Laney awoke again, this time to the sound of the shower running. She sat up, pushing her damp hair out of her face and pulling her nightshirt out from where it was stuck under her breasts. She was disoriented at first as she tried to see through the minimal light and the cloud of steam that filled the small room.

The vampire’s clothes were lying in a pile on the floor in front of her. She couldn’t see him through the curtain, but she could hear him splashing around under the spray. Her eyes immediately went to the closed bathroom door. Hesitating only for a brief second, she got to her feet as quietly as she could and crept over to it. Laney was right next to the shower curtain now, and if she wanted, she could pull it back just enough to peek at the vampire while he bathed himself.

For an insane moment, she was tempted.

Laney frowned at her wayward mind, wondering where the hell that thought had come from. Shaking it off, she wrapped her hand around the knob, and very slowly and quietly began to twist it to the right.

“I wouldn’t do that, little mouse,” came a gravelly voice from behind the curtain.

Throwing caution to the wind, Laney immediately yanked the door open and ran out into the other room, praying it was still daylight. A few steps from the bathroom, she pulled up short, arms pinwheeling like a cartoon character. The sun had set, and the only illumination came from the flickering streetlamp outside. However, it wasn’t the lack of sunshine that had interrupted her escape, but rather the chaos that greeted her sudden exit from the bathroom.

The dog from earlier jumped down off the couch where it had been sleeping, leaped over Sasha’s body, and charged her. Laney stood absolutely still as the dog barked at her, trying to decide what would be worse: a bite from a dog or a vampire. Fraidy Cat took that opportunity to stroll over to her with his tail straight up in the air and weave in and out of her legs in greeting.

The water shut off behind her, spurring Laney into action. Deciding a dog bite was definitely the lesser of two evils, she scooped up her cat and ran toward the front door, the dog nipping at her heels the entire way. She was still wearing nothing but her nightshirt, but she had no time to grab something to cover herself with. Not if she wanted any chance at all of escaping. She felt surprisingly energetic, considering she’d spent the last twenty-four hours providing meal after meal for the leech in her bathroom and napping on the floor.

Or rather, on the vampire.

As if the mere thought of him had conjured him out of thin air, he suddenly appeared before her, dripping wet and wearing nothing but her lavender towel wrapped around his narrow waist. Laney had no time to stop the forward motion of her body. She slammed right into him, squishing Fraidy Cat, who yowled in protest, between their bodies.

She immediately regained her balance and tried to go around him, hanging on for dear life to the fat cat squirming in her embrace. One muscular arm flashed out and caught her around the front of her shoulders. Wrapping it around her, the vampire spun her around and pulled her back against his body. The water from his chest and stomach quickly soaked through the back of her thin shirt.

“Where are you going?” he asked in her ear.

To her surprise, he didn’t sound angry. As a matter of fact, he sounded genuinely curious and rather amused. The dog continued to bark at their feet, but the vampire made a shushing sound, and the mongrel immediately sat down and cocked its head to stare up at him with worshipful brown eyes.

Laney gave up the battle to hang on to Fraidy and opened her arms. He landed on his feet, gave her a glare over his shoulder, and went over to touch noses with the dog before sitting down next to it. His topaz eyes held less worship and more disdain as he looked up at her.

“What the hell is going on here?” she whispered. Laney wasn’t sure if she was asking herself or Fraidy.

“They seem to like each other,” the vampire whispered loudly in response.

Laney felt her face heat as fear was replaced with anger at the blasé tone in his voice. She felt like she’d been thrown into an episode of The Twilight Zone, made even more terrifying because it was real, and he was…amused? The vampire chuckled when she dug her nails into his arm and tugged, trying to get him to loosen his grip on her, but she might as well have been trying to remove the steel safety bar of a roller coaster after it was in motion.

Then the bar suddenly released her, much as she had done to the cat.

For the second—or third—time since she’d met him, Laney landed in a heap on the floor at the feet of the vampire. Jumping up, she spun around to face him, and almost stepped on the cat, eliciting an unhappy hiss from her pet. Fraidy stayed right where he was next to his new friend, however, not deigning to actually move. But he did bat at her leg to let her know he was there.

Laney, on the other hand, felt the need to move far, far away, and put as much distance between herself and the large male in front of her as she could.

For that’s what he was. Male. Completely and utterly male.

The monster that had attacked her the night before was nearly gone, and in its place was something that looked like it had just stepped off the cover of Iron Man Magazine—the sadistic, scary vampire issue. The lavender towel that was wrapped tightly around his waist split up one powerful thigh and barely concealed the bulge at the front of his hips. An eight pack of muscle rippled up his abdomen to a wide chest topped with shoulders that looked like they could easily handle the weight of the world and then some. But the thing that drew Laney’s eyes the most was the black ink of the tribal tattoos that covered the entire left half of his body, from his temple all the way down to where they disappeared beneath the towel, only to reappear again on his left leg. She hadn’t noticed them the night before. Or maybe she had and it just hadn’t comprehended. Maybe because he’d been wearing clothes, and she’d been more concerned about the fangs coming at her. They weren’t anything like the other tats she’d seen of that sort. These seemed to have a pattern to them, almost like they were symbols from some type of language or something.

“Are you going to run, little mouse? Or are you just going to stand there and squeak at me?”

Laney’s attention snapped back up to his face. Eyes like black holes met hers with an unflinching stillness. No, she corrected herself. It wasn’t the color of them that reminded her of space, it was the utter lack of any type of warmth. There was no soul behind those eyes. And that menacing tattoo twisting up the side of his throat, decorating the edge of his left cheek and temple where it flared out to partially cover his shaved head, only added to his sinister look.

“Are you going to kill me?” Surprisingly, her voice barely shook at all, in spite of the terror running through her veins.

“Yes.” There was no hesitation in his voice, not one ounce of remorse on his ruggedly handsome face. “But not today, little mouse.” He gave her an ominous smile.

“Why not today?” she asked in a flash of sudden boldness. Or maybe it was stupidity. “Why not just get it over with?” What are you doing, Laney? Shut up!

“Because today I need you to drive me home. Do you have a car?”

Okay. Not what she had been expecting him to say. But no way, no how, was she taking this guy anywhere. Lie, Laney. Lie. And she tried to. But Laney felt the pull of his control on her mind, trying to force the truth out of her. Gritting her teeth, she fought against it. Her head felt heavy, like it was bolted to her neck, but somehow she managed to shake it back and forth. “No,” she told him.

Those black eyes narrowed, and he crossed his arms over his wide chest. She noticed then that he wasn’t, in fact, completely healed. His skin still hung a bit loose on his large frame, the color still a bit…off…and that was what gave his face such a rugged look. “You’re lying.”

“Yes,” she answered before she could stop herself, then she clamped her jaw shut before she could admit anything else. Of course he knew she had a car. She’d driven away in it the night before.

He cocked his head to the side and studied her, much as the dog had looked at him earlier, but without the adoration. “Why?”

“Because I don’t want to drive you anywhere except back to the gates of hell.” This time, she needed no mental prodding from him to tell the truth. And then, as long as she was at it, “And then I want to kick your blood-sucking ass right through them.”

Something shimmered in those black eyes for just a fraction of a second, and then it was gone again. Was it anger? Amusement? Laney braced herself for his reaction to her reckless words. But he just headed back to the bedroom, taking her by the hand as he passed, and pulling her along with him. The animals plodded along behind.

Once in her room, he pointed to her bed. “Sit,” he commanded.

Laney sat. So did the dog. She scowled down at the ugly thing.

“Don’t move,” the vampire told her. She re-directed her scowl at him, but he had turned his muscular back on her and was rummaging through her small closet. After perusing her small selection of clothes, he sighed. “There’s nothing in here that will fit me.”

“No?” she replied sarcastically. “Imagine that. Maybe you should’ve picked on somebody more your size.”

He stiffened, and then his massive shoulders began to shake. Laney was certain that this time the end was nigh. Damn her big mouth. When the vampire turned around, he wasn’t laughing, but nor did he look like he was about to add her body to the pile he’d started in the living room.

“You might be right.” Planting his hands on his narrow hips, he looked around. “Do you have a washer and dryer?”

Laney shook her head. “There’s a laundry mat by the office.” She paused. “I don’t have any quarters, though.” Like that would stop him from hanging around, or convince him to leave her here.

He shrugged. “I guess there’s no help for it.” Leaving the room, he was back in a few seconds time with his dirty clothes. Shaking the sand out all over her freshly vacuumed rug, he laid them on the blue comforter next to her, then he unfastened the towel from his waist and dropped it to the floor.

She tried not to look, really, she did. But he was right there. And her eyes were pulled in that direction by a force so strong it could not have been her own, and maybe it wasn’t. Either way, she couldn’t honestly say she was sorry.

The vampire’s hips were nearly at a level with her face, adjoined by rock hard abs and powerful thighs covered with just a light dusting of dark hair. That strange tattoo, she could now see, continued without a break from head to foot, but it was what was in the center of those hips that drew her attention the most. Even in its semi-hard state, his cock was impressive. Laney swallowed hard as her body reacted to his, a slow burning ache intensifying with each breath deep within her womb. Painfully aware that nothing but a thin nightshirt covered her naked body, she squeezed her thighs together and tore her eyes away to stare at the open bedroom door while he pulled on his pants. Clearing her throat, she managed to mumble, “I’d like to get dressed also.” She absolutely refused to say “please.”

She felt his eyes on her as he fastened his pants and reached for his shirt. “Go ahead. But be quick. And don’t try anything,” he added. “It won’t end well for you.”

Jumping up from the bed and away from his imposing presence, she quickly found a pair of jeans and a green button-down shirt. Grabbing some underthings out of the drawer, she started heading towards the bathroom.

“Where are you going?”

Laney stopped. “I’m going to the other room,” she said without looking at him.

“No.” His tone was final. “You’ll change here.”

Laney gritted her teeth. Enough was enough. She spun around to face him. “I have to use the bathroom. There’s no window in there, as you well know, so you have nothing to worry about. And that’s where I’m going to change.” He lifted one dark eyebrow, but said nothing else, so she stomped into the bathroom, and shut and locked the door. Leaning against it, she released a shaky breath, her bravado swiftly leaving her now that she was alone.

“Don’t take too long, little mouse, or I’ll come in after you,” he said from right outside the door.

Jumping away from that coarse voice, Laney switched on the light and checked that she had locked the door. Not, she supposed, that it would keep out a vampire if he really wanted to come in. She wasn’t sure just how strong they were, but she had a feeling she didn’t want to find out.

Laney took care of her most pressing needs, brushed her hair and teeth, and had her clothes on in record time. Finding a hair band, she pulled the unruly mass back into a low ponytail. Her eyes immediately went to the exposed skin of her neck. He had removed her bandage from the first bite, and there was no evidence that she’d spent the day feeding the creature in the other room, and for that she was grateful. The thought made her rethink the ponytail, but in the end she decided to keep it. It would keep her hair out of her way when she escaped. He wanted her to drive him somewhere? Fine. She’d drive him right into the morning sun, and then she’d stake him for good measure. But in spite of her ballsy state of mind, her stomach clenched and her hands shook. She wiped her clammy palms on her jeans.

“Hickory dickory dock,” his singsong voice came through the closed door again. “The clock is ticking, little mouse.”

“I’m coming!” Taking a steadying breath, Laney opened the door.

The vampire stood just outside with the dog under one arm and the cat under the other. “Ready?” he asked, as if they were about to leave for a date night. His eyes roved over her from head to toe. When they reached her bare feet, he stated the obvious. “You need shoes. Go get them. And then we’re leaving.”

Laney’s eyes fell to the body of her dead roommate behind him. “What about Sasha?” she whispered.

He didn’t bother to look back to see what she was talking about. “Were you attached to the human?”

Laney was a little taken aback by his question. But then she thought about that. Was she attached? Not really. Sasha was a horrible roommate. She ate all of Laney’s food, never did her part of the chores, and stole money out of Laney’s secret savings jar to blow at the clubs and in the slot machines. No, she wasn’t attached. But Sasha was still a human being and deserved better than being left to rot in their apartment. In answer to his question, she only said, “I can’t just leave her here. It’s not right.”

“We don’t have time to hide the body, but I can toss it outside if you’d like so it doesn’t stink up your apartment.”

Laney could do nothing but stare. How could he be so cold? So unfeeling?

She watched as he set the animals down. Picking Sasha up with one hand gripped in the neck of her coat, he dragged her over to the window, opened it wide, and tossed her body down into the courtyard. Laney slapped her hand over her mouth to muffle her cries as he slammed the window shut, locked it, and picked up the animals again.

“Shoes,” he said. When she didn’t move, he ordered, “Now.”

Laney stumbled into her room and dropped to her knees in her closet. Through tear-filled eyes, she searched for her Nikes, finally finding them in the back corner where she’d tossed them. Once she had socks and shoes on, she grabbed her slouchy backpack that substituted for a purse and threw a few extra things in it. Then she went to the nightstand and opened the drawer. She stared at the small book lying there with her heart in her throat, then grabbed it and shoved it into her bag.

The vampire was waiting patiently by the door.

“I need stuff for Fraidy. The cat,” she clarified when he gave her a quizzical look. Maybe she could find something to stake him with while she was in the kitchen.

“No need,” he said, picking something up off the floor without dropping the animals. When he straightened, he had Fraidy’s food bag in one and the litter in the other. “Let’s go. I’ve waited long enough for you.”

“You could always leave me here,” she tried. “Find someone else to drive you. Lots of people around here have cars.”

He gave her that chilling smile. “No chance, little mouse. Now, come.”

Laney took one last look around her apartment. Somehow, she had the feeling that this was the last time she would see her home.