“When did you become my keeper?” She moaned, her head thudding heavily against his solid shoulder.
“The night you saved my life,
cara
,” was his honeyed reply. “The limo is here.” He wrapped an arm around her waist and helped her to her feet. She took two steps and stumbled. She heard him mutter under his breath, sweeping her up into strong arms. Her lashes fell, hiding her embarrassment, her exhaustion claiming her.
Diego cursed roundly when the limo door hid them from the world. Her exhaustion was total. He knew sleep would help her, but it would not heal her.
“Cara mia.”
It was groaned on a long hiss of self-aimed damnation.
He buried his face into the sweet scents of her hair. Spring rain and heaven. He knew he had done this. Without thinking about the consequences, unaware of the hell he was opening for her. He had all evening to replay the night he had healed her, the night his heart became hers.
He had done the unthinkable. He had passed on his curse, his dark life, and he knew the only way to attempt to keep her alive was to finish the transformation. His eyes clamped shut as the weight of his folly drove home.
“Forgive me,
cara
. I cannot let you die,” he whispered hoarsely, his throat sore, fighting the weight of every damning emotion. “I would give my life for you.”
He cradled her in his arms, stepping from the limo in front of the hotel. Blurring their entrance from prying eyes, he carried her to her room. He stretched her out to lay on the bed with her. His hands were shaking as he brushed her waves of hair. The decision was eating him alive, killing him, because he had already killed her.
“
Cara
. Titania, wake up.”
She mewled softly, her lashes fluttering. “I’m tired, Diego.” She curled into his shoulder, and his skin blazed and tightened under her weight.
“I know, honey.” He stared at her pale features. Her sweet lips, soft skin. Her dark lashes curved over the paleness of her face like two dark crescents. “
Cara
, I can make you better, but you need to tell me you want me to do it.”
She murmured into his chest. She was asleep. Diego had run out of choices. She was slowly starving to death. He made the decision for her, feeling the finality of it crushing his chest like an anvil. They would be forever bound together. She would always be at risk from the Brethren.
She would hate him for it.
Diego’s mouth thinned. His next admonishment was that she would hate him soon enough. He threw the arguments from his mind, his lips tracking down the sweetness of her neck. She wouldn’t need much to sustain her energy, but each sharing brought her further into his world.
He stopped, his hands framing her with a tenderness he had never envisioned.
Would she survive the conversion?
He had never heard of a woman taking on the dark gift.
“Dios,”
he moaned, the one word torn from him.
The delicate firmness of her fingers ghosted over the harsh slice of his mouth. He felt her understanding all the way to his toes. There was a feeling of acceptance coming from her, filling him, and he wanted to wrap her up in it, keep her safe and whole. If she only knew what it was she was allowing…
He lifted her higher into his arms, crushing her against his body. “I will never let you go. You are mine.”
Diego adjusted himself to sit up on the bed at the top, rising to hold her in his lap. He kissed her cheek, nipping with his lips at the corner of her mouth. She undulated toward him naturally. Her arms wound over his neck and her eyes gazed up at him, slumberous and sexy.
“You’re kissing me again,” she accused, half asleep and all siren.
“I have to.” His hands rested at her hips, his fingers toying with the fabric of her blouse. “I have to,” he repeated, claiming her mouth.
She gasped, her lips sweet and succulent as he delved within her honeyed warmth. Fingers grasped his hair. She arched into him when he drifted from her mouth to the sloping temptation of her throat.
Her heart pounded beneath the fragile layer of skin that warmed beneath his lips. He scraped his teeth along her pulse and his incisors exploded, the lust for her blood almost overpowering. He knew how addictive she would taste, spicy, calling to him.
He blinked, forcing a control, calming the hunger. He would never hurt her. This was his woman. His hold cradled, protected. Always protected. Those thoughts helped ease the insistent roar of hunger that he had faced since the night of his very first rising.
He sucked on her skin, feeling her reactions, feeling her desires rage as high as his. She cried out when he found her beneath hot skin, then rubbed against him, bringing his own needs to a fever pitch. Her arms held him secure, and he could feel the pleasure she was experiencing multiplying and reverberating back to him. He savored her, every brush of skin, every heated drop of her essence.
His groan was harsh when he finally closed the small wounds with a tender stroke of his tongue. He inhaled, filled his lungs with her heat, his nose buried into the curve of her shoulder. “Heaven,” he murmured against heated skin, and she shivered.
His shirt and leather coat were there, and then gone. He held her bare-chested, pressed against the firm wall of his chest until he thought he would detonate with the hunger she created in him. A moan hissed through his teeth when she pushed for more, her full breasts teasing him.
He fought for control, slashing his chest, one mission in mind. “Belong to me,” he told her, his voice a sorcerer’s seduction, velvet over iron. His will would not be denied. At the first touch of her lips, desire ripped through him, stronger than he had ever experienced. Flames danced before his eyes as her mouth suckled on his quivering chest.
His hand cupped her reverently. “Belong to me,
cara
. Need me.” He threw his head when lightning shot through his veins, a primal roar of possession fighting to break loose. Fire licked at his nerves, racing through his body. “Need me like I need you,” he pleaded on a dragged moan. He closed his eyes to feel her in his arms until she had taken enough.
Diego commanded her to stop, healing the wound and claiming her mouth at the same instant. He found the hot, coppery taste of his blood, sweeping his tongue to catch the exotic heat. Titania was on fire in his arms. “I will never let you go. Know that now. You are mine.”
He groaned, an animalistic depth that rocked him when she slid her mouth down his neck. He arched into the damp heat of her mouth. “
Cara
!” His cry gusted from his body when her hands slid down his chest, forming to his torso. His eyes shot wide, yet unseeing as stars erupted. He swallowed, fighting for reason.
Diego knew she was tired, weak. She needed rest. His only thought was that she was driving him insane. “
Cara
, Titania.”
Reason slammed home when he realized he could not take what she offered until she knew the truth. What he had done.
What he was, and if she survived—terror returned with thoughts of failure—what she would soon become. Fear clenched his heart in a cold hand. She had to survive. Not even hunting Brakka would sustain him any longer without her in his life.
His hands were firm but gentle, gripping her shoulders when all he wanted to do was hold her close and never let go. “Titania, rest for tonight. Please do this for me, honey.”
Please
, he silently begged. She had managed to completely undermine his strongest and best intentions.
Her eyes, dark and filled with hungry passion, met his gaze, and he groaned again. She blinked, seemed to regain some sense of herself. A yawn completely ruined the moment. He welcomed it. It reinforced his argument for her to rest.
Her head thumped to his shoulder. “I’m sorry. I warned you not to kiss me.” She lolled from side to side. She pressed a hand to her stomach. “I don’t feel good.”
His gaze locked on her, intent on her every reaction. “You need to rest, honey.” One more sharing and the transformation would begin. She was exhausted and overwrought tonight. She would sleep through the changes already taking place. He thanked God for any small favor. It was not a fun experience.
She covered another persistent yawn. “I didn’t eat. I promised I would try.” She snuggled into his body, and his arms tightened of their own volition.
“Later. Rest for now.” He guided her fluidly to the bed, her eyes fluttering as sleep claimed her once more. “Sleep deeply, honey. Do not wake until I come for you.” She went blissfully deep under the compulsion without fighting it.
Diego stretched out with her, pillowing her head on his shoulder, his arms braced around her to stare blankly at the ceiling.
He lingered partially in her mind, feeling for any twinges of discomfort, any stabs of pain. It did not matter if he had to stay vigilant all night. He would. There was no alternative. If she was going to have problems with the change, he wanted to know now. He needed to know she was not going to die.
Titania could hate him. She could threaten him. She could leave him. He would follow anywhere. Eternity was a long time to hold a grudge. He prayed it would not take eternity to earn her forgiveness.
She moaned, twisting, bringing up her legs, and he soothed the heat in her stomach. He had vague memories of the conversion when it had happened to him. The first night Brakka had attacked him, he had been so weak. Brakka had been greedy until Diego was too dazed to do anything but accept what was happening. Diego had not thought of those nights for nearly as long as he had lived by the blood of others.
It had happened, could not be reversed. Why think about it? He frowned now, realizing how much he had forgotten. Brakka had completed the exchanges in a more expedient fashion than Diego had with Titania, within two nights. Diego had been unaware of the catastrophe he had created with Titania. When all he had wanted was to keep her safe, he had failed miserably.
Guilt rode him hard now, his fist tightening with the surge of anger aimed at himself. He could not let her die. Not an option. Was this really any better? What kind of a life was he giving her? She would never see the sun again. Never eat. Outlive her entire family and her friends. She would be in constant peril, always in danger of discovery.
Her legs relaxed, and she let out a long breath. The heat in her stomach faded, but he did not let his guard down, not yet. Her hand inched across his chest, and he twined his fingers through hers. She nuzzled his still bare chest, and he allowed just a moment’s happiness in her arms.
Diego studied her face. She would be beautiful in the moonlight. She stole his ability to think now. His mouth softened from its apprehensive hold. He would give her anything to make her happy. If she could accept this, accept him.
He had no life before her. He could see that. Endless battles with Brakka. Long, solitary nights of silence. He would not go back to that life. It had not been a life worth living. Titania had changed all of that.
Her voice, her compassion, her unselfish nature. With his arms around her, he rested, a smile on his lips for the woman in his embrace. When the sun began to beat at him, making his limbs heavy, he resented its rising.
* * * *
Titania woke with difficulty, feeling as though a heavy weight, like sandbags were pinning them in place. When it registered, the pounding on her door was loud enough to rattle her teeth.
“Damn it! Tani. Where the hell are you?”
She swallowed, tried to speak, but couldn’t. She just wanted to roll over and fall asleep again. The pounding took on a new cadence. “Come on, Titania. Laney knows you’re in there. Open this door!”
Or I’m going to break it in.
She heard him say it. She knew she did, except he was muttering behind a closed door.
Titania blinked and threw an arm over her eyes. Fading sunlight sliced into the room through gaps in her curtains. Her eyes did not appreciate it. They felt dry and hot. Probably from lack of sleep, or something, since everything was still so sluggish. The pounding renewed, harder, anxious, persistent. She adjusted the curtains with a flick of her hand and sighed in relief when the room dimmed. The door popped open with her next effort. She was getting a lot of practice with doors lately.
“I told you she was in here,” Laney said, glancing around the room while trailing Houston.
“Well, after the last few nights, I wanted to make sure.”