She smiled slowly and stretched out on top of him, sliding her satiny smooth mound over and around his cock, enticing him, as if he needed anymore enticement. Her nipples scraped against his chest as she buried her face against his neck. Her breath was hot, her tongue a stroke of wetness along the side of his neck. His heart was racing faster than in the worst firefights he’d ever endured. He rebelled against the fear, reminding himself this was Sophie. He began to thrust gently beneath her and she groaned against his neck. He felt something hard and blunt scrape over the skin below his jaw, heard her indrawn breath.

Ecstasy. His cock hardened instantly, unbelievably. Sophie was straddling him, her legs on either side of his hips, her silky hair draped over his chest. He could feel the tug of her mouth, the slick glide of her fangs as she took his blood. And he felt a kick of desire like nothing he’d ever experienced. He wanted to throw her over, spread her legs and fuck her hard and long. He gripped her ass, sliding his hands over the firm mounds and dipping his fingers between her legs. She was soaking wet and still hot from her earlier climax. She moaned when he began pumping his fingers in and out of her, rubbing herself gently back and forth over his erection where it lay trapped deliciously beneath her. He guided the fingers of his other hand along the crease of her buttocks, teasing her tightly puckered star, and Sophie jerked in his arms, the tight walls of her sex clenching around his fingers.

There was a sting, a slight ache as her fangs withdrew from his neck, but it was quickly replaced by the warm caress of her tongue. Pushing against his shoulders she sat up, her beautiful breasts swaying tantalizingly close. Her eyes were almost completely amber as she stared down at him, glowing like jewels in the dark room. Without a word, she lifted her hips, her soft fingers wrapping around his cock as she sheathed him inside her once again and began rocking slowly back and forth.

She cupped her breasts, squeezing and releasing, scraping her fingernails around and around her nipples, until they begged to be suckled, until blood streaked the round perfection of her breasts and drops hung poised on their very tips. She leaned forward, her hands to either side of his head as she moved, sliding herself up and down his aching cock. Colin growled, grabbing her hips and holding her in place as he began to thrust upward, delving deeper inside her with every stab of his cock into her welcoming body. She leaned closer and he fastened his mouth over one breast, sucking hard, tasting her blood on his tongue, feeling it hot and slick as he swallowed. Sophie cried out, her inner walls shuddering around him in warning. Colin grinned, tightened his grip on her hips, and switched his attention to the other breast, taking it in his mouth and sucking until it was bright pink and swollen.

Sophie had closed her eyes, her body swaying above him as if in a trance. Colin could feel her orgasm building around his shaft, could feel the tremors in her belly, the tightening of her inner walls as they began to ripple along his cock, caressing him, urging him to give up his seed. He grunted softly, trying to hold out a little longer, wanting to feel her climax, her wetness soaking his cock and dripping out of her swollen sex.

“Colin,” she gasped. “I can’t . . . I can’t last much longer.”

“Then, don’t, Sophie. Come for me.”

As if waiting for his invitation, Sophie threw her head back, screaming as the climax roared over her. She collapsed on top of him, moaning as her entire body quivered in the throes of sexual release. Colin gritted his teeth, relishing the feel of her soft body trembling over his, her channel convulsing, shivering with the strength of her orgasm. Groaning, he tightened his hold on her hips and rolled over, drawing her knees up and placing her legs over his shoulders as he shoved himself into her over and over again in a frenzy of need. Sophie’s eyes flashed open. She snarled wordlessly and began to move, meeting his downward plunge with an upward thrust of her hips, flexing her inner muscles to grip his cock even tighter.

Colin felt the orgasm coming. There was no stopping it this time. He shouted uncontrollably as it rolled over him like an earthquake, shaking him down to his bones, every muscle in his body clenching as his cock pulsed over and over again, burying itself deep in Sophie’s body until it was spent.

He eased her legs off his shoulders and rolled over, gathering her against his side.

“Jesus, Soph,” he managed.

She responded with an unintelligible “mmph,” her voice muffled by his chest.

Colin wasn’t sure how long they stayed that way. He wasn’t even sure when they’d started making love or how long they’d been at it. He did know they both fell asleep at some point. He woke when Sophia stirred restlessly and sat up next to him.

“I fell asleep,” she fretted. “It’s nearly dawn. I don’t know if—”

“It’s okay, darlin’,” he soothed, pulling her back down into the warm bed. “These are blackout drapes and I’ll stand guard. It’s okay.”

She smiled sleepily, reaching up to caress his face. “Colin,” she whispered. “I can’t believe I found you.”

“We found each other, Soph. Now, sleep. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

The ringing phone dragged Colin from sleep. A quick glance at the clock told him, it was just past two. He checked it again. Two in the afternoon, he clarified. Sophie lay next to him, curled up beneath the covers. If he didn’t know better, he’d think she was asleep, but a closer look told him it was more than that. It wasn’t like the vampires in the movies who were pale and gray, their hands bony with long, curving nails. His Sophie wasn’t dead. But this was something more than sleep, too.

He thought about the others, the vampires who’d been murdered, and he understood for the first time how completely vulnerable they’d been when their attackers fell on them. There would have been no resistance. Their deaths had been brutal butchery, nothing less.

The phone rang again, and he jolted, thinking it might be Robbie with news about Leighton. But right on top of that thought was the realization that it was his house phone ringing. Not his cell, but the land line. Cell reception had been spotty up here for years, until the vamps moved in and paid to have a new tower installed. His broadband came in over the land line, so he kept the service, but hardly anyone called him on that number anymore.

He let it ring. It would go to the answering machine before long, and he could listen to see if it was someone he wanted to talk to.

He pulled the covers up over Sophie and climbed out of bed, careful to close the bedroom door behind him. As he’d told her, the curtains in his bedroom were heavy, with blinds underneath. After years of sleeping in all sorts of places and conditions, he liked a dark room and a comfortable bed when he slept.

The incoming call rolled over to the machine as he walked into the living room, his skin prickling with cold. He almost turned around to go back to the bedroom and pull on a pair of sweats when Garry McWaters’s familiar voice rolled out of the machine.

“Yo, Murphy. You around?”

Colin’s stared at the machine in disbelief. Jaw clenched, he strode over the phone and yanked it off the charger.

“You son of a bitch,” he said growled.

“You didn’t tell me the woman had a bodyguard, Murph,” Garry chided. “Not nice of you.”

It had been Garry’s voice he heard at Babe’s after the shootout yesterday. He hadn’t wanted to believe it, but now—

“And you didn’t tell me you’d taken to ambushing friends, you bastard.”

“Hey, we weren’t aiming at you, buddy. You wouldn’t have been hurt at all if that bitch hadn’t seen a couple of the guys moving around outside. I hate working with amateurs, you know what I’m saying? Anyway, she was the target. You were just supposed to open the door like you always do for the ladies. You’re such a gentleman, Murph. I always admired that about you.”

“Yeah, fuck you, Garry.”

McWaters just laughed. “Yeah, well you fucked up the plan. And the boys aren’t happy. Their trucks got all shot up and you know how they feel about their trucks around here. Besides, you looked fine to me when you drove away. The bodyguard, too, for that matter. What is he, Delta? Rangers? That boy definitely had some training somewhere. Hey,” he said suddenly, as if it had just occurred to him. “How’s the woman doing?”

“Go to hell.”

“Come on, she was hardly helpless out there. Fine lookin’ woman, and she knows her stuff. Too bad she’s on the wrong side.”

“The wrong side? Which one’s that?”

All laughter fled and Garry’s voice turned grim. “The fucking human side, Murphy. You’re from the South. I thought you’d recognize a righteous cause when you saw one.”

“Happy to disappoint, asshole.”

“Oh, I’m not disappointed. We were hoping to take her out, but we hurt her bad enough. I hear those vamps are pretty attached to their women, kinda fall apart when something bad happens to them, like with Mariane. But this one, the big man nearly losing his girlfriend like that? That’ll put a crimp in their hunt, won’t it?”

Colin frowned. Where was Garry getting his information? How did he know how badly Leighton was hurt, or even that she was still alive? For that matter, how’d he know what Raphael’s reaction would be to Leighton getting shot up like that? Even he wouldn’t have known before he’d seen Jeremy’s reaction to Mariane’s injuries. Sure, everyone in town probably knew about the assault on Mariane by now, but no one outside the vamp compound should have known how badly it had affected Jeremy.

All this time, they’d been looking for a mole among the humans in town, but maybe the mole was inside the compound.

Garry had remained silent, waiting for Colin to react. Was he looking for confirmation of Leighton’s death, or at least an update on her condition? Colin’s lip curled. The son-of-a-bitch would wait a long damn time before he got any information out of Colin. He’d also made a huge miscalculation if he thought Raphael’s reaction was going to be anything like Jeremy’s. Jeremy was a fucking accountant. Raphael was—