The Wolf Within (Purgatory 1)

“My bite…it’s…ah, making you react this way,” Holly said, her words rushed.

The bite?

“It…creates a connection. Between vampire and prey. There’s pleasure in the bite.”

Yeah, he’d gotten that part.

“The pleasure is addictive. It’s how vampires lure their prey to them, again and again.” Her lips tightened. “The vampires who aren’t interested in torturing their prey, that is.”

So the bite itself was the vampire’s weapon?

“You shouldn’t have bitten him,” Pate snapped from behind her. “You shouldn’t have—”

“I bit Saul first, okay?” Her shoulders had straightened. Her eyes were still on Duncan, but her words seemed to be for Pate. “Because your little wolf—the one you were so confident you could control—came to attack me.”

Over her shoulder, he saw Pate’s face. The guy’s expression had frozen into a stone mask.

“I bit him, then Duncan came in and chased the guy right out of the window.” Her breath eased out. “Thank you, Duncan.”

His hand fell away from her. “You should have let me kill him.”

“That would have been a mistake.” From Pate. Why was the guy still talking?

“Yes," Holly said with a nod. "It would have." Then she looked back at Pate. "The chip in the collar will let us track him. As soon as we do, I-I can get Saul to take us to the other alpha."

"Are you in control?" Pate gritted.

“Hell, yes,” Duncan snapped. “Right now, I’m—”

“Not you, McGuire.”

Holly’s laugh broke what was left of Duncan's heart. "Does it matter? I took the blood, from both of them."

Pate frowned at her.

Duncan knew about vampires. Vampire 101 had been an introductory class for every agent entering the unit. He knew that the basic rules when dealing with a vampire went this way…

Rule number one: Don't get bit.

Too late.

Rule number two: If you do get bit, get the hell away from the vamp. Because once a vamp bit his prey—her prey—that vampire could slide into the victim's mind. Could command. Control.

I am so screwed.

Rule number three: Don't f**king get bit.

How had Holly become a vampire? Because from everything he'd heard, the transformation wasn't easy. A human had to be at the brink of death, and then the human had to get a very powerful infusion of vampire blood to make the transition.

"Isn't this why you made me?" Holly asked quietly.

Wait, hold up, made her?

"Get me to Saul, and I can deliver the alpha to you."

Duncan's gaze drifted between them as anger pulsed inside of him. "If all you had to do was take a bite of Saul, why not just do it back at the lab?" His hands fisted. He’d been running for hours as he tracked Saul. "Why send me on this whole song and dance about—”

"Biting him wasn't an option. Not if Holly ever hoped to return to her human life." Pate ran a shaking hand over his face. "Until you, she'd never taken blood from a live source. Only gotten transfusions of blood that had been injected with karahydrelene."

When Holly had followed him into the woods, he’d gotten too close to her. He remembered Holly's lips being crushed against his own. Remembered the faint coppery taste that had filled his mouth. His blood?

"I-I must have bit your lip when we kissed," Holly's gaze wouldn't meet his. "I'm sorry."

He wasn't. Maybe he should have been.

"Then, after Saul, when we were—” Her breath sighed out. "Werewolf blood has a very powerful effect on vampires."

"It makes them drunk with pleasure and power," Pate said as his hands crossed over his chest.

"I couldn't stop myself," she said, and finally, her gaze came back to his. "You were too good."

Uh, yeah, he'd thought the same thing about her.

"The karahydrelene worked to combat the changes occurring within Holly—” Pate began.

“Kara—what?” Duncan wanted to know. He’d never heard of it.

Holly gave him a small smile. "Karahydrelene. It’s a drug I made that inhibited the bloodlust. With it, I could go for much longer periods of time without needing the blood. My fangs never extended, and all of my other vampire…features…were contained."

"But now that she's just had straight werewolf blood…" Pate let his words trail away.

Holly’s gaze held Duncan's. "The bloodlust is going to be much harder to control." Her gaze dropped to his throat. "Before you go out on this hunt with me, you need to know that. I might—I might try to drink from you again."

Will you try to f**k me again, too? Because he thought that would be a rather awesome bonus.

“Can you handle that?”

She stared at him with fear in her dark eyes. As if she actually expected him to say that a little bite from her was too much for him to handle. Um, hell, no, it wasn’t too much. “Just so you’re warned, too.” He bent his head over hers. Caught more of that heady scent and didn’t even care if the scent was part of a vampire’s appeal to draw in her victims or if it came from the karahydrelene or if it was just her. “I may want my own bite.”

“No!” Pate’s immediate snap. “That can’t happen!”

He didn’t want to leave Holly but, slowly, Duncan made his way over to his boss. “You got a claim on her?”

“Uh, Duncan…” Holly began, voice rather nervous, from behind him.

Pate glared at him. “Yes, I do.”

He could rip the man apart. The werewolf strength that he’d hated before was an advantage right then. “Forget it. You’re not having her, you can just—”

“She’s my step-sister.”

Duncan managed to keep his jaw off the floor.

“And she’s too good for you. So don’t even think about biting her because she’s not going to be your mate. Not going to be anything to you. You do the mission, and it’s over. You’ve already screwed things up enough for her.” A muscle jerked in Pate’s jaw. “So have I.”

Then Pate marched away, leaving Duncan staring after him. He knew the guy was right, on one count anyway. Holly was too good for him. That was why he’d stayed away from her before the vampire attack. And even though he knew that Pate was right in warning him off, Duncan also knew that he wasn’t about to leave Holly. They’d complete the mission all right, but after that, things would be far from over between them.