First Thirst (Craving 1)

“Yes. She said it was part of our heritage and that she would teach me all about it before I turned sixteen. She said we had lots of time and she just wanted me to enjoy my childhood and not think about it. By the time I was ten, I had a knack of storing everything magical I could do, and things I couldn’t quite understand how to do, in the deepest part of my brain…my Shama is loaded with locked doors that I go to when I need an answer, but it won’t open the door with the answer to the spell we are looking for.”

He didn’t speak at first. He put a hand to his forehead and said, “Bobbie, I need to research this. I’ll be back later.”

“Where are you going?”

“I have family journals at home. They go back…let’s say, centuries. Something about the word Shama rings a bell.” He turned and started out of the room. “I won’t be long.”

“Wait!” I called after him. He turned and arched a brow at me. “What do you want me to do today?” I asked, suddenly at a loss. I did feel safer with him there.

He smiled. “I left you a manuscript. Acquaint yourself with it. If Davis or Mrs. Tunny asks what tasks I’ve set you at, you tell them I want you to compile a manuscript on the history of the MacLeod family. That his lordship requires it. That will give you cover for a bit longer, as they will eventually realize you really aren’t here to manage the estates.”

A moment later he marched out and I turned to find the hunk of all hunks staring at me through the transparent wall that separated us.

Hot damn but he sent erotic shivers through me. Something about the way his gaze traveled over me, lingered over my breasts while my nipples got sensitive and hard, made me think of being pressed up…oh no, no, no. Not ever. He was a bloodsucker. A vampire. Not doin

g a vampire.

“Bobbie,” he said my name like it was the only name he ever wanted to say. His voice was low and damned sexy.

I stared at him because for that moment I was lost in the fantasy of sex, hardcore sex, not love, not emotions, not relationship, no, just sex…with him. He was a vampire and he would have stamina to match my own…

Bobbie—what are you doing?

I am not big on the idea of one-nighters. My friends laugh at me, but I always wanted more than that. This hottie changed that with the blink of an eye, and I was thinking a one-nighter was just fine with me.

I moved closer to the shield. Was I panting? I should be ashamed…no…that couldn’t be me breathing so hard I sounded like a bitch in heat. Noooo.

He said again, “Bobbie.” Nothing else. Just my name and my knees turned into gobbety-goo and melted. I put my hand on the back of a nearby chair and steadied myself.

“Er…yes?” I finally managed.

“Can ye enact a shield around yerself, lass?”

What? What had he asked? Oh…a shield…around myself? Where had that come from?

“Why?” I asked.

“Because it would serve to protect ye if ye were surprised by Allora…”

“Oh! Good thinking.” It was a great idea. I had something, but I wasn’t sure it worked against vampires. “Yes, well, sorta. Not sure it would keep an ancient vampire at bay very long. It is a spell…something my mom taught me when I was eight. I ran out into the street to get the ball my dad had thrown. You see, I missed catching it and ran without thinking. A car stopped inches away from me. Mom was hysterical, crazy hysterical, and stood me in front of her and chanted something. I laughed at her and reminded her I was immortal like her, but she said that, even so, if the car had taken off my head…or set me on fire…I would die. She said she enacted a shield spell. I asked her to teach it to me so I could protect my dolly, and she did. I haven’t a clue if it would work against vampires. It works against humans and…I guess vehicles…?”

“Do it, Bobbie,” he cut me off impatiently. “At the very least it would be a deterrent and give ye a head start…”

I put my palm against the invisible wall that kept him on the other side. It wasn’t glass. It was transparent, translucent, and sparkled when I came in contact with it.

His brows went up. “It has never sparkled when I have touched it.”

“No? Odd,” I said, and put my palm flat against it. He immediately matched my palm with his own. A blast of sensations swept through me. Hot damn, he felt it, too. I saw the startled look in his blue eyes.

I swallowed and tried to ignore the fact that I was clenching my thighs.

“A shield…” I said, trying to get back on point. “But I’ll have to practice…once I enacted a shield around myself for fun and forgot it was there and my best friend, Suse, a human,” I inclined my head at him, “bounced right off it.” I sighed. “I doubt the shield I learned as a kid is as multifaceted as my mom’s was…”

“Meaning?”

“Well, the shield my mom constructed around me protected me from danger—any kind of immediate danger, while allowing me to interact with whomever I wished. She had said she would teach that particular skill to me when I got older, as it was complicated. She told me it was a part of my Shama and always available to me, but I needed training in the arts and sciences to connect all the ingredients.” I shrugged. “We never had the chance to go any further.”

My palm still rested against the wall between us.