Slade

by Sarah McCarty

  Stacking the files, she pushed her chair back a little harder than she’d planned. She caught the chair with her heel before it rolled past the drawer labeled “Syringes.” “I guess you do.” Opening the drawer, she said, “I’m going to need a blood sample.”

  “The one we got from Joseph earlier isn’t enough?” He shook his head. “You’re worse than a vampire.”

  “Not from Joseph.” She prepared a vacuum tube and needle. “I need your blood.”

  He flashed his fangs. “I’ll be happy to share.”

  She shook her head and set the tube on the table. “You’re going to have to work harder than that to scare me. Give me your arm.”

  Rolling up his sleeve, Slade took a step closer. “Interesting challenge.”

  “What makes it so interesting?”

  “My options.”

  Delicious heat poured over her in a wave of energy as she wrapped the tourniquet across the thick bulge of his biceps. “I wasn’t aware you had any.”

  He picked up the tube and handed it to her. His fingers lingered against hers as she took it. The touch was light. There was no reason for her breath to catch, or her pulse to pick up speed, but it did.

  “At least two.”

  Popping the cap off the needle, she asked, “Do I want to know?”

  “I don’t know. How fond are you of surprises?”

  “I know I don’t like bad ones.” Especially after the last twenty-four hours.

  His head canted slightly to the side as she slid the needle into the vein at the front of his elbow. “What about good ones?”

  Blood filled the vacuum tube, warming it, giving the impression, for an instant, that she held his life in her hands. Not a responsibility she wanted.

  “I don’t know. I’ve never had a good one.”

  “Really?”

  Glancing up, she was in time to catch the speculation in his eyes. “Don’t go getting ideas.”

  Those fingers on her hand drifted over her wrist, sneaked under the sleeve of her shirt. “Too late.”

  The tube was full. She swapped it for another. Her fingers trembled, every part of her focused on the shiver of sensations radiating up from her arm. Who knew a forearm could become such a sexual focal point?

  “Don’t you want to know what kind of ideas I’m getting?”

  She gave him the truth. “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “I think we’ve pretty much established that you’re out of my league.”

  The second tube filled. “Who established that?”

  Glancing up, she smiled. “My last date was a shy accountant who spilled his wine when I asked him up to my place.” Brent was a very nice man, but the night and the relationship had gone nowhere after that. “Trust me, you’re out of my league.”

  As soon as she removed the needle, he brought his arm to his mouth, leaving her with the gauze and tape in her hand, staring as his tongue stroked efficiently over the puncture site.

  “That takes care of the bleeding?”

  “There’s a healing agent in our saliva.”

  “Oh.” She put the gauze on the counter. He took the tubes from her hand. “Be careful with those.”

  He put them in the rack. “I will be.”

  “We need to get them sampled.”

  “What are we looking for?”

  “A control sample.”

  “You think my blood will be close enough to my brother’s to provide a control?”

  “You know it is. Sibling similarity, converted by a sibling. The similarities are going to be more than the differences, but yours is untainted by any potential changes this ... mating might bring about.”

  “Maybe.” He stopped her when she reached for the tubes of blood. He stepped in front of her. “In a minute.”

  “We don’t have minutes.”

  The table creaked as he leaned against it. The chair wheels caught on the toe of his boot, stopping her retreat. He was too close, too big, too male. If Jane could have gotten out of the chair without looking a total coward, she would have.

  “I don’t like you being afraid of me.”

  She didn’t like the way he said that, his drawl trailing off into speculation. No good could come of him looking deeper into her feelings. Especially when she didn’t understand them herself.

  “I’m not.”

  She pushed on his thigh. The movement she meant to be sharp slowed as her palm conformed to the hard muscle. For some reason, she’d expected a bit of give, but there was none. The muscle clenched, her fingers curved. Energy arced between them in a tangible bolt, racing up her arm. This close, it was impossible to miss his arousal. She licked her lips, the sight not as shocking as it should be.

  Slade’s finger came under her chin, tipping her face up to his. His expression was considering, his eyes watchful. The stroke of his thumb over her bottom lip sent a shiver to her toes. “No, you’re not.”

  She needed to reestablish herself or the man would run roughshod over her. “I believe that’s what I said. Now, I need you to bite me.”

  Not a blink or a twitch of muscle betrayed his shock, but she felt it. Almost as if it were her own. Apparently she wasn’t the only one who projected.

  “Why?”

  As if his thigh wasn’t the biggest temptation she’d faced in an age, she reached over and opened the drawer on the other side. Paper rustled as she pulled out another vacuum tube. “Because I need a before and after comparison to see how a normal vampire’s blood absorbs the intake of human blood.”

  “I have slides you can look at.”

  “How old are the slides?”

  “Five or six years.”

  That would never do. “There might have been changes. We can’t risk that.”

  “I can’t bite you.”

  She arced her brow at him. “Afraid of losing control?”

  “Yes.”

  Good grief, he wasn’t bluffing. A little of the fear she said she didn’t have came calling. This man, out of control, would be very scary.

  “I’ll make a point to remind you when you’ve have enough.”

  “How will you know?”

  “I’ll make an educated guess.”

  It was his turn to cock an eyebrow at her. “You don’t really believe in vampires, do you?”

  “It’s a stretch.”

  “Do you believe in life on other planets?”

  “It would be illogical not to.”

  He took the tube from her hand and put it on the table beside him, then pulled her to her feet.

  “What’s the difference?”

  “I can’t get around the fact that, if vampires were real and they live forever, there’d be so many around by now we couldn’t help but trip over them. Especially as each has the ability to create countless more.”

  “Ah, but there’s the hitch in your get along.”

  “Excuse me.”

  His fingers drifted up her arm, grazed her shoulder, skimming the goose bumps that anticipation sent racing ahead. “Not everybody can be converted. It’s actually a very small percentage of the population that has that possibility.”

  “What happens to the ones who fall outside that percentage?”

  A tug and her braid came over her shoulder and slid down over her breast. The goose bumps spread along with the anticipation. Her breath caught in her throat as his fingers followed its slide forward, grazing the top of her breast. Her lip slid between her teeth. Excitement hummed along beside arousal. He wouldn’t, would he? He didn’t. His knuckles stopped mid-curve, his gaze holding hers, while her breasts swelled and ached. She couldn’t catch a thought. A breath.

  “Their blood turns to acid in their veins. They die an extremely painful death. Scalded from the inside out.”

  Strange lights seemed to glow in his eyes. His hand didn’t move.

  Two heartbeats passed before she could find a response.

  “Wonderful.” It still didn’t explain the small numbers. “Even an incr
emental increase would aggregate over time.”

  “Ah, but you’re not allowing for human nature.” His hand opened, cupped. “You change someone, give them absolute power, and they tend to want to test the limits of that power.”

  “You mean they kill each other in pursuit of control.”

  “Not much else to do but fight when you live forever.”

  She so wanted to lean into his hand, into the pleasure that had her nipples burning and her knees weakening. “You could cure world hunger.”

  “Ah, but the vampires aren’t the ones going hungry.”

  “Good point.” She looked around the lab. “You and your brothers seem to have done well.”

  He shrugged. “If trouble didn’t come calling, we didn’t feel the need to court it.”

  It was always “we” with him, as if his brothers and he were one unit. “You and your brothers are close.”

  “Close enough that it won’t do you any good running to them for help.”

  It wasn’t help she wanted now. “Uh-huh.”

  That hand inched lower until he palmed her nipple, shifted until the hard nub was centered, and then pressed. She grabbed the edge of the desk. He smiled. “You think they’d side with you against me?”

  “I think they’d do what was right.”

  Another start. Did he think she hadn’t figured that much out? What she needed was something to pull her away from the maelstrom of lust threatening to pull her under. She wanted to melt to the floor, entice him with a spread of her legs. She wanted to invite him into her body, her life. Dear God, she wanted him. Shaking her head, Jane pushed back her chair. It took effort to get air into her lungs. Once there, she held it until the need for air replaced the craving for his touch. “Can you take blood without converting someone?”

  “Yes. It’s a matter of how much.”

  She shrugged out of her coat. She needed to get this over with. “Then do it.”

  His eyes narrowed. “That’s not going to happen.”

  “Why not? I assume you need to eat.”

  “Every couple months I go out for a bite.”

  The man was impossible.

  “Well, consider this feeding time.”

  “This is different.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you’re my mate.”

  “You really have to let that go.”

  His gaze dropped to her breasts. “It’s not something that can be wished away any easier than mating lust can be ignored.”

  “Do you have to make everything sound like something out of a bad movie?”

  “You stop making cute faces when I do, and I might consider it.”

  “I am not cute.”

  Slade shook his head. That’s where she was wrong. She was cute, sexy, and highly intelligent, and if she kept looking at him that way, things were going to get out of hand fast, despite his resolve. He’d touched her to remind her of their connection. To remind himself of his promise not to convert her. To give himself strength. “I guess it’s all in the perspective.”

  “Well, from my perspective, we don’t have any choice but to do this now. Not if you want Joseph to live.”

  Shit, she had him there, but it still didn’t sit right, her looking at him with such trust, and him knowing there was a real limit to how much trust she should be putting in him. “There’s a good chance I could lose my head and take you with me.”

  “Where?”

  “To the floor.”

  Feminine desire perfumed the air. She wasn’t as adverse to the idea as her expression would indicate. “I think you’ve got more control than that.”

  He curled his hands into fists. “You’d be wrong.”

  “I don’t think so, which means you, Vamp Man”—she rolled up her sleeve—“will just have to suck it up, in more ways than one.”

  When she extended her hand, he took it, cradling it on his palm, tucking his thumb into the softness of hers. Her skin was very fine, very white. The tracery of veins beneath pulsed with the beauty of her life. His mate. His to take. To bind. To do with as he would. Slade shook his head. Jane was right. That did sound wrong. It implied a lack of choice. And he would never take her choice away from her. A man didn’t do that to a woman he cared about. His vampire side hissed in displeasure. He smiled at Jane. His vampire could go to hell. “I guess I will.”

  Even if it killed him.

  His expression must not have been as bland as he’d been aiming for. Concern flashed through Jane’s eyes as she said, “You’re not really in danger of losing control, are you?”

  It was little late to be asking that question, in his opinion, seeing as he was already halfway to lost with her hand in his, her pulse under his thumb, her wrist exposed in a submissive gesture that stoked his passion.

  “That kiss by the door didn’t teach you anything? Or outside Joseph’s door?”

  “Those kisses were an aberration. They caught me by surprise. I was stressed. That led to moments of... weakness.”

  “And you think, if I kissed you right now, that same thing wouldn’t happen again?”

  The harsh fluorescent light glinted off the amber highlights in her hair as she shook her head. “Absolutely not.”

  “Absolutely?”

  “Yes. You have too much sense for that.”

  “And you think passion has to make sense?”

  “Everything makes sense if you put it in context.”

  “And my taking your blood will be defined how?”

  “As a means to an end.”

  She was a lousy liar. Slade tightened his grip on her wrist. “I think it’s more than that. I think this is a test.”

  “Of what?”

  “Of how long my honor can hold out against temptation.”

  “Seriously, I’m not that tempting. I think you can handle it.”

  He wasn’t so sure. Just the thought had him throbbing and hard. “I guess we’ll have to see. Just as soon as I get this control sample.”

  Slade picked up the syringe. A muscle twitched in Jane’s cheek. She wasn’t as calm as she wanted him to believe. He ought to be able to feel that in her energy, but all he could feel was the simmer of her desire and then ... nothing. Had she learned to block him?

  One look at her face gave him his answer. Her lips were pressed tight with thoughts he couldn’t hear. Yet. The stroke of his thumb across her lips echoed in the stutter of her pulse. Holding her gaze, he stroked his calm over the edges of her mind, as he slid the needle into the vein. When he had enough for her to check the sample for changes that might occur post bite, he released her mind, pressing cotton to her vein, while his tongue ached with the need to stroke over her flesh, absorb the taste of the sweet blood he could smell. Addictive. She’d be addictive.

  Quelling his vampire, Slade quickly handed Jane the vial and tossed the needle in the sharp tray.

  “That part’s done.”

  After a blink, Jane’s free hand went to her neck. “Wonderful. Can’t wait for the next.”

  Slade shook his head. “I don’t have to take the blood from your throat.” But he wanted to. Wanted to be steeped in her scent, steeped in her presence as he took the essence of who she was and made it part of him. “I can take it from your wrist.”

  It sounded a bit clinical, in the face of the emotion pulsing between them. “I can make sure you don’t feel a thing.”

  Jane was shaking her head before he finished the thought. “I don’t want to miss anything.”

  “Cause you know it’s going to be hot, right?”

  She blinked. “Because if you really are a vampire, it’ll be important I get the details right.”

  “You still doubt?”

  A shrug and then with the efficiency with which she did most things, she shoved her other sleeve up above her elbow, presenting him with a matched set. “How much blood do you need to take for it to impact yours?”

  Arousal rose hot and hard at the overt submission. Arm, neck, it didn’t matter. She
was volunteering her blood to him. His vampire howled in delight. His fangs ached to pierce that white skin. Mate. Wife. His.

  “Not two arms’ worth.”

  “Oh.”

  She debated before thrusting the one without the bandage at him. He brought her palm to his mouth. She gasped. He touched his tongue to her skin. It took a second for what he’d done to sink through her fear. She gasped again.

  “This isn’t going to hurt, sweetness.”

  “You’re going to bite me, how could it not hurt?”

  “There are numbing agents in my saliva.” He kissed her palm. “I promise you, only pleasure.”

  Her fingers naturally curled against his cheek. He set his teeth to the base of her thumb and nipped. She squealed. She was more than a little nervous. He smiled and did it again, just to get her used to the idea. Her thumb rapped his cheek. He looked up.

  “Just do it.”

  “There’s foreplay to blood taking, just like there is to lovemaking.”

  “I’m not interested in being seduced.”

  “Now, that is a pity.”

  Tension entered her muscles. “This is an experiment, Slade. Not the start of a wild weekend.”

  But it was the start of their relationship. It didn’t matter what precipitated the act. The reality was, this was their first bonding. From here on out, a part of her would live in him. A very special first that would open her mind to his if he knocked, lock her emotions to his if he queried. After this, he would be able to find her no matter where she went, probe her mind no matter how much she tried to lock him out. She had a right to know that. He was a bastard for not telling her. “It’s a start, make no mistake.”

  “Just do it.”

  Holding her gaze, he bent his head, enthralling her, catching her mind, holding it tightly, pulling her thoughts to his. Elation built within him. Vampire lust, primitive and strong, rose right along with the joy. He quickly harnessed it. He wasn’t going to convert her. He was just going to torment himself with a taste of her. Not enough to satisfy. Just enough to let him know what he was missing. He had to be insane.