Other sensations struck.

He’d killed yet another fellow vampire.

He was tired of killing his own kind, but he and his brothers had been serving his world for centuries doing just that. When vampires followed the wrong path and hurt other vampires or humans, he stepped in, as both Lucian and Marius did, and others they’d trained through the decades.

The problem in his culture was simple: His kind valued individual liberty above everything, which left the whole society vulnerable to despots like Daniel. Self-direction was so prized among his species that few strong, supportable laws had been instituted to protect good citizens from those who practiced evil.

There were even heresies abroad that had so perverted the essential law of their world that those who killed humans were now being elevated in rank in certain secret societies, offered medals and prized cave dwellings for taking human life.

As he rinsed the battle-sweat off his body, he turned his mind to the here-and-now. He was in Paris after having been imprisoned for a year. His thoughts turned quickly to Lucian and Marius. He had to get them out, but if he made the attempt, and Lily got hurt or died, he’d be dead.

One final rinse and he shut the water off. He could have stayed in a lot longer; the filth he’d lived with was still too sharp in his memory. But one assassin might be followed by another or several. At least his security system was back on full force.

He toweled off in brisk movements.

So who sent the assassin? A number of sects existed throughout his world, each led by a different spiritual guide. But the largest group of fanatics followed an Ancestral called Silas, a vampire of tremendous ambition, perhaps even close to Daniel’s level. Silas shared something in common with Daniel: He didn’t hesitate to kill anyone if it meant furthering his ambitions.

So, yes, he would guess Silas had initiated this attack.

He stepped into a clean pair of jeans and slid a black tee over his head. He was tugging on the sleeves at the shoulders, adjusting them, when a stomach cramp gripped him hard.

Oh, shit. He didn’t really want to do this, but now he had no choice.

“Lily,” he called out. “I’m going to need blood, dammit!”

* * *

As Adrien appeared in the doorway, Lily saw that he was trembling, all the way from his shoulders to the tips of his fingers. She’d been warned by Kiernan of the effects of blood deprivation on the vampire, and here they were in plain view.

Another tremor.

Something was wrong.

Thunder rolled over the city and suddenly a spattering of rain hit the windows.

He winced suddenly and bent over at the waist. Through the chains, she sensed his stomach knotting as though in pain. “What’s wrong?” she asked, but she already knew. Oh, dear God, how was she supposed to do what so obviously needed doing?

He rose up, breathing hard. “Time’s come, Lily. I need blood and if you can’t deliver it, I’ve got to take care of business right now. I’ve got to get someone. They kept us blood-starved.”

Thunder rumbled overhead again and a flash of lightning brightened the cloudy October sky.

He lowered his chin and held her gaze in a hard grip, his nostrils flaring. “I’m talking sex here as well. I’ve gone too long without both and it’s almost impossible in a situation like this to take blood but hold back the other. Do you understand?”

He took a couple of steps toward her, and she took two steps back. Her heart pounded in her chest. His gaze fell to her throat; fangs appeared.

The wall of closets hit her back. The Eiffel Tower winked through the rain now hitting the windows. She tried to tell him no, but the words wouldn’t leave her mouth.

“What will it be? I’ll call someone, but you’ll have to watch.”

“I hate this.”

“Ditto.”

He trembled now and his color looked really bad. His eyes had a wild look.

She almost told him to use his phone right now, to call a donor, but she couldn’t. She’d desired him from the first, maybe even from the first time she’d seen a photo of him. And she was so lonely, so grief-stricken, that some sick parted of her wanted this and wanted it now.

He must have taken her hesitation as a yes, or maybe he couldn’t help himself, but the next moment he moved so fast she hardly saw him. She cried out as he caught her around the waist. His mouth covered hers as his tongue penetrated her deep. She could feel him hard against her belly.

Was she really doing this? Really letting a vampire take her blood and her body?

She hated him, hated his kind for taking her family from her, and hated herself for wanting him right now.

He lifted her in his arms and carried her to the bed. He was shaking head-to-foot, and the chains told her just how out of control he was. He laid her out on her back. “I can still call someone, but I don’t want to. I want you, Lily, and I want you now.” His arms, planted on either side of her, trembled.

But in that moment, maybe because even in his overwrought state he’d given her a choice, a wave of desire crashed over her, something that had been building since she’d first seen him in the cavern, in the vision before he’d been tortured, looking like a proud stallion, facing up to the pain to come.

Her breasts ached and she felt so swollen and needy between her legs that she let out a harsh cry. “I’m here,” she all but shouted.

Lightning flashed from the small windows on either side of the bed and thunder rolled as he landed on top of her. She had a brief glimpse of fangs as another flash lit the room.

She turned, exposing her neck, and he used a hand to pin her head so that she couldn’t move. He struck quickly, puncturing her vein, a brief slice of pain that disappeared the moment he began to suck in quick, heavy, starved pulls.

She could feel his desperation but the more he took, the more her body grew lax, melting into the down-filled silk. She wanted her clothes off since her body had lit on fire, burning deep.

She hadn’t had sex in all this time, not since her family disappeared from her life. And sex was all that she wanted right now, the relief of it, the physical pounding.

Fierce sex, even with a vampire.

* * *

Adrien took fire down his throat. He rarely drank from humans, but on the rare occasion he did, it had never been like this—as though each drop carried the source of all life.

He wanted more, so much more. He wanted to drink her down tonight, tomorrow night, and every night after that. He wanted the flavor of her blood on his tongue when he woke up in the evening and the last thing in the early-morning hours when he went to bed.

His blood-starvation had made his mind a cauldron of disjointed thoughts, of profound need.

He heard her cries and moans and didn’t care if he was hurting her. The hungry shifts of her legs rubbed his cock, stroking him, helping him to know that all he needed would soon follow.

He ached into his groin, a gathering of twelve months of frustration and despair. He knew that what was about to happen, especially with his blood-need satisfied, might just shake the foundation of the earth.

At last, he slowed his drinking and began to secrete the potion that would heal the fang-wounds in minutes. The same potion also carried a chemical that speeded up red cell production to replenish the supply. He’d be taking more from this human in the coming hours, the least he deserved on behalf of his kind for the wreckage her kind spewed over his world.

As he drew back, he saw her in the glow of his vision. Her pupils were dilated and her lips dark and swollen. Good. She was sexed up and ready, because what was about to come wouldn’t be a gentle coupling.

“I hate you for what you are,” she shouted. Her hand whipped toward his face, ready to strike, but with his usual speed he caught her hand before she connected.

He leaned down and put his lips on her mouth then drew back. “Can you taste your blood?”

Her tongue made an appearance. She winced at the taste, but her body undulated with more need.

He lifted up, holding her gaze, and stripped off his shirt.

She looked up at his chest and cried out, then her hands clawed him, her nails dragging over his skin, scraping long strips. She leaned up and took a nipple in her mouth, sucking hard.

He groaned and with one hand took off his jeans, a real test of his skill as he hovered above her, and let her suck and bite him.

Her arms wrapped around his neck to hold her steady. He started working her clothes off her, peeling away her pants and her shirt as she kicked off her shoes.

As he fell on top of her, he plundered her mouth. Her nails found his back this time and each scrape hardened him one degree more. He grunted his approval, thrusting his tongue heavily into her mouth.

He pushed her legs apart with his knees. She cried out against his mouth as his cock found her entrance and he began to push.

The human was tight, but she shoved her hips against him, forcing him in deeper.

He needed to calm the fuck down.

Her hands roved his body, rubbing up and down his biceps, which flexed beneath her touch.

“You’re so wet.” And tight. My God she was tight. She hadn’t been used in a long time. He hoped to hell he wasn’t hurting her, but nothing in the chains told him she was feeling any pain as her body undulated beneath him and against him.

He began to push into her in short thrusts. His balls were so ready.

“Do it, Adrien. I can feel that you’re ready and I’m ready. Do it.”

He gave a cry and thrust into her hard, pulled back and thrust again. His hips took over, and every stroke was like a lightning strike of pleasure along his cock.

He heard her crying out and could feel her tight orgasm pulling on him as the release came, what he’d been aching for during his captivity, to be inside a woman and feeling all her flesh as his cock jerked inside her and his beautiful come filled her.

He barely heard her cries of ecstasy as he shouted his pleasure. But he could feel that she was coming again, her hips matching his thrusts.

Even though he’d come, he could stay hard for a good long time, and given the length of his celibacy he was pretty sure he could release again, so he kept working her body. He leaned down and kissed her, which somehow lit her up and she arched once more. He drove hard and fast, bringing her yet again so that she screamed in ecstasy.