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“Where are we going?” Van asked as he got in.

Xavier didn’t answer, just started to drive, so Van stared out the windshield, wondering how he could get away from the guy. Not easily, he suspected.

As they passed by a new skyscraper that was going up, he eyed the men pulling the nightshift. Under electric lights, the union crews were all over the building like ants, and he envied them even though he’d hated doing what they did.

Man, if he were still one of them, he wouldn’t be dealing with Mr. X’s crap attitude.

On a whim, Van lifted his right hand and looked at his missing pinkie, remembering how he’d done it. So fucking stupid. He’d been at a construction site, cutting boards on a table saw, and decided to take the guards off the machine to make the process go faster. One lapse of focus later and his finger had ended up flying through the air with the greatest of ease. The blood loss had seemed tremendous, the stuff leaking all over him, covering the saw’s flat back, soaking into the ground. Red, not black.

Van put his hand to his chest and felt nothing beating behind his breastbone.

Anxiety trembled down the back of his neck, like spiders slipping under his collar. He glanced at Xavier, the only resource he had. “Are we alive?”

“No.”

“But that guy was killed, right? So we must be alive.”

Xavier’s eyes shot across the seat. “We’re not alive. Trust me.”

“What happened to him, then?”

Exhaustion flared in Xavier’s pale, dead stare, the drooping of his lids making him look like he was a million years old.

“What happened to him, Mr. X?”

The Fore-lesser didn’t answer, just kept on driving.

Chapter Twenty-four

Marissa materialized on the terrace of Rehvenge’s penthouse and nearly collapsed. As she lurched for the sliding door, he opened it wide.

“Marissa, good God.” He shot his arm around her and pulled her inside.

Overcome with bloodlust, she gripped his biceps, the thirst in her so strong she was liable to bite him where he stood. To keep from ripping his throat open, she yanked out of his hold, but he caught her and spun her around.

“Come over here right now!” He all but threw her on the couch. “You’re about to shock out on me.”

As she hit the cushions in a heap, she knew he was right. Her body was wildly off balance, her head spinning, her hands and feet numb. Her stomach was an empty, grinding pit, her fangs throbbing, her throat dry as winter, hot as August.

But when he yanked his tie off and popped the buttons on his shirt, she mumbled, “Not at your throat. I can’t bear that…not your—”

“You’re too far gone for the wrist. You won’t get enough and we’re out of time.”

As if on cue, her vision started to dim and she began to pass out. She heard him swear and then he pulled her on top of him, shoved her face in his neck and…

Biology took over. She bit him so hard she felt his big body jerk and she sucked at him with mindless instinct. With a great roar, his strength poured into her gut and spread out to her limbs and made her body come back to life.

As she swallowed with desperation, her tears flowed as thick as his blood.

Rehvenge held Marissa loosely, hating the starvation that rode her so hard. She was such a fragile, delicate thing. She should never be in this desperate state, and he ran his hands up and down her willowy back, trying to calm her. While she cried silently, he got pissed. Christ, what was wrong with that male she was so into? How could he force her to come to another?

Ten minutes later, she lifted her head. There was a little streak of blood on her lower lip and Rehv had to grab onto the sofa arm so he didn’t lean up and lick it off.

With satiated grace but a face marked by tears, Marissa eased back against the leather cushions at the other end of the couch and cradled herself with her thin arms. She closed her eyes and he watched the color float back into her wet cheeks.

God, look at that hair of hers. So fine. So lush. So perfect. He wanted to be naked and unmedicated and hard as