It had been all well and good to suggest spending time at Kellan’s, except for one vital problem. Being trapped in close proximity didn’t exactly give her a lot of mental headspace for her to come to a rational decision about their relationship. The lust he aroused in her was another issue, but she’d sublimated her need for sex by raiding the meat freezer the minute they’d arrived. As if he’d somehow known her tastes, four prime Porterhouse steaks had been iced and waiting.

Feeding took her less than ten minutes. Showering and changing another twenty.

Now what?

She’d forgotten yet another salient point. They were nocturnal creatures. That left plenty of hours of dark where she had nothing better to do than to prowl his house.

After the tenth time Sydney bumped into Kellan drinking the coffee she’d bought him—which he still had not reimbursed her for—at the kitchen counter, she decided a conversation couldn’t hurt. She barely knew him outside of bed. Besides, being friendly didn’t indicate she was ready to devote herself to the dark side.

“You really love that stuff, don’t you?” she asked, jerking a thumb at his empty coffee mug. He had to have drunk three or four cups already. Did caffeine affect full vamps? Did any drug? God, she had so many questions, and unlike Emily, she didn’t consider cozying up with a thick book her idea of fun.

“Yes. It’s delicious. Besides, this coffee led me to you.”

She cleared her throat and took a seat at the narrow kitchen table. It barely seated two people, as she saw when he sat across from her. His hands were inches away from hers, so she dropped hers in her lap. “Do you get a buzz? From coffee?”

His mouth curved. “I get my buzzes in a different fashion.”

When she sighed, he leaned back and regarded her seriously. “Caffeine gives us a pleasant jolt, but not to the extent of a human. I rarely feel tired to begin with, as long as I get a little sleep every few days. Surely you’ve noticed that, as well? Even though you’re not a full vamp, you must experience some of the benefits.”

“I never liked coffee, so I haven’t seen a change.”

“A barista who doesn’t like coffee. My, you are a contradiction.”

“It’s a job.” She shrugged. “I get to meet lots of interesting people.” Interesting vampires. Hmm, maybe she should’ve stuck to the much more wholesome juice bar across the street.

“What about other benefits?”

“Like needing to masturbate six times a day to avoid attacking any man within sniffing distance?” She pushed her forehead into her hand. “It’s not that bad, but—”

“Your attraction to other men is natural. I don’t blame you for your instinctive reactions, Sydney. Nor do they alter my feelings for you.”

“But you said once a vampire found their fated mate, the desire for others lessens.”

“It lessens, but it doesn’t disappear entirely. And there are other reasons people—and vampires—feel arousal besides the need to copulate. Emotional reasons. The need for connection is extremely strong. Affection often leads to sexual interest. And if you’re not sexually active with your mate, your needs remain. Vampires need sex. Not every six months or on special occasions, but regularly. Almost as regularly as we need blood.” He toyed with the handle of his mug, running his fingers up and down the curve. “You desired Lucas, did you not?”

“Yeah, but—”

“Would you sleep with him again?”

She shivered under his scorching, golden gaze. Sometimes it felt as if he could see into her soul. If she still had one. “He’s a handsome man. I like him. And he understands. The pool of available men has shrunk exponentially, unless I want to start chewing on my dates.”

“There are many of us in the world, Sydney. Many. In this town alone, we’ve encountered a number of our kind. You’d be surprised who walks among us.”

Sydney twisted her fingers together. Sometimes the sheer volume of what she didn’t know about her new condition made her head hurt. “What about you? You must feel urges, too.”

“I do. But I’ve also had much longer to learn to control them than you have.”

“What about Emily? I saw you checking out her breasts earlier.”

He let out a soft noise that almost sounded like a snort, except it was much more dignified. “You think I’d poach on Lucas’s mate?”

“He poached on yours.”

“At my urging. Ill-advised or not.”

“So let’s say he gave you the all-clear. You’re telling me you wouldn’t do her?”

“I seriously doubt he would do that, so the consideration is moot.”

“But you’re her sire now and—” She stopped, pieces clicking into place. “Wait a second. I thought you said each vampire could only turn one human or risk death. Does it make a difference if the vampire had no choice? Like with what happened with Emily? You had to save her or she would’ve died.”

His jaw tensed as he pushed his coffee mug around on the table. “The VRC’s not big on gray areas. The rule of one usually stands.”

“But could it be counted as my one turn?”

“You’re, at best, a half-vamp. I think your partial humanity would exempt you. At any rate, you didn’t complete the change. I did. Which makes me Emily’s sire.” He grimaced. “Officially.”

“But what about me? If I decide to change, then what?” She saw the truth in his eyes. She’d waited too long. Her chance for Kellan to be her sire had passed.

“If you decide to change over completely, Lucas would have to do it. Or another vampire of your choosing.” To say he looked pained was an understatement. “I’m sorry.”

“Another vampire of my choosing?” She used her anger to avoid thinking about what she’d lost. Even if she hadn’t been ready to accept what he offered, now that the option was gone, she felt bereft. Why couldn’t she ever realize what she wanted before the possibility was extinguished? “Do you think I know that many?”

“I could contact someone for you, if you’d rather it not be Lucas.” He let out a slow breath, as if he were trying to calm himself. “Does this mean you’re ready to accept being a vampire? To acknowledge your true nature?”

“I already called myself one. Sounds like I’m getting there, right?” She hated her snappish tone, but it couldn’t be helped. First, she’d had the niggling worry that Kellan and Emily would want to get frisky. Now, Lucas would have to sire her. “What will this mean?” she asked after a moment.

“What?”

“The four of us, the way we’re tangled up…the lines have blurred between us. Fated mates or otherwise, you bring bloodletting into the equation and we’re all wrapped up in each other. If Emily ends up being attracted to you, and maybe even me, thanks to our suck-neck session, and I end up being attracted to Lucas—”

“More than you already are, you mean,” he said dryly.

She ignored him. “It gets real complicated, real fast.”

“Why do you think most mates are sired by their loved one? It can become difficult otherwise. We all have sires, and we don’t all end up with them. Lucas and I have fared well enough without Alysia in our lives, but had she been, we both would have been pulled. It’s an unbreakable bond.”

“You don’t even like Emily,” she muttered.

“Neither did you, the last time you were here.”

“Touché.” God, she wanted to scream. Why did everything have to be so hard? “He won’t want to sire me. He’d rather kill me, after he learns what I did.”

“You had no choice. I had no choice. He should damn well be grateful to us he still even has a mate. Foolish woman, playing with things she thinks she understands.”

“Kellan, you don’t know her background. I don’t know it all either, but what I do know is not good.” She shuddered, thinking of what she’d seen in Emily’s eyes as she’d spoke of killing her rapist. “She was at the breaking point.”

“Regardless, her impulsive act altered the course of four lives. And in time, she’ll understand just what that means, for all of us.”

She almost pushed him for more information on that subject, but she decided she’d had enough for one evening. She still had other, less explosive questions to ask. “What about your family?”

“What about it?”

“Do you have one?”

“A father. He died a few years ago.”

Her head cocked at his emotionless tone. “You didn’t remain in contact with him?”

“No. Lucas and I ended our association with our families once we’d changed over. It’s the usual way of things. Vampires mostly keep to their own, other than searching out snacks. Or lays.”

“What about Luke’s family?”

“It was harder for him. He had a bunch of sisters, his parents, cousins. Severing that link was difficult, but it had to be done. Living in this world is hard enough. But trying to straddle two? Watching your family age and die while you don’t change breaks the hardest heart. Easier to leave early on and pretend they’re still living their lives just fine without you.”

Sydney stared down at the table. All of a sudden, the enormity of the changes in her life weighed down her shoulders to the point that even breathing ached. “I have a mother,” she whispered. “She’s remarried a bunch of times, and now she lives down south. You’re saying I wouldn’t be able to see her again.”

“It would be your choice. But as the years pass, it would become more difficult for you.” He exhaled noisily. “And Sydney, if you don’t take a sire, you will die yourself. You’re not immortal now, just harder to kill. According to those books of Emily’s, your lifespan would be extended, but it’s not infinite.”

“He won’t sire me. Maybe staying as I am is the best option.”

Before he could argue with her, she jerked to her feet and rushed down the hall to her room. Well, Lucas’s room. She needed to be on her own right now. Even if Emily snored. Loudly.

She couldn’t deny the place was gorgeous. A huge-screen TV dominated one wall, and lush silver curtains blocked all traces of moonlight. The massive bed was outfitted with a cover of the same hue, and pillows were heaped everywhere. Obviously, the guy liked his comfort, and she was certainly reaping the benefits.

Since she’d done enough thinking for one night, sleeping was all that was left. She slipped into the nightgown she’d retrieved from home and situated Emily beside her in bed. With the disturbing events of the evening running through her mind, she wasn’t sure if she would be able to rest.

Luckily, she was wrong. Sleep claimed her like a greedy lover, then held her in its grip for much of the following day.

When she woke the next evening, Emily was stirring. “Shh, love. It’s okay. You’re okay. I’ll take care of you.” She flailed around a bit while Sydney crooned softly to her. Her skin was too pale, though the shadows under her eyes had abated. And she seemed weak, almost frail. Her movements against the sheets were as tentative as a newborn’s.

Sydney stroked her hair and rubbed her back, trying to make sure she was comfortable. Her reassurances apparently fell on deaf ears, however, as Emily soon proved by shooting out of her near-slumber to clamp her mouth around Sydney’s neck.

Her scream was instantaneous, borne more of surprise than fear. Emily’s mouth blazed like a fever, and her fangs burned the deeper they sank. But by the time Kellan burst through the door, his eyes wild and his face an almost unrecognizable mask of fear, Sydney had stopped feeling anything even remotely unpleasurable.

Far from it.

Sydney reclined against Lucas’s pillows, her nightgown slipping so far off one shoulder that the swell of her breast was almost entirely exposed. Emily’s hand covered her nipple, and she kneaded the puckered skin as she drank.

Guzzled was a more appropriate term.

“What’s going on here?”

Kellan’s voice was rough. Sydney could hardly blame him for becoming aroused. Emily hadn’t done anything sexual beyond touching her breast, and even that gesture resembled a kitten kneading its mother’s belly to get more milk. But she could only imagine how they looked sprawled over the bed, tangled together, her in green silk and Emily’s svelte frame clad in one of Sydney’s nearly see-through gowns.

“She was thirsty.” Trailing a hand through the brown spill of hair that flowed down Emily’s back, Sydney arched to give her friend a better angle. Both Emily’s fangs and her fingers picked up the pace.

“So you offer yourself to her.” The implication in his tone was clear. Exactly how much did you offer her, Sydney?

That he didn’t demand they separate or pull any other of his bullheaded nonsense went a long way to buffing any residual ire she had at his irritating dominance. She’d left him because of it, and she’d stayed away while she sorted out her thoughts on what had really transpired between them. But whether it was because of his hyponotic golden stare or the warm, sexual thrum in her veins as Emily drank from her, none of her reasons for holding him at arm’s length seemed to matter very much anymore.

Even if he couldn’t be her true sire, he could be her lover. As he already was her love, even if she still didn’t understand how that could have happened so quickly and completely.

“I didn’t offer. She took.” Slowly, Sydney lowered the other shoulder of her gown, revealing the twin of the breast Emily continued to massage. “But I’m offering myself to you.”

He said nothing for so long she began to wonder if he would deny her. Even through her half-closed eyes, she could see the rigid bulge of his cock in his jeans, but maybe he was thinking with his big head, instead.

“What do you intend to share with her? Your blood only? Or that which you would give me?”

Something about the way he spoke, the heavy intonation combined with the emotionless delivery, set off a line of sparks from the wound Emily had made, straight into her pussy. Fireworks that traveled along the ground before they exploded into the air.

“She can watch.” Emily finally lifted her head, her mouth stained bright red. “But she can’t touch.”

Sydney waited for Emily to say something, but she only glanced back and forth between them. She appeared drugged, though her gray eyes smoldered in a way they never had before. Her fingers had ceased moving on Sydney’s breast at the same time she had stopped feeding, and now she slid her hand away. But not demurely to her lap. Instead she scraped her short, serviceable nails up her own inner thigh, her target clear from the intensity in her gaze. Emily’s lips quivered open as her fingertips found her own wet flesh—Sydney could smell her arousal now, the smoke and the tang of it—and sank deep.

Sydney took a shuddery breath. Not so long ago, she would’ve been freaked out by watching her best friend masturbate. Now most anything went.

She nodded at Kellan. “Guess she’s okay with those terms.”

He walked into the room slowly, moving as a predator would. Ever watchful, each muscle tensed. His gaze skipped over Emily before landing on Sydney. “I smell you. Even over her, with her, I smell you. It lives inside me, that scent.” He stopped beside her and knotted his hands in her hair, turning her head so he could brush his lips over hers. “God, Sydney, I need you.”

She’d thought herself trapped. By her condition, by him. But now, locked in those gorgeous eyes that warmed her as surely as if he’d poured steaming candle wax over her skin, she felt free.

Loving him was a choice. And she was making it.

She trembled as her fingers crept under his shirt to stroke the firm, clenched muscles of his back. He stared at her, the emotion of the moment passing between them without words. Their pact had been sealed. First in lust. Then in blood.

He crushed his mouth to hers, his tongue hard and insistent as it sought entrance. Her lips parted and his groan flowed into her on the heels of his taste. Coffee. Her coffee. Rich, bold. And beneath, the metallic undertaste he’d introduced her to, the forbidden fruit she’d denied wanting but couldn’t stop needing.

She gripped his belt buckle, tugging him closer so she could coil her legs around him. Her gown rode up, exposing her where she already burned wet and hot. Beside her, Emily made a strangled sound deep in her throat, but Sydney didn’t break the kiss or halt her explorations of the definite rise beneath Kellan’s jeans.

He was her center now. The one light in the midst of so much black, the answer to all the questions she’d been afraid to voice.

Kellan slipped back, staying close enough that his breath hissed over her lips. “You’re not alone anymore.” The hand he’d cupped around her cheek tensed, his grip the sweetest pain she’d ever known. “And you’re mine.”

She nodded and rose to her knees to drag his shirt over his head. He was a wonderland of supple skin and bunched muscles. Her hands raced over his back, then swept the planes and hollows of his torso. She flicked the buckle open and yanked the belt free of its loops, tossing the buttery leather aside with a child’s glee.

Finally, he would be hers again. This time it was for life.

Moving quickly, she freed his straining cock and licked her lips as she eyed her treat. “Mine,” she growled, making sure her gaze reflected every ounce of her desire.

She waited, half-expecting him to spout some He-Man vampire spiel about how she was his woman, but that didn’t mean the reverse was true. But he only threaded his fingers through her hair, guiding her where she desperately needed to be.

Commands like that, she didn’t mind.

Sydney scooted down and bathed his cock with her tongue. Then she enveloped him, taking his silken-steel length until he filled her throat. Oh, yes. How she’d missed this. He filled her in a way no one else could. Overwhelmed her senses like no one else ever had.

It was time she returned the favor.

She sucked hard and palmed his sac, scraping his sensitive skin with her nails. His breathing quickened. How she loved watching his chest rise and fall. Knowing she was the only one who could make him feel this way. As his shaft pulsed with blood, an almost indescribable ache grew in her pussy.

And in her fangs.

She flexed her throat. His broken groan vibrated through her body as he started to pump his hips. Deeper and harder, he drove between her parted lips, and she took him, her fangs lengthening until their points dug into his stiff flesh.

Waves of heat drenched her until it seemed as if fire ate at her skin, burning her from the inside out. Sensations collided and coalesced in her mind, in her body. His salty liquid teasing her tongue, the subtle expansion of his erection as he neared orgasm. Her own endless need, so consuming she had to hold her thighs apart to keep from imploding.

And through everything, smoldering gold eyes leeched the last shred of resistance she had left.

“Do it. Now.”

Sydney knew what he wanted. This time, she understood what following her urges meant. She hadn’t decided to bite him on a whim. This was who she was, no matter how hard she’d tried to deny the fact. She was a vampire. Even if she hadn’t gone all the way yet, she would. To turn away from what she was meant to become would jeopardize the truest love she’d ever known.

She slid his erection from her mouth and rubbed the pads of her fingers in concentric circles to spread the moisture. Kellan’s hands clenched in her hair, then gentled as he bundled the damp tendrils and lifted them off her neck. She licked her lips again, letting the dark hunger fill her. The scent of his desire, the relentless pound of his heart, and the tension in his touch all made the need that much more powerful.

“Yes, do it. Please.”

At Emily’s breathless urging, Sydney shifted to watch her best friend push herself over the edge. Emily’s lips spread over her baby fangs as her own fingers brought her to the peak. She’d shed her nightgown somewhere along the way, and her firm, dusky-tipped breasts bounced with each stroke.

Arousal flushed her skin, danced in her gray eyes. Somehow even the blood that coated her mouth—she’d proven herself not a fastidious eater—and smeared her cleavage only enhanced her allure.

Syd smiled and met her lover’s heated gaze. She peeled her lips back to reveal fangs already distended. Slowly, she lowered her mouth to the engorged head of his cock, throbbing so temptingly with blood and more. Already she anticipated the salt mixing with the coppery liquid that would flood her throat as he came and came.

The last thing she saw was his smile. The intensity and the power of it. Such beauty in that smile. So much love.

Poised to strike, she almost missed the flicker of movement in the doorway. A lightning blur of black and blond streaked into the room just as Emily’s rapturous moans crescendoed into climax.

Sydney jerked back on a strangled cry as Kellan was ripped away from her. She blinked, sure that would make the scene in front of her change. As though it wasn’t her lover fighting with someone clad all in black, like death himself, despite the angelic blond hair waving down his back.

While punches and curses flew, Sydney leaped to her feet, hoping to get some help from Emily. But from the look on her face—an odd mix of fascination and afterglow—she wouldn’t be much help.

Syd gritted her teeth and whirled around to see the hand-to-hand hadn’t ceased. If anything, the fight was even more violent. Even more bloody. And the sounds they were making—

Dear God. How she could have been so dense? Kellan was fighting with Lucas.

She glanced back at her best friend. And the reason why was curled up like a satisfied kitten in the center of the bed.

“Goddammit, stop it!” She could handle this. On her own. For God’s sake, she knew Lucas. She’d slept with him twice. He’d listen to reason.

She’d make him listen.

This wasn’t Kellan’s fault. Or even hers, not really. Emily had brought the change upon herself, and Lucas would just have to come to terms with that.

The blinding white flash of fangs in the darkness shocked her into stillness. Somehow he’d pinned Kellan, who’d ceased fighting and now lay prone on the floor with fangs at his neck. Why wasn’t he fighting him anymore? He was incredibly strong, but he didn’t move from his supine position. Instead, he stared up at Lucas, his skin pale, his features drawn tight, as if all the fight had drained out of him.

Did he actually want to die?

Terror bubbled in her stomach as she quelled the urge to rush forward. He couldn’t kill him. They were both vampires. And Kellan was Lucas’s best friend—

Sydney stepped forward, but Lucas’s hiss in her direction nearly sent her to her knees. The absolute destruction in his eyes—eyes that blazed as scarlet as the blood that still clung to Emily’s lips—blasted through her.

She took his look for what it was. A warning. Stay back, or you’ll be next.

But when he again lowered his fangs to Kellan’s neck, she didn’t think. She reacted. Springing into a leap, she landed on Lucas’s back. He attempted to buck her off, as she’d known he would. But panic and love and fear had given her strength, and he couldn’t knock her free. And she sank the fangs she’d readied for Kellan deep into Lucas’s artery.