Kinley's hair gets tousled and blown by the quickness of my vamp speed as I carry her down the stairs. By the time I set her down in front of the black four-door luxury car with tinted windows, the expression on her face makes me think she feels like she just teleported.

"Get in." I open the back door to the car, holding back a smug grin.

Kinley turns and looks at the condo complex behind us. Her shoulders stoop forward. She drops her head so that her dark curls shield her face and climbs in, keeping her gaze cast down as she slides across the seat.

She flinches at the sound of me shutting the car door. She instantly feels trapped, only now I bet she feels trapped in every sense. Her mind by fear, her body by this car and me, and her heart back there with her friend Maya. The only thing left for me to trap is her soul.

Good thing the day is still young.

The car rolls into motion, the partition up as it always is when using Shadow Enterprise. It's the only organization in my kinds world that is readily available to the masses. It's global. Shadow Enterprise does everything: transportation, clean up, and damage control. You can only get so far with compulsion in the twenty-first century. Mainly they come in handy for overseas trips.

We are ten minutes in and Kinley's hands haven't left her lap once. Her sandwich didn't survive the trip down the stairs.

She stays very still, probably afraid I will be triggered to attack if she moves the slightest bit. It's amusing to watch until it isn't. My jaw clenches automatically when Kinley sweeps her hair behind her ear, revealing her neck to me.

I know she's not thinking about what she just did. She's becoming more nervous as time lapses. The scrutiny of my stare is making her fidgety.

My attention moves from the hammering pulse I can see jumping underneath her skin to the movement of her legs as she presses her knees tightly together. It's like she is trying to gather all of her nervous energy and keep it smashed between her knees.

The rhythmic thump, thump in her chest, pulls me back to the ticking pulse in her neck. They run in harmony.

First, there is the heart. Lud-dub, lud-dub, lud-dub. Its chambers squeezing her sweet blood through before it fans out with a swooshing sound. Next, there is the thump, thump of her pulse, followed by Kinley's unsteady shallow breaths. I can't concentrate on anything else but these four sounds, listening to the way they form a quartette.

Soon there is nothing else but Kinley's throbbing pulse. No car, no lights, no me.

Heat. Blazing heat shoots up from somewhere inside of me I can't place. A pain I have never experienced before follows.

The beast inside me is trying to rip me apart. He desires for me to let him out. He wants Kinley, and he wants her now.

"Stop the car." I grab onto the door handle, keeping my face down as I can feel the black veins spreading as if they are on a mission to consume me.

"Stop the car!" I shout, my voice coming out more like a growl possessed by something much darker than myself.

The driver takes the first exit off the highway. I hunch over as searing heat pulsates through me in time with Kinley's heartbeat. Expletives leave my mouth as I attempt to fight off a beast inside me I am unfamiliar with. He's thirsty, so thirsty. He desires for too much. It would be foolish of me to let him out.

What the hell is happening to me?

The moment the tires stop, I bolt from the car, leaving a petrified Kinley plastered against the other door. I make it to the backside of the gas station the driver pulled into before doubling over.

Waves of heat and pain crash into me, attempting to topple me and weaken my hold on my control. That's what this is, right? That thirst I had as a fledgling, the one that led to mass killings, it's trying to resurface.

Why now?

What is it about this human's blood that makes me tip over the edge in ways I shouldn't? Nothing about Kinley Shea Rylan makes sense. All I know is if I don't keep whatever it is that's trying to come out from surfacing, everyone within a five-mile radius is going to wish they hadn't gotten out of bed this morning.

"Ma'am, get back in the car." The driver's voice pulls my attention away from the pain long enough for me to take in the very scent that is threatening to send me spiraling out of control.

Is it possible what I am experiencing is a side effect of Kinley's blood?

She can't be compelled and is immune to our venom. Maybe what I need is to purge her blood from my system. That will require me to bleed myself.

Right as I'm about to bite into my wrist, an ear-splitting scream of protest punches through the swelling energy trying to take over. The liquid heat tunneling through me meets the ball of fire in my core, igniting an explosion that turns my world totally dark.

Consciousness returns slowly, my ears ringing like I have survived a grenade blast. Somewhere in the ear-splitting cry resounding through me, I can make out Kinley's frantic beating on the door. The driver must have gotten her back in the car.

"Are you all right, Mr. Darkos?" The driver rounds the corner as I am pushing to my feet.

"I needed some fresh air."

The driver smirks. "I've been doing this for a while now. I've never come across a human whose scent is so potent. I'm not sure how you stand it."

"I like a challenge." I force a wicked grin to my face. It's the only response my kind would expect from a vampire like me.

"Then let me get the two of you to your destination. A scent like that is bound to draw out all of the riffraff in the vicinity."

"Undoubtedly."

Dorian isn't the only vampire I have to worry about. Kinley's scent is tantalizing enough to attract even a female on the prowl who usually prefers to dine on human males.

Hell, if I run into a female vampire that prefers female humans, I'm going to have a fight on my hands. They don't back down to any male, elder or not.

I'm starting to think the mystery of this human's blood may not be worth the trouble I will have to endure until I can find out the answers.

When the driver opens the door for me, Kinley's pink-tinged, swollen eyes are the first thing I see. She quickly dissects every detail of my current state starting with my disheveled attire before moving on to the color of my sclera. She ends on the proportional length of my fangs hiding behind lips that house no red. She's searching for blood. She got out of the car to save someone from me.

I grab the car door from the driver, get in, and slam it shut, my frown deepening. This human's savior complex is going to get old quickly.

"Did...did you—" Her voice goes out.

"Did I what?" The cords in my neck jut out. "Feed? You do realize I am a vampire. We feed. We kill. What I do is of no concern to you. All you need to worry about is keeping your friend Maya alive, and the way you do that is by turning a blind eye to all the victims my thirst will claim."

"You're a monster." A lone tear slips down her cheek.

"You're right, I am." I lean in close, expelling my icy breath over her warm flesh until raised shivers form.

After about thirty minutes of silence pass between us, Kinley finally looks away from the car window she has been staring out with a hopeless and saddened expression. It's hard for her to watch the world go by knowing that most of her kind have no clue about the monsters that are lurking in plain sight. Monsters like the one she is sitting next to.

"What did Maya mean when she said we would all be living together?" she asks.

"It means exactly what you think it means."

"She said something about being a house meirru. What does that mean?"

"That doesn't concern you." I turn away from Kinley, resting my chin in my hand as I look out the window.

"You just said I should only be concerned about Maya. This involves Maya so it is my concern."

"I will tell you the things you need to know when the time arises. That time is not now. All you need to be thinking about now is how Maya is safe as she packs up your things."

Kinley's narrowed eyes widen when the car stops.

"We're here."

I get out of the car and extend my hand to Kinley. Not out of kindness, but because I know she will need prompting to move her immobile butt out of the car.

She swallows hard as she looks at my hand. "Are the others the ones from the bookstore?" The pitch in her tone goes high before faltering.

"Yes."

"I don't think—"

"I suggest, for Maya's sake, you think carefully about the end of that sentence."

I'm exhausted, irritable, and anxious to see how all of this is going to play out. I'm bringing a human into our home and not one that is going to be dinner and turned to ash within a few hours. I am bringing home warm-blooded, delectable smelling prey that is to live with us, day in and day out.

"I can't move." Kinley breathes out.

She's right. Her body has locked itself, overcome with impending dread.

"So be it." Reaching into the car, I grab Kinley by the arm and force her out.

"Tristan?" Sabrina calls to me from the living room when she hears the front door open.

"Tristan!" Kalista's ear-bleeding shriek follows before they both come into sight—Sabrina walking, Kalista running.

"Where are Dorian and Serena?" I ask when I don't sense their presence here.

"Out looking for you. You never came home and...What is that behind you?" Sabrina asks, her attention moving past me to the open doorway.

"It's the human from the bookstore." Kalista peeks around me as I am attempting to block Kinley from her view.

"Tristan, why are you bringing a human home? You know it isn't wise. You have already killed too many these last couple of weeks. If you keep it up, you will force Alekos's hand to deal with your recklessness."

"You worry too much, dear sister. Trust me. If ever I needed to bring a human home, it would be this one." I bar Kalista from her attempt to go see Kinley by maneuvering my body into her path.

"I think she is about to faint," Kalista says, trying to see around my much larger frame.

I turn around in time to see Kinley sway once before she crashes to the ground.

"Oh my gosh! I think she had a heart attack!" Kalista shoves past me.

I can't seem to get myself to move. My mind keeps replaying the way Kinley's body swayed. She was completely out of it. You could hear her heart racing so fast it was hard to distinguish one squeeze from another. Then the beating stopped, and she fell.

"She's barely breathing," Kalista says, her ear right by Kinley's mouth.

Kinley's heartbeat is slow. One single beat every three seconds. Her cinnamon-spiced blood fills the air, and I can see it from here. That click in Kalista of predator meets prey.

Shit.