"I know about your vampire research, Carin. What do you think I should do about it?" Her dark brown eyes met his silver streaked honey ones as she bolted straight up in the bed.
She dragged the covers up and over her bare b.r.e.a.s.t.s while running a hand through the tangled ma.s.s on her head that was supposed to be hair. Her mouth fell open, but she recovered in a flash and painted on a mask of indifference while her emotions reeled.
"You know about my research?" she asked as calmly as if he"d informed her the moon was full in the sky.
"Yes, sweetheart, I know all about it."
"B-But how," she sputtered, unable to believe all her hard work would be flushed down the drain now. After all, it was his responsibility to make sure the project his organization funded was on track. They held the purse strings and she doubted they"d appreciate their lead scientist deviating from what they were paying for.
"I took a peek at some of your notes. When you"re onto something, you"re like a dog with a bone, love. You didn"t even notice."
"I-I, uh..." She paused and took a deep breath. Stuttering wouldn"t win the fight here. She appeared steady, but was far from it. Her mind ran a million miles an hour trying to figure a way to get him to keep her secret. h.e.l.l, nothing came to mind. Well, she"d just have to take it like a woman. Carin squared her shoulders and faced him boldly, trying to ignore the slightly hairy leg rubbing against hers under the covers.
"Bix, I take full responsibility for my actions."
"I expected nothing less. But responsibility is not what I want from you."
She arched a brow in question. He didn"t hesitate to explain.
"I want you to help me find out what Sidheon is doing."
Sidheon? h.e.l.l, that was simple, even welcome. Just the mention of the man"s name sent nasty chills up her spine. After she"d accidentally ended up with his specimen cart, she"d seen some test results that hadn"t made any sense at first. Now she was beginning to make serious headway on it.
"So, you want my help? Is that all?"
He looked up at her from his pillow and traipsed a single finger up her arm, sending a chill of antic.i.p.ation clear down to the back of her knees.
"Oh no, baby. That"s not all I want."
Whoa, hold the door. If her cooperation wasn"t all he wanted, then what exactly did he want?
Her thighs spread wide with him between them in some sort of permanent arrangement, perhaps?
Not b.l.o.o.d.y likely. Well, at least not the permanent part.
Ignoring the goose b.u.mps his caress inspired, Carin climbed out from under the covers, wrapped a quilt from the end of the bed around her body and went to stand in front of her dresser across the room. She needed some s.p.a.ce if she was going to think straight. Anywhere within arm"s length of Bix and she forgot any coherent speech. Facing the mirror perched on top of her dresser, she shook her head on a snort and a smile. A solid, hard-muscled body reflected boldly back at her from across the room. d.a.m.n he was just too s.e.xy for words, all golden and hunky and d.a.m.ned delicious. Thick, black, bed-head hair called to her fingers, even from way over here.
But something was going on here, especially if the man really knew about her research and wasn"t freaked out about it. Maybe he was bluffing. Turning to face him, she backed up against the dresser and crossed her arms over her chest. Bix sat up in the bed and leaned against the headboard, watching her from beneath hooded lids. In spite of the conversation he appeared at ease, his interlaced fingers cradling the back of his head.
"Why don"t you think I"m insane for researching how to exhibit the traits of a non-existent species? How come you aren"t tripping out because I want to be a vampire?"
"Because, Carin, I"m a vampire."
"What? No way." She laughed and waved him off. Until she noticed he wasn"t laughing with her.
Oh, h.e.l.l, was he serious? She sobered quickly. "But you can"t be...I mean, I would know, right? I"d have bite marks or something by now, right?" It was times like this she wished she was truly psychic instead of just an empath, d.a.m.n it.
His legs swung off the bed and he rose slowly. A half grin formed on one side of his mouth on her swift intake of breath. The man had the nerve to look down at the huge erection dancing healthily at his groin. "Bite marks?" he asked silkily. "Well, not necessarily." He smiled like a rogue and let his incisors lengthen. Every muscle along her spine tingled erotically as his c.o.c.k and teeth both reached for her.
He watched her closely while she eyeballed his fangs, her temper getting hotter by the second.
The expression across his tight brow seemed a bit puzzled. What, he expected her to panic or something because he had elongated incisors? Well, panic wasn"t what he was gonna get, the b.a.s.t.a.r.d. Instead, her brows snapped together in a boiling frown. Her hand balled up into a strong fist and settled into the hollow of her hip with her toe tapping a mile a minute. She was p.i.s.sed.
Bix"s eyes widened just long enough to recognize what flew towards his head. Moving with the speed obviously born of a vampire, he avoided the object. Barely. The empty crystal vase that had been sitting on her dresser shattered into a million pieces against the wall in the exact spot his head had been only seconds before.
"You son of a b.i.t.c.h. You knew what I was trying to do all this time? You"re the very thing I"m trying to create in myself and you didn"t say anything? Didn"t offer to help me? You b.a.s.t.a.r.d!"
One of several gla.s.s beakers sitting on her dresser flew. d.a.m.n, she wished her aim were better.
She"d only clipped his shoulder that time.
"Look, Carin..."
"No, you look! I"ve worked my a.s.s"-another beaker sailed towards him-"off for years trying"-a small metal specimen tray full of gla.s.s vials took off-"to figure out how to become a f.u.c.king vampire!"
Carin couldn"t believe it. Endless years of beating her head against a wall trying to find the keys to making herself long-lived and here she was sleeping with a d.a.m.ned vampire? How stupid could she be?
Her eyes went wide when he reached her side just as she picked up a heavy ten-gram scale weight from on top of a stack of magazines. He bared his fangs again, but this time a threatening snarl erupted from deep in his throat. In a flash he maneuvered around the bed and had her sandwiched between his hard naked body and the wall.
"Don"t ever, ever, do that again, Carin," he ground out in clear warning. "I don"t care how mad you get at me, you will respect me at all times. Do you understand?"
His hands were gentle and the words spoken at a whisper, but the honed muscles stilling her movement, along with the tick in his jaw, made it pretty clear he"d reached the end of his tolerance. Never mind the fact he held her six inches off the floor. But she was no punk b.i.t.c.h. h.e.l.l, she could make her jaw tick, too.
"f.u.c.k. You," she hissed into his face. Pushing away from the wall, and away from Bix, Carin stuck her chest out and acted big and bad, but she knew her back left the wall because he"d let her. Her instincts told her Bix would never hurt her, but the man was no pushover. Inwardly acknowledging her inability to walk all over him freed her, made it all right to loose the reins of her carefully controlled life and give them to the bossy, protective, stubborn male. Carin never realized she liked that in a man. The knowledge brought with it a rush of steaming arousal and the urge to be thoroughly ravished.
But she wasn"t going to tell him that. Then, he"d be an overbearing a.s.s all the time. A gorgeous overbearing a.s.s... Oh, snap out of it, girl. You can"t do this noodle-spined stuff right now.
Then again, if she was nice maybe he"d bite her and...and what? Because of the characteristics and behavior of DNA strands, her research concluded it was unlikely humans could be "turned" by simply introducing simulated vampire genes, but perhaps she could be enhanced? Wait a minute, the specimens she"d stolen from Sidheon"s cart... And Bix was after Sidheon. It all clicked into place in one a-ha moment. Sidheon was a vamp. It was his blood she"d stumbled on in the specimen cart, the blood with regenerative properties. But if she hadn"t recognized Sidheon or Bix as vamps, what else, and who else, had she missed? What else did she not know about his kind?
Carin paced back and forth in front of Bix as he half-sat on her dresser, oblivious to what his beautiful body was doing to her ability to think straight. She slowly got her wits together and urged Carin-The-Scientist to surface. Just as she opened her mouth to ask another question, he pressed against her mind, telling her what he"d rather be doing right now. It involved no talking, lots of honey and a little bit of rope. And so hot she couldn"t keep her lips from forming a surprised little "oh" as the wicked details streamed into her head.
A crooked, cheeky smile spread wide across his lips at the dark blush creeping up her chest.
Arrogant man. Carin"s fingers wrapped around something new to throw when he sent another thought.
"You smell like my come, but not nearly enough. Come over here and get some more." Oh Lord, she was going to explode on the spot, his nasty thoughts enough to cause goose b.u.mps to form on her bare arms at the same time her nipples drew up into tight little aching buds. Her gaze followed the large hand he lowered to his groin and slid up and down his hard c.o.c.k.
Carin focused on the carpet. She tried to keep her gaze there, really she did, but she had a mutiny on her hands with her d.a.m.ned eyeb.a.l.l.s. They were supposed to listen to her, not go off on their own to watch his fingers wrap around his magnificent rod. It was too hot in the room and her knees threatened to join her eyes in the whole mutinous business. Swallowing convulsively, throat tight with such a blitz of emotions that she couldn"t pin them all down-anger, hunger, and embarra.s.sment at being so needy. Even with his fangs gleaming under the moonlight streaming in through the open blinds, he was such a handsome devil. Her handsome devil. She turned away and shook her head in an attempt to clear it. Yep, it was time to change the subject and hopefully get some answers. And sound convincing when you open your mouth, girl.
Turning to face him, she said, "Look, Bix, I have some questions. Can you tell me..." Her mouth snapped closed. Without a sound he"d moved up behind her, close enough to rub her nose against his chest.
"Not now, baby. Later." He backed towards the bed, crooking his finger. Her body started moving like a puppet on a string. Rubbery legs and all, she shuffled the short distance to where he stood with his c.o.c.k waving at her. The man was a walking aphrodisiac.
Her a.s.s clenched when the arousing scent of her s.e.x mingled with his filled her nostrils. Sitting on the edge of the bed, she grabbed hold of his forearms, sank trembling fingers into his vein- roped forearms and held tight as her head fell back. His fangs, followed by his warm, wet tongue traipsed up her neck. The tickle-scratch set off a sweet shiver along her nerve endings, through her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, and down to her soaked p.u.s.s.y. With his thick mushroom-shaped tip positioned at her door, legs spread as wide as they could go, her belly did the b.u.t.terfly dance, spurred by his deep, satisfied groan as he entered her willing body.
What had she wanted to know about vampires again?
Bix cradled her against his chest, tracing a relaxing path up and down her spine. Carin"s finger drew little circles around a tight male nipple. He sighed contentedly for the tenth time in the last ten minutes. Sated enough to think halfway straight while holding her securely in his arms, he felt sleep tug at the corners of his mind. Groaning inwardly, he winced when she rose up on her elbow and peered at him with clear determination. It was question time and he obviously wasn"t going to distract her.
"Bix, tell me about vamps? I never did buy into the whole undead theory. I"ve also seen you out in the daytime. Are we talking Blade the Daywalker or what?" He chuckled, his fingers continuing their easy exploration of her body. He couldn"t stop touching her. If she wanted to talk about the consistency of pig s.h.i.t, the woman would still manage to make it sound s.e.xy.
"Forget everything you ever heard or saw in a movie, sweetheart. There are a lot of misconceptions about my kind," he crooned, dropping a lazy kiss on the top of her head. She must have figured where his lips were headed next when she scooted away, dragging the blankets up to cover her nakedness. She pinned him with an excited but serious stare.
"Well, what kind of misconceptions?"
Bix swore he heard the gears turning in her head as the scientist re-emerged with logic, reason and tons of inquiries. And she was off to the races.
"I think I"ve figured out the biconvex structure of the red blood cells and how to recreate them in human genes, and how to deal with the hemoglobin deficiency and iron absorption. I can slow the deterioration and aging of organs, but the regenerative properties-"
"Whoa, whoa." He chuckled, holding his hands up in man"s most effective "I surrender" gesture.
"Slow down, Carin. One thing at a time."
"Okay, what about blood?"
"There are rules to bloodletting. While the meds we ingest help, we can"t get around the need for blood. It"s hardwired into our DNA. But the V.C.O.E..."
"V.C.O.E.?".
"Vampire Council of Ethics," he continued, "decreed thousands of years ago that we must never take blood. It has to be freely given. The same rule stands today."
"But what if there"s no convenient human around willing to give their blood?"
"Well, why do you think we have such hefty investments in pharmaceutical and biotech companies?"
Her eyes went wide and he practically saw the light switch on in her head.
"You"ve got other pharma and biotech companies working on the very thing I"m working on, right?"
"Yeah, sort of. We own blood facilities, which is key since human blood can"t be reproduced.
Hemoglobin and Factor Eight, which are used to treat hemophilia, can be manufactured but not the actual blood. So we have blood sources available in every major city if there are no handy humans."
"What about other Council rules?"
"We must never draw attention to ourselves, which is one of the only reasons we have survived this long. And we can"t kill a human. If we have to feed from a human instead of a plastic donor bag we must only take enough blood to survive. No gorging allowed. And, here"s the big one." He hesitated for drama"s sake. "Never, ever, steal another vamp"s mate or bond a mate against their wishes."
The last was spoken with a bit more heat than he intended. Carin c.o.c.ked her head to the side, her curiosity at the intensity in his voice simmered along the bond.
"It makes sense but why is this particular rule so important?" she asked.
"That d.a.m.ned rule, or the lack thereof, has been the reason for some of the worst battles in history. Look at all the trouble Helen of Troy caused. And all because she"d been stolen from her vampire mate, though history has never identified the man as one of us."
"So, no vampire bed hopping, eh?"
Bix"s brows rose at her choice of words, but he didn"t interrupt.
"But you don"t get diseases like normal humanoids, so what"s the harm in spreading the love?"
Spreading the love? He"d kill any man, vamp or otherwise, who set eyes on her. He"d skin "em alive and... "It"s not my type of gig," she said thoughtfully, her expression museful. "But if others want to fool around it"s none of my business."
He breathed a sigh of relief. Good, he wouldn"t have to kill anyone after all. He"d better explain mating to her a bit more. But only a bit. "Vampire mates are special, Carin. First, we don"t typically fool around with human women. The chance of accidentally exposing our kind is too great. Second, just because a prime male sleeps with a female doesn"t mean they"re mated. It just means they"re f.u.c.king. Nothing more."
"Really?" she asked. Her face was calm enough, but she was suddenly projecting. Now he felt like a cad from the stab of pain resonating just underneath her rib cage. She wondered, So is that what we"re doing? Just f.u.c.king?
Bix reached out and smoothed her hair back behind her ears. He felt her sadness and wanted to tell her she"d already met her mate-him. All they had to do was share blood, truly desire the bondmating, and the bond would be complete. Right now it was strong but could still be broken if she met and mated another prime male vampire. But there was no way in h.e.l.l he"d allow such a thing. He wasn"t ready to tell her she was stuck with him. Not because she couldn"t walk away, but because he couldn"t afford to let her.
"Listen, baby, when a vampire male finds the perfect woman for him, he knows. We all have some psychic ability, but he"s attuned to her like n.o.body else. It"s more than being able to read thoughts and communicate telepathically. It"s almost like they meld, become part of one another.
Feel each other"s joy, pain, wants and fears. Once mated, bonded, they can"t bear to be apart.
Losing a bondmate is said to be close to experiencing death. I hear it"s a pretty deep thing." He left his expression wide open, ending his thoughts on a whisper, peering into her soul. He felt her throat clog with unshed tears. But did she really understand what he was trying to say?
Pushing her unruly tangle behind her ears again, she plunged back into the conversation. "So what about daylight? Silver? Garlic?"
He knew the moment her emotional wall went up but decided not to push. She would understand soon enough. He would see to it. In the meantime, he would give her what she wanted.
Information.
"We"ve always been able to move around during the day, though it"s not our natural time. It"s uncomfortable but we can build up a strong resistance to sunlight, though it takes a long time. It"s basically an allergy. Too long in the sun and we get a nasty rash. There are plenty of drugs to help us tolerate it. Allergies to silver are real, but we can usually control it with meds. Exposure to silver or sun doesn"t cause us to blow up or turn into ash like on the movies. As for garlic? I actually like garlic."
She giggled. He loved the sound of it.
"So, sweetheart, vampires are cousins to humans, not a different species altogether. Our bodies need food just like yours, but not quite to the same extent."
"What about your senses? You know, sight, hearing and the like?"
"It"s true we have keener sight, hearing, smell, the whole nine yards."
"But how? How do you regenerate? And more importantly, if you bite me it won"t do a d.a.m.n thing, right?"
Oh, it would do something all right. It would make him hot and h.o.r.n.y and begin to close the circle of their bond. But he wasn"t ready to go there. Instead he said, "I can"t turn you, Carin." Well, it was sort of true. And as much as he was into the woman, he still had a job to do. Catch or kill Sidheon at all costs. "Back to business, love. Are you going to help me with Sidheon or not?"
"Talk about spoiling the mood. d.a.m.n," she snorted. "Well, if I help you what do I get out of it?"
"How "bout I keep all your secrets?" He chuckled. He was only kidding, but soon realized it was definitely the wrong thing to say. If looks could kill, Carin would have him drawn and quartered faster than he could form his next thought.
"How "bout I spill all yours, Bix," she fumed in a tight voice. She scowled for all she was worth but he couldn"t let her anger move him. Not one iota.
"Who"d believe you, Carin? Modern-day vampires who can walk around in the daylight? You"re too smart a woman to risk your reputation just because you"re p.i.s.sed off at me. I can deal with you being p.i.s.sed off. If it takes down Sidheon and keeps you safe, I can handle it, baby."