I stumbled backward as the man dancing behind me disappeared suddenly. Disoriented, I looked around, but he was nowhere to be seen.

What the hell? What an asshole.

I’d been having an amazing time, and I thought he had been too.

It was strange. He hadn’t been much of a dance partner at first, his movements a little clumsy and out of rhythm. It hadn’t bothered me much—I was so swept up in the music I would’ve danced with a coat rack.

But then, out of nowhere, he’d turned up the heat several dozen notches.

His hands became more confident and demanding, roaming my body with a possessiveness I was startled to find I liked. He’d touched me as if I belonged to him, and I hadn’t found myself inclined to argue one bit. My nerve endings still prickled where his warm palms had splayed across the fabric of my dress.

I stopped dancing and stared stupidly around the dance floor, an island of stillness in a sea of movement. I didn’t see the guy. Not that I knew for sure who he was, since I’d never gotten a glimpse of his face. But I didn’t see anyone who looked like I imagined he did.

My stomach sank. I shoved my way through the crowd, no longer in the mood for any of this. The high I’d ridden for the past few hours was fading, and I was about to make an unpleasant crash landing back on earth.

Get a grip, Willow. You’re losing it.

I shook my head, irritation at myself souring my stomach. Even though I knew it was just some random frat guy out with his buddies, I had found myself imagining it was one of the brothers dancing with me. Especially when his dancing improved, and he began to handle my body with such ease and power. I’d gotten lost in images of rich brown eyes, bright blue eyes, and entrancing green eyes—imagined the way each of them smelled, the strength and grace of their large bodies. I’d even thought I caught the scent of leather for a brief moment.

Ugh. This does not count as getting a grip, you dummy.

Frustrated tears burned my eyes as I tried to escape the suddenly claustrophobic confines of the bar. The scents, the sounds, the press of bodies… It was all suddenly too much.

The vampire brothers had lied. I couldn’t go back to my old life. Even the small parts I’d hoped might be left to me were disintegrating before my eyes. The changes I’d gone through because of them had affected me on a much deeper level than simply making me allergic to sunlight.

Who am I now? I wasn’t this person a week ago.

I’d never had a one-night stand, never picked up a guy in a bar and brought him home without even learning his name. I’d only slept with two men in my life, and I’d been certain I was in love with each of them at the time.

But tonight, I’d been on the verge of spinning around, kissing the hell out of the guy dancing behind me, and begging him to take me home. Or, shit, just to the alley out back. Burning tension had built in my body, stoked even higher by his purposeful caresses, and I’d been desperate for some kind of release.

I still was.

But all these new feelings and experiences were coming at me too fast, leaving me reeling. Which woman was I? The one who’d had boring sex with the same guy for the past nine years and hadn’t even been able to face the idea of going on a date with a new man? Or the one who’d almost dragged a stranger into an alley and ripped off his clothes?

Could I be both?

The cool air hit my face as I stepped outside, sending goose bumps across my exposed skin. But it felt good. It woke me up and shocked me the rest of the way back to sober. I hesitated by the door, shifting to the side as a group of drunk bar-hoppers pushed past me.

Damn it. I hadn’t told Grace I was leaving.

Bracing myself, I slipped back into the onslaught of scents and sounds. A few minutes of searching revealed Grace flirting shamelessly with a tableful of blond-haired Wall Street clones. One of them gave me a funny look as I approached, but I ignored him, waiting until Grace finished taking their order to tap her on the shoulder.

She turned to me, her cat-eye makeup flawless despite the late hour. Grace always looked as fresh at the end of her shift as she did at the beginning, something I’d never mastered.

“Hey!” She beamed as we walked back toward the bar together. “Sorry I lost you for a bit there. I had to go back to work, but I didn’t want to interrupt.” She winked bawdily. “You looked like you were having fun.”

“Yeah.” I smiled tiredly. “I was.”

Grace pulled me into another hug. “Let’s do it again sometime. You have to let me take you out!”

“Sure, I’d like that. See you later, Grace.”

“Bye, hot stuff! Enjoy your fine piece of man.”

She slapped me on the butt as I turned to leave, and when I looked back in shock, she raised her eyebrows and stuck her tongue out. Despite the several impending emotional freak-outs hanging over me, I grinned at her as I walked away.

Grace was a great person. I only wished it hadn’t taken me becoming a vampire to really start to bond with her. If I’d just been a little bit braver when I was a human and reached out to her then, we might have become real friends instead of just work buddies.

Do vampires even have friends?

Sol, Jerrett, and the dark-haired one didn’t look anything alike, but they called themselves brothers. I needed to do what they’d done and find my own group, my own clan. But how the hell was I supposed to do that? I didn’t know any other stupid vampires besides them.

And they’d been very specific in their instructions not to let anyone know what I was.

Stepping out onto the sidewalk again, I decided to walk home. I was restless and antsy, my thoughts too loud for me to go back to my silent, stifling apartment yet. It felt good to be outside, and besides, wasn’t I a creature of the night now? Shouldn’t the things that lurked in dark shadows fear me?

I set off at a quick pace down the sidewalk, testing out my new senses of hearing and smell as I walked. Odors occasionally became overwhelming, especially when I passed by a strip of bars with their doors propped open, but I found that I could dampen the sense if I needed to, bringing it down to nearly human levels.

My sense of hearing was the same. Almost like I had a little volume dial in my brain I could turn up or down. If I turned the knob as far as it would go, I could pick up every footstep of the people walking near me, even on the other side of the street. I could hear glasses clinking inside the bars I passed. And dozens of overlapping conversations around me.

It was like a mega-dose of humanity, served directly into my eardrums. Thankfully, before it could completely overwhelm me, I passed into a quieter neighborhood.

Now I picked up different sounds. Trash can lids banging, small rodents skittering through dark alleys, leaves rustling, and…

Footsteps?

My pace slowed as my heart rate picked up. I pricked my ears, listening intently.

A few blocks from my apartment, a familiar scent hit my nose. Smoke and cloves. I recognized that smell; it belonged to one of the vampires who’d turned me. He was following me. I was sure of it.

Swinging around, I crossed my arms over my chest, trying to look cocky and annoyed rather than slightly relieved.

“Hey! You can come out!” I called, craning my neck to peer into the shadows. “I know you’re there.”

Half a block away, a figure emerged from the darkness.

But it wasn’t a vampire.