Holly eased her grip, her eyes following the line of James’s shoulder to the curve of his neck. He had his head turned away and her position behind and a little to the side gave her a perfect view of the muscle that ran down from his jaw to under his clavicle . . . and the external jugular vein that ran over it. She could almost see it throbbing under the skin. Holly found herself staring at it as she worked the muscles of his shoulder and had to fight the urge to touch and kiss him there. This wasn’t the day they had sex. James was always exhausted after work and she was always in a rush to get out the door. It was no time to initiate something and she knew it, so just waited for the desire to recede.
But, instead of fading away as she’d expected, the hunger inside her seemed to grow stronger, and she couldn’t seem to drag her gaze away from that pulsing vein. Holly had the oddest urge to run her tongue along it. Bizarre, but she blamed it on the smells coming off of him. James smelled . . . well, yummy. He’d just showered, so she expected it was a new cologne he was using or something. Whatever it was, it was heady with a deep rich scent, almost tinny but in a pleasant way.
“God woman, are you trying to dig a hole in my shoulder?” James said on a pained laugh. “Gentler, please.”
Holly tore her gaze from his throat and glanced forward, freezing when she spotted herself in the mirror. Horror was rushing up within her when Holly noted movement behind her. In the next moment something snaked around her waist even as a palm slapped over her mouth. She was dragged away from James and out of the room so swiftly, it left her off balance and struggling to keep her feet under her as she was whisked down the stairs and through the house. It seemed like barely a blink later that she was being released in the garage and left to find her own balance as her captor stepped away.
Managing to keep her feet under her, Holly turned sharply on her attacker, not terribly surprised when she saw that it was Justin Bricker. The note he’d left in her car had said he’d be here when she needed him . . . and she needed him . . . or at least someone right now.
“I have fangs,” Holly said faintly, hardly able to believe what she’d seen when she’d caught a glimpse of herself in the bathroom mirror upstairs.
Justin merely nodded and eyed her warily.
For some reason that infuriated her. At least, she was suddenly terribly furious, and demanded, “What have you done to me?”
“Saved you,” he answered at once.
“For what?” she asked sharply. “Some sort of living death as a vampire?”
“You aren’t dead,” he assured her solemnly. “I turned you to save your life, not end it.”
“Vampires are dead,” she snapped.
“But you aren’t a vampire. You’re an immortal,” he said firmly.
“Buddy, you can call it a retort, but it’s still just an incinerator to burn bodies in,” she said grimly.
He blinked in confusion at that. “What?”
“It’s—- Never mind,” she said wearily. “The point is, you can call it immortal all you want, but if it has fangs and sucks blood it’s a vampire.”
“But if it has fangs, sucks blood and still has a beating heart and a soul, it’s an immortal,” he countered.
Holly merely stared at him as the last part of his comment repeated itself through her head. So she still had a beating heart and a soul?
“You should know you do . . . at least the heart. It’s thundering up a storm right now. Surely you can feel it?”
Holly glanced to him sharply. “I thought you couldn’t read me.”
“I can’t,” he said with surprise.
“Then how did you know I was wondering about that?”
“Because you said it aloud,” he explained, his words gentle.
Holly was silent for a moment, concentrating on paying attention to her body. After a moment, she became aware of the frantic thudding coming from her chest, as well as a pulsing in her head. Her heart was pumping, thundering up a storm as he’d said. She was alive. The news was such a relief that Holly nearly fell over. At least her knees went weak and she would have fallen had he not reached out to steady her. Once she was solid again though, he released her as if she were a hot potato. Holly found it oddly insulting.
Clearing his throat, he moved several steps away and then turned to say, “I’ll need to train you.”
“Train me for what?” she asked, wary now herself.
“For survival,” he said grimly. “We have laws, rules, a certain conduct that is expected from us. Breaking the laws can see you punished and then beheaded.”
“Beheaded? Are you kidding me?” she asked with amazement. When he shook his head, she protested, “But that’s positively feudal.”
“We’re an old race,” he said with a shrug and then shifted impatiently and moved toward the door. “You’ll need to dress so we can go.”
Holly blinked and glanced down at herself, becoming aware for the first time that she was still wrapped only in a towel. She supposed she’d been so shocked to see those fangs protruding from her mouth in the bathroom mirror that she’d forgotten everything else. She found it surprising, though, that she hadn’t lost the towel when he’d grabbed her and dragged her down here. She was also rather surprised that James hadn’t noticed and chased after them.
“My husband—-”
“Is in bed sleeping,” Justin assured her. “In his mind, he thanked you for the nice back massage and then crawled into bed.”
“How do you know that?” Holly asked.