“Nice analogy.” I nodded, positioning my fingers on his arm. “Can I use my teeth with you?”

“I’m not immune. I had a choice of drinking either Mike’s or your blood for immunity, but, well, Mike’s a guy, and you’re the untouchable.”

“I’m not untouchable. You can drink my blood.”

“No way.” He sat back a little. “Not worth my life. And Mike says the same. You’re off limits to all vampires.”

Great. I’m a shrine. “Well, can’t you get immunity from Morgaine?”

He shook his head. “Only from a Created Lilithian’s venom. If you bit me, I’d still die.”

“Well, even then, it’s better than nothing. At least you couldn’t be paralysed by the Created.”

“True. I don’t know, maybe I will drink it, but…just not from Morgaine.” He shuddered a little, smiling.

“You don’t like Morgaine?”

“She’s okay. She’s just a little bossy. I don’t wanna accidently have sex with her.”

“Hu!” I leaned back. “What does that mean?”

“Blood lust.”

“I thought you said it doesn’t have to be about the lust?”

“It doesn’t. You can drive the lust to the back of your mind when you have to. You and I?” He motioned between us. “We have to. Morgaine and I? We don’t. It’d be too tempting to just give in.”

“Oh.” I nodded.

“Just drink. Talking about Morgaine and sex makes me queasy.”

“Okay.” I laughed, then pressed my fingernail to Eric’s skin, but nothing happened. “Um. I don’t think I’m strong enough yet—not without my teeth.”

“Oh, okay, sorry.” He made a cut, and I closed my eyes, breathing the sweet, heady scent of warm sugar. The white cloud of hunger consumed everything else in the room then; I leaned forward, formed a seal around his wound and rolled the blood to the back of my throat with my tongue. Unlike the night he fed me when I was first rescued, the absence of fear and grief opened up a new kind of world; a hot-cold sensation travelled along my arms and legs, pulsing blood that couldn’t decide on a climate. I could hear every sound around me, even the scuffling of a mouse in the roof, somewhere on the edge of the house—over Emily’s room. The hot-cold in my legs flooded up a little higher, finally deciding on heat in the form of excitement. Then, as the hunger eased, a soft moan escaped my lips, thoughts impure stirring within me.

“Amara,” Eric said with a laugh, “I’m trying not to think inappropriately, right now—those noises aren’t helping.”

I pulled my tongue from the small wound and sat back, wiping my mouth on my arm. “I’m sorry. It’s just—it feels like forever since I’ve had blood.”

“Did you enjoy it?”

Breathing through a smile, I said, “Yeah. It’s different drinking from you, though.”

“Because I’m a guy?”

“Yeah. I see what you mean about pushing the lust back. I don’t get that same feeling with Em.”

“Give it time.” He nodded. “You will.”

“Really?”

He nodded again, his eyes glistening with his grin.

I looked up at my unmoving David. “Do you think he knows what we were doing?”

“Yeah, I’d say he’s pretty clued in.” Eric nodded at David’s only uncharred body parts.

“Oh my God. Is he…clenching his fingers?”

Eric laughed aloud. “Yup.”

He’s awake! “Well—” I rolled my shoulders back, composing my over-excitement, “—if you don’t want me to drink Eric’s blood, David, you’re just gonna have to get better and feed me yourself.”

Eric laughed. “Let’s see what he does if I drink yours.”

“He’d probably go all “Return of the Mummy” and start zombie-walking after you.”

David took another short, raspy breath, and Eric and I held ours until it stopped again. “Do you think that was a laugh?” I asked.

“Laughter is the best medicine.”

“Yeah, and I bet worrying your wife’s gonna munch on some guy’s arm is probably a good motivator for recovery, too.”

“Perfect, I’d say.” He licked his thumb and swiped a smear of blood away from his wrist, cleaning it up before rolling his sleeve back down. “In all seriousness, though, Amara, I mean no offence to David by giving you blood. I just—you needed it.” He shrugged one shoulder and grinned.

“I’m sure it’s okay. Surely he won’t expect me to eat only him for the rest of forever.”

Eric raised one brow, holding back a tight smile. “You don’t know David very well, then.”

“Well, right now, he has to deal with it. It’s not like he can tell me how he’s feeling.”

“Emily can,” Eric said. “Imagine my surprise when I heard about her ability to feel David’s feelings.”

“Is it rare?”

“These days, yeah.”

I sat back down and sighed aloud. That worries me—the whole connection David and Emily have—especially if they’ve been blood sharing. I mean, David would never cheat, I’m sure, but why wouldn’t he tell me he’s drinking Emily’s blood—especially knowing how I feel about their ‘friendship’.

“What ya thinkin’, beautiful girl?” Eric asked, leaning his back against the mattress.

“Just the whole David and Em thing.” I looked down.

“Amara?” Eric paused; I looked at his eyes. “David loves you, okay. Everything he does, every thought he ever has is for you. I don’t need to read minds to know that. He and Emily have a connection, and yeah, we don’t know what that is, maybe it’s a distant ancestral one, who knows, but he loves you—only you. Okay?”

“You seem pretty sure about that.”

He sat taller and glanced once over his shoulder, lowering his voice, “Do you understand, Amara, that he knew they’d throw him on the fire? Back in the days of Lilithian reign, when a vampire was killed, Lilith threw them on the fire to be sure. I wasn’t even born then, but even I know that.” Eric looked at David. “And he knew that. He did it for you—not just to save you, but to keep you safe.”