“I couldn’t let you go,” he said again. “I wasn’t going to have you die for me.”
She shook her head. Horror built in her and she thought she’d vomit, right then and there. I drank his blood.
“You’re a vampire.”
She’d freaking figured that out! “I don’t want to be this way.” She took another step back from him. “I don’t want this!” Drinking blood? Attacking people? “Change me back!”
His head bowed.
“Change me back!” Rose screamed at him. She was a human. She had a great life. She wanted to grow old and have kids and eat chocolate and not be a monster. “Please!” Now her voice was nearly a sob. “Don’t do this to me.”
“It’s already done.” He wasn’t looking at her.
“You don’t get to make that choice.” She retreated once more. The scent of his blood was messing with her head. She would not bite him again. “It’s my life!”
His head whipped up. “It was your death. I came back to that bedroom and you were dying. Did you think I was going to let you go?” He lunged toward her and his hold was too tight as he held her. “I couldn’t watch you die. Not you. Not fucking you.”
“So you made me into a monster?”
His face hardened. “Rose…”
“Get your hands off me.” Fear and fury exploded in her. “Get away from me, now!”
Slowly, his hands fell away from her.
“Change me back,” she pleaded once more as the bloodlust rose within her. A hunger that made her want to attack.
“I can’t.” Pain was on his face, but it was nothing compared to the pain that seemed to rip her apart.
“Then stay the hell away from me,” she told him and then she was running again. Fast and hard and she didn’t look back.
You are the nightmare now.
***
Julian surged forward, but a hard hand clamped down on his shoulder, stopping him.
“I think the woman wants space,” Luke Thorne murmured. “So I’d advise you to back the hell off right now.”
He didn’t want to back off. Rose was in pain. She was terrified. “I have to help her.”
Luke laughed. “I think the lady feels you’ve helped enough. I warned you…playing God with someone else’s life has consequences.”
He knocked Luke’s hand aside. “I wasn’t going to watch her die!”
“Technically, she did die. And I brought her back because I am the all-powerful Lord of the Dark.” His words were mocking, but Luke’s face was grim. “I broke the rules when I did that. The price paid won’t just be yours alone, remember that. She’s the first vampire that was created not by birth or by bite. Darkness created her, and darkness will have its due.”
His claws were out. “I need her.” For the first time in his life, Julian had found something—someone—worth fighting for. And fate had tried to take her away from him.
“She doesn’t need you. At least, not right now.”
“Bullshit. She’s scared. She’s desperate. She might hurt someone.”
Luke didn’t appear concerned. “Vampires always hurt people. It’s what they do. Get it in your head, panther. The woman you knew is long gone. From the minute she sprouted fangs, she became someone else.”
His hands were shaking. It felt as if someone had ripped his heart clear from his chest.
“Now, about that deal we made…” Luke’s voice was harder.
Luke Thorne…shit, the guy was trouble. Julian knew it. Every dark paranormal who walked the earth feared Luke, and for good reason.
But I had to make a deal with him.
“Let’s see if you’re really as good of an assassin as the stories say.” Luke inclined his head. “I’ve got some beasts who haven’t been following the rules. It’s time for them to be stopped.”
“Let me just talk to Rose again, I need to—”
The air around them seemed to heat. “A deal is a deal,” Luke murmured. “Time to pay the price.” Then he laughed. “Besides, it’s not as if you won’t have time to woo your Rose again. She’s a vampire now. She has eternity waiting on her.”
She’d vanished from the little road. He still had her scent, though. He could track her. “She didn’t even know about monsters.”
Luke laughed once more. “She does now…”
Chapter One
She was evil, straight to her core. A monster to be feared. A creature of incredible power.
She was evil, all the way to her soul. She feared nothing. No one.
So why were her knees shaking? Dammit.
Rose Kinley paused just outside of the loud club. The music was making her ears ache and the thick crowd inside had her wanting to turn and run away. She’d never liked crowds. Not in life and not in her undead existence, either. But crowds made for the best hunting grounds, and she desperately needed to feed.
So she had to woman-the-hell-up, dig deep to be her new evil self, and go in there and find some prey. Simple enough. Her high heels clicked as she headed toward the bouncer. He was a big, burly guy, a fellow who sported a whole lot of tats and looked as if he feared nothing on the face of the earth.