Galen

I stand sentry at her door until the prickle of impending sunrise gets unbearable, then race to the shelter I’d arranged, even as my skin begins to burn. It hadn’t been hard to find Reese. Her blood still sings in my body even now, connecting us. As if we’re stitched together, the threads between us pull tighter with every night that passes.

Andrea is waiting to greet me when I arrive at her home, only a few miles away from the townhouse where Reese is staying. The cookie-cutter design makes Andrea’s house seem perfectly suburban and unassuming, just like her. Taking in her slight pixie-like frame, she appears nonthreatening. But I know the truth. She’s so strong, she could rip my heart from my chest before I could do a single thing to stop her. She’s too ancient and powerful.

“Galen, cutting it a bit close, aren’t you?” She shakes her head and tsks.

“I had to see her safe as long as I could.”

“You’ve told her what you are?”

I nod, knowing I’m about to be chastised. It never ends well for humans who know about us. “I was fighting Sariel for control. It was unavoidable.”

Sighing, she takes my hand and leads me to her windowless basement. “Your maker did you such a disservice, leaving you saddled with a Watcher without giving you the knowledge you needed to manage him.”

“What do you mean, leaving me with the Watcher?”

“The only way to rid yourself of Sariel is to transfer him into a new body. This is done in one of two ways. Either you make a new vampire and Sariel travels to him or her, or you find a willing vampire who will accept him. Unfortunately, the process of moving a Watcher to a new body damages the old one beyond repair.”

I frown, trying to work out her meaning. “Doesn’t the vampire heal?”

“No. Why do you think your maker abandoned you? He died. He chose you so he could finally die.”

This just gets better and better. “So I’ll have Sariel as long as I live?”

She nods. “I’m sorry. But you see, there’s no way for this relationship you’ve started with this woman to last. Either you’ll kill her, or Sariel will. It’s unavoidable.”

A sick feeling claws at my stomach. “What happens to Sariel if he has no one to feed from?”

“He’ll go dormant, or take over completely.”

My head hurts, and my body feels like lead. We’ve stayed up past sunrise, and I can feel it in my bones.

“You need to sleep now, Galen. Don’t worry. Your human will be there at sunset.”

“How do you know?”

“Nothing that wants to hurt her is awake during daylight.”

Her words send a tremor of fear through me. My limbs ache with the need to rest, but I refuse to allow them to have their way. I fight through the grip of sleep to ask, “Who wants to hurt her?”

As she speaks, I’m already slipping into unconsciousness. “The other Watchers.”

I fall into the welcoming silence of sleep. Strangely, I know I’m dreaming. My body feels different. Staring down, I don’t recognize my hands. These are deeply tanned, larger than my own, with a spray of golden hair on the arms attached to them. What the fuck? My heart races, hammering so hard against my ribs, it hurts.

“Sariel? Where are you, my love?” An unfamiliar female voice calls to me from down the hall.

Excitement builds in my chest. I need to get to her. Running down the narrow hallway, I turn the corner, expecting to see her. I come up short when all I find is the hall I was just in. No. No. I need to find her. As I stand there, the open doors lining the hall all slam shut. Anxiety grips me as I walk slowly past each door, trying the handles and finding each one locked.

“Please come find me.” Her cries fill the hall as though she were right behind me.

Turning on my heels, I suck in a harsh breath when I’m face-to-face with a floor-to-ceiling mirror. A man I don’t know stares back at me. His shining hair the color of the sun falls to his shoulders. Silver swirling irises framed by thick blond brows focus on the reflection before me. Is this my Watcher? Sariel. His expression in the mirror changes from blank to one of pain as I watch. Wings spread behind him. White feathers tipped with black fall from them as he opens his mouth in a silent scream. His hands pound on the inside of the glass as though he were trying to break free.

A crack forms in the mirror, causing me to take a hasty step backward. Without warning, I fall, my head connecting with the stone floor. A loud voice fills the room, and somehow I know it is Sariel.

“Galen, they’re coming for her. They’re close.”

I jolt awake, heart pounding faster than it should. I’m covered in a thin sheen of cold sweat and breathing hard. I can sense the sun, still working its way below the horizon. I have to get to her. I have to see her safe. Even if she doesn’t want me.

* * *

Reese

Galen has been outside my aunt and uncle’s condo for three nights in a row. He doesn’t try to contact me. He doesn’t even look at me when I’m at the window. He stares at the street in front of the house, focused and determined. It’s as if he’s guarding me. Because he thinks I’m his possession, or because he’s afraid someone will hurt me, I don’t know. I’ve got to give him credit, he’s persistent.

These last few days have given me a lot of time to think. I’m in such uncharted territory with the whole vampire thing, not to mention Sariel. I start to question my resolve. Galen has said he’s never known he could feed and not kill his … victim. Does that mean I’m special, or has he finally realized he’s got another choice when it comes to his survival? Because when I look at it from a survival standpoint, I begin to understand. Humans have to kill to eat, unless we’re vegetarians. Galen doesn’t have another food source.

I sigh as I stare out the window at him. It’s raining, but he doesn’t seem to care. He stands watch over me, unmoving. Against my better judgment, I tap on the window pane, and his gaze snaps up to mine. The heat in his gaze sends a wave of arousal over me. Why do I want him so much? I crook a finger to indicate he can come inside.

He’s knocking on the front door in an instant, and I can’t keep the excitement from humming through my body. My fingers are shaking in anticipation as I unlock the dead bolt and pull open the door. There’s a sexy smile on his gorgeous lips. It makes my knees weak and my heart flutter.

“Can’t live without me, I see,” he says.

I let out a little disbelieving laugh. “I was feeling sorry for you. I can leave you out there all night again if you’d rather.”

I start to close the door, but he stops me with a hand. “No. I’d really rather not.”

“Okay, then. You can come in, but no—” He silences me with his mouth on mine, wiping away my warning to keep his hands to himself.

Why did I want him to stop kissing me again? I can’t really remember. I know he’s bad for me, but he feels so right. When he releases me, his focus remains trained on my lips.

“You were saying?”

“Funny business,” I mutter, finishing my sentence, still slightly breathless.

“I don’t think it’s funny at all.”

He leans in, and I back away, trying to tame my libido, which is screaming at me.

“Like I said, no funny business. This is my bubble.” I indicate my area of personal space. “Stay out of my bubble. That means no kissing, no touching, and, most definitely no sex.”

His mouth turns down in a frown, and I have to work hard to control my gasp when his brown eyes flash the silvery gray of Sariel. He takes a deep breath, and when he looks at me again, his irises are the warm brown I’ve been dreaming of for the last few days.

“Right, no sex.” Heaving an overly dramatic sigh, he sits, stretching his long arms across the back of the couch. “I can’t promise I won’t fantasize about you, though. It’s hard to be around you without remembering what your mouth feels like wrapped around my dick.”

I lick my lips and fight my need to touch him.

“Not to mention the fucking sexy sounds you make when I’m sliding inside you.”

Oh God. He’s the devil. He may have an angel inside his head, but he’s pure evil.

“Or the heat of your pussy as it clenches around me when you come.”

I’m wet, I can feel it, and I’m sure he knows. Damn vampire super senses.

“I’m going to ignore you until you stop trying to seduce me,” I say.

“You’re going to be waiting a long time, a ghra.” His tone is husky and filled with need.

Heading to the kitchen, I plop a couple of slices of pizza onto a plate and stick it in the microwave. In seconds, the smell of melted cheese and pepperoni remind me of how hungry I am. I pick a pepperoni off my pizza and munch on it slowly, waiting for the cheese to cool enough for me to avoid third-degree burns on the roof of my mouth. Trying to busy myself, I begin washing up the few dishes I’d left in the sink. I can’t keep my gaze from shifting over the kitchen island to Galen, still settled and looking at ease on the couch. As I absentmindedly scrub the plate and cup I used this afternoon, I watch him shift in his seat. The muscles in his shoulders move fluidly under the thin material of his fitted shirt. Pain burns up my hand and I cry out, realizing I’m gripping the business end of the chef’s knife I’d used to prepare my lunch.

In an instant, Galen is there, holding my hand under the water to wash away the blood. My palm throbs, and I’m queasy just looking at the red-stained water. Damn it. This looks bad.

“Can you get me a towel?” I ask. “I’m going to need you to drive me to the emergency room. This will need stitches.”

Wordlessly, he hands me a clean kitchen towel and turns off the water as I wrap my injured palm.

“I’ll drive you if you want, but I can fix this for you.”

I stare blankly at him. “Are you a doctor in addition to everything else?”

A soft smile appears on his mouth. “No. I was a soldier, and a farmer before that. I’ve done my share of stitching up wounds, but I’ve got a better way to heal you.”

Blood. He’s talking about his blood. “Oh, no way. I’m not drinking your blood. That’s disgusting.”

“You won’t have to drink it, a ghra, although that would be much more enjoyable for both of us. I can simply put a few drops of my blood on your cut. You’ll heal almost completely. If you ingest my blood, though, you won’t have any scar at all.”

I shake my head. “Not going to happen. I can’t even handle a medium-rare steak. There’s no way I’m drinking from you.” My hand gives another throb, and I notice blood is dripping from the soaked towel. “I guess you can heal me. Can I just close my eyes?”

He chuckles. “Okay. It might sting a bit. I’ll tell you when I’m done.”

Shutting my lids tight, I wait, hearing his soft grunt of pain followed by a warm sensation on my cut. There’s a stinging that begins in the center, spreading over my skin and intensifying. I can’t help but let out a little yelp when he runs his fingers over my arm, trying to soothe me.

“All better. You can look now.”

I open, and am amazed to see my hand, as good as new with only a faint silver scar in the center of the palm. Galen takes my hand and presses a kiss to the mark. “Thank you for letting me do that,” he says, his voice tight.

“Was it hard? Seeing the blood?”

“It was. It always is. The hunger’s there all the time, but I’ve had a hundred years to practice my control.”

My jaw drops. “A hundred? Shit.”

“It’s not so long, really. Some of my friends have lived centuries.”

I can’t fathom living through so many decades, watching the world change while you stay the same. It must be lonely. “You said you were a farmer and a soldier. Was this before you became a vampire?”

“Aye. I had a farm in Northern Ireland. My wife and children were killed during the rebellion in 1916. It was my fault. If I hadn’t taken part and fought …”

My chest tightens at the mention of his family. A flicker of unwanted jealousy burns brightly. He’d been married, been a father. “How many children did you have?”

He squeezes his eyes shut, pinching the bridge of his nose and taking a harsh breath. “Five. The youngest was barely a year old.”

Throwing my no-touching rule out the window, I wrap my arms around him, pulling his body tight to mine. “I’m so sorry.”

He drops a gentle kiss to the crown of my head before running his fingers through my hair. “Don’t be. It was a long time ago.”

“How old were you when … you were changed?”

“Almost twenty-nine. I was shot in the neck by a British soldier. I lay dying in the street, my blood running between the cobblestones. The next thing I knew, I was healed, waking up in the middle of a field with a blanket of stars over me.”

“You didn’t know what happened to you?”

He shakes his head. “I figured it out pretty quickly. I couldn’t believe it. About a year later, Devin found me. He took me in and showed me how to survive. He’s the reason I’m still alive.”

I don’t know what to say to this. I thought it was all superpowers and eternal life. I’d never considered that this wasn’t something Galen had wanted.

“Where have you been staying during the days we’ve been in Portland?” I ask, changing the subject.

“A friend of Devin’s has a place a few miles away.”

“There’s an underground wine cellar here. It probably isn’t the most comfortable, but if you want to stay … I’ve got extra blankets and pillows.”

He grins at me. “I’d like that. But, Reese, Sariel is going to need to feed again soon. He’s clawing at me to take you.”

The thought of him having his way with me sends a jolt of lust straight between my legs.

“And you? Do you need to feed?”

He looks down at me, gaze smoldering. “I don’t need to, but I always want you.”

My throat runs dry as he traces the line of my collarbone with his fingers. “I’m going home tomorrow,” I blurt, needing a distraction from his touch. “I’ve used all my vacation time, and if I don’t go back to work, I’ll lose my job.”

“We can’t have that. Do you enjoy your job?” His fingers move under the strap of my bra, sliding it down my shoulder.

“It’s … uh, it’s fine.” God, his hands feel so good on my skin.

“What is it you want to do with the rest of your life?”

“I don’t really, mmm, I don’t know.”

His lips brush the shell of my ear, teeth nipping the lobe. I can feel his breath, cool on the sensitive skin behind my ear, and my nipples harden under my bra.

“Could you spend your nights making love with me?”

Making love? Until now, we’d been fucking, but he was right. The last time we were together, we’d definitely made love. Could I let myself give him my nights? As he palmed my breasts and kissed down my neck, I realized, yes. Yes, I could.