Demon Night

much relative to how many vampires there are. So maybe it could be used when a vampire has no other choice or the animal blood has run them down; but there just wouldn’t be enough blood to support everyone.”
    Her throat felt thick, but she turned around, smiled down at him before resting her head against his shoulder. “Thank you for donating yours.”
    “Hell, Charlie. If we’re being all grateful with each other, I ought to thank you for blowing my ears out. That goddamn spell has been troubling me for a year now.”
    The tightness in her chest eased. “I’ve got about two minutes until I fall asleep,” she said. “I intend to spend them kissing you.” Anything else would be a waste of time.
    “Well,” Ethan said. “All right then.”

CHAPTER 25
    Charlie was facing the clock when she woke. Seven fifty-five—less than half an hour after sunset.
    And not as tired as she’d been the previous night, or as sore. Ethan’s big body was behind her, and the heat of him warmed her through his clothes.
    She turned, searched out his solemn gaze. “Have you been waiting long?”
    He shook his head. “Just a few minutes before sunset. Good dreams this time?”
    “Yes.” Erotic, full of music, blood, screams of ecstasy. And Ethan.
    The tips of his fingers traced over her cheek; his eyes and voice were soft. “You hungry?”
    “No. I think I had enough for a week last night,” she said.
    He didn’t return her smile, and seemed to hesitate for a moment before he said, “All right. We don’t have to feed right away, Miss Charlie. But you dropped a little weight—just a bit—while you slept.”
    A trickle of dread burned like molten lead into her belly. She studied his face, tried to figure out what he wasn’t saying. She couldn’t—but she remembered his reaction the night before…his insistence that she feed right away.
    She swallowed hard. “How bad was it yesterday?”
    “You were skinny.” He held her gaze. “This is better; it’s six, maybe seven pounds.”
    Better. Like she was recovering? “Am I sick?”
    “I don’t rightly know. It’s something similar to what happens with vampires who were forced into the change. The sleeping late, the weight loss. You feeling weak?”
    “A little tired, maybe. But I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel like.” She sat up, holding the sheet to her chest. Her breaths came hard. “What happens to them?”
    Ethan’s jacket sleeves were coarse against her skin as he slid his arms around her. “Some of them decide they want to live, and get better; some of them don’t.”
    “I want to live. Oh, God, how I want to.” The sheet tore beneath her fingers. “I chose to drink the blood because I wanted to. So why do I need to get better, and how am I already doing it?”
    So she could do it faster.
    “I ain’t certain.” His arms tightened. “I don’t mean to scare you—but I thought I ought to lay it out.”
    “Why didn’t you tell me last night?” It came out harshly, and he took a long moment before answering.
    “Well, I reckon my head wasn’t on all that straight. If it had been, I’d have been thinking about how you’d do everything you could to put yourself together. And I figured I was to blame, resisting you like I was; your feedings ought not to have hurt so much.”
    She forced her fingers to still, held them clenched between her breasts. Deliberately slowed her breathing until the panic slipped away. “The feeding is a lot better. And that makes it…easier to be like this.”
    “Like this—?” He stiffened briefly, then shook his head and said, “A vampire.”
    “Yes. But if that was the only way I could live, Ethan, I’d have taken feedings like that forever.” She let out a long sigh, allowed herself to relax against his chest. “Okay. I’m better than I was?”
    “Yes.”
    She smoothed her palm over his forearm. “I don’t…I don’t think I want to feed right away, though.”
    “Well, this conversation ain’t exactly how I’d choose to warm you up for sexing,” he said, and she smiled, shaking her head in agreement. His chest lifted behind her as he drew in a deep breath. “And I’ve taken a real powerful liking to you, Miss Charlie. So knowing that you’re feeling poorly ain’t inspiring lustful urges in me, neither.”
    She pressed her lips together, watched her fingers stroke his sleeve’s rough weave. A real powerful liking. It wasn’t the all-consuming love she wished he felt, but it was