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Donovan asked, “What can I do to keep myself safe?”

Requiem came to the bed, his black cloak tight around him. “If you are strong enough to sit up with her as you did, then you are strong enough to hold her down.”

“We can’t guarantee your safety, Reece,” Remus said.

Donovan looked at the guard. He shifted his grip from my waist to lower, but there was no wavering, as if he could have held me forever. It answered whether the swanmanes were stronger than normal humans; they were. “I know you cannot guarantee my safety.”

“She could tear your throat out before we could move,” Remus said.

“If it gets that out of hand, we interfere,” Micah said.

“Interfere how?” Remus asked.

“Grab her, help Donovan hold her down.”

“The ardeur will spread to anyone who touches her,” Remus said.

Micah nodded. “I know.”

Remus shook his head, a little too rapidly. “I can’t do my job then. I can’t keep Reece safe.”

“Because you won’t risk the ardeur spreading to you.” Micah made it a statement, not a question.

“Yes,” Remus said.

“Then leave,” London said.

“We need a senior guard in here,” Remus said. “Who do I send in my place? Bobby Lee is still in South America. Claudia, no. Who replaces me?” He sounded tormented, torn between duty and what? Duty and fear? Duty and the ardeur?

“We are out of time for niceties, Anita,” Requiem said. “I speak for the vampires. If the lesser among us are to be saved, it must be now.” There wasn’t a poetic allusion in the statement. Things were bad when Requiem stopped quoting poetry.

It was almost as if his words brought the ardeur crashing back. One moment I was almost neutral in Donovan’s arms, the next I was kissing him as if I’d crawl into his mouth. My nails just seemed to automatically dig into his back again. The feel of his flesh parting under my nails made me cry out in pleasure, and him in pain. I tried to tone down what I wanted to do to him. I tried not to bite at his mouth but only kiss, but the effort had me making small frustrated noises against his lips.

He pressed us back to the bed, his weight suddenly pinning me down. My legs were still wrapped around his waist so his body was already pushing against my opening. I fought to concentrate on the sex instead of flesh and blood. But the sex was tangled up with the feel of my nails in his back, my mouth at his lips. I wanted that hard press of flesh to shove its way inside me, but almost more I wanted to bite his lips and draw blood. I wanted blood more than sex. I was feeding for Jean-Claude, but the ardeur wasn’t his first hunger.

I licked Donovan’s lower lip, drew it into my mouth, so full, so rich, so…I bit down on his lip, hard and sharp. Blood, sweet, metallic, warm blood filled my mouth, and the world vanished in a dance of light flashes and pleasure. It wasn’t sex, or orgasm, but it was as if that sip of blood ate the world in a red wash of pleasure. I’d had the world go red from anger, but never from sheer joy. It was as if every piece of my body filled with warmth and happiness all at once. It was orgasmic and not, but whatever it was, it was amazing.

I was left gasping and almost limp underneath Donovan. It was as if I’d lost time, because he had my wrists pinned, his body trying for the right angle to enter me. I blinked up at him as if I didn’t remember how I got there. His chin was covered in bright, crimson blood; his lower lip was shredded. Had I done that?

Then he found his angle and was pushing his way into my body. I gazed down the length of our bodies to watch him plunge himself into me. The sight of it made me cry out and raise my hips to meet his thrust. His eyes fluttered shut, and he gasped, “You take all my control away.”

“Fuck me, Donovan,” I whispered.

He looked down at me, with blood spilling down his face, but his eyes filled with that look that a man gets. That look that says, Mine, sex, more, less than that. His eyes were bluer than I’d ever seen them as he began to shove himself in