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Smiling, the woman went on her way.
Sheree’s heart skipped a beat when Derek strode toward her, his eyes dark. His arm slid around her waist, holding her tight as he transported them back to the hills above the castle.
His eyes glittered with a fierce light. “Now you.”
She turned her head to the side, heart pounding wildly, hands clenched at her sides.
“Don’t be afraid, wife. I won’t hurt you.”
“I . . . I’m not afraid.”
His laughter mocked the fear she couldn’t hide. “Aren’t you?”
“Just take what you need.”
“Ah, Sheree.” His laughter stilled as he drew her gently into his embrace and inhaled her scent. “You are all that stands between me and madness.” He cupped her face in his hands, lowered his head, and kissed her, a sweetly lingering kiss that chased all the doubts and fears from her mind. Vampire or werewolf, she knew he would never hurt her.
Sheree slid her arms around his neck as he deepened the kiss, sighed as the rest of the world fell away and there was only the two of them, locked in each other’s arms at the top of the world. She leaned into him, wanting to be closer, closer, to taste him and touch him, to rake her nails down his back, to mark him as hers.
But there was no time. The moon would be full tomorrow night. He still needed to drink her blood and then the serum.
But he seemed to have forgotten that as he carefully lowered her onto the ground. Aware that this might be their last night together, he made love to her slowly, arousing her again and again, only to pull back, drawing out the pleasure until, at last, he sank into her, his body becoming one with hers, flesh to flesh.
“Heart to heart,” she murmured as he moved deep within her.
“And soul to soul.” He whispered the words in her ear as, with one last thrust, he carried her to the stars and back.
Much later, when they were dressed again, he pulled the vial from his pocket. Holding it up, he turned it this way and that. It glowed with an eerie luminescence in the moon’s light.
“Like the eyes of a monster,” he remarked bleakly.
“Like the eyes of the man I love,” she corrected, brushing a kiss across his cheek.
His gaze moved to her throat.
“Now?” she asked.
He blew out a breath, then drew her slowly into his arms. As always, only a few sips of her precious blood soothed and satisfied him as nothing else. He sealed the wounds, then, refusing to meet her gaze, he turned his back toward her.
“Derek . . .” She started to touch him, then withdrew her hand. “If things were the other way around and I needed your blood, you’d give it to me, wouldn’t you? Without question?”
He nodded curtly.
“How is this any different?”
He pivoted to face her. “It just is, dammit!”
“There’s nothing wrong with needing something from the one you love.”
He snorted softly.
“What’s really bothering you?” She frowned, then snapped her fingers. “It’s your stupid masculine pride, isn’t it? Needing my blood makes you feel weak.” She shook her head. “Why is needing my blood any worse than needing anyone else’s to survive?”
“Because I’m not in love with them. When I’m hunting, they’re prey, nothing more. I don’t see you that way. And you’d better hope I never do.”
“I love you, too.” She kissed his cheek, then took the vial from his hand and removed the cap. “What do you think is in here?”
“Wolf ’s bane. Your blood. Mara’s blood. A handful of herbs, a dash of hemlock.”
“Hemlock!” Sheree exclaimed. “That’s poison, isn’t it?”
“Maybe it’ll kill the werewolf.”
She glowered at him. “And you with it.”
“I guess there’s only one way to find out.”
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” She stared at the vial. In the dark, the contents looked thick and black.
“Have you got a better one?”
She worried her lower lip with her teeth, then shook her head. “No, but I don’t trust Edna and Pearl to have your best interests at heart. No one knows what it will do to you.” She took his hand in hers. “I’d rather have a husband who was a vampire and a werewolf than no husband at all.”
“It’s a chance we’ll have to take, love. I can feel the moon calling to me. If this shit doesn’t work, tomorrow night I’ll have to answer.”
“I’m scared, Derek. Please don’t drink it. I have a bad feeling about this.”
He lifted one brow. “Woman’s intuition?”
“Maybe. I don’t know.” She shook her head again. “I just know something’s not right.”
“I almost killed a man last month,” he said quietly. “I don’t want to be that out of control ever again.”
“I don’t know much about vampires, but it seems to me that the more often you drink from me, the stronger our bond becomes. Maybe, between the two of us, we can control your urge to kill.”
“And maybe we can’t.”
“Then let’s wait and see what happens. If you can’t control it, we can always try the serum next month.”
Derek stared at the bottle in her hand. Truth be told, he wasn’t crazy about drinking some untested concoction either, but he was desperate enough to try anything that might work. “What if I go on a killing spree tomorrow night? Do you want that on your conscience?”
She squeezed his hand. “You won’t be able to kill anyone if we lock you up. This time I’ll make sure your mother stays with me so you can’t compel me.”
“All right, love,” he agreed. “We’ll try it your way. I just hope to hell we’re doing the right thing.”
With a sigh of relief, Sheree emptied the bottle’s contents onto the ground. Deep inside, she knew it was the right thing to do.
And yet, what if she was wrong?
What if she had talked Derek into something they would both live to regret?
Chapter Thirty-Nine
The morning of the twenty-fifth dawned cold and overcast, with the promise of rain before nightfall. Sheree woke early after a restless night. She’d had nightmares in the past—more so since meeting Derek. But the ones she’d had last night had been horrible in the extreme.
Thankfully, she remembered only bits and pieces, but what she remembered was enough to make her break out in a cold sweat. Derek had turned into the very monster he feared—a soulless beast with no conscience, and no memory of who he had been. He had chased her through an endless forest until, at last, she had found what she thought was a safe hiding place behind a waterfall, only to discover Mara waiting for her, death shining in her cold green eyes.
