The melody of a thousand chimes blended in perfect harmony, stealing her thoughts as Syndelle met the gaze of the one called Rafe, her vision filling with the sight of long, golden hair framing features that were as masculine as they were beautiful. Sensation and longing skittering along her nerve endings like leaves in a gentle wind, only to be followed by a rush of heat so fierce and urgent that she wanted to press up against him, to seek shelter and relief from the unfamiliar ache between her legs.

She moved closer, unable to stop herself, her hand lifting of its own accord to touch him, only to be stilled by a now familiar crush of fear and agony. The girl.

In a heartbeat, the music of the chimes faded to a hum in the background. "Please," Syndelle begged, "one of Daddy's girls is hurt. She needs help."

Rafael nodded and turned away from her, swiftly moving through the crowded bar with her in his wake. Anxiousness skittered along Syndelle's spine, a tight knot of conflicting emotion and warring desires grew in her chest, almost forcing the breath from her. She glanced at the door quickly, half expecting to see Itai. But there was no sign of him.

She touched her mind to the girl's, but found only pain and remembered terror. Rafael came to a halt next to a table of five men and without being told, Syndelle knew which one was Big Daddy. Power radiated off him, cold and ruthless, assaulting her senses with a force that was surprising for a human. When she told him about the girl, his rage and desire for revenge sent shards of pain through her skull, momentarily blocking out the gentle harmony of the chiming.

Big Daddy nodded to two of the men, his dreadlocks fanning out on either side of his face like a cobra's hood. "Take care of it."

As they rose and moved away, he waved his hand toward the now empty chairs. "Sit."

"No, I can't. I need to get back before..."

The men on either side of Big Daddy stood, prepared to enforce the command. Alarm rushed through Syndelle at the threat of violence. It would take a lot to kill her, but it was possible. And there were worse things than death.

Rafael sighed and plopped down on one of the chairs in a seemingly careless sprawl. Shit. He hoped this wasn't going to go badly. Not for a fuck.

But then again, why wouldn't it go badly this time? Going for a fuck was what had landed him in this version of hell to begin with.

May the Angelini have reason to hunt down Lilith and her whore companion, Ishana. Or at the least, let Brann be given a reason to execute them.

Rage whipped through Rafe at the memory of Lilith's trap, at the way the vampire had so casually planned on killing him in order to strike out at Brann.

Fucking vampire politics.

Even after two years of being Brann's companion, Rafe still hated them, still resented that he'd been trapped by them, forced to become Brann's companion in order to save himself. He still hated that the companion bond made it possible for Brann to know every one of his thoughts, to command him and punish him, to own him in the same way that a feudal lord once owned his wife.

In time he would have yielded to Brann, would have accepted the other man's attentions, but now he fought against the attraction. Fought against giving any more of himself than his blood-and even that he didn't do willingly.

Fucking vampire politics. But at least there was a compensation for being Brann's companion. Eventually Lilith would go too far. Eventually she would break a rule and the vampire's council would call on their executioner-Brann-to mete out her long-deserved justice. Rafe would enjoy that day immensely.

For a moment Rafael was tempted to test the link that bound him to the vampire. But for once, the deceptive-looking coin he wore around his neck was cool against his skin. Rafe smirked. Maybe it's my night off for good behavior. Or maybe Brann decided to stop waiting and was off fucking some other poor bastard. The thought brought a confusion of emotion that Rafael didn't want to face. He looked at the woman and said, "You might as well sit down. Big Daddy just wants to make sure it's not a trap."

The woman slowly took the chair next to his, and once again Rafe was filled with the smell of spring and the urgency to cover her body with his. Damn. He'd be lucky if he got her out of the club before he shoved his cock into her. Not that he hadn't fucked plenty of women in the sleazy private rooms that the strip club offered, but she wasn't going to be one of them.

"So what's your name?" he asked, surprising himself by the intensity of his desire to know it.

The musclemen slid back into their seats. The woman's eyes settled briefly on them, before locking with Rafael's. "Syndelle."

Big Daddy leaned back in his chair, a silent demand for attention. When Syndelle was looking at him, he steepled his fingers and studied her. "You got family in Vegas?"

"My brother."

"No sister?"

"No."

"Your eyes remind Big Daddy of his friend Skye's eyes. But you got a different feel to you than she does. You carrying?"

Syndelle's eyebrows drew together. A weapon? A baby?

His laugh reached out like a dark snake and struck her.

A weapon most likely, but the answer was the same. "No."

"Can't be related to Big Daddy's friend then. She never goes anywhere without one knife. Oftentimes more than one." He nodded slightly and the man to his right snapped his fingers. Before his hand had lowered, a bare-chested waitress in a tiny G-string was standing next to the table, replacing empty beer bottles with full ones. "Big Daddy prides himself on his hospitality. What'll you have?"

"Nothing, thank you," Syndelle said.

He shifted in his chair, and the mood at the table went cold and deadly. "You too good to drink with Big Daddy?"

"No. Another time I'd be pleased to have a drink with you. But I need to leave as soon as your men get to the girl."

As quickly as the menace had arrived, it departed. Big Daddy laughed and settled back in his chair, lifting his beer bottle in a toast. "To the Lady Syndelle."

A cell phone rang. The man to his right reached into his pocket and retrieved the phone, listening to someone but not saying anything until his attention moved to Big Daddy. "They're on their way to Doc's. Rapper says it's as bad as what happened to Tia and Angel, and looks the same."

Heavy menace settled over the table again. "Some motherfucker is going to be sorry they messed with Big Daddy's girls. Big Daddy don't let anyone ruin his merchandise." He took another pull from the beer bottle. "Tell Rapper to find Skye and take her to Doc's place so she can see this motherfucker's work up close. And after he's done with that, tell him to find Dog. Tell him to take Dog down to the tracks and find out why he wasn't watching this girl like he was supposed to be doing. Big Daddy don't like failure. Big Daddy don't like people slacking off when he tells them to do something. You tell Rapper that's the lesson he's got to teach Dog if Dog don't have a good reason for letting this happen to Big Daddy's merchandise."

The muscleman relayed the message then hung up. Big Daddy turned his attention back to Syndelle and she tensed under the stare of his cobra eyes. "You see anyone in that alley?"

"No."

His eyes narrowed. "How come a pretty piece like you was in that alley by herself? That doesn't seem right to Big Daddy. Piece like you belongs at one of the big casinos, not around here."

Syndelle groped for an answer but could think of nothing except one that contained a small measure of the truth. "I had a feeling that someone needed help."

His suspicion hung over her and once again she felt the power radiating off him, cold and ruthless, only this time dark tendrils of it moved toward her as though they would invade her soul and scare the truth from her. She stilled, surprised but not afraid. He was human with some ability-but she was Angelini.

She met his stare, watching as his pupils expanded and contracted, as he tried to wrap her in fear. Cautiously she opened herself, letting some of her own magic rise, and immediately saw the spells protecting him-dark and old with the feel of the graveyard-death magic, placed on him long ago.

His teeth flashed white and he raised his bottle, tipping it toward her in a silent salute. "You're free to go. But Big Daddy won't forget you. And he won't forget that he owes the Lady Syndelle a favor for finding one of his girls."

Syndelle nodded in acknowledgement of the pledge, then rose from her chair, with Rafael rising along with her. When she would have thanked him and escaped the strip club, hurrying back to the hotel room, he grabbed her arm and lust flashed through Syndelle-every cell in her body primed for this moment. Every cell whispering in unison. A mate!

When Syndelle tried to pull away in denial, the chiming in her mind rose in volume, making it impossible to do anything other than comply when Rafe said, "Let's get out of here," and guided her through the doors of the club and out to a car that was parked close to the building. A Viper, Syndelle noticed, the chiming lessening as he released his hold on her arm so that he could open the door for her.

Sanity returned momentarily, along with a flicker of fear. Despite the need pulsing through her body, despite the recognition of what he was to her, she didn't dare go with him. He needed to be presented to her family. She needed to know who he was, what he was. There was a hint of magic in him, a warlock's gift left fallow. She tried to move away, but before she could escape, Rafael was touching her again, crowding against her, molding his hard frame to her soft curves.

Syndelle whimpered as need coursed through her, the rampant urge to mate, to tie him to her in a primal Angelini coupling that would lock his body inside hers as she took his seed. She tried to fight it, to delay the inevitable-but the wolf and the magic that made her who she was, along with her own body, conspired against her, as though fearful that the opportunity would pass if she didn't claim it now.

Rafael fought the urge to kiss her. To strip her and press her against the hood of the car, to rut on her like a convict just getting out of prison. Despite the curse, despite the knowledge that there would be no relief for him, he was desperate to plunge his cock into her, desperate to feel her wet heat. He'd never felt this enthralled, this compelled-as though his very life hinged on joining with her.

He urged her into the car, trying to keep his touches to a minimum in order to maintain enough control to get them to the closest safe house, a bolthole that only he and Brann knew about. It was against Brann's rules, but he didn't care. What more could the vampire do to him?

Rafael's mind followed the path leading from the coin on his necklace to the vampire who had made him a companion. The way was cool and gray, blocked by a thin barrier that would yield if he were in danger, if Lilith finally decided to risk punishment, to challenge Brann directly by killing his companion. Rafael backed away, not wanting to draw Brann's attention. And within minutes he had parked the car in the garage and moved around to pull Syndelle out and through the door leading into the house.

There was none of his usual finesse, none of his usual mocking humor, there was only the desperate need for the touch of her skin, the feel of her soft and yielding beneath him. He made it as far as the wide, plush couch before lust overwhelmed him and he pushed her down on the cushions, covering her body with his as his mouth sought hers.

Syndelle whimpered under the onslaught, opening her mouth to his demanding tongue, submitting to its dominant strokes just as her cunt ached to submit to the unyielding stroke of his penis. Already she was swollen, wet, needy.

She was a virgin, guarded by her family, and yet there was no fear in her at what was to come. Her body was primed for this moment, her mind prepared. He was one of her mates. She knew it in every cell, with every breath, with the silent, insistent voice that urged her to get on her hands and knees, to display herself so that he would mount her. It was the wolf's need though she could not take the wolf's form. It was the wolf's instinct that demanded a show of submission.

She moved restlessly against Rafael, wanting the feel of skin on skin, wanting to trail kisses along his neck, his chest, to feel his heartbeat against her lips before moving down and claiming his cock. She needed to bite him, to mark him just as she needed him to mark her. It was both a vampire's craving and the Angelini magic that required a bond made strong and unbreakable by blood.

A red haze filled Rafael's mind, a hunger like nothing he'd ever experienced before, not even when the vampire grew impatient and sank his fangs into him, flooding his mind and cock with a desire from which there would be no relief-his punishment for not yielding his body to the vampire who claimed him. Rafael lifted his face and knew immense satisfaction at the sight of Syndelle's kiss-ravaged lips, at the way her chest rose and fell rapidly, the tight, hard nipples pressing urgently against her shirt.

He levered himself up further, grinding his hard cock against her jeans-covered pussy, reveling in the soft, needy sound she made, in the arch of her back as she instinctively offered more of herself to him.

With one hand he unbuttoned her shirt and spread it wide, glorying in the sight of her perfect breasts with their dark crowns. Like a starving man he lowered his head and latched onto one of her nipples, biting and sucking as he ate her responses.

She writhed underneath him, whimpering and struggling and panting, ratcheting up his hunger, feeding his need to thoroughly dominate her. His cock pulsed in time with his sucking and biting, with the hard squeezing and tugging of her other areola as his hand and fingers tormented it, with the heartbeat that thundered in his ears.

Hers. His. He wasn't sure which one he was hearing and didn't care.

Fuck, what was she doing to him? What had the vampire done to him?

He'd never known hunger like this. Never had an urge to bite as the vampire bit him, but even as he fought the compulsion, his teeth clamped down on the skin over her heart, the taste of her a heady wine that intoxicated him as he left his mark.

She sobbed and arched underneath him, her fingers moving from his hair to his back and shoulders, scratching against his shirt. Rafe growled in frustration, wanting to feel the erotic sting of her nails. But the roar in his head overrode his intention to take off his shirt, demanding instead that he strip her jeans off and bury his face between her legs.

He complied, roughly removing her shoes and shoving her jeans down and off. The scent of her arousal had him opening his own jeans and grabbing his heavy cock as his other hand clamped over her breast and his mouth zeroed in on her pussy. Her cunt lips were swollen, parted, the pink wet flesh glistening, ripe with arousal.

The savage need to plunder gripped him and he thrust his tongue into her slit, hungrily swallowing, relishing her taste and wallowing in her smell as his ears soaked up the sounds of her pleasure.

Tears streamed down Syndelle's face. Fire streaked through her blood. On some level she was aware that she was begging, her voice low and thready as she urged him to fuck her. But even as she pleaded with him, hungered for the feel of his cock thrusting in and out, invading her virgin channel, the wolf took fierce pleasure in the rub of slick, wet vulva against its mate's face, in the feel of hot tongue against sensitive flesh, preparing it further for the invasion of its mate's penis.

Syndelle's breath shuddered in and out of her body when the first wave of orgasm slammed into her, making her arch and cry out as she shoved her mound against his mouth in reaction. He brought her again with his tongue, and again when his lips clamped on her swollen clit, sucking hard and fast, a dominant male animal proving he was worthy of a mate, that he knew how to pleasure a mate.

She was weak, completely submissive after the third climax. He smoothed wet, kisses over her still-heated labia and clit before turning his face into her thigh. There was a warning nip followed by searing erotic pain as his teeth clamped down, marking her, his bite fierce enough to break the skin.

It took all of his willpower to pull away, to stand and strip out of his clothes. His cock throbbed, his balls felt swollen. He wanted to plunge into her, to rut on her wildly, but another, more primitive urge rose and he hovered over her, forcing her mouth to his neck, to the smooth spot where the vampire's fangs had so often plunged into his flesh. He cried out at the feel of her teeth, relishing the way her bite burned straight to his cock.

Of her own free will, her lips traveled downward, pausing to play with the ruby-ended barbell that pierced his left nipple. He groaned and pressed into her mouth, enjoying her teasing licks and sucks, the way each strike of her tongue against his nipple sent a shock of ice-hot fire through his penis. His fingers tunneled through the silky strands of her midnight-colored hair, curling into fists as her mouth settled over his heart and her teeth sank in.

Every muscle in his body went taut as her lips traveled downward. His buttocks clenched and his balls pulled tight in anticipation. He cried out, body bowing, head thrown back, as her lips and tongue explored his penis, kissing, laving, sucking every hard, pulsing inch of him. He was shaking, trying to keep himself from fucking her mouth by the time she turned her face into his thigh and bit-taking his blood, taking his soul.

She slipped off the couch then, going to her hands and knees, legs spread, tempting him with a glimpse of swollen female flesh, and all thought deserted him. He was left with only the driving need to mount her, to finish claiming her.

Syndelle screamed, the pain of his rough possession, the fiery erotic agony of his huge penis forcefully opening her virgin channel made her struggle instinctively, fighting him so the wolf could offer a final test to its mate.

Virgin. The word crashed into Rafael's consciousness, but rather than gentling him, it only made the need to fill her with his cock more violent, more consuming. He couldn't stop the low foreign growl from escaping. He couldn't stop himself from pressing forward until he was fully seated in her clenching, shuddering depths. And then he clamped his teeth on the smooth skin where neck met shoulder, holding her in place, dominating her.

At the feel of his teeth, Syndelle yielded completely, lowering her head and chest so that his cock would tunnel even deeper into her body as the mating progressed. The wolf was satisfied. The wolf wanted this, needed this. And the Angelini blood that coursed through her veins would see that it ended in a permanent bond-one that linked her mind to Rafael's and ensured that her mate would forever crave her physically. One that ensured her protection so that the legacy of the Angelini would be continued into another generation of hunters.

For several long seconds Rafael savored the heady rush of domination, of knowing that for the first time in his life, his cock was the only one his partner had ever known. But then the heat of her, the low, pleading cries she was making as her channel tightened and released like a wet fist around his cock were too much to bear. He started pumping. Hard and fast. Desperate. The sensations so extreme that his groans against her shoulder sounded almost like whimpers.

He wanted to come so badly. Wanted to shoot his seed into her. Prayed that by some miracle the curse would lift and he would know the rush of fire down his spine and through his balls, the ecstasy of lava-hot semen pouring through his cock.

Frantically he pumped in and out of her wet depths, maddened each time he reached the end of her and had to pull out. Furious need drove him, a fierce desire to go even deeper, to somehow reach a place that no human woman would have.

Angelini. The word whispered through his consciousness. But her cries urged him on, demanding that he yield everything, that he slam into her with all his strength, that he push through that final barrier separating him from what he craved, what he needed to survive.

And then he was there, locked inside her body, his seed a scalding wash of pleasure as it was ripped through his cock. He shouted, instinctively fighting the tight band of muscles that locked the head of his penis into her depths, but his struggles only triggered another searing climax, and another until he was weak and spent, his face wet from the sheer pleasure he'd experienced.

Angelini.

This time the word whipped down the link between Rafael and the vampire, turning the coin around his neck into a burning coal where it lay pressed between slick, heated flesh. He jerked in reaction, as did Syndelle, then both cried out as the movement triggered one final explosive orgasm before his penis slid free and Rafael moved instantly into a sated, magic-induced sleep.

In the distance, the vampire felt Syndelle's hidden power, just as he'd tasted her ancient blood through his link with Rafael when his companion had broken the skin on her inner thigh. Now Brann's cock stood at rigid attention, his fangs ached to slide into her and he savored the sweet promise of her. He'd waited centuries to find a female such as this one. And soon she would be his for all time, bound to him by her own nature and the laws of her kind.