CHAPTER 1
The guy waiting for me in Culebra’s back room looks to be about thirty. He’s lying naked on the bed, his clothes folded neatly on a bedside chair. He has a sheet thrown over the lower part of his body. He’s lean, muscular, with the arrogant good looks of a guy used to having his way with women. He smiles when he sees me, a smile of relief and anticipation. I’m sure the relief is because I’m female (a host never knows) and the anticipation that because I’m female, sex will be a part of the deal.
I pull a wad of cash out of my purse and lay it on top of his clothes. “I just want the blood,” I tell him. “Whatever you do while I’m feeding is up to you, but I don’t intend to participate.”
“Are you sure?” The guy pushes the sheet off his hips. He started without me.
If the size of his dick is supposed to impress me, my reaction must be a bitter disappointment. I flutter fingers in a dismissive gesture. “Yeah, I’m sure. Face the wall, please.”
“Don’t you want to know my name?”
“No.”
He grunts and rolls over. I position myself behind him, spoon style, and pull his head closer. My body vibrates from need and the heady sensation that comes from watching blood coarse through an artery just a kiss away. His hands are busy between his legs and he groans before I break through the skin.
Then I’m lost in my own sensations. His blood is sweet and clean, his fitness the result of good diet and exercise, not pills or needles. Not that it would matter. Vampires are immune from human drugs and disease. Only the taste differs, like drinking vinegar or wine, and I’m pleased with this vintage. The first mouthful brings intense pleasure, my body now tingling with something other than hunger. There’s a fleeting moment when I am tempted to roll him over, to mount him, feel him inside me while I feed.
But I resist.
The blood is enough. It awakens every cell in my body. It revives and restores. My skin warms. A flush of heat floods my cheeks. My senses become needle sharp. The feel of the host’s skin against my lips, the smell of his arousal, the quickness of his breath, I experience it all. His heartbeat. Steady, rhythmic, until he nears climax. Then his heart begins to race until it reaches a crescendo and his body tenses. He moans, grinds against me, one hand clutches the sheet, the other moves faster and with more urgency.
I keep feeding until the last shudder of release passes and he is quiet beside me. I use my tongue to seal the puncture wounds, watch as the marks fade. He does not speak or move. In a minute, his breathing becomes deep and regular and I know.
He’s fallen asleep.
CHAPTER 2
When I join Culebra at the bar, he looks past me toward the door to the back room. “Is he still alive?”
He hands me a bottle of Dos Equis with a lime wedge propped on the rim. He could be an extra in a John Ford western, lean, craggy-faced, and, at the moment, determined to get answers.
I squeeze the lime down into the bottle. “Why wouldn’t he be?”
He takes another beer from a cooler under the bar and motions for me to follow him to a table. When we’re both seated he answers. “You looked hungry when you walked in. How long has it been since you fed?”
I shrug. “A while.”
He watches me drink. “It’s been a while since we talked, too. A month to be exact. I have a lot of questions.”
One of the reasons I’ve stayed away.
Culebra picks that thought out of the ether. He frowns. “I thought I was your friend.”