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  In a voice that rolled over her as smooth as the waves in the deepest of oceans, Leo replied in her mind.

  “You know who I am, my sweet. You feel me within you. You sense me in your blood. I am your other half; your life partner; your yen to my yang.”

  Shelby heard herself chuckle; a thoroughly desperate variation of the sound. She wanted him with an urgency that she couldn’t explain. He was right. She did feel him like a slow burn throughout her body but it made no sense to her other than the recurring dreams that she had been having incessantly every night.

  “No,” she said, shaking her head with determination to get some answers for the sake of her own sanity. “You’re not human. Y-you can’t be,” she jumbled out with panic. “What are you?” she asked again while she stared deep into his eyes, unable to tear her gaze away.

  Leo smiled. It was time. Eleven years in the waiting and it was finally time. His smile grew wider, showing her his elongated fangs. He felt her surge of fear and quickly sent a command into her mind to let go and accept the inevitable. There was no turning back. The path he started them on all those years ago was a one-way.

  Instantly, she went pliant in his arms and offered him her neck.

  “Sweetheart, I am but the same as you are,” he whispered into her mind just before he leaned in to the crook of her neck and pressed a gentle kiss against her skin. Feeling the rise of the beast within him, Leo flicked out his tongue and swiped once, then twice. He savored her sugary sweetness only seconds before he opened his mouth wide and sank his teeth into her silky flesh; changing her life forever.

  Chapter 5

  It was liquid ambrosia; the sweetest of treats; a delicacy that Leo would treasure for the rest of his immortality. Shelby’s life essence was phenomenal as it flowed into his mouth and slithered down his throat, giving him a whole new perspective on life itself.

  It was a struggle but all too soon, Leo reluctantly released her neck and took great care in licking at the two pin points that he had made on her creamy flesh so that they would close and heal properly. With Shelby’s blood running in his veins, Leo felt rejuvenated and exhilarated. He was like a whole new man now that he had finally claimed what he had waited eleven long years to take. Shelby was officially his.

  Leo was now linked with his life partner in every way and nothing, absolutely nothing, would come between them. With her blood in him, Leo would now know exactly where his bride would be at all times. She was now one with him and in three days’ time, she would be his equal. Shelby would be the life partner that would love him and eventually bear his children—the namesakes that would one day live to carry on the Risso name.

  Shelby felt different; languid even. Everything seemed fuzzy around her.

  Noises.

  Sounds.

  Was she really awake or was all of this a dream?

  Blinking her eyes, she tried to focus on the dark stranger that was standing so close to her. So close was he that she could feel the heat of his body warming her own suddenly chilled skin.

  “W-what is happening to me?” she asked weakly.

  The man reached out and placed his hands on her shoulders to steady her as she swayed slightly to the left.

  “Sweetheart, we are only finishing what we started all those years ago,” Leo responded with that hypnotizing voice of his. It was deep and smooth and when he spoke, she felt something inside of her start to come to life.

  Shelby leaned her head back against the wall. She needed a minute, just a minute, so that she could get her bearings and demand that this stranger take her back to her apartment. No matter how damn sexy he may be, she had no right to shack up with him when she hardly knew him. No. Shelby wasn’t that type of person.

  She tried to take a step forward but her body didn’t seem to be cooperating with her. Her legs wouldn’t move and her arms felt like wet noodles. Shelby rationalized, it was becoming more and more imperative that she go home before she ended up doing something really stupid like give in to this handsome dark stranger and beg him to relieve her of the ache that was starting to bloom deep in her core.

  “I,” she held up her hand and started but then had to stop because she had already forgotten what she was originally going to say.

  This was not like her. Shelby didn’t know why she was acting like a total flake. While taking a few deep steadying breaths, she felt the gentlest of touches brush against her cheek. Her eyes opened wide as she stared back into the inky black eyes of the god-like man who was looking down at her with nothing but adoration.

  “Hush, my sweet. You need to rest now.”

  “What?” she said dreamily.

  Why can’t I center myself? What on earth is wrong with me?

  Leo reached down and hooked one hand underneath her legs while using the other to cradle her back. He lifted Shelby into his arms, bridal style. Her heartbeat was already beating in time with his, affirming that their bodies were already syncing themselves together.

  The process had begun. She would shed the last remnants of her human self and soon, very soon, become one of his world.

  Shelby’s lids grew heavy. She was lethargic and tired.

  “Just a few minutes,” she muttered so low that Leo could barely hear her. “Just a few more minutes of sleep and then we’ll go.”

  Leo chuckled softly while carefully laying her in the center of his bed; the bed they would share from now on. Pulling the covers up to her neck, he tucked them tight under her chin to help regulate her body temperature. The first twenty-four hours were always the worse. As the vampire cells attacked the last of the human blood cells in her system, it would chill her until they finally rid her of every last one of them.

  Leaning in, he pressed the sweetest of kisses against her cheek. Standing above her, he took a moment to admire how exquisitely beautiful she was. Her ceramic skin gleamed in the candlelight of the room. The think blond waves of pure silk haloed her face, making her appear like a sleeping angel—his angel, his salvation.

  Sighing softly, Leo whispered at her ear, “You’re not going anywhere, my beautiful bride. Not today, not tomorrow nor for the rest of eternity. Your home now and I will never let you escape me. You are finally home, sweetheart.”

  It was dark. It was cold and I was alone. The night was eerily quiet as I hiked through the woods alone.

  Alone.

  Am I really alone?

  It feels like someone is watching me, but when I look back over my shoulder, no one is there—I am alone.

  Where am I?

  Where am I going?

  There is nothing but darkness and trees and the smell of fresh pines surrounding me. Looking up, I can see the full moon but not a single star in the sky.

  What’s wrong with this picture?

  What am I doing?

  Why in the hell am I outside? Panicking, I start to turn around in circles as I try to make some semblance of what was happening around me.

  “Sweetheart, you have nothing to fear,” a melodic voice called out from behind, startling me.

  I froze. The words were like a lullaby rocking me at the center of my very own soul.

  “Who’s there?” I asked, feeling more than a little rattled. The multitude of feelings that I was suddenly experiencing at this very moment, I had never felt before: excitement, giddiness, aching, wanting. But for what, I did not know.

  The voice seemed to be familiar yet I couldn't pin-point who it actually belonged to.

  “It’s me, your husband,” the voice replied confidently.

  Turning around, I was ready to ask him exactly which crazy train he had just gotten off of when I gasped in shock. It was him; the stranger that had saved me when I was only ten years old. It was the sexy, suave knight that had come to me, night after night, in my recurring dream.

  He grinned giving his face the appearance of a god-like creature that women across the world would worship daily if they had the opportunity.

  There was something off about him though
; something different, something predatory.

  “Come,” he said, holding his hand out to me.

  It was a command that I could not ignore. We were like two magnets drawn to each other. I strode forward and took his hand, no questions asked. The stranger pulled me into his arms so that our bodies were flush against each other and I swear I could hear the strong steady beat of his heart.

  The sound was addictive, enslaving even. I wanted to stay there in his arms and listen to that steady beat for the rest of my life. I felt comfortable and safe with that sound drumming in my ears.

  “Sweetheart?” my shining knight called out from above me.

  “Hmm?”

  “It’s time.”

  I was resting my head comfortably on his chest when I mumbled back, “Time for what?”

  “Time to feed, my sweet,” he replied simply. My great knight hooked his fingers under my chin and lifted my face so that I was staring deep into his midnight black eyes.

  He was smiling again but something was different with his handsome smile. His smile grew even wider as he stared back down at me. That was when I noticed them; two distinctive sharp teeth sticking out of the top of his mouth—fangs.

  My eyes widened and my heart raced to the frantic beat of a marching band. I freaked. I tried to push back from the monster but his grip only tightened around my waist.

  “No!” I screamed and frantically renewed my efforts to escape him.

  “Sweetheart, don’t be like this,” he chided in that same soft melodic tone that sang to my soul.

  Shaking my head back and forth, all I knew was that I had to get away from this man.

  “No! Leave me alone,” I begged of him. When he made no moves to release me I screamed even louder, in hopes for a savior, “Help! Help!”

  “Shelby! Wake up!”

  The sharp command came from somewhere in the distance. She heard it loud and clear but struggled to come back from her awful nightmare. Slowly, the images around her started to fade into mist and Shelby realized that she had been sleeping.

  Opening her eyes, she stared into the concerned dark orbs of her knight. For a moment, she hesitated because of the awful nightmare that she had just experienced. Then felt silly for even thinking that the man who was hovering over her might have fangs, of all things.

  Fangs meant vampire and those were just mythical creatures that authors like Bram Stoker and Anne Rice wrote about to entertain deluded people. They weren’t real and her knight most certainly was not a vampire.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  The way he asked her that simple question had tugged at something inside of her. He cared and Shelby wasn’t used to people caring about her. This one man that she hardly knew actually cared.

  “I’m…I’m fine,” she replied and then suddenly started to violently shiver. She felt like she was buried in a bucket full of ice but as she looked around, she knew that she was in a bed with covers wrapped up to her neck. Again, this made no sense to her.

  What is wrong with me?

  “I’m…I’m cold,” she bit out between her chattering teeth. “I’m so cold.”

  “Hush now, my sweet,” he told her while standing up and pulling his shirt over his head.

  Shelby was freezing her ass off but staring up at his bare chest, she couldn’t help but to admire how well-built the man was. His pecks were chiseled as perfectly as the infamous Statue of David. It was unreal; people that perfect just didn’t exist anywhere. It was mind-boggling and pleasing all at the same time.

  Leo looked down at her. Smirking, he asked, “Do you like what you see?”

  Through her shivers, Shelby could only nod. Man, she didn’t only like what she saw, she loved it. Who wouldn’t?

  Leo then frowned.

  “You need to feed, my sweet.”

  Shelby stopped staring and stilled herself through the brain wracking shivers.

  Feed…where exactly have I heard that before?

  Leo slid into the bed beside Shelby and stretched out beside her. He turned her so that she faced him. Lightly stroking her cheek with his hand, he reveled in her softness and then moved down to stroke the silky skin of her throat.

  “You must feed, sweetheart,” he repeated once again and leaning back away from her, he held up his finger, revealing a lengthening nail that appeared razor sharp. It looked much like a talon and with one swipe he cut a deep line over his chest where blood welled up instantly.

  “Feed,” he repeated the command to Shelby and gently grabbed her head pulling her to his chest.

  The dream came back to Shelby; the fangs, the predatory smile. This was not happening. None of this could be real but when she glanced up from the alluring red liquid that was running down his impeccable chest to her knight’s face, they were there; two poignant fangs that she could not deny.

  Still violently shaking, Shelby tried to push back.

  “No, No, No!” she cried frantically. “This isn’t happening. This isn’t real. It can’t be.”

  Shelby closed her eyes tightly and tried to will the horrifying images away.

  But there was a smell; something so delicious, so aromatic that she couldn’t ignore; get it out of her mind. The back of her throat began to burn as the sweet smell grew stronger around her.

  “Come on, sweetheart. Don’t fight it. I can feel your need too. You must eat,” Leo told her. He didn’t want to have to compel her to feed for the first time but he would if she kept up this silly nonsense. He had many things to teach her but she had to get through this conversion first and part of that was feeding.

  Shelby slowly opened her eyes and they locked on to the red liquid that was sinuously tracking curvy lines down his chest.

  She felt a stinging pain in her own gums as she leaned her head forward, bringing her face closer to the streaming liquid that seemed to be calling out to her like a forbidden fruit. She couldn’t fight it but something in the back of her mind was raging that this was all wrong.

  “That’s it. A little closer,” Leo cooed.

  Shelby’s tongue darted out and licked the path of blood from his stomach all the way up to the slit above his heart that he had made for her to feed from. Her tongue felt like a trail of molten lava that set other parts of his body on fire. She wasn’t ready for any of that yet though so he would gladly suffer in silence.

  Soon, he told himself. Very soon.

  For a moment, he thought about his mother and her impending arrival later in the day and a tiny thread of dread began to seep in. She would be unhappy with his choice for a life partner. Leo was a blood-born whereas Shelby was a bound-born, but she was bound to him and that was all that mattered in his eyes. She was completely and solely his.

  The second that he felt her fangs bite into his skin, a hot streak of pleasure rushed through him like a blazing wild fire. It made him forget all thoughts concerning his mother. While she took those first pulls of his life essence into her body and began to feed in earnest, Leo had felt the first true moments of happiness with the angel he held in his arms—his angel.

  Throwing his head back, Leo could only moan from the pure ecstasy that he was feeling. This was as close to heaven that his damned soul would ever get and it was close enough for him. How could he have gone over a century and never experienced pleasures as intense at this? She was his, no doubts about it. As long as Leo walked as a creature of the night, Shelby was going to be by his side. They were bound together as life partners through blood and each other’s essence—bound for eternity.

  Chapter 6

  Leo roused with a start from the subtle knock on his bedroom door. Looking down he stared at his soon-to-be bride and couldn’t help but smile at the memories from the night before.

  Finally, she had fed and was well on her way to completing the conversion. In two more days’ time, she would awaken and he could fully introduce her into his life. More importantly, he would make her his wife in every sense of the word.

  Knock, knock, knock!r />
  Begrudgingly, Leo worked to carefully untangle himself from the haven of Shelby’s delectable little body. She was so soft, so warm, and so silky feeling that if it was possible, he would be content just lying beside her twenty-four-seven and caressing her delicate skin.

  Now that’s what I would call a perfect day, he surmised. A vision of Shelby and him, alone with no one to bother them and all the time in the world to explore every inch of her glorious body made its way into his mind.

  “Leo,” Ric almost shouted from behind the closed door. He was staring at the darkened wood, tapping his foot with impatience as he waited for his master to leave the underling that he had taken to and open the damn door.

  His mother had arrived and she was some kind of pistol. Ric refused to deal with her. From the moment that she came in, Mrs. Risso haughtily dropped off three humongous suitcases at his feet and then mussed his hair like he was some kind of lap dog that would bend to her every whim.

  Hardly.

  Leo swung the door open wide and came face-to-face with his servant, Ric who was looking at him with impertinence.

  “What do you want?” he growled out perturbed by the fact that he was interrupted with his lovely lady. He glared down at his minion and breathed out a slow long breath reigning in his anger.

  Ric’s eyes widened at his dark demeanor.

  “I’m sorry to disturb you, Leo,” he quickly spoke and took a few steps back while bowing his head in reverence, “but your mother has arrived and she is requesting your presence in the lounge.”

  Leo looked down and curled up his lip in distaste. He had expected her arrival but had not been looking forward to it; especially not with Shelby in the midst of the conversion process.

  Sighing, he looked back in the room where she seemed to be sleeping dreamlessly away. It would be several hours before she would need to feed again and Leo needed to feed himself so that he would be strong enough to feed her again later.