Tempted

though your Tsi Sgili powers are transforming you into something that is close to immortal.”
    “Yes, but Zoey isn’t anything close to immortal. I still believe we should kill her.”
    “You are a bloodthirsty creature.” Kalona laughed. “What would you do, cut off her head and impale her as you did the other two who got in your way?”
    “Don’t be ridiculous. I wouldn’t kill her the same way I did them. It would be too obvious. She could simply meet with an unfortunate accident when she visits Venice in the next day or so.”
    Heath’s heart was pounding so loud he was sure they’d be able to hear him. Neferet had killed Zoey’s two professors! And Kalona knew about it
and thought it was funny
. No way would Zo believe there was any good in him after she heard about this.
    “No,” Kalona was saying, “We will not have to kill Zoey. Soon she will come to me willingly; I’ve planted the seeds for that. All I need do is wait for them to bloom, and then her powers, which are vast even though she is mortal, will be at my disposal.”
    “
Our
disposal,” Neferet corrected him.
    One of Kalona’s dark wings swept forward, stroking the side of Neferet’s body and causing her to sway toward him. “Of course, my Queen,” he murmured before he kissed her.
    Heath felt like he was watching porn, but he was trapped there.He couldn’t move. He probably needed to stay until they were actually doing it, and then he could slip away, go to Zoey, and tell her everything he’d overheard.
    But Neferet surprised him by pulling away from Kalona. “No. You can’t make love to Zoey in her dreams, and then again with your eyes in front of everyone, and expect me to open my body to you. I won’t be yours tonight. She is too much between us.” Neferet backed away from Kalona. Even Heath was captured by her beauty. Her thick auburn hair was wild around her. The silky stuff that wrapped around her body looked like a second skin, and her boobs were almost totally exposed as she breathed hard and fast. “I know I am not immortal, nor am I Zoey Redbird, but my powers, too, are vast, and you should remember I killed the last male who tried to claim me and her.” Neferet whirled around. With a wave of her hand she parted the hedge in front of her and stepped through it, leaving Kalona standing alone and staring after her in the dim clearing.
    Heath was getting ready to back slowly away when Kalona’s head turned and his amber eyes went straight to where he was standing.
    “So, little human, you now have a story to tell my Zoey,” he said.
    Heath looked into the immortal’s eyes and he knew two things beyond any doubt. One was that this creature was going to kill him. The second was that somehow he had to show Zoey the truth before he died. Heath didn’t flinch under the creature’s stare. Instead he used all the strength of will he’d learned to harness so well on a different kind of battlefield—a football field—and he channeled it through the blood bond of their Imprint, trying to find the element Zoey had the strongest affinity with—spirit. His heart and soul shouted into the night:
Spirit, come to me! Help take my message to Zo! Tell her she has to find me!
Meanwhile his voice calmly told Kalona, “She’s not your Zoey.”
    “Ah, but she is,” Kalona said.
    Zo! Come to me!
Heath’s soul cried. “Nah, you don’t know my girl.”
    “Your girl’s soul belongs to me and I will not allow Neferet or you or
anyone
to change that.” Kalona began walking toward Heath.
    Zo! It’s you and me, babe! Come to me!
    “What is that expression the vampyres use?” Kalona said. “I believe it is ‘curiosity killed the cat.’ It seems particularly applicable to this situation.”

Stark

    “I’m an idiot.” Stark grumbled to himself as he made his way through the grand entrance to the palace.
    “Sir, do you need direction?” asked a warrior who stood just inside.
    “Yeah, I need to know where Aphrodite’s room is. You know, the human prophetess who came here with us today? Oh, I’m Stark, Warrior to the High Priestess Zoey Redbird.”
    “We know who you are,” the vampyre said. His eyes moved to Stark’s red tattoos. “It’s all very fascinating.”
    “Yeah, well, ‘fascinating’ isn’t the word I’d use.”
    The warrior smiled. “You have not been bound to her long, have you?”
    “No. Just a few days.”
    “It gets better—and worse.”
    “Thanks. I think.” Stark blew out a long