Do it came as a sharp command from her mind.

At almost the same split second he bit down, and her blood spilled into his mouth.

His rational mind receded to a dark quiet place and what was pure vampire moved to the front. A beast of thousands of years of evolution emerged, groaning as he sucked, driving his cock into her hard as he drank her down.

She groaned heavily in response, her voice hoarse and loose, savoring what was happening to her.

He thrust faster, but just as deep and hard. Each time, her pelvis ground against him. Her blood glided down his throat, powering him, feeding the vampire, the entity that required her blood. She tasted of the moon and water, of the earth and stars, all that was life.

Come for me again, Claire, and I’ll come with you.

He moved faster and her breathing grew shallow and quick, brisk pants. He continued to drink from her neck. How much had he taken from her? He didn’t care. He just needed to feel her pulling on him as she came again.

He drove faster, sucked harder. The power he felt now spread to each limb so that he became one quick movement, drinking her down, driving his cock.

You’re close, aren’t you?

Yes, so close.

He pumped faster and a series of sudden cries left her mouth, then her back arched and she screamed. He kept his mouth fixed to her neck, still drinking.

He grunted, pushing harder and faster. His lower back tightened, and suddenly the orgasm rushed through him, a stream of pleasurable fire. But he kept drinking and on the sensation flowed.

Her cries continued to fill the air. Lucian, my God, Lucian. So much pleasure.

Ecstasy filled him as he released over and over, pumping into her.

Her blood was doing something to him, something miraculous, and he felt himself winding up again. As he pumped faster still, once more her cries splayed over his shoulder.

Keep sucking on me, Lucian. The sensation is making me come again.

Oh, God, yes. Same here.

He fired into her once more from the depths of his body and groaned in a steady cry against her throat.

Finally she grew quiet in his arms, maybe too quiet, but he still kept drinking from her, unwilling to let her go.

He didn’t want to stop.

Lucian, I can’t open my eyes.

Her body felt heavy on him now, more than just the lethargy following orgasm.

The blood that now flowed into his mouth had grown thin. Too thin.

His rational mind came powering back and with a jolt of adrenaline, he released the serum that would rebuild her blood supply quickly.

Oh, God, he’d taken so much.

Claire. Claire.

But nothing returned to him.

He drew back. She was limp against him and pale, deathly pale. Suddenly he felt very weak as well, and his blood-chain no longer vibrated. To his horror, he realized Claire was close to death. But if one died, so did the other. Had he just killed them both?

He felt for her neck artery with his fingers and waited to feel the pulse of her beating heart. Nothing. He pressed harder. Fear worked in him now, fear that he’d let the beast he knew himself to be take over and kill the woman who’d brought him out of captivity.

The weakness he felt told him the truth of what he’d done.

Shame crept over him. He’d lost control. He’d been unaware of how much blood he’d taken because no part of him could think.

Claire, come back to me. Please. I’m sorry. So sorry.

He rocked her. He felt weak as well, when her blood should have given him enormous strength. She walked close to death, treading the shores, almost lost.

The only hope he had was that his serum could reach her marrow and produce red blood cells fast enough that her heart wouldn’t give out and her brain would get enough oxygen.

What had he done? God help him, what had he done?

Images of his father’s smiling face, always smiling, the charismatic bastard that he was, rose up to torment him. Join me, Lucian, you’re blood of my blood. We’re the same.

How many times had he told Lucian that over the centuries, reminding him of his heritage, that he’d been created by a psychopath. Lucian knew, deep within his soul, that of all the brothers he was most like Daniel, created in his image.

Claire, I’m so sorry, but I couldn’t help myself.

And there it was, the absolute truth that Lucian hadn’t wanted to stop taking from Claire, so he hadn’t.

Claire. Please come back.

Claire.

Claire.

Claire.

Claire heard a man’s voice, but he sounded so far away. Her mind seemed to be drifting in some kind of fog.

Where was she? Lying down, but too weak to move. She moaned softly and the arms that held her tightened suddenly.

You’re alive.

Of course she was alive. Sort of. She felt so strange, as though she could barely make her mind work.

Where am I?

Just lie quietly. My serum will restore you in a few minutes. You’ll be weak for a couple more hours, but no longer than that, I promise.

Why was this man promising her anything?

Why did he sound so desperate?

Who was he?

The gray fog started lifting from her mind. Her bare breasts were smashed against the hard planes of a man’s chest, of Lucian’s chest. She was on top of him.

Why?

Maybe that was the dumbest question she could ask.

The smarter one came to her: Why was she so damn weak?

Oh, that’s right. Lucian had been drinking from her.

He’d sexed her up that way, made her feel impossible things.

She opened her eyes, looking at a nightstand and a lamp. She was essentially in bed with a vampire.

She tried to lift up and off Lucian, but she couldn’t move. She was too weak.

Oh, my God, he’d drained her.

Lucian, you almost drained me dry.

He didn’t answer her, but his arms grew slack. He patted her shoulder. “I was out of control. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

As the memories came flooding back of what the sex had been like, she moaned softly. He had been amazing. He’d come more than once, and because of it so had she. Sex had never been like this before.

“I’m going to lift you off me now, okay?”

Then she felt him low. They were still connected. “That’s fine.”

He slid his hands under her arms and lifted her, gliding out of her at the same time. He swiveled and laid her on her back next to him. He sat up and released the ankle restraints.

When he was free, he once more stretched out next to her, then turned to caress her face. “I’m so sorry, Claire.”

He looked sunk in his guilt, and she didn’t want him to feel that way. Her blood-chain vibrated with his shame.

He watched her for a long moment, then finally rolled onto his back as well, pulling the sheet up at the same time.

He stared up at the ceiling, but remained silent.

Then she felt it, a stream of sensation that she’d only sensed in small pieces. For a long moment, as the dark waves rolled over her, she tried to understand exactly what he communicated. Shame and remorse had all but drowned Lucian. He’d fallen deep into the pit of those feelings, one of the reasons the chains barely spoke to her. Old wounds surrounded him, spoke to him, assaulted his mind.

She looked up at the ceiling as well, the beautiful light-blue waves, like the ocean, flowing over the top of the room.

She felt better. The serum in her blood was working quickly, giving her more strength than she would have thought possibly in such a short time.

Lucian had been right: She was recovering at light-speed. Drained to the point of death, yet she lived.

But above all, she needed to remind herself repeatedly of what had just happened, that she’d almost died because Lucian had lost control. She had no intention of dying before she had a chance to rescue Zoey, and then to return to her former life in Santa Fe, to see her parents and brothers again.