Her fangs were out and her fingernails had sharpened up like mini-claws.

Cade parked the motorcycle in front of what looked like your average no-tell-motel. She followed him quickly to the front desk, wondering about the fierce looks he kept sending her.

Did he realize that she was barely keeping it together? That she was seriously considering throwing the guy down on the ground and jumping him?

What is wrong with me?

She’d never been like this.

The balding guy behind the counter didn’t even give them a second glance. So what if she was still wet and her clothes were mostly burned? He just scooped up Cade’s money and tossed them a key. About thirty seconds later, they were entering room number 16, and Allison was trying hard to hold onto her control.

The door clicked shut behind them.

Want.

The whisper in her mind didn’t even seem to be her own. It felt too strong. Too dark.

Her eyes squeezed shut. “This isn’t me.”

The floor creaked as Cade stalked closer. “It’s who you’re gonna be.”

“Don’t.” The word was a snarl, but this was wrong. Her claws, her teeth—she could hurt him. If he touched her, Allison’s control would shatter.

Can’t hurt him.

But she had to get herself under control. Had to quench the fire that was building—

Her eyes flew open. Without glancing at Cade, Allison lunged across the room. She rushed into the miniscule bathroom and yanked on the shower’s cold water. That was what she needed. A good, cold shower and everything would be fine again. She’d cool down. Pretend she was back to normal and everything would be fine.

Her burnt clothes hit the ground. Naked, she stepped into the shower. The water hit her, hard and stinging and—

Cade’s hands wrapped around her shoulders. He turned her around as that pounding water slid over her flesh.

He’d shed his clothes and he stood before her, naked. He stepped into the shower.

Fighting herself, she backed up. Allison could feel her control splintering and she knew, right then, she knew that she was becoming someone else.

Something else.

In an instant, she grabbed Cade and pushed him back against the rough tiled wall. “Don’t.” She barely managed to speak. “I can hurt you.” Her words were close to an animal’s growl.

But her werewolf laughed. “Ah, sweetheart, trust me on this…I can handle you.”

He broke her hold. Took her mouth in a kiss that made her sex clench and her knees tremble and suddenly she was the one with her back pressed against that tile.

He’d reversed their positions so fast she barely had time to blink. Her back was against the tile. He’d lifted her up effortlessly, and he held her in his rock-hard embrace.

His mouth was on her throat. Licking her, sucking her flesh.

His cock pushed at the entrance of her body.

In.

His teeth scored her flesh and she shuddered in hungry arousal. “Cade!”

The water pounded down on them. He drove into her. She gasped as he filled her, stretching her body, only to withdraw seconds later and thrust in deeper, harder than before.

Again and again.

Her legs wrapped around his hips. Her hands slid over his slick flesh. The water didn’t seem so cold anymore. Not when he was burning hot against her.

Allison’s teeth began to burn, stretching and sharpening in her mouth. She wanted to bite him. To taste that delicious blood once more.

She clamped her lips together and arched her hips against him.

No, no she could be just a woman. She could—

He pulled back a bit, kept her pinned. Then took her breast in his mouth. Her nipples were so sensitive that the rough lick of his tongue had her moaning.

Her nails raked over his skin. He growled, and she caught the scent of blood.

Her eyes widened in horror when Allison realized that she’d scratched open his skin.

Cade’s head lifted. His thrusts stilled as his cock filled her. Her sex clamped around him, sensitive, eager for the pleasure that would come. His gaze held hers, and she wondered if he’d pull away.

“Go ahead,” he told her, voice deep, dark, and rumbling, “bite me.” A dare.

Then he withdrew…drove deep.

She bit him. On his neck this time. Hesitant at first because she didn’t really know what the hell she was doing, but her sharpened canines figured it out fast. They sank right through flesh and his blood slid onto her tongue.

She came at that first taste, her body shuddering with the blasts of pleasure that had her holding him as tightly as she could.

But Cade wasn’t done with her. Not yet. He kept thrusting. Stronger, wilder, and the feel of his cock sliding in and out of her sex had pleasure sweeping through her again.

Allison licked gently over the small wound she’d made on his neck. Shame lurked inside of her, but she wouldn’t feel it, not then. Then she only wanted the pleasure and him.

Her gaze met Cade’s.

“My turn.”

Allison’s lips parted. “What—”

He carried her out of the shower. Not withdrawing from her, but filling her as he strode back to the bed. They fell on the mattress, both soaking wet, and rolled in a tangle of limbs. Cade rose above her, and there was no mistaking the hungry lust burning in his gaze. “You’re not the only one who likes to bite.”

Her own eyes widened even as she reached for him.

His mouth closed over her flesh, right there, where the curve of her shoulder met her neck. She didn’t know what she expected but—

His teeth pressed into her flesh, and the Allison that she was becoming—the woman who tasted blood and climaxed—her breath whispered out in anticipation.

Cade bit her. Not to drink, not like she’d done before with him. This seemed…different. More of a marking.

Claiming?

Then she stopped worrying about bites and differences and just enjoyed the feel of his cock within her.

This time, when she came, he was right with her. Growling out his pleasure and holding her even tighter than she’d held him.

In that one moment, she didn’t care about what she was becoming.

She didn’t really give a damn about anything else but him.

Elsa stared into her dark mirror. It wasn’t showing her anything now. No past. No present. Nothing.

Her hand slammed into the glass surface. It cracked beneath her palm, tiny, spider-wed like cracks that rippled across the surface.

Allison wasn’t dead. Because of that asshole wolf. He’d given her shelter. He’d protect her. Gotten her ass out of the fire.

He should have been the one to kill Allison. Not to keep her alive. What use was an assassin if he couldn’t fucking kill anyone?

She lifted her hand, not caring about the drops of blood that flew from the scratches on her palm. All the supernaturals in the area knew just what Cade Thain was. They knew how much he hated vampires.

But, now, unless she missed her guess, he was fucking one. Why else would he keep Allison alive?

Why else?

A loud crash sounded behind her. Elsa didn’t move. She just kept staring into her broken mirror. Footsteps pounded up the staircase

“Where is she?”

So the vampire had finally found her home. He must be mighty pissed if he’d come out hunting in the daytime. He could have waited. Dusk was only an hour away.

Elsa didn’t answer him. She didn’t want to look away from her mirror. She didn’t—

A snarl hung in the air, and, in the next moment, she hung in the air, held up by the vampire’s grip on her throat. The big, blond vampire shook her like she was a rag doll and if he hadn’t been choking her, Elsa would have laughed right in his face.

“Where is she?” he demanded.

Elsa knew this vampire. Charles Crawford. A vamp who’d been walking the earth for over two hundred years.

A vamp who’d been tracking Allison for weeks.

He knew what she was. Vampires could always sense when a pureblood turning was at hand. And Allison had been right there in the city with the guy just nights before. No wonder he’d almost caught her in that alley.

Would have caught her, if Cade hadn’t plunged his claws into Crawford’s throat. Yes, her mirror had shown her that truth, too late. It hadn’t been Allison’s blood dripping from that alley’s walls the first night. Cade had attacked Crawford.

She smiled.

Crawford’s eyes narrowed. “What have you done?”

His hold eased, just enough for her to speak. “N-not me.” Her smile widened even more. “Werewolf.”

“That bastard? He still has her?”

“Gonna…kill her.” And the perfect plan hit her. “Unless…” Her breath heaved out as she studied the vamp. Maybe he could get the job done for her.

Wouldn’t that be fitting?

“Unless what?” he snapped. Poor vampire. With the werewolf hiding Allison in the woods, he wouldn’t have been able to catch her scent anymore.

And he’d be wanting to find the lost pureblood very badly. Purebloods were the favored in the vamp clans.

Elsa tried to appear careless as she said, “He’ll kill her…Unless you can kill him first.”

Now that bit had Crawford stepping back. “Tell me where the wolf is, and he’s dead.”

Elsa rubbed her throat and glanced back at her broken mirror. She saw nothing, because there was nothing left to see.

The end was coming.

It won’t be my end. It won’t. Crawford could take out the werewolf, and she would find a way to kill the pureblood.

“Don’t worry,” she told the vampire. “You won’t have to wait long.” Not long at all. “When night falls, he’ll come here. To you.”

She didn’t need her mirror to know that. Cade wouldn’t wait for her to attack again. She’d studied him. Learned his habits before she approached her would-be killer. No, he wouldn’t sit back and wait for another attack. He’d come after her.

And find a vampire waiting to kill him.

Chapter Seven

Vampires tore into her flesh. They cut her with gleaming silver blades, and they licked her blood from the edges of their knives. They laughed when she screamed.

And they tortured her even more.

They chained her and poured liquid silver onto her back, just so they could hear her screams.

And Allison did scream. Over and over as her flesh burned away.

She looked up, staring straight at the bastards who loved her pain, and something broke inside of her. Broke, even as the chains holding her arms broke free, and she lunged forward with a strength born of fury.One swipe, and she cut the head off the nearest vampire. She drove her claws into the throat of another. And as they fell, this time, she was the one who laughed.

“Allison!” Hard hands grabbed her, shook her.

Her eyes flew open, and Allison found herself out of that dank pit. The peeling walls of the hotel room surrounded her. She was on the bed. With Cade.

The man seemed to always be saving her from nightmares. But then, it wasn’t like she was the sweet dream type.

Always nightmares.

Sweat covered her, and she could still smell the scent of her own burning flesh.

Only, it hadn’t been her flesh that burned. Not really. Her trembling fingers lifted and touched the rough scars that marked Cade’s face.

His pupils widened when she touched him. His hold on her gentled, but he didn’t let her go.

Why not? Her hand fell away. How could he stand to have her near him? Those other vampires had tortured him for hours, days, and they’d drank his blood.

Just like she had.

“I’m sorry.” Her stark whisper.

Cade frowned down at her but there wasn’t surprise on his face. Just a kind of angry understanding. “The blood,” he said. “Fuck, how did I forget that? Vamps don’t just take blood, they take memories, too.”

Allison flinched. “I-I didn’t—” What? What was she supposed to say? That she hadn’t meant to steal his memories? That she hadn’t meant to drink his blood?

She had meant to do it.

Allison realized she was still naked. It hadn’t mattered before, not when she’d wanted the press of his flesh against her more than she’d wanted anything else. But at that moment, she felt…lost.

She pulled free of him and yanked the sheet up to cover her breasts. Taking a breath, she asked the question that she feared, “Am I even human any longer?” She didn’t feel weak. In fact, her body seemed incredibly strong right then. No blisters, no wounds. Only healed flesh.

Her heart was still beating. She still breathed. But she’d taken blood. Grown fangs. Her own version of claws.

“You were never human.”

His words hurt as much as a slap would have.

Allison jumped from the bed, dragging the sheet with her.

“You were born a vampire, it just took a little while for the DNA to kick-in.” His voice followed her, cold, no emotion. There’d been plenty of heat in the daytime hours. But with night, all of that seemed to have vanished. “It usually takes about twenty-five years of life, maybe a few years more, before the vamp side takes over for a pureblood.”

“Why?” She needed to learn all that she could. No more denying. No more hiding.

Deal with this.

“Because the vamp genes freeze the body at its peak. They keep you strong and young, forever.”

“Forever…” Or as long as she kept drinking blood. As long as she didn’t lose her head or get staked.

Or die in a fire set by a sadistic witch.

“You’ll keep breathing,” he told her, and she glanced back to see him pulling up his jeans. Sexy. “Your heart won’t stop. That only happens to the turned humans, and only for a little while. You were born this way…you’ll stay this way.”