Demon Moon

if they were naughty schoolboys in a dormitory bunk.”
    She laughed despite herself. “The consort?”
    “I can’t share my blood,” he said. He lifted his shoulder in a careless, elegant shrug. “It’s tainted.”
    “You used it to heal—” She broke off as she understood; he meant he couldn’t let another vampire drink it. Like ingesting the hellhound venom…it was impossible to know what the consequences would be. “I’m tainted, too,” she said, feeling sick to her stomach. “You can’t take my blood.”
    Colin was shaking his head. “You’re still human.”
    “How do you know it won’t have an effect on you? How many hellhound-venom-and-nosferatu-blood-tainted women have you had?”
    His lips quirked. “Savi, consider my blood and Anthony Ramsdell’s blood—though Michael’s sword is fatal to the nosferatu, our human blood didn’t carry any of its power. The nosferatu drank from us without consequence. The sword’s taint only manifested with our transformations: his to Guardian, mine to vampire.”
    “And your sister? She was human, but didn’t it allow her to resist Lilith?”
    “Some psychic resistance,” he admitted. “But as you are well aware, that is natural to humans; it only strengthened what she already possessed.”
    As Savi had been strengthened? “Could she throw a baseball into the next county? You weren’t changed by it when you were human, as I am changed,” she pointed out. “And there is a significant difference between a demon dog and Michael’s sword.”
    “Not particularly significant. Lucifer bred the hellhounds from wyrmwolves; a hellhound is, in essence, a creature of Chaos—just as the dragon whose blood altered Michael’s sword was of Chaos.” His mouth thinned with bitter humor. “I do not have to fear you might anchor me to that realm.”
    She rubbed her forehead with her fingertips, then lowered her hand back to the table. “I don’t know.”
    He reached forward and clasped her hand in his. His thumb slid over her knuckles, dipped into the valleys between. Her cupped palm reflected against the crimson-lined glass; Colin’s did not.
    All too quickly, he drew back. “I’d not drink from you unless I was certain of this, Savi. If it has any effect—and I sincerely doubt it will—perhaps I’ll begin to emit an odor somewhat like a peach.”
    She smiled, but she couldn’t laugh, not when she still wondered: “Why not a human consort then? Or humans, since one couldn’t support you with her blood.”
    “A harem? And should I keep them in separate houses as I would a stable of mistresses, one for each day of the week?”
    “Too expensive?”
    “Indeed. And returning the next week to find she has all but forgotten the pleasure I gave her is hardly flattering.”
    “You’ve done it before,” she realized.
    “Yes. It did not suit.”
    “So a human is out. But you could drink from another vampire, and she could get hers elsewhere.”
    “My personal blood depot, with its accompanying sexual access?” He arched a brow, his mouth softening with amusement. “Even I am not so callous, nor so selfish, as to treat a woman as that. Not for more than one day, that is.”
    Savi grimaced. “I suppose that would not work for very long; she’d feel used and resentful, eventually. Or I would—I know I could not spread myself between two men that way, particularly if one just wanted my blood. But there must be a vampire who would like that. Everyone has her little sexual kink.”
    Noting his sudden stillness, she reviewed their conversation.
    “Ah, you just realized that you lied. You probably thought I didn’t know, but you did use a Guardian as your personal blood depot. The nosferatu were around and you couldn’t hunt, so when Lilith caught Selah you kept her for a few days. Selah told me you had her chained to your bed, and that, except for your frequent drinking, you were the perfect gentleman—”
    “Stop, Savi.”
    She flushed. “Sorry. That not-knowing-when-to-quit problem.”
    “Not that; I enjoy your interest in me.” His eyes searched hers, his brows drawn together. “But I don’t just want your blood.”
    “I know,” she said. Had he misunderstood what she’d offered? Better to make it absolutely clear. “I’m not coming over to be your snack. You can have my blood, yes—and I’ll drop my shields. But I expect sex in return. Hard and fast is best. And a few times, if possible.”
    His gaze darkened; his voice was