by Paige Tyler
Michelle let out a sigh. “And to think that I spent my afternoon doing laundry and giving myself a pedicure,” she said as she sipped her iced tea. “So, what does he do for a living?”
Savanna peeled the banana she’d brought with her and took a bite. “He’s a history professor at the university.”
Michelle lifted a brow. “So, when are you going to see him again?”
“He’s picking me up after work,” Savanna said. “Oh, and he’s going with me to my parents’ house for dinner tomorrow night.”
She didn’t feel it was necessary to mention that she was already staying at his house.
Her friend looked even more incredulous at that. “Picking you up from work and going with you to your parents’ house for dinner? Girl, that’s some serious boyfriend material you’ve got there. He doesn’t have a brother by any chance, does he?”
Savanna laughed. “Afraid not.”
She and Michelle spent the rest of their lunch break talking about guys and how difficult it was to find a good one. Savanna agreed. While she didn’t want to get ahead of herself, she was already starting to think that Kaige was definitely a keeper. In a way, he was the vampire she’d always been looking for. He was tall, dark, and handsome, and while he wasn’t exactly what she would call brooding, he’d come to her rescue just like Angel had always come to the rescue of the girls on the TV show. What else could she ask for?
Savanna shook her head. She’d spent a good part of her life drooling over make-believe vampires and now she was sleeping with a real-life one. She kept waiting for someone to come in and tell her that it was all a big joke. But it wasn’t, and she knew it. Kaige was real and so were the things she was beginning to feel for him.
* * * * *
Though Kaige should have gone to the university to catch up on some paperwork after he dropped Savanna off at the lab, he found himself going to the clinic to talk to Jensen instead. After what had happened between him and Savanna at her apartment, he needed someone to talk to, and his sire was the only person he could confide in.
Kaige found the blond-haired vampire in his office reading some reports.
“Where’s Savanna?” his friend asked as Kaige sat down in one of the chairs in front of the desk.
Kaige rested his ankle on his knee. “At work.”
Jensen frowned. “Is she ready for that?”
Kaige nodded. “I don’t see why not,” he said. “She’s dealing with being a vampire very well. Much better than I did.”
Jensen let out a snort. “That’s not saying much. But from the time I spent with her, I have to agree. She seems to be doing fine.”
Better than fine. Which still amazed Kaige. He’d expected her to react a whole hell of a lot differently. “Don’t worry. I made sure she fed before she went to work.”
Jensen’s frown was back. “She had no problem with the bagged blood?”
“We haven’t tried that yet,” Kaige said.
His friend’s brow furrowed. “You’re still giving her an IV?”
Kaige shook his head. “She takes it from my wrist.”
Surprise flickered in Jensen’s eyes. “She’s okay with doing that? She’s not grossed out by the whole idea of drinking blood from the vein?”
Kaige shrugged. “Like I said, she’s dealing with being a vampire very well.”
Jensen sighed. “I admit, when you first told me that you’d turned the girl, I wasn’t sure you’d be very good at mentoring her, but you obviously did a damn fine job. I have to hand it to you.”
Kaige shrugged again. “I really didn’t have much to do with it. Savanna grew up with a pretty positive image of vampires thanks to modern television.”
His friend gave him a rueful smile. “If only you’d accepted being a vampire as easily.”
“Things were different back then,” Kaige scowled. “Besides, I wasn’t that bad.”
Jensen laughed. “Except for the part where you tried to throw yourself off the roof of the church after discovering that drinking holy water wouldn’t turn you back into a human again.”
Kaige’s mouth quirked at the memory. “Okay, so maybe that was a little extreme. But I thought I was some kind of demon with no soul.”
Of course, if he’d been thinking clearly at the time, he probably would have realized he wasn’t a demon when he hadn’t burst into flames the moment he stepped inside the church.
“Then there was that drinking binge you went on,” Jensen added. “I had to track you down at a different pub every night for a month and drag your sorry ass out before the sun came up. And if you’ll remember, you didn’t handle your first feeding too well, either. I practically had to force you to drink from the girl I got for you.”
Kaige remembered. How could he forget? The girl’s face had haunted him for decades. Even now, more than two-hundred years later, he could still see her long, curly hair and big brown eyes. Afraid to let Kaige anywhere near alcohol during his bender, Jensen had ventured into the pub alone to find a human girl for him to feed on. Unable to do anything else, he’d been forced to wait in the alley, too weak to do much more than lean back against the wall while his stomach had ached with the need for blood. By the time Jensen had come out with the girl, Kaige had been doubled over with pain. Even though the girl had been more than willing to let Kaige feed from her—as many women had been back then—he still hadn’t been able to bring himself to bite the girl’s neck. So his sire had done it for him, then forcibly put his mouth to the girl’s neck. Though he’d known Jensen would never have let him take too much blood from the girl, Kaige had been terrified he would kill her. But he hadn’t.
After that first time, it had gradually gotten easier to feed on humans. Even so, Kaige would force himself to wait until his body couldn’t take it anymore and he had to have blood. Only then did he feed, and only from women who gave it freely. But he’d always taken as little as possible, even if that meant he’d had to feed again even sooner. He had driven Jensen crazy.
“Okay, so maybe I was that bad,” Kaige conceded. “But Savanna doesn’t seem to be having any problem. As far as I’m concerned, she can feed from my wrist—or any other part of my body for that matter—any time she wants.”
Even now, just thinking about it had his cock hardening. He’d never met a female like that.
Behind his desk, Jensen arched a brow. “Since when did you become a fan of sharing blood?”
Kaige’s mouth twitched. “Since I discovered it could feel so damn good.”
“You’ve shared blood with other female vampires before.”
“Yeah, but this was different. More intense.”
“Intense, how?”
Kaige thought a moment. “I’m not really sure how to describe it. It was like my entire body was on fire. Like every nerve ending was tingling. It was…sexual…but more than that, too.”
Jensen chuckled. “I’ll be damned. You know what this means, don’t you?”
“What?”
“That you share a blood bond.”
What the hell was Jensen talking about? “What does that mean?”
“That you’re soul mates,” Jensen said.
Like Jensen and his wife. Kaige snorted. “Right.”
“Is that so crazy?” Jensen asked, leaning back in his chair.
“Hell yeah, it’s crazy,” Kaige said. “I barely even know Savanna. There’s no way we’re soul mates. I mean, sure, we click, but soul mates?”
“It doesn’t sound that crazy to me. I’ve never seen you act this way about another female, human or vampire.”
Kaige got to his feet and walked over to the window. He stood looking out at the busy street below for a moment then turned to face his friend. “Even if there is this blood bond between us—or whatever the hell you call it—that doesn’t make us soul mates. And it wouldn’t matter if it did. I’m not really good with relationships, remember?”
“With human females,”
Jensen reminded him. “Savanna is a vampire.”
Kaige folded his arms and leaned back against the windowsill. “Okay, so say we’re perfect for each other? That doesn’t mean we’re going to somehow magically fall in love. We just met.” He shook his head. “You’re as bad as your wife, you know that? Maybe you should quit being a doctor and open that dating service Lila keeps going on and on about.” He sighed. “Enough about me and my love life. Let’s change the subject. Have you had any luck tracking down the vampire who bit Savanna yet?”
Jensen sat up straight. “Unfortunately, no. It’s like he’s a ghost. There’s no male matching his description in any of the Counsel records. We have operatives from every administrative office as far north as Seattle down to San Diego and even as far east as Denver, and I still haven’t heard anything about him.”
That should be impossible. Unless… “He’s an unregistered vampire?”
“Could be.”
“How the hell is that even possible in this day and age?”
“Two reasons,” his friend said. “He could have accidentally gotten infected with vampire blood and was turned without anyone knowing. Or his sire purposely didn’t register him, either because he didn’t care or because he didn’t want to.”
Kaige considered that for a moment. “So you think his sire could have taught him to feed off humans?”
“Or he’s taken it upon himself. Either way, it’s a frightening thought,” Jensen said. “We haven’t had anyone do anything that stupid in a long time.”
Stupid because it brought all sorts of unwanted attention to the vampire population. When people were found with puncture wounds in their neck and drained of their blood it usually raised more than a few eyebrows, not to mention a whole hell of a lot of questions.
“Most likely, the bastard is scared shitless and has already headed for the hills with his tail between his legs,” Jensen said.
“Probably,” Kaige agreed.
He hoped so. He didn’t like the thought of the rogue vampire luring another unsuspecting girl out into the alley behind some Goth club. He liked the idea of the asshole running across Savanna again even less.
Kaige pushed away from the windowsill. “I’d better get out of here. I’m picking Savanna up after her shift and I still have to swing by the university to get some work done myself. Call me if you hear anything about that rogue vampire.”
“Will do,” Jensen said. “And Kaige?”
Kaige paused, his hand on the doorknob.
“Think about what I said. About you and Savanna. An eternity is a long time to spend alone. And if you’re lucky enough to have found the one vampire you’re meant to be with, don’t overlook it. Not everyone does.”
“I’m hardly alone,” Kaige protested. “I have friends.”
“I used to think the same thing before I met Lila,” Jensen said.
As Kaige drove to the university a few minutes later, he replayed the conversation he’d had with his sire over in his head. The idea that he and Savanna had some sort of blood bond was crazy. The notion that she was his soul mate was even more ludicrous. Sure, he and Savanna had chemistry together. The sex they’d had earlier proved that. But to think it could ever be any more than that would be the worst kind of wishful thinking. Like he’d told Jensen—he was really crappy at relationships.
At least since he’d become a vampire. What was the point in getting involved with a woman when he’d have to hide what he was every day of their life together? But as his sire had pointed out, Savanna was a vampire, which meant Kaige wouldn’t have to hide anything from her. He’d been down that road with other female vampires before, though. And while he wouldn’t call what he’d had with any of them a relationship, it was probably the closest he’d come to ever being in one. But in the end, they’d always gone their separate ways.
So what made him think it would be any different with Savanna?
Because maybe this time, he wanted it to be different. Savanna was special, there was no doubt about it. And if there were anyone he could see himself spending his life with, it would be her. Of course, that didn’t necessarily mean Savanna would feel the same.
He shook head, amazed at his own foolishness. Regardless of what Jensen said, it was way too early to be having these kinds of thoughts. He’d take things one step at a time and see where they led.
And yet he couldn’t stop from looking at his watch to see how many hours it was until he could pick Savanna up from work.
* * * * *
Savanna didn’t notice the guy standing across the street when she walked out of the lab. Which was kind of surprising. She was a vampire now. Shouldn’t her heightened senses pick stuff like that up? Besides, it was past midnight. There weren’t many people out and about in this part of the city at that time. But there he was, leaning against the wall of a building, and he looked like he was watching her.
Savanna’s hand tightened around the strap of her shoulder bag nervously. There wasn’t necessarily anything menacing about him, but for some reason he made her uneasy.
She was just about to go back inside the lab to wait for Kaige when she saw his SUV coming down the street. She breathed a sigh of relief and hurried out to meet him.
Kaige pulled up to the curb, then got out and walked around to open the door for her. “You weren’t waiting long, were you?”
“Nope. You’re right on time.” Savanna smiled. “I left a little early.”
She started to climb in, but then stopped, her gaze going across the street again. The guy who had been standing there was gone.
“What is it?” Kaige asked.
She shook her head. “Nothing.”
Ignoring the urge to sweep the area one more time, she climbed into the SUV and waited for Kaige to join her.
“I appreciate you coming to pick me up, but I really could have taken the subway, you know,” she said.
“I told you—the BART is dangerous at night. Besides, I was doing some work at the university anyway.” He gave her a sidelong glance, his gaze lingering on her a little longer than it probably should have considering he was driving. “But even if I hadn’t been working, I still would have come to pick you up.”
The way he said the words made a silly grin spread across her face. “So, doesn’t campus security ever wonder why you’re at the university at all hours of the night,” she finally asked.
He chuckled. “They think I have insomnia. And since I teach only night classes anyway, that’s not difficult to pull off,” he said, then added, “When you’re a vampire, you have to learn to get really creative.”
She laughed. “So I’m finding out.”
When they got to his condo, Kaige asked if she wanted something to eat. Savanna eagerly agreed, thinking he meant blood, and was disappointed when he took out a loaf of bread, some peanut butter, and a jar of jelly. As she bit into the sandwich a few minutes later, however, she was surprised to discover she’d been hungry for food after all. The sandwich tasted great, but she was still hungering for something else. Right then, she wanted nothing more than for Kaige to strip off her clothes and make love to her right there on the counter. Unfortunately, he didn’t pick up on that.
After they ate, Kaige offered to bring her suitcase up to the bedroom. As he set it down on the floor, Savanna’s gaze strayed to the huge bed and she found herself picturing all the naughty things they could be doing in it. She couldn’t let him walk out of the room, not with the way she wanted him.
“I feel really bad about kicking you out of your own bed,” she said, giving him a sidelong glance.
She could tell from the hungry look in his eyes that he was more than ready to jump into that bed with her, but it was obvious he wasn’t going to do it unless she gave him a signal. That was what happened when you dated a guy who was over two-hundred years old. They were so old-fashioned.
He looked away and took a deep breath, as if he were trying to get himself under con
trol. “That’s okay. The bed in the guestroom is just fine.”
Savanna chewed on her lower lip. She was going to have to stop being subtle if she wanted him in her bed tonight. She stepped closer to him. “It’s probably not as comfy as this one, though. And it seems like such a shame to waste all this space. There’s plenty of room for two.” When he looked at her, she gave him a teasing grin. “Or are you afraid that I might bite?”
Kaige regarded her appraisingly for a moment before closing the distance between them. Suddenly, his masculine scent enveloped her and she felt her knees go weak. “Would you bite?”
Her heart began to beat so wildly that she was sure he must be able to hear it. “Would you mind if I did?”
He gave her a slow, sexy smile. “Not at all. In fact,” he said, gently running his fingers down her neck, “it might be fun.”
Savanna caught her breath, but before she could reply, Kaige lowered his head and covered her mouth with his. Thank God he’d finally gotten the hint.
While the kiss was just as passionate as the ones they’d shared in her apartment, it had none of the same urgency. Which was just fine with Savanna. She melted against him, sliding her hands up the front of his shirt to hold onto his shoulders as she parted her lips. Kaige slid his hand in her hair, tipping her head back as his tongue plunged into her mouth to explore hers. She murmured her pleasure against his mouth. She’d been kissed by a lot of guys, but Kaige was definitely in a class by himself. He seemed to know exactly the way she liked to be kissed. He’d take her lower lip between his teeth and suck on it one minute only to retreat the next, encouraging her to chase after him this time.
He dragged his mouth away from hers to kiss his way along the curve of her jaw and down her neck. She shivered as she felt his teeth scrape lightly across the skin there. When had his fangs come out? More importantly, would he bite her? The thought made her heart pound even harder with excitement. But while the tips of his fangs grazed her neck as Kaige continued his teasing nibbles, he didn’t come close to breaking the skin. Savanna wasn’t sure if she was disappointed or relieved.
