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  TJ gave him a stern look. “Who knows? I might have to take you over my knee and give you a spanking.”

  Shooter laughed as they disappeared into their room, but his words were plainly audible. “A spanking? Now that’s something we haven’t done yet!”

  Chapter 5

  As soon as they were in their room, TJ grabbed Shooter by the shoulders and turned him to face her. She ran one hand lightly through his curly black hair and looked up into his sky-blue eyes. His five-foot-ten-inch frame towered over her by eight inches and she was so close she had to tilt her head to look up at him.

  “Don’t you dare doubt yourself, Shooter,” she whispered. “You are one of the kindest and most gentle men I’ve ever known, and no amount of Vampyre bugs in your blood could ever change that, vaccine or no vaccine. You could no more harm an innocent person than you could hurt me.”

  Shooter grinned and put his arms around TJ and pulled her toward him until they both tumbled down on the bed.

  “I thought we were going to talk about your feelings about this possible transformation,” TJ said, a smile on her lips and a familiar glint in her eye.

  “Oh, we’ll talk first,” Shooter said, his lips against her neck and his hand cupping her breast.

  “Not if you keep that up,” TJ said, pulling back and rolling off him to lie next to him on the bed. “Now, I know you’ve got some questions, so ask me.”

  Shooter put his hands behind his head and stared up at the ceiling, trying to ignore the warmth and heaviness in his groin touching her had caused. “Okay, what does it feel like to be a Vampyre?”

  TJ rolled on her side and gently caressed his stomach with her right hand as she spoke. “For the most part, it feels wonderful. The every day aches and pains and discomforts we deal with as humans are gone. Every sense is magnified a thousand times. I can taste and smell and hear and feel things like I could only imagine before. And my mind is so clear and focused that I can almost read your thoughts before you’re even aware of them.”

  Shooter grinned. “That could be dangerous. What if I thought about another girl?”

  TJ moved her hand down to his groin and cupped his genitals, giving them a slight warning squeeze. “You’re right, pal, that could be dangerous,” she said ominously. “So, you’d better just be sure to think only of me.”

  “Seriously,” Shooter said, turning his head to look at her. “Isn’t it a problem for all of you to know what the others are thinking? It’s like you have no privacy.”

  TJ smiled. “No, not at all, babe. With the power to read others’ thoughts and emotions, comes the ability to shield your own. That way, unless you want them to, no one can read your thoughts.”

  “Oh,” Shooter said, an expression of relief on his face.

  “As a matter of fact, most of us go around with our minds at least partly shielded for that very reason. Of course, if someone is vastly more powerful psychically than you are, they can probably break down your shield and get some sense of your thoughts and emotions, but you’re going to know they’re doing it. Any thing else?” TJ asked.

  “With your heightened senses,” he asked, blushing slightly, “is making love better than it was before?”

  “Not necessarily better, but a thousand times more intense,” she answered. “Now when you open you mind to me and we make love, I not only feel what you’re doing to me, but I can also share what you feel when I do things to you.” She grinned. “It’s like that old song, a ‘double shot of my baby’s love.’ I can enjoy it from both aspects and the feeling is so good it is absolutely scary.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know, babe,” he said. “As good as you make me feel now, if it were any better I don’t know if I could stand it.”

  “Trust me,” TJ whispered, leaning over to put her lips on his, her breath warm against him. “You’ll love it.”

  As he opened his lips to her thrusting tongue, she slipped her hand inside his jeans and wrapped her fingers around him, causing him to become immediately hard.

  “I thought you wanted to talk,” he said, gasping at her touch and pushing his pelvis against her hand.

  “I did, but now the talking is over,” she replied breathlessly as she moved her hand on him.

  They both groaned as they rapidly tore their clothes off and came together naked in the middle of the bed.

  Her breasts were on fire as he caressed them and she grabbed his buttocks and pulled him tight against her, until she could feel his hardness pressing against her pubic bone.

  “Now!” she whispered urgently and moved her hips until he slipped inside her wetness.

  He moaned and thrust against her as their lips locked and she pressed her breasts tight against his chest, riding him like a stallion.

  * * *

  Matt and Sam were having a similar conversation in their room next door. Since the rooms were small and had little furniture in them other than a bed and small chest of drawers, they too were lying on their bed at they talked.

  Matt was on his right side, looking into Sam’s face. “I know what Elijah said just now,” he began, “but I want to know how you feel about having gone through the transformation, especially since it was against your will.”

  She pursed her lips as she thought about the question. “Obviously, if I had my choice, I’d wish none of this had happened to us and that we were still living our lives in blissful unawareness of the whole Vampyre mess.”

  Matt grinned. “I sense a ‘but’ in there.”

  She returned his smile. “Yeah, but since it did happen and since we are all intimately involved, I’m kind’a glad I was changed.”

  “Why specifically?”

  “Many reasons. For one, it allows me to look at the big picture of things, knowing that baring something unforeseen I’ll live another few hundred years instead of just fifty or so. It sort’a frees up the mind to think about the consequences of our actions that would normally only occur long after we were dead.”

  “Okay, what else?”

  “Physically, it’s been amazing,” she said, her eyes lighting up. “I’m able to experience things—feelings, tastes, smells, thoughts, that I’d only been able to imagine before, and I’m strong as an ox to boot!”

  “I can attest to that,” Matt agreed, thinking of how she’d torn into Michael Morpheus during their fight awhile back. “But, now, tell me the downsides to this new you.”

  Her face sobered. “The obvious one is my desire for and need for frequent feedings of blood, though the vaccine makes it much more bearable than it was before.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Another not so obvious one is the danger I . . . that is, all of us Vampyres face by drinking human blood.”

  “You mean, the danger of catching diseases?”

  “Yeah. The most serious is spongiform encephalopathy, or Mad Cow Disease. According to Elijah, he’s had to kill several of his kind that caught the disease. Evidently, it cannot kill us but it drives us insane and we live out our lives as blithering idiots.”

  “What about the other blood diseases, like AIDS or hepatitis?”

  She shrugged. “Elijah says they aren’t really threats, that with our heightened immune systems we can usually handle those without any problem unless we suffer an overwhelming infective dose.”

  “So,” Matt said hesitantly, “you think all things considered, it’s a positive experience?”

  She grinned wryly. “I wouldn’t go quite that far, lover, but it’s certainly not all bad. And the real upside is that you and I will have hundreds of years together instead of just a few dozen.”

  “But, what if you get tired of me, or we fall out of love?” he asked, his eyes worried.

  She patted his arm. “Not to worry, Matt. If the time does come in some distant future when either of us wants to separate, then we’ll do it and hopefully remain friends. I don’t think either one of us is the type to try and keep the other prisoner.”

  “There’s another thing,”
he added, his eyes not quite looking at her.

  “Yes?”

  “I remember Elijah saying once that Vampyres don’t look at sex the same way us Normals do, that for you guys it’s often a part of the feeding process and is considered more . . . uh, recreational than a binding emotional response signifying love or commitment.”

  His eyes found hers and bored in. “Is that how you feel now, Sam?”

  “If you mean could I have sex with another man, or another Vampyre and not feel guilty about it, the answer is yes, dear.”

  She hurriedly added when she saw his face fall, “But, that does not mean that sex between us would be any less special, or that the sex I had with someone else would mean as much to me as it does with you. Sex between Vampyre mates is very special indeed, Matt, for it includes the bonding of minds and souls on a much deeper level than is possible for two Normals, but probably due to their long lives and the very real part sex plays in feeding, Vampyres do not consider sex with persons other than their mates to be a betrayal. They look at it like you said, as a mere recreational experience to be enjoyed and then forgotten.”

  Matt shook his head, his lips curled in a slight smile. “I don’t know, Sam. That sounds sort of like a teenage fantasy—endless sex without responsibility.”

  She shrugged and reached out to caress his cheek with her palm. “Yes it does, and it is, sort of, Matt. Sex without love is just physical enjoyment, and as such harms no one assuming both parties agree to the ground rules, but sex with love, as between two mates, is glorious indeed, as I hope you have the chance to find out.”

  He leaned over and put his lips against hers, whispering, “Well, now that you mention it . . .”

  She moved her hand from his cheek to his belt and tugged on it. “Maybe we should get out of these clothes before we go any further,” she said breathlessly.

  “Good idea,” he replied, moving as fast as he could to do just that.

  Chapter 6

  “I need to know whether you’re with us on this,” Theo Thantos said, breaking into John Ashby’s thoughts.

  John looked up into Thantos’s eyes, which though fevered still showed no signs of insanity. “Why do you care, one way or the other,” John asked. “I’m sure you’ll find plenty of converts to your cause, Vampyres who’ve been chafing under the rule of the Normals for hundreds of years.”

  Thantos glanced at his mate, Christina, and then back at John. “I was hoping you’d be my point man in Canada. I don’t know any of the local Vampyre groups up here and if we’re going to succeed in this upcoming war, we’re going to have to plan to simultaneously hit the Canadian government to keep them out of our hair in the States.”

  John thought about what Thantos was saying for a moment, and then he shook his head. “I don’t think so, at least not at first, Theo.”

  “Why not?” Thantos asked in an accusing tone of voice, as if John were somehow conspiring against his grand scheme.

  “Because the Canadian prime minister is just a figure head when it comes to running the country,” John explained. “Each province is pretty much autonomous, much more so than the individual states are in the lower fifty.” John hesitated, and then he added, “And what’s more, they’re proud of their independence and would not take kindly to interference from any titular head of the government you might convert. No”—he said, shaking his head again—“It just won’t work that easily up here.”

  Thantos pursed his lips. “Then, what you’re saying is that to be effective, we’d have to hit the leaders of every province in Canada at the same time?”

  “Yeah, so if you’re asking my advice, it would be to take care of business in the States first, and once you’ve got your leaders there in our camp, then we can start to operate up here to do the same thing.”

  Thantos smiled. “You said ‘our camp.’ Does that mean you’ll join me in my quest to make the world safe for our kind?”

  John shot a glance at Marya and then wagged his head. “I don’t know yet, Theo. I’ll talk it over with Marya and let you know later—but no matter what I decide, I won’t do anything to go against your plan.”

  Christina growled, her hateful gaze on Marya, “You’d better not, either one of you!”

  Marya stared back at her and grinned insolently. “Better put this bitch on a leash, Theo,” she said, “before she gives someone rabies.” She paused before adding, “Or before I put her down like the mad dog she is.”

  Thantos got hurriedly to his feet, glancing at Christina with worried eyes, as if she might attack Marya before he could get them out of the cabin.

  “All right, John. I’ll take your word on it that you won’t try and interfere if you decide not to join us.” He pulled a small notebook from his jacket pocket and wrote something on it with a gold Cross pen. “Here is the name of the hotel we’ll be staying at in Washington until I can find us an out-of-the-way house to rent.”

  John’s eyebrows went up when he took the paper. “The Ritz Carlton, huh? Pretty fancy digs.”

  Thantos shrugged. “Might as well travel first class I always say.”

  “Except for the company you keep,” Marya murmured, her voice almost too low to be heard.

  * * *

  Ed and Kim Slonaker clinked glasses as they lay next to each other in their bed. “To us,” Ed said, staring into Kim’s eyes. “To us,” she replied, and then they each drained their glasses of thick, red liquid.

  Ed took Kim’s glass and put them both on his bedside table and turned out the light. As he turned back to Kim and put his arm around her to pull her toward him, she put a hand against his chest and leaned her head back, looking up at his face in the gloomy half-light.

  “It’s not quite the same is it?” she asked, a wistful note in her voice.

  “You mean drinking prepared blood-bank blood from a glass instead of ripping it from some poor innocent’s body?” he asked, an angry edge in his voice.

  “Don’t be angry, darling,” she said, caressing his cheek with her hand. “I didn’t mean it that way. I only meant that this is not nearly as exciting, as sensual as the way we used to do it.” She lowered her hand and her eyes. “This is too clinical, too clean. It’s like the difference between fast food at a burger joint and a real steak served on linen in a restaurant with a glass of wine. Both meals satisfy your hunger in a basic sort of way, but one is much preferable over the other.”

  Ed sighed and reached over to turn the light back on. He fluffed up his pillow against the headboard and moved to a semi-sitting position. He’d known this talk was coming for some time, better to get it over with.

  “Yes, you’re right, sweetheart,” he agreed. “Taking the vaccine has calmed the hunger and made it manageable so that we only have to feed every few weeks, but the process is not nearly as exciting as the old days when we hunted our prey and then consumed them in an orgy of sex and feasting.”

  She shook her head. “I can’t even remember the last time we changed into our Vampyre bodies,” she complained. As she looked back at him, she added, “I’m sorry, Ed, but I miss those days. I can’t help it. The anticipation beforehand, the excitement of the hunt, and then the actual kill and blood-feast that followed it . . .” Her voice trailed off and her eyes became distant and hooded in memory.

  He reached out and pulled her to him, the feel of her naked breasts against his chest arousing him in spite of what she’d said about the dry, clinical nature of their feeding. “I have to admit that I miss them too, Kim darling, but I don’t miss the guilt and self-recriminations we always had afterward.”

  She let her hand drift down across his stomach to his hardening groin. “I know it sounds like I want it both ways,” she said, her lips against his chest. “And I guess it’s true. I want the fun and excitement and sex, but not the guilt and sadness over having to kill to get it.”

  She lowered her head to his lap and kissed him with soft lips. “It’s not that this isn’t good, because it is,” she added, flicking the he
ad of his penis with her tongue and then rolling onto her back on his thighs and pulling his hand to her breast. “But try and remember what it was like before, sweetheart. It was mind-numbing, wild, glorious animal sex that left us both exhausted and satiated for days.”

  Ed felt his penis throb and jump at the memories of how they used to rut and feed before the days of Elijah Pike’s vaccine.

  He dug his fingers into her breast, squeezing the nipple until she moaned. “Do you want to stop taking the vaccine and go back to those days?” he asked, more than a little afraid she’d say yes. He knew he loved her enough to do it for her, but he didn’t want to unless she forced him to even though he missed those days almost as much as she did.

  She moved under his hand. “Not entirely, Ed, but why can’t we continue to take the vaccine and still, when it comes time to feed, go after some people that don’t deserve to live?”

  “You mean try and find criminals to feed on?”

  She sat up and put her arms around his neck. “Sure, why not? The only thing that kept us from doing that before was that we needed to feed so often you couldn’t find enough bad people to satisfy the hunger. Now, with the vaccine, we’ll have plenty of time to pick and choose our victims, making sure that we don’t kill anyone who doesn’t deserve it.”

  He grinned. It might just work, and he had to admit, she was right about one thing. It was better the old way.

  “All right,” he said. “When I get to the office tomorrow, I’ll go through the files and see who I can find in the area that might be suitable candidates for our next . . . party.”

  “Oh, darling,” she cried, pressing herself against him. “Just think how much fun we’ll have—first picking the victims, and then stalking them and finally taking them and devouring them in an orgy of bloodlust.” She grinned up at him with sparkling, excited eyes. “I love you!”

  In answer, he threw her across the bed to land on her back and began to change into his Vampyre body, snarling and drooling as her eyes widened in delight and she began to change with him.