“I was your first,” I whispered.
Something flickered in his eyes. Memory? I hoped so, but it was gone so fast, I couldn’t be sure. Then he leaned closer, his lips hovering over my own as he whispered, “My first slave.”
I jumped, even though I had to have known that was coming. “You think I’m going to wash your shorts and scrub your toilets?”
His mouth curved, so close to my own I felt the movement, but didn’t see it because I could look nowhere but into his endless eyes.
“Not that kind of slave,” he said, and kissed me.
He still tasted like Jimmy, kissed like Jimmy, and my body knew him, even as my mind screamed, Monster!
His hands were rough, holding me to him even though I wasn’t struggling to get away. When his mouth left mine, he pressed open kisses across my chin, down my neck. When I didn’t tilt my head to give him better access, his hand left my hip, capturing my face, fingers bruising as he held me still, inhuman eyes burning with lust.
“You will be my slave for sex. Whenever I want it, however, wherever. You will wear nothing night and day.” He placed a hard, closed kiss on my mouth. “I want to walk into this room and have you ready all of the time.”
“I bet you do,” I managed, even though he still held my jaw far too tightly for easy speech.
“I’ll suck you dry slowly. Who knows? You may even find a way out of this with enough time. Keep me satisfied, I might keep you for centuries.”
“Yeah, that’ll happen.”
He leaned forward and caught my lip in his teeth, biting down until the pain began before releasing it. “You’d better hope it does, Elizabeth.”
I hated it when he called me that. What I wouldn’t give now to hear baby just once.
Jimmy released me. “Take off your clothes.”
“Not.”
He didn’t bother to cajole. Instead he fisted a hand in my shirt and yanked. I was drawn forward with such force I stumbled. The seams split, the shirt practically disintegrated. Ruthie’s crucifix spilled free and brushed against his hand.
A hissing sound, the scent of burning hair. Jimmy jumped back, hissing himself, as smoke rose from his skin.
I was left standing in my bra and jeans, mouth wide open. The icon hadn’t bothered him before.
If I’d needed any proof that Jimmy had changed, that he was becoming less and less human and more and more vampire, I had it.
“Didn’t care for that, did you?” I murmured.
His hand snaked out, and he yanked the cross and Sawyer’s turquoise from my neck, then tossed them across the room. The chain made a tinny, slithery sound. The cross and the stone bounced like gravel. All three disappeared beneath a huge breakfront of cherry wood and glass. I was going to have a helluva time fishing them out.
“Don’t think you can use that against me.” Jimmy held his hand up in front of my face. Despite the sizzle and scent, there wasn’t a mark on him. He’d already healed. “You can’t hurt me; you can’t kill me.”
I glanced at the bank of windows, then at him in contemplation. Would he fry like bacon beneath the dawn’s early light? Once again my face gave my thoughts away.
“The sun won’t do a thing. My father is a daywalker, and so am I.”
“The others?”
“A few daywalkers to keep things running smoothly. The rest only awaken at night. Peons.” He shrugged. “They have their uses.”
That explained why everyone had been rushing in and out of the place after-hours as if the clock read ten a.m.
“An entire building of beings that only work at night and no one’s noticed?”
“Of course. People are breaking down the doors to hire us. No one else keeps those hours. We fulfill a service for all the scurrying nine-to-five drones.”
“The vampire legion actually works for a living?”
“Someone has to. At least for now.”
No matter how supernaturally powerful they were, there was still the problem of cash flow. Amazing.
“Enough,” Jimmy snapped, and tore off my bra with a sharp tug. My breasts spilled free and his eyes, if possible, became even darker.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” he murmured. “Dreaming of you as I touched all of them.”
My eyes narrowed at the word all, but I let it go. I really didn’t want to know.
“Why me?” I asked instead.
He shook his head as if coming out of a trance. Sheesh. Get a grip. My breasts were good, but not that good.
“I crave you. Father says your seer blood will give me more strength than the blood of a dozen others.”
I thought if he called that thing “Father” one more time I might just lose my mind. But the longer he talked, the more I learned, and the less sex we had.
“Is that what this place is all about?” 1 indicated the fold-out bed, the all-porn, all-the-time television.
“My father’s idea.” I winced at the word; I couldn’t help it. “Sometimes it’s fun to seduce them. Sometimes it’s fun to just take them.”