And later, when he couldn’t kill her, he’d set plans in motion to separate her from the friends she’d come to know so well.
The killing of the human in Baton Rouge had been the first step. He’d planned to force Dee into solitude. To make the others turn on her. Alone, Dee would be weak. The demon had said so.
He’d made the seer tell him about Dee’s weaknesses. Torture was so easy for him. He’d learned at the foot of a master so many centuries before. He knew exactly how to make prey break.
The demon had broken for him. Two days, and she’d broken. But the whore had made one last prediction, right before he used his fangs to slice her throat wide open. “She’ll kill you when she rises. Drain you. Make you see the fires of hell.”
Fear.
As the demon had bled out, fear had trickled through him because the woman had been so certain.
Death wasn’t an option for him. He knew what waited after this world. No, death wasn’t an option.
He rolled his neck and shoved away the past. “Burn her,” he said again. Fire was always the easiest way to kill his kind. “Make sure Chase dies with her.” Simon Chase. A stupid mistake made by one of his blood.
Some just weren’t meant for the darkness.
A soft muffle reached him. Glancing back, he saw the new girl who’d been brought to him. Young, maybe eighteen. With bright red cheeks. A smile curved his lips. He could hear the fast drum of her heart.
Some weren’t meant for the darkness.
And some were.
“You know where they are?” he asked, eyes on the girl. She stared back at him. No fear in her light gaze. Excitement. She knew what was coming.
“We followed her the instant she left Night Watch.”
“Good.” He licked his lips, already tasting his pleasure. “Then have her dead by dawn.”
Simon raised a hand to his throat, and touched the blood that dripped down his neck. His pants were open, his c**k out, and rising by the moment.
Dee stared back at him, her eyes slowly changing from black to that deep chocolate he loved.
Her mouth hung open. The tips of her fangs peeked at him.
A vampire. A Born. The witch he’d sought had been right about her.
He should probably lower his head. Do some dumbass bow or head incline like all the vamps did whenever a Born was close. A sign of subservience. Of submission.
Because Borns could rip apart the Taken if they wanted.
But he’d just let her take his throat and his body. And he’d taken her.
Simon wasn’t exactly feeling real submissive right then.
So he held her stare and knew that she felt the new link between them. A link she’d forged. Not him.
Already, the call that had haunted his mind for weeks had begun to soften. It will work. He’d been right to think she was the key. Dee would be able to change the game, to give him back his life.
Well, what was left of it, anyway.
She stumbled to her feet. Grabbed her jeans. Jerked them up. No panties. He’d remember that. Her curls disappeared beneath the denim. Pity.
Setting his shoulders, he began to rise.
But fell right back on his ass.
“Simon?”
Weak, in front of her. Because of her. “Give me a minute.”
Her footsteps creaked across the wood. “I took too much.” Not a question.
But he managed a nod anyway.
She edged closer to him. “I-I—didn’t mean to hurt you.”
She hadn’t. The woman had given him one hell of a rush with her mouth and then the tight clasp of her creamy sex had driven him close to begging.
“What can I do?”
He looked up at her. Standing over him, blond hair mussed, always mussed, eyes so steady and…afraid? Dee? Since when did that woman fear anything? She’d stared straight at death with her eyes wide open and never flinched.
While he’d been so scared he’d almost bitten her. Because what if the witch had been wrong? Losing Dee hadn’t been an option for him. The woman wasn’t a pawn anymore. Hadn’t been, maybe from that first night.
She was…everything.
Not that she’d believe him. Not when she found out the secrets he’d kept.
His eyes began to drift closed.
“Simon!”
The crack in her voice had his lashes lifting. So beautiful. Had he seen the beauty the first moment? Or the strength?
“What do you need?” She asked again.
The last part of the puzzle. Careful. Had to be so careful here. “Blood.”
Her delicate jaw worked.
He let his shoulders slump. Not really hard with the weakness spreading through him, weighing down his limbs.
“You drink, then you explain, got me? Everything, everything.” She held out her arm, turned it, and exposed her wrist with the thin line of blue veins visible just beneath the surface.
He’d be her first.
His hands shook when he reached for her wrist. The shaking was from the blood loss, of course, just that. His fingers curled around her flesh and brought her offering close. Eyes on her, he opened his mouth and sank his teeth deep.
Fuck. His tongue slid along her wrist and the blood flowed into his mouth. Sweet, so damn sweet. A wild rush poured through him at her taste. His c**k jerked, his muscles strained, and power, wild, rich power, heated his body.
Nothing like a Born’s blood. That was the whisper. The rumor. Blood straight from a Born was power. Pure power.
Her breath caught and her eyes began to darken once again. The scent of blood hung in the air between them, but Simon’s nostrils widened and he caught the heavier aroma of her slick cream.
“Enough.” Her whisper.
One more swipe of his tongue, then a press of his lips, and Simon pulled back.
Her chest rose and fell quickly. “What the hell am I doing?”
Getting ready to change the world.
Simon rose, too easily this time. He righted his clothes, hard that, with his dick bobbing toward her. But he’d promised Dee answers, and from here on out, he’d be keeping his word to her.
“I didn’t change you in that alley.” Her chin tipped back as she stared up at him. His neck throbbed from her bite and his body burned for her. Always, for her. “And I damn well didn’t let any of those other bastards touch you.”
The understanding was in her eyes, but Dee shook her head.
Time for some brutal truth. “Do you know how long it’s been since a new Born came into the world?”
Her lips trembled. “Borns are ancient. There haven’t been any for thousands of years. They were some kind of genetic mutation. A messed-up mutation that gave rise to the vamps.”