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  Elijah moved over to her and put his hand on her shoulder. “TJ, don’t be worried. It’s natural to have strong feelings. . .” He hesitated, looking for the right words. After a moment, he continued, “To have feelings of friendship and even of a mild form of love after mutual feeding between Vampyres. After all, sharing your blood and your body is a very intimate thing to do. And remember, I’m the one who transformed you, so your hormones are getting a double whammy. Once you’re back in Shooter’s company, the feelings will fade until they’re only a happy memory.”

  “I hope so, Elijah,” she said, her voice miserable as her eyes drifted down to his naked groin. “Because right now, as horrible as the infection is making me feel, all I want to do is jump back into bed with you and do it again.”

  Sam noticed that Elijah’s penis began to stir and thicken at TJ’s words and so she quickly moved between them and put her arm around TJ’s shoulders. “Come on, babe, let’s get dressed and go down and see how our men are faring,” she said, looking back over her shoulder at Elijah and winking.

  He had the good grace to blush as he smiled back at her, for he knew that if he had the chance, he would have been back in bed with TJ in an instant. He still loved her as a mate—much more than the friendship feelings he had for Sam. It was something he was going to have to be very careful to conceal, especially after Matt and Shooter developed their psychic powers. He glanced down at his still erect penis. Now it was time for a cold shower and to get dressed.

  * * *

  Elizabeth Whitmire, manager of the Rejuvenatrix Spa, and her young assistant manager, Sammy Akins, were just about to lock the doors to their adjoining offices and leave for the day when a man and woman walked through the doors.

  They were a very attractive couple and for a moment Elizabeth wondered what they were doing there. Neither of them looked to have an ounce of fat on their bodies nor did they appear to be dissipated from a surfeit of alcohol or drugs, unlike the usual spa customers.

  She gave Sammy a look and shrugged minutely as she turned back to the couple. “Yes? Can we help you?” she asked, glancing at her watch to show them that the hour was late and they were keeping her from going home.

  “Hello, Ma’am,” John Ashby said, sticking out his hand to Elizabeth. “My name’s Collins, Barnabas Collins.”

  “Good afternoon, Mr. Collins,” Elizabeth said, her tone slightly frosty. She evidently did not make the connection of the name to the vampire character in the old TV show. “I’m afraid you’ve come just as we were about to leave for the evening. Is your business going to take long?” she asked, glancing at Sammy and finding his eyes locked on those of the beautiful young woman with Collins.

  “I’m afraid it is, Ms. Whitmire,” John said. “You see, we represent one of the largest law firms in Washington, and we’re here to see about sending all of our people here on regular retreats. We feel that will keep them healthy and cut down on our insurance costs and even improve productivity in the long run.”

  Elizabeth smiled, seeing large dollar signs in front of her eyes. Suddenly, she was in no hurry at all to leave for the day. “Uh, just how large is your company, Mr. Collins?” she asked, her voice much warmer as she came out from behind her desk to stand close to Collins. Elizabeth was an attractive woman and she wasn’t above using that attractiveness to further her business goals—within reason of course.

  “Why, I believe we’re currently over three hundred. Isn’t that right, Marya?” he asked, turning toward the woman with him.

  Elizabeth noticed the young lady never took her eyes off of Sammy when she answered, “Why, yes, Barney, that’s correct.”

  Always one to exploit any advantage when it came to making money, Elizabeth quickly said, “Sammy, why don’t you show Marya around the facilities while I have a chat with Mr. Collins about the details of our operation?”

  Sammy’s voice sounded almost drunk as he slowly nodded. “Okie dokie,” he said, grinning as the beautiful woman took his arm and walked out of the office with him.

  As soon as they were gone, Elizabeth put her hand on John’s shoulder and led him over to a couch against the wall of her office. “Why don’t you sit down there, Mr. Collins, and I’ll fix us a little drink?”

  “Call me Barney, Elizabeth,” John said, his lips curled in a small grin. “Everybody does.”

  As Elizabeth turned to hand him his whiskey, she noticed the bulge in the front of his pants. My God, she thought, her face blushing, he’s huge . . . and he’s obviously interested in me! This is one time I won’t mind mixing a little pleasure with business, she reasoned, thinking him the most handsome man she’d seen in quite some time.

  She sat very close to him and made sure her breast pressed up against his arm as she leaned into him. “A toast,” she said, raising her glass, “to a very profitable friendship, for both of us.”

  “I’ll drink to that,” John said, draining his glass.

  “Oh, not so fast, Barney,” Elizabeth purred, sipping her drink. “There’s no need to hurry. The rest of the staff have all gone home already, so we’re all alone here.”

  John set his drink down and half-turned on the couch to face Elizabeth. “That’s nice,” he said, raising his hand and beginning to undo the buttons on her blouse.

  Elizabeth blushed and tried to brush his hand away. “Uh, what are you doing, Barney?” she asked. She’d expected a pass, and in fact she welcomed it, but he was moving just a little too fast for her.

  Quick as a flash, his hand was inside her blouse and slipping under the edges of her bra to hold her left breast. “Why, getting to know you, Elizabeth,” he said, taking her hand and placing it on his lap.

  Her fingers automatically curled around the hardness she felt there, causing her to gasp as his fingers pinched her nipple gently, making it as hard as a rock and starting a fire in the pit of her stomach that quickly spread downward to her groin.

  “Oh, Barney,” she whispered, pushing her breast against his hand as she began to unzip his trousers, all thoughts of caution thrown to the wind. When his erection sprang into view, she gasped again and licked her lips. “God, you’re big!” she said.

  “You haven’t seen anything yet,” John said, smiling and continuing his massage of her breast. As he dipped his head down and covered her lips with his, a loud scream of terror came from the rear of the building.

  Elizabeth jerked her head back, her eyes wide and frightened. “What was that?” she asked, letting go of his penis as she started to get up.

  John’s fingers tightened on her breast and he easily pulled her back down on the couch. “Oh, that was just your assistant getting a good look at Marya changing,” John said.

  Elizabeth’s eyes were puzzled and a little scared as she asked, “Changing into what?”

  With a quick jerk, John tore Elizabeth’s blouse and skirt off. Pushing her back on the couch and climbing between her legs, he growled, “You’ll see,” as his own body began to melt and morph into his Vampyre form.

  Elizabeth’s mouth opened to scream, but John covered it with his own before she could make a sound, pushing his tongue deep between her lips.

  Keeping her head down with his, he put his hands on her buttocks and jerked her hips up off the couch and onto his lap, impaling her in one brutal thrust.

  She moaned deep in her throat and her eyes half closed in rapture as the hormones in his saliva began to work on her bloodstream. Her hands reached between them and cupped his balls as he pumped and thrust while his hands crushed her breasts and pulled at her nipples.

  As she began to contract in a rapid, overwhelming orgasm and her eyes squeezed shut in rapture, he lowered his fangs to her neck and began to feed, making sure not to do too much damage.

  After a few quick swallows, he reached up and made a slash in his neck with one of his claws. As his blood oozed out, he put his hand behind her head and pulled her lips to his neck. He felt her sucking his blood as he spasmed and exploded inside her, causing her to
come once again.

  She gasped in delight and put her hands around his neck and pulled him tighter against her lips—she couldn’t get enough of him.

  * * *

  Marya was having a little more trouble with Sammy. Once they were alone, she’d let him know in several subtle ways that she was attracted to him and that an advance on his part wouldn’t be amiss.

  Used to having women clients come on to him, though none of them had been as pretty as this one, Sammy had immediately pushed Marya down onto one of the exercise pads in the gym and fastened his lips on hers.

  Slipping his hand under her blouse, he was gratified to find she wasn’t wearing a bra and that her breasts were every bit as magnificent as they’d appeared to be.

  He smiled against her lips when her hand sought him out and slipped into his trousers without him even having to put it there. He was kissing her and fondling her breasts and pushing his erection against her hand when he suddenly felt a sharp sting on his tongue, which he had deep in her mouth at the time.

  He jerked his head back, about to admonish her against biting, when he saw her face melt and change and huge fangs appear between her luscious lips.

  He screamed and tried to get away, but she held him fast and pulled him back up against her. Unfortunately, the sight of her Vampyre body had driven all thoughts of sex from his mind and he was as limp as a strand of spaghetti.

  “Oh, Sammy,” she growled, her eyes on his wilted manhood. “I’m so disappointed.”

  She quickly pulled his face to hers and covered his lips with hers to stop his screaming. As her saliva mingled with his and her mind worked to get him back in the mood, he quit struggling and his eyes half closed and his expression became dreamy.

  Suddenly, Marya noticed some wood in his member and she slowly stroked him back to full erection, still kissing and licking his lips.

  His hands found their way back to her breasts and all was right with the world.

  When she pricked her neck and put his lips to the wound, he whimpered like a baby suckling his mom and she smiled around her fangs as he drank her blood.

  After a while, she gently pried his face away from her neck and climbed up on top of him, slowly easing herself down until he was in her to the hilt.

  He smiled, his eyes still shut, and pushed back against her as she began to move up and down. His hands squeezed and pinched her breasts as she lowered her head and bit into his neck.

  Just as she began to suck, he throbbed and exploded inside her. She growled and moved faster and faster until she was coming with him, making a major effort not to drain him dry in her excitement.

  Her breasts swelled and her nipples pushed against his hands as she finally collapsed on top of him, satiated.

  Chapter 16

  Ed Slonaker glanced at his wife, Kim, as she tried to pack their suitcases for the trip to Maine to see Elijah. Her skin was as pale as the bedsheets and her hands were trembling as she tried to fold their clothes.

  Coming off the vaccine was evidently hitting her much harder than it had him. He still felt the ever-present hunger, but to him it was still just a nagging emptiness in the pit of his stomach and an ill-defined ache for blood. He could tell for Kim it was much worse. Her eyes appeared sunken and vacant and she was constantly licking her lips as if she could almost taste the sweet saltiness of a blood meal.

  He knew she must be feeling terrible because she was in a foul mood and tended to bite his head off every time he opened his mouth. Usually the sweetest tempered woman he’d ever met, one always with a joke or quip at hand, she was now shrewish and mean as a snake.

  He’d tried giving her some of the test-tube blood that Elijah had provided, but though it did ease the symptoms for a short while, they were returning much faster than they had while they’d been on the vaccine.

  They were due to fly out early the next morning, but Ed knew he would have to do something before then. Kim was in no shape to fly on an airplane, or for much of anything else for that matter. It was time to take drastic measures.

  He went to their closet and picked out a bright red dress, one from years ago when they’d both been much younger. The dress was cut low in the bosom and was so short Kim joked she didn’t dare sit down in it.

  He pitched it onto their bed. “Here, babe, put this on,” he said.

  Kim frowned and picked up the small scrap of cloth and looked at him, questions in her eyes.

  “I think it’s time we went out to a bar and find us something to eat.”

  “Are . . . are you sure, Ed?” she asked, her voice trembling in anticipation.

  “Sure,” he said, his heart breaking to see her in such pain. “We’ll have to be very careful with this investigation going on at headquarters, but I think I can find a way around that,” he added, grinning darkly.

  Kim didn’t even ask his how, she just stripped to her bare skin and pulled the dress on without bothering with underwear of any kind.

  Ordinarily this would have excited Ed to no end, but he too was looking forward to later, when they could share a blood feast and engage in some quality lovemaking.

  * * *

  Ed parked the car in the far corner of the parking lot in front of a dive on the outskirts of Banff called Deuces Wild. It was the roughest bar in the county and the Mounties were called out there at least once or twice every weekend to mop up after bar fights or assaults.

  He glanced at Kim and grinned. “Damn, you look good,” he said. She’d put on extra makeup and was wearing a long, dark wig to cover up her short natural blond hair. A generous amount of cleavage was visible at the top of her dress and he could see the curve of her thigh leading to her groin just under the hem.

  “I can’t believe I ever let you out of the house wearing that dress,” he said, shaking his head and smiling.

  She reached over and touched his cheek. “Darling, back in our younger days you were so horny you didn’t care much what I wore as long as I could get out of it fast.”

  She was obviously feeling better now that she knew a blood meal was at hand.

  He leaned over and peeked down her dress, able to see clear down to her nipples. “Yeah, I remember, and that dress is bringing back the old feelings pretty good.”

  She leaned over, giving him an even better view and kissed him on the lips. “Now, you go on in there and find me a real bad apple. I wouldn’t want some boy scout to come on to me and get eaten for his troubles.”

  Ed laughed. “Sorry, darling, there won’t be any boy scouts in this place, but I’ll go see if I can’t find one who truly deserves to be our guest for dinner tonight.”

  Ed got out of the car and sauntered into the bar. He emerged less than ten minutes later and was smiling grimly as he got back in the front seat.

  “Any luck?” Kim asked, the Hunger making her too anxious to wait much longer.

  “Yeah. There’s a real beaut of a guy in there sitting at the end of the bar. He’s wearing a red-and-black cowboy shirt and a black Stetson hat.” Ed hesitated and then he added, “His name’s Ben Carter and he’s been accused of rape at least five or six times, but every time we brought him in, the witnesses either showed up beat to hell and recanted their stories or just disappeared entirely.”

  Kim nodded, her eyes dark. “He’ll do.” She leaned over and kissed him lightly on the cheek. “You’ll follow us when we leave?”

  “I’ll be right behind you,” Ed promised.

  “Good, ’cause if it’s anything I hate, it’s a rapist and abuser of women.”

  * * *

  Kim walked slowly into the saloon and went right up to the bar, climbing up on a barstool one over from the man Ed had described. She crossed her legs slowly, giving him a good look at her upper thighs and dark patch of pubic hair and asked the bartender for a shot of whiskey and a beer chaser.

  The barman got a worried look on his face, and as he put the drinks down in front of her, he whispered, “Listen, lady, I think you’re in the wrong place. If I was
you, I’d finish my drinks and get the hell out of here.”

  The man named Ben Carter snorted and moved over to take the stool next to Kim’s. He leaned over and blatantly stared down her dress at her exposed breasts, smiling and licking his lips obscenely.

  “Don’t listen to old Wally,” Ben said, his eyes never moving up to her face as he talked to her. “You’re plenty welcome here, little lady, and I’ll make sure nobody bothers you.”

  Kim turned on the stool to face Ben until her legs were between his, drained her whiskey, and followed it with half the glass of beer. She leaned over toward him, letting her dress fall open to give him an even better look at her breasts, and she said, “And what if I want someone to bother me, Mister Protector?”

  She thought his eyes were going to bug out of his head as he slipped his hand up under her dress and began to move his fingers over her pubis region.

  “Well, then, I’m your man for that too,” he said, his voice becoming husky with desire.

  Kim spread her legs a little and pushed her pelvis up against his fingers until they were on her lips and could feel her wetness.

  She glanced down at the bulge in his pants and then over at the glass of beer in front of him. “Why don’t you finish your drink and we can get out of this place and go someplace more private?” she asked, licking her lips as she stared into his eyes.

  His eyes were as dark and cold as a doll’s eyes, with no soul in them. “The hell with my drink, little lady,” he growled. “Let’s get out of here right now!”

  Ben took his hand out from under her dress, dropped a couple of crumpled bills on the bar, and followed Kim out of the door.

  As soon as they were in the parking lot, he grabbed her upper arm and tried to pull her up against him, pushing his erection against her.

  “Uh-uh, big boy,” Kim said teasingly, pulling away. “I don’t do it in parking lots. Find me a bed, quickly.”

  Ben’s face turned mean but he pushed her roughly toward a big four-wheel drive pickup right in front of the door. “Get in,” he ordered, opening the door, all traces of niceness gone now that he was sure of his conquest.