I headed down the hallway of the Legal Affairs building, and threw my purse onto my desk. It only took me seconds to decide what to do next. I turned on my heel and headed back to Caleb’s production office. He was in another building, connected by an above ground bridge. I couldn’t get there fast enough.

I passed Annika as I strode towards the bridge to the production lot.

“In a hurry to see someone in particular?” she smiled.

“Oh, you have no idea.”

Once I was in the covered stairwell, I took off my uncomfortable heels and clutched them tightly. The cool cement under my feet did little to chill the anger coursing through my body.

How dare he.

I knew about Hollywood casting couches, and that, before he met me, Caleb was notorious for bedding women on set. He said he’d put that all behind him. But, honestly, how could I trust a vampire? He dripped sex appeal from every pore in his body. How could I think I could satisfy his every need when he had blonde supermodel vampire queens throwing themselves at his feet?

I ran across the covered bridge, enjoying the rush of cool air over my heated skin. At the end of the walkway, a set of steps led me towards the production offices. Caleb’s plush office studio was down the hallway, past a heavy security door. He’d taken me here before. Now I wondered how many other women he’d led to his private office for sex…and more.

The hallway led me to an elaborate office foyer, complete with dark mirrored doors. Caleb’s name wasn’t on the glass, or anywhere in sight. He kept a low profile at work, and even his office was a secret to most people. I wondered what I’d find lurking on the other side of the glass doors. Maybe he’d still be naked from his sex romp with Reina.

I looked around the reception area for his usual entourage of production staff, interns, and personal assistants. They were all suspiciously absent, and the foyer outside his office was so silent, I heard my bare feet brush the carpet fibers underneath my toes.

When I pushed open the door to Caleb’s private office, my body turned icy. All the heat left me, and the vampire within my skin arose. It was in moments like this that I felt myself becoming less human. A cold, calculated side of me I didn’t know existed bubbled to the surface. If I found out Reina had been in his office, I would kill the bitch. I might kill Caleb, too, if he didn’t get me first.

The inside of Caleb’s office was dark and sleek, punctuated by deep maroon and silver accents. It was a deceivingly large space, with ornate turn-of-the century furniture, mixed with tasteful modern pieces. Gorgeous artwork lined the walls, each one more famous and expensive than the last. A signed movie poster hung in the corner, a gift from another famous film director.

Dark floor to ceiling windows lined the back wall of his office, and looked out over the movie studio lot. From this perspective, I had an eagle-eye view of the world beneath my feet. The UV protection shielded me, but I still squinted as my eyes turned deeper amethyst. It was in these moments that I felt the effects of my transformation. Amethyst eyes were, apparently, much more sensitive to the light.

My reflexes heightened, I sniffed the air and smelled the unmistakable scent of perfume. A woman’s fragrance hung subtly in the air. The leather couch at the end of the room had a long indentation in the cushion, as if someone had been reclining on it recently.

Emotions arose inside my body, the vestigial human side of me mixing with the new, fierce vampire side. Anger, passion, rage, jealousy, insecurity, and anxiety all coursed through my skin. My head pounded as I tried to steady myself against the flow of emotions.

Just then, the door on the far wall opened and Caleb emerged, naked except for his silky black boxer shorts. His chiseled torso led my eye to the outline of his muscular thighs, and the unmistakable bulge between his legs. His skin was wet, either beaded with perspiration or steamy from a recent shower. His skin glowed with an ethereal aura, the way it looked after we’d had sex.

He startled upon entering the room, and his demeanor changed. He straightened up and his muscles flinched. He pushed back his hair from his eyes, and almost without a glance in my direction, strode towards his desk.

“I can’t talk now, Abby.” He lifted a crisp white shirt from the back of his desk chair. It draped lazily over the black leather, like it’d been casually tossed there. A pair of pants, different from the ones he’d had on earlier, were folded into a neat square on the seat cushion.

“Why not?”

“I’m needed on set. The gaffers decided to strike this morning. Their union’s up my butt, and I’m scrambling to figure out what the fuck to do about it.” His eyes glanced towards something on his desk. From my angle, I couldn’t make out what it was. He slid his pants over his muscular quads and dressed in a hurry. Then, without taking his eyes off the item on his desk, he slid his hand across the sleek glass and stuffed a piece of paper into his pants pocket.

I froze in place, both in anger and fear. Until that moment, I hadn’t realized exactly how much Caleb meant to me, and that him leaving would break me irrevocably. A vulnerable part of myself emerged, and I regretted barging into his office unannounced. Sometimes it was better not to know. I wished I hadn’t seen Reina, because then I could stay in the bubble of happiness that surrounded me only moments ago. I wondered if that fleeting happiness would ever return to me.

My gaze raked over his impressive form. He was so primal, so sexual. I couldn’t help the desires that arose inside my body. I needed him. Who wouldn’t? I understood how Reina and Sophie hungered for him. They’d do whatever it took to take him away from me. Still, I was pissed at him.

“Did the gaffers strike make you suddenly rip off your clothes?”

I tried to mask my hurt with sarcasm, but it was a flimsy veil. I averted my eyes from his still exposed chest. His well-defined abs and muscular, lean body made my throat dry. I couldn’t control my emotions when it came to Caleb. I imagined my face pressed to those washboard abs, and the trail my tongue wanted to follow downward to his delicious cock. It was hidden behind his pants, but it was so large that I saw the unmistakable outline of his massive rod. My mind immediately flashed to how he felt when he moved inside me. I wanted him with reckless abandon, and I couldn’t help myself even though I knew he was bad for me.

I tried to close my mind to him, worried he’d sense my jealousy about Reina and my deep need for him. Nothing turned Caleb off like desperation, and I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of rejecting me when he was the one so obviously at fault.

“As a matter of fact, it did. I was trying to help set things up when the whole production shut down. My clothes got filthy and thankfully, I had a moment to run back here and shower.”

“Uh-huh.” I crossed my arms in front of my chest.

He slid the dress shirt over his muscular biceps, and nimbly closed the buttons. His smooth, defined pectorals went out of view. I glimpsed them one last time, longingly. I was torn between my heated jealousy and my inner desires. My head cared, but my heart didn’t.

“Abby,” he said quickly. “I’ve got to run back to set. Is there something you needed?”

Something I needed? Yes, I needed to know why Reina had left the lot in his car looking like she’d just been fucked ten ways until Sunday.

“Where are your dirty clothes?” I raised my eyebrow.

“My what? What are you getting at, babe?” He studied me closely, and I felt him burrowing into my mind, into my inner-most thoughts.

“Stay out of my head, Caleb.” I snapped back at him.

“If you’d just tell me what you’re thinking…no, what you’re accusing me of, I might not have to read your mind.”

I opened the closet door and found his clothes stuffed into a linen laundry hamper. I picked up his shirt and saw a smear of makeup across the shoulder. A dark streak, black eyeliner perhaps, dusted the collar. My stomach lurched, and what little blood I had left, rose to the surface of my skin.

“Seriously?” I held up the shirt.

“Abby. What the hell are you doing?” His voice, sharper than I’d ever heard it, cut me to ribbons.

“Like you don’t know. Stop with the mind-fuck, Caleb.”

I pushed my shoes back onto my feet, and stood up to full height. If he wanted an ice-queen like Reina, then he didn’t deserve me. I turned my back on him and walked towards the office door. My temples burned, and my whole body ached with rage. A fierce animal arose inside me, and I couldn’t stop the emotions that jettisoned to the surface.

“Don’t be like this.” He caught my arm and laced his fingers tightly around the crook of my elbow. I fell back into him as he tugged me close to his chest. His overwhelming, attractive manly scent enveloped me. He was trying to pull me into his aura. That’s how he’d ensnared me the night we first met. It was hard to fight against his attraction, but I had to try to keep a level head.

I pushed him off me, striking him in the chest with surprising force. He stumbled backwards towards the couch and fell breathlessly into a heap. Never in my life had I even been able to do a push-up, and now I had the power to throw a grown man across the room. I felt my inner vampire rise inside me again, a beast unto itself. I didn’t know if I could cage the visceral part of me that swelled underneath the surface.

“What the hell?” He snarled. He was on his feet within seconds, and strode towards me with fire in his eyes. The human part of me reacted with fear, and I felt genuinely afraid in Caleb’s presence.

“Stay away from me, Crane.”

His strong grip encased my waist and pulled me towards him. I felt the burn of his cock through his pants, against my thigh. I pushed back, and ducked under his arm.

“Why are you acting this way?” He squinted at me, taking a step back to survey me from a distance.

“Maybe you should ask Reina.”

“Excuse me?”

“Don’t lie, Caleb. I saw her driving off in your Maserati.”

“And…”

“Fuck you, Caleb. If you don’t think it’s wrong to…to…” my words faltered.

“To what? What exactly are you accusing me of?”

“Don’t act dense. I’m not going to say it, just so you can humiliate me further.”

His fist pounded the desk so hard, I thought he might break the wood.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been human, Abby.”

“No kidding.”

“Just say what’s on your mind. The images are moving so fast in your head, I can’t tell what’s going on. I want to know why you’re acting so crazy.”

“Damn it, Caleb.” Tears bubbled in the corners of my eyes and burned my skin like acid. Even though I was a vampire, I still had emotions, and I knew when I was being played.

“Reina had car trouble. I loaned her mine. What’s the big deal?”

“Don’t think I’m that stupid.”

He bit his lip, and his body tensed as he spoke tersely through clenched teeth. “I know you’re not stupid. That’s why I don’t understand why you’re acting so unreasonable. I’ve killed people over less.”

“Wow, does that make you some kind of hero? For not killing me, Crane? I was wrong to think I could ever trust a vampire.”

His hands gripped the edge of his leather office chair, and his muscular biceps filled out his crisp white shirt. His dark, inky hair swept across his high cheekbones, and fell lazily over one of his heavily lidded eyes. Even when he angered me, his very presence seduced me, and made me want him more.

“Low blow, Abby.” He licked his dry lips and sunk the edge of his sharpened incisor into the edge, marring the soft pink cushion. “Are you really worried about Reina, or is this about something else?”

“Something else?!” I ran my fingers through my thick hair and pulled it back into a tight ponytail.

“You sound ridiculous. Insecure. I thought you’d leave all that behind when…”

“When what?”

“When you became like me.”

“I’ll never be like you,” I hissed. My mind flashed to an image of Caleb and Reina on the sofa in this very room, her leg lazily hooked around his neck as he pleasured her the way I wanted him to please me. His expert tongue was supposed to be mine, and mine alone.

“Look.” Caleb swallowed something in his throat, and broke eye contact with me. He trained his eyes on the framed movie poster behind me, and spoke in an even, emotionless tone. “Abby. I haven’t seen Reina since she came to check on me at the house. You were there, remember?”

I nodded my head. Yes, of course I remembered. I’d showed up to Caleb’s house unannounced and found the leggy blonde draped over a lounge chair, with Caleb eating out of the palm of her hand. I’d been a fool not to see it then. I wouldn’t make that mistake again.

“Please explain why I saw her driving your car off the lot, and why I walked in on you in silk boxer shorts looking like you just fucked her.”

“I’ve already explained this all to you, and I won’t do it again. You either trust me, or you don’t.”

“It’s not that simple, Caleb, and you know it.”

I wished that I’d never seen Reina that night at Caleb’s house, or heard the long story about how she saved Caleb when he wanted to kill himself after he’d transformed. If I didn’t know about her, I could be happy again – like I was before I knew about her past with Caleb. Now, everything had changed and there was no going back.

I instinctually wiped my eyes, hoping to hide my tears from him—but then, the tears didn’t come. Then, I remembered: vampires don’t cry. It was one more sign that my humanity had been taken from me. Now even my ability to cry was gone.

Caleb pretended not to notice my hand crossing over my eyes, and how my fingers reached for the teardrops that never fell.

“I can’t believe you’re pulling this, Abby. I’ve shown you parts of myself no one else has seen. I’ve opened myself up to you, and this is how you repay me? You’re calling me a liar?”

I squinted my eyes shut tightly, and tried to calm myself before I said something I might really regret. Maybe Caleb was right. I was waiting for him to fail me, as all the men in my life had done before him. I expected him to abandon me, leaving me vulnerable to a world I no longer recognized.

“I’m sorry. I don’t think you’re a liar,” I stammered.

“Sweetheart.” His voice softened, and he uncrossed his arms from in front of his chest. “What’s gotten into you?”

I chewed on my lip and wanted to mention that Sophie had called me earlier in the day, and set me up to believe Caleb had fallen back in with Reina.

Then it dawned on me. Sophie figured that if she couldn’t have Caleb, then neither could I. She’d set out to destroy my relationship with Caleb, hadn’t she? I wondered if Reina was in on her game, too. She’d played it cool when she met me, but my intuition told me that she’d never gotten over Caleb. Maybe Sophie and Reina were friends, and together they were hell bent on taking me down. With two vampires plotting against one newbie vampire, they figured I didn’t stand a chance.

I sighed. The vampire world wasn’t all that different from the human world. Those catty bitches were out to get me, but they underestimated me. I wouldn’t be fooled by them…or by Caleb, for that matter.

“Explain to me what Reina was doing in your Maserati, Caleb.”

“I don’t know. Running errands? I told you already. Her car isn’t working, so I loaned her mine.”

“You said you haven’t seen her since that night at your pool.”

“I haven’t. She has a key to my car.”

“Right. That tells me everything I need to know.”

“What? Do you think I fucked her in here on my casting couch and sent her on her way?”

“What would you think if you were me?”

“I would trust you, damn it.” His jaw tightened, and his muscles tensed. He reached for me, but then drew his hands back before his fingers brushed my skin. The look in his eyes turned cold, and I saw the side of Caleb that he showed the rest of the world – the ruthless film director and vampire—the side he’d never shown me until now.

“I’m working on it. Trust doesn’t come easily to me. It has to be earned. You have secrets in your past, and I do, too. I thought we would always be honest with each other.”

“Some things I still can’t tell you, Abby.”

“Why not, Caleb? Don’t you know that I need that from you? I’m afraid of getting burned, so if I act skittish, that’s why. I can’t let go of all the doubts and insecurities I had as a human. I thought that being a vampire would change all the broken parts of me. If anything, it made them worse.”

“Abby.” His voice was breathless. I saw a faraway, distant look in his eyes. I wanted to read his thoughts, the way he read mine, but his mind was completely dark to me.

A sassy looking Production Assistant peeked her head in through the opened door of his office. Her magenta hair glowed ethereally as she flipped a ponytail over her shoulder.

“Mr. Crane? The Assistant Director wanted me to tell you we’re all set to start shooting.”

Caleb stood silently, unable to move.

“Mr. Crane?” The woman persisted.

“Be there in a minute.” His words were short and clipped, like his jaw was screwed shut.

“You’d better get back to it,” I said finally.

“I guess I should.”

I turned and walked away from him. He didn’t call after me, or tell me to come back. All I heard was the deafening roar of his silence.