He pounced. She should have expected the move, but she’d been around humans too long, and werewolves, damn, they could move fast.
In two seconds, he had her on his bed, sprawled amidst the covers, while he held her arms penned to the mattress. “You weren’t a vampire then.”
His muscled body pressed against her. No, correction, his aroused body pressed against her. There was no mistaking the bulge of his cock.
“You were human then,” he said, and his hold tightened around her. “Not vampire, not–”
What she’d been didn’t matter. “I’m a vampire now.” His sworn enemy. Only…he still wanted her. She’d thought werewolves were supposed to be repulsed by her kind. She’d sure been told that often enough.
The voice from her nightmares whispered through her mind, saying, “Do you think he’ll ever want you again? One look, one taste…as soon as he knows what you are, you’ll be dead.”
And she wouldn’t be able to rise again.
She waited to feel claws at her throat again. Because she didn’t want to see this end, Paige closed her eyes. She’d remember him as he used to be. If only Drake could remember her the same way.
Some dreams just weren’t meant to come true.
Paige took a breath, tasted him–strength, power, man–and waited for her second death to come.
Chapter Two
A ghost lay beneath him. A ghost who’d haunted more nightmares than Drake could count.
She was as still as a statue, her features pale and perfect. High, curving cheekbones, a small, pert nose, and lush, red lips made for sin. Her hair–dark as the night he’d always loved–tangled around her face.
And she didn’t move. Barely seemed to breathe.
Why?
“Do it,” Paige whispered, her voice still that same combination of sin and seduction that had driven him to the edge too many times in the past. “Just…make it fast.”
He really hoped she wasn’t talking about sex. With her, fast hadn’t ever been an option. He’d always needed to take her again and again, to erupt inside of her, to lose himself.
She lifted one eyelid just a bit. Her green gaze darted over him. “You’re not…you’re not killing me?”
What. The. Fuck. It took every ounce of his will-power to hold back the rage that threatened to swamp him. “Not yet,” he managed to snarl.
Paige trembled beneath him. Her slender body had trembled beneath his before, but back then, those little shivers had been from pleasure.
Not fear.
He could all but smell the fear covering her. He hated that smell on her.
“How.” Drake bit off the world. How had she become a vampire? Had she chosen this life? Some humans wanted to be vampires. They went out seeking the bite because they wanted to live forever.
Fools. The price of forever was a river of blood and death.
He hadn’t thought Paige would be like those desperate humans. He also hadn’t thought she’d vanish and leave him aching for her–ten damn years.
“It doesn’t matter,” she told him and both of her eyes opened fully as she gazed up at him. “I can’t change what I am.”
The scent of her blood filled his nostrils. When he got hold of Michael again, he was gonna give that claw-happy werewolf some marks to remember him by. You don’t touch her.
Drake caught both of her wrists in his left hand and raised them over her head. She wasn’t fighting him, and as a vampire, her delicate form was hiding one hell of a lot of strength.
She just stared up at him, reminding him of all the stupid dreams he’d once had…and lost.
He’d almost left his pack for her. He’d wanted to be human. For her.
But now, the beast was in charge. There was no going back. There was only blood, death, and darkness.
For both of them.
He gazed down at her, trying to figure out when she’d stopped being human and become a vampire. She’d been nineteen the last time he saw her. He’d been twenty-one.
Right then, Paige’s skin was still flawless and pure, giving no hint to her real age.
What did her age matter? She was right. There was no going back. Not for either of them.
“Are you going to glare at me all night?” Paige asked. “Or do you want to know why I’m here?”
Why she was there…and still wearing his medallion. Or she had been wearing it, until he’d taken it from her neck. It was on the floor now. He’d dropped it when he’d pushed her onto the bed. Paige’s neck was bare, and…why the hell did he want to bend down and lick her flesh?
Because I still want her. More than breath. More than life. He saw her, and he needed.
“Why?” He didn’t lift his body off hers. Paige would feel his aroused flesh pressing against her. So what? If she wanted a favor from him, she’d pay the price he demanded.
And I demand her.
Vampire or not, she was still his.
Even death couldn’t change some things.
“I’m being hunted,” she told him in that low, husky voice that made his c**k swell even more. He could just see the hint of her fangs behind her red lips. The sight should have repulsed him. It didn’t. “If you don’t help me, I’ll die.”
“You’re already dead.” That knowledge made him feel as if his chest had been ripped open. Since Paige had been human when he’d known her before, she must have been made into a vampire.
A rare few, the purebloods, were actually born as vamps, but the rest of the parasites out there? They’d been turned. They were bled until the point of death, then brought back as a vampire.
Drake would kill the one who’d turned her. He couldn’t wait to hear the vampire’s screams.
“Don’t say that,” Paige snapped at him, then she showed him just how strong she really was. She twisted beneath him and yanked her hands free. A fast roll sent them tumbling across the bed. Then she was on top of him. Her knees straddled his hips, and her hands slammed down against his chest. “I’m as alive as you are!”
Color stained her cheeks. Her breath heaved out. For an instant, they just stared at each other. Then she grabbed his hand and shoved it against her br**sts.
“My heart still beats,” she told him and he could feel the frantic beat beneath his hand. That fast beat…and that sweet, plump flesh. Paige was curved in all the right places.
“I breathe,” she told him and he heard the rush of her breath. “I feel. More than you can imagine, all right? So stop treating me like shit!”