Love Bites

Along with true love, soul mates, and living an eternity. What he wouldn’t give to be a mortal man content to screw his way across Maine right now.

“This new attitude of yours isn’t becoming, Kell. Your questionable grooming and eating habits aside, the man I’m looking at isn’t the one I’ve known since I was a boy.”

“Get used to it.”

“I’d rather not, thanks.” Luke leaned forward and met his eyes. “I saw Sydney.”

Kellan’s heartbeat quickened in time with the breaths that lifted his chest. His reaction to her name would have been laughable if he hadn’t been on the verge of desperation.

“Is she well?” he asked, when at last he trusted himself to speak.

“Short answer? No.” Lucas rose a brow when Kellan bunched the sheets in his fists. “She’s pale, but otherwise, she seems okay. Physically. On her break, I noticed her snacking on a steak rare enough to moo, but other than that, she seemed pretty normal.” He hesitated, almost as if he were debating how much to reveal. “I think she might have filed down her fangs.”

“Bloody hell.”

“She’s trying to blend. Hard to do, because she’s even more beautiful than she was before. Her hair’s a darker, richer brown, her eyes a killer green. And her body. Wow

, man. Just wow.” He gestured crudely as Kellan’s eyes slitted. “Seriously, it’s better you haven’t seen her. You’d jump her on sight.”

“Was that what you wanted to do?”

“Only mentally. She’s one hot ticket. But physically?” Lucas sighed and gave a plaintive glance at his lap. “Except around Emily, damn thing’s dead as a doornail. It’s even worse now that I’ve spent so much time with her. My cock has numbed to the wiles of any other female.”

Kellan laughed. He simply couldn’t help it. But the sound seemed foreign to his ears. “I know your pain.”

“Yeah.” Luke braced his elbows on his knees. “You’re going to go after her, right?”

“I’ve tried.”

“Sending stuffed mice isn’t trying. You need to show up at her door.”

Kellan tugged at a loose thread on his pillowcase, feeling like an idiot. Had he fumbled around a girl this much even in junior high? “Did you speak to her?”

“Briefly. She had to serve me at the coffee shop, or else I don’t think she would have. Cutest thing was, she blushed when she saw me. Adorable. I mean, wasn’t she kind of promiscuous before we—”

Kellan flashed him a glance rife with suppressed fury. “I know you didn’t just call my mate a slut.”

“Sorry.” Obviously sensing that now wasn’t the best time for his version of the truth, Luke coughed into his hand. “Anyway, she came across as sexually…uh, experienced. But seeing me embarrassed her. Her hands shook as she counted out my change.”

“She didn’t ask about me.” Reading Lucas’s quiet look of pity, Kellan shook his head. “No, of course she didn’t. Well. I’m glad to hear she’s active. Back to work. Living her life.”

Bile filled his throat. Yeah, living her life by slaving away as a coffee waitress when he could give her everything she’d ever wanted. Okay, maybe not everything. They weren’t millionaires. But he could provide for her far beyond her current standard of living. He’d make sure she never exhausted herself counting out nickels and dimes.

He’d also make sure she understood it wasn’t all about his love for her. That he was willing to wait as long as it took for her to grow to love him back.

“You’re right,” he said after a moment, kicking aside the sheets wrapped around his feet. “I haven’t gone after her yet. But it’s time.”

Chapter Eleven

Sydney spritzed cleanser on the miles of countertop at Pastry ’n’ Joe and started scrubbing. One hand held her nose, the other cleaned furiously. The fumes were noxious, and thanks to her new vampy senses, what had been merely displeasing before had become nearly unbearable.

The place was set up diner-style, with lots of bar stools for patrons to sit at the counter that looped around the shop. Keeping the black Formica gleaming was a challenge she enjoyed under normal circumstances, smelly cleanser aside. But tonight she worked like a demon possessed.

No surprise there, since she was one. Cast out from heaven and bound for hellfire. Except oops—she probably wouldn’t die.

Worst of all, she wasn’t totally a vamp, though she wasn’t truly human either. What she was no one could understand.

Her priest couldn’t help her. The evangelists she’d sent money to from those late-night infomercials had told her to pray to Jesus to save her blighted soul. But it was too late. She probably didn’t even have a soul left.