Kimberly pursed her lips. “So does mine, but not twelve inches in one night.”

Yvette let out a long breath, not really interested in going into the reasons for her daily hair cut, but in the interest of keeping her charge at ease, she’d just have to make small talk. “It grows back to the length it was when I was turned. And since I don’t like it long, I cut it every day.”

“Wow.” Kimberly looked at her in fascination. “But why don’t you like it long anymore? It’s pretty.”

Yvette couldn’t suppress the bitter smile that crossed her lips. The long hair reminded her of the woman she’d been fifty years ago: the woman, who couldn’t make her husband happy, couldn’t give him the one thing he wanted. The child he craved. She didn’t want to remember those days. Nor was she in the mood to lay herself bare to a stranger. Hell, not even her friends and colleagues at Scanguards knew. “I prefer it short.”

“So … what’s it like to be a vampire?”

Yvette closed her eyes for a moment. Where would she even start? So much was different, yet so much was the same. She had feelings and desires just like a human, yet they were amplified, making unfulfilled desires and unrequited feelings harder to bear and impossible to ignore. She gave a shrug, unable to answer the question without revealing things she didn’t want to share.

“Is it true that you bite people and hurt them?”

What was this? Twenty questions?

From the corner of her eye, Yvette noticed how Haven’s head turned toward them. For once, she was grateful for her long hair and deliberately allowed it to fall around her like a curtain, blocking out his seemingly casual glance. Then she forced a smile for Kimberly’s sake. “No. I don’t hurt people. Hell, I don’t even bite people. I drink bottled blood.”

The girl peeked toward the brothers, then back to her. She dropped her voice when she continued, “But you bit him, didn’t you?” Her eyes darted to the side to indicate who she meant by him. Not that it was necessary. “I guess he deserved it.”

Yvette gave her a stunned look.

“For kidnapping us, I mean. I would hurt him too if I could.”

“Kimberly, a vampire’s bite doesn’t hurt. It’s … uh, pleasant.”

“Oh,” Kimberly said and blushed like a little schoolgirl.

A snort from the corner behind her told her that Haven’s hearing was better than she’d thought and that he didn’t want to admit just how pleasant it had been. Yvette tried to block him out, but his presence was too overwhelming. In fact, something didn’t feel right at all. Her senses seemed to be in hyperdrive, now that she’d fed and seemed to have fully recovered from the witch’s potion. And not just that—she smelled things that didn’t seem possible.

Yvette pulled forward a bit. Now that she was closer to the girl, she picked up the scent of something that hadn’t been there earlier: an underlying scent of witch, almost as if the witch had rubbed herself all over the girl …

Without thinking, she snatched Kimberly’s arm and led it to her nose, sniffing.

The girl let out a gasp. “What are you doing?”

Before she could assure Kimberly that she wasn’t going to hurt her, Haven lunged for her. Yvette jumped up from the bed and swiveled on her heels to fend him off before he could grab her. In the split-second before he reached her, her mind crazily compared his rush to a charging bull—hell, she could feel faint impact tremors through the floor! Nah, nothing subtle about him—and then he was upon her.

“My blood didn’t satisfy you? Now you want hers too?” He looked furious, his eyes wide and glaring, the cords in his neck tense … He looked on the verge of delivering a deadly blow.

“I wasn’t attacking her.” Yvette pushed against him, making him tumble toward the wall behind him. “You sure jump to conclusions pretty fast.”

Wesley rushed to his brother’s side, stake at the ready. “Don’t touch him, you bitch!”

Yvette rolled her eyes.

“I can handle this, Wes,” Haven sniped at his brother, got to his feet and marched toward Yvette again, giving his brother a quick sideways glance. “You know what we’ve discussed.”

Oh, she’d heard them talking about how to escape. Stupid ideas, all of them: trying to rush the witch the next time she brought them food. And they wanted Yvette to help them—which was the only reason Wes had agreed to let her live. For now. As if their plan was going to work. All they’d get was another blast of energy.