“Oh, yeah. You’ve already taken my blood, so your half of the ritual is done.” He threw his head back and closed his eyes. “Ride me. Ride me hard.”

He didn’t have to tell her twice. She began to rock on top of him, felt the electricity build quickly between her thighs. He reached up to cup the back of her head and pull her down. She thought he was going to kiss her, but when he sank his fangs into her neck, she gasped.

And came. The world around her shattered, and she heard a shout, dimly realized it came from her.

He was right there with her. He grasped her left hand with his right, and his arm lit up. Fire shot from her fingers to her shoulder, and a sense of fulfillment poured into her as she collapsed onto his chest. For a long time, they lay like that, tangled up, exhausted, her breath coming in panting spurts.

“I’m a vampire,” she managed a few minutes later. “Why am I breathing?”

“Eidolon says it’s reflex. Like, the body doesn’t remember it doesn’t need to breathe.”

“Interesting. Guess we’ve got a lot to learn.” She sighed, because she’d become part of a new world, but in the old one, she had a father whose job description included vampire slaying. Talk about your dysfunctional families. “I guess I’m going to need to call Val. Let him know I’m not dead.”

“Well, you sort of are. Undead, anyway. And yeah. Call. He’s left about a thousand messages on my cell phone.”

“And won’t he be thrilled to know I’m a vampire,” she muttered. She drew a harsh breath, remembering Josh’s hatred of them. “What about you? I know how you feel about them. Us.” God, this was surreal.

He tipped her face to his with a finger beneath her chin. “I don’t care what you are. Who you are doesn’t change just because you grew fangs and are on a liquid diet.”

“But it’s more than that, isn’t it? Am I… evil?”

He snorted. “If you believe those Aegis idiots.”

“So, I’m not?”

His hand came up to brush her hair out of her face. “Becoming a vampire distills certain aspects of your personality into a purer form so you’re a little more honest about who you are, whether that’s evil or good, but you’re still you.”

“I don’t understand how you can get past the vampire thing, though, after everything—”

“Stop.” He rolled over and propped himself on one elbow, so she was looking up at him. “I was totally f**ked up and pissed off for so long. What my mother and her clan did to me… well, there are no words for it. But I blamed all vampires. Hell, I blamed the whole world. I’ve got a lot of apologizing to do. Starting with my brothers.”

She cocked her head, watching him, because something was different… “Your face! The tattoo is gone. And you have a new one—no, two—around your neck.”

His fingers feathered over his cheek where the markings had been, and then down his throat. “One means I’m post-s’genesis, and the other means I’m mated.”

She had no idea what the s’genesis thing was, but she had lots of time to ask about it. “Well, I think they’re better than wedding rings,” she teased. “You can’t take them off.”

“Smart-ass.” He nodded at her arm. “That’s what you get for being so smug.”

She lifted her left arm and watched in amazement as a replica of his tattoo began to set in her skin.

“You’re mine now,” he said. “No getting away.”

“You think I want to get away?”

“Hope not, because I’m a hunter, remember? I get what I want.”

She smiled. “And what do you want? Right this minute?”

He showed her. Right that minute.

Wraith waited until Serena fell into a deep, exhausted sleep before he climbed out of bed and left her to recover from the feeding, the sex, the bonding, and the little thing of changing from human to vampire

Leaving her was the hardest thing he’d ever done, but he had a few things to do, like arrange for his vampire torture and find his brothers. Considering what he needed to say to Shade and E, the torture sounded like fun.

He found them just down the hall in the staff break room, door open. They met him at the threshold.

“Everything okay?” Shade asked, and Wraith punched him in the shoulder.

“You know it is.” As incubi, they would have sensed sex taking place nearby.

“So Serena’s all fangy?”

“And bonded.”

E cocked an eyebrow. “Yeah, the lack of the facial dermoire was pretty much a dead giveaway.” He clapped Wraith on the back. “Congratulations, man. It’s good to know you’re happy.”

“Yeah, about that.” Wraith moved inside the room. “I owe you both an apology. More than that, but I don’t know how I can make up for a lot of years of hell.”

His brothers just stood there, either stunned or not buying a word. Probably the latter. He’d never given them a reason to trust anything he said or did.

“So, ah… I’m sorry. You guys have bailed me out of a lot of shit situations. I can never make it up to you.” Wraith had to smile at his brothers’ silence, because now they weren’t meeting his gaze. The male sappy crap was embarrassing them. Good thing, because he’d hate to be alone in that.

“It’s all good.” Shade’s voice was low and rough with emotion.

Eidolon nodded. “I think we’re all good.”

“Bullshit.” Wraith swiped a couple of oranges out of Gem’s basket on the counter and beaned his brothers with them. “I put you through hell for a lot of years, and a sixty-second suck up job isn’t going to erase that.”

“Well, hitting us with fruit isn’t going to help!” Shade shouted, returning fire. The orange veered to the left, splattering on the wall.

“Hello,” Wraith taunted. “Charmed.”

“Don’t you have more sucking up to do?” E said, but his mouth was quirked in a half-smile.

“I do.” Wraith made a beeline for the coffeemaker, needing to take his mind off how much it bit dick to beg forgiveness. “But it’ll take a lot of time. I’m willing to do what it takes to make it up to you guys.”

E and Shade had fallen silent again.

“Look, why don’t we change the subject?”

His brothers nodded vehemently.

“Okay, then. How’s Tayla?” More than a change of subject, Wraith really did care. He’d wanted to kill the slayer in the beginning, but he couldn’t deny that she was perfect for E. “The Aegis dudes didn’t take her demon thing well.”

“They wanted to execute her,” E growled. “Kynan made them see the light.”

Shade smirked. “Now that you made him the most important human on the planet, he threatened to walk if The Aegis didn’t let Tayla stay on.”

“Ah, blackmail. I always knew that human had it in him.” Wraith would have loved to see that scene. “So, did they welcome Ky back, too?”

“They made him an Elder.” Eidolon grinned. “That sonofabitch is now in charge of the whole damned organization.”

Now, that was funny as hell. “What about Gem?”

“She’s moving Kynan into her place as we speak.” Eidolon bent to retrieve the orange Wraith had thrown at him.

“Good for her,” Wraith said. “So what’s with the new brother? And why was he able to bring back Ky?”

“A mating with a human gone wrong,” Shade said. “His gift is all f**ked up. He kills everything he touches, but apparently, he can bring the dead back within a brief time window—”

“And only if they aren’t dying of a demon-inflicted disease,” Wraith finished, still slightly bitter about that. “Where is he?”

“Gone,” Shade said. “Guess he had some things to do. People to kill. Dunno.”

E tossed the orange into the basket. “I think he’s overwhelmed by the instant family. He’ll be back.”

“Speaking of family,” Wraith said to Shade, “when can I meet the nephews?” There was a long pause, too long, and Wraith added quickly, “I won’t eat them or anything. I swear.”

Shade went rigid. “Why now?”

“I want to belong to a family,” Wraith blurted before he could re-think sounding like a candy-ass. “I mean, I have Serena, but she’s a vampire, which means she can’t have kids.…” He felt bad for that, not just for her, but strangely, for him. With her beside him, encouraging him, he knew he could be a good father. “I was just thinking that maybe if we could, you know, just all hang out… fuck, I don’t know. This is stupid. Never mind.”

Shade and Eidolon exchanged looks, as if they had a secret between them. For a moment he was tempted to get inside Shade’s head the way he always had and find out what they were hiding from him. But Shade hated that, and violating his brother’s mind would make his pretty plea for forgiveness yet another lie.

“I get it.” Wraith backed toward the door, bumping against the frame. “It’s too late—”

He couldn’t picture himself barbecuing hot dogs and playing f**king family board games anyway.

“Wraith, it’s not that,” Shade said.

“Doesn’t matter. Serena’s waking up. I need to go to her.”

Shade called his name as he left, but Wraith just held up a hand to cut him off, and kept going. They might not trust him to be a functional member of the family yet, but they would. He’d earn their trust eventually, but right now, his focus was all on Serena.

She was tying the drawstring on a pair of scrub bottoms when he walked in. “Hey,” she said, tilting her head to the side as she studied him. “It’s so weird seeing you without that face tattoo.”

“I figure I’ll be in for one hell of a shock the next time I look in a mirror.” A good shock, though, like he’d had when he saw that his hourglass glyph had been set right again. He took her hand and pulled her against him, reveling in the feel of her soft curves against his hard body. “You feeling okay?”

“Never better.” She smiled, and the points of her fangs peeked out from her parted lips. It was so freaking sexy Wraith wanted to throw her down and get inside her while she sank those hot little teeth into his throat.

What a difference a day makes. He was really starting to understand her hard-on for vampires. He was getting one himself. Literally. “Babe, we so have to get out of here.” His swelling c**k was way onboard with that plan.

“Where are we going?”

Such utter trust. Her faith in him tugged at his heart and at the same time scared the crap out of him. What if he broke her trust, failed her?

“You won’t,” she said softly.

“How did you know what I was thinking?”

“I felt your fear. Didn’t take a genius to figure out what it was about.”

He groaned playfully. “This bond is going to be a pain in the ass.”

“Really?” She reached low and cupped him. “Because I can feel your arousal, too… and it’s definitely sparking mine.”

Oh, yeah. He could feel it coming through the bond like an erotic drumbeat. “So, maybe the bond won’t be that bad.” His words came out on a moan thanks to the stroking action she’d started.

“So… you were saying?”

“Right. We’re going to my place… ah, Gods, keep that up, just like that.” He arched into her touch. “And after I ravage you, I’ll start teaching you about life in my world. Are you all right with that?”

She flicked open the top button on his fly. “Do the lessons have to start right away?”

“Probably a good idea,” he gritted out, but then she dropped to her knees. “Lessons? What lessons?”

“That’s what I thought.” The look in her gaze, the erotic promise, the trust, the love, brought him to his knees in front of her. She meant the underworld to him, and in that moment, he knew.

He would never fail her.

And the faith in her eyes said she knew it, too.

Thirty-three

“They’re here!” Serena forced herself to walk calmly to the front door, even though she wanted to sprint. Runa, Shade, and their babies would be on the other side—and she and Wraith would be meeting them for the first time.

It had been nearly a week since she and Wraith had arrived at his place—a very male bachelor pad in Manhattan—and after days of doing nothing but enjoying each other, they’d decided it was time to enjoy his family.

Especially because her family had already come and gone.

She’d called Val the moment she and Wraith left the hospital, and he’d been so happy she was alive that the fact she’d become a vampire hadn’t bothered him. Much. He’d come to visit yesterday, and though they hadn’t had enough time to work out all the issues they faced, from the relationship he’d had with her mother to his reasons for keeping the truth from her, to David, to Wraith’s deception and her becoming a vampire… well, truthfully, it was still a mess.

But Val was willing to repair the damage and heal all wounds. Chances were that he and Wraith would never bond over a game of golf, but she figured it wouldn’t be long before they stopped eyeing each other warily over the rims of their whiskey glasses. The fact that they hadn’t tried to kill each other was a start.

As for David… she had a feeling things would never be right between her and her half brother. If he was ever released from Aegis custody for betraying the human race to a fallen angel, anyway.