My Vampire Idol (Shifting Reality 3)

What was that irresistible demon up to now?

Last night had been unforgettable. He felt alive and for the first time in centuries, he remembered happiness. She made him laugh, drove him into bouts of lust-induced insanity and had more energy and sexual stamina than any woman of any species he’d ever met.

He’d known her for one day—but Mac had experienced more emotion in the last twenty-four hours than he had in the last twenty-four years. And her blood… It was more than intoxicating. More than madness. It made everything stronger—his body, his feelings. Even now he could sense it inside him—part of her inside him—connecting them to each other. Calling to him.

Was this what Saint felt for his kitsune, Ume? What Thomas felt for his mate? Both had fallen instantly, hard as stones to the ground, for their women. Despite their powers, they couldn’t resist the call. Though to be honest they didn’t really try.

But vampires didn’t mate like cats or foxes. They didn’t have children and families. His roommates and Esther were the closest thing he’d had to that kind of connection since he was created.

His kind didn’t plan for the future, they stood still in time. Statues memorializing an era—cursed to watch life move forward and leave them behind. Immortality was the worst kind of universal joke. Though the word rang with possibility and potential, the day-to-day truth of it was difficult to endure.

Thomas and Saint had helped. And now Rose had woven a spell around him that he couldn’t begin to understand, but it was one that made him feel almost human again. Made him remember the kind of man he’d wanted to be.

When he was young and imagined falling in love and taking a bride, he’d fantasized about a woman with voluptuous hips and breasts. A woman with fire in her eyes and wild, windblown hair. A bride who enjoyed more than endured her marriage bed.

She is a demon.

And he was a dead man, in more ways than one. That didn’t matter at the moment. What mattered was now. Rose. He was determined to spend this last night with her and then insure she got what she most desired. Her freedom.

After the gift she’d given him, it seemed a small price to pay.

Where the hell was she?

She’d been strangely quiet for most of the afternoon until they got up to sing. It had been like magic, the way they’d come together. The song was a dance now, a seduction more than a surprise. When it was done, more than one couple in the crowd had to be separated before they could be arrested for public indecency.

Rose really had no control over her pushing. When she was aroused, everyone knew it. Mac didn’t mind at all.

Afterwards, even though he could still sense the sun outside, all he’d wanted to do was take her back to their suite of rooms and have his way with her. Unfortunately, their human companions had other ideas.

Now evening had fallen and they had a few hours until show time.

“Angus?”

Mac grimaced. “Jolene, I have to be honest with you.”

The peach-scented woman paled. “Oh no. No you don’t. Really, it’s unnecessary.”

“I think I do. I lied.”

“It’s okay, I prom—”

“My name isn’t really Angus. That was my brother’s name.” Back when I was human. When my brother and I were alive. “Call me Mac.”

Hobie laughed in relief and pulled his wife closer. “You had Jolene going, son. It isn’t nice to tease. She was ready for you to back out of the contest when we were close enough to see the brass ring.”

Rose appeared behind Mac and tugged on his shirt nervously.

“Where have you been?” he asked, twisting up to look at her.

“We are backing out. Come on, Angus. Time to go.”

“I told them my real name, Rose. And sit down, dinner is—”

“Packed,” she interrupted. “This whole place is packed with people we know, Mac. Old friends…and possibly a few relatives, though I can’t be sure.”

He tried to send her a reassuring smile. “I know, Rose. I’ll admit, I didn’t realize the family was here, but I know about our friends. They are easy enough to spot if you know what to look for.”

Stillness. Arrogance. Pale, stiff assholes in dinner jackets. God, is that we he looked like to other people? He needed to take Margo up on her offer to shop for him.