She looked at the bathroom door, searching for an escape to be alone with her thoughts and to get away from his tempting scent. If she stayed in his presence any longer, she would succumb to it and maul him like a hungry tiger. “I need to take a shower.”

Gabriel cleared his throat. “I’ll send Yvette in to bring you fresh clothes.” She heard his footsteps as he crossed the room, and seconds later the door closed behind him. She was alone – more alone than she’d been in her entire life.

When she stood in the shower, rivulets of warm water ran down her body as if they could cleanse her of the shocking news she’d been handed. She hoped against all hope that she was still in a dream—a completely wacko-makes-no-sense-at-all dream—and her life was still the same: she was a doctor, a pretty decent one, with aspirations to advance her career in medical research and the desire to make a difference.

Her research in the field of human sexuality, or more precisely sexual dysfunctions in both males and females, was going well. She was on her way to breaking new ground, and her chances of winning a major federal grant to support her work were high. She couldn’t just flunk out now. This was her life’s work.

Maya touched her arms and legs and could feel no difference in them. They felt just as human as before. And her skin color was still the same. Weren’t vampires supposed to be all pale and pasty because they couldn’t stand the rays of the sun? Or would her color fade with time?

Maya stared at the glass enclosure of the shower and watched tiny streams of water descend along it onto the white marble beneath. There was no reflection of her in the glass. Was it enough to prove her a vampire? Couldn’t there be another explanation? As a research scientist, she knew better than to jump to conclusions or take other people’s statements at face value. She would have to tackle this whole situation the same way she approached her research: with logic, not emotion.

Her stomach rumbled, reminding her of how hungry she was. But instead of salivating for a nice big steak, she visualized the blood on Gabriel’s lip. She’d seen the shock in his eyes when he’d realized that she’d bitten him. Gabriel had stared at her as if she’d gone crazy. And maybe she had, but she’d craved his blood. The memory of its smell made her drool even now.

She opened her mouth and let her finger slip over her upper teeth. They were still the same, only … there, one of the incisors felt pointier. She rubbed against it trying to see if someone had stuck some plastic onto it to make it pointy, but she couldn’t detect anything wrong—the tooth was intact. Did she really have fangs? Maybe the tooth had always been that way and she’d never really noticed.

She touched her finger to the teeth on the other side of her mouth, and the same structure greeted her there. But the sharp edge wasn’t enough to qualify as a fang. She remembered that she’d seen no fangs on either Gabriel or his friends. Could it be that fangs didn’t always show, that they only came out when you needed them?

Maya closed her eyes and thought of her hunger, visualizing Gabriel’s blood again. To her surprise, she sensed a tensing in her jaw. Something was happening. Slowly, the two incisors lengthened and drew into sharp tips. Her eyes flew open. This couldn’t be happening! No, there had to be another explanation.

Was she really a vampire?

She had fangs, fangs to bite people, fangs she’d already used to bite Gabriel. Wasn’t that proof enough? She’d bitten him, tasted his blood and liked it—no, loved it. What kind of creature would do such a thing if not a vampire?

Maya tried not to think about what had led to the bite, but it was hard not to remember the kiss they’d shared. Well, maybe shared wasn’t the right word—she’d basically thrown herself at him like some starved-for-attention teenager.

She’d always been aggressive when it came to dating and sex, but the way she’d acted with Gabriel had been purely wanton. His arms had been gentle enough to comfort and soothe a child, yet she’d reacted with lust and passion. She remembered how hesitant his kiss had been, how reluctantly he’d given into her advances. But the more he’d held back, the more she’d gone after him, pressing herself against his muscled body like a bitch in heat.

The tears she’d shed in his arms had taught her one thing: she was not dead. Whatever she was now—vampire or not—her heart hurt as much as a human’s, and her emotions were as deep as always, if not deeper.

What her new life would bring, she didn’t know, didn’t even want to guess at this point. What would she tell her family? She thought of her parents. She was an only child. How long would she be able to hide from them what had happened to her? She wondered whether she would be a danger to them, if she would attack them when she was hungry like she’d practically attacked Gabriel.