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Sheree glanced at the door, wondering who on earth would be coming to call so late at night. Her eyes widened when the two old ladies she had seen in the Den preceded Logan into the room. She noted they were careful to keep a good distance between themselves and the werewolf.
“Pearl, Edna, this is Sheree, a friend of Derek’s. Sheree, these are old friends of the family.”
Sheree didn’t miss the sarcasm in Mara’s voice as she introduced the two elderly women.
“So,” Mara said, “how’s the serum coming along?”
The taller of the two, Pearl, shrugged. “There’s really no way to tell.”
“After what you saw tonight, do you still think it will work?”
“I am seventy-five percent sure that it will be effective.”
“And if it doesn’t work, how will it affect my son?”
“I am reasonably certain that it won’t do him any harm,” Pearl said. “Of course, there’s no way to cure him of being a vampire, since he was born that way.”
“He was also born a werewolf,” Logan remarked.
“True. And that was where we made our mistake before. We were trying to cure the werewolves and the vampires using the same formula. Naturally, it didn’t work,” Pearl said. “We’ve learned a few things since then. As I told you before, this new serum should destroy the werewolf gene. . . .”
“Or at least weaken it so that it will no longer have any power over him,” Edna interjected. “We’re quite certain it will work after what we saw tonight.”
“Yes,” Pearl said. “Even though he was compelled to shift, he seemed to be in control of the wolf.”
“Thanks to Sheree’s influence,” Mara said.
Pearl and Edna exchanged glances. “What do you mean?”
“Sheree managed to communicate with him. She asked him not to kill the farmer or his family.”
The two elderly vampires focused on Sheree, studying her as if she were a bug under a microscope. It was most disconcerting.
“Has he tasted her blood?” Pearl asked.
Mara nodded.
Edna looked at Pearl. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
Pearl nodded. “We need to add her blood to the serum right away. I have a syringe and a vial in my jacket,” she said, reaching into her pocket.
Sheree scrambled to her feet and backed away. “No way! I’m not letting you take my blood!”
“If you want to help Derek, then I’m afraid it’s necessary, dear,” Pearl said.
Sheree glanced at Mara for help that she knew would not be forthcoming. If she refused to willingly let them take her blood, they would just take it by force.
With a sigh of resignation, she rolled up her sleeve and held out her arm. She turned her head, her gaze fixed on the werewolf, while the vampire siphoned her blood.
She fought a hysterical urge to laugh as she wondered if her life could get any more bizarre.
With the coming of dawn, the werewolf retreated. By then, everyone else had gone to bed.
For no apparent reason, transforming from werewolf to vampire was less painful, though it left him aching from head to foot.
Derek washed up in the kitchen sink, then went to his room and pulled on a pair of sweatpants before making his way to Sheree’s chamber.
Stepping inside, he closed the door behind him. An indrawn breath told him she was only pretending to be asleep.
“Do you want me to leave?”
Her excitement and trepidation were evident in the sudden quickening of her heart and the faint tinge of fear on her skin.
He was about to leave when she scooted over, drawing back the bed covers in silent invitation.
He hesitated a moment before sliding in beside her, though he was careful not to touch her. Tension stretched between them.
“I want to thank you for what you did,” he said quietly. “If it wasn’t for you, that man would be dead now, and I . . .”
Her hand, small and warm, found his. “Was it terrible?”
“There aren’t words to describe it. I knew what I was doing but I couldn’t stop myself. I looked at that tiny infant and all I could think about was ripping it to shreds.” He choked back a sob. “If I’d killed that baby . . .” Even when he’d been a new vampire, he had never been out of control, never been tempted to do anything as vile as kill an infant or a child.
“Derek, don’t think about it. It’s over for now. I just know the old ladies’ serum will work and . . .”
“And I’ll still be a vampire and you’ll still be . . .”
“The woman in love with you.”
His anguish was palpable, her need to comfort him overpowering. Whispering his name, she drew him into her embrace, one hand stroking his hair.
His arms went around her. Murmuring her name, he buried his face in her hair. “Hold me.”
“I’m here.” She could feel him trembling, knew he was appalled by the events of the night.
“Don’t let me go.”
“I won’t. There now, everything is all right. I’m here. I’ll always be here.”
Slipping a hand behind her head, he drew her closer, his gaze searching hers.
Her name was a groan on his lips as his mouth sought hers in a kiss filled with desire and a desperate need to blot everything from his mind but the woman in his arms.
“Sheree . . .”
“I know,” she whispered. “I know.” She turned her head to the side, granting him access to her neck.
It wasn’t hunger that drove him now, but a deep-seated need to draw her essence into himself, as if he could absorb her goodness along with the sweet taste of her life’s blood.
Sheree’s hands drifted over his body, arousing his desire and her own as her fingers explored his back, the indentation between his shoulders, the solid column of his neck, the silkiness of his hair.
When he drew back, she cupped his face in her hands and kissed him with all the yearning in her heart. He was a vampire, strong, invincible, and yet he needed her in ways that no other man ever would. He aroused a keen, protective instinct within her that she had never known she possessed. In that moment, she knew she would readily defend his life with her own, if necessary.
“My tigress,” he murmured, nipping at her earlobe.
“Reading my thoughts again, are you?” she asked with feigned anger.
A wicked grin was her answer.
Smiling in return, she filled her mind with images of the two of them wrapped in an erotic embrace, then purred, “What am I thinking now?”
