Halfway to the Grave

TWELVE

W E STOPPED ONCE ON OUR WAY TO THE CAVE. Bones made a call on his cell, and then he pulled over off by the side of the road near the darkest, most wooded part. It wasn’t five minutes before a car pulled up behind us.

“Hiya, buddy!” Ted called out.

“Prompt as ever, mate,” Bones greeted him, getting out of my truck. He went around to the trailer bed and I heard his motorcycle being moved. He’d laid it over Stephanie’s body. She wasn’t going to blow off with that thing holding her down.

I stayed in the truck, not in the mood for chitchatting.

“Whatcha got there?” Ted asked, giving me a friendly wave over Bones’s shoulder.

“Dinner for whichever ghoul you feel like rewarding, but make sure they clean their plate. I don’t want any part of her resurfacing,” Bones replied.

My stomach heaved. God, talk about disposing of a body! I’d assumed we would bury her. Serving her up to a ghoul had never occurred to me.

Ted didn’t share any of my qualms. “You betcha, bud. Anything I should warn them about?”

“Yeah.” Bones handed the bundle over and Ted plopped her in his trunk. “Tell them not to chip a tooth on the bullet.”

That was it for me. I opened the truck door just in time, the evening’s events slamming into me and heaving out of my stomach in a rush.

“She all right?” I heard Ted ask as I coughed and drew in deep breaths.

Bones made a sound similar to a sigh. “She will be. Have to be off, mate. Thanks.”

“Sure thing, bud. Anytime.”

I closed my door just as Bones climbed back in. Ted’s headlights flashed as he backed up, and then he was gone.

Bones reached inside his jacket and handed me a flask. “Whiskey. Not your favorite, but it’s all I’ve got.”

I took the bottle gratefully and gulped until there was no more. The liquor’s artificial warmth began to thaw the ice in my limbs.

“Better?”

“Yeah.”

My voice was scratchy from the lingering burn of the alcohol, but it had helped in more ways than one. That numbing shock was fading, replaced instead with a slew of questions.

“No more cryptic shit, Bones. Who is Hennessey, and what’s he got to do with a gun-toting psychotic from my physics class?”

Bones cast me a sideways glance as he began driving. “Physics? You met her at college?”

“I think you should answer my question first, since I’m the one who was nearly shot,” I snapped.

“Kitten, I will answer you, but please. Tell me how you met and what happened tonight.”

My jaw tightened. “She took physics with me, as I said. From the first day, she’d wait for me after class. She started off by asking me lecture questions when she’d miss class, etc., and then she talked about herself. Inconsequential, funny things, like guys she’d dated or other stories…she seemed so friendly and nice. Then she asked about me, and I told her the truth. That I’d just transferred from a community college, didn’t know anybody here, came from a small town-the bitch was casing me!” I suddenly burst. “She told me tonight she was looking for someone disposable, and I practically slapped a big red bow on my ass!”

“What about tonight?” he prodded.

“Oh, she did one better than dig into my background.” I outlined the invitation and the whole clothes charade briefly, finishing with, “And then she pulled a gun on me.”

“Did she mention anyone’s name at all?”

I retraced our conversation in my mind. “No. She said something about paying her rent and me being what her landlord liked, then she said college girls were all stupid and she should tape-record herself…but no names.”

Bones didn’t say anything. I waited, tapping my finger. “How is this related to Hennessey? You said you smelled him and other vampires there. Do you think somehow he found out who I was from the other night? That he wanted to finish what he’d started?”

“No.” His response was instant. “She’d been coddling up to you all week, you said. If Hennessey had found out who you were, believe me, he wouldn’t have been patient about things. He’d have come at you in force straightaway, the minute he knew your name. Snatched up you and anyone unlucky enough to be around you. That’s why I asked you what you touched and then wiped her place down. Though I doubt you have prints on file, I want no trace of you left for him to follow.”

“If not because of last weekend, then why would Stephanie be involved with him and try to kidnap me? It doesn’t make any sense!”

He gave me a hooded look. “Let’s sort this out inside. Gives me a chance to go through her things while we talk.”

I followed him determinedly into the cave. No way was I letting him get away without telling me everything. Hennessey might have struck me as a typical scumbag, but there was obviously more to it than that. I wasn’t leaving until I found out how much more.

Bones and I picked our way through the narrow entrance and back to where he’d made his living quarters in the high-domed part of the cave. He emptied the garbage bag’s contents and I sat on the couch in front of him, watching as he opened Stephanie’s laptop first.

“Have you ever heard of the Bennington Triangle?” he asked, powering up her computer.

I frowned. “No. I’ve heard of the Bermuda one.”

His fingers flew over the keyboard. My, but they were limber. After a second, he let out a disgusted snort.

“Bloody girl didn’t even bother to password her files. Just pure sodding arrogance, but that’s in our favor. Look, there you are, Kitten. Under ‘Potentials.’ You should be flattered. You were first on her list.”

I gaped over his shoulder and saw ‘Cathy-redhead-twenty-two’ with other names and similar short descriptions under it.

“Are you kidding me? Who are those other girls? Potential what?”

More blurring movement over the keys, and then he leaned back with a smile.

“Well, what have we here? Charlie, and Club Flame on Forty-second Street. Sounds like a contact. Here’s hoping the twit was thick enough to write the actual name of the place and not just a code for it.”

“Bones!”

The sharpness in my voice made him set aside the laptop and meet my eyes.

“The Bennington Triangle refers to an area in Maine where several people disappeared back in the fifties. To this day, no trace of them has been found. Something similar took place in Mexico several years back. A friend of mine’s daughter disappeared. Her remains were found a few months afterward in the desert, and when I say remains, I mean they only found pieces of her. She had to be identified by dental records. At the autopsy, it was discovered that she’d been alive for months before she was murdered, and when I investigated further, it turned out not to be at all uncommon.”

“What do you mean?”

Bones leaned back. “Hundreds of women were murdered or went missing in Mexican border towns around that time. Today, there’s still not a speck of any real idea who did it. Then, several years ago, a number of young girls started to go missing in and around the Great Lakes area. More recently, it became centered in Ohio. Most of them were presumed to be runaways, prostitutes, addicts, or just average, little-known girls who had vanished with no signs of foul play. Since most of them were in high-risk categories, there wasn’t much of a media fuss. I think Hennessey’s involved. It’s why I came here. He was near all three places when the disappearances started.”

“You think Hennessey did all that?” The sheer numbers appalled me. “He can’t eat that much if he wanted to! What is he, some kind of…undead Ted Bundy?”

“Oh, I think he might be a ringleader, no doubt about that, but he’s not a traditional serial killer,” Bones said crisply. “Serial killers are more possessive in their motives. From the bits and pieces I’ve gathered over the years, I don’t think he’s keeping these people to himself-I think he’s made an industry out of them.”

I almost asked what kind of an industry, but then I remembered what Bones had said to Sergio last weekend. Knew you couldn’t pass up a pretty girl…You’re his best client, from what I hear… Did you grow short on funds so you had to go out for dinner instead of order in?…And then tonight, with Stephanie. Just making my rent, and you, cookie, are just what the landlord likes… College girls, you’re all the same…

“You think he’s running a takeout service,” I breathed. “Turning those people into Meals on Wheels! My God, Bones, how could he get away with it?”

“Hennessey was sloppy in Maine and Mexico, but he’s gotten smarter. He now chooses women society doesn’t hold in high regard, and if they don’t fall into that category, then he sends vampires to prevent them from even being reported missing. Remember those girls Winston told you about? He wasn’t wrong, luv, they are all dead. I wanted confirmation that there were more girls missing than had been reported, so that’s why I sent you to Winston. A ghost knows who’s died, even if those girls’ families don’t. I went to see them, and they’d all been bitten into believing their daughters were off pursuing an acting career, like you’d been told, or backpacking across Europe, or moving in with an old boyfriend, whatever. They’d been programmed not to question their absence, and only a vampire can have that much mind control. Hennessey’s had his people rounding up even more girls for him lately. At colleges. On street corners. In bars, clubs, and back alleys. How could he get away with it? Have you ever really looked at the faces on your milk carton? People disappear all the time. The police? There’s enough crimes involving the rich, famous, and powerful to make it easy for them to put the disappearance of some derelicts on their back burner, and they don’t know about the others. As far as the undead world goes, Hennessey’s covered his tracks very well. There’s only suspicion, but no proof.”

Now that I knew what was going on in my own state, what Stephanie had been doing made perfect sense, if you had the ethics of a crocodile. A huge, crowded college campus had been her all-you-can-eat buffet; she just hadn’t been the one eating. No, she was someone hired to stock Hennessey’s refrigerator. And I, with my background, had been the perfect dish. Stephanie had hit the nail on the head with that. I could disappear very easily, with few questions being asked, and it would have worked just as planned. Except for the one thing about me she hadn’t counted on.

“How long have you suspected this? You told me before you’d been chasing Hennessey eleven years. You’ve known what he’s been doing that whole time?”

“No. It’s only been the past two years that I’ve gotten specific information. Mind you, I didn’t know who or what I was chasing at first. Took me a few dozen blokes to get a whisper of what was going on. A few more dozen to get a name of who might be running it. As I said, he’d covered his tracks. Then I hunted down those under his line who had prices on their heads. Sergio was one of them, for example. I’ve been picking apart his people for years, but only doing it to those who had bounties on them. That way, Hennessey didn’t know I was on to him. He just thought it was business. Now, however, he knows I’m out to get him, and why. And so does whoever else is involved, because he can’t be doing this alone.”

I digested that for a minute. “So, even if you take Hennessey out, it still might not end. His partners could start right up where he left off. You don’t have any idea who they could be?”

“I’ve come very close a few times to finding out, but-well. Things happened.”

“Like what?”

“Like you, actually. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear you were one of Hennessey’s. You have an incredibly bad habit of killing people before I can get any information out of them. Remember Devon, that bloke you staked the night we met? I’d been tracking him for six months. He was Hennessey’s accountant, knew everything about him, but you plugged silver through his heart before I could say Bob’s your uncle. I thought Hennessey knew I was getting close and sent you to silence him. Then you went after me the very next night. Why do you think I kept asking you who you worked for? And tonight-”

“I didn’t mean to kill her!” I cried, lashing myself over that for a different reason this time. What information had Stephanie died with? We’d never know.

Bones got up, speaking to me as he disappeared behind one of the cave’s natural walls.

“Believe me, luv, I know that. You wouldn’t kill a human unless it was by accident or they were wearing a Vampire Henchman badge. You didn’t seem to know Stephanie had any such connections-and from the look of scene, I’d reckoned you were wrestling for the gun when it went off. She probably had a good grip on it, too. From the smell of her, she’d been hyped up on vampire blood. Would have made her quite a bit physically stronger and she’d need that, for what her job was.”

So that explained why she’d had the strength of a linebacker in her petite feminine frame. I’d underestimated her all the way around.

“Why haven’t you told me about all of this before? You trained me to fight, and then you kept me out of the real battle.”

He answered while still out of eyesight. “I didn’t want you involved. Blimey, I’d just as soon you not risk your life going after vampires to begin with, but that’s what you want to do, so I trained you to be better at it. Not like you’d listen to me if I told you to stay home, is it? Still, Hennessey and his blokes are different. Your part with them was supposed to end after Sergio, but your little physics chit ruined that tonight. You should be patting yourself on the back for killing her. Those other ‘potentials’ certainly would, if they knew what she’d had in store for them.”

“Was safety your only reason for keeping this from me, or is there more I don’t know about?”

There was the sound of water being poured. “No, there’s one more reason I kept it from you. I didn’t want to give you another reason to hate vampires. It’s not like you aren’t already predisposed to it. You tend to judge people for what they are, rather than what they do, if they don’t have a pulse.”

I was silent for a moment, because I had no defense to that. No truthful one, anyway.

“You should know something, Bones. I lied to you when we made our deal. I was going to kill you the first chance I got.”

I heard a dry chuckle. “I already knew that, luv.”

“About Hennessey…I want to help. I have to help. My God, I was almost one of those girls who never would have been heard from again! I know it’s dangerous, but if you find out where this Club Flame is, if you get a lead, I want to be there. Hennessey has to be stopped.”

Bones didn’t reply.

“I mean it,” I persisted. “Come on, I’m the perfect wolf in sheep’s clothing! Really, do you know any other half-breed girls living in an area that’s currently being harvested? You’re not talking me out of this!”

“I can see that. Here.” He returned with a bowl of water and a cloth, setting it near me and then handing me one of his shirts. “You’ve got blood on the front of you. If you go home like that, you’ll scare your mum into thinking you’ve been hurt.”

I looked down at myself. The red smear of Stephanie’s blood stained my stomach in a wide circle. In yet another example of my prejudice, even though I didn’t mind killing her so much anymore, I snatched my blouse off and immediately began to scrub my skin.

It was only after I cleaned the last of the blood from me that I felt the weight of his stare. When I looked up, his eyes were fixed on me and laced with green.

“Hey.” I slid back a few inches on the couch. “Dinner’s not served. Don’t go all glowy at the blood.”

“Do you think blood has anything to do with the way I’m looking at you now?”

His voice had a strange timbre to it. Thick with things unspoken.

I struggled not to show any reaction, but my heart had just sped up, and it wasn’t from fear. “Green eyes, fangs peeking out…pretty incriminating, I’d say.”

“Indeed?” He sat down, moving the bowl aside. “It seems I’ve neglected to inform you of what else draws such a reaction, but I’ll give you a hint-it isn’t blood.”

Oh. I drew in a breath. “Considering last weekend, I don’t have anything you haven’t seen before, and I doubt you’re overcome with desire by seeing me in my bra.”

“Kitten, look at me,” he said flatly.

I blinked. “I am.”

“No, you’re not.” He slid closer, his eyes all green now. “You stare straight through me as if I’m not even there. You look at me…and you don’t see a man. You see a vampire, and therefore accord me less substance. One of the few exceptions was last weekend. I held you and kissed you, watched your eyes light up with desire, and knew for once you were truly seeing me for all I was. Not just a non-beating heart with a shell around it. I dare you to look at me that way again, now, with no excuse of chemicals to fall back on. I want you.” A slight smile twisted his lips as he made the blunt statement. “I’ve wanted you from the moment we met, and if you think sitting next to me in your bra doesn’t overwhelm me with desire, you’re very wrong. I just don’t force myself where I’m not invited.”

For a few stunned seconds, I was speechless. So much had happened tonight, my brain was having a hard time sorting through it all. I looked at Bones and it was almost as if scales dropped from my eyes, because suddenly I did see him. Those high cheekbones, dark brows framing eyes turned to emerald, a curving mouth, straight nose, and etched jawline. Crystal skin stretched over those features and tightly wrapped around a lean, rippled frame. His elegant hands and their long, tapered fingers. My God, he was beautiful. Absolutely, incredibly beautiful, and now that I’d finally allowed myself to notice, I couldn’t stop staring.

“Kiss me.”

The words left me without any thought, and I realized I’d secretly wanted to say them for a while. Bones leaned over and his lips closed over mine softly. Gently. Giving me every opportunity to change my mind and push him away, but I didn’t. I slid my arms around his neck and brought him closer.

He ran his tongue along my lips until I opened my mouth. His touched mine for a moment before retreating, teasingly, back into his mouth. Another flickering touch and back again, and again. Coaxing me, persuading me. Finally I traced my tongue into his mouth, feeling the answering rub and then the unbelievable sensuality of him sucking on it.

I moaned, unable to help it. The graze of his incisors should have bothered me, but they didn’t. They didn’t seem to hinder him, either, because he kissed me with the same passion he had last weekend. My senses ignited, and I maneuvered my hand from his neck and brought it to his shirt. One by one, I undid his buttons. When it hung open, I ran my palms along his bare skin and, oh God, it did feel as incredible as it looked. Like silk stretched over steel. Bones reached behind him and flicked the collar off his shoulders. The whole garment fell onto the floor. All the while he kept kissing me until my breath came in gasps.

With a mind of their own my hands traveled from his chest across his back, fingers feeling out the ridges and muscle. His flesh vibrated with power, making me feel like I stroked lightning encased in skin. Bones groaned low in his throat as I touched him, sliding closer until our bodies were pressed together.

His lips trailed down to my neck, finding my pulse unerringly. He drew it into his mouth, manipulating my vulnerable artery with his tongue and lips. It was the most dangerous position to be in with a vampire, but I wasn’t afraid. Instead, the feel of him sucking on my neck aroused me unbelievably. The waves of heat sweeping through me had me quivering.

His lips came up to my ear, and he licked the shell before whispering into it.

“I want you so much. Tell me you want me. Say yes.”

To deny that I wanted him would be an obvious lie. Just one thing held me back, and it was the memory of Danny.

“Bones…I didn’t like it before. I think…something’s wrong with me.”

“Nothing’s wrong with you, and if you change your mind or say stop, no matter when, I’ll stop. You can trust me, Kitten. Say yes. Say yes…”

Bones swooped his mouth onto mine and ravaged the inside with such hunger that I sagged against him. His arm supported me, and I tore away long enough to speak one word.

“Yes…”

It barely left my mouth before he kissed me again, lifting me up and carrying me into the bedroom. The mattress gave under our weight as he stretched me out on it. In one motion, he unclipped my bra and pulled it off while his palms cupped my breasts. Then he lowered his mouth to my nipple and sucked strongly.

A clench of pure desire gripped me between my legs. He gently squeezed my other breast and worried the nipple between his fingers. My back arched and I clasped his head. The sensations were too much-the tug of his mouth, slight scrapes of teeth, until I thought I’d faint.

Bones unzipped my jeans, tugging them down until they were off and only my panties remained to clothe me. He traced his hand along them, pressing inward. The friction of the cotton and his fingers made my nerve endings jump. A groan escaped him when he pulled my panties off, baring me to his gaze.

“Oh, Kitten, you’re so beautiful. Exquisite,” he breathed before kissing me with a thoroughness that left my head spinning. He trailed his mouth to my breasts again, drawing on each nipple while his hand sought my center. Those fingers caressed me knowingly, as if I’d told him secrets, and I bit my lip to stifle the cries. When his thumb circled the ball of my flesh and a long finger rubbed inside me, I trembled in uncontainable need.

A harsh noise of protest escaped me when he stopped. He moved his hand away, his mouth left my breasts, and he dragged his lips down my stomach. It wasn’t until he was past my navel that I realized his intention.

“Bones, wait!” I gasped, shocked.

He paused at once, mouth still on my belly. “Stop?” he inquired.

Color flamed my cheeks and I couldn’t articulate my objection. “Er, not stop all of it, just…um, I don’t think that’s appropriate-”

Something like a snort escaped him. “I do think,” he muttered, and lowered his mouth.

At the first touch of his tongue my mind literally went blank. A long, slow lick probed me, leaving seared flesh in its wake. Another wet stroke and another, deeper this time, and my modesty washed away in waves of pure heat. He spread my legs farther, shifting until they straddled his shoulders, all the while plying and delving into the soft pink flesh.

I didn’t tell him to wait anymore, because I couldn’t speak. Moans I didn’t recognize as my own rose from me with increasing volume and wrenching, twisting spasms of pleasure curled inside me. I writhed under him, feeling him explore every nuance of me with shocking intimacy. My hips arched helplessly, and an aching emptiness inside me grew with each stroke of his tongue. I was being pushed to an edge I’d never experienced before, and it approached faster and faster. Bones increased the pressure, ratcheting up the intensity, and when his mouth finally settled on my clitoris and he sucked, I screamed.

Shards of ecstasy burst from me, traveling from my center to my extremities in a flash. My heart, which I thought would simply erupt, seemed to slow in its beating and my breathing lost its jaggedness. That previous fire was suddenly replaced with something warm and euphoric spilling all through me, causing my eyes to fly open in astonishment.

Bones slid up my stomach, framing my face in his hands. “You have never looked more beautiful,” he said, voice vibrating with passion.

My body still shook with aftershocks, but this was the part I feared. I tensed as he moved between my legs.

“Don’t be afraid,” he whispered, and kissed me.

For a split second I was embarrassed, considering what he’d just been doing. Then I found the new, salty flavor to his mouth provocatively stimulating. His tongue twined with mine as his hardness slid along my wet crease. I shuddered, but he only swept the outside before pulling away and doing it again. And again. He matched his tongue to his body as he stroked me, bringing that previous ache back with reinforcements.

“You tell me when,” he murmured, long moments later. “Or not at all. We don’t have to go further yet. I’ll spend the rest of the night tasting you, Kitten, I loved that. Let me show you how much.”

Bones dragged his mouth purposefully lower, but I held him to keep him where he was.

“Tell me,” he moaned as a twist of his hips forced a cry from me.

My heart pounded with nervousness, but there was only one answer.

“Now.”

He gave me a dizzying kiss and then raised himself on his arms. The feel of hard flesh boring into mine made me gasp. Shivers broke out inside me while he thrust slowly forward, and I buried my face in his neck and trembled. He moved deeper, and a sensation of incredible fullness spread through me. When he was fully sheathed he stopped, closing his eyes briefly before looking down at me.

“All right, luv?”

It was intimate in a way I’d never experienced, staring into each other’s eyes while he was inside me. I could only nod, since speech was beyond me.

He moved in me, pulling back just a little and then thrusting forward. The unexpectedness of the pleasure made my breath catch. He repeated the motion, but deeper this time. Before I regained control of my breathing, he pulled himself nearly all the way out and back in with a single arch of his hips that tore a whimper out of my throat. Sweat broke out in earnest on my body, and piercing, primal desire shot through me.

Bones reached down and flattened his palm against my back, moving lower until it cupped my hips. He pulled me closer, rubbing me against him to coincide with his movements. I quickly picked up the rhythm, and the increased contact made my head spin in excitement. That previous clenching inside me returned, winding tighter with each new stroke until my body burned with a single thought.

“More…”

It was a moan of pure demand the rational piece of my mind couldn’t believe I’d spoken. He chuckled deep in his throat, almost growling, and increased his pace.

My hands, which before hadn’t strayed lower than his back, moved greedily down to grip his hips. Fingers dug into the hard mounds with no care for propriety. I couldn’t seem to touch enough of him or get close enough to him. Every new thrust made it more intense, and I craved the hard slicing of his body into mine like I’d craved nothing before it. Compulsively I kissed him, piercing my lower lip on his fangs and hearing him groan when he sucked the blood off.

“So sharp and sweet,” he muttered thickly.

“No more…of that.” My words were spaced in breathlessness.

He licked his lips, savoring the drops. “It’s enough. Now you’re inside me also.” And he held me even closer, if that were possible.

I gasped uncontrollably as his movements grew more intense. Earlier hesitation forgotten, I thrashed underneath him, fingernails raking temporary welts down his back. My teeth sank into his shoulder, stifling a scream at the ceaseless friction, and I bit him until I tasted blood.

He yanked my head back, his tongue ravishing my mouth. “Harder?”

“God, yes,” I moaned, not caring how that sounded.

Bones released his control with obvious relish. His hips ground into mine with a tempered savageness that was the most incredible pleasure ever inflicted on my body. The screams I’d held back spilled forth in rhythmic shouts that spurred him on. When I couldn’t stand it any harder, he moved faster, thrusting in a manner that would have been merciless had I not reveled in it.

Somehow it reminded me of the effect of the drugs. Everything seemed to spin and lose shape except Bones. That far-off roaring was back in my ears, but it was my heart pounding that made the sound. The nerve endings in my loins shredded with anticipation. They lashed and wound together, clenching and unclenching with greater fierceness, waiting for the moment when they would snap.

At once I was disconnected and hypersensitive of my body. This panting, twisting creature on the bed couldn’t be me. Yet never before had I been so aware of my skin, my every breath, and the blood rushing through my veins. Before the last stretched nerve inside me broke, Bones grasped my head and stared into my eyes. A cry wrenched out of my mouth when the dam burst and the flood of orgasm swept over me. It was stronger than the first one, deeper somehow, and left residual tingles pulsating underneath my skin.

Above me he groaned, face twisting in ecstasy as he drove into me even more rapidly with his eyes locked onto mine. I couldn’t look away, seeing his control evaporate inside the green depths. He clutched me as he gave in to the passion, kissing me almost bruisingly and shuddering for several moments.

When I broke away to breathe, he shifted until we lay side by side. His arms coiled around me, keeping our bodies touching. There didn’t seem to be enough oxygen in my lungs and even Bones breathed once or twice-a record, from what I’d seen before. By degrees I controlled my gasping and my heart settled into a nondangerous rhythm. He reached out and pushed the damp hair from my face, smiling before he kissed my forehead.

“And to think you actually believed something was wrong with you.”

“Something is wrong with me, I can’t move.”

It was true. Lying next to him, my arms and legs just wouldn’t respond to any of the commands I gave them. My brain had a back in five minutes sign hung on it, apparently.

He grinned and leaned over to lick the nipple closest to him, drawing lightly on it. The areola was oversensitive from his previous attentions, and a thousand tiny needles of pleasure rushed to the tip. When it crested to the very threshold of sensitivity he stopped, repeating the process with the next one.

Something caught my vision when I glanced down.

“Am I bleeding?” I asked in surprise.

It didn’t quite seem like blood and my period was a week away. Still, there was a distinct pink wetness on the crease of my inner high.

He barely stopped to look. “No, luv. That’s from me.”

“What is-? Oh.” Stupid question. He’d told me before that vampires cried pink. Guess the other fluids followed suit.

“Let me up, I’ll wash off.”

“I don’t mind.” He breathed the words into my skin. “It’s mine, after all. I’ll clean you up.”

“Aren’t you going to roll over and go to sleep?” Wasn’t that what usually happened? Unless he really, really liked to cuddle afterward, things were taking a markedly serious turn as his hand moved lower, seeking my depths.

He ceased his ministrations to laugh, raising his head from my breasts.

“Kitten”-he smiled-“I am far from sleepy.” The look in his eyes sent a shiver through me. “You have no idea how many times I’ve fantasized about you like this. During our training, our fights, the nights I’ve seen you dressed up and pawed at by other men…” Bones stopped speaking to kiss me so deeply, I almost forgot what we were talking about. “And all the while seeing you look at me with fear whenever I touched you. No, I am not sleepy. Not until I’ve tasted every inch of your skin and made you scream over and over again.”

He bent his head to my nipples once more, sucking them and worrying them with his teeth. The way his fangs rubbed the areolas was frighteningly erotic.

“One day I’m going to find that old bloke of yours and kill him,” he muttered, so low I could barely hear him.

“What?” Did he just say that?

A strong tug from his mouth distracted me, and then another and another, until my concerns melted away under the sensual assault on my nipples. After a while he looked at them and smiled in satisfaction.

“Dark red, both of them. Just like I promised you they’d get. See? I am a man of my word.”

Confusion clouded my mind for a second. Then I remembered that afternoon with him trying to burn the embarrassment out of me with hours of dirty talk, and color suddenly flamed in my face.

“You didn’t actually mean all of those things, did you?” My mind rebelled at the thought, but there was a rapidly beating pulse in my body that treacherously hoped for the opposite.

He laughed again, low and throaty. His brow arched in sinful promise, his eyes bled back to pure green, and his mouth slid farther down my stomach.

“Oh, Kitten, I meant every word.”

I awoke to something tickling my back. It felt like butterflies. Opening my eyes, the first thing I saw was an arm wrapped around me, its pale color nearly identical to my own. Bones was curled lengthwise along my back, hips touching mine. The butterflies were him pressing kisses onto my skin.

My first thought was, He picked the wrong profession. Should have stayed a prostitute. He’d make millions. The second one was far less pleasant, and I stiffened. If my mother could see me now, she’d kill me!

“Morning-after regrets?” He ceased kissing me with a noise of disappointment. “I feared you might wake up and flog yourself over this.”

While he spoke, I shot out of bed like I’d been fired from a cannon. I had to think about what to do, and I couldn’t do that in the same room with him. Not even pausing to find my underwear or bra, I just threw on a shirt and yanked up my jeans. God, my keys, where had I put my keys?

Bones sat up. “You can’t just storm out and pretend this never happened.”

“Not now,” I said desperately, trying not to look at him. Aha, keys! Grabbing them with clenched fingers, I ran out of the bedroom.

“Kitten…”

I didn’t stop.