly tired myself.” Sarel’s nostril’s flared and unless she was mistaken, she smelled blood, violence, anger. Eli glanced down at her, and she saw acknowledgment

in his eyes. “All is well?” is all he asked. Byron sighed wearily, Sarel thought, as he pressed a hand to his eyes. A flowing sleeve, a poet’s shirt-how appropriate-nearly obscured his strong, masculine hands and Byron muttered, “Bloody hell, Eli. All is not well. But it will be. That is what matters, in the long run, right? The fucking long run.” A snarl darkened his face and his fangs flashed, his eyes glowing, making her think of a violent thunderstorm. “The fucking long run.” Unlike Declan and Eli, even Malachi, Byron sounded pure American. But he had an aged feel to him, and unless she was mistaken, he was at least a hundred years old. And he had not had an easy night. Sarel shifted, and said, “I can go get cleaned up, if ya’ll need to talk.” Byron smiled down at her and she fought the need to gasp. Oh, my. He was hot. And he had sad eyes, full of pain and sorrow. What was it with these vampires? Did any of them not have issues? “You’re a sweet one, aren’t you?” he murmured, shaking his head. “Talking does not help. I’ll take a bath. I’ll feed, and then I’ll find a woman to take to bed with me. That will help.” His startling gray eyes, lighter gray rimmed by dark, roamed over her face and unkempt hair, and a spark of mischief lightened them for just a moment. That odd feeling again, where she suspected words she

couldn’t hear were being spoken and then Eli’s arms tightened and he actually snarled, his fangs flashing. Byron laughed. “Maybe next time,” he said, and then he turned and walked away, moving silently and swiftly, the Inherent wolf trailing silently in his wake, her eyes wide and watchful. Eli found Sarel already asleep in bed. Falling into bed his body was heavy with exhaustion and his mind befuddled. The sun was already on the horizon. There were no windows in this room but he could feel it. He had checked everything, force of habit. He trusted Byron, but he trusted himself more. Settling behind her, he wrapped one arm around her, the other under his head and he was gone. Vampires did dream while they slept, and it was sleep. He did not die when the sun rose-his heart still beat, only a few times a minute, but it still beat. And he breathed, irregular and erratic, but breathing all the same. Eli could think and dream. They had almost bonded that first time. The soul-bond, like Declan and Tori shared, one that transcended time and mortal coils. A bond that would allow Sarel to be as long lived Eli. Nothing short of a mortal kill would kill either of them, if that happened. Would she hate him for that? This woman was truly the one he had been waiting for.

In his heart, he had already known that. The moment he sent her away he had ached for her, even though he knew that wild magic could not go untaught. It was too dangerous. Ah, the dilemma. The bond had to be forged in lovemaking. Every time they were together, they would grow closer and closer, until the bond just snapped into place. Once in place, nothing could break it, except death. And not even that, truly. If one died, eventually the other would follow. Rarely did one bond-mate survive more than a few months past the death of their beloved. And as perverse as Eli was, he was basically an honest creature. He couldn’t put Sarel into such a situation without her being willing. Which meant, to his disgust, he couldn’t fuck her again unless she knew what she was getting into. Sarel awoke an hour before dusk. Working her way down Eli’s sleeping body she kissed his flat, pink nipples and licked his navel, before taking the head of his cock into her mouth. She hummed with surprised pleasure as he grew hard and firm and filled her mouth. She knew the moment he woke-his body stiffened, his hands tangled in her hair, and he stifled a groan. Lifting his hips he drove his cock further into her

throat, bringing tears to her eyes as she fought the instinct to gag. Forcing her throat to relax she took him deeper than she would have thought possible. Slowly, she moved her head up and down, wrapping one hand around the base of his cock as she found a rhythm and settled into it, listening to the ragged groans as they fell helplessly from him. Sarel pulled away and swabbed the head of his cock with her tongue, laughing as he rasped out, “Bloody hell, woman,” and slammed his head into the pillow, gritting his teeth when she moved lower and licked delicately at his furred sac before taking his cock back into her mouth. The pale, carved lines of his body called her eyes and she stared up the length of him as she slid her mouth back down until she could take no more, relishing the warm, salty taste of his skin, the smoothness of him, the slow, steady pulse she could feel in the distended vein that stood out on the underside of his shaft. Pulling away, she cupped him in her hands and pumped his cock slowly while she studied him, fondling his balls, leaning down to lick the head of his cock before lifting back up and just watching the play of her hands on him. Eli laughed and groaned at the same time. “Are you trying to drive me mad? Studying for anatomy? What?” With a cheeky grin, she lay back down and took him inside her mouth, sucking at him until her jaws ached

with it, feeing his hands fist in her hair and shudder as he bellowed and started to pump his hips up to meet her mouth. Thick creamy jets of sperm pulsed from him and she swallowed, pulling away, licking her lips and smiling down at him. Staring up at her with sleepy eyes, a slow smile curved his mouth. Before she realized what he was doing he had her on her back, her thighs spread and open and he was drinking from her sex like he was starving. Shrieking when he drove two fingers inside her, he fucked her ruthlessly to climax while he sucked on her clit. Crying out as he gently bit her clit, she quivered in anticipation when he urged her onto her knees. But all he did was spread the cheeks of her ass and lick her there while she squirmed to get away. Smacking her butt he ordered, “Be still,” as he gathered some cream from her dripping sex and started to ease his index finger inside her ass. Shivering, feeling oddly cold and hot at the time, her skin feeling entirely too tight for her body, he invaded her. “Push down,” he said roughly. Obeying him, she did, and he slid his finger completely inside, causing her to scream. The scream came again as he started to fuck her ass with his finger, slowly, carefully, bringing her to climax with just that while she stayed there on her hands and knees, him kneeling behind her quivering upthrust butt.

“I am dying to put my cock inside you,” he murmured, watching as he speared the tender little hole, working her a little closer to the edge, her hot, wet sheath clinging to him tightly. “Eli…” “Play with your clit, Sarel,” he told her. “Touch it. Or would you like me to call Byron? He could come in here and go down on you while I do this.” Her back stiffened. “What?” He laughed. “You did not say no,” he murmured, filing that away. “Shall I call him? He will want to fuck you when he’s done.” Eli had to lash down the uneasy feeling that caused, but he could feel the excitement in Sarel. She wanted to have what Declan and Eli gave Tori. He could feel it. And he sensed she wanted it with Declan and Eli. Not gonna happen. No way he’d allow Tori to be hurt like that, even if Declan would go along with it. And the Irishman would never do it. He was more likely to sprout another head or turn into a vampire. But he could let her have the pleasure of it. Though she was no where near ready for a three-some this could get her closer to that, and maybe it would wear her out enough, tire her enough that she wouldn’t wonder why Eli didn’t mount her himself. The door opened. Byron walked in, his eyes already hot and hungry, his black silk shirt hanging open over a broad chest. A fine vee of silky black hair between his nipples arrowed

down his torso, over his belly and disappeared into his trousers. Eli communicated silently with him, warning him of Sarel’s inexperience, and Byron chided him, “Give me some credit. I’m no fool. I won’t scare her off. I can tell what she is to you.” Sarel’s body went taut as a bowstring and Eli stroked his free hand down her side, soothing her as Byron dropped to his knees in front of her, smiling crookedly at her. “The things a host must do to make his guests feel at home,” he teased gently, taking her face in his hands and kissing her slowly, carefully, sliding his tongue inside her mouth, humming in appreciation at her taste. When she didn’t freeze, Byron slowly lifted her kneeling body up and Eli stilled, cuddled his aching cock against her butt, giving Byron a few minutes, as the dark haired vampire worked Sarel back against Eli, pinning her body between them. “Damn it,” she whispered on a shuddering sigh as Eli rocked his cock against her ass. Byron was working his way down her neck, her shoulders, catching her breasts together and plumping them up, burying his face in her cleavage before taking one nipple then the other in his mouth, suckling deep. Sarel’s head was spinning. It was her fantasy. It had been for five years, since that last day at Eli’s, the day she had heard him with Tori and Declan. That was the reason she hated Tori. And

while Byron wasn’t Declan, he was gorgeous and he was here, sucking on her breasts, and whispering against her skin, and sliding one hand down to cup her crotch before driving two fingers deep inside her dripping pussy. She was living a fantasy. Twenty four hours ago, she had still been a virgin. Of course, that was because subconsciously, she had been waiting for Eli. Byron turned and shifted, moving onto his back, with his head between her thighs. Starting by licking her, he then began driving his tongue deep inside, carefully, his fangs never once touching her, even when he began to nibble and suck on her clit. Eli went back to finger-fucking her ass and she cried out, unable to hold back. She screamed and rocked her hips, hungry for more. “Eli, please,” she whimpered, pushing back against him. Byron’s hands held her hips still though, and she could only move so much. Two thick fingers invaded her cleft and she bucked, rocking against them, riding them and the mouth that had settled on her clit, but it wasn’t enough. She wanted more. “Eli!” Groaning against her hair, he thrust his cock hard against her hip. Need grew, hot and urgent in her belly and she grabbed for him, but he stayed just out of her reach. Insane lust drove her and she dug her nails into his arm, demanding and begging. She shuddered in

satisfaction as they moved around her, one of them crouching behind her, the other in front. When she looked up, Eli was kneeling in front of her, staring down at her with gleaming eyes, while Byron gripped her hips and drove deep inside her with one quick thrust. Sarel felt like the whole thing was unreal-staring up into Eli’s face over the plane of his muscled chest, his lean belly, his thick cock only inches in front of her mouth-while a man she barely knew fucked her from behind. Byron’s hand reached around her and his fingers played tauntingly with her clit, pressing, pinching and teasing her into orgasm as Eli slid his cock between her lips and inside her mouth and she swallowed the head down as far as she could take it. Over her head, she heard the growl that rumbled out of his chest and it sent a thrill of power through her. Eli buried his hands in her hair just as Byron slid one finger down to press against her anus. “She’s more ready for this than you think, Eli,” he said roughly as the tiny little pucker opened easily for him. She shuddered, caught between pain

and pleasure as he worked his finger inside while he continued to fuck her. Eli snarled and sank his fangs into his own lip,

watching while another man fucked his woman. Sarel’s mouth felt like heaven, and it was…erotic, certainly, to watch another man bring her to climax while she went down on him. His hands tightened to the point of pain as his balls went on red alert with impending climax just as Byron brought her over. When she screamed and came, he spurted his come down her throat, groaning raggedly while Byron gripped her hips and shoved her ass a little lower, riding her hard and deep as her head fell away from Eli, a weak moan falling from her lips as she whimpered and came. Fuck. He rolled her away from Byron and the three of them lay there for long minutes, the little witch unaware of his frustration as she sat up, shoving her sweaty hair out of her face, staring down at him with a smile and glowing eyes. “When can we do that again?” Chapter Eight Eli swore in hot, furious frustration. Sheila was hurt. She had been out training, and hadn’t listened, silly woman, to Jonathon. A vamp pit had been set on his land-a deep hole, lined with stakes-had been dug and she had been out, scenting human. Jon had smelled the wood and swore hotly, told her to back off. Had she listened? No. What in the bloody hell was going on?

“Newsflash,” Jonathon said, sarcastically, mimicking some of the younger enclave’s speech. “You’ve got a new friend inviting you to come and play.” And Sheila had gotten hurt for it. It didn’t matter that her inexperience, and her not listening, had led to it. And it did not matter that Jonathon had gotten her out and she would be fine. She had been hurt, on his watch, on his lands. He had failed her. Bloody hell. Sarel stared at the deep pit, dug unevenly into the earth, studded with spikes of cedar. She could smell the wood a few hundred feet away. How the vampire, newly turned or not, hadn't noticed it, she didn't know. “A vamp pit?” she guessed sarcastically, lifting a brow, casually moving forward and placing her shoulder a little in front of Eli's body. If he stumbled, or was pushed, she'd feel it and have time to actShe didn't realize that Eli caught the movement and smiled a slow smile, pleased at the protective act, or that all the others were studying her with disgust. A smattering of applause clued her in on the disgust when she lifted her eyes and saw the weres surrounded her, and Eli was looking at her with grim distrust or outright dislike. One bold individual said, “I bet you passed How to Kill a Vampire 101 with flying colors.” Nausea rolled hot and thick through her gut and she

looked away, feeling her face flush red. Eli moved around the edges of the pit carelessly, moving toward the man who had spoken, going nose to nose with him. “I imagine, Brent, that she's mastered how to make a wolf slink away from the full moon with his tail between his legs as well. And so have I. Shall I show you?” Brent cocked a brow arrogantly. “I haven't forgotten what she did, Crawford.” A shaggy black brow lifted and he slid his eyes to Sarel slowly. “I smell her on your skin, and you on hers. You are my Master. I serve and respect you with gratitude, with pride. But you brought her back here, fucked her, and now all is forgiven? Was she that good? Can't be…It doesn't change what she did.” “No…no, it doesn't. You are quite right. But you've no right to judge me for my actions, or anybody else, Brent. The Council took pity on you, a long time ago, remember? You are no longer on sufferance, but you were once. As were many weres who were left alone and had no idea how to control their changes, their rages, their hungers.” Eli smiled sharply, revealing glistening fangs and a hard glint in his eyes. Anger rolled from his body like a wave of water as he looked from one pair of eyes to another-until their eyes fell away in deference. When he looked back at Brent, the wolf was still staring at him head on, his jaw clenched, his face going ruddy with anger. “And for your

astuteness, until you can figure out why the council sent her here, you can have the pleasure of filling the pit…all by your lonesome, while I figure out who set it in the first place. Have fun with it. I imagine it took a good day and three or four people to dig it.” Sarel felt a distant, forgotten shame coming from the were as he stared at Eli before turning away and staring into the pit. The other wolves melted into the forest, leaving Sarel and Eli. She turned and followed him slowly back to the house more than three miles away. Once they were out of hearing range of the werewolf, more than a mile away, she said quietly, “Your people hate me.” “The Council is testing you. You did not truly think it would be easy, did you, Sarel?” He moved over the uneven ground in silence, his feet passing over the ground lightly, easily, the moon reflecting off the white linen of his shirt, the gold of his hair. Pausing, Eli looked back at her and a small smile curled his lips. “You are not with those who understand though. All know Lori already, and all understand that she is what you were trying to avenge. You were mistaken, you were wrong. But it was not an evil thing you were trying to do. Just a mistaken one. It's the wolves you will have trouble convincing, but they will come around sooner than you think.” The churning in her gut was making her feel slightly ill.

“If I had managed to convince myself, then it might be easier to convince others.” Her voice was low, soft, full of self blame. Folding her arms around her waist, she rocked back and forth on her heels and stared up at the sky through the veil of branches. “I haven't fully forgiven myself.” Eli moved closer, sliding his hands around her waist, down to cup her bottom, lifting her up against him as he slanted his mouth across hers. Pushing his tongue into her mouth, he backed her up against a tree, bracing her there before rocking against her and shuddering as her thighs fell apart in welcome and she sucked his tongue into the wet cave of her mouth. Pulling his mouth from hers, he kissed his way to her ear and murmured, “Forgive yourself, Sarel. Let it go. I forgave it the moment I looked into your eyes as you sat in my office that day, maybe before than. Let it go, and be with me.” He shifted them around, bracing his back against the tree and turning her back to his chest as he grasped the fastening of her jeans. Sliding his hands inside, past the barrier of her skimpy panties he combed through the fine little ruff of curls and stroked his finger over the hardening bud of her clit. “Be with me…” he cajoled sweetly. “See how wet you already are? How hot, how sweet.” Pl

unging his fin gers deep into the cream slicked well of her pussy, Eli groaned and cuddled his cock against her ass, licking her neck, pumping his finger in and out of the silken sheath, smelling her arousal on her skin, perfuming the air. She arched up against his hand, rocking there, riding his hand as her arms reached back behind her neck and head, twining around his, holding him tightly against her. “Mine.” His voice was a rough, sultry purr in her ear, elegant, a silken rasp as he pushed a second finger into the convulsing entrance of her vagina. “All mine… never touched, never fucked by another man. Come for me, let me feel that sweet syrup again, let me smell it, and taste it on the air.” Sarel came with a long weak moan as he whispered seductively into her ear, her knees going weak, her nails biting into the skin of his shoulders and neck, holding onto him, as he stood behind her, the hard length of his cock burning into her through their clothing. “Be with me…” Chapter Nine Sarel stared at Eli, her whole body cold. “You are nuts.”

“No, my lady, I am not,” he replied, settling down in his chair. His lady. His. The question was-would he be able to keep her. Elijah had waited for this discussion to take place until they had gotten home. Byron had given him a commiserating glance on the way out the door, but he hadn’t truly understood. He had enjoyed fucking Sarel too much. Why would Eli give up a chance to have that always? The soul-bond was fated. Even fate shouldn’t be forced on a person. Especially not forever. Eli knew about it. Sarel did not. Well, she did now. “You are telling me that you and I will have what Tori and Declan Reilly have.” The words felt as though they were coming through her throat like glass over raw flesh-abrasive, painful, and sharp. He was mocking her. The bonds the hybrid vampire and the Inherent shared were rare, they were taught this fact at Excelsior. For she and Eli to share one was too unlikely. And he didn’t really seem to like her. Attracted to her, yes. But like her? “If we continue what we were been doing that last day, then yes. The bond is forged through sex and closeness. Mainly sex. I was drawn to you, but I did not suspected

a bond was possible until I saw you at the airport,” Eli said evenly, watching her still, pale face. “So if I don’t fuck you any more it won’t happen,” she said stiffly. Almost soundlessly, he replied, “No.” “What happens with this bond?” “Our souls merge. Our-life forces, you could say. I will not have your magic. You will not have any vampiric gifts, but you will live as long as I. The only thing that will kill us is a mortal wound. And what kills one, will most likely kill the other, in time. I’ve known bonded mates whose heart’s even beat the same-they share thoughts, memories, everything.” Sarel laughed bitterly. “You don’t want that with me,” she said, shaking her head. Eli said quietly, “Do not tell me what I want, Sarel. You do not know me.” “But didn’t you just tell me we are bonded?” she mocked, arrogantly. “Not yet,” he said, growing frustrated, shoving his hand through his golden hair. Golden eyes snapping and gleaming he rose from his chair to pace. Usually he could sit and stare, like a lion waiting for his prey, but now he moved restlessly. “Damn it, woman. You could drive me to drink.” Nastily, she said, “You can’t drink anything but blood.” Emitting a loud bark of laughter, Eli stalked to a

cleverly concealed cabinet and opened it, revealing an assortment of liquor bottles. Brandishing a bottle of brandy and a snifter, he poured a very full glass and downed half of it, far too quickly to appreciate the fine taste. It had taken a century to tolerate alcohol, but tolerate it he could. “Don’t know much about us, do you, pet?” Blushing furiously, she felt like a fool. “I can’t eat solid food, but I can drink damn near anything I choose, except dairy products or anything with strong acids. They sicken any vampire, except Tori. And acids are damn near poison." She sulked at the woman’s name. “Be careful, pet. Tori is a dear friend, and you do not know it, but you’d be dead if it weren’t for her,” he warned, pointing a long, graceful finger directly at her nose. Flinging her hair over her shoulder, she snarled, “How do you figure?” “You would not have evaded the Council for very long if I had died. Tori is the only reason I lived. Her blood is what saved me, what bought me time while Kelsey rushed like mad to get here. If I had died, the Council would have hunted you down. And no reason, no excuse would have kept you alive. They would have pitied what you suffered thinking that Lori died. But they would have killed you still.” Eli’s eyes blazed with anger as he pictured it. Most likely, Malachi would

have found her and he would have killed her. It would have been quick, because he would never torture a woman, but she would still be dead. “So, if it weren’t for Tori, Declan, and Kelsey, you’d be dead alongside me. Think on that, the next time you see her, and jealousy eats you up.” “Jealousy?” she sputtered, the embarrassment inside her making her queasy and lightheaded. “Why the fuck would I be jealous?” Eli laughed, setting the snifter down and moving across the room to her. “Well, I do not know,” he purred, catching her body before she could dodge him and pinning her against him. Stroking his hands down her back, he asked, “Why would you be jealous? I smell it on you, in the air, on your skin.” Catching her mouth, he kissed her roughly, deeply, his hands on her ass, lifting her up against him. “Are you jealous? If I were doing this to Tori right now, and you saw, would you be?” Her eyes blazed with rage and thunder rolled through the air outside. Throughout the room everything the wasn’t attached to something, including them, lifted several inches from the floor and hovered for long moments before drifting back down. Eli pulled away, stroking her hair and smiling down at her with a tender smile that baffled her. “I missed you like mad while you were gone. You were in this house for only a handful of days but it was empty when you

left,” he whispered softly. “I could have kept on; I could have fucked you last night instead of calling Byron when you were begging for it. Once the bond happens, it cannot be broken.” She wanted to believe the promise in his eyes. But she didn’t want to risk it. And forever was a long time to live on the edge, wondering if he would tire of her. A bond could happen, maybe-but who said he had to love her? Shrugging his gentle hands away, though her heart melted at his words, she told him “I don’t want to live forever. Not even with a man who can fuck like you.” Then she walked out of the room. Eli’s heart felt like it had been ripped out, danced on, then sewn back together by somebody who was very inept. He had called the Council. Sarel had to be sent to somebody else for training. She could not stay here. Very angry when he had informed her that somebody would be coming for her she had hissed at him, “I didn’t say I wanted a new trainer.” “I’m afraid, pretty Sarel, you do not have a choice,” Eli informed her coolly, looking up from the spread of documents in front of him. The sun was sinking lower on the horizon and hunger was a dull ache in his belly, but he wasn’t hunting while she was here.

Once he got some business done, he’d call Jonathan. The wolf was always willing to feed him, and then the wolf and he would go patrolling and try to discover what was amiss. Locate these wraithlike intruders that came and went with nary a trace. Though he wasn’t a Hunter in full yet, the lad had something many didn’t have, an instinct Eli rarely encountered. Caris had had that knack…a sad smile tugged at his mouth. He should have taken Jonathan on as his partner, trained him and saved himself this heartache. “If you didn’t want me here, then why allow me to come in the first place?” she demanded. Lifting a blonde brow, Eli replied “I allowed it because I love you and I had hoped you would learn to feel the same for me. It’s obvious, now, it won’t happen, so why torture myself? After all,” he mocked, stifling the hurt her words had caused, “I’m good enough to fuck for a while, but who wants to live forever with me? Byron will be here to collect you by midnight.” “Byron?” she asked, blushing furiously. Her heart was racing a mile a minute. He loved her, he had said. Baldly, openly, easily. But Byron? He was sending Byron to collect her? “Yes. Another Hunter must take you to the Council until they can decide who can have you. Hunters are valuable, but untrained ones are vulnerable. Tori and Declan are the closest, but they are on assignment and they can’t escort you. Malachi is close by, but he is-

unwilling-shall we say. So, Byron it is. Now, I’ve work,” he drawled, dragging his eyes away from her face. “Eli...” His temper snapped. “Sarel, go away,” he snarled, sliding his hands under the desk and flinging the heavy oak aside as though it weighed less than air. “You said something at the airport, remember? I will never willingly cause you any sort of harm, ever again. Now, unless your words mean nothing, you will leave me and not come back. Ever. I love you, but I obviously mean nothing to you except a stiff dick. You can find that elsewhere. Now leave me alone.” Sarel stared at him, her heart pounding in her chest. The look in his eyes equaled that of the tortured pain she had seen in his eyes the night she had shot a poisoned arrow into his body for a crime had not committed. Slowly, grief black and bitter in her heart, she left the room. Crossing to the window, Eli threw it open, and for a moment he almost wished Hollywood had it right. Because if it did, he’d be dead right then as the setting sun shone on him in all it’s glory. His body going up in flames would be much less painful than this. Eli felt the tensing in the room only moments before Rafael knocked on the door. The other vampire was growing powerful, very powerful. He was nearing his

second century. Idly he wondered how long the younger Hunter would be content to remain on a Master's territory when he was likely able to be a Master of his own territory, his own enclave, able to come and go as he chose. “Any news on those who dug the pit?” “I've found their scent in town.” Rafe moved slowly into the room, his dark eyes blank, watchful. It had been two days since the young witch had left, and Eli's temper had not been…reliable. “We shall go a-hunting then.” Lifting his head, he glanced at Rafe and said, “Is this a one man job or more?” “Small time, from what I can tell.” He lifted his shoulders in a shrug, glancing absently around the room, tired, restless, discontent, angry-unsure why. Eli smiled a little, all too aware of what the younger vamp was feeling. Sighing, he shook his head. And there went another. “We'll go over what we have then.” And then he'd have to get Rafe off his territory, before the vampire lost his control. Two Master vampires couldn't control themselves indefinitely, and Rafe was pushing at the reins of a Master status, unless Eli was very much mistaken. Eli glanced at Rafe with an arched brow. “A small group of businessmen. You're ruining their sport.”

Sport. Eli snarled under his breath. Their sport…the buying and selling of teenaged runaways for the pleasure of being the one to rape them was sport? One of them was a sorcerer, a talented one, which was how they had managed to detect Eli, and managed to go undetected themselves for sometime. As Eli prowled outside the small office just in front of the warehouse while they plotted a way to take another one of his people, Eli's people, he raged in silence. They dare to harm what is mine-“…some Exstacy and she'll be begging for it. Bring a damn high price. She's got a mouth on her like a porn star, an ass made for a good hard butt-fuck, and her cherry is still there. She's only thirteen and looks it,” one man said, jerking Eli back to the present. “I've

got my two most reliable men watching her, making sure she stays in just that condition and I've already got a buyer. We just have to keep the local do-gooder away from here in two days. Then we make the sale and we'll start talking about other places that are less risky to do our business.” His fangs dropped and the scent of blood was a siren's call as he stared through the window, focusing on the blood that moved under the man's skin, pounding

within the vessel, beckoning to him. But there was a girl. Another child to save. Always another childHe dragged in air-forcing the cool air into his lungsclearing his head. There was no child here now, but there had been a young one around this man recently, one still in the bloom of innocence, still fresh. Eli could smell it on him. For a moment, he was pulled back to another child, Lori, and he thought of Sarel. No…there will always be another lost one. I can not let every one remind me of her. Not when I have eternity, and she wants less than a handful of years, and none of them with me. ***** Malachi stared at Agnes as though the old woman had lost her mind. “I think not,” he replied slowly. “I do not take on students. And if I did, it would not be her.” “I do not want her as your student. She belongs with Eli. Just take her back to him.” “Eli doesn’t want her. He sent her away.” “They are bonded, whether they realize it or not,” the stubborn old witch argued. “He deserves some happiness and she is his only chance. Now, you stubborn old ancient goat of a vampire, do it.” Only she would dare speak to him like this. Malachi couldn’t resist the smile that spread over his

face. “You’re wrong. And I’m sorry, but he doesn’t want her.” “He sent her away because she refuses him. She thinks the bond isn’t there. I see it, I know it’s there. If we keep them apart, we will lose them both.” Craftily she said, “We need them both. And I’ve seen…a darkness. Something new has begun to hunt the Master in the Mountains of Virginia.” Malachi stilled, his blood freezing. “You lie.” “No. And you know that. However, in order to save him, you must save her as well. By the time you find him, he will already be injured. And that means she is injured. They must be together to recover. She will have to feed him to save him and he must be saved in order for her to not die.” Malachi glared at her. “You old bitch,” he snapped. The gray haired witch laughed as the handsome vampire left her home, the afternoon sun shining upon his banner of red hair. “I’m still not as old as you,” she called. He flipped her off. Sarel dragged her heels. Malachi ignored her, his fingers locked around his wrist, dragging her from the room the Council had given her for the duration. She had felt their displeasure. Nobody knew what had transpired, exactly.

But none of them blamed Eli. They blamed her. Hell, she blamed her. She figured Malachi could kill her here and now, in the halls, and none of them would save her. “I’m not here to kill you,” he said. She gasped. Mind reader? Casting her a cold look and scanning her from head to toe, he obviously found her lacking. “You may be a witch, but I’m older than the ages, and your powers are nothing to me,” he said. “Where are we going?” she asked breathlessly, trying to keep up with his long strides. “Would it frighten you if I said I am your trainer?” he asked maliciously. “Yes,” she answered bluntly and honestly. “Good,” he said coldly. “Are you?” she asked, hating how timid she sounded. Malachi didn’t answer. Bastard. She flinched, knowing he heard her. Hearing an odd, stifled sound she didn’t dare wonder whether he was laughing at her or trying to suppress a snarl. Following him meekly, silently, she willed her mind into a blank canvas. Something told her that if he wanted her dead, and decided to follow through, the Council would do little to punish him.

Malachi couldn’t help it-she may have been a mean, dangerous bitch to Eli, but she was an impudent little thing. Hearing the silent Bastard, he couldn’t completely stifle the laugh. Herding her onto the private plane he had chartered, he pushed her none too gently into a seat. It had only been two weeks since Eli had sent her away. It was already showing on her and he had to admit, he suspected Agnes was right. The girl had lost weight, her lovely mellow gold skin had turned sallow, and her eyes were dull. Which meant Eli wasn’t going to be at his best either. They had to hurry. Various reports coming in did little to soothe Mal’s temper, or the fear that was lurking just under his skin. A wounded young vamp in Eli’s territory-wounded in a vamp pit. Vamp pits…the wolves would have discovered them, unless a witch was helping to hide the scent. Questions asked by people whose faces couldn’t be remembered. Aye, something was stalking Eli. And not just Eli. Two more Masters, one in France, one in Canada had been suffering similar problems and not reporting them. One finally reported it last week. One would not be reporting at all. That Master, the one from France, ah well, Malachi knew that Agnes was going to her wake tomorrow. She was traveling to Scotland to bid her

farewell to the vampire. Sabine Delacroix had fallen to a weapon no vampire could escape. Her house had been torched at noon, and when she had tried to flee with the help of two of the shifters who had come to her aid, they had all been shot down. Something deadly was stalking them all. He thanked whatever God existed that had kept Agnes from allowing Sarel to be sent back to England, where she had technically belonged. The flight from New York to West Virginia would take little time. And if he prayed hard enough, it just might be in time. “What do you mean, she is not in England?” Eli asked wearily. He pushed a hand through his hair, cursing the weariness that had plagued him the past few weeks. On the other end of the line, Byron shrugged. “I don’t know, Eli. Agnes told me to take her to Excelsior. I’m just a peon. I follow orders,” he said. Excelsior. Why was she at Excelsior? “That makes no sense? Why is she at Excelsior?” “She’s not. At least not any more,” Byron said, keeping his voice level. “Malachi has her. Agnes has paired her with him.” Hours later, Eli still couldn’t believe it. He wandered through the streets as he circled around the house where the girl was supposed to be sold. Elijah felt the bitter anger work through him and had to shove it aside, it exhausted him so. “Not while I

breathe,” he swore softly, peering at the warehouse. Still quiet. Malachi. What the fuck was she doing with Malachi? Shit. Fuck. Wrong choice of words. Because then he imagined them fucking. And he wasn’t sure he could forgive his old friend if he had laid his hands on Sarel’s golden body. Byron was one thing. Byron was younger than Eli, and Eli was a stronger Master, more dominant. But MalachiEli whirled and punched the wall, his fist going through the brick, pain lashing up his arm. Sarel felt the pain tear up her arm and she cried out, staring down at the unmarred skin. Malachi was at her side instantly, staring down at her hand. She wasn’t sure, but she suspected the concern in his eyes wasn’t all for her. Still nothing. Eli narrowed his eyes. Something wasn’t right. Too quiet there. There was little sound of life inside the warehouse...little movement. Too dark, too still. The unease starting to prickle down his skin and he almost backed away, listening to three hundreds year of instinct. But he moved forward, out of the darkness, out of the

shadows, and he crossed the street and stalked into the warehouse, unaware that he was being watched. He heard the snick as the door locked behind him, but it was too late. When the fire broke out, he was almost relieved. He would have just sat down and let it happen if he hadn’t seen Jonathan and Lori, Sarel’s little sister tied and bound in the middle of the room, unconscious, helpless, while the fire blazed around them. Somebody had rigged the warehouse with small bombs. He should have smelled the ingredients they had used. He would have if he hadn’t been so tired, so distracted. But if he had, he wouldn’t have come in and Jonathan and Lori would have died. Lori had just come to him, only a few months before Sarel had been sent to him, wanting to be his Healer in the small enclave that was growing within his territory. He had accepted, thinking it would be one more thing to draw Sarel to him in time. He had accepted, thus he had placed her in harm's way. Launching himself at them as one of the devices behind him exploded Eli lifted them both and ran for the stairs. The humans would be watching the ground floor windows, but from the upper floor, maybe he’d have a chance. He came out on top of the warehouse and crouched over them, taking the bullets that came from the right into his own body.

Sarel screamed as pain ripped through her. What was going on? Malachi crouched by her side, sending silent commands to the driver, following Eli’s scent. He knew his old friend and could find him quickly-he only hoped it was quick enough. They had landed moments after Sarel had experienced that first odd pain in her hand and Malachi had hoped they might find him before anything else happened. That was when it spiraled out of control. They came to a building that was burning and he ordered the driver to stop. He shifted and reformed into his mortal form on top of the house, taking the one who was shooting at Eli and casually breaking his neck, letting none of his rage show. Taking the unconscious pair in his arms he jumped the two stories down and put them in the car. Shifting again to mist, Malachi reformed at Eli’s side and took the bleeding body of his friend in his arms to assess the damage. It was nearly total. Malachi felt his throat close with grief, his jaws ache with rage. Bullets flew around him and he dropped his shields, sending out a paralyzing fear. A vampire should have a focus, a face in mind, somebody he knew...but Malachi could do many things a vampire shouldn't have been able to do. Every mind that was focused on harming Eli right now was destroyed,

utterly and entirely, in that very instant. Screams of terror filled

the air as M alachi jumped from the building again, uncaring of any who saw. He usually made some attempt to hide his abilities, but nothing mattered beyond Eli right now. What the fuck did it matter that Malachi possessed abilities that no vampire was supposed to have? He could attribute it to the fact that his mother had been a witch. Now he wished she had been a Healer and he had some more useful magic in his blood. The bullets had damn near destroyed Eli’s heart. If he had been human, there would have been nothing left to save. As it was, Malachi was amazed. He took Sarel’s wrist, relieved to find a pulse was still there. Fairly strong, even though she was unconscious now. Using his own fangs to rip her wrist open, he pressed the wound to Eli’s mouth. Thankfully, the blond vampire closed his mouth over the wound of his own accord after a few moments. Malachi slid his hand under Eli, to cover the gaping wound there and prevent more blood from flowing out. When Eli’s eyes finally opened Malachi breathed out a ragged sigh of relief.

And then he sent out a summons. Malachi was finally going to get to meet Tori Reilly. Chapter Ten Eli rolled onto his side, staring at Sarel’s still body. Malachi said gruffly, “Somehow you forged a bond without sex. Or without enough sex. Agnes saw it. I brought Sarel here.” “She doesn’t want this,” Eli said. “She was dying, as surely as you were,” Mal said softly. “I saw it with my own eyes. Even without tonight, you both would have died without the other in a matter of months.” Eli wrapped his cold hand around hers and called her. She was going to hate him. Tori arrived at the house four hours later and promptly offered her wrist. She joked with Eli tenderly, “I’m a walking blood bank, aren’t I?” She looked at Sarel who lay sleeping in the bed next to him, curling around him, needing his nearness even in sleep. “Bonded?” “She doesn’t want it,” he said. “Fuck that,” Malachi said harshly. “She loves you.” “She told me, plain as day, she doesn’t want to spend forever with me. And now, we’re both screwed.” Eli couldn’t fight off the urge to curl around her naked body, his own aching from the assault he had taken

only hours before. That would all fade, thanks to Tori, within a week or so, instead of months, but for now, he hurt. “I’m sorry,” Tori whispered, sitting by his head, stroking her fingers through his hair. Declan stood behind her, wrapping her wrist with a bandage she wouldn't even need in ten minutes as he had a stare down with Malachi. The ancient one stared at Tori with gleaming, navy eyes, a hungry, appreciative smile on his lips before he looked back at Declan. He smiled slowly, moving his eyes from the wolf back to the wolf’s lovely mate who stood studying Malachi with curious eyes. Malachi let his eyes roam over her lithe little body, his thoughts clear on his face before returning his gaze to Declan. The devilish glint in the ancient’s eyes faded as Eli glared at him. “Time. Eli. Give it time,” Malachi suggested from his crouch in the corner, his long fingers weaving his damp, long hair into a braid. His naked chest still gleamed from the shower he had taken just minutes ago to wash the dried blood from his body. He had waited until the last, waiting to see that Eli would be fine before he had bathed. Even then, he had gone to check on Jonathan and Lori first. “Time,” he repeated absently, staring out the window. Eli laughed sourly. “I have all the time in the world now, don’t I?”

Sarel woke to darkness. Eli’s bed-his scent surrounded her, filled her. He filled her. She remembered the brutal burning pain, and his memories assaulted her; she sat up screaming, her hands pressed to her temples. Gone. He was gone. Gone. Eli’s arms came around her and he pressed his lips to her brow and whispered, “I’m fine, pet. I am fine.” Her hands raced over him, feeling scars and wounds. He flinched and she jerked as an echo of his pain raced through her. “What has happened?” “We bonded.” “I thought it hadn’t happened yet.” “So did I,” Eli said softly, his hands falling away. She caught a faint glimpse of his golden eyes as her own eyesight adjusted to the darkness. He let her move away and he didn’t follow. She suspected he couldn’t just yet. She smelled another woman on him. “Tori fed you,” she said softly. “Her blood heals faster than others,” he replied. From the sound of it, he had lain back down. “Malachi called her. And frankly, I don’t see the point of suffering through weeks or months of weakness if feeding from her can change that.” “Do you love her?” “What do you care?” he asked bitterly, staring into the

darkness. “You do not love me. This bond is nothing more than a bloody unfortunate inconvenience to you. A bloody cruel trick that God and fate played on you. I care for Tori. Very much. We still share a bond, and on some level, I do love her, but more as a friend. I think I could have fallen in love with her if I hadn’t met you. And been bloody miserable, because she belongs to my best friend.” “I don’t want you fucking her,” Sarel said harshly. “Bloody hell, what kind of bastard do you take me for?” He laughed but the sound was bitter. “I have no plans, now or ever, of fucking her again. Unlike you, I would not want to cause my mate pain.” Sarel flinched as the implication sank in. Damn it, what was she doing? He was going to think she really didn’t care. Laughing softly, he murmured, “That’s just it, pet. You really don’t.” She froze. Sarel hadn’t realized just how complete the bond had become. Eli could read her thoughts, but couldn’t yet see inside her soul. Because she did care. Damn it, she loved him. But when she turned around to tell him, he had disappeared-shifted into that damned insubstantial mist and left. He loved that fucking disappearing act of his.

It was very possible for two people to co exist in one house for days on end without seeing each other. To even sleep in the same bed. Eli waited until exhaustion had her dropping before he slid into bed. It took the edge off and he was able to function. Pressing his body to hers filled the hole in his heart, for the day, while he slept, even though he did wonder why she bothered to adapt her sleep pattern to his. And he wondered why she bothered to seek him out. He didn’t give a flying fuck if he looked the bloody coward. If he heard her footsteps, he simply shifted and left the room. Tori looked at him with raised brows and knowing eyes when he reformed in the game room, a room he never entered. Declan was out doing patrol, making sure all was at peace. Malachi had patrolled the previous night. They’d switch off until Eli’s strength had returned. Settling into a chair to watch Tori and Jonathan play pool, Eli wished he had never accepted Sarel as a student. “You can’t run forever.” “I find it hard to believe you run at all,” Malachi said, entering the room, his dark blue eyes narrow and cool. He tossed Tori a hot glance but she ignored him. Eli was rather satisfied to see that she was more immune to Malachi than either of the men had expected. “I’d prefer not to have my heart smashed to pieces again, thank you very much,” Eli said, staring up at the

ceiling. Maybe he’d go for a ride. It was close enough to sundown. By the time he got the horse saddled, changed clothes… “You are hiding from the gun?” Malachi asked, confused. “Those men are of no danger. What few lived through the mental blast are mindless now, blathering idiots. Tis unlike you--you have never hidden from danger before. Has your mind been damaged?” Eli laughed while Tori snickered, sending the older vampire an amused look. “He’s talking about having his heart broken, Malachi. Figuratively,” she advised him. Malachi sent her a withering look. God forbid the ancient one be wrong, Eli thought with some reluctant amusement. Yes, a ride would be good-a slow easy ride. A few more days and his body would be mended and he would tackle the problem of how to deal with Sarel. Perhaps if she would be willing to spend two weeks a month“Just take her to bed and keep fucking her until she realizes what a fool she is,” Malachi told him, ignoring the arch look Tori sent his way. Malachi wasn’t very pleased about a woman who wasn’t overly impressed with him. Granted, it was tiresome having a woman who fell over her own feet to please him, but a winsome, graceful woman who knew how to pleasure a man was a treat. “Yes,” Eli said sarcastically, smacking his hand. “That

is exactly so. Do exactly what put me is this spot and all is well.” Tori smiled and shrugged. “Actually, it may be not a bad plan. But I’d replace the fucking with some loving. She does care for you, Eli. The bond wouldn’t have happened without it, no matter what you think.” Sarel glanced over her shoulder and suppressed a sigh. Exactly who she needed to see. Tori leaned against the railing, tipping her head back, soaking in the late day sun. “Eli’s going for a ride in a bit. By the time he has changed clothes and gotten the horse ready, the sun will have set. It will be a few hours before he is back, so I have a question for you. But before I ask it, I need to tell you something.” “He is in love you,” Tori said. “I know,” Sarel answered quietly, her belly flipping over. It did, every time she thought of it. She had come to grips with it, and in the past few days she had even accepted it. But every time she tried to talk to Eli, he disappeared. Oh, she knew he was there. She could feel him as he slid past her, or scent him in the air around her, knowing he had just vacated the room. He would be warm around her body right before she woke, and then gone. “I keep trying to talk to him. I’d like to say he won’t listen, but the bastard won’t sit still long enough for me to find him.” Tori asked, “Do you blame him?”

“No.” Sarel groaned and let her head fall forward, missing it as Eli ran swiftly from the house to the stab

le, moving away from the still painful effects of the too bright sun. Within the next thirty minutes, it would be safe for him. But not yet. “Okay. Here’s my question. Do you love him?” “Yes,” she said. Something inside her broke free and tears seeped down her cheeks and she repeated it quietly, “Yes. I do.” “Want some advice?” Her eyes on the stable, Tori said, “Go to bed. Like as in now. When he comes in, pretend you’re already asleep. You’re a witch, meditate. You can fake it. When he comes in, as I’m sure he will, jump him. He won’t be able to say no. I smell him all over you. I know you share a bed. Once he’s inside you, he won’t be able to not listen to you.” A rather simple plan. Sarel wondered why she had not thought of it. Tori turned and was on her way out. Then she stopped and looked back. “One more question. Why did he send you away?” “I told him I didn’t want to live forever with him,” Sarel said, her face hot with shame. “I lied. I thought he’d get tired of me.” “You really don’t understand the bond thing, do you?”

Sarel reached up and rubbed her aching chest, where her heart seemed to beat only half the time. Weakly she smiled and said, “I didn’t until the past week.” ***** Eli slipped into the room. He really wasn’t certain how much more of this he could take. Shedding his clothes, he wrapped his body around hers, breathing in her scent. He had fed from Declan. His circle of meals was growing sparse as well. He’d have to start hunting soon just to find blood. It was impossible to feed from Tori without wanting to fuck her, and even that urge would hurt Sarel. If he didn’t give in, he feared that would hurt Tori. So he was screwed either way there. Her chest moved regularly in sleep so he cuddled a little closer, and stroked her hair, rubbed his hand over her hip, caressed his thumb across her satin skin. She looked better as well. The pallor had faded, replaced by the warm honey gold of health. He had seen her from the stable, talking to Tori. It hadn’t turned to violence, which satisfied him. His cock ached. Cuddling it against her butt, he ordered himself to sleep. The sun was riding dangerously high, so high, his skin was near tingling before he had come inside. Of course, Malachi and Tori were still out there. Lucky

bastards. Malachi didn’t believe it. He was in for a surprise… Eli tumbled headlong into sleep. Sarel’s skin was humming with need. She had followed Tori’s advise all right. She had bathed in oilhoneysuckle, of course. She knew how much Eli loved the way she smelled. Then she had slept, lightly. When he had entered the room, she was aware. She rested for a while longer, and woke far earlier than he. Rolling to her side, she tossed the covers off and stared down at him, licking her lips. Lowering her head, she pressed a kiss to his mouth and whispered, “I love you,” just to make sure she was able to say it, at least once. Just in case he did his little vampire presto change-o once he woke. Of course, she thought as she shimmied down, she was going to make as sure as she could that he wouldn’t want to go anywhere. She licked his cock, his balls, then his cock again, taking the hardening shaft deep inside her mouth, working it until it was hard and firm, wet from her mouth. Wrapping her hand around the base she picked up a steady rhythm, staring up his body. The room was still dim, so she loosed a low ripple of magic, and tiny balls of light bounced throughout the room-like candles-and she was able to see his body clearly just as his lids

lifted. The fog was clearing from his eyes-eyes that were hot with lust-and she chanced a little more magic, a locking spell, in case he did decide to do a shift. She didn’t know if it would work, but she felt the spell in the air as it locked into place. If it worked, Eli may be able to shift, but he wouldn’t be able to reform anywhere outside this room. But he did not try to shift into mist. Burying one hand in her hair, he groaned and pumped his hips up into her mouth, the other hand going down to cup his balls. “Sarel,” he rasped, staring down at her face, his eyes swirling, glowing and burning hot. The muscles of his chest heaved with a ragged breath and his belly flexed as she slowly lowered her head back down, lifted back up, staring up into eyes all the while. The adoration she saw there nearly broke her heart. She had tried to throw that away. She was such an idiot. Swallowing the head of his cock down, eyes tearing, throat and lungs burning, she tried to take as much as of him as possible. Swirling her tongue around the rounded head, she stroked the furred sac of his balls with one, and pumped his cock up and down with the other. Eli cried out and his come shot down her throat in rhythmic waves. While he lay gasping for breath, she pulled away and straddled him. When he would have

tumbled her to her back, she shook her head, snapped her fingers, whispered words of an entrapment spell. His wrists were pulled high over his head without his consent, his eyes wide, and then curious. She lowered her head and kissed him, licking his full lower lip, moving down to nip his neck. “You. Tonight is for you,” she murmured. “And there’s something I probably oughta tell you.” She straddled him, staring down at him where he lay pinned by her magic. The position caused the muscles in his arms to bulge and displayed his chest rather well, Sarel decided. Leaning down to kiss him just there she took his cock into her hand and slid down slowly, biting her lip as she worked him inside. The wet, warm clasp of her pussy hugged him tightly as she slid down on him and Eli groaned raggedly, his hands closing into tight fists as he jerked uselessly against the unseen restraints. Ever so slowly, feeling his width carving through her, Sarel slid down on him until her bottom was snug against his belly and then she leaned forward, planting her hands against the muscled wall of his chest, her hair falling around them as she stared into his eyes. Slowly, the action difficult after keeping her feelings hidden after so long, Sarel shoved the barriers to her emotions aside as she seated herself fully on him. Leaning over him, she took his face in her hands, gasping as it drove him just a little deeper inside her. “I

do care, Eli. More than that, I love you,” she whispered, rocking against him, riding him as the pleasure built and built until she was slamming herself down on him with bruising force while she kissed him desperately. “Free my hands, pet,” he growled, his fangs dropping down as he pulled his mouth away. Arching his back, he pushed his cock deep inside the wet embrace of her pussy and shuddered as she convulsed around him, her head falling back as she moaned and whimpered. Then she shook her head and said… “No… This is for you…” And leaning over him, she lifted her hips up, and started to ride, taking his cock in slow, shallow strokes, then faster, steadier strokes, until he started to shaft her deeper, his eyes locked on her face as he twisted his hips and pushed the head of his cock over the spot deep inside her cleft that made her scream. She felt the soft, seductive push of him inside her mind as the climax washed over her and she whimpered as he started to wrap her in a web of seduction so tight, so hot she could barely breathe past it. His cock jerked inside her pussy as he ordered her body to straighten and her hands to lift, all with silent mental commands. So, while he lay pinned beneath her, his long pale body restrained by magic bonds, he held her body by psychic sway and guided her hands through her hair, arching her spine, lifting her breasts, her nipples erect and red.

“Play with your clit.” His voice was low and rough with need and his eyes darkened to amber as one hand trailed down from her hair, to stroke back and forth over her clit as she rode him, taking his cock with slow, lazy rolls of her hips. “And let me taste.” Wrapping his lips around the offered fingers, he sucked the cream free and growled deep, arching his back and driving up into her. “Let me go, Sarel,” he rasped, tugging his mouth away from her slim fingers. She released the spell and cried out when he rolled her under him, shoving her legs wide and high, brushing her hair back and nuzzling her neck. Pressing the back of his neck and arching her own toward him Eli struck, sinking his fangs deep as he fucked her hard and rough and desperately. “Love you,” he told her silently in her mind. Over and over as he drove his thick hard cock inside her wet sheathe. “Love you, love you love you.” As she buried her fingers in his hair, his hot mouth at her neck sending shudders down her spine that merged with the ones his cock was sending upwards. “If you’d stopped…avoiding….me, I’d have told you… sooner,” she panted, driving her hips upward, taking more of him. Groaning, Eli pulled him mouth away, then his cock, causing her to scream in frustration. But he flipped her onto her hands and knees and she sobbed when he drove back into her wet cleft, sinking in deeper and harder than before. She glanced up and grinned weakly,

whispered, and watched as the little bottle on the bedside table drifted over to them. It bobbled a couple of times-for some reason, she couldn’t focus. Eli spied it and he laughed shakily. She squirmed when she felt the cool liquid on her anus and gasped when he worked his finger completely inside her. “I want your cock inside me tonight,” she moaned brokenly. “Not ready,” he muttered, driving back inside her tight cleft, groaning as she closed over him. He pulled his finger out, and started to work two insider her. “Damn it, Eli, please,” she sobbed, thrashing wildly on the sheets. Hell. Pulling his cock out, he watched as he slowly speared her waiting hole with two fingers, the tight little pucker opening and then closing around them-hot, damp, sweet. His eyes closed and he reached for the lubricant. “It will hurt you,” he warned her. “I don’t care,” she panted, rocking back to meet him as he drove his fingers back inside her. Pulling away he took the lubricant and coated his cock heavily, then the tight, pink pucker, even though it already gleamed wetly. I can’t believe I’m doing this, he thought, staring down at his cock as he started to prod her. She opened slightly and pushed down and he hissed, groaning as the first three inches slid inside, almost easily. But then her body arched and stiffened

as the pain started. Bending over her, he started to stroke her swollen clit, pumping his fingers in and out of her dripping pussy while he murmured in her ear, “It will pass, pet. Breathe out, that’s it. Ah, you are so fucking sweet. Hmm, that’s it.” As her body shuddered, then relaxed, he slid further inside, until half of his length was in. He paused again, petting and stroking until she relaxed, then continuing this time and driving her closer to orgasm. When he felt the spasms in her vagina echoing through the thin membrane, he gripped her hips in his hands and drove completely in-his thick cock buried inside her snug, virgin ass while she screamed, half with orgasmic pleasure, the other half in shocked pain. Stroking her back and the globes of her bottom he whispered, “I’m sorry. It always hurts the first time. But I will bring you pleasure, I promise.” And he did, using his cock and his hands, pulling out and driving back inside the sensitive passage, playing with her clit and teasing her until Sarel was screaming and begging for release. Sarel fell from her hands to her chest, unable to hold herself up. Eli kept his grip on her hips, otherwise she would have fallen completely. She shuddered and moaned, feeling him spread her wide so that he could burrow back inside. It made her scream. His fingers pinched her clit again, and she thought she would die. Then his cock pulled out and she moved back, seeking

more, loving the moan she heard from him, loving the pleasure she sensed inside him. He filled her, full, too full in her bottom, but not just there, inside her soul, inside her mind. She felt his arms come around her and pull her back and up so that she was pinned upright against his body as he drove his cock up into her ass. Putting his mouth to her ear, he whispered, “Three centuries. I have waited three centuries for you, Sarel. I could not have waited much longer. I love you, to the bottom of my soul, for all eternity. Shuddering as his last thrust drove her over, his hot semen spurted into her sensitive sheath as he was whispering against her ear. “I love you, Eli,” she whimpered, twisting her head around to catch his mouth. Their tongues tangled and magic exploded around them as the climax broke over them. Eli eased their shuddering bodies down to the bed and hugged her tightly to him. His body was shaking so badly it felt like the bed was moving from it, Eli mused, burying his face in her damp, sweaty hair. Sarel’s quivering body jumped wh

en a fist started banging on the door and Eli snarled, glaring over his shoulder. Covering Sarel’s naked body with a blanket, he turned just as Malachi threw it open.

“Mother of God, Eli, the next time you plan on fucking your little witch into the next world, make sure she doesn’t bring the house down around us,” he boomed, his dark-blue eyes blazing. There was more mirth than anger in his gaze. But it was then that Eli realized that it was Sarel’s magic that was making the house shake. “Bloody hell,” he mused, falling back onto the bed and pulling her up against him. She blushed furiously and forced the wild magic back down inside. “I’m sorry,” she muttered as Malachi closed the door, his laughter following him down the hall. Eli grinned weakly. “Maybe we can find a spell to counter it.” “We will,” she swore solemnly, wincing a bit as she shifted to find a more comfortable position. Her ass hurt, but it was a sweet, delicious pain that she wouldn’t have traded for anything. Eli’s hand stroked her hair. “I love you,” he whispered. More to hear her answer than anything. She smiled against his chest and said, “I love you,” before snuggling against him. And then he closed his eyes and for the first time in years, when the moon rose, he didn’t. Epilogue Sarel snuggled deeper into the cushions on the couch,

drifting in and out of sleep. She felt his hand slide up the outer edge of her thigh and settle on her hip some time later, as she was trying to convince herself to move upstairs. It would be sunrise soon and Eli would be sleeping in their room and… A firm male mouth settled on her shoulder before cruising up to her neck. “Wake up, pet. Somebody wants to say good-bye.” “Mmmm.” She arched up against his mouth, snuggling back against his cool body, feeling her warmth seeping into him, his naked chest…naked chest. Her lashes lifted slowly and her eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room. Sitting up, she peered out the window, then at her watch. No, sunrise wasn't anywhere close. She had slept the entire day away, and on the couch. Wincing, she stretched sore muscles before turning her head to meet Tori's eyes across the room. Sarel all but whimpered in gratitude as Eli's hands set to work on the stiffened muscles in her neck. “Tired?” he murmured. “Sore.” Meeting Tori's gaze, she lifted a brow and said drolly, “I'd love to say it's been a pleasure.” “Always interesting, we can definitely say that.” Tori smiled, a real smile that lit her eyes and face. Declan cupped his hand behind Tori's neck-possessively, gently, lovingly-and Sarel shuddered with pleasure as Eli did something similar, drawing her against his

body, meeting his friend's eyes across the room. “I think we can perhaps not stay away so long?” Eli smiled. “Always welcome, Torrance. Whenever you like, for however long you wish to stay.” He rubbed his chin against Sarel's hair and drew a deep

draught of her scent into his lungs. “And Declan as well, provided the wolf remembers to wipe his paws at the door.” “Har har,” Declan laughed sarcastically, flashing his teeth, rolling his eyes. Then he smiled, a flashing, brilliant grin, and moving across the room quicker than Sarel's eyes could track, he reached out, jerked her out of Eli's arms, and planted a hard, firm kiss against her mouth. “Take good care of him, witch, else I'll turn my vampir e loose

on you.” She smil ed a little shakily, as her knees went weak. No wonder Tori always tended to look a little dazed when in the company of these two men.

Eli stood slowly, meeting Declan's eyes with a lifted brow. Declan grinned again. “A long time-long time-I have waited to see a happy look in your eyes, mate. Very long.” He crushed Eli to him in a strong embrace, bringing the scent of woods, Tori and Ireland to Eli before he drew back, his vibrant green eyes dancing with mirth and life. “Let’s see that we keep it that way, mate.” Eli brought Sarel to him, lowering his mouth to hers, his hands cupping her firmly rounded ass as Declan and Tori

headed off, bantering lightly , arms wrapped around the other's waist. As his lips touched hers, Eli murmured, “Are you still wishing it had been Declan, instead of Byron?” Chic ago Byron watched as Kit strolled past his door, the t-shirt she wore barely covering her rounded rump. She glanced at him, her eyes cool, her face blank. In his lap, he held Korine, one of the young weres he had brought into the house only a few months earlier. It was nearly midnight. Kit's door closed and Byron lowered his mouth back to

Kori's neck, and wished-again-that it was Kit he held. But the Inherent wolf wasn't for him. Not ever.

About the author: Shiloh was born in Kentucky and has been reading avidly since she was six. At twelve, she discovered how much fun it was to write when she took a book that didn’t end the way she had wanted it to and rewrote the ending. She’s been writing ever since. Shiloh now lives in southern Indiana with her husband and two children. Between her job, her two adorable and demanding children, and equally adorable and demanding husband, she crams writing in between studying and reading and sleeps when time allows. Shiloh welcomes mail from readers. You can write to her c/o Ellora’s Cave Publishing at P.O. Box 787, Hudson, Ohio 44236-0787.

Also by Shiloh Walker:

Her Best Friend’s Lover Once Upon A Midnight Blue The Dragon’s Warrior The Hunters: Delcan and Tori Voyeur Whipped Cream and Handcuffs