Under the vampire’s order, Laney pulled into the parking lot of a cheap-looking motel. He hadn’t taken his arm from around her shoulders since they’d left her apartment, other than those few nerve-wracking minutes when they’d stopped at the rest stop. And that had been hours ago. What did he think she was going to do? Jump out of a moving vehicle?

Wouldn’t I? To get away from him?

Sorrow filled her at the thought of leaving Fraidy Cat, her one and only true friend, fickle as he was. But then her thoughts took a different turn. She had to take a chance if it presented itself. Not doing so would just be stupid. He hadn’t hurt the animals so far. Actually, he seemed rather fond of them. She had to trust that he wouldn’t do so after she was gone. Later, when the sun was up and she had help, she could come back for her pet.

She pulled into a parking space near enough to the entrance to see through the glass doors and into the office, but not too close, and turned off the engine. It was the wee hours of the morning, still full dark, and there were only three other cars parked nearby. And one was probably an employee’s. Still, she’d learned her lesson back at the rest stop.

Her mind spun as she tried to think of a reason—any reason—not to spend the day locked up in a hotel room with him. “I don’t have enough money to pay for a room,” she blurted. Her voice broke, and she cleared her throat and tried again. “I don’t have —”

“We don’t need money,” he growled in her ear. His own voice, though still rough, was getting better. Then again, he hadn’t spoken much for hours now. Maybe that was just what he sounded like all the time. “As soon as the other humans leave the lobby,” he continued, “we’ll go in and I’ll get us a room.”

On impulse, she asked, “Are you going to kill him? The guy behind the desk?” And then immediately wished she hadn’t. But his answer surprised her.

“No. I don’t need an army of cops sniffing around while I’m trapped inside.”

Laney nodded but didn’t say anything else. There was nothing else to say. He was going to secure them a room, probably with that freaky mind control, and then he was going to force her inside of that room and feed from her until she passed out. Or worse. And the thing that really pissed her off was there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it.

“Let’s go,” he told her.

A chill ran over her skin when the heat of his arm left her shoulders. She took off her seatbelt and grabbed her bag, preparing to make a run for it. But when she reached to open the door, he had beaten her to it. She hadn’t even heard him leave the car. It was unnatural, the speed at which he moved.

As if that’s the scariest thing about him.

The vampire stood off to the side and held out his hand to assist her out of the car. Laney stared at that large hand. She didn’t want to touch him. Touching him was too confusing. It made her feel things that she didn’t understand.

Besides, if she was going to die in the very near future, she was going to go down fighting. Ice flashed through her blood at the reality of that thought, instantly cooling the strange attraction she felt.

She was going to die. Soon. Probably within the next few days.

The inevitability of it crashed down on her. Angry at her incompetence to do anything to save herself, and at him for putting her in this position in the first place, she ignored the gentlemanly gesture. Shoving past him, she got out of the car and stepped away from him. Tossing her bag over one shoulder, she waited for him to close the door.

The vampire gave her a look, but didn’t say anything. Telling Fraidy and the dog to stay put, he locked the car and closed the door. When he stepped in front of her, Laney tried to look anywhere else but at him. She’d read somewhere that if you didn’t look directly at a vampire, they couldn’t control your mind. Or maybe it had been on a TV show.

“When we go in there,” he said. “You will not scream. You will not run. You will not in any way try to get that male to help you. If you do, I will not hesitate to rip out his jugular and drain him dry. Do you understand, little mouse?”

“Yes.”

Gripping her by the chin, he tilted her face up until she had no choice but to look at him. “Do you understand?”

“Yes,” Laney told him between gritted teeth, keeping her eyes on his nose.

He searched her face a moment longer, but whatever he saw lying beneath her anger must have satisfied him. “Good. I’d hate to have to hunt down another hotel. I’d be absolutely starving by the time we got there.” Still holding her by the chin, he tilted her face away and leaned down to smell her hair. Then he startled her by nipping her jaw and running his nose down the side of her throat. Inhaling much louder than she thought necessary, he moaned aloud. “I’m very hungry, little mouse.”

Every nerve ending in Laney’s body went on high alert as his voice rumbled over her skin, but not in the way she would’ve expected. Instead of the impulse to flee, she had the strangest desire to lean into his hard physique until they were connected from head to toe. He wasn’t touching her anywhere except where his fingers gripped her jaw, but she could feel him everywhere, as if she had done that very thing. Her head tilted to the side of its own accord, giving him easier access to the vein throbbing in her neck with each eager heartbeat. The warmth of his lips touched her there, soft as a feather, and Laney inhaled on a gasp.

“Little mouse…what are you doing to me?” he whispered.

His words broke through the fog of desire that was spiraling around her. Laney stiffened, snapping back to reality. Her eyes popped open, and she slammed her palms against his chest and pushed him away. He allowed her to move him, taking a step back only to stare down at her with an expression that she could only describe as terrified. But then she blinked, and the emotion was gone so fast that she wondered if she’d really seen it there at all. In its place was his normal cruel facade.

The vampire suddenly grabbed her by the arm, turned, and strode toward the office. Laney had to jog to keep up with him, or risk being dragged along the ground. He didn’t say another word about what had just happened.

By the time they walked into the motel a few short seconds later, Laney was convinced that it had been some kind of vampire trick, those things she’d felt when his lips were on her skin. Some kind of thing they did to make their victims complacent. He could control her mind, why not her body? He had forced her to crave his touch. That was the only logical explanation. The only sane explanation.

The vampire walked up to the elderly man behind the desk. As the door swung closed behind them, Laney covered her mouth and nose. The decor looked like something out of a cheap horror film, and to add to the ambiance, it reeked of vomit and piss. She didn’t know how anyone could stand working there.

Pulling her up next to him, the vampire tucked her under one heavy arm. “We need a room.”

The man’s smile was courteous, but his eyes held a hint of suspicion as they went from the vampire’s cold stare to her heated face. “Sure, I just need to see some ID and cash or a credit card for the deposit.” His eyes kept going back to Laney, and she looked away. She didn’t want this man’s death on her conscience.

“I don’t think you understand,” the vampire said, leaning over the desk until he had the clerk’s full attention. Locking eyes with the smaller man, his voice had a hypnotic timbre to it that Laney was beginning to recognize. “You’re going to give us a room. One that is far away from all of the other guests. And one with a king-sized bed. And then you are going to forget that we were ever here. When you notice the missing key, you will remember that that particular room is under renovations and is not available for guests right now, and that’s why the key has been put away.”

The clerk smiled. “Yes, of course. One room with a king-sized bed, coming up.” He got the key card and laid it on the desk between them. “Paid in full.”

The vampire took the card and made to leave, keeping Laney under his arm. As an afterthought, he added, “We will also need food, extra water, and a litter box. And pets are now allowed at this hotel.” Then he escorted Laney out of the motel and back to her car.

Laney allowed herself to breathe again once they were outside. Getting back into the car, she drove them around to the back of the motel and parked in front of their room. It was on the bottom floor, and there were no other cars anywhere near it. She turned off the engine and opened the door. She hadn’t put on her seatbelt that time, and seeing what was possibly her one and only chance to get away, she took it. She would come back for Fraidy once she had help. Grabbing her bag, she jumped out and started running.

She made it all the way out to the highway before he caught up to her. One moment she was waving her arms and running hell bent toward the headlights of oncoming traffic, and the next she was caught up in tornado force winds. It took her mind only a second to catch up as she was thrown onto a bed. Laney bounced once and landed on her back, then immediately scrambled up onto her hands and knees. Loose tendrils of hair fell into her eyes, and she sat up and pushed them out of her way. Her eyes flew from the dog barking next to the bed, to Fraidy sitting calmly on top of a small table that was supposed to be a desk, to the vampire sliding the chain lock on the door.

He turned around and placed his hands on his narrow hips, dark eyebrows pulled down over obsidian eyes as he scowled at her. He wasn’t even out of breath. “Do not do that again,” was all he said, and then he came toward her.

Laney crab-walked backward on the bed until her head and shoulders hit cheap metal. The headboard slammed into the wall behind it, the noise startling her. Twisting her body around on the bed until she was sitting, she prepared to jump off the opposite side and run from his wrath. But the vampire just picked up the phone on the nightstand and punched the number nine to get an outside line, then he dialed a number and shushed the dog while he listened to a phone ringing on the other end of the line. Punching another button, he put it on speakerphone and sank down onto the side of bed with his back toward her. His shoulders slumped forward as he rested his forearms on his thighs and waited.

Laney perched on the edge of the bed, completely thrown off balance by his unconcerned demeanor.

A man answered, his voice cautiously hopeful across the distance. “Yes?”

“Luukas,” the vampire said. “Just wanted you to know I’m on my way.”

“Dante,” the man said. The relief in his voice quite obvious this time. “It’s good to hear from you, my friend.” There was a pause, and then she heard something like, “You don’t sound surprised that I’m here.”

“I knew Nik would find you. He wouldn’t fail,” the vampire said. “I’ll be there in a day. Two at most.” And then he hung up the phone.

Talk about your fuzzy reunions.

There was a knock at the door. Still ignoring her, he got up and went to answer it. He was unusually calm after her latest escape attempt. It made Laney nervous.

When he closed the door again, he had a large, plastic bag in one hand and a cheap plastic litter box in the other. He set the bag on the table, lifting the cat down and placing him gently on the floor when he got too curious about the contents. Laney’s stomach growled, and her mouth started to water at the appetizing smells that were quickly overpowering the otherwise stale odor of the room. Taking the plastic box into the bathroom, the vampire filled it with the litter he’d brought from her apartment. Fraidy followed him in and immediately started scratching around. Pulling the bathroom door nearly all the way shut, he left just enough of an opening for the cat to come out again. Then he came out and started pulling takeout containers out of the bag and setting them on the table under the watchful stare of the dog.

Laney watched it all, feeling as if she were in some kind of really messed up dream. Her stomach growled again, letting her know that this was, unfortunately, her new reality, and she barely resisted the urge to run over to the food and start shoveling it into her mouth.

When everything was on the table, he pulled out the chair. “Come here,” he ordered. “Eat.”

She contemplated telling him that she wasn’t hungry, but only for about half a second. Hangry was not a good look on her, and starving herself would accomplish nothing. Sliding off the bed, she made her way cautiously over to the table. She half expected him to grab her and sink his fangs into her throat as soon as she got near him, but he just motioned again for her to sit and even pushed in her chair.

“Eat,” he repeated.

Bypassing the burger for now, she grabbed a handful of fries and shoved them into her mouth, washing them down with some bottled water. When the worst of the hunger pangs were gone, she dug into the giant burger. She didn’t even care that it had tomatoes on it, which she hated, and took two big bites before pulling them off. The vampire hovered behind her the entire time, putting a damper on the enjoyment she otherwise would have gotten from filling her stomach.

“What is this?” Looking over her shoulder, she saw him holding her bag. In his large hand was the book she’d grabbed out of her nightstand before they’d left her apartment. It was a copy of the child’s book Goodnight Moon. The rest of the contents were spilled all over the bed.

“That’s mine.” She tried to sound casual. If he thought it was important to her, he might take it away. “It’s just an old keepsake. And I’d appreciate it if you stayed out of my stuff.”

One side of his mouth lifted in something resembling a smile. “I only wanted to know what it was that was so fucking important to you that you left me waiting in the other room.”

Laney remained silent.

He pointed with his chin to the food in front of her. “Eat.” Then he started putting all her stuff back in her bag, including the book.

Turning back around, she did as he told her, grateful that he hadn’t pressed the matter. Her nerves were frayed. She didn’t think she could handle going there right now if he had demanded an explanation. When she couldn’t eat another bite, she wiped her mouth self-consciously.

“Are you finished?”

Laney nodded, and he took the container from in front of her and put it on the floor for the dog to wolf down what was left. When the container was licked clean, he poured cat food into one side and water into the other, leaving it on the floor for the animals. For the first time, Laney realized that while she had been running like the hounds of hell were after her, the vampire had found their room and unloaded the car before bothering to come after her. Including Fraidy and his new friend. And he’d still caught up to her before she’d made it to the highway. Thinking about how he’d accomplished all of that in so short a time left her head spinning. She started to tremble uncontrollably, the fear that had been momentarily sated with food rushing back, for she’d just had a terrifying realization.

Now that her dinner was over, his was sure to begin.