Take.

More.

Mine.

Her body began to heat, from the inside out, and a rush of power and euphoria swept through her. She could have anything. Do anything. The world was hers. There was no stopping her. She could take and take and—

Her hands joined his and they jerked her jeans and panties down even as she kicked off her shoes. But Dee didn’t free his throat. No, there was no way she’d stop drinking that wonderfully sweet blood.

His zipper hissed down. Her legs widened. The touch of his bare cock had her jolting, but not stopping. No, not stopping.

She was undead. No protection required. No diseases. No pregnancies.

Just need.

The need that had her sex slick when she should have been horrified. The need that had her nipples tight and her back arching, the need that—

Simon thrust into her and she slammed her hips down on him at the same moment.

“Dee!”

Shouldn’t be doing this. Shouldn’t be. She didn’t trust him. Didn’t even like him.

But the vampire didn’t care.

Blood and sex. A vampire’s wet dream.

Their bodies strained together. His cock was long and thick and every frantic move of his hips had him sliding deeper inside. She was wet, more than ready, and he filled every inch of her core.

Her mouth tightened on him, fangs in deep.

He drove harder, shoving up with his hips, and Dee took every straining inch of his shaft and wanted more.

His fingers thrummed her clit.

Her knees tightened around him. She pushed down harder, wanting to take, take.

She exploded around him as her sex contracted on a wave of pure pleasure that had her trembling, quivering, coming with the best orgasm she’d—

Simon bucked beneath her and climaxed, jetting out the hot splash of his release deep inside of her.

This time, he was the one who screamed. No, more like a roar.

Her name.

Her mouth gentled on his neck. The driving rush of bloodlust began to ease and the haze of red cleared from her mind.

What have I done?

Oh, Christ, what had she just done? She hadn’t come to screw him. Not part of her plan. She’d come to find out what he knew about the Born and to make him pay for changing her.

Two bodies on the floor. Man. Woman. Older. Graying hair and sightless eyes. Blood around them, oozing from their torn necks.

Her hands clamped on Simon’s shoulders. Her claws dug deep.

Simon, running to them, falling to the floor, slipping in their blood.

Dee tried to lift her head. This was wrong. She shouldn’t be seeing—

“Told you there was no choice, Chase. You’re ours now.” A tall, pale vampire. Beautiful and perfect. Laughing as he stared at the dead bodies, blood dripping from his mouth.

“I’ll fucking kill you!” Simon’s bellow of fury.

Simon.

His memories. His mind. His blood.

What was she doing?

Linking. The way of the vampire.

Dee jerked her mouth away from his throat. She scrambled away, shaking, the taste of him still in her mouth, on her tongue, and her sex quivering for more. Dee shoved back her hair and she stared at him.

What have I done?

No, no—what have I become?

Blood and sex.

More.

He smiled at her, a sad, painful sight, and said, “Welcome to my world.”

Chapter 9

“Sandra Dee Daniels rose.”

The words fell into the silence of the room. The Born Master didn’t glance up, he kept his teeth buried in the neck of his prey and her blood flowed over his tongue.

One minute stretched to five. Then ten.

The prey stopped moving. No more whimpers. No more tears.

He kept feeding. Kept drinking. Until nothing was left.

Only a shell.

His head rose and he licked his lips. “I’ll need another.” The hunger was never satiated for him. Never.

His glance drifted back to the woman. Pale limbs. Limp neck. Hair a long, straight black.

Death had been kind to her. No fear showed on her face. Her eyes had closed, and she almost looked like she might just be sleeping.

Kind. He wasn’t usually kind, but this human had helped him.

In return for luring, she’d wanted immortality.

Too bad.

Turning, he glanced at the Taken in the doorway. “When?” He’d known this day would come. But just because the little hunter had finally turned didn’t mean she was a threat. Sure he’d hoped to have her head so she wouldn’t become, but failure didn’t mean the end for him.

There was no end for him.

“About four nights ago.” A pause. “We had her, but Chase stopped the team. He took her away.”

Fucking Chase.

The asshole had been a thorn in his side for too many years. “The bastard needs to burn.”

A grim nod.

“So does she.” He shoved the body out of his way as he stalked to the window. “Take the bitch out with him.” Because the demon seer he’d used so long ago, another bitch who’d tried to screw him, had told him a great deal about Sandra Dee.

A new Born breathes on this earth.

A new Born? He hadn’t believed her, not at first. The youngest Born was over two thousand years old.

But the demon had been certain. She’d seemed to know so much about Sandra Dee.

Her strength lies close to her heart.

So when he’d attacked, his first move had been to cut her heart out. He’d killed her family. Let her walk in their blood.

And later, when he couldn’t kill her, he’d set plans in motion to separate her from the friends she’d come to know so well.

The killing of the human in Baton Rouge had been the first step. He’d planned to force Dee into solitude. To make the others turn on her. Alone, Dee would be weak. The demon had said so.

He’d made the seer tell him about Dee’s weaknesses. Torture was so easy for him. He’d learned at the foot of a master so many centuries before. He knew exactly how to make prey break.

The demon had broken for him. Two days, and she’d broken. But the whore had made one last prediction, right before he used his fangs to slice her throat wide open. “She’ll kill you when she rises. Drain you. Make you see the fires of hell.”

Fear.

As the demon had bled out, fear had trickled through him because the woman had been so certain.

Death wasn’t an option for him. He knew what waited after this world. No, death wasn’t an option.

He rolled his neck and shoved away the past. “Burn her,” he said again. Fire was always the easiest way to kill his kind. “Make sure Chase dies with her.” Simon Chase. A stupid mistake made by one of his blood.

Some just weren’t meant for the darkness.

A soft muffle reached him. Glancing back, he saw the new girl who’d been brought to him. Young, maybe eighteen. With bright red cheeks. A smile curved his lips. He could hear the fast drum of her heart.

Some weren’t meant for the darkness.

And some were.

“You know where they are?” he asked, eyes on the girl. She stared back at him. No fear in her light gaze. Excitement. She knew what was coming.

“We followed her the instant she left Night Watch.”

“Good.” He licked his lips, already tasting his pleasure. “Then have her dead by dawn.”

Simon raised a hand to his throat, and touched the blood that dripped down his neck. His pants were open, his cock out, and rising by the moment.

Dee stared back at him, her eyes slowly changing from black to that deep chocolate he loved.

Her mouth hung open. The tips of her fangs peeked at him.

A vampire. A Born. The witch he’d sought had been right about her.

He should probably lower his head. Do some dumbass bow or head incline like all the vamps did whenever a Born was close. A sign of subservience. Of submission.

Because Borns could rip apart the Taken if they wanted.

But he’d just let her take his throat and his body. And he’d taken her.

Simon wasn’t exactly feeling real submissive right then.

So he held her stare and knew that she felt the new link between them. A link she’d forged. Not him.

Already, the call that had haunted his mind for weeks had begun to soften. It will work. He’d been right to think she was the key. Dee would be able to change the game, to give him back his life.

Well, what was left of it, anyway.

She stumbled to her feet. Grabbed her jeans. Jerked them up. No panties. He’d remember that. Her curls disappeared beneath the denim. Pity.

Setting his shoulders, he began to rise.

But fell right back on his ass.

“Simon?”

Weak, in front of her. Because of her. “Give me a minute.”

Her footsteps creaked across the wood. “I took too much.” Not a question.

But he managed a nod anyway.

She edged closer to him. “I-I—didn’t mean to hurt you.”

She hadn’t. The woman had given him one hell of a rush with her mouth and then the tight clasp of her creamy sex had driven him close to begging.

“What can I do?”

He looked up at her. Standing over him, blond hair mussed, always mussed, eyes so steady and…afraid? Dee? Since when did that woman fear anything? She’d stared straight at death with her eyes wide open and never flinched.

While he’d been so scared he’d almost bitten her. Because what if the witch had been wrong? Losing Dee hadn’t been an option for him. The woman wasn’t a pawn anymore. Hadn’t been, maybe from that first night.

She was…everything.

Not that she’d believe him. Not when she found out the secrets he’d kept.

His eyes began to drift closed.

“Simon!”

The crack in her voice had his lashes lifting. So beautiful. Had he seen the beauty the first moment? Or the strength?

“What do you need?” She asked again.

The last part of the puzzle. Careful. Had to be so careful here. “Blood.”

Her delicate jaw worked.

He let his shoulders slump. Not really hard with the weakness spreading through him, weighing down his limbs.

“You drink, then you explain, got me? Everything, everything.” She held out her arm, turned it, and exposed her wrist with the thin line of blue veins visible just beneath the surface.

He’d be her first.

His hands shook when he reached for her wrist. The shaking was from the blood loss, of course, just that. His fingers curled around her flesh and brought her offering close. Eyes on her, he opened his mouth and sank his teeth deep.

Fuck. His tongue slid along her wrist and the blood flowed into his mouth. Sweet, so damn sweet. A wild rush poured through him at her taste. His cock jerked, his muscles strained, and power, wild, rich power, heated his body.

Nothing like a Born’s blood. That was the whisper. The rumor. Blood straight from a Born was power. Pure power.

Her breath caught and her eyes began to darken once again. The scent of blood hung in the air between them, but Simon’s nostrils widened and he caught the heavier aroma of her slick cream.

“Enough.” Her whisper.

One more swipe of his tongue, then a press of his lips, and Simon pulled back.

Her chest rose and fell quickly. “What the hell am I doing?”

Getting ready to change the world.

Simon rose, too easily this time. He righted his clothes, hard that, with his dick bobbing toward her. But he’d promised Dee answers, and from here on out, he’d be keeping his word to her.

“I didn’t change you in that alley.” Her chin tipped back as she stared up at him. His neck throbbed from her bite and his body burned for her. Always, for her. “And I damn well didn’t let any of those other bastards touch you.”

The understanding was in her eyes, but Dee shook her head.

Time for some brutal truth. “Do you know how long it’s been since a new Born came into the world?”

Her lips trembled. “Borns are ancient. There haven’t been any for thousands of years. They were some kind of genetic mutation. A messed-up mutation that gave rise to the vamps.”

To us. “What all do you know about Borns?”

The fingers of her right hand rubbed the wrist he’d bitten. Slow, steady strokes that she didn’t even seem to be aware of making. “I hunt vampires. I know everything there is to know—both about the Born and the Taken.”

“Not everything,” he said, voice soft.

Eyes narrowing, she snapped, “They’re young. I mean the Born change young. They’re strong. Stronger physically and psychically than the Taken. They can—they can control other vampires. Summon those in the line they create.”

Points for her. Time for hell. “Those vampires came to your home all those years ago for a reason, Dee. It wasn’t some random attack.”

“No, they wanted blood. They didn’t care who they hurt—”

“They came for you.”

She paled. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that about sixteen years ago, a level-nine demon made a prediction.” She’d been the strongest precognitive alive. Of course, after her prediction, the demon’s body had been found, minus her head.

One less precog demon around.

“The demon said a new Born was in the world, and that one day, she’d change, just like the others had changed so long ago.” Not so subtle emphasis on the she.

Dee’s lips parted. “No.”

No sympathy. No remorse. “The vampires came to your home because you were the predicted Born. They had to kill you while you were young, before you could change.”

“No.”

The air seemed to thicken around him. “They were under orders not to drain you. They were supposed to cut your head off.” No chance of her changing that way. “They weren’t sure when you’d transform, and the bastard leading them didn’t want to take any chances.”