Midnight (12 page)

She reared up on the bed, ready to strangle him. “You’re not
gay, are you?”

He laughed, but his expression was disbelief warring with
horror. “Are you nuts? After what just happened, how can you have any doubts?”

“Okay, sorry. I just seem to have a problem with that
lately.”

He sighed. “I’m not you’re ex.”

No, he most certainly was not. “What is it you want to talk
about?” If he wasn’t gay—which was a very good thing—what could the problem
possibly be? “You’re leaving me, aren’t you?”

“No.” He looked just a hair beyond irritated. “Will you just
listen to me for a minute?” She nodded. He took a deep breath before he
continued. “You haven’t been feeling any better, have you?”

She wanted to deny it, to tell him she was feeling like her
old self, but it wasn’t true. She couldn’t lie to him when he was staring at
her with such a concerned expression.

“I’m feeling…actually, I’m feeling worse.”

“This shouldn’t be happening. Damn it. Why did I let this
happen?”

“You sound like Royce. Are you going to explain to me what
the problem is?”

He sat up in bed, leaning against the headboard. “It’s a
really long, complicated explanation.”

She blinked. “An explanation you owe me, complicated or not.”

“Okay, I’ll try my best. What I told you before about blood
sharing wasn’t completely true. A vampire is someone with a genetic mutation in
their blood. It’s not sharing blood that causes it. It isn’t a disease,
exactly, but I guess in a way it is.”

“What the hell are you trying to say? You’ve got me more
confused than ever.”

He shook his head. “Just listen. I’m trying to tell you
something here. Blood doesn’t need to be exchanged. A lot of times that’s what
happens, but it’s not necessary. If a human’s blood is infected with blood that
contains the mutated gene, they can become a vampire.”

“It’s an infection?”

“I suppose you could look at it that way. But it’s not one
that can be cured.”

“And you’re telling me this
why
?”

“You asked me before for an explanation.”

She had. But now she wasn’t so certain she wanted to know. “Let
me see if I’ve got this right. A human can become a vampire if their blood is
exposed to vampire blood. So it’s like a blood-born pathogen?”

He nodded. “Exactly.”

Her blood chilled when she realized where he was going with
this. It wasn’t an innocent explanation at all. She licked her lips. “How easy
is it for someone’s blood to become infected?”

He spoke carefully, very slowly. “It depends on the amount of
blood and the condition of the human’s immune system. With a drop of blood the
chances of the mutation occurring are pretty slim.”

“But it’s possible.”

He let out a breath. “Yeah. It’s possible.”

“This is about when I bit your lip.”

He nodded.

“You don’t think…that I’m…”

He nodded again, very slowly. He reached out to touch her,
but she scooted away, shaking her head. “You’re wrong. I’m fine. I would know
if my blood was
mutating
, wouldn’t I?”

“Don’t you?”

She said nothing. She didn’t know what to say. What he was
telling her wasn’t possible. It just couldn’t happen to her. This had to be
another bad dream. No, not a bad dream. A nightmare.

“There’s got to be something we can do to return me to
normal.”

“It’s not like there’s a medication for it or anything. Once
you’re infected, it’s for life.”

She shook her head, hoping somehow what he was saying would
go away. “No. There’s got to be a way.”

“There is. Learn to live with it.”

She looked at him, still shaking her head around like some
stupid bobble head doll. “I’m still human, right?”

“You’ll have to use that description loosely from now on.”

Okay, this was
so
a nightmare. “If I wait out
whatever it is, will it go away?”

“You don’t get it. It isn’t a virus, it’s a genetic
mutation.”

“So now I’m…”

“Consider yourself mutated.”

“No. I don’t want this. All I want is my old life back.” Or
her lack thereof, as the case was. She wanted to go back to being a nice,
semi-normal, unemployed girl. This was nuts. “What can I do to make it go away?”

“There’s more.” He reached for her, but she swatted at his
hands.

“You did
not
just tell me that I’m a vampire, and you’re
not
going to give me any more bad news tonight.” She put her hands over
her ears and started to hum.

“Amara?”

“I’m sorry. I can’t hear you!”

He lifted her hands off her ears and her humming stopped.
She blinked a few times, fat tears welling in her eyes for the second time
tonight. This wasn’t like her. She
never
cried.

Well, it wasn’t exactly an everyday occurrence that her
lover informed her she’d accidentally turned herself into a vampire.

“It’s going to be okay.”

Her hopes soared with that statement. Next he was going to
tell her this was all some big, twisted joke. She was fine, just majorly
stressed out. No mutated blood in this girl.

“You’re going to have to feed before you get sick.”

And then those hopes crashed to the ground. Not only
crashed, but crashed and burned.

Crashed and burned, taking down the entire city of Los
Angeles with them.

“I have to
what?
” Her voice escalated and she felt
like throwing up or crying. Or maybe hitting something really hard.

Like Marco’s face.

“The mutation takes a long time to happen. It can take days,
or even weeks, but once it’s complete, you’ll die if you don’t feed.”

“It was only a drop! I didn’t know this would happen.”

“I never should have touched you.” He snorted. “If I’d known
what you were going to do, I would have stopped you.”

She didn’t doubt that. It was her own dumb fault for wanting
to force him to let go and be himself with her. She shook her head. “It isn’t
your fault, you know.”

He snorted. “Well, yeah, it is. If I’d just left you alone,
then none of this ever would have happened.”

She blew out a breath. “I don’t even know what to say to
you.”

“You’re in agony.”

Well, she wouldn’t exactly describe it as agony, but it wasn’t
a day at the park either.

“I can help you with that.”

“How?” She was almost afraid to ask.

“By helping you feed.”

“Oh, no. I’m not going to have you bringing strangers into
the house so I can suck on their necks.”

This time he actually laughed. “I wouldn’t want you drinking
from some stranger. I meant me.”

“Really?” She blinked. “I could do that?”

His smile was purely wicked. “I would love you to do it. I’ve
wanted that for a long time.”

She swallowed hard. “Um, I don’t know. Will it help?”

“Well, it couldn’t hurt. Besides, you need to eat. At this
rate you’re going to waste away before you’ve had a chance to get used to this.”

She could see from the look on his face that he didn’t want
that to happen. Damnit, neither did she. Whatever happened to her, however much
this vampire and living on blood crap affected her life, she wasn’t ready to
die.

She couldn’t forget the fascination she’d had with Marco’s
blood. Now she understood why. She hadn’t been going crazy; she’d been turning
into a mutant freak.

It didn’t matter, not when she could practically feel that
hot blood pounding in his veins. She wanted that blood. She wanted to taste it,
let it flow into her mouth…

Licking her lips, she realized it was becoming something of
a need. Her pulse kicked up a couple of notches and she was surprised that she
was becoming sexually aroused even though she’d just been sated more times than
she could count.

“Tell me something, Marco. Does your kind always feed off
each other when they make love?”

He shrugged, but something sparked in his eyes. “It’s common
practice.”

“How do you handle it? I got so dizzy.”

“It will be different. I promise.”

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

He laughed. “Please, hurt me.”

She ran her tongue over her teeth. Her nice, normal humanoid
teeth. “How am I supposed to…?”

“It will be okay. Trust me on this.”

* * * * *

Marco waited for an eternity, watching every emotion from
desire to fear to denial and indecision war in Amara’s eyes. His cock was
already hard with anticipation of what she was about to do.

Or what he
hoped
she was about to do.

She was afraid, and he understood that fear. His own turning
had been very different, because he’d been bleeding out at the time. With not
much of his own blood left in his body, the mutation had taken effect almost
immediately.

And he’d
wanted
it. He’d practically begged for it.
He’d been dying. Amara was young and full of life. She still didn’t understand
that this life could be the most amazing thing that had ever happened to her.

He had another reason for asking her to feed off of him. It
would increase the bond between them that he knew was already stronger than it
should be. When she’d left, it had been torture. This was a way to bind them
for life, so he wouldn’t be able to push her away again.

He snorted. Now there was no reason to push her away. He
didn’t have to fear losing control and turning her without her permission. Her
ingestion of his blood had been a terrible accident, but something good had
come out of it. He would have his woman for life.

He just hoped she’d be as understanding when she’d had time
to let the enormity of the situation sink in. She might be fine with all of
this now, but tomorrow or the next day, when she finally understood what she
now was, she would probably have a few choice words for him.

That was why he fully intended to make the most out of
tonight. If he could show her just how incredible her life could be, maybe she
wouldn’t turn away from him when she finally understood what he’d done to her.

“Come here, Amara.”

He half expected her to turn away from him, but she didn’t.
She crawled across the bed and straddled his lap. That was all it took to drive
him completely mad. He fought the urge to thrust against her, thrust
into
her. Whatever she needed, he’d have to let her take it on her own.

“I want you, Marco.” Her voice was barely above a whisper,
but it sent shivers through his body. He’d been waiting for a woman like her
all his life. Considering the length of his life that was saying a lot.

He decided to lighten the moment when he saw the abject fear
in her eyes.

“Do with me what you will, woman.” He let his head drop
back, offering his neck to her in mock-surrender. “I am yours for the taking.”

She laughed. He loved the sound of her laughter.

“Do you know how beautiful you look tonight?”

She raised an eyebrow. “You’re a little biased.”

It was his turn to laugh. She didn’t know how right she was.
Even before he’d taken her, he’d seen what an incredible beauty she was. It
wasn’t that she was stunning. Her features were more interesting than
classically beautiful. Her beauty had a lot more to do with the chemistry
between them, and quite a bit to do with the fact that she was the first woman
in four hundred years who’d challenged him regularly and still turned him on.

He lifted his head a little. “What are you waiting for? Don’t
leave me hanging over here.”

Her laugh this time was pure sin. She wrapped her hand
around his cock and stroked him a few times. “It feels like you’re hanging
pretty well to me.”

If she didn’t feed soon, he was going to flip her onto her
back and fuck her. Then they wouldn’t get around to her feeding for a while,
and he didn’t want to prolong it any longer. He wanted to give her a chance to
find out what a rush feeding was. It might help her accept it better later on.
But if she didn’t hurry up and—

His thoughts ended abruptly when she took his cock in her
mouth. He moaned and thrust into her mouth, too far gone for anything else. At
the last second he snapped back to his senses. He had to stop her before this
really got out of hand. That first time was difficult, but with any luck he’d
have her feeding regularly in no time. Lifting her by her shoulders, pulled her
up and against him.

Her drenched labial lips pressed firmly against his cock and
her hardened nipples were flush against his chest. He wasn’t going to last
another second. “I need this from you, Amara. I do.”

With a hand on the back of her head, he guided her toward
his throat. At first she just ran her tongue along the skin, driving him to the
brink of madness. Then her teeth nipped. It wasn’t hard enough to break the
skin, but his cock twitched against her. He couldn’t help it. He moaned, more
from the anticipation than the actual sensations.

He’d only turned a human one time in his life, and the
disastrous results of it was something he would rather forget, if only he
could. Most of his knowledge of the subject came from Royce, who’d done a lot
more studying on the subject. So, in a way, this was a new experience for both
of them.

He expected a great deal of pain from her dull human teeth.
He was surprised when the sting he felt was sharp but momentary. She was a lot
further turned than he’d expected. Her blood must have been infected
immediately. He’d have to keep her away from mirrors. If she saw the fangs he
knew she now possessed, she’d go into shock.

The first lap of her tongue was tentative. Soon she grew
bolder. Eventually she latched on and suckled him hard. He couldn’t take
another second of this. Lifting her hips, he thrust his cock into her cunt. She
gasped against him, but soon was riding him with abandon.

She cried out, her orgasm taking her by force. She bucked
against him, her mouth sliding away from his neck. He pulled her in for a kiss,
cleaning away the trickle of blood at the corner of her mouth with his tongue.
Tasting himself on her only increased his pleasure.