Twice she’d done that for him, first to show him that she could and then to feed him her blood, yet she’d never betrayed the brutality of her pain. Because she hadn’t wanted him to feel guilty, he realized. Not when she already felt so undeserving of him.

He shook his head in wonder.

Not wanting to put her mouth on the man again and lick him to health, she placed a drop of her blood on each of the punctures. Flesh began to weave back together, pink and healthy as it closed the wounds, leaving no trace of injury. She stood, hunger assuaged, body strong—fury renewed. She hated relying on the depraved for her survival, but preferred them to the innocent and purposely sought them out.

Never again, Aden thought. He would make himself and his blood readily available to her. She would drink from no one but him. He would hide the wounds so that no one saw them or she would heal them. But either way, she wasn’t hurting herself like that again.

“Better?” a deep voice asked from behind her.

Slowly she spun. Her gaze lifted and Dmitri came into view. He leaned against the wall, arms crossed over his massive chest. At least six-foot-four, he towered over Victoria. Blond hair was smoothed back from his perfect face. His pale skin seemed to glow. But Aden knew all that beauty hid a monster.

She wiped her face with the back of her wrist and nodded. “You need to return to the house,” she said, giving the falling moon a pointed glance. “You have a long run and morning is fast approaching.”

Lips cocked in a fond smile, he straightened and closed the distance between them. He reached out and wiped a smear of blood from her chin. She turned her head, dislodging his touch, and his smile flipped into a frown. “From now on, you’re supposed to go where I go. That means you return home with me.”

Control your anger. Do not challenge him. She smiled sweetly. “Every time you force my hand, I only hate you more.”

His eyes narrowed. “Resisting me is pointless, princess.”

“Actually, it’s not. Anything that keeps you away from me serves a very important purpose.”

A red glow seeped into the darkness of his eyes. “This is about the boy, isn’t it?”

She raised her chin to hide her tremor of fear. “This is about you and the fact that I want nothing to do with you.”

Faster than the eye—even her eye—could see, he leaned down, placing them nose to nose. “I am everything you need. Strong, capable.”

“You are just like my father,” she countered, refusing to back down. “You see others’ spirit as an insult to your prowess. You rule with an iron fist, you punish indiscriminately.”

He waved a dismissing hand. “Without order, there would be chaos.”

“And what’s wrong with that?”

“Is that what the boy offers you? Chaos? I am not as stupid as you must think. I know you want him.” He wrapped his hands around her forearms and shook her. “You will not be returning to that mortal school, princess. I forbid it.”

Control, control, control. “That is not for you to decide.”

“It should be.” He gave her one final shake, then released her, doing his best to appear unaffected. “One day, it will be.”

“But for now, it isn’t.” She couldn’t stop her smile. Putting the bane of her existence in his place was like finding a chalice that never ran out of blood. “You are still answerable to my father.”

He bared his sharp teeth in a scowl. His fangs were so long they cut into his bottom lip. “That will not always be the case.”

“That sounds like a threat. You know the penalty for that, yes? Even for you, a prince in your own right.”

Dmitri stared down at her for a long while. Finally, he said, “Go. Have your fun. Enjoy your chaos. It will end soon whether you want it to or not.”

Victoria remained in place as he stalked away, breathing in the night to calm herself. Finally, when he disappeared, she leapt into motion, racing, the wind in her hair, free to be herself, to enjoy. Buildings whizzed past her, then trees. On and on she traveled, worries falling away from her as the leaves fell from their branches. The scents of the night drifted to Aden’s nose, dew and dirt and animal.

Only when the D and M came into view did she slow. There, up ahead, was his window. Open for her. Two heartbeats were beyond it. She recognized both: Aden’s, a little faster than normal, and Shannon’s, slow and steady. One was lost in a vision, she would bet, the other sleeping peacefully.

Almost there…She glided past the glass.

Warm hands banded around Aden’s shoulders and shook him. He blinked open his eyes, surprised and disappointed to find the bedroom coming into focus. Even though he should be relieved his blindness had ended, he wasn’t ready to leave Victoria’s head. He marveled anew at her strength. She had lived through that, had stood toe to toe with Dmitri and hadn’t backed down.

Aden had wanted to leap between them, throw the vampire male to the ground and cart Victoria away.

“Aden,” she whispered.

Like the first time he’d seen her, she hovered over him, hair cascading around his face and enclosing them in a dark curtain. Unable to stop himself, he reached up and traced a finger over her cheek. She closed her eyes, black lashes casting shadows over her cheeks.

“Shannon is—”

“Sleeping,” she told him.

Yes, he’d known that. Because of Victoria, he’d even sensed his friend’s heartbeat for a moment. “Thank you. For everything.”

She regarded him, unsure, but she didn’t pull from his touch. “What did you see?”

He didn’t pretend to misunderstand. “You, feeding. You and Dmitri talking.”

“Everything, then.” She sighed. “You’re probably wondering how that’s possible.”

He nodded.

“Once a vampire ingests human blood, it enters our system and…transforms, I guess is the word. It becomes alive with all that we are. Our thoughts, our emotions, our very essence. The small portion I gave you healed your injuries, but it also linked you to my mind.”

“Will I be able to see things through your eyes again?”

“I don’t know.” A butterfly touch caressed the side of his now healed eye. He felt the fire of her skin and loved it. “While I’ve heard of a few others doing so, I’ve never shared my blood with another. Well, I do share droplets to close the puncture wounds, as I told you, but because it isn’t ingested, the humans never link to me.”

So she’d given him what she’d never given another. His love for her grew, spread. “Who is Dmitri to you?” The guy had spoken as if he owned her, and that had burned Aden up inside.

Her gaze lowered to his chest, and her fingers soon followed, playing over him. “He is someone I despise very much. Someone I—” Her ears perked and she straightened. “Riley is here. His heart is racing.” Her brow furrowed, her head tilted and she frowned. “He needs us right away.”

Aden rose without hesitation and glanced down at himself. He was dressed in the clothes he’d worn all day, wrinkled and dirty from his work in the barn. “I need five minutes.”

“Very well. He says we will be gone all weekend and has even ensured no one will miss us,” Victoria said. “Pack a bag and I will take care of Dan and the boys. They’ll never know you left. I’ll meet you outside.” With that, she was off.

He showered quickly, dressed and packed a bag as she’d suggested, throwing in a pair of jeans, a few T-shirts, his toothbrush and toothpaste. Bad breath was not something he wanted to have while around Victoria. Already her senses were better than most.

As promised, she was waiting for him outside. Wet as his hair was, the cool night air gave him a chill and he had to wrap an arm around her to warm back up.

Riley and Mary Ann had a new, probably stolen sedan parked about a half mile from the ranch. Riley stood outside it, tugging a shirt over his head when they emerged from the shadows.

“Get in,” the shape-shifter said. “We’ve got a lot of ground to cover.” He slipped into the driver’s seat, and Mary Ann leaned into him, head remaining buried in a notebook.

Aden and Victoria claimed the back. Victoria rested her head against his shoulder. Not because she was sleepy—Aden hadn’t sensed fatigue in her and wasn’t sure she even needed rest—but simply to be near him. He was glad. A part of him feared he could lose her any moment, that someone—Dmitri perhaps—would rip her away from him and he’d never see her again. Did she fear the same thing?

“We won’t be parted,” he assured them both and she nodded.

We would never let that happen, Julian said.

Elijah sighed. As if we could stop it. From the very beginning, I warned you bad things would happen if you followed Mary Ann.

Yes, he had. Aden had run full speed ahead anyway, and he still couldn’t regret it.

“Where are we going?” he asked.

“I’ll let Mary Ann tell you,” Riley said.

Mary Ann just mumbled something unintelligible under her breath and kept reading.

Aden let it drop, not wanting to interrupt whatever had the girl so entranced. He soon regretted the decision, though. A long while passed in silence, Mary Ann never looking up from that book, Riley concentrating on the road and Victoria lost in thought. Curiosity pounded him.

Aden closed his eyes. With as little rest as he’d gotten lately, his body constantly wired and ready to fight, a nap might do him good. In and out he breathed, forcing the tension to leave him with every exhalation.

After a while, he thought he heard Riley say softly, “You have to tell him, Vic.”

“I will,” Victoria replied just as softly, her words barely audible. “And don’t call me that.”

Tell him what? He waited for their conversation to continue, but it never did. “So what’s going on?” he asked, straightening. Victoria jumped, hand fluttering over her heart.

“Oh my God,” Mary Ann said, preventing the others from replying.