Hot Blooded

you."
    He entered endlessly, stuffing her with a slow, relentless thrust until his
hard thighs pressed against the back of her legs as his muscled body blanketed
hers.
    Overwhelmed, she squirmed, but he had her thoroughly captured, pinned beneath
his strength, wrists cuffed in one hand. He purred male pleasure in her ear as
she moaned. The long fingers under her chin angled her head to arch her neck.
"Now," he said, in a low, rough rumble, as he leaned down to bite, "let's see
how unforgettable I can make this ride."
    She sucked in a breath at the sharp sting of his fangs slicing into her
throat. Dazed, she stared into the mirror as he began to drink, simultaneously
easing his long shaft out of her wet sex, then sliding it back inside.
    He started slowly at first, letting her adjust to him, find the pleasure in
his thorough conquest. Easing in and out, stoking her to sensual delight until
she whimpered mindlessly.
    He rumbled something triumphant against her neck. His thrusts deepened,
roughened, until he was pumping hard, rolling his hips against her ass. Until
her whole consciousness centered on the fierce strokes of his big cock, on his
lips moving on her throat as he drank in long, rippling swallows.
    Inside her, that hot, alien energy grew, swelled along her nerves, filling
every inch of her he did not. Too much, too much… "God, Lancelot," she gasped.
"What's happening?"
    He growled something and rammed his hips hard against her ass, once, twice,
again. And stiffened, driving to the balls as he came. Grace felt the familiar
pulses of her own orgasm break free. The long, sweet waves deepened and
intensified until she screamed.
    But just when it should have begun to die, the climax grew hotter, more
overwhelming, building like a sexual storm surge in her mind. Her next cry mixed
ecstasy and terror as the fire seemed to pulse out of her on a searing wave of
heat. It surged into Lance, and he jerked against her with a muffled bellow.
Then the energy came raging back out of him again, a blazing, molten tsunami
that ripped a shriek from her.
    In the mirror, she saw their bodies begin to glow, brighter and brighter
until she had to squeeze her eyes shut against the glare. She writhed in the
ferocious grip of her transformation, shattering under him as he screamed
hoarsely in her ear.
    And the world went out.
    Â 
    MAJAE could mentally draw on and control the energies of the Mageverse in
working their spells, but for the vampire Magi, the connection went all the way
to the cellular level. In a sense they
were
the Mageverse given human
form. They could use its otherworldly energy to power their feats of superhuman
strength, to heal otherwise fatal injuries, even to assume new forms. And they
could use it to bring a Maja into her Gift.
    When Grace's body produced the first signaling pulse of her transformation,
Lance's reacted. He could no more control what happened next than a woman can
control labor. Mageverse energy poured from his body into hers, surging through
her cells, changing her. For a moment, both of them became raw energy, blending
into one white-hot creature. One mind. One heart. One soul.
    Lance had Gifted more women than he cared to remember, but this was
different. As their minds fused, he touched her, felt her. Knew her fire and
strength and vulnerability, just as she knew his. He heard a voice whisper,
Mine
... and had no idea whether it came from himself or from her. In truth,
it didn't matter.
    Then, between one fiery instant and the next, she was gone. Something in him
screamed a protest as he became himself again, his face buried in her slim
throat, his cock clasped in her tight, wet grip.
    "Lance?" She whimpered it, sounding broken, lost. He knew exactly how she
felt.
    Another long moment passed before he had the strength to pull his fangs from
her skin. At the same time, he found himself tightening his grip on her slim
body out of some instinct to keep that final connection. It took him two tries
to manage speech. "Here."
    "I feel…" She stopped, swallowed. "I feel really strange."
    "I know." Carefully he withdrew from her, wincing in regret for the lost
connection between them. He turned her in his arms, though his aching muscles
protested, strained after the violent effort of her transformation.
    Her wide, unblinking eyes made his breath catch. Their normal crystalline
blue was skimmed over by a lake of black, shot through with flashes