Demon Moon

throat. She’d taken off the clothes Selah had made for her the moment she’d arrived, but another man’s odor clung to her skin. She couldn’t make love to Colin like this.
    But she didn’t need to say anything; he smelled of someone else, too. He carried her to her bedroom, past the bed.
    “There’s a mirror,” she said, but still he went in. His gaze never left her as his shirt fell to the floor, his pants. They stepped beneath the steaming spray together.
    The tension in his body eased when she pulled the curtain closed; it heightened when the scent of her soap rose around them. He lifted her. The tile formed cold squares against her back, the individual shapes sliding together into one as Colin filled her.
    It wasn’t enough.
    He braced his hands as if he intended to stay within her forever; hard and fast was best but now she loved slow, slow. How long had he been inside her?
    It wasn’t enough.
    She writhed and pushed; her head fell back and the spray shivered like ice over her skin. Too tight. Too much.
    Her shields were down. She couldn’t break through. “Colin. Help me. Please.”
    His teeth closed over her nipple, his fangs scraped the softness surrounding. His cock thrust deep, every push and pull tearing a violent groan from his chest. And still…
    “I can’t.” Panic gnawed at the edges of her arousal.
    “It’s the blood, Savi. You have to bite yourself.” Water streamed over his face, dripped from his lips. He tucked his chin beside her neck; his body gentled against hers. Despair thickened his voice. “And I cannot even give you this.”
    She had nothing to give him, either. And though an orgasm ground roughly through her when she sank her fangs into her bottom lip, there was little pleasure in it.
    Except that it was with him.

    “Where will you go first?”
    She barely heard him above the beat of his heart against her spine, the rhythm of his breath into her hair. For hours, they’d lain together in her bed, his arms surrounding her, her legs twined with his.
    “Eastern Europe, I think. I’ll learn Romany.”
    He pressed a kiss to her nape. “Do not invoke any curses.”
    “I won’t. I just don’t want to rely solely on Michael to figure out how to break yours.”
    “Savi—”
    “It’ll give me something to look forward to,” she said quietly. “I like the idea that someday, even if you’re still anchored to Chaos, you’ll be able to walk outside without it screaming at you from a billion cars and their rearview mirrors.”
    “A billion? Such melodramatic exaggeration, sweet.”
    “I think it comes with the fangs,” she said, and snuggled a little closer into him. She couldn’t get any closer. “Will you help me take care of Nani? After a while, she won’t be able to live by herself. I won’t put her in a nursing home.”
    “Castleford may battle me for the privilege, but I shall relish both his defeat and Nani’s presence in my home, wherever she deems it shall be. Will you not take a few weeks and visit with her at Beaumont Court? I should like you to become acquainted with my family. Even,” he said softly, “if I am not there to perform the introductions. And Derbyshire produces some of the finest blood in the world; you’d not regret it.”
    “Maybe for a day or two, I could.” Outside the window, the sky began to lighten. She should get up and close the blinds. Would he leave while she slept? Would it be easier that way?
    “You’d be welcome to stay much longer.”
    “I know. It’s not that.” She tried to look at him, but his hands held her fast. Settling her cheek against the pillow again with a sigh, she said, “Varney wasn’t dazed .”
    He stiffened. “Dazed—?”
    “He won’t forget. Like Roberta did. Like all of yours do. I’ll have to keep moving.”
    Horror strangled his voice. “No, Savi. Oh, God…no. You cannot live like that. If this is your alternative, you must stay.”
    “I don’t have a choice, just like you don’t. I can’t share my blood with another vampire; I’d just be a burden, sucking on different members in a community without offering anything of my own.”
    “You can continue with the projects you’ve already begun, at Polidori’s and at SI. No one questions your value. No one thinks you anything but an asset.”
    “All of those projects can be continued online.” She gritted her teeth. They’d been through this.
    “What of protection? We need you here; you destroyed a demon with little