Reborn to Bite (Vampire Shadows Book 1) (9 page)

Sabine's eyes narrowed at him. "You gave up on that too easily. You're gonna spy on me if I don't bring you in, aren't you?"

Trent nodded. "I'll have backgrounds on the whole group by the end of the day tomorrow."

"I didn't agree to hire you."

Trent smiled. "I never said I'd share. I'm just curious who you hang out with."

She sighed. "Okay, I'll level with you."

"Great."

"They're a group of vampire hunters. I met them online and this is the first time I'll see them face to face."

Trent glanced at her. "That was surprisingly anticlimactic."

They drove in silence for a while, Sabine tapping her foot nervously on the floorboard and trying to chew her fingernails before realizing her gloves were in the way.

Trent looked over at her fidgeting. "Give me your hand."

Sabine sat straight again. "No."

He raised an eyebrow. "What are you afraid of?"

"Nothing. I just don't want you touching me."

"Bullshit. You're hiding what you are. All I need is to check your pulse."

"Give it a rest, Trent."

"So what's with the vampire slayers?"

"I joined an online vampire
hunter
forum. I go out every night and hunt for vampires. They invited me to dinner."

"Do they know you're a vampire?"

Sabine stared at him. Had Esmerelda broken her promise and told him? Had he figured it out somehow? "What makes you think I'm a vampire?"

"You move faster than me. The only kind of preternaturals that move faster than me are seriously powerful vampires. Then there's the mind control thing. Doesn't take a genius to put the clues together. The thing I can't figure out is how you're out during the day and wearing that cross around your neck."

Sabine shrugged, not wanting to give him anything.

"So are you going to sacrifice yourself to them tonight or something?"

Sabine felt her fangs coming down in her mouth. Trent's pulse called to her. The thirst wouldn't let her make it through dinner at a garlic place without something to tide her over. She tried to think of something else, but the sunlight had baked some of her synapses.

Trent pointed at her mouth as they stopped at a light. "Fangs. Showing."

She clamped her mouth shut. She glared at Trent, then looked down so her hair fell like a curtain around her face. "I have a slight problem."

Trent raised an eyebrow. "Just one?"

She looked up and glared at him, then sighed and shook her head. "I need blood."

"So you gonna try to bite me?"

"No!" She shuddered. The memory of how werewolf blood had intoxicated her practically sent her into a swoon. Then there was the fact that Trent was very yummy looking with the whole beefcake warrior body thing going on.
No. Can't bite the jerk.
She shook herself back to reality and hoped that the play of emotions hadn't shown on her face.

Trent mulled it over until the light changed and they started moving again. "Why not?"

She opened her mouth and shut it again, trying to think. Her brain felt disconnected. "Because you're helping protect Doug. I don't bite my friends. I promised Esmerelda I wouldn't be a threat."

"So who are you going to bite?"

"Someone I can help with my bite. I learned a new trick recently, and I'm eager to try it out."

Trent raised an eyebrow. "What trick?"

Sabine pulled out her phone and dialed a number. It rang twice before a woman answered. "Hi Janet. It's Sabine. Say, you wouldn't by any chance have a friend with high blood pressure in downtown, would you?"

Sabine stepped out of the large man's apartment, hoping the memory wipe she had done on the guy would stick. She bolted down the stairs and hopped in Trent's car.

"That was quick."

She shuddered, shaking her hands. "Not quick enough. I'm still learning how to send pleasure into the donor, and I overdid it."

Trent turned onto Columbus Avenue. "We're gonna be there early. Hold on... send pleasure? Telepathically?"

"Yeah, that's the idea."

"Why did you ask for someone with high blood pressure?"

Sabine smiled. "I'm doing my part to help humanity."

Trent chuckled as he pulled into a parking spot a block from the restaurant. He turned in his seat to face Sabine. "You really took out Gus and Tony, didn't you?"

Sabine nodded.

"Did you bite them?"

Sabine stared at him like a deer in headlights. "Just Gus. He was unconscious at the time, and I hadn't fed for a week."

"Did you do the pleasure thing with him?"

Sabine's face showed her shock. "Hell no! Besides, I didn't know how then."

"So, why didn't you want to try the pleasure thing on me? Sounds non-threatening enough."

Sabine stared at Trent for a minute. She looked into his eyes, wondering what he was thinking but suddenly unable to concentrate on reading his mind. She felt vulnerable, and she hated it.

She took a deep breath and released it to calm herself. "Given our brief and tumultuous history, I didn't think you'd be interested. Even if there was pleasure. Was I wrong?"

Trent shook his head. "I don't like the idea of being food. Although," he paused. "As allies, if you needed my blood to survive, I might. And that pleasure thing sounds intriguing."

"Well, we should work on your mental blocks so I don't make you into my love slave by accident then."

Trent smiled. "Yeah, that would be a serious blow to my Alpha male ego."

"Really? I could have sworn it had its own ZIP code."

He laughed.

Sabine cleared her throat, wiping the smile off her face. "Okay, envision a wall around you, like a castle. That's what I saw Val try to do, and it worked for me." She thought about his comment that nobody blocked Esmerelda, and wondered if she really had been successful or if Esmerelda had just let her think she had.

"Right now?"

"Yeah. No time like the present, they say. We're early for the dinner, so we can kill some time this way."

"Got it. Envisioning a castle."

"I'm going to push a little power at you and try a feeble attempt to take control of your body, like at my apartment. Do you feel that?"

"It tickles a little."

"Right. Imagine holding me back with a solid wall. I'll send a little more, like so..."

They spent the next hour running exercises. Trent had managed to build a decent defense, which would stand up to all but the most powerful mental assault. He was now fully aware of how her mental probe worked and could tell when she was trying to read his thoughts.

Trent smiled after the last exercise. "You know, I never imagined a vampire helping me to defend against vampire powers."

Sabine shrugged. "You're an ally. I don't want to have power over you."

"You're surrendering to me," Trent said, a tone of awe in his voice.

"I wouldn't say that. Maybe just leveling the playing field. Okay, one last round," Sabine said, rubbing her hands together. "This is taking a lot out of me, and I don't want to have to feed again."

Trent eyed her. "Is the thirst hitting you?"

She shook her head. "It's not bad. One more round should be okay. This time I'll try vampire glamour on you. It's like hypnosis. It's not a frontal assault like the mind control or a whisper like the mind reading. It's more like altering how you see reality."

Trent nodded. "Ready."

"Keep in mind that eye contact and touching will make everything much harder to resist; so if you feel yourself weakening, look away if you can."

He gave her a glare, meeting her eyes in challenge.

She cleared her head and reached into the deep darkness of her inner monster. The essence of vampire broiled there, fighting to get free from the prison she had built to keep the world safe. The violent energy pulsed with a mind of its own. Like tipping a sloshing pot of boiling water to get a drop to fill a spoon. After what seemed like an eternity, she managed to time a dollop of energy just right.

Trent started breathing heavily, gritting his teeth. A moment passed before the strain on his face lessened. "Damn, that's harder than the others. The fortress thing doesn't really work."

"I guess. I'm not sure what to tell you except that maybe just try to concentrate on something real. Try anchoring yourself to the world."

"Okay, ready."

She pushed a little more power at him, listening to his thoughts as that barrier disintegrated.

Trent strained and fought the pull.
Submit and everything will be fine. What did she say? Think about something real.
He broke eye contact, moving his eyes to Sabine's outfit, gravitating to the cross over the turtleneck, and the swell of her chest over the leather bustier.
God, she's beautiful. I want her.

He growled as he took in her scent and concentrated on it. He thought about how teaching him to resist her power was the ultimate gift. Surrendering her power to him. His heart sang, and he felt in that moment that he owed her something in return. She gave without wanting anything back.

His eyes met hers again, and he smiled as he overcame the influence and shut her out of his mind.

She smiled back. "Well done!"

He took her hand. "My turn."

"Your turn for what?"

He leaned towards her, keeping eye contact. He stopped a foot away. He gently pushed her hair back from her face.

She started to get nervous, feeling his warmth so close. His strong shoulders, simmering eyes, and his annoyingly handsome face filled her field of view. She swallowed. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to use werewolf glamour on you. See if you can resist it."

She smirked. "Okay Wolfie, bring it."

His smile disarmed her. "The more I learn about you, the more I like you. My pride got in the way at first and I woefully misjudged you. I want to apologize, and tell you how wonderful I think you are."

She melted against the hand the he ran through her hair. His fingernails felt so good against her scalp that she had trouble concentrating. "What brought this on?"

"You. Just giving of yourself here. Teaching me like this. It's not something an adversary does; it's something a friend does. I've been an ass and treated you like crap, and still you help me."

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she wished it could be Doug saying all this. What if things were different? What if Doug found out? Would he feel the way Trent seemed to? "I..."

"You're a kind, beautiful woman who deserves love and someone to lean on and take away some of the pain."

She tried to see deception in his face, but he looked totally sincere. She lowered her eyes, staring at her hands in her lap. She felt the weight of all the horrors she'd been part of in the last year, the blood, the hunger, and living in a constant shroud of deception. Who would sign up for that? "Nobody is crazy enough to be that person for me."

He raised her chin gently with his hand. "You wouldn't want a crazy person. You need someone who's got the guts to stay and the heart to make it mean something."

Again Doug sprang into her mind. How he'd left her when she was sixteen. The scene in her living room as she got the courage after ten years of friendship to try to kiss him. The look on his face of sheer terror as he got up and bolted out of the house. She shook her head to clear that memory and look up at Trent. She looked into his eyes, the longing for what he was offering so powerful.

He moved his face closer, touching his forehead to hers. He slid his arms around her, and drew her to him. She melted against him, into a hug that felt like it could literally save her.

His pulse was like a song in her ears, but she was lost in his warmth. She needed to feel connected to someone. Trent was strong and protective, smart and sexy, and he cared. He really cared! It wasn't a Renfield thing. She knew he could block her powers now. This wasn't that psycho attraction Chad had fallen into.

He nuzzled her ear, his breath light and soft as he whispered. "You want to kiss me."

She drew back and looked in his eyes, searching. "Please tell me this wasn't just a bunch of lies to prove your mojo."

"No lies. Read my mind, see for yourself."

She probed his mind, looking for signs of deceit. He opened his thoughts to her, and she saw an honest attraction and appreciation. How had his attraction happened? The werewolf in him craved the challenge she represented. The man in him craved the honest loyalty she displayed, so unlike his previous girlfriend. He possessed an endless wellspring of willpower to resist becoming a Renfield.

Sabine forgot her doubts and brushed her lips against his.

Trent grabbed the back of her neck and slanted his lips against hers. He opened her mouth with his tongue, invading her with months of his own pent-up need.

She lost herself in his kiss, caressing him with her tongue and sucking his in. Almost by accident, she transmitted her pleasure to him and he moaned into the kiss.

Sabine felt her fangs descend on their own during their sensual dance. She pulled back, not wanting to hurt him.

"It's okay Sabine, I know what I'm getting myself into." He held her face and kissed her deeply, deliberately pricking his tongue on the end of her fang.

They both almost blacked out from the pleasure that flowed through them. Sabine sucked at his tongue like it was the nectar of the Gods, and her body went into overdrive. Her saliva and his metabolism combined to close the wound almost immediately, but his lycanthrope blood had already sent her brain into space. She forgot where she was, and kissed her way down to his neck. She could feel his pulse thrumming under her tongue, and the desire to press her fangs to his neck almost overwhelmed her. She was so close to the nectar flowing there. Just a little prick of her fangs was all that stood between her and Nirvana.

Feed from him.

No!
She took deep breaths and tried to concentrate. With each deep calming breath, she felt herself move back from the brink.

Then he reached into her hair and pushed her into his neck. Her fangs sank in, and his blood filled her mouth.

Sabine's mind drowned in a sea of energy and she forced herself through the riptide that threatened to engulf her. She licked the wound shut and groaned as she brought her mouth back up to Trent's.

His kiss drove her wild, and the feeling flowed through their shared connection; taking him with her.

She was in his lap, grinding against his leg as his hands roamed over her body. He cupped a breast in one hand while the other helped her hips move as she gyrated against him.

She was so lost in him that she almost didn't hear the knocking on the window of the car. She suddenly remembered where she was, and closed her eyes, burying her face in Trent's chest. They both pulled back reluctantly, and his chest heaved with the effort.

Someone pounded on the passenger window again.

Sabine turned, her whole body tingling and her mind in a haze, to see the disapproving stare of an elderly Asian woman with an umbrella, muttering something in a foreign language.

Sabine fell back into the passenger seat in a daze, and lowered the window. She heard the woman's thoughts like subtitles as she cursed them in Cantonese for their wanton behavior. Sabine laughed to herself, thinking about wonton soup and wanton behavior. Squinting against the reflection of the setting sun in a nearby window, and trying to speak closed-lipped so as not to show her aching fangs, she said "I'm sorry, I don't speak Chinese."

The old woman smacked the car door. "You get room! And it Cantonese!" She repeated some of the curses in Cantonese and stormed off down the sidewalk.

Sabine turned back to Trent, too high on werewolf blood to care about the old lady.

Trent was smiling and nursing a bulge in his jeans while staring at her. "That was... incredible. Mind-blowing."

She let her head fall back against the door, her fangs still out. "That's some awesome werewolf mojo you have going for you. Should I be worried about becoming your love slave more than the other way around?"

Trent laughed. "You bit me." There was no heat behind it. His pupils were dilated like hers, but the effect was more primal, more animalistic.

She cursed. "You can't blame me when you impale yourself on purpose, fur-ball. It's not fair."

He had an infuriating smile on his face. "I was curious what the pleasure thing would feel like."

"So all that buildup was for a taste of my pleasure power?" She hadn't read that in him, and suddenly worried that he had fooled her somehow. Maybe werewolves could block her mind reading in a way she didn't understand.