Melinda Howard poured a potion into a small glass vial. She used a funnel, not trusting her unsteady fingers. It was her first time making this particular potion and if the results were anything less than perfect, the consequences would be fatal to the vampire standing in her kitchen.

He was across the room. A good fifteen feet away, but it felt as though he were hovering just inches behind her, watching her every move. Movements that suddenly became heavy and awkward.

Darn it all!
She chastised herself silently.
Keep it together, you’re almost done.

She exhaled, letting out a surge of hot breath, shuddering as an electrified pulse fired down her spine at the thought of him watching her.

Her heart quickened, her fingers quivering as she removed the funnel, the vial nearly filled. Just one final step to complete the potion. She shoved her chin-length chestnut bangs behind her ear, grabbing an already filled dropper and added the contents within to the vial.

The mixture sizzled, a small plume of steam erupting from the vial before the clear liquid inside turned to deep red. Melinda smiled, relieved by the outcome. She let the buildup of nervousness escape with her next breath, corked the vial, turned and tossed it to the vampire.

It went high, threatening to fly over his head and crash into a wall. He deftly jumped into the air, caught it, and landed without a sound.

“Good catch, William,” Melinda said, winking playfully.

The vampire threw Melinda a stern look before drinking the contents of the vial.

“Like you’d miss,” she added, rolling her eyes at him. She averted her gaze, unable to linger in his for long.

“I never miss,” William replied matter-of-factly. The vampire straightened his black pullover, the dark color only further accentuating the paleness of his neck and face.

“Did it work?” Melinda asked, venturing another look in his direction.

“It tastes correct.” He paused, savoring the warm sensation the potion gave him as it forced its way through his veins like the blood that no longer willingly pumped its way through his body. “I do believe you did perfect, Melinda. Well done.”

She curtsied, nodding in appreciation to her one vampire audience, hurriedly turning away again, to avoid making eye contact.

His eyes narrowed in a questioning manner. “Are you okay this morning?”

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. He noticed… I so suck at acting…
“Um, yes,” she answered too hesitantly. She cleared her throat. “I’m fine. Why do you ask?”

“You seem on edge.”

On edge? Really? You have
no
idea,
her thoughts exclaimed loudly. She wished she could tell him the truth- that her
edginess
was completely his fault.

Melinda had dreamt about William just hours before. A dream that left an unsatisfied ache etching into every part of her body as she recalled all the things he had done to her in said dream. She still felt the coolness of his fingers tracing the curves of her back, as if he were doing it to her right in the kitchen, this very minute.

She’d had a crush on William for years, but she’d never dreamt of him, not like this. She’d awakened to a pleasant sting trailing across her skin where his lips had caressed her… tasted her… where his fangs had…

“There it is again,” the vampire noted, disrupting her lust-filled memory. “I’ve never heard your heart flutter like that before. Are you ill?”

Damn William and his super vampire hearing!
“William, I promise you, I’m fine. I was just nervous about making the potion, and was recalling my dream from last night.” This was a partial truth. There had been a second dream. A much less pleasant dream, one she
had
shared with him.

“Very well,” he conceded.

Her skin flushed, her gaze lowered.

William recognized Melinda’s lie; her teeth tugged at her bottom lip and she couldn’t look him in the eye… a sure sign she was holding back on him. Something that was happening more often in the previous months.

Blood rushed through her veins. A sound that aroused the vampire. He listened as it pulsed faster each time her heart fluttered. It was a new flutter. One he’d never heard before. He dared a glance, and upon seeing the bursts pulsing just beneath her skin, his fangs ached to drop and have just a little taste.

He scowled, this reaction displeasing him immensely. It was not normal, appropriate or acceptable behavior. Not for him.

It was too bad he needed to have a blood-empty stomach before drinking the potion. He’d have to wait thirty minutes before partaking in his typical breakfast of warmed, week-old animal blood. It hardly sounded appetizing compared to the lovely blood-filled creature standing just out of reach…

“William,” he barely heard Melinda call out. “Would you put this away for me? I can’t reach.” She outstretched her arm, holding a jar filled with herbs. She lifted her head when he did not reply, the jar slipping through her fingers, suddenly unable to maintain their grip.

William caught the jar with ease and spun around to put it away, too late to hide his mistake. He might have controlled his fangs and kept his distance, but his eyes had turned a ravenous black. Normally, being around humans was tolerable. He’d had hundreds of years of practice. This morning, however, was particularly difficult. Melinda’s blood had always smelled appealing. But this morning it was practically calling out to him. “Please drink me. I belong only to you.”

His hungry black eyes were something Melinda had witnessed before. She didn’t understand why it startled her so badly this time. Perhaps it was that she’d never been alone with him before when it had happened. She’d never had super sexed up dreams about him before, either.

Embarrassed by her reaction, she grabbed a few potion supplies and busied herself putting them away. She took a glance and noticed William’s typical emerald greens had replaced the greedy black.

God, I love his eyes…
She let out an exasperated breath, wishing she could just forget every detail of last night’s
William
dream. It would never come true anyway.

William was a vampire. She was a human. A witch, but still human. And William had a strict no-dating-humans policy.

As she cleaned up the potion-making mess, a young man entered the kitchen, at the same time running his gel covered hands through his spiky hair. He quickly regretted that choice thinking instead that he needed to plug his nose. “Potion time again,” he realized, rinsing his fingers off in the sink.

“Good morning, Michael,” said the vampire to the young man, who was Melinda’s twenty-three year old brother. “The taste is as loathsome as the smell.” William made a face that said,
be glad you’re not the one drinking it.

Michael was about to reply when a voice startled them from the hallway, behind them. “Good thing the potion’s worth the price, then.”

“Charlie!” Melinda raced past Michael and jumped into her eldest brother’s, flannel covered arms.

Charlie twirled his sister in a circle, hugging her fiercely. He was not just older than she and Michael, but much larger, too. A broad shouldered, rugged man of twenty-six.

“Hiya, Kiddo.”

“God, you reek!” she choked out sarcastically. “More so than the potion, and that’s not an easy feat!”

“That’s what happens when you take a three day fishing trip,” Charlie said, letting her slide back down to the floor. “I had to come home before the full moon.” His words really meaning, if it wasn’t rising soon, I’d still be gone.

“Yeah, of course you would. It’s just nice to have you back in the house again.”

“Which just proves my point that you’re still not getting out enough, Sis.”

“Don’t start with me again about that! I’m getting out plenty. Remember that date I went on, like, a month ago...” her voice trailed off at the end, as she recalled the date had actually been over two months previous.

“My point exactly.” Charlie poked her side, affectionately.

Melinda had tried to forget that last date. It ended badly. Not that it had started all that great. But she’d given in and slept with the guy; he proceeded to finish, call her something along the lines of
adorable
and got dressed. She was pretty sure when he said adorable, he meant chubby. Which she wasn’t.

Yeah, she’d eaten too much during their date, but that was mostly because he never shut the hell up and gave her a chance to speak. So yes, her pooch was a little bigger than it might have been normally. But it was the way he’d spoken his goodbye, which happened just minutes after they’d finished. Like he’d done her some charitable favor by sleeping with her.

She’d left that part out when telling her brothers how the date went. The guy was a jerkwad. Sex with the jerkwad was empty. Meaningless. A complete waste of time. It hadn’t been satisfying in the least. But he’d gotten what
he
wanted…

Of course, if her brothers or William had found out, they’d probably have killed the guy. Or at the very least, injured him severely.

Charlie grabbed a mug of coffee and nodded toward his brother Michael, who refused to return the gesture. Charlie had hoped to avoid another argument so soon after arriving home.

As it turned out, Michael didn’t feel like arguing either. “Meeting Emily for coffee,” he explained, promptly leaving.

Charlie shook his head, disappointed.

“Give him time,” the vampire advised kindly.

“Why does he have to be so damn stubborn?”

Melinda snorted. “Um, gee. Maybe because he’s a Howard.”

“Exactly. He is a Howard, and like it or not we have a responsibility to uphold…”

“Michael gets that, Charlie,” Melinda cut him off. “He’s just not as accepting of his
fate
as we are,” she added dramatically. “He sort of has a point though. I mean, why should he be forced to spend his life protecting the Isle, just because he’s a Howard?”

“We don’t get to make that choice, Melinda.” Charlie stated it with finality. He glanced at the vampire, searching for approval, but William’s face showed no sign of his true feelings on the matter. Charlie had not thought it possible, but the vampire appeared distracted. When William didn’t answer he changed the subject.

“Thanks for making the potion for me, Sis. I left for my trip so fast I completely forgot about it.”

“No worries. You’ve had a lot on your mind. Besides, I’d do just about anything for My William.” She decided the best way to move past last night’s dream was to treat William as she always did.

The vampire breathed out testily. “Melinda, you must stop calling me that. It is not right. Not only am I nearly four hundred years old, but until quite recently I was your legal guardian. Must I keep reminding you of this?”

“William,” she retorted innocently. “I’m twenty-one and you’re the only
man
I can flirt with in this testosterone filled house. Besides, you make it so easy. Have you looked at yourself lately? That’s right, you can’t. So I must take it upon myself to remind you how handsome a vampire you are.”

Yes,
she thought.
Ridiculously handsome
. No, he was beyond handsome now, especially after last night. He’d gone straight from handsome vampire she had a crush on to forbidden fanged hotty in a matter of a single dream. She tapped her fingers on the counter as if this movement would somehow drown out the racing heartbeats thudding against her chest.

Apparently, forgetting about the dream was not going to be easy. And admitting how desperately she wanted the dream to be real, and knowing it could never happen, left her balancing on a precarious edge of
never-going-to-have-this-itch-satisfied
-ness.

And the truth was, William did have a reflection. But it wasn’t one his own eyes could see. A side effect of the potion he’d just downed. It made looking into glass, difficult. Things had a fuzzy appearance. One bad side effect that was worth the freedom the potion gave him.

William noted the change in her heart rhythms again but ignored it, tossing Charlie a look that pleaded for his agreement in the matter of her affections.

“Maybe, Melinda, you would be better off saving your attention for someone your own age,” Charlie said, backing up the vampire. “And not to bring it back up again, but perhaps if you got out of the house more often…”

“Charlie, you’ve scared off all the guys I’ve dated!”
Except for jerkwad,
which she’d done herself apparently, by just being
her
. And there had only been two other guys she’d dated before him.
Three whole guys, twenty-one years old. So beyond pathetic.
Melinda tensed. She had chosen jerkwad, to give herself to. She was never going to forgive herself for that choice. But she hadn’t wanted to carry the label virgin anymore.

How stupid that label seemed now. She still felt like a virgin. At least she hadn’t told jerkwad… not that the fact redeemed her decision at all.

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