“You can’t!” she cried, even as an excited thrill rushed through her, a wave of answering pleasure sparking along her highly aroused body.
“Are you denying me?”
“No. I mean…I’m dirty.” She frowned at him. “It’s not safe for you.”
“You’re not dirty,” he countered. “Usually it would take longer, but your system has processed the heroin out already. I can tell. You have your healthy lifestyle to thank for that. The only taint that’s left is what’s in your mind.”
Rafe rose up over her onto his knees and, keeping her gaze, he shrugged out of his jacket. He untied his tie and let it fall to the floor after his jacket. When he reached for the buttons of his shirt, she stopped his hands. She took over, smoothing her hands along the seam of buttons, releasing them one by one.
“I should be more concerned about the effects on you,” he continued. “Weariness, lowered immune system, taking from you too often in too short an amount of time. These are things you should be worried about, not the cleanliness of your energy.”
“It didn’t affect me like that at all the first time you did it. I’m not afraid of you doing it again. In fact,” she said, her voice lowering in register, “I very much want you to do it again. Only this time I want to be aware of every minute of it.”
He shrugged out of his shirt once she had all the buttons undone, all the while keeping her gaze.
“There’s something I haven’t told you,” he said, catching her hands where they were on his chest and holding them there. “Something about vampires and humans.”
“Oh?”
“It is possible, in rare instances, for a human to become an energy vampire.”
Renee went still with her shock.
“But I thought you had to be born a vampire!”
“How do you think e-vamps came about in the first place?”
“Well…I don’t know how,” she admitted with some consternation. Why had she never asked that question?
His hands went to his belt and he worked the buckle free.
“Once, a very long time ago, on a ship full of men and women, there was a terrible lightning storm. Lightning struck the metal hull of the ship and sent electrified energy throughout everyone’s bodies.”
“A metal ship? Over three hundred years ago they had metal ships?”
He smiled. “You are so smart,” he praised her.
“It doesn’t take a genius to know there weren’t metal ships when you were born. And since I assume there are other e-vamps even older than you are…”
“There are. And the metal ship…it didn’t come from this world.”
“Aliens! You’re telling me you’re aliens?”
“I suppose I am. We came about five hundred years ago, in a metal ship, two hundred of us. We landed in a terrible lightning storm, and the hull of the ship was struck and electrified. It electrocuted everyone on the ship, changed our alien DNA on a fundamental level. Made us the energy vampires you know today. And believe me, it wasn’t easy. First we were strangers in a backward world that didn’t have the technology and advanced space travel that we did. The electrical storm damaged the ship beyond repair and we couldn’t leave. We were stuck here. So we made a colony. A colony that began to die off quickly as we starved from energy malnutrition. It took an act of violent desperation for us to figure out what needed to be done to feed ourselves. But that is a story for another time. The point is this: We started out as close to human as you are, with only a few fundamental differences. It was the electrification that made us what we are, our alien DNA simply allowed us to survive the process. There are some humans that we find have this same fundamental difference.”
“Alien DNA?” she asked skeptically.
“Not that I know of. Simply a strong series of strands that would allow them to go through the same process that we did. It is possible that there were other aliens that landed here and mated with humans, leaving behind alien DNA. Maybe that’s what we are finding in those rare humans who are compatible. I don’t know. All I know is that some humans are capable of going through the change.”
“How do you know if a human is capable of surviving the change?”
“Well, any human who survives a lightning strike is a dead giveaway. Those people become e-vamps. Another sign is if a human is not weakened as easily by an energy vampire feeding from them. They regenerate quickly. Also they tend to be very strong people in life. In both physical endurance and in personality and self-sufficiency.”
“You mean…someone like me,” she said, understanding dawning on her.
“Yes,” he said softly. “Someone like you.”
She sat up, pushing him back farther.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Believe me, I’m normally not supposed to. Our origins are a closely guarded secret from even the humans who do know what we are.”
“So you’re breaking the rules. Again. Do you have a death wish or something?”
“No. This time I have special permission. From the queen herself. I told her a couple of days ago that I thought you were one of the special humans who could be brought over to our world.”
“Why would I ever want to be brought over to your world?”
“You would inherit all of our strengths.”
“And all of your weaknesses.”
“True,” he said with a momentary frown. “But one of the strengths would be a long life.”
“And you think immortality is something I would want?”
“No one is eager to die. I would think you would like to avoid it if you can have that advantage.”
“I see,” she said. “What does this change entail?”
“It requires electrocution. It is not a pleasant experience, that much is certain. But you won’t die. Not with your makeup.”
“I don’t know why I would want to subject myself to that,” she said with a delicate shudder.
“Because you could live forever…or close to it. And you would get to spend that time with me.”
He never once looked away from her, needing to see her reaction. He watched the changes that swept through her face and eyes and held his breath. He didn’t know what she was feeling and thinking in spite of the expressiveness of her features. Did she want what he wanted? Did she want to spend a long life with him by her side? Or was the suggestion about to send her running for the hills? Was he asking too much of her?
“That’s a very long time,” she said softly. “You barely know me. How can you want what you’re asking for when you barely know me?”
“I know you. I know everything that matters. And what I don’t know will only make for exciting surprises through the years. I know you are strong and willful. I know you are fiercely loyal and dedicated. You are independent and yet soft enough to depend on another if needed. You are passionate both emotionally and physically. Yes, Renee, I know you.”
Her breath caught and he heard it. He held his as well. What would he have to do now to convince her? Would it have been wiser to introduce her to it more slowly?
“I’m glad you’ve told me how you feel. I’m…I’m glad you know what you want. And I’m happy that I am what you want. I’m just not sure…”
“That you want me in the same way?” he asked, trying not to sound hurt.
“No! It’s not that at all. You’re asking me to change everything about who and what I am all at once. You have to give me time to think about all of this!”
“I don’t expect you to make a decision right away about everything. But what I do want to know right now is…do you feel the same way about me that I feel for you? Do you feel as though the world would stop turning if I were to suddenly leave? Do you feel like you wouldn’t be complete without me? Is this the first time in your life that you finally feel like you’ve met someone you want to spend a lifetime with?”
Renee watched the passion in his expression as he spoke his words of devotion and she felt her heart swelling in respo
nse. She tried to rein in the feeling, tried to warn herself not to get carried away. Did she even know him as well as he claimed to know her? Could she even consider the wild things he was suggesting? She had learned so much in just a moment of time that proved how little she knew about him and his people. She couldn’t possibly consider otherwise.
“I love you,” she blurted out in spite of her logical intentions. And in the end, that was what it boiled down to. She had fallen in love with him. For better or worse, for alien or human, she loved him. She didn’t know when exactly it had happened; perhaps from the very first moment, perhaps when their lives had been in danger and she had been afraid of losing him forever. All she knew was that she loved him and wanted him more than she had anything else in her life.
“I love you,” he said softly, reaching to pull her up against his bare chest, hugging her tightly, his face buried against her fragrant neck. He breathed deeply of her. Of all the wonderful scents lifting from her beloved body. “I’ve never said that to anyone before.”
That floored her. “Not in three hundred years?”
“Outside of my parents and siblings, never.”
“You have siblings?” she asked with surprise.
“One living. A brother. You will meet him one day. He is abroad at the moment. I had other siblings, but they are no longer with us.”
“They died?”
“Most of them.”
“Most?”
“I…” He wanted to say he’d rather not get into it, but this was the woman he loved. He needed to be transparent with her. “My other brother…he became a sycophant. That is why I wish sycophants were reclaimable. I would do anything to recover my brother. But anyway, he is far beyond all hope. He has chosen an evil path.”
“Oh! I’m so sorry,” she said with deep feeling. She could feel how much it hurt him to talk about it, so she shifted the conversation back. “Where is your lawful brother?”
“He is an authoritarian in Portugal. He works very closely with the prince there. She rather dotes on him. He is presently running the country while she is here signing the treaty.”
“It is a shame he could not be here to visit you.”
“I will see him soon. I want you to meet him.”
“I have sisters,” she said.
“I know. You told me.”
“Yes, you seem to know much more about me than I know about you.”
“You are far more interesting.”
She laughed. “I doubt that. Come,” she invited him before sliding back on the bed out of his reach. “Come into bed.”
She didn’t have to ask him twice. He stripped off the rest of his clothes and climbed onto the bed. He drew himself close to her side, his lips raining kisses over her shoulder and collarbone. She let her head fall back with a pleased sigh.
“So…you love me?” he asked.
She chuckled. “Don’t get cocky now.”
“Never,” he assured her. “I just like hearing you say it.”
“I do love you. I’m just not sure what to do about it.”
“That will work itself out in time. As long as you want to be with me, that is enough for now.”
“I do. Possibly forever. But forever is a long time…”
“You are too practical to believe in forever?”
“I suppose I am. Mmm, that feels nice,” she said as his mouth trailed up the side of her neck.
“Then I will make it my duty to convince you to put your practical side aside. I will make you believe in forever.”
She pulled back to meet his eyes.
“I would like that,” she said breathlessly.
“Then consider it done. I can be very persuasive.”
He kissed her lips with heat and fervor, dragging her into a haze of need almost instantly. She forgot what they were talking about as his hands began to roam her body. She gathered up the wherewithal to say, “I believe you. I have faith in you.”
“What more could I ask for?”
“For me to become an e-vamp?”
“In time. I am much more interested in your feelings. The rest will come in time.”
“You are very confident.”
“I am now that you’ve told me how you feel for me. Moments ago I was unsure…I was afraid I was in this alone.”
“You are not alone,” she said before melding her lips to his.
He believed her.
Epilogue
Draz petted the head resting on his thigh. He was sitting in a chair and one of his favorite sycophants was on her knees between his feet. He enjoyed her immensely. And he needed a little enjoyment in his life.
Losing Killean to the forces of self-righteous good had struck a critical blow to his empire. But it served the little upstart right. If anyone was going to unseat the queen it was going to be him, not some two-bit lowlife soldier. He was in charge of every sycophant on the northeast coast. And his territory was widening every day.
He wasn’t overly concerned about losing Killean. There was always someone eager enough and competent enough to take his place. Perhaps they would do even better than Killean. Perhaps they would be less ambitious.
The signing of the treaty meant nothing to Draz. It would take decades for the vampires to achieve a real peace. Signing a paper didn’t just magically make it happen. It was a start of course. And it could be dangerous for his kind in the long run. But he planned to usurp the throne long before it ever became a real problem. All he needed was to bide his time and wait for the right opportunity to present itself.
In the meantime, his brother could create as many treaties as he liked. Whatever made it easier for him to sleep at night. The easier he slept, the more vulnerable Rafe would become. As it was, he was hearing about some interesting developments between Rafe and a human woman. Now, there vulnerabilities abounded.
“My brother turned his back on me. They all did. One day I will make them all pay for it. We are no worse than they are. We are better, in fact. We are not limited in what we can do, whom we can feed from. We are not the self-righteous ones telling others how they should live. We are better than that. Better than they are.”
“They will work in concert now to destroy us,” the female at his feet said.
He had not really been talking to her as much as he’d been talking to himself, so her response irritated him. He clenched his fist around her hair and pulled her head back.
“They have tried to destroy us for centuries. They will not have any more luck now than they did before. Now be quiet. I don’t need your opinion.”
“Yes, of course,” she said meekly. “I’m sorry.”
Her meekness irritated him just as much as her boldness had. He wished she would pick one and stick with it. It would be interesting to have someone stand up to him for a change. He would destroy them of course, but it would still be interesting.
Just as he would destroy Rafe and the queen he served.
Given time.
All he needed was a little time.
For my sister, the strongest woman I know
BY JACQUELYN FRANK
The Energy Vampires
Thirst (ebook)
The Immortal Brothers
Cursed by Fire
Cursed by Ice
Bound by Sin
Bound in Darkness
The World of Nightwalkers
Forbidden
Forever
Forsaken
Forged
Nightwalker (ebook)
Three Worlds
Seduce Me in Dreams
Seduce Me in Flames
PHOTO: © SHERYL MANN/FLYING DOGS PHOTOGRAPHY
JACQUELYN FRANK is the New York Times bestselling author of the World of Nightwalkers series (Forbidden, Forever, Forsaken, Forged, and Nightwalker), the Immortal Brothers series (Cursed by Fire, Cursed by Ice, Bound by Sin, and Bound in Darkness), the Three Worlds series (Seduce Me in Dreams and Seduce Me in Flames), the Nightwalkers series (Adam, Jacob, Gideon, Elijah
, Damien, and Noah), the Shadowdwellers novels (Ecstasy, Rapture, and Pleasure), and the Gatherers novels (Hunting Julian and Stealing Katherine). She lives in North Carolina and has been writing romantic fiction ever since she picked up her first teen romance at age thirteen.
jacquelynfrank.com
Facebook.com/authorjacquelynfrank
@JacquelynFrank
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Read on for a sneak peek of Book Two in
Jacquelyn Frank’s Energy Vampires series
Hunger
Coming soon from Loveswept
Chapter 1
Halo rolled over and winced as the sun struck his eyes. He sat up, his head ringing and his body slow. He didn’t like it. He’d been drinking last night, more than usual. E-vamps were notoriously lightweight when it came to alcohol, but his tolerance had always been better than that of the average e-vamp. Better than that of the average human. He was just better.
He looked around at his alien surroundings and took in the details of the room. He couldn’t remember where he was.
He didn’t like that either.
Sure, he played fast and loose with a lot of the e-vamp edicts, skirting the edges of what made for a lawful energy vampire, but he was a hunter. He hunted for a living.
He was damn good at what he did. The best. He supposed that was why the queen and the authoritarians put up with him. However, not knowing where he was wasn’t smart behavior. It was not the behavior a hunter should be engaging in.
He looked around again, trying to remember the night before. There had been a woman. Hell, there was always a woman. Pretty much every night when he wasn’t hunting. He wasn’t a snob. He loved women—all kinds of women. Most of his fellow vampires looked on human women like humans would look on cattle. They were meant to be food sources. And one did not fuck one’s food. Then there were those who loved humans like a master loves his beloved pet—but still one did not fuck a beloved pet.