The Night Owl

Midnight Series – Book 4

(From Hot Blooded Anthology)

By Emma Holly

Chapter 1

THE naked man stood at the edge of the forest, looking back over one broad shoulder at Mariann. His hands were braced on a tree trunk and he was leaning forward, as if he were a runner she’d caught stretching out his calves. Partly obscuring her view, his long, dark hair spilled over rugged musculature to his waist.

It was night. She should not have been able to see him, but light shone from him in the darkness, a scintillation of moonlike shine. Whatever the source of the glow, it made his beautiful form even more distinct. His hips were narrow, his buttocks a tight, lip-licking curve. One of his statue-perfect legs was bent. In the space between his thighs, she could just make out the hang of his scrotum.

Watching him, wanting him, Mariann’s body tightened with awareness. Fingers curled against her urge to touch, she swallowed and took a step. She knew there had to be a reason she could not see the rest.

The man knew the reason. He smiled with wicked self-assurance. “I’ve been waiting for you, “he said. “Don’t you want to come with me?”

“CRAP,” sighed Mariann O’Faolain as her old-fashioned, windup alarm clock started jangling at 3 A.M.

Her body pulsed with frustration. The last thing she wanted was to shake off her dream. It was, after all, the closest she’d come to getting lucky in the last six months. But that was no reason to hug the pillow. Rolling over, she slapped the ringing silent with a single blow, then blinked into the country dark.

I’m a vampire, she thought, breaking into a crooked grin. Up with the moon and down with the sun.

Her mood improved, she threw the sheets off with a flourish no one was there to see. She had half an hour to shower, dress, suck down a mug of espresso and feed her cat. Then it was off to O’Faolain’s, to get in a few uninterrupted hours of baking before the first of the muffin-and-coffee crowd stumbled in. Mariann enjoyed her customers, but she loved baking even more. How could she not? For nearly forty years O’Faolain’s had been her second home—more of a home, in fact, than the suburban rambler she’d grown up in. As to that, her current residence, a drafty, nineteenth-century clapboard farmhouse inherited from her grandparents, was much closer to her heart. Fake wood paneling and two-car garages would never be Mariann’s style.

Her mind ticking away at her to-do lists, she barely noticed she’d been in and out of the bathroom until she unwound the sopping towel from her mop of tight black curls. A fresh white T-shirt, courtesy of Maynard’s Laundry, no-iron chinos, and a pair of sky-blue Keds comprised her uniform for the day—for every day, actually, but Mariann couldn’t be bothered to dress like some freaking beanpole out of Vogue.

She was a working girl, thank you very much. Comfortable and clean was good enough for her, and naked was strictly for dreams!

Her body still buzzed in memory as she clattered down the creaky stairs. The stove light from the kitchen provided just enough light to see, and she promised herself for the umpteenth time that she’d hire a carpenter to fix the missing spindles on the railing. Her mind skimmed over the vow without a ripple. The peaches had been fantastic this week: juicy, firm, their flesh a rich, ripe yellow that made her mouth water by itself. She’d bake tartlets for the chamber of commerce supper, and maybe whip up a batch of peach caramel ice cream.

Ginger, she thought, pausing on the final tread to have a reverie. Ginger would add the perfect bite.

Coming back to herself with a snap, she skidded across the kitchen’s cracked green linoleum and began to hum. With quick, economical movements, she arranged a few chunks of bittersweet Sharffen Berger chocolate onto a heel of crusty French bread, then popped her idea of breakfast into the microwave. Even as she punched the buttons with her left hand, her right lit the burner beneath her shining Italian pot. Grabbing a mug from its hook, she twirled the handle around her finger like a gunslinger, slammed it on the counter and poured a one-ounce blurp of Vermont cream into its maw. Pirate Vic’s bowl and kibble became her next partners in the dance, one she’d performed—at first with forced cheer, but now with real—ever since her husband became her ex.

Five years of her life she’d given to that man, four-and-a-half more than he deserved. She should have known not to trust a broker.

“No more stinking, store-bought granola,” she sang to the fading daisy print walls. “No more Wall Street Journal and God-darned low-fat milk.”

“Gosh-darned,” she corrected as she finished shaking cat food into the bowl.

She’d been trying to cut back on her cursing. With Tom gone, she thought she shouldn’t feel the need.

“Here kitty, kitty,” she called as she set the kibble on the dark back porch. Pirate Vic, her black-and-white, one-eyed torn (whom Tom had hated, she reminded herself with satisfaction) usually interrupted his nocturnal rambling long enough to let her feed him. This morning he was either too far away or too entertained by his adventures to heed her call.

She sighed, missing him a little, then decided to eat her breakfast outside. The back steps needed a carpenter’s attention as much as her stair rail, but she sat on them all the same. The air was cool and soft, a pleasant start to an August day. Familiar rustles filled the woods that surrounded her scraggly lawn. She owned ten acres, all told, on the southern tail of the Green Mountain spine.

Tom had wanted her to cut down the trees and sell them.

“God bless you, Gramps,” she murmured, morning prayers more her style than evening. “Give Grams a kiss for me and, uh, do your bit for world peace.”

She was about to try calling Vic again when a shadow slinking through the brambles brought her alert. “There you are,” she cooed, before she realized the intruder could not possibly be a cat.

The shape froze at the sound of her voice, the forward-canted ears obviously canine. It had to be a neighbor’s dog. Plenty of folks in Maple Notch let their pets run loose. She expected the dog to flee but, after a pause, it crept foot by silent foot into her yard.

Her first clear sight of it made her pulse patter in her throat.

Her visitor was not dog but wolf, a big, glacial-eyed, gape-jawed beast. Its markings were black, its undercoat a lighter shade she could not make out. Its upcurved tail waved slowly from side to side. It had locked its gaze on hers as if gauging what sort of welcome it would receive. Perhaps unable to decide, it halted midway between the forest and her porch.

It was the wildest, most breathtaking creature she had ever seen. In watching it, she completely forgot her loneliness.

“Omigosh,” she whispered, the hair at the nape of her neck prickling like a sunburn. She wasn’t sure if she was frightened or simply thrilled. Vermont didn’t have wolves. At least, she didn’t think they did.

Wherever this one came from, she hoped it hadn’t eaten her cat. The wolf woofed at her as if to object.

“Would you like some kibble?” she offered, thinking the smell of food might have been what drew it. “Or maybe you’d rather try my chocolate?”

The wolf whined at this and resumed its careful forward advance. Maybe it was a crossbreed, or had been raised by humans in a preserve. It certainly didn’t appear to be afraid of her. In fact, it was acting like it didn’t want to startle her.

The intelligence in its pale, bright eyes made this theory seem less outlandish. At that moment, she wouldn’t have been surprised to discover the creature could read her mind.

Trembling, she held her half-eaten bread as far as her arm could reach. When the wolf was close enough to sniff her offering, it sneezed, licked a drip of 62-percent-pure dark chocolate, then delicately took the crust in its teeth. Mariann was almost too shocked to let go, reminded only by a gentle tug. A toss of the wolf’s head and a snap of its powerful jaws made the treat disappear.

For a moment, the animal’s eyes glowed like hot, green stones. Then, as if all that had gone before hadn’t been amazing enough, it crouched down on its forelegs, groveled the tiny distance toward her across the grass, and gave the very tip of her fingers a pink-tongued kiss.

Mariann gasped and snatched back her hand. Immediately the wolf sprang away, trotting toward the trees with its head turned over its shoulder to her. Her imagination lent it a look of regret.

It vanished into the bracken without a sound.

“Wow,” she breathed, her hand pressed flat to her pounding chest. Forget sex dreams with naked strangers. This had to be the most exciting morning she’d ever had.

UNDERSTANDABLY, Mariann’s quarter-mile bike ride to the bakery passed in a daze. The winding back road she lived on led pretty much nowhere. She didn’t see a single car, parked or otherwise, until she hit

Maple Notch’s main street. City people might have been nervous at the isolation, but Mariann loved it through and through. Because of a promise to her father, she had her cell phone and her pepper spray tucked into her fanny pack. Truth be told, though, in all her time here she’d never come close to needing either one to protect herself—not even in the height of tourist season. No matter her upbringing in the burbs, she’d been born to be a small-town girl.

With an absentminded glow of gratification, she pedaled past the country store and the post office, then turned left at the one stoplight.

O’Faolain’s wasn’t much farther. Formerly a carriage house, since her grandfather’s time the bakery had been an adjunct to the Night Owl Inn—and one of its prime draws. Guests raved about the breakfast baskets left at their doors, often coming back just for them. The current proprietors, who owned the land on which her bakery sat, were continuing the partnership.

The Luces had caused a stir upon their arrival in Maple Notch. With their flowing hair and incredibly lit physiques, either of the tall, dark, handsome cousins could have stepped out of the pages of a magazine. The older one, in particular, dressed like a front man for Armani—perpetually on the verge of looking too cool for the town.

Familial relationship aside, rumors that the Luces were a couple seemed inevitable. Once raised, however, they were quashed with surprising speed. No gay man, common female wisdom decided, could look at a woman like those two did. After encountering the younger Luce on his nightly run, the owner of the Clip ‘n’ Curl declared rather breathlessly that she thought he had “wanted to eat her up.”

That she would willingly have been devoured was understood.

If this influx of testosterone weren’t sufficient to set tongues wagging, the cousins were, apparently, filthy rich.

Workers were hired at ungodly wages: architects, plasterers, even a sommelier. The neighboring antique shops were beside themselves trying to supply the inn with period furnishings. No one doubted the Night Owl would be a Victorian showpiece when it was done. Previously a bastion of shabby kitsch, soon it would be a gem to swell the breasts of all and sundry with local pride.

If the Luces sometimes acted as peculiar as they were rich, that was dismissed as “furrin” eccentricity. They were Frenchmen, after all, and to a native Vermonter that was strange indeed. So what if they had never heard of Ben & Jerry’s? So what if they slept all day and had some bizarro allergy that kept them out of the sun? The Luces were giving Maple Notch an unexpected shot in the arm. As long as their checks kept clearing, no one gave a darn what they did.

Mariann herself viewed them warily, though the younger of the two, Emile, was extremely charming. Despite her doubts, she helped them redesign their kitchen and promised to continue supplying them with baked goods. O’Faolain’s, they assured her, would always be a valued friend to the Night Owl Inn.

Sometimes she thought she’d have trusted them more if they’d been plain. Her ex had been handsome, a golden boy with a heart of brass. After a brief, six-month honeymoon, during which he’d treated her like a queen, he seemed to view cheating on her as his right: life, liberty and the pursuit of secretaries in short skirts. When Mariann looked at Emile and Bastien, she couldn’t help thinking: been there, done that.

If she thought it a little more when she looked at Bastien, that was no one’s business but hers. It wasn’t his fault he’d been creeping into her dreams.

Shaking off the prejudice—which she admitted had no real cause—she noted the removal of the scaffolding that had obscured the inn’s facade for the last few months. Built in the 1 840s, the Night Owl resembled a castle more than a house, its granite facade and Gothic windows bringing a touch of olde England to their humble burg. The sward of grass it sat on, smooth enough for a round of golf, put her patchy yard to shame.

She had to admit she was impressed. She’d never seen a renovation move so fast. Then again, maybe the heaps of cash the Luces tossed around encouraged even the laid-back locals to get in gear.

Swinging off her old brown Schwinn, Mariann wheeled the bike the last few feet up the gravel drive.

Above her head, the O’Faolain’s sign clanked on its chains. A second plank hung beneath the first. “Family recipes since 1940,” it said, “no matter what anybody claims.”

She nodded approvingly at the addendum and leaned her bike beneath the front window. O’Faolain’s had a small seating area, a diner-style counter and a kitchen behind that. Since the lights were on, she knew her assistant must have managed to roll out of bed. Heather was just eighteen and had a boyfriend. To Heather’s credit, she always showed up… just not always on time.

Smiling to herself, Mariann entered and called hello.

“In the kitchen,” Heather called back, sounding suspiciously teary. Mariann found her glaring at six just-baked trays of mini pie shells.

“They’re not flaky,” Heather moaned with all the drama of her youth. “It looked so easy when you showed me, but no matter what I did, they turned out flat.”

Mariann pinched her lower lip and wondered if she should scold. It was good of Heather to anticipate her wanting to make tartlets, but now they’d have to clean up and start from scratch.

“Did you remember to feed the bread starter like I wrote on the prep board?”

“Yes,” Heather quavered, her arms crossed protectively at her waist, “and I didn’t make a mess.”

Mariann had already noticed the counters’ gleam. Her admonitions for Heather to tidy behind herself were sinking in. What wasn’t sinking in were her reminders not to run before she could walk. A cooking school dropout whose parents played bridge with Mariann’s, Heather had been a pity hire. At the time, the teenager could barely be trusted to boil eggs.

As if she knew what her boss was thinking, Heather’s chin quivered like a child’s.

“Oh, honey,” Mariann relented, squeezing the girl’s shoulder. The kindness made a tear roll down Heather’s cheek. With her shining wheat-brown hair and her peachy skin, she was blooming even more than usual. In truth, she looked like an actress crying for the camera. Appearances notwithstanding, Mariann knew the girl’s emotions were as real as a summer storm. She was a babe in the woods, and Mariann hadn’t the heart to toughen her up.

Business was slow with the inn shut down for renovations. Heather’s trial by fire could wait.

“It’s just experience,” Mariann said. “And my cold Irish hands. They keep the butter from melting in the flour. When I worked in Boston, I knew an Italian who’d plunge his hands in ice water for two whole minutes before he’d look at a ball of dough.”

“Yeah, yeah,” said Heather, swiping her sleeve across her eyes. “The few, the proud, the pastry chefs.” Mariann laughed, knowing Heather was all right if she was cracking jokes. Heather smiled shyly back.

“You’re late,” she pointed out with a sly glance toward the clock. Apparently, this unheard-of occurrence improved her mood.

“Hair emergency,” Mariann explained to her own surprise. When she left the house, she’d have sworn her Wild Kingdom encounter would have been the first thing out of her mouth. Now—though Heather eyed her curls skeptically—she did not retract the lie.

For reasons she didn’t care to examine, Mariann wanted to keep her morning visitor to herself.

Chapter 2

BASTIEN Luce stood in the shadows outside the bakery, looking in at its lights. Perfectly still, with a heart that could beat as seldom as once an hour, he opened his senses to search for threats. Few were great enough to harm him. The night was his dominion, the sun his enemy. Humans—had they known of his existence—would have called him vampire. Among his own kind he was upyr.

Theirs was a race of shape-shifting immortal beings, part wolf, part blood-drinker, with a power and beauty no other creature could match. Both power and beauty had to be hidden when upyr traveled the mortal realm. These days, few could survive without a knack for glamour and thrall, the gifts that allowed them to look like humans and, when that proved impossible, to convince the humans they had not seen what they thought they had. Sadly, there weren’t enough wild places left for them to live wholly apart.

Like their four-footed brethren, upyr fought to survive. Immortal did not mean indestructible, especially when modern life held so many dangers. Cameras could watch them without their knowledge, doctors could probe their unique genetics, and swordsmen were hardly necessary when any idiot with a buzz saw could lop off their heads. Even broken hearts could drive his kind to their doom.

Bastien didn’t think he was in danger of facing that, but he’d definitely had happier times. Not six months ago, he’d been kicked out of his pack.

For the second time in his life, he’d been forced to leave a country he called home—first by a tyrant, now by a friend.

At least his second exile, from Scotland this time, had been kindly done, complete with murmurings of “time you stretched your legs” and “we could really use your help establishing a power base across the pond.” No matter what his pack leader, Ulric, said, Bastien knew the truth in his bones.

He was getting too powerful to keep around, powerful enough to be an elder: one of few who could change human into upyr. Bastien couldn’t be an underling in someone else’s pack when his nature drove him to rule his own. Indeed, as the years went by, it seemed inevitable that he would challenge Ulric for rule of his. Bastien’s pack leader was much beloved. Even if Bastien could defeat him, the pack wouldn’t want him to. They didn’t trust him to rule as well.

For that matter, Bastien didn’t trust himself.

This, he thought, was why he’d been drawn so strongly to the bakery. Its warmth, its wonderful, comforting scents, the history that clung to it like a spice, pulled him inexorably. He’d already been thinking he’d buy the Night Owl. The inn had the atmosphere he wanted, and ample surrounding land. He’d believed it would repay his investment and hoped it would tempt visits from his friends. It was the sight of O’Faolain’s, however, that sealed the deal.

He only wished the sight of its owner hadn’t sealed his fate.

Mariann O’Faolain was as tart as one of her pies—a scrappy little woman with wiry muscles and subtle curves. Though her looks were striking, she appeared to have no vanity. Her unstyled mop of hair was as dark as her favorite drink, her eyes like an April sky. She slaved at her business like no one but humans could, twelve hours at a stretch, as if she feared her life would end too soon for her to work herself into the ground. She had no husband—at the moment, anyway—no child, just a town full of admirers and a chewed-looking cat whose spirit was as fierce as hers.

Bastien wanted her with an intensity that set his blood ablaze: to love with, to hunt with, to make her queen to the king he did not dare be. Centuries would not suffice to slake his thirst for her sweetness.

Unfortunately, it looked like centuries would be required for him to muster the nerve to court her. Since meeting her, he hadn’t been able to say two words without tripping over his tongue. The closest he’d come to flirting had been his wolf eating from her hand. He hadn’t intended to surprise her. He’d simply been unable to resist going to her house.

The Frenchman in him found his clumsiness pathetic. The man in him just felt lost. As the Americans so colorfully put it, falling in love was a bitch.

His friend, Emile, his sole companion in exile, chose then to appear at his side, probably not by his accident. He wore his usual jeans and polo shirt, and tiny lights blinked in the soles of his running shoes. This was an activity he had taken to with a vengeance. Long ago, Emile had nearly lost his legs. The length to which Bastien had gone to save him was something neither of them spoke about. Brothers at heart, they’d always resembled each other, which had led to the fiction that they were kin. Ironically, almost dying had given Emile a more humorous view of life than his supposed cousin. He took things as they came, and gave thanks for what he had.

For a moment, he was content to stand drinking in the night. Sadly, for Emile peace was never as good as the chance to tease.

“You know,” he said, a smile in his voice, “Mariann won’t bite you if we go in—unless that is what you are hoping for.”

Bastien blushed, no easy feat for his kind. He was glad Emile had not witnessed his ridiculous morning tryst.

“Eff you,” he said and, as he’d intended, Emile laughed.

“Very good, mon ami. Keep that up and soon no one will guess you were bom anywhere but here.”

With Emile there watching, it was impossible to hang back. Emile might have been Bastien’s best friend for hundreds of years, might have seen him at his very worst, but that didn’t mean Bastien wanted to be thought a coward.

He had taken a single step when Emile gave the back of Bastien’s suit a shake.

“Hold it,” he said. “Leave this off, old friend, and loosen that starchy collar. For once you need to quit pretending you are here on business. No woman wants to be wooed by a suck.”

“Fine.” Bastien removed his jacket, tossed it into the bushes and attacked the small white button that trapped his neck. Then, to prove he would not do this halfway, he rolled up his sleeves as well.

“C’est bien,” said Emile. “Now you are casual.”

Gritting his teeth to hide his agitation, Bastien pushed through the bakery door. From previous visits, he knew the closed sign did not mean locked. The people of this town were alarmingly unparanoid. Inside, the decor was that of a fifties diner—not re-created but preserved, with all the cracks and worn spots left intact. Bastien had enjoyed the decade as he recalled: the films of Gary Cooper, rock and roll, the smell of cheeseburgers on a grill.

It was odd to think Mariann hadn’t been born yet. He’d been more alone than he knew.

Shivering, he trailed his hand along the counter’s silvery trim, his heart thumping faster at the prospect of seeing the object of his dreams. The things he longed to do to her would have made her hair curl even more; his need to possess her was quite savage. Awkward or not, her company had become as necessary to him as food.

“Bon soir,” Emile called toward the kitchen door. “We have come to keep you lovely ladies company.”

“Emile!” Heather exclaimed as she bounded out, her floppy chef’s hat nearly falling off. “You’re just in time to get me out of the doghouse.”

Unlike himself and Mariann, Heather and Emile had become fast friends within instants of their meeting, as evidenced by the laughing kisses they gave each other’s cheeks. As far as Bastien could tell, the girl didn’t have a suspicious bone in her body. Emile barely had to use his glamour to trick her into thinking he looked human. Perhaps, young and pretty as she was, she was blasé about handsome men. At the least, Bastien knew she was not cowed by him.

“Late night?” she joked, cocking one brow at him.

“Planning,” he said as he tried not to peer too obviously behind her shoulder. “For the leaf peepers in the fall. We’re thinking of having a grand opening in time to take advantage of the tourists who come to see the colors change. When we finished brainstorming, we decided to stop by for a cup of joe.”

“Sur-re,” Heather said in her teenage drawl. “Cuz coffee is what everyone wants before they toddle off to bed.”

Bastien wasn’t certain, but he thought he saw her exchanging winks with Emile.

“Relax,” she said at his frown. “Cinderella has pots to scrub, but I’ll get the boss to set you up.” His palms immediately went damp. “Only if she’s not too busy.”

“We’re always busy,” Heather teased, “but never too busy to make time for you.”

With his keen upyr hearing, Bastien couldn’t miss the whispered argument that ensued behind the kitchen wall. The words “pretty boy” and “weirdo” were particularly clear. Apparently, Mariann didn’t want to see him. His ears grew hot with a shame he hadn’t felt since he was human.

“Get out there,” the teenager hissed at the last, “and for God’s sake get a life!”

When Mariann emerged, Bastien prayed his face was not as pink as hers. He didn’t know why, but he found her completely adorable in her buttoned-up baking jacket—not the most opportune reaction, considering her response to him.

“The usual?” she asked, immediately busying herself at the elaborate coffee-making machine. “Please,” he said, then cleared his throat. “With a cup of water.”

Emile’s interjection was too soft for anyone but him to hear. “Very smooth,” he said. “I’m sure you’ve almost got her now.”

Bastien had to admit his friend was right to mock. At this rate, Bastien would be dust before he and Mariann held hands.

“You look pretty today,” he blurted out desperately, his eyes honing helplessly on her nape, so slim and bitable. Cursing to himself, he tried to quash his arousal. The last thing he needed was to flash his fangs. “Your hair, um, looks very free.”

The sound Mariann made was more snort than laugh. “‘Free’ is what my hair does best.”

To his relief, when she turned to set his coffee and water on the counter, she was smiling. For the first time in what seemed like ages, she met his eyes. Hers were so warm and soft he could have drowned. “You know, Mr. Luce, if the espresso is too strong for you, I can make drip.”

“No,” he said, his voice gone dark, his hand moving impulsively to cover hers. “I like the way your espresso tastes.”

In all their meetings, he had been careful not to thrall her, wanting her to fall for him on her own. Despite his restraint, she went as still at his touch as if he had. Her pupils swelled, her delicate, rosy lips parting for breath. She wore no lipstick. All her colors were her own, from the flush on her cheeks to the tiny freckles on her nose.

I love you, he thought, force of will all that kept the sentiment inside his head. I would do anything to make you mine.

“It’s Bastien,” he corrected, some scrap of his brain still functioning. “Not Mr. Luce.” “Bastien,” she said dazedly.

A smile spread across his face. She might think he was a weirdo, but she was wanning to him all the same. He could hear it in her voice. He felt himself all of a sudden confident and masculine. “Mariann,” he said, letting his accent soften her name. “Would you like to—”

He would never know if his invitation to dinner would have been accepted. The outside door slammed open and a tall blonde bombshell stalked inside. Shaped like an expensive hourglass from bust to hip, she wore a snug-fitting, ash-gray suit, her debt to Marilyn obvious. A diamond as big as a blueberry sparkled on her left hand. Despite her bursting in like a squall, not a hair on her head was mussed. She was just as fresh as if it were ten in the morning instead of five. Whoever she was, either she got up early herself, or she’d put some planning into this entrance.

At her appearance, Mariann yanked her hand from his.

With one frosted pink nail, the woman pointed at his beloved. “You,” she said, “had better stop spreading lies.”

Mariann lifted her sharp little chin. “Which lies would those be? That you stole my grandfather’s recipes or that you ran off with my husband? You’re welcome to him, by the way, with my thanks.”

Bastien had tensed in preparation to protect her, but Mariann’s quick retort assured him there was no need.

The other woman might have been grateful if he’d interfered. An unhealthy shade of brick washed her sculpted cheeks.

“You were always jealous of me,” she said. “Always hoarding your little secrets, pretending I wasn’t good enough to bake your precious grandfather’s pies. But the whole world knows I’m good enough now. If you keep trying to smear my name, the studio’s lawyers will sue your stupid, no-iron pants off.”

“Really? Even if I can prove every word I say?”

“You can’t.” The woman’s confidence was clear as she tossed her head. “It’s your word against mine.”

“Not exactly.” With a smile that would have done a Borgia proud, Mariann brought a stained leather journal from beneath the counter. She set it on the clean glass top of the display case next to the register. “This is my grandfather’s recipe book, which tracks the development of every signature dessert he made, from 1940 on. I had the paper, the handwriting and the ink authenticated by a lab. So you see, Arabella, when I spoke to that reporter at the Boston Globe, I had evidence to back up my claims.”

Her breath hissing through her nose, the woman grabbed for the book. Bastien slapped his hand on top of it before she could. She gaped at him as if he were mad, then turned dismissively back to Mariann.

“You’re nothing,” she said. “Just a small-town Betty Crocker who hasn’t the sense to hold on to anything she has. I proved it eighteen months ago when we split and, believe me, I will again.”

She swept out as regally as she’d swept in, leaving the grounds with a squeal of tires. Bastien broke the silence by sneezing at her perfume. Heather’s response was more deliberate.

“So,” she said, “that was the famous Arabella Armand. Can’t say I’m terribly impressed.”

“She’s usually more charming,” Mariann said tightly. “She saves the Hyde side of her personality for her friends.”

Heather laughed, but Mariann made a sound like a hiccup and ran into the kitchen.

“Stay,” Bastien said when Heather would have followed. “I’ll make certain she is all right.” He put a touch of thrall into the command. The girl fell back like a doll.

“Careful,” Emile said as he caught her shoulders.

Bastien knew the warning was meant for him.

He would listen, just not right then.

MARIANN’S kitchen was bigger than her cafe, with stainless steel cabinets and a terra-cotta floor sloping to a drain. Everything about it was oversized: the overhead lights, the counters, the convection ovens and range. The refrigerated walk-in required a stepladder, and was stocked with hunks of chocolate and butter better fit for giants. That such a tiny female ruled this domain filled him with amusement—not that Mariann ever seemed less than up to the task.

He found her at the butcher-block island, splitting what had to be a real vanilla bean with a knife. As she scraped the seeds the smell overwhelmed his senses: a pungent sweetness that managed to combine homey kitchen and jungle. His body hardened as only an upyr’s could, in the space between mortal heartbeats, with a gut-punching thoroughness that nearly buckled his knees. His formerly modest Italian trousers lost their perfect drape, while the itching in his gums warned him his fangs were very close to shooting out.

“I’m fine,” she said curtly before he could speak, lifting her elbow high enough to blot her eyes. “I have work to do.”

Standing behind her, seeing the prideful stiffness of her spine, he felt as he had been creeping toward her across her yard, desiring contact so badly he would risk frightening her away.

He put his arms around her, gently, slowly, stilling her wrists with his hands. Her fingers were scarred from years of kitchen work: cut, dinged, callused, burned, dried from constant washing and cracked along the seams. He knew she was proud of every imperfection. Many times, when she did not know he watched, he would see her turn them back and forth and smile.

“You’re not fine,” he said, his nose nudging softly behind her ear. This close to her, with their auras mingling, he could not help but sense her troubled emotions. He had always respected her privacy, but he was too good a mind reader not to catch a wisp of her feelings now. “That woman upset you.”

Mariann sniffed out a laugh. “Arabella would be terribly insulted to know you didn’t recognize the Cooking Channel’s newest darling.”

Bastien acknowledged no darling but her. Humming at the pleasure of finally having her in his arms, he drew his lips across the silken skin where his nose had been.

Mariann began to tremble. “You shouldn’t be doing this. You’re my landlord.”

He didn’t see what that had to do with anything, but humans did sometimes have strange rules. He slipped his fingertips between the knuckles of her battered hands, which caused her little knife to clatter to the floor. Her head sagged back against his shoulder, baring the line of her throat. Among his kind, this was a gesture of surrender, sexual and otherwise.

His voice sank unavoidably to a growl. “I’ve been wanting to get close to you since we met.” Her answer was a broken sigh. “You’re making it worse.”

“How can my holding you cause any harm?”

He kept his tone as soothing as he could, but her neck snapped up again. “The harm is that I don’t want to cry!”

He let her turn in his arms, but did not release her from the cage they formed. True to her words, her face was streaked by fresh tears. In spite of this, or possibly because of it, her soft blue eyes blazed with defiance, her passion an aphrodisiac to one like him.

Only her vulnerability called to him more.

“You haven’t been held in a while,” he said, his blood surging at the thought of everything else she might not have done. “That’s why my touch makes you weep.”

Sheepish, she ducked her head. “Tom never was much of a hugger.” “An unfortunate trait in a husband.”

“I thought so. I mean, I wasn’t asking him to hug the world. Only me.” She had been gaining in composure, trying to joke, but her voice cracked on the last and she made a face. “Honestly, I don’t care. He’s a jerk, and I’m better off without him.”

“You are,” Bastien agreed. “By a thousand times.”

“What she did was worse,” Mariann said, and Bastien knew she meant Arabella. “We survived the restaurant scene in Boston, two women turning out hundreds of plates a night with those stupid, ass-grabbing line cooks. She convinced me to bring her here as my partner after Grandfather died. We were friends. I thought she liked me. And then she pretends my grandfather’s work is her own. ‘A little something I came up with,’ she says on her show. The first time I heard it, I thought my head would explode.

“In all the time I worked with her, she never came up with anything. She could cook, but she was lazy. Her first question was always, ‘What’s the shortcut?’ But good baking comes from love, from the desire to create something your customers will really and truly enjoy. You can’t take shortcuts with that!”

Disgusted by the memory, Mariann rubbed her nose. When she went on, her tone was resigned. “I never did want to share his recipes with her, but I thought, ‘Well, she’s not just my partner, she’s my friend. I should learn to be more trusting.’ Hah. All I did was hand her everything I had.”

“Everything you have is here,” he said, one hand reaching up to tap her heart. “At least everything that counts.”

“Thank you, Zen Master Luce. I’m sure I’d agree with you if I were equally evolved.”

“All right,” he laughed, enjoying her acerbity. “You have a reason to be mad.”

She blinked at him. “Why are you being so nice? You barely said ‘boo’ to me before today.”

Her eyes were wide, her expression willing to hear. Sensing she would allow it, he stroked his fingers through her curls. Though his power undid the tangles, the little twists clung to his hand as if they liked the touch. “Maybe I was waiting for you to think of me as more than a pretty weirdo.”

“Yeesh. I’m sorry you heard that. I—”

“No.” He touched her lips to hush her apology. “I’m sure I do seem strange. I only hope you’ll give me the chance to show you what else I am, what else I’d like to be to you.”

“Be?” she repeated. “To me?”

This time he could not miss her breathlessness. Arousal barreled through him in a roaring wave. It was all he could do not to moan.

Oh, Mariann, he thought. I’m going to kiss you to kingdom come.

Chapter 3

SHE knew he was going to kiss her. Worse, she knew she was going to let him. Never mind she’d sworn off unfairly good-looking men. Never mind her schedule barely had room for her schedule. When his hands surrounded her face and his dark, silky hair fell forward, her temperature sizzled like butter set to sauté.

Close as he was, his scent shot up her nose, sending her already buzzing hormones into overdrive. His skin smelled of wood and earth, of mossy water and Beaujolais. He had rolled up his shirtsleeves and opened his collar. She didn’t think she’d ever seen him without a jacket. For some reason, she found the sight of his muscled forearms sexier than another man completely bare—not that she hadn’t entertained the thought of him that way as well.

To her dismay, he was giving her the laser-beam look he shared with his cousin, like she was the only woman left on the planet and he would give his life to have her. Mariann didn’t anticipate that kind of sacrifice being required. She was going to topple quite easily.

“Your hands are cold,” she said in a nervous bid for delay. “I should teach you to make pie.” “My hands will warm.”

He said this with such sensual promise she doubted he’d understood. Up close, his eyes were a pale peridot green, their brilliance heightened by their half-lowered frame of black. Their steadiness unnerved her, the way they seemed to pierce her soul. It was probably her sex-starved imagination, but his gaze looked sad, as if he longed for something he feared he would never find. Without intending to, she held her breath as the look drew out.

He broke the tension before she could.

“Ah, Mariann,” he said with an embarrassed laugh. “I’ve been dreaming of kissing you for so long, I’m almost afraid to do it.”

“You better get over that. ‘Cause I swear, if you leave me hanging, I’ll never give you another chance.” His grin was a blinding flash. “I love your fight,” he whispered, “most of all.”

She didn’t have time to wonder what this meant, because he tipped her head up and lowered his. His mouth molded over her lips, a gentle, testing intimacy. Whatever the test was, she passed it. He moaned low in his chest, the loveliest sound she’d ever heard a person make. His arms slid down her back and tightened as his tongue went deep.

He tasted as good as he smelled. In moments, her head was spinning with the erotic rush. As if he knew, he savored his victory, refusing to hurry a lick or pull, enticing her to respond in kind. She sighed with pleasure as she accepted. To her mind, nothing was better than a man who loved to kiss, and every indication said Bastien did.

She couldn’t suppress a whimper when he stopped.

“Touch me,” he said, the merest breath against her trembling mouth. “Put your hands on my skin.” “Heather might—”

“Heather is perfectly safe with Emile.” His gaze burned into her from inches away, mesmerizing, penetrating, trying to convey some message she could not quite read. “Your touch is what I want most. It’s what I crave.”

If she’d ever doubted he was strange, this would have capped it. What sort of man talked this way? But his strangeness didn’t matter. Directed by cravings of their own, her ringers found the finely woven cotton of his business shirt, smoothing it up his chest. His pecs were steely, his shoulders broad enough to ride. He wore no tie, and at his throat one strong, blue vein pulsed out a wild rhythm.

“Do it,” he said, then swallowed hard.

Gripping his shirt at the back, she tugged its tails out from his trousers. For a moment, she thought of ripping it another seam. With shaking hands, she slid her arms beneath.

Whatever she was expecting, it was not this. His back felt like moon-cooled marble under her palms, impossibly smooth, invitingly firm and strong.

He jerked as if her touch had burned him, then closed his eyes. “Yes-s,” he hissed, a sound of rapture. “I love your heat.”

“You’re freezing!” she exclaimed, chafing her hands up his spine. Swearing softly, he lifted her off her feet.

His next kiss silenced what was left of her yammering brain. It had been ages since anyone had kissed her and, in truth, no one had ever done it with such concentrated, pent-up need. Skill aside, his enthusiasm was flattering: probing, sucking, tilting his head or hers to find new variations of their perfect fit.

When he nipped her lower lip and tugged it, she felt devoured, just as Linda at the Clip ‘n’ Curl had longed to be. She was glad her nails were short because her fingers dug into his skin. Groaning, he set her on the cutting block, pulled her legs apart and stepped between.

Whoa, thought Mariann, her eyes going wide as she registered the length and breadth of what he was beginning to grind against her, slowly, fiercely, with a gasp that sounded like relief. Her hands clutched his back in amazement. Who’d have expected a man so meticulously put together would sport an erection this rude? The surprise of it aroused her, the thrill as undeniable as it was cheap. Not only was he harder than the eighteen-year-old boys she’d nearly forgotten, Bastien Luce was seriously hung.

Like some dewy-eyed ingénue, she found herself wondering if he would fit.

To hell with that, she decided. She’d make him fit… and enjoy every rock-hard inch.

With a curse, he moved his mouth to her neck. “I won’t hurt you,” he said, panting like a runner against her pulse. “Please do not think it.”

“No,” she assured him just as heavily. “Never crossed my mind.”

This was true, though he was uncannily quick with his hands. She wasn’t sure when he had removed it, but her chef’s jacket, the one they all called whites, was gone. Now he was pushing her T-shirt up her belly, stroking the skin he uncovered bit by bit. A tingle spread from beneath his fingers, as if he were infused with electricity. She half expected to see sparks.

The effect he had on her was disconcerting. She was no slave to her needs, no silly romantic to go spineless at holding hands. But she squirmed at the sensations, her body growing hotter with every touch. She fought a groan as his palms smoothed around her ribs to pop the clasp of her plain beige bra.

Since Mariann was no centerfold, normally this was the point where she got self-conscious. Bastien didn’t give her a chance.

“Look at you,” he breathed, both thumbs sweeping arcs across her now bare breasts. Caught at their edges, her areolae swelled and itched. She held her breath as he bent his head.

Even though she was expecting it, her back arched uncontrollably as his mouth fastened on one peak. She barely noticed the caresses of his second hand. His tongue was clearly cleverer than the common run, finding nerves she hadn’t known she had. As her muscles threatened to turn to water, he laid her back against the knife-scored wood of her work table. He was suckling strongly, making small, hungry noises as if he liked what he was doing as much as she did.

The vanilla bean she’d been splitting crushed beneath her back.

On top of everything else, the scent was more than she could take, the sense that he had pushed into a sphere no other lover had been a part of. The kitchen was her fortress against the world. Suddenly her heels were locked in the small of his back and she was grinding against him. She’d never been so desperate for a climax, so hot and needy and tight.

“God,” he choked, breaking free of her breast and breathing hard. His palm slid smoothly up her hip. “Please. Allow me.”

Beyond inhibitions, she ripped her zipper down herself, inviting his hand to slip over her mound and between her folds. He sucked in air as he found her wetness. She was more than slick; she was drowning. Without resistance, two of his fingers slipped inside. His thumb rubbed slow, firm circles against her cit.

“Go ahead,” he rasped, reading the way her muscles tensed. “Squeeze your thighs around my wrist.”

She obeyed his coaxing without hesitation. What he was doing felt better than she could believe, better than anyone had ever done for her, better—she thought with astonishment—than she could do for herself.

Maybe she should have tried a Frenchman long ago.

A particularly sharp ache of pleasure dragged his name from her throat. His eyes came up, shocking her with their fire. His face was strained, his lips pressed whitely over his teeth. The sight told her how selfish she was being.

“You don’t have to do this,” she said.

He laughed and she realized with something like awe that he was shaking. “You don’t know me very well if you think that.”

“But you—”

“I want to watch you come.”

She had an orgasm as he said it, a sweet, unexpected burst that seemed to swell just from the husky growl of his voice.

When it ended, his tongue curled out to wet his upper lip. “There’s a start,” he said with a humor that robbed her embarrassment of its sting. “In case you haven’t guessed, however, I’m a bit more orally fixated.”

Any question about what he meant vanished when he yanked her sweaty chinos down to her knees. His hands slid up to caress her legs, kneading deeply where they met her torso. She fought an urge to close her knees, unable to doubt he liked what he saw. His eyes were glittering with admiration. With a salacious grin, he squeezed her admittedly well-formed thighs.

“Must be the bike,” he said. “Bet you’ll wrap me good.”

“Bastien—” Her protest was lost as he dropped down on his knees. Abruptly off balance, she grabbed his hair. He had swooped onto her without warning, but any thought of objection dissolved into a soundless wow. Everything he’d put into his kisses, he brought to this. And this was a man who could tie cherry stems in double time.

She gasped as he found her favorite spot and teased it with his tongue, faster and faster, one hand massaging her sheath while his second formed a V pointing downward from above his mouth. Those fingers pressed broader, subtler nerves, spreading sensation throughout her groin. The pleasure was almost frightening. Her skin was humming, her toes curled hard. She tried to keep quiet but could not, mewling and twitching until her hips bucked upward and her body seized deliciously from head to toe.

He gave her a second to gulp for air, then pushed her over again.

This climax was even sweeter, more than her greediest hunger could have asked. She was helpless beneath the spasms, gripped by ripples of joyous surfeit for long minutes. Her muscles were as warm as cinnamon when she relaxed.

“Wow,” she sighed, the word coming out at last.

He was quiet, but she felt him smile, his cheek resting on her pubis, his hand spread across her abdomen.

To her surprise, she was stroking his decadently lengthy hair. She didn’t know when she’d started and wasn’t sure she could stop, though it seemed—perversely, perhaps, given their recent actions—a too-intimate thing to do. His hair was thicker than she expected but just as silky. The strands felt strong when she combed them up off his back, more like a cat’s than a human being’s. She smiled to herself, thinking she’d better not let Pirate Vic suspect he had competition.

“Thank you,” Bastien said in a sleepy tone.

Mariann had to laugh. “You know, I’m pretty sure that’s my line.”

When his head came up, a trick of the light set his eyes aglow. “I wish I could stay, but dawn is coming, and I know you still have to work.”

Mariann’s hands clapped against her cheeks. How could she have forgotten so completely who and where she was?

“Don’t worry,” he said, helping her slide off the table and into her clothes. “Emile will have made certain Heather didn’t hear. No one will gossip about what we did.”

“Nice friend you have.” She fought a wisp of unease as he turned her gently to do up her bra.

“The best,” he reassured her. Momentarily shy, she tucked her T-shirt in by herself. When she faced him again, he cupped her face in his big, smooth hand. His skin was warm now, just as he’d vowed. “I meant it when I said thank you. I know you don’t trust lightly.”

“I feel bad. You didn’t… I mean, it’s not like I think we ought to be going at it in my kitchen, or that you should risk, uh, aggravating your allergy, but—”

He stopped her nattering by taking her hand and placing it squarely over his crotch. He didn’t have to encourage her more than that. Her fingers curled around his huge erection of their own accord, surrounding his balls and shaft in summer-thin Italian wool. There was, she realized, nothing under that cloth but him. She remembered her dream, where she’d seen the furry hang of him from behind. He was just as hard as she’d imagined then, though she hadn’t imagined quite so much of him. Within her hold, his blood pulsed with enthralling steadiness and force.

It would have taken a stronger woman than her to resist the chance to explore.

He didn’t wince when she squeezed him, though his normally ivory face turned a dusky rose. Mariann’s throat tightened with excitement. She sensed he’d let her do anything, try anything, and never utter a complaint.

“Don’t you wrinkle?” she asked, suddenly noting the state of his shirt. Eyes dancing with laughter, he shook his head. “I’m preternaturally tidy.”

“Preternaturally, huh?” The catch in his breath delighted her as her nails dragged back along his trouser’s seam. “You know that makes me want to muss you more.”

He caught her hand before she could. “I should warn you,” he said with a hint of roughness. “If you were touching me this way, skin to skin, with your bare palm against my cock, I wouldn’t care where we were or what work you had left to do. I’d throw you down and fuck you on the village green.”

His slurred Parisian accent made the words sound like poetry. She had a feeling he meant every one. “Boy, oh, boy,” she said once she caught her breath, “do you make a girl want to play hooky!”

His smile could only be described as wolfish, his eyes once again catching some stray gleam. He lifted her hand from between his legs, making an oddly sexy gesture of licking her palm. “I look forward to you making this up to me,” he said, “when your schedule allows.”

He was smart to leave the timing up to her. If he’d been pushy, she might have balked. Now she wasn’t sure how long she could wait. Right then, a minute sounded like an eternity.

“I could maybe leave a little early—”

“No,” he said, caressing the side of her neck as he kissed her brow. “Don’t regret leaving me this way. You’ve satisfied at least one of my appetites. In fact”—his lips curled against her forehead—“you’re the best breakfast I ever had.”

She wasn’t used to men being this nice. Flustered but secretly pleased, she searched for a joke. “Just don’t expect me to be serving this to your guests.”

To her pleasure, he left on a laugh.

AS Bastien neared the hidden entrance to his and Emile’s quarters, the sun was trembling behind the trees, declaring its approach by adding heaviness to his limbs. Contrary to current fictional belief, the first few rays would not kill him, merely make him drunk and rob him of the sense it took to know when he’d had enough. Thirty minutes of full exposure would probably prove sufficient to set him alight, and less for serious burns. The more power an upyr had, the more sunlight he could withstand. The danger lay in growing addicted. Upyr who did that tended to die young.

Despite the risk, Bastien felt the lure of oblivion now.

Being in love was a powerful lot of work. His emotions were rocketing up and down like a roller coaster. Yes, he was happy he and Mariann had finally connected, but he couldn’t fight his sense of waiting for the other shoe to drop. Would the gods grow jealous and yank her away? Could someone like him deserve to be content?

Screw deserving it, he thought. He’d take what he wanted and be damned.

Emile broke into his distraction. “Bastien,” he called. “It’s time to get underground.”

He waited by the entrance to their retreat, a cleverly fashioned boulder that swung around on a pivot to reveal a flight of black granite stairs. In case this camouflage was not enough, magic also hid the opening from human eyes, runes so old their origins were lost in myth. Bastien had inscribed them reluctantly. Experience had taught him to be mistrustful of magic’s power.

“I’m coming,” he said and descended behind his friend.

He gave his shoulders a shake. No doubt the dawn was aggravating his moodiness.

As soon as his head was clear of the door, an electric eye instructed it to swing shut. Just as convenient were the tiny lights set into the stairway’s arched ceiling. Arranged to resemble the constellations, their low illumination was perfect for upyr eyes. The electricians had done a marvelous job, as had all his builders. Bastien regretted that he had to thrall their memories when they were done. Proficiency like theirs deserved to be recalled.

Then again, it was Bastien’s power—and Bastien’s bite—that had spurred them to their best. Nothing like a dose of blood-enhanced upyr mind power to keep your hired hands in line.

Once they stepped off the long stairs, a handsome Indian carpet lined the tunnel’s heart-of-pine floor. Despite the obligatory lack of windows, the twelve-foot ceilings made the passage appear spacious. With the ease of long acquaintance, Emile and Bastien’s footsteps fell into synchrony.

“This place is great,” Emile crowed as he often did upon coming home. “Much more comfortable than Ulric’s cave.”

Though true, the reminder of Bastien’s exile increased the leadenness in his gut. His legs temporarily refused to go on.

“She’s the one,” he announced hollowly.

Emile stopped a second after he did. “The one what?”

“My queen. Mariann is my queen. She makes me want to claim my destiny.” Emile snorted and resumed walking.

Bastien hastened to catch up. “You think I’m delusional.”

“I think you’re the slowest upyr I ever met. You should have claimed your kingship centuries ago.” “You of all people know why I can’t.”

“I know why you believe you can’t. My opinion diverges.”

Emile was probably the only upyr alive who could contradict him with impunity. Even with their long friendship, Bastien’s hands balled into angry fists. “If I can’t win her—”

“Yes, I know,” Emile sighed, “you’ll throw yourself off a cliff.”

His condescension made Bastien grab his arm. To his annoyance, Emile’s eyes were laughing when he spun around. “How can I win her when I can’t tell her who I am?”

“Today you can’t tell her. Next month or next year may be a different story.” Emile rubbed his arm as Bastien released it. “Leave it to time and nature. Be satisfied you made a start.”

“She does like me,” Bastien said, his memory of her smile making him bounce on his toes. “More than I thought. But maybe I rushed her. She hasn’t been divorced very long. Maybe I took advantage of her loneliness.”

“Mon Dieu!” Emile exclaimed, forking his hands through his hair. “All’s fair, you idiot. How do you think people fall in love?”

“I don’t know,” Bastien said, taken aback by Emile’s ire. “I’ve never tried to do it before.” “Pah. You are a shame to your countrymen. I don’t know why I stay friends with you.”

This time Bastien knew Emile was teasing. He slung his arm around the other’s shoulder. “You stay friends with me because you love me… almost as much as I love the fair Mariann.”

“Oh, no.” Emile shook his head. “The good Lord save me from that!”

Chapter 4

ROUND about two in the afternoon, once Heather’s tattooed boyfriend had loaded their last delivery into his van, Mariann was ready to call it a day.

Heather and Eric had been full of giggles, chasing each other around the lot like kids. Their antics made her smile in spite of her fatigue. She’d gotten through her work on automatic pilot, luck and experience all that kept her from culinary catastrophe. Her thoughts had been too occupied with Bastien to try for more.

She could still feel his hands smoothing up her thrumming body, still taste his kiss in her mouth. What she couldn’t decide was whether giving in to him had been wise. He had been considerate, even endearing in his pursuit. Since when, after all, could a woman like her make a man like that so shy? But was it instinct that urged her to trust him, or should she chalk the inclination up to lust?

If she were honest, the answer would probably have little to do with what happened next. With a philosophic shrug for her libido, Mariann tipped two fingers to Harv, their senior citizen counter guy.

The bakery’s tables were mostly full, and a family of rumpled tourists had their noses pressed with complete enchantment to the display case. Standing slightly behind her brood, the harried mother smiled. She looked as if she could identify with Mariann’s long day.

“Lemon meringue pie,” Mariann suggested, grinning back with equal fellowship. “Loaded with vitamins. Hardly any calories at all.”

When the woman laughed, Mariann knew she’d pleased her.

“Ice cream’s sellin’ good,” Harv called as she slipped out. “Better make another batch tonight.” “Will do,” Mariann agreed.

Outside, her momentary cheeriness drained away. Her weight was barely enough to depress the pedals of her bike. Luckily, the ride home was mostly downhill. Too tired to cook just for herself, she made a meal of soup straight out of the can, peeled off her clothes and fell into bed.

To her disappointment, she didn’t dream of Bastien. Instead, sometime past ten her eyelids flew up. “Crap,” she said to the ceiling. “Crap, crap, crap.”

Pirate Vic, who must have curled up at her feet while she was sleeping, mewed politely in inquiry.

She’d left her grandfather’s recipe book at the bakery, right under the counter where Arabella had watched her take it out. Groaning, Mariann shoved off the covers and got dressed, too annoyed with herself to laugh at Vic’s attempts to steal her socks. She pulled them on, cat spit and all, then stroked his scruffy head in consolation. It was too much to hope that the journal would be safe where it was. As far as Mariann knew, her former partner still had her key.

She’d been meaning to change the locks, in a vague sort of I-should-get-to-that way. Other things had always seemed more important and then, as month after month went by without incident, it seemed silly to bother. In the end, she’d forgotten the whole idea.

Unfortunately, with her new career at stake, and her dubious sense of honor, Arabella was sure to heed temptation’s call.

She biked to the bakery in a sweat, only to find the journal exactly where she’d left it. Relieved, she hugged the book to her breast.

“Thank you,” she breathed to whatever guardian angel was watching over her. She didn’t think she could bear to let Arabella steal any more than she had.

Tucking the journal safely in her basket, she reversed direction, pedaling slowly to enjoy the ride. Since Maple Notch wasn’t known for its nightlife, she had the two-lane road to herself. She patted her fanny pack to check the presence of her cell phone, then just relaxed. Tourist season was good, but so was this emptiness. More at peace than she’d been in months, she filled her lungs with sweet rural air. The temperature was balmy, the stars like gems in the ribbon of black the treetops left. She was young—more or less—and healthy and quite possibly about to embark on a hot affair. Small-town Betty Crocker or not, she doubted life got much better.

The approach of a car behind her seemed no cause for fear. Her bike had reflectors, and her shirt was white. Certain she could be seen, she shifted onto the shoulder without bothering to look around.

Only when the car revved its engine did her adrenaline begin to spurt.

BASTIEN’S muzzle came up as his wolf-nose caught Mariann’s scent. Appetite sated by a fat raccoon, he and Emile had been chasing rabbits playfully through the woods, racing back and forth, and generally having fun. He’d welcomed the distraction, but now the hope of seeing the source of his romantic worries seemed fortuitous.

Chocolate ! thought the part of him that was not man, and, Get a scratch behind the ear! Heedless of whose land he ran on, he galloped eagerly toward the smell.

He found it just in time to see the car roar around the bend.

It was a big, black Mercedes, running fast without its lights, nearly invisible on the mountain road. If that weren’t alarming enough, its wheels suddenly swerved toward Mariann. An instant of denial paralyzed him in his tracks. Why was the driver going so fast? Surely whoever it was had to see her! But the bike fender twanged as it was clipped. Mariann went flying into the trees, farther than he would have thought she could, too shocked to cry out.

His world dimmed sickeningly at the sound of her skull hitting a rock, knowing at once that it wasn’t a mild injury. Back on the road, brakes whined to a stop.

No, he thought. No, no, no.

A car door opened. A woman’s heels clacked hurriedly.

“Jesus,” muttered Emile. “She isn’t calling 911. She’s rummaging through the bike.”

The words meant nothing. Though Bastien had no memory of changing, he knelt in human form beside Mariann. He was lucky he was in the habit of using his glamour. Otherwise, he would have lit up the road. Mariann lay sprawled and awkward behind a screen of weeds, a broken marionette smeared with blood and dirt. This couldn’t be happening, not when he’d finally found her.

“Yes!” hissed a voice that seemed familiar. A car door slammed. Tires spun. The Mercedes scattered gravel as it left.

Bastien tried to breathe.

“She’s gone,” Emile said, appearing beside him. “She took Mariann’s book. Is Mariann still alive?” Her pulse beat so feebly in her throat that even with his upyr senses, Emile had to ask. “Yes.” Bastien’s voice was a croak. He didn’t dare touch her pallid cheek. “Barely.”

Emile sank to his knees and gripped Bastien’s shoulder. “Do it,” he said. “Change her. If you wait any longer, there won’t be time.”

“I can’t.” Cold tears trickled down his face. “She’s unconscious. She can’t say yes or no. The Upyr Code—”

“Fuck the Code. In all the time I’ve known you, she’s the only woman you’ve ever loved. If she wants a choice, she can have it after you save her.”

Bastien lifted her limp, curled hand as if it were glass. For once, her skin was chillier than his. She did not move as he pressed her fingers to his heart. “I’ve never transformed a mortal. I’ve only watched others do it. If my power isn’t up to it—”

“Your power is fine. All you need is the will.”

Emile coaxed the hand that cradled Mariann’s up to Bastien’s mouth. Cold though it was, the scent of her flesh made him tense with longing. “Drink, Bastien. Just a little. It will make changing her easier.”

This, too, was forbidden to Bastien’s kind: to feed from humans when they had no chance to resist. He discovered he did not care. Whatever happened, he would carry a part of her within his being.

He moaned in anguish as his fangs slid free, praying to he knew not what. Let her live, he thought. Let her live. Within his gentle hold, her wrist bone was as delicate as a bird’s. He pierced the vein and took a single swallow. She tasted of joy and sorrow, sweet beyond his wildest dreams. Despite everything, there was pleasure in the act of feeding, a quickening of sense and flesh. He had to force himself to release her. Her strength was too slight to risk taking more.

Emile’s eyes glowed in sympathy. “She is inside you,” he said huskily. “Use the bond of blood to make that of flesh.”

Bastien thought her eyelids fluttered, but could not say for sure. Death was close to her, that he knew, like smoke clinging to his tongue.

He had no more hesitation, only the certainty one feels in dreams. With a slow exhalation, he let his physical form dissolve into light, the way all upyr did before turning wolf. Then, rather than reach for his beast, he sent his spirit flowing into Mariann, into the spaces between the molecules that made her up. By uniting their energies, he would leave behind the essence that made him immortal—like a yeast, Mariann would have said, that causes a bread to rise. The melding was unexpectedly sensual, a penetration beyond what solid bodies could achieve.

He expected to see visions of angels or stars such as other upyr had reported—though no one knew if these images were real. Whether they were or not, no visions came to Bastien. What he registered most was her: her broken body, her struggling mind blurring with his strong one. The ground was hard beneath them, the leaves a thin, damp mat. Without his presence she would not have felt anything at all. He had to fight not to lose himself in the link.

I love you, he thought at her with all his might. Let me heal you. Let me bring you back.

Gramps? said the tiny spark of her consciousness.

I love you, he said again, uncertain how to respond. If her grandfather could call her back, that’s who he’d

She made a sound no mortal could have heard, a broken whimper that felt as if it issued from his own throat. Her pain ripped at his heart. Bonded with her as he was, he could not doubt she was his mate, the woman who could be his queen. Every instinct he had screamed out that truth. He couldn’t lose her. He’d rather follow her into the dark. Had he been certain they’d be together… but he was not. Death, and the rules by which it worked, was as much a mystery to him as to anyone.

His words came from the deepest recess of his soul.

I’ve been waiting for you, he pleaded. Don’t you want to stay with me?

SOMEONE held Mariann, someone with a strong, warm chest and a deep, male voice. Another man was answering, a gentle murmur above her head. Pine needles muffled the tread of their feet. She was being carried through the woods. A fired burned in her ribs and along one arm, her bones crackling oddly like Rice Krispies in milk.

They’re broken, she thought, the pain as distant as a dream.

She didn’t have the energy to open her eyes. She tried to remember if she had rescued her grandfather’s book, if she’d gotten to the bakery on time.

In the jumble that was her mind, she kept seeing a running wolf. The funny thing was, as soon as she thought it, she knew who her rescuer was. She couldn’t understand why that felt so right.

“You’re fine,” said Bastien Luce, pressing his lips to her hair. “Even now your injuries heal.”

Her temple rested on his shoulder, barely jogged by his tireless steps. When she listened for his heart it beat very slowly, though his body had none of the coolness it had shown before. Maybe he was a yogi to control such things. Maybe he slept on a bed of nails. She smiled at the silly thought. The way he carried her made her feel as safe as a child.

“Always,” he said. “You’ll always be safe with me.”

She knew she was dreaming then. No one could be safe always.

WHEN she woke, Mariann could not for the life of her think where she was. She felt really good—which didn’t seem right—as if she’d been to an expensive spa. Wherever she was, the room she’d slept in was completely dark, and the bed definitely wasn’t hers. The sheets were silk: impractical, heavy silk, their weight like sun-warmed water on her naked skin. Aroused by their slippery clasp, she had a powerful urge to pull them closer and roll around.

Instead, she forced herself to be still, her nipples sharp, her belly and knees tingling with unusual sensitivity. As she lay there, listening, she couldn’t shake the sensation of being watched.

This, strangely enough, was the most erotic awareness of all.

The rasp and flare of a match confirmed her suspicion. Bastien Luce stood by what turned out to be a low platform bed, as gloriously naked as any daydream she’d ever had. One shade paler than his sheets, his skin was a pure, rich ivory, his eyes like jewels cut out from a Caribbean sea. His long, glossy hair shone black with garnet undertones, a cape around his broad shoulders. She felt ashamed for calling him pretty. In this light, on this night, he was heartbreakingly beautiful.

As if his appearance—and never mind his presence—were natural, he touched the match to a beeswax candle, which he set into a sconce that curled from the wall.

Despite her curiosity at her surroundings, her gaze couldn’t stray long from him.

She noticed her eyes weren’t working the way they should. Colors danced around him sheer as veils, the likes of which she hadn’t seen since one of her more adventurous boyfriends had convinced her to try a funny mushroom. She felt a bit like she had then, just a heck of a lot less queasy and a hell of a lot more turned on.

“Don’t be afraid,” he said. “You’re perfectly safe where you are.”

Maybe she should have been afraid. Maybe she would be once whatever this was wore off. For the moment, she could only feel ebullient. She looked at his shapely arms and hands, at the cloud of hair on his chest and the mouthwatering six-pack to which it led. His navel caught a pool of shadow that made her throat too tight to speak. Whatever mickey Bastien had slipped her, he had gotten his money’s worth. As her gaze trailed irresistibly down the furry line to his sex, she imagined she could actually see his veins expand. When he noticed her attention, she definitely saw him swell and lift.

And lift and lift, she thought, her teeth catching her lip until it bled. The wound inspired a breathless laugh from him.

“Ah,” he said, “I see you are experiencing some side effects of the change.” He swung one knee onto the silk-sheeted bed, his erection bobbing at the move. Its head was shiny and taut. Obscuring her fascinated view, he propped one arm beside her and bent to drag his tongue across her bleeding lip. The action made her shiver violently. “Perhaps I could help you get through them.”

She had no idea what he meant, nor did she care. She grabbed the arm on which he was braced, yanking it toward her as she rolled his torso under hers. She wanted to crow as she straddled him. For a man of his size, he’d proved surprisingly easy to pin.

Happily, his arousal didn’t fade at all. His penis thrust straight as an arrow up from his groin, hard enough that it didn’t lay on his belly but hung an inch above, vibrating like a tuning fork. Mariann wanted to taste it so badly, her mouth watered.

“I’m going to give you what I owe you,” she warned, her voice gone thick with lust. “And after that…” Unable to resist, she bent to nip his neck. “After that I’m going to ride you till you hobble like a cowboy at a rodeo.”

“Ah,” he said even more breathlessly than before, “I guess the answer to that is ‘yee-hah.’“

CONSIDERING her fangs were already a trifle sharp, what Mariann proposed to do was on the daring side. Bastien could not have cared less. When her greedy mouth plunged over his aching cock, he simply arched his back and groaned. Her tongue was a touch of heaven on his throbbing shaft.

“God,” she said, drawing back from the first tight pull. “You taste like ambrosia.”

He probably tasted slightly of blood, that fluid a part of everything they were. Since she immediately sank down again, he decided he should be glad.

She had him trembling at the dozenth stroke, had him grabbing fistfuls of the sheets and holding his breath. She was deep-throating him without an effort, her newly tamed head of curls a silky tease against his abdomen. He could tell she’d been good at this as a human. As an upyr, she was sublime. Not satisfied with her amazing oral gymnastics, she cupped his balls, pressing them gently but firmly between his legs. That pressure increased the one inside him until, pushed to the shuddering edge of bliss, he started to relax and let go.

To his dismay, she took this as a signal to call a halt.

He cursed as his glans popped free of her clinging lips.

“I want you to last,” she growled, crawling over him on all fours. “I want you to go all night.” He didn’t have the breath to tell her he would no matter what she did.

“Wait,” he gasped as she poised herself.

Her eyebrows rose until they disappeared behind the tendrils of her hair. “If you’re about to say you’re ‘almost afraid’ to make love to me, you’re going to be on my sh—, uh, bad-person list.”

He laughed at her determination not to curse, running his hands in admiring circles around her hips. She made a beautiful upyr, a bit more rounded but just as strong, the white glow of her skin faintly touched by peach. “I know you’re eager,” he said, “and, believe me, I am grateful. My only request is that you come down slowly for that first thrust.”

Her grin was crooked. “Scared I’ll hurt you?”

Happiness swelled inside him at her teasing, beyond any emotion he thought he’d know. “I think I’m up for whatever you can dish out. Ijust want to savor this. No lovers have more than one first time.”

Her eyes filled unexpectedly, her pupils shining within their newly crystalline blue. “You know, you’re pretty sweet for a weirdo.”

“Honey, you haven’t begun to taste how sweet I am.”

She shivered at the roughness of his voice, her delicate fangs making dents in her lower lip. The evidence of her lust sent his sex surging painfully. He could hardly wait for her to discover the rest of her powers.

Her teeth bit a little deeper as she took him into her palm. The clasp had him quivering exuberantly. “Can you hang on?” she asked, her forehead pinched with a crease of doubt. “If you need a break—”

He pulled her down and kissed away her breath, careful to lick the sensitive spots behind each eyetooth. More than a little affected himself, he broke free with a gasp. “No breaks, Mariann. Take me slowly, then ride me hard.”

“All right,” she said, “since you asked for it.”

When she put his tip against her entrance, both of them jerked. She was ready for him, hot and generously wet. His fingers tightened on her hips as he watched her thigh muscles tense. Her eyelids fluttered when she pushed down.

True to her promise, she took him languorously.

“Oh,” she said at the reach and stretch of him deep inside. Her head dropped back and rolled. “Oh, boy.”

“A little more,” he whispered, devastated by her clasp, by the tempting arch of her neck. “Push all the way.”

She planted her hands on his shoulders and did as he asked. For just an instant, he had a sense of how he felt to her: her instinctive caution at his male invasion, her more modern shame at her delight. His size seemed too much for her—too thick, too hard—and at the same time just enough. Her eyes went round, her fingers kneading fretfully by his neck.

“Wow,” she said. “I think—” She stopped to give her hips a delicious grind. “I think whatever you slipped me made me grow a few extra nerves. I can feel you up to my throat.”

He laughed. “I didn’t slip you anything but this, love.” The upward swivel he used to illustrate made her groan. “What you’re feeling is who you are.”

Her head was shaking from side to side, her distress obvious to see. Her nipples stood out like pale pink cherries against her breasts. “I’ve got to take you,” she said almost fearfully. “Now. And I’ve got to take you really hard.”

“I wouldn’t stop you if I could.”

He slid his hands up in encouragement, over her new and slightly lusher curves. The moment he brushed her nipples, she went wild. She didn’t even wait for him to pluck them. She bucked on him like the rodeo cowboy she’d threatened to make him earlier: hard, merciless thrusts that had his body screaming with pleasure and his teeth gritting for control.

He clung to that control with all his will. After her talk of needing a break, he was damned if he would come first.

She went over with a muffled scream, her body stiffening with her head thrown back, her nails breaking his skin. Not yet knowing why it excited her, she licked her lips at the scent of blood. “More,” she said, her hips going even faster. “I can’t—I have to have more.”

Snarling with a response he could not control, he rolled her under him and began to pump. He had more strength than her, more speed. He shoved an arm beneath her waist to tilt her for the best angle, the one that let him bury all his length. Thankfully, her hands braced on the wall to help. The arch of her back lifted her breasts. She shuddered when her nipples scraped against his chest hair. His fangs were so sharp he could not have hid them if she chose to look.

“Harder?” he said because he wanted to hear the hunger in her response. “Yes,” she gasped. “Oh, yes.”

Their madness could not have been more in tune. She came again and it made him crazy, the shudder of her belly, the way she moaned and pulled him in for more. He’d never felt anything like this, not even with his own kind. His body ruled him. He literally could not have stopped what he was doing. He couldn’t bring himself to want to. This leap into the void was pure, carnal joy, especially knowing she needed it as much as he did. Her heels dug into the mattress, one hand clamping on to his buttock for leverage. He grabbed the bed frame and prayed it wouldn’t break. He was slamming into her with all his strength, his orgasm swelling with tsunami force.

“Feed,” he said, the order harsh. “Sink your teeth in my neck and drink.”

He had so little control he’d thralled her without meaning to, and she was still young enough to go under. Her head snapped up and her fangs broke through his upyr skin. Fire burst in his body, a long, hard groan burning his throat. He hung on the edge of jubilation.

“Drink,” he rasped and she did.

He came like the world was ending, one cock-wrenching spasm after another as she took his lifeblood into her veins. His pleasure was a spur to hers. He felt her quiver and heard her moan. The grip of her luscious, climaxing flesh returned him to full erection before he could fade.

Upyr weren’t known for being swiftly sated, but this surprised even him.

Her mouth fell away as she collapsed beneath him, her lips reddened by his blood. She licked them and blinked in wonderment, the blue of her eyes turned to flame.

“What,” she said, “did we just do?”

He kissed her before her wonder could turn to fear, discovering he couldn’t quite stop thrusting. Slower was the best he could manage, and hopefully with more finesse. When her arms came hesitantly around his back, he moved his kiss to her neck. His beast panted in approval. This was what he needed: to put his mark on her, to drink in her vibrancy.

She turned her head to give him access, wanting his bite even if she didn’t realize what that meant. He dragged his tongue along her tendon, tracing a delicate line of blue. Her calves tightened invitingly behind his hips.

“Ooh,” she said, unable to put into words how nice what he was doing felt.

“You promised I’d hobble,” he murmured against her pulse. “Why don’t we see how long that will take?”

He sucked her skin, hard, lingering over the anticipation. She was his now, after all the centuries of loneliness. A heartbeat longer was all he could bear. With a groan of triumph, he claimed his prize. To his relief, her sigh at his bite was long, her fingers twining in his hair. As he fed, he tasted a bit of himself. Most of all, though, and most arousing, he tasted her surrender.

Chapter 5

THE outraged female shriek dragged Bastien from his rest. It came from his simply appointed bathroom, a match for his spare, Japanese-style room. Bastien enjoyed the massaging shower jets, but didn’t have much use for plumbing aside from that. Whatever he consumed, in either of his forms, his body converted to energy.

Thinking Mariann must have seen her reflection in his full-length mirror—a myth he enjoyed debunking—he rubbed his face and sat up. His room was shaped like a dome, with recessed golden lighting that mimicked the rays of the sun. Thus lit, Mariann looked quite fetching when she stomped back in.

“Eight pounds,” she huffed, fists planted firmly on her naked waist. “How can a person gain eight pounds overnight?”

He’d forgotten about the digital scale, acquired for an experiment to see if he could gain weight. He couldn’t, as it turned out, but he’d thought the device so clever he’d kept it around. Both he and Emile loved technology.

“Surely you don’t think you’re fat,” he said reasonably.

“That’s not the point. I never gain weight. Never. It drives everyone who knows me mad.” “I expect they’d be interested to hear you enjoy it.”

“Well, of course I enjoy it. I’m a woman!”

He could see this discussion was veering off track. He patted the futon beside his hip. “We should talk. Come sit down.”

“I don’t think it’s nice of you to hide your toilet,” she added as she complied. “Plus, I couldn’t find a comb or brush. My hair came out all funny this morning. I look like a poodle.”

He pulled her hand from where it was tugging her glossy curls, which were transformed just like the rest of her. When humans changed, they became the ideal expression of their genetics. Height, weight, even age shifted to conform to rules for beauty that transcended culture and time. That being the case, it amazed him that she could complain. Women were stranger creatures than he had guessed.

“You look wonderful,” he said, kissing her knuckles. “Absolutely flawless. And you obviously needed those extra pounds or you wouldn’t have them. I promise you, though, you’ll never have to worry about gaining another.”

She stared at him. “No man can promise a woman that. What if my metabolism is getting slower? This could be the start of my downhill slide. Pretty soon I’ll be as roly-poly as people expect.”

He didn’t know whether to sigh or laugh. Of a certainty, the next few minutes were going to be more difficult than he thought. He put his hand on her perfectly rounded thigh. “Mariann, what do you remember about last night… before we burned up the sheets?”

“I remember you must have slipped something into my drink.” “You remember drinking?”

“No, but—” A strange expression crossed her face, her brain trying to remind her of the seemingly impossible. Grimacing, she pushed the prodding away. “It has to be that. I never act the way I did with you—not that it wasn’t fun.”

Her faint peach blush charmed him to his toes. He patted her leg in thanks. “I appreciate the compliment. Now think back, don’t you remember riding your bike home from O’Faolain’s? Don’t you remember being struck by a car?”

“Of course I don’t. I… oh, my God. Arabella. She ran me down.” Her mouth dropped open and her hands went to her breast. “Please tell me she didn’t get my grandfather’s book. Damn it. I’m going to wring her stupid, lying neck!”

“Mariann! There’s a bit more going on here than your vendetta against your ex-partner. The injuries you took were fatal. If I hadn’t changed you, you would be dead.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. If I’d been that badly injured, I’d be in a hospital.”

Even when he explained, she fought belief. He had to take her through the proof step-by-step: how she felt, how she looked, how thoroughly she had enjoyed biting his neck. Judging it too much to absorb, he refrained from telling her about his wolf. The omission didn’t seem to help. Finally, he pricked his forefinger and waved it beneath her nose.

She shrieked as her fangs shot out.

“I can’t be a vampire,” she wailed behind her hand. “Who’s going to feed my cat?”

He would have laughed except she began to weep. Feeling helpless, he pulled her against him and rubbed her back.

“How can I run O’Faolain’s?” she sobbed, her tears running down his chest. “You can’t be a pastry chef if you can’t eat. That bakery is my life!”

“You’ll have a new life, I promise. You can’t begin to imagine how much fun you’ll have. Please stop crying, love. I don’t think I can bear it.”

“You don’t understand.” “Tell me then,” he said.

She sat back and frowned at him, clearly deciding how to explain. “When I was eight,” she said, her palms rubbing at her knees, “I baked my first dessert for my parents. It was a caramel apple tarte tatin—a fancy apple pie, I guess you’d say, though the presentation was tricky. I practiced for weeks with my grandfather. I was convinced it had to be perfect. Only then would my parents understand why I had to spend summers in Maple Notch. Only then would they realize there wasn’t any point in sending me to camp. I didn’t want to be like other kids.”

“And was it perfect?”

“It seemed that way to me. Slid right out of the mold with every apple slice standing straight. I can remember my mother’s reaction like it was yesterday. ‘Why, that’s pretty enough for a restaurant,’ she said like I’d performed a miracle. My dad—who was a big, tough factory foreman—took a bite, set down his fork and teared up. He said he was honored I would bake for him.

“That’s when I understood about cooking coming out of love. My parents and I were very different people. My mom thought baking was something you did with a mix, and only because you had to. When I made that dessert for them, that was the first time I could share my heart.”

By now, the evidence of her tears was gone. Unfortunately, forgiveness had not replaced them.

“You did this,” she said, in a frighteningly level tone. “Without my permission. Knowing full well I’d be forced to give up everything I care about.”

He didn’t want to feel defensive, didn’t want to acknowledge she might be right. Instead, he folded his arms across his chest. “Call me crazy, Mariann, but I thought you cared about your life.”

“You had a thing for me. You said it yourself. You’d been thinking about kissing me since we met. You… you…”

“Changed you?”

“You changed me because you wanted me to be your sex slave!”

She bit her lip as if this sounded silly even to her. Bastien might not have handled this situation as well as he could, but he knew enough not to laugh.

“You aren’t my sex slave,” he said. “What happened last night happened because you are upyr. All your appetites will be stronger. You’ll control them better as you go along.” He laid what he hoped was a calming hand on her upper arm.

“Until that happens, I assure you, I’d be happy to help you out.”

Unamused, she swatted away his touch.

“I’m going home,” she said, rising to gather her discarded clothes. “I need to think.”

A panic he tried to subdue welled in his throat. “You’ll have to return by sunrise. We’re twenty meters underground here. Your house isn’t shielded. It will be years before you can risk more than a few minutes out.”

She stopped with her T-shirt half pulled down. In her expression, he could see the truth hitting her again. “Will sunlight kill me?” she asked. “Is that part of the stories true?”

He turned away to hide the agitation her question stirred. When Emile spoke of giving Mariann a choice after Bastien changed her, he hadn’t thought she’d truly want one. He’d thought he could make her happy. He’d thought she would fall in love. He saw now how naive he’d been.

Pressing his fist to his breastbone, he released a breath. “Yes,” he said as steadily as he could. “Emile and I

have some resistance, but young as you are, you could burn completely within ten minutes. Immolation is painful, to say the least, but if you were determined, you could succeed.”

She said nothing, as if the answer sobered the last of her rage. After a pause, he heard her pulling on her pants. The sound of her zipper preceded her voice.

“Is it nighttime now?”

“Yes,” he said. “You slept through the day. When the morning gets close again, you’ll feel sleepy. You’ll have more than enough warning.”

“Even if I can’t see the sun?”

“Even then.”

He didn’t know the words to stop her, and wasn’t sure he ought to say them if he had. Instead, he watched her walk to the door. She paused on the threshold, one pale, perfect hand curled around the frame. Every one of the dings and cuts she’d been so proud of had disappeared.

“I understand why you saved me,” she said quietly. “I might not approve of the way you did it, but I understand.”

He had no response for that. Grateful though he was, her understanding was a million light-years from what he craved.

MARIANN found her way out of Bastien and Emile’s outrageously elegant subterranean residence without consciously knowing how. The bunker was, she gathered, a serious of domes connected by tunnels. The various halls bent like a maze, the dozens of doors suggesting the prospect of future residents.

During the course of his explanations, Bastien had said they “weren’t very many.” She hadn’t had the presence of mind to ask what he meant. Were there hundreds of upyr in the world? Thousands? Intuition told her there couldn’t be more than thousands or people would have noticed. Not sure she wanted to dwell on that, she let her body lead her, her nose sensing the dew-soaked night beyond the earth and rock.

The secret door moved at the touch of her hand. She suspected it wouldn’t have if Bastien hadn’t allowed

it.

Once outside, she followed a slightly overgrown walking trail through the woods. Her sensitivity to sound was eerie. Every creak and crackle registered. This was not, however, the only change in her perceptions.

Her brain itself seemed sharper than before.

The accident—if Arabella’s actions could be called that—was coming back in vivid detail. Despite the technicolor memory, she was having trouble believing it had occurred.

A vampire . Bastien Luce had made her a vampire.

Upyr, she corrected herself, wishing mere semantics could ease her mind. Though she tried, she could not imagine how she would cope with being one. Every turn of her thoughts brought another obstacle into view.

She reached the back of her house much sooner than she expected, her new and improved legs having eaten up the distance in record time—yet another trait she’d have to learn to hide from her friends.

The mere idea overwhelmed her. How on earth was she going to face people she knew? Her friends weren’t stupid. Linda at the Clip ‘n’ Curl noticed if Mariann even thought of cutting her own bangs.

A rising and falling growl of feline discontentment snapped her gaze to the porch. To say Pirate Vic was bristling was like saying the Sahara was dry. Her poor cat looked like someone had stuck his tail in a socket. The last time he’d puffed up like this, he’d been the sorriest abandoned kitten she’d ever seen, spitting behind her Dumpster at the bakery.

Obviously horrified by her appearance, he’d backed up all the way to his kitty door.

With a lump in her throat, she hunkered down before the steps. “It’s me,” she cooed. “Mariann. The one who feeds you kibble when you’re worn out from chasing mice.”

At her voice, the low yowling stopped. Though his tail still twitched, his fur went down to half-mast.

“That’s right,” she said encouragingly, “come sniff my fingers and see it’s me.”

After a few false starts, he came, giving her one aggravated nip before butting her knee and breaking into a noisy purr. She hadn’t realized how much he meant to her until she hefted him in her arms. She refused to acknowledge the fact that he smelled sort of yummy. Vic was her pet and she’d protect him no matter what. It wasn’t like she’d ever felt the need to eat everything in sight. Vampire or not, there were rules.

“You still feel heavy,” she said tearfully into his ruff. “I guess my vampire strength’s not all that.”

She carried him into the kitchen and fed him with extra scratches and praise. She left him crunching happily while she went upstairs. Her bedroom mirror was not full-length, merely a waist-up square above her chest of drawers. She figured this would be less intimidating than the tall one in Bastien’s bath.

Even so, she gritted her teeth to brace herself once she pulled off her clothes. Her eyes went wide as she took in the view.

She was hot. More than hot. She was curvy, something she’d never been in her life. Stepping back, she turned to the side to check out her breasts and butt. J Lo’s rep was safe but, honestly, she was fine! She slid one hand over her stomach, which—to her relief—she didn’t have to suck in. She had to admit she didn’t hate the hint of voluptuousness. She did notice she wasn’t creating a light show the way Bastien had last night, but maybe that was because she was new.

No doubt about it, though: her skin was seriously pale, more cream than white but close enough. Then again, for all she knew she would look snowy to human eyes.

I’m not a human, she thought, her knees giving out so that she had to sit on the bed. I’m not a human and if I were I would be dead.

She pressed her hand over her heart. Despite being upset, it beat slow and steady behind her ribs. Curious, she stretched her legs off the floor. Those were nice legs: hairless legs, so she guessed vampires didn’t shave. She supposed she’d figure out the rules for why as she went along.

“You need to do that,” she said to herself aloud, then rose to put on a fresh outfit. Her clothes were tighter than she was used to but they looked all right—sexy, if she told the truth.

Arabella would die of envy to see her looking this good.

She wrinkled her nose at the reminder of their enmity. Right now getting back at Arabella didn’t seem important, no matter what she’d tried to do. Mariann had a date with her refrigerator. Bastien could drink espresso… and wine, as she recalled. Before she gave up her old life she was going to see just how much of it was ruined.

As Gramps liked to say, “If the third time’s not the charm, go ahead and try the fourth.” That philosophy had made him a patient teacher. She was counting on it to keep her from despair tonight.

THE Night Owl’s reception area was Bastien’s favorite part of the inn. The first section to be refurbished, it was a cozy Gothic hall with star-shaped ribbing on the ceiling and a carved oak desk like something out of a rectory. Though it was a romanticized Victorian version of the Middle Ages, Bastien took no offense at inaccuracies. For him, the style was a bridge between the modern day and his birth, a place he could feel at home but not out of step.

Behind the desk, fifteen cubbyholes waited for messages; before it, a Persian rug would welcome weary feet. Bastien didn’t mind that he would never gaze out the mullioned windows during the day, or that he would have to turn much of the business’s running over to others.

He had conceived this, had made this bed and breakfast a place where humans could step out of the humdrum and into another time. If it never made a penny, he’d still be proud of the accomplishment. To his mind, its greatest value was not as a potential profit center, but as a window on the mortal world. Humans and upyr shared the planet. In order for his kind to thrive, more of them needed to understand their fellow travelers. For those upyr who agreed with him, his door would remain open.

The ambition of the project occasionally took his breath away—his first taste of running anything in a thousand years. He had enjoyed being in charge more than he should. Whatever denials he’d given Emile, he had been born to rule. He could not doubt it standing in this tiny kingdom that he had made, certainly not with Mariann’s accusations ringing in his ears.

You did this. Without my permission. Knowing full well I’d be forced to give up everything I care about.

She’d hit the target truer than she’d known. He’d thought himself beyond such dictatorial behavior, but he’d been wrong.

Regrettably, being born to rule didn’t mean being born to rule well.

Impatient with his mood, he dropped into the reception desk’s swiveling chair, rolling back and forth on its bronze casters. Despite his regret, he didn’t see what else he could have done. Did it make him a horrible person to admit he preferred Mariann’s resentment to her demise? That regardless of what she wanted, he’d do everything in his power to keep her alive? He couldn’t bring himself to alter his decision, even knowing it might be wrong. In truth, what he wanted more than anything was to grab the scruff of her neck and drag her safely home.

She was his pack, he thought stubbornly, just like Emile. Never mind the Upyr Council had not approved his elevation to the rank of leader. Never mind he didn’t entirely approve of it himself. Nature was nature. If it wasn’t a higher law, at the least it was a law that shouldn’t be ignored.

He stood abruptly with his resolve, his hands spread across their as-yet-empty reservation book. He would go to her. It was madness to leave her alone in her current disheartened state. Now was the time to press his case. She might have been a vulnerable human before, but tonight she was strong enough to fight.

As far as he was concerned, that was all the fairness she . would get.

BASTIEN had never been in her home before, though he’d spent a night or two staring longingly at the windows. Considering his intent, he didn’t wait for an invitation to poke his head into her bright kitchen. Its simplicity surprised him. Apart from a serious-looking stove, everything in it could have been found in any aging farmhouse.

He was disconcerted to find her sitting cross-legged on the linoleum with an array of dishes scattered around her. She looked up at his appearance, then shoved back her curls and sighed. Seeing how weary she was threw a wrench in his plans to bully her into his arms. Quite obviously, she wasn’t up for that.

He could, however, take comfort in that fact she didn’t appear annoyed to see him. “I thought you might be thirsty,” he said, lifting the bottle that swung in his hand. Mariann eyed it suspiciously. “Wine?”

“Better,” he said and popped the cork with his thumb.

The blood was dark as he poured it into a clean jelly glass. He had bought it—like the rest of his stash—from a local blood bank employee, one he’d thralled into believing he had a strange fetish. Bastien didn’t bother feeling guilty at taking advantage of this convenience. It wasn’t always practical to feed directly from humans. Besides, with what he paid for a single pint, the bank could purchase three more. Blissfully ignorant of these considerations, Mariann accepted his offering. She sniffed the drink, grimaced, then downed it in a single toss. A delicate flush rose to her cheeks.

“Jesus,” she said against the back of her wrist. “It’s totally disgusting how good that tastes. I think my mouth just had an orgasm.”

He smiled, glad she was comfortable enough to speak that way to him. He poured himself a glass, this one decorated with a creature named Porky Pig. That done, he crouched down to refill hers.

“You know,” he said, remaining where he was as she took a more moderate sip. “I could tell you which human food is edible. Save you the trouble of trial and error.”

“Nah.” She shook her head. “I’m kind of enjoying figuring it out for myself. So far I’ve got watered-down coffee, consommé, pulpless orange juice, and unsweetened Kool-Aid, weirdly enough. Apparently, anything

with milk is totally repellent. I haven’t figured out chocolate yet, but I’m thinking the pure cocoa liquor without the fat might be doable.”

“That could be,” he said. “I never met an upyr who tried.” “That’s because you’ve never met an upyr pastry chef.”

Despite her attempt at humor, he heard the fear and bitterness in her tone, the unspoken implication that former pastry chef might be a more accurate term. With a gentleness he hoped would convey his sympathy, he drew one knuckle along the side of her down-turned face. Mariann closed her eyes.

“I didn’t mention this before,” he said, “because it seemed too much to explain right away, but my line of upyr are shape-changers. We need to, er, form a connection with a real animal before we can do it, but once you take your wolf soul, you’ll be able to eat what you like.”

At this her head came up, her wide blue gaze zinging into his. “Take my… ? You mean, you’re the wolf who ate from my hand? I should have guessed. You both have the same green eyes.”

Emile would have laughed to know how flattered he was that she noticed.

“That was me,” he agreed, trying to hide his pleasure by being businesslike. “So, conceivably, you could cook in your human form, then change into your wolf to taste what you’d done.”

“Well, that shouldn’t cause any comment!” She laughed but not happily. ” ‘Could you turn your back for a moment, Heather? My wolf has to see if this batter needs more salt.’“

“I didn’t say it was a perfect solution—”

She stopped him by touching his arm. “No,” she said softly. “It’s a great deal more than I had when I was vomiting ice cream into that sink. Thank you for letting me know.”

Her sincerity embarrassed him. His shoulders lifted in a shrug. “We’ll probably have to go to Canada to find your familiar. There isn’t much open wolf territory in the States.”

“That’s all right.” She ventured an awkward smile. “I hear Canada is nice. And, hey, you already speak French.”

“Mariann.” He wasn’t sure what he meant to say, but found he couldn’t go beyond her name. This stilted conversation, while nowhere near as bad as it might have been, was hardly what he’d had in mind.

She must have sensed his frustration. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to sound flip. You saved my life. I should be grateful.”

“No.” He dropped from his crouch onto his knees, wanting with all his heart to touch her again. “I’m the one who’s sorry. Not that I saved you, but that I can’t give you back what you lost.”

“I’m stuck,” she said with the sheepish air of someone making a confession. “Stuck?”

“In the past.” She spread her hands to indicate her surroundings, from the dated cabinets to the noisy old Frigidaire. “This is my safety blanket, this house and the bakery. All I ever wanted was to be like my Gramps. Daniel O’Faolain was a great guy, Bastien. The greatest. Give you the shirt off his back and the last brownie on the plate. Listen to you talk till his ears fell off. My parents were good people, but from the time that I could toddle, Gramps was my best friend. Grams used to say we must have been siblings in another life. Every year, I’d cross off the days until I’d come back here. If I lost the bakery…”

Fighting tears, she pressed her fist to her teeth. “If I lost the bakery, it’d be like losing him again. Everything I do, he’s with me. Everything I know, he taught.”

In spite of her best efforts, her tears spilled over and her voice wobbled. Without an instant’s hesitation, Bastien pulled her against his chest.

“Crap,” she said, “I’m sorry for being so weepy.”

“Don’t worry about that. Upyr shoulders dry very fast.”

“So I noticed.” Her laugh was muffled in his shirt. “Kind of handy.”

He felt such complete devotion as he kissed her hair, he could have wept himself. “You’ll find new things

to love. I know it doesn’t seem that way right now, but you will. And in the meantime, I’ll do everything in my power to make sure you keep as much of your old life as you can.”

She pushed gently back from him, her eyes glistening like rain-kissed aquamarines. “You’re being really good to me,” she said as if afraid of making it a question.

“It isn’t hard,” he assured her, coaxing her back. He was, after all, only following his heart.

Chapter 6

MARIANN let herself rest against him, not crying anymore, but enjoying the way his shoulder seemed specifically formed to cradle her cheek.

Though her nose was sharper than before, he smelled better: not just like a forest, but like a man—a slightly salty, slightly musky scent. Just as nice was the strong but easy circle of his arms. With a soft, satisfied sigh, he tilted his head against her hair. If she’d ever felt this comforted by her ex, she couldn’t recall it now.

Though the contentment she felt might be an illusion, she was reluctant to let him go.

“This place is a mess,” she said with no particular compunction to clean it up. “If someone came in now, they’d think I’d been attacked by hungry thieves.”

“I’ll help you straighten it,” he said.

She smiled to herself when he didn’t move either. Then her gaze fell on the oven clock.

“Shoot,” she said, sitting back. “It’s four a.m. I should be at the bakery. Heather will think I slipped a gear.” “I can call her like I did last night. Tell her you haven’t fully recovered from your accident.”

“I can’t do that. Heather’s never done all the baking by—Oh, no.” She hit the center of her forehead. “Last night. I slept through my shift.”

“I’m sure she managed,” Bastien said, but she was already stuffing trash into a Hefty bag. “At least let me go with you. You’ll need my help to look human.”

“Damn it,” she said, annoyed afresh by the reminder, then quickly apologized. She wasn’t used to depending on other people for things like this, important things, things she couldn’t do without. Her nerves didn’t settle until they were walking side by side on the road, and his hand reached to clasp hers.

“You can count on me,” he said, but that wasn’t the problem.

Allowing him to comfort her was way too easy, way too pleasurable. Power flowed across the link between their fingers in smooth, warm waves. She’d felt the tingling before, but her perception of it was stronger. She wondered if he was trying to calm her, if that was among his gifts.

“Just how old are you?” she asked, looking up at his starlit profile. His features could have been cut from marble; they were that motionless and serene. Seeing him this way, she realized how much of his nature he’d hidden up until now.

“I was born around eleven hundred or so,” he said. “Anno Domini. I was a forester—a gamekeeper, you’d call it—to a large estate in Burgundy.” His mouth twisted wryly within his otherwise unmoving face. “I was not a popular figure, since my job was to prevent the starving rabble from poaching my lord’s lapins, sometimes by rather Draconian means.

“One day, I caught a wolf who was not a wolf in one of my traps. The jaws of the trap were iron, a weakness of ours, which sapped his upyr strength. Unfortunately for me, as soon as I opened it to remove what I thought was a carcass, the wolf sprang up and changed into a man. Because I had more stubbornness than sense, I fought him… nearly to my death.

“I suppose my ferocity impressed my opponent. Auriclus decided to change me rather man let me die of my wounds.”

“That was his name, Auriclus?”

He shook himself from the past and met her gaze. Watching him, she couldn’t tell what he thought of his sire. “Yes. We do not have many elders, but he is one. Only an elder can change a human to what we are.”

“So you’re an elder.” “Not officially, but yes.”

She knew this answer only told part of the story. His fingers were noticeably stiffer within her own. “Could you get into trouble for saving me?”

“That is conceivable, but not likely. Many of the upyr on the Council are my friends. I suppose I must pray they trust me to know what I was doing.”

A gravity she didn’t understand shadowed his words. “Well,” she said, hesitant to pry, “I suppose I should be extra grateful you stretched the rules.”

He stopped and turned to her, his back to the darkened road, his hand closing tight on hers. The glow she had seen the other night flared in his eyes. “It was my choice to do what I did. I couldn’t have let you die. I love you, Mariann. In all my years, I’ve never felt anything like this.”

The passion in his voice struck her speechless. He sounded like a crusader before a war. At that moment, she could imagine him living a millennium ago.

He loves me, she thought, the truth of it sinking home. Her happiness at hearing the declaration, her need to believe it, put a knot of wariness in her neck. Who fell in love like this? And with her?

“That’s… quite… flattering,” she said, the words coming out on separate puffs of air. “Considering you’ve been around since way back when.”

She didn’t see his expression shift, but between eye blinks it turned sad. His right hand rose to brush a curl the breeze had blown across her cheek. “My words weren’t meant to flatter.”

“Bastien,” she said.

Maybe he sensed she intended to warn him he was going too fast. She wasn’t ready to give him the trust a good relationship required. If this was what he expected, he didn’t want to hear. He waved toward the intersection that marked the edge of town.

“We should not dally,” he said. “Heather will be concerned.”

SOME upyr were born with a knack for glamour, but Mariann wasn’t one of them. Bastien suspected she was going to have to learn the hard way, by experimenting over time. While he could cast the illusion of normalcy over her himself, he had to be touching her to maintain it, a requirement that would make working with her assistant impractical.

“No kidding,” Mariann burst out once he’d explained. “Why did you even bother to let me come?” They stood outside the bakery door, speaking in tones no human could have heard. “I could thrall her,” he said. “That lasts longer than a glamour.”

“Thrall her?”

“It’s a form of hypnosis, of brainwashing. It changes what people believe, as opposed to just what they see.”

Mariann wrinkled her nose.

“It requires that I bite her first,” Bastien added, wanting to be clear. “A blood-bond helps cement my power.” She opened her mouth, then shut it when he laid a hand along her jaw. “There’s something else you should know. Your friend is pregnant. From the looks of her aura, the father is the boy with the tattoo.”

“Pregnant.” Mariann’s voice was so breathy even he had trouble hearing her response. “And you can see that? Wow.” She rubbed her arms as if they were cold. “She’ll want to have it. She’s crazy about Eric, and she

loves kids. But she’ll need her job more than ever. She has no other experience. If I can’t keep the bakery going, I don’t know what else she can do.”

“Emile and I could hire the boyfriend as our handyman. Make sure he gets a good, steady paycheck.”

“That’s very kind, but not as good as Heather being able to support herself. Frankly, I can’t imagine her swinging a hammer.”

Bastien smiled, wondering if she realized how modern such sentiments were to him.

Mariann looked up, her brows drawn together above her nose. “Would biting Heather hurt the baby?”

“Not physically. After a brief period of weakness, being bitten strengthens the human immune system. The baby would benefit as well. Chances are good, though, that the child would be born with a predisposition to my influence. Among our kind, in part because of my age, I’m a skillful shaper of minds. The question is, do you trust me not to abuse my power?”

He shoved his hands in his pockets to keep her from seeing them shake. Though he hadn’t tried to read her, her doubts—about him, about men in general—were obvious.

She stared at him, her gaze as sharp as a knife. That was one trait she’d kept from her human days. “Heather is yours,” he said, “just as Emile is mine. I wouldn’t do this without your approval.” “Mine to protect, you mean.”

“Yes.” She paced away from him and stopped, head bent, arms crossed, the toe of her silly blue sneaker tapping the grass. “You’ve never thralled me,” she said without turning around.

“I wanted to win your love, not compel it.”

She sighed and faced him again. “I want that, too. I want Heather to interact with me just as she would have before, even if she sees me as human. I don’t want her free will diminished in any way. If you can promise it won’t be, my answer is yes.”

He released his breath gustily. “I can promise. I’m very, very good at what I do.” She laughed, though he hadn’t meant to be funny. “Modest, too.”

He discovered her gift then, the particular upyr talent that expressed itself most strongly in her. She came to him with a swiftness that was little more than a blur, a movement that to humans would have seemed instantaneous. Putting her hands on his shoulders, she rose on tiptoe to kiss his cheek.

“I trust you to keep your word,” she said, “which is more than I’d say about most of the world.” He pulled her to him and held her tight, thinking she’d never know what a gift she’d just given him.

HE had tears in his eyes when he pulled back. Mariann could hardly believe it. Apparently, her approval meant a good deal.

“Do you want to come in with me?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I said I trust you. Plus”—she rubbed one finger across her lips—“I, uh, don’t think I’m up for watching you enjoy it. If my experience with a cold glass of the stuff is anything to go by, it’s pretty much impossible to take blood without pleasure. But don’t worry. I’m not the kind of girlfriend who freaks out over every smile. I’m a mature modern woman. You go do your thing.”

Amusement had been playing around his lips. Now it broke into a grin. ” ‘Girlfriend,’ ” he repeated. “I can live with that. But don’t you worry.” He leaned close enough to whisper in her ear. “I fully expect, even hope, that you shall come to be possessive.”

His shift to teasing rattled her. She could only watch as he stepped jauntily into her bakery. Remaining outside while he went in might have been her most surreal experience yet.

“Mature,” she said to the swinging O’Faolain’s sign. “I am entirely grown up.”

She let five minutes pass, then ten, before her curiosity drove her in. The front room was clean and quiet, the floor recently swept. In spite of being left to her own devices, Heather had managed to stock the displays. Mariann saw an awful lot of cookie bars, but they seemed to have sold well enough.

“Checking up on my goods?” Heather said from the kitchen door. Mariann wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting, but Heather’s grin was the same as always: wide and full of sass. She looked her employer up and down. “You look good, boss. Playing hooky must agree with you.”

“I… I didn’t—”

Before she could stammer out an explanation, Heather squeezed her into a hug. Behind the girl’s back, Bastien smiled at her and shrugged. He looked, Mariann thought, extremely pleased with himself.

“I’m glad you’re all right,” Heather said. “Not that I begrudge you your night of fun. You and Bastien are made for each other. It’s just that working on my own was, like, totally horrible. I miss it when you don’t teach me the baking stuff. Those jerk-offs at the cooking school were way too stick-up-the-butt, expecting me to be, like, Ms. Cordon Bleu before I even got there. You made me believe I could learn.”

The compliment affected Mariann more than she expected. Blinking hard, she patted Heather’s back. “I won’t leave you alone again,” she promised. “At least not for a while. You don’t need to be overstressed.”

Heather fell back from her, mouth agape, then turned accusingly to Bastien. “You told her! It was bad enough that you guessed. I wanted to break the news myself.”

Bastien pressed his hand to his heart. “My heartfelt apologies, Mistress Heather. How may I make amends?”

“You can’t,” Heather said. “And don’t call me that goofy name. Man. Old people think they don’t have to ask permission for anything.”

Ignoring the jibe at Bastien’s age—more appropriate than Heather knew—Mariann assured her she was happy if Heather was. Heather turned pink and mumbled a response, something about Eric and her not getting married yet, but being prepared to “act like a team.” Whatever Bastien had done to impose his thrall, he hadn’t changed the real her.

“I’m proud of you, kiddo,” Mariann said, “keeping this place together by yourself. A lot of employees would have thrown in the towel. That tells me you and Eric should do fine. Why don’t we—” She paused to take a breath. “Why don’t we go back in the kitchen and I’ll show how to make my grandfather’s famous Vermont Mountain Fudge Cake.”

“Really?” Heather cocked her head. “Your Gramps’s recipe? Like, can I copy it down and all?”

“You bet,” she said, feeling strangely light. “You’re part of my team, too. It’s time I treated you that way.” “Wow,” said Heather. “Cool.”

“SHE thinks I’m a good teacher,” Mariann said, still hugging the memory to her. “And she didn’t seem to find it odd that I made her do all the tasting. I know it’s early yet, but maybe this will work out.”

Bastien squeezed her hand, then let it swing between their hips. He didn’t have to say a word. She knew he guessed how sweet her optimism felt, as sweet as knowing their thoughts were in harmony. Every time their fingers twined, the contact felt more natural—until she gave up on trying to fight her pleasure. Now they were climbing the grand main staircase at the inn, following the curve of mahogany risers to the second floor. The Night Owl was dark, but Mariann could see everything perfectly, down to the muted greens and browns of the wallpaper.

She had to admit she liked her new hyper senses. Her nose had told her the state of her cooking almost as well as Heather’s taste buds.

At the top, they stopped to admire the black-and-white diamond patterns in the marble floor below. Apart from a few empty spots in the decor, the renovations looked done. Seeming nervous, Bastien released her hand. Mariann pretended she didn’t mind.

“So,” he said, “how does the place strike you?”

“Quiet. Plush. Even though a lot of this stuff is new, it looks like the real McCoy. I feel like I’m time traveling.”

“Good,” he said. ‘That’s what I wanted.”

“Figure you’d get the humans to meet you halfway?”

“Perhaps. Of course, halfway for me would be more like the Renaissance.” “I’m afraid I never was much for counting if it didn’t involve spoons and cups.”

“Ah,” he said, a sound that came out as awkward as it was pleased. She suspected he was leery of putting a foot wrong. Their new rapport must have seemed as delicate to him as it did to her.

“Bastien,” she said, hoping to make him relax. “Why do you want an inn? It seems a peculiar business for a… an upyr to have.”

“Do you want the easy answer or the hard?” “Both.”

She turned to him, resting her side on the banister. He was gripping the rail with both hands. A human’s knuckles would have been white. “The easy answer is that I wanted a window on the human world, a place where my friends and I could learn to pass unnoticed among mortals. As the years go by, we tend to lose touch with what we used to be.”

“And the hard answer?”

He let out a rueful laugh. “The hard answer is that I wanted a little kingdom. I need to rule, Mariann. That drive is as strong in me as the one for survival.”

“You say that like it’s bad.”

He pushed off the banister to scrub his face. “Neither Emile or I like to talk about it, but once upon a time, during a struggle for dominance, our pack leader in France put a curse on Emile that weakened him bit by bit until it threatened to end his life. To die quickly is one thing. To die slowly we find particularly gruesome. For us, pain truly can last an eternity. Hugo chose this form of torture to intimidate me and anyone else he viewed as a rival. Emile and I escaped to Scotland, but getting away proved no cure.

“Because I was desperate, I tried to take over an established pack. I intended to use its members as soldiers to defeat the man who had cursed my friend. I employed magic and force and any trickery I could think of to get my way. In the end, I showed myself no better than my enemy.”

“You used magic?” The word had rolled more easily off his tongue. “Isn’t being a vampire magic enough?”

“There are spells we can do,” he said, his eyes showing his awareness of her discomfort, “to increase our natural powers: our thralls, our glamour’s, all our inborn abilities. Most are forbidden, but people do break the rules.”

“And you used these forbidden spells.”

“I would have committed any act short of murder to save Emile.” He signed. “I started my own little reign of terror, against people who had done me no wrong. I hope I’ve changed since then, but I can’t say for certain how much.”

Mariann pressed her thumbnail against her teeth. “What happened to the upyr you hurt?”

“They forgave me, even the man whose pack I tried to steal. They welcomed Emile and me to their home and found a way to heal his injuries. It was a miracle, for both of us, one I doubt I’ll ever repay. Unfortunately, the years have made me too powerful to share our new pack leader’s territory. Inevitably, we would clash. That is why Ulric banished me to America.”

Sorrow roughened his voice, a regret that held the weight of all his years. Whoever this pack leader was, Bastien admired him. She suspected being exiled had cracked his heart.

She was beginning to understand just how big a heart he had.

“I don’t know,” she said, striving for lightness. “It sounds as if Ulric might have meant you well. Maybe he didn’t want to fight you any more than you want to fight him. Maybe he sent you here because he thinks you’d make a good leader. It might have been his version of a friendly kick in the pants.”

Bastien wagged his head. “I wish I could believe that.”

“Please forgive me if this offends, Bastien, but I haven’t met anyone who’s terrified of you now. You treat

Emile like a valued partner. You thralled Heather, and she’s still not afraid to yank your chain. On top of which, there’s me. I may be a pipsqueak compared to your pack leader but, trust me, I’m no patsy.”

“No, you’re not. You’re the most wonderful woman I’ve ever met. I wish—” He stopped himself, his expression turning serious.

“I know what you wish,” she said, her voice as soft as she could make it. “And I can hardly express how gratifying I find that. All I can say is, give me a chance to catch up with you. I’ve only known you liked me for two days.”

“Do you think you can catch up?”

For all his beauty, for all his power, he was as bashful as a French schoolboy. Smiling, Mariann laid her hand on his cheek.

“Oh, I’m pretty sure of it,” she said, “almost sure enough to promise.”

He caught her up and laughed exultantly, swinging her around on the broad landing. Midspin he started to kiss her, adding a light-headedness of another sort. The instant she kissed him back, she was slammed against the wainscoting.

“You’ll break something,” she protested breathlessly.

His hips undulated between her thighs. Somehow he’d managed to work his hand under her waistband, and was cupping her bottom beneath her pants. The seam wasn’t up to the added strain. Stitches tore as she licked him behind the ear.

“Never break things,” he gasped when she added the scrape of her teeth. “I’m very careful of my strength. Lord. Help me get you out of these clothes.”

Released from his hold, she peeled out of them, then stared pointedly at his crotch. His erection stretched his trousers impressively. He rubbed his palms along either side, the muscle and hair of his forearms exposed by his rolled-up cuffs. She could learn to love this look: half lusty businessman, half sex god.

Not that he needed those business clothes now. “You, too,” she reminded.

“What? Oh. Right.”

His zipper whined down and parted, allowing his shaft to bulge from the opening. Before he could release himself completely and charge ahead, she put her hand on the throbbing arch. “Take everything off, Bastien. Including socks.”

“What socks?” he muttered, then wrenched and shoved and hopped on one foot until he was bare.

She had barely drawn breath to comment on his magnificent naked state when she was kissed and lifted, her thighs pressed smoothly to either side of his hips. The tip of his penis nudged her, shifted to find its aim, then pressed thickly inside.

Groaning with gratitude, Bastien ground her against the wall. She had a second to savor the penetration before he began surging in and out. Then she could have groaned herself. The sensitivity she’d thought she must have imagined the other night had her shuddering on the brink by the fourth forceful stroke. Her whole sheath was as responsive as only a tiny part of her had been before. The effect was maddeningly sensual.

It did nothing for her control to think his nerves must be similarly multiplied.

“Don’t crack the plaster,” she said as her hands clutched his back and neck. To her dismay, half the words were wailed.

“Paper… covers it,” he huffed, but he cursed and dropped with her to the floor. There the only danger was carpet burn.

“Wider,” he demanded, his hair falling around them, his grip already stretching her thighs.

“Yes.” She gulped for air as he slammed in deeper, the head of him pummeling some secret pleasure spot. When her neck arched up uncontrollably, his mouth immediately nuzzled her pulse.

“Should warn you,” he said against its frantic drumming. “The first time of the night can be very fast for upyr.”

“The first time?” Her heels climbed to mid-spine. “Believe me, once is never enough.”

The warning was hardly unwelcome, especially when his hand slipped between them to find her clit. She groaned at the help she didn’t even need. “How many… times… do you think you’ll want?”

His kiss shut her up, his fangs sliding longer around her tongue. “Can’t talk,” he said. “Really… need to fuck.”

He suited his actions to his words, his thrusting growing more urgent, his breath beginning to break in swallowed grants. As if his life depended on more access, he grabbed one of her knees and shoved it higher still. Both of them moaned at the new angle. Supernaturally strong or not, she knew mere seconds lay between them and a genuinely explosive climax.

When he screwed his eyes shut and sucked a breath, she had to grab her chance. “Wait,” she said on her very last burst of air.

“Wait?” His disbelieving gaze burned into hers. His movements slowed but did not halt. “Mariann, this is not a good time to be testing me.”

She flinched at his intensity, but didn’t withdraw her demand. Tom had never let her try new things. If she couldn’t claim more freedom as an upyr, when would she ever? At her silent insistence, Bastien’s hips slowed to a stop.

“Suck my ringer,” she said, a little breathless for an order. His brows went up. Then he nipped it instead.

Yelping, she yanked her finger back trickling blood. Her sex contracted hotly at the tiny pain. That was unexpected but interesting. Apparently, she was going to have all sorts of new tastes.

“I can heal it,” Bastien suggested hoarsely, unable to resist probing in and out of her flickering sheath. “It wouldn’t take but a minute.”

Mariann pursed her lips in refusal. “That’s very kind of you, I’m sure, but I have other uses for this.”

“Other—ah!” He jerked as she found the tiny opening between his buttocks, the instinctive clenching of his cheeks unable to keep her completely out. “Ah, okay. Other uses.” He laughed at her when she stopped. “Now, now, don’t lose your nerve, love. I think you must have figured out I’m rather hard to shock.”

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Can’t,” he said with a telling squirm. “Not like this.”

Still she hesitated.

“Need a road map then? Or do you have a fair idea where you’re going?” “I know,” she snapped. “Theoretically.”

This made him laugh again, a reaction she silenced by forging determinedly ahead. From the sound of his gasps, he was far from minding. His muscles were trembling.

“You can feel everything, can’t you?” she said, her voice dark with lust. “Every inch of you is sensitive.” “Yes… oh, God. We’re all like this. We love being touched.”

His passage was satiny and tight, twitching around her intrusion as if it were hungry for every stroke. The cut on her finger was as good as oil.

“Uh, Mariann…” He ground himself deeper into her body. “Would now be the time to mention that the presence of blood makes everything more intense?”

“Sh,” she said, hiding a grin. “I’m trying to concentrate.”

He was panting for air by the time the pad of her longest finger found the firm, almond-shaped gland. She stroked his prostate very gently, delighted by the way his cock thumped heavily in response.

“Well,” she whispered. “Vampire or not, I’m glad to see you’ve got all your parts.”

“Mariann.” Her name was a groaning plea. “Do you like it?” she asked more shyly.

Despite his obvious frustration, he smiled beatifically, fangs and all. “I adore it, love. And I’m thinking…” He slid slowly out of her and back in, his girth notably increased. “I’m thinking if I like it, maybe you will, too.”

She squeaked as he made good on his threat—very good, as it happened, his wriggling finger clearly more experienced than hers. Sensation spread through her like clove-spiced wine. When he withdrew his hardness and thrust again, she thought her spine would melt at all the pleasure bombarding it. It was quite impossible to restrain a moan.

“Tit for tat,” he murmured against her neck. “And please do keep rubbing me.”

“My toes are going to come,” she warned, feeling them curl into the back of his calves. “Be my guest, because I’m not stopping again.”

Despite his threat, he stroked into her with a fond half-smile, balanced on one elbow, not quite pumping but getting there. His gaze held hers captive, his muscles tense beneath their shimmer of faint pink sweat. She licked his shoulder to see how it would taste and nearly climaxed just from that. Sensing her reaction, his pupils expanded over his irises.

When she squeezed herself around his penis, they went startlingly black. “Bite me,” she said, knowing only this could make the act complete.

For a moment, she thought he would tease her for her choice of words. Instead, his face abruptly changed: darkening, tightening, his lips pulling back in a feral snarl. He seemed more inhuman than she’d ever seen him, and she seriously doubted any force on earth could stop him now.

The realization was more thrilling than she would have guessed. She wanted to be claimed, to be ravished in the fullest sense of the word. She threw her head back in invitation. Bastien muttered a curse and struck.

Like white-hot lightning his fangs pierced her skin while his lower body worked furiously. The first suckling pull threw her into bliss. The second had her crying out. He groaned in answer and shoved so deep they both slid along the carpet. He was gone then, over the edge, coming in time with his swallows in bursts so long and hard she could count each one. The knowledge that he was taking his pleasure set her off again. She clung to him as if her orgasm were an ocean she could drown in, the waves rolling over each other in crashing spumes.

When she cried his name, he shuddered and collapsed. Silence reigned for long minutes. His head came up weakly at last.

“Whew,” he breathed, sounding amusingly American.

“I’ll see your ‘whew,’ ” she said, “and raise you a ‘holy cow.’ I thought vampires couldn’t sweat.” He laughed and rolled her atop him, his hands already sliding into new mischief.

“We can sweat,” he said. “We just need a good reason.”

Chapter 7

GIVEN their recent sexual Olympics, sleeping through dawn was no great surprise. The first dusty rays were creeping across the foyer when Bastien roused. Though he gave it his best attempt, the stupor that came with daylight could not be cursed away.

Fortunately, no windows overlooked the balcony where they lay. Unfortunately, if they didn’t leave the Night Owl soon, they’d be forced to spend the day in the basement.

Bastien looked down at Mariann, now metaphorically dead to the world. He doubted she’d enjoy waking up covered in cobwebs… or being spotted by a contractor.

His bleary mind saw only one solution. As quickly as he could, he rolled her in an area rug, yanked on his clothes and tossed a blanket over his head. Carrying her fireman style, he ran across the grounds and through the woods to his residence.

This would have gone smoothly except for the fact that, midway through his mad dash, Mariann woke and began to scream. He had to use his mind-voice to keep her from alerting any early dog walkers who might be out.

When he unrolled her at the bottom of the hidden steps, she stumbled like a drunkard. She wagged a finger unsteadily.

“A secret passage,” she said, “connecting the inn to here, might not be out of place.”

Bastien caught her elbow as she swayed. “Emile and I are still debating that. We’re not sure we want to risk the possibility of a human guest accidentally finding the door. A single entrance is easier to guard.”

“Fine,” she said, bending to collect his blanket, “Let your girlfriend burn up.”

Her irritation pleased him. They were squabbling like a real couple. He had to wipe off his smile when she snapped around. This time her accusing finger was completely straight.

“You spoke in my head.” “That I did.”

Her eyes narrowed as she tucked the blanket beneath her arms. “Next time you do it, try saying something nicer than ‘shut up.’“

“I will, love,” he promised. “Any time you like.”

He steered her toward the great room, hoping to grab a glass of sustenance before bed. They’d both wake happier if they weren’t starved.

“Wait till you see this,” he said, looking forward to her response. “I think it will reassure you we aren’t stuck in the Victorian age.”

Apart from its dome construction, the design of their largest room was classic Frank Lloyd Wright: stone floors, substantial leather furniture, lots of simply finished solid wood. Lush potted palms made up for the lack of windows. Discreetly screened, the refrigerated walk-in could store a year’s supply of blood. The true pièce de résistance, however, was the wide screen, wafer-thin plasma TV.

Like their human counterparts, Bastien and Emile had been helpless before its siren call. From the sound of things, Bastien assumed Emile had forgotten to shut it off.

This turned out not to be the case. “Perfect timing,” Emile exclaimed, surprising them both as they walked in. “I’ve got something you’ll want to watch.”

BASTIEN’S friend sprawled in the corner of a cavernous leather sofa, shirtless but clad in his usual faded jeans. In the light from the nearest Tiffany lamp, he looked as fresh as a daisy—not what Mariann expected in a subordinate vampire after sunrise. Seeing him so casual and assured, the thought came to her that he might not be Bastien’s junior in power by much. Maybe he deferred to Bastien because he would rather his friend be in charge.

By contrast, Bastien looked slightly haggard as he plopped beside him. “You’re sure whatever this is can’t wait?”

Emile’s grin was devilish. “If you don’t watch now, you’ll miss it. You see, while you two lovebirds have been shagging each other senseless—congratulations, by the way—yours truly has been a busy boy. En voilà.” He pushed a button on the remote. “It’s time to see my work bear fruit.”

The opening credits to Cooking with Arabella appeared on the screen: Arabella dazzling her numerous male guests, Arabella making sultry faces while she licked her finger, Arabella wiggling her curvy butt as she served a gooey slice of Vermont Mountain Fudge Cake.

The reminder of her perfidy was more than Mariann could stand.

“Crap,” she said and turned to walk out the door.

Emile caught her wrist before she could. “No, no,” he said. “Trust me. You’re going to enjoy this show. It’s very special and very ‘live.’“

“What did you do?” Bastien demanded as Mariann allowed herself to be coaxed onto the couch between them. Big as it was, both men contrived to bump her knees.

“Do? Well…” Emile laid one finger along his cheek. “I might have paid the divine Arabella a visit after I traced her license by hacking into the DMV. I might have bitten her and, yes, it’s possible that, in passing, I could have mentioned it would be nice if she confessed her thefts and—just in general—told the truth.”

“You thralled a human to tell the truth.” Bastien’s tone was a mix of incredulity and awe.

“Well… yes, but I mentioned the part about confessing to stealing recipes first. She didn’t know she’d nearly killed you, by the way,” he said to Mariann, the twinkle bright in his eyes. “She thought the worst she’d done is knock you out. Eaten up with envy, if you’re interested. Evidently, her subconscious considers you to be indestructible.”

“Well,” Mariann said at this irony, her hand spread across her chest. Because Arabella had been so hell-bent on protecting her lie, Mariann practically was indestructible now.

The commercials over, the show was everything she could have hoped in her wildest dreams of revenge. Not only did Arabella confess to taking credit for Daniel O’Faolain’s work, she also felt compelled to share her not very flattering opinions of her producers, her assistant, and her goggle-eyed audience. When she began to describe her fiancé’s unfortunate shortcomings in bed, the station developed mysterious technical difficulties and went to black. When it returned, a repeat of Emeril was shouting “Bam!”

Emile quickly switched it off.

“Wow,” said Mariann, “I almost feel sorry for her. She’ll have a heck of a time digging out from this.”

“Not to worry,” Emile dismissed breezily. “I am not the strongest spinner of thralls. The effect should wear off within a month.”

“A month!” Mariann couldn’t help it. She covered her mouth and laughed. “Thank you, Emile. That’s the second-nicest present I ever got.”

“I have your book, too, if you want it.” He flashed his teeth at her gasp of delight. “You may kiss me, if you like. Here, on the cheek.”

She felt Bastien relax when Emile specified the spot, but a kiss was not enough for her. She hugged his friend as well, with all her rib-cracking upyr strength. As she did, a peculiarly vivid image flashed through her mind, of herself handing the recipe journal to Heather. The idea made her happier than she would have thought.

Maybe it was time to share her legacy.

“Oof,” Emile complained laughingly. “And welcome, sweet Mariann, to Bastien’s pack.” “My unofficial pack,” Bastien corrected.

“That’s what you think, old friend. Ulric—our previous pack leader—and I had a little talk before we left Scotland. Then Ulric had a little talk with the Council. You have been approved to act in your full elder capacity. They sent word by e-mail last night.”

Bastien looked completely stunned. “You did that? For me?”

“Of course I did. You think I want someone else bossing me around?”

Bastien rubbed the side of his head. “I’m an elder. Me. I’m approved to run my own pack.”

“You could have run one at any time,” Emile pointed out, “with or without their approval. You only needed to trust yourself. Then again, maybe you settled that when you decided to change Mariann.”

“Surely you didn’t tell them I did that.”

Emile reassured him with a shake of his head. “I’m not crazy. Better the Council think they had the power to say ‘yea’ or ‘nay.’ You were born today,” he added to Mariann, “in case anybody asks.”

“Is it just me,” Mariann asked, “or is our pack really small?”

Bastien laughed and kissed her noisily on the mouth. “What an ambitious upyr you are. Already thinking like my queen.”

“Wait a second,” she protested. “I didn’t say I wanted to be anybody’s—”

He picked her up and kissed her more soundly. Even with Emile watching, even with the sun high in the sky, her insides began to melt. By the time he’d released her, her legs were firmly wrapped around his waist and the blanket had drooped dangerously. She suspected more than daylight had made her dizzy.

For one thing, his excitement was prodding her pointedly. He hitched her higher to improve the fit. “I love to work,” she warned, gasping just a bit. “My ex didn’t like that at all.”

“You’ll get your work done faster than you ever did,” he countered. “And I fully expect to provide you with good incentives for coming home.”

The gleam in his eye made the hottest part of her squirm.

“All right,” she surrendered. “I’ll be your queen, but only if you dig that tunnel and make a room for my cat.”

Bastien’s grin was as broad as his friend’s. “You’ll be my queen because you almost love me, because you’re nearly positive you will soon.”

“You’re a bully,” she said, but she could see he didn’t believe her. His arms tightened teasingly beneath her rump.

“I’m the man who will love you till the end of time.”

This was an awful lot to take on faith but, as she laid her cheek in her favorite spot on his shoulder, Mariann thought she might manage.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7