And Simon almost died then because the roaring in her ears blasted her mind apart and the stake was suddenly so light in her hands—
He shoved her back. She should have fallen to the floor. She barely stumbled. “That’s bullshit.”
“No, it’s the truth.” That black gaze bored into her. “In certain circles, the truth about you has been known for a long, long time.”
“Certain vampire circles?” Her stomach rolled.
A slow nod.
“You’re lying,” she spat the words. Had to be. There was no way she was Born.
“What do you hear?” he asked and he didn’t advance toward her. A rivulet of blood ran down his chest. The scent was so ripe and rich, better than the strawberries she’d always loved and Dee wanted to slither closer, to taste. “What do you hear?”
“Your heartbeat.” The myths were wrong. The hearts of vamps still beat. They still breathed. Still fucked. Still did everything that humans did. Because vampires only died for a moment of time, then they came back—they just came back different.
Wrong.
“What else?” he pressed.
“Cars.” Far away. Zooming on the road. “Insects.” Couldn’t focus on them or their buzz would drive her crazy. She’d learned that lesson in the first hour of her new life. Death. Whatever.
“And what do you feel?”
Hunger. Lust.
Looking at him, Dee knew she should hate him, but the need simmered below the surface. He’d lied to her, betrayed her, but the vamp inside looked out from her eyes and lusted.
Blood.
Sex.
Prey.
“You don’t feel the call, do you?”
Her eyes narrowed.
“You don’t feel the pressure.” He sounded certain. “You don’t hear it, right? The nagging voice in your head, telling you to come, to listen, to heed?”
No, there was nothing in her mind like that. Just the lust and the need.
And the strong urge to rip the guy apart.
“The Taken are linked to the Born, you know that.”
Vampire 101. Every hunter learned that lesson early.
“You don’t have a link. If you did,” his hand clenched, “you’d be about to go as fucking crazy as I am because the Born we’re after is calling his vamps to him, calling ’em in a frenzy because the bastard is scared as hell.”
The Born we’re after? She could see the tension in Simon’s body. The faint sweat on his brow. She’d thought that was fear, fear of her. “You’re telling me that you’re linked to the Born who was in Baton Rouge?”
The barest of nods.
Her breath exploded, and for a moment, she saw red. Literally saw him in a wall of blood. Betrayed. Dee attacked. Not with the stake this time, but with claws and teeth.
She slammed into him and they staggered to the floor. She wrenched his hands down and her mouth went for his throat.
Her fangs scraped across his flesh.
It took a moment for her to realize that he wasn’t fighting her. His body was held too still, taut, like a wire, and he was just…waiting.
“Do it,” a rasp and he bared his throat. “This is why I hunted you, why I fought for you.”
Nothing was making sense to her.
“I killed for you, and I would have died. Died.”
The blood flowed so close, right beneath her teeth. Her tongue slipped out, tasted that flesh.
Should have stayed with Pak longer. Not ready for this.
But she’d never be ready for this.
“Bite me.”
The bite gave a vampire power. Why would he want to be weak?
That blood…so close…. She shuddered against him, fighting the beast she’d never known until now.
“I wanted you from the moment I saw you. I want you now. I fought like hell burning for you, don’t you see that? Woman, don’t you—”
He jerked forward and her fangs pierced the skin. Accident! No, she hadn’t meant—
His blood slipped over her tongue. Warm and sweet.
A groan tore from his lips.
Her fangs sank deeper. The blood flowed faster. More, more. Her breasts pressed against his chest and she freed his hands, the better to drag her fingers through his hair and hold his head so she could take.
His hands curled around her hips and yanked her tight against him, the aroused length of his cock shoved between her legs. Thick, hard. She arched her hips, loving that pressure even as she drank from him.
Sex and blood.
“More, Dee, take more!”
Helpless, she did.
His fingers fumbled with the button of her jeans. He jerked the fly open, managed to push his fingers between them and shove down her jeans.
Heat pooled in her sex, and a hungry, vicious need ripped away her reason as she fed from him. Fed, for the first time on a living being.
Addiction.
Power.
Lust.
This was what Pak had warned her about. This was why she’d given Zane kill orders. Dee couldn’t pull back. She wanted her teeth in Simon’s throat and she wanted his cock driving into her.
What he’d done to her, who he was—didn’t matter. She needed, so badly.
Take.
More.
Mine.
Her body began to heat, from the inside out, and a rush of power and euphoria swept through her. She could have anything. Do anything. The world was hers. There was no stopping her. She could take and take and—
Her hands joined his and they jerked her jeans and panties down even as she kicked off her shoes. But Dee didn’t free his throat. No, there was no way she’d stop drinking that wonderfully sweet blood.
His zipper hissed down. Her legs widened. The touch of his bare cock had her jolting, but not stopping. No, not stopping.
She was undead. No protection required. No diseases. No pregnancies.
Just need.
The need that had her sex slick when she should have been horrified. The need that had her nipples tight and her back arching, the need that—
Simon thrust into her and she slammed her hips down on him at the same moment.
“Dee!”
Shouldn’t be doing this. Shouldn’t be. She didn’t trust him. Didn’t even like him.
But the vampire didn’t care.
Blood and sex. A vampire’s wet dream.
Their bodies strained together. His cock was long and thick and every frantic move of his hips had him sliding deeper inside. She was wet, more than ready, and he filled every inch of her core.
Her mouth tightened on him, fangs in deep.
He drove harder, shoving up with his hips, and Dee took every straining inch of his shaft and wanted more.
His fingers thrummed her clit.
Her knees tightened around him. She pushed down harder, wanting to take, take.
She exploded around him as her sex contracted on a wave of pure pleasure that had her trembling, quivering, coming with the best orgasm she’d—
Simon bucked beneath her and climaxed, jetting out the hot splash of his release deep inside of her.
This time, he was the one who screamed. No, more like a roar.
Her name.
Her mouth gentled on his neck. The driving rush of bloodlust began to ease and the haze of red cleared from her mind.
What have I done?
Oh, Christ, what had she just done? She hadn’t come to screw him. Not part of her plan. She’d come to find out what he knew about the Born and to make him pay for changing her.
Two bodies on the floor. Man. Woman. Older. Graying hair and sightless eyes. Blood around them, oozing from their torn necks.