Pleasure. Need. Fire. Dee swallowed. “I get stronger.” The revulsion wasn’t there. Not with him. It had never been there with him.
“No.” He stepped back from her, putting a few feet between their bodies. “What do you see?”
Her breath caught.
“I thought so. You see my life, don’t you? Flashes?”
“Yes.” She knew that wasn’t supposed to happen. Sure, vampires could use their power to look into the mind of prey, but she hadn’t been focusing, hadn’t been trying, hadn’t even wanted to see—
“You saw with Leo, didn’t you?”
“I saw him kill his wife.”
Simon blinked.
“I saw that asshole Grim, standing over them, laughing.” She’d seen Leo cry. If he’d been enjoying the kill, he wouldn’t have shed a tear. Maybe, back then, he’d still had a conscience. A soul.
But no control.
“Borns don’t have to focus their power to steal memories.”
Steal memories. Not her plan.
“They have to focus not to do it. Their psychic power is so strong, the images come automatically.”
Well, damn. She’d been afraid of that. “You don’t have to try and convince me anymore.” Time for her own honesty. She crossed her arms. “I know what I’ve become.”
“Knowing and accepting are two different things, babe.”
Hit. They were and she was a long way from accepting her new “life.” “We’ll hunt him together,” she told him, straightening her spine. “But if I think you’re turning on me…”
He marched to the bag she’d thrown to the floor last night. Pulled a stake out. “You’ll shove this into my heart?”
Her gaze fell to the stake.
No. Not that easy. Not anymore.
Because the vampire had gotten to her. Made her care. Made her feel.
He tossed the stake into the air, then caught it easily with his left hand. “I’ll prove that you can count on me. Trust me.”
Maybe. If only she could.
She turned away from him, unnerved by his stare.
“Dee?”
She didn’t glance back because she was too worried about what he’d see in her gaze.
“I’ll take the lust. I’ll take anything you can give me.” His fingers brushed her shoulders. He’d moved fast and soundlessly. She should have heard him, with her enhanced hearing, she should have—
“And one day, I’ll take everything.” His breath blew over her nape. “Just like you’ll take everything I have.”
Dee shivered.
His mouth closed over her skin.
She leaned back against him, strength and power, surrounding her, seducing her.
Someone rapped against their door. Her nose twitched.
Timing, timing, timing. “Catalina, chill, all right? I’ll be down in five.” No way was she leaving right then. No, she wanted a moment, okay, more than a moment, to just stay in the quiet and pretend the big, bad eternal monster wasn’t after her.
To pretend that she was just an ordinary woman wrapped in her lover’s arms.
“That’s not Catalina.”
Dee’s nostrils twitched. She smelled Catalina’s scent. The light mix of incense and roses. She turned in his arms. “Yeah, it is—”
The door flew open and the light scent vanished. A spell? A trick? What—
“Oh, hell,” she whispered.
Zane Wynter stood in the doorway, filling the frame, and his eyes glittered demon black.
Her time had run out. She knew he’d come for her. Come to keep the promise he’d given a year ago.
Zane had come to kill her.
Unfortunately for him, she wasn’t ready to die yet.
Chapter 12
“Zane, no!” Dee’s cry echoed in Simon’s ears. Fear. Fury. So the demon had tracked them? Big damn deal. He’d never been afraid of a demon, and he sure wasn’t about to start fearing one now.
Zane’s gaze scanned over them. Froze on the stake that Simon still gripped in his hands. “Were you planning to take her out, too?”
What? His brow furrowed and then the words registered. No, one word. Too. “The fuck you say.” He shoved Dee fully behind him. No way was a demon coming after his woman with death in his eyes.
“It’s what she wants.” The demon crossed the threshold. Strolled in and swung a blue bag from his shoulders. He shoved his hand inside the unzipped top and drew out a stake of his own. “What she’s always wanted.”
“You’re not touching her.” Killing the demon would be easy.
The only problem? He didn’t want to rip the man’s heart out, not in front of Dee. This demon had been her friend once.
A friend who was about to kill her.