Vampires Among Us [Vampires Among Us 1] (Siren Publishing Classic)

to get her emotions under control. Kevin kept her ensconced in his arms, reminding her to breathe, and whispered how sorry he was that he had inadvertently scared her.
    In took several long, silent minutes before Erica could calm down enough to think things through. Once she did she realized how badly she had overreacted. Kevin was a vampire after all. And, even though he had a mouth full of fangs, no harm had ever come to her. He could have used those fangs at any given time over the past few months that she had been living at his house. But no, he was a man of honor, a man of his word. She lifted her head and stared into his eyes for a moment before speaking. “I know you would never bite me with the intention of hurting me, Kevin, but this is the first time I’ve seen your fangs. It just brought back some old ugly memories for a moment.” She hung her head in shame, tears stinging her eyes as the thought hit her that she had ruined their love making.
    “Shit, I was afraid of that,” Kevin muttered, as he gathered her tighter in his arms. “I am so sorry. I never meant to scare you. It’s more of an instinct when I am making love to you. The urge to plunge my fangs into you is very strong, but that doesn’t mean I plan on doing it. Please, baby, please don’t think that I would ever hurt you, because I wouldn’t. In fact, I’d give my life for you.” Then, in an attempt to lighten things up he added, “Maybe we will just make sure we have plenty of pillows I can bite through while we are making love.” He softly kissed her eyelids and cheeks where her tears continued to silently fall.
    “Kevin, I know you would never hurt me, but…” Erica broke off, suddenly shy about what she was about to do. She wiped her remaining tears away before taking a deep breath. She needed to put her fears to rest, and there was only one way to do that. “Can I ask you something?”
    “Sure, what is it?” he replied with interest. Kevin had watched shyness overcome her a moment ago, and was doing his level best to honor his promise to stay out of her head, but he was honestly intrigued as to what she wanted to ask him.
    Erica bit her lower lip and looked away from him, unable to look him in the eye while she made her inquiry. “I overheard something that I probably wasn’t supposed to. Nevertheless, it has made me curious. If a vampire bites a human, is it always painful to the human, or do you have the ability to take the pain away, and change it to something else?”
    Kevin’s eyebrows flew up his forehead as he realized what she was asking. “First of all, I am curious as to exactly what it was you heard, and from whom,” he carefully replied, easily avoiding her question for the moment.
    “I overheard Jennifer and Kate talking one day. Kate stated that it is very erotic to be bitten while making love. At the time, I assumed she was talking about two vampires, since I had never felt anything but pain with Shawn.”
    A small smile tugged at the corners of his mouth as he ran a finger down her cheek, and then continued down her neck and chest. He should have known at least one of his sisters to be involved in this conversation somehow. Taking a deep breath as he held eye contact with her, he answered, “We do have the ability to erase the pain and change it to pleasure. That is part of what I was trying to explain to you about what Shawn could have done with you, if he had chosen to do so.”
    The wary look of uncertainty on her face had him rushing to continue to explain. “It is all done through the mind. Once a vampire is touching a human, they have the ability to manipulate the mind to a certain degree. We can easily erase the pain of a bite completely, and change it over to where the recipient feels only erotic pleasure.” Kevin glanced down at Erica’s arms, bringing one up and kissing the inside of her wrist. “We also have the healing ability of closing the wound, leaving hardly a trace behind as compared to these.” He gave a pointed frown to the scars on her arm.
    “How?” she asked, perplexed.
    “Our blood,” Kevin answered. “Once the wound is made, if we use a little bit of our blood, the wound heals almost immediately, leaving virtually no evidence behind.”
    “Okay, so, the mind thing only works if one party is human?” Erica asked.
    “Well, yes and no. Vampires generally can’t read one another’s minds, because most of us learn early on how to keep walls up to block other