me and held me against his hard body, making me feel safe and loved . . . and desperate for him. But apparently the stress and exhaustion of the last several days was more than I’d realized—some time before I was even naked, I crashed.
At least in my dream we made love. We were in our beach house in the Florida Keys, destroying the Caribbean room once again, our bed in shambles, the rest of the furniture in pieces. I moaned with pleasure, so close to euphoria . . . and then that musical voice chimed in: “Sweet dreams, little bitch.”
I bolted upright in the hotel bed, my eyes darting around wildly and my heart pounding in my chest.
“Sorry to wake you from such a hot dream, but we need to go,” Tristan said.
“Vanessa,” I replied. The musical voice had been real and close by.
The door burst open with a bang, bounced off the wall, and slammed back in the white-blonde’s exquisite face. Her lightning-quick reflexes caught it just in time, the metal door molding to the shape of her arm. Tristan took my hand as she threw it open again, and after catching a glimpse of Vanessa and her brother Victor flying into the hotel room, we flashed.
They came close enough. We appeared on a deserted beach, and Vanessa and Victor appeared right after us, catching our flash trails. They were stupid to think they alone could defeat us—they couldn’t beat Tristan even without my help—but Vanessa’s pursuit was always based on emotions, not on the obvious facts. And it wasn’t Tristan she wanted to beat. She only fought him because he protected me. He shot fireballs at her, and I shot an electric bolt at Victor, singeing a hole through his shirt and into his chest, turning his white skin purple.
“Now!” Tristan said, and we flashed again, now somewhere inland and desert-like. The sickeningly sweet smell of burning vampire flesh still filled my nose.
“Son of a witch!”
Vanessa and Victor followed us once again, immediately lunging forward when they appeared. Vanessa’s hand grasped my right wrist like a steel vise. I shot a constant flow of electricity at her, the current traveling through her arm and back into me, then into Tristan, who still had a grip on my upper-right arm so I could follow his flash. Victor, the idiot, wrapped his arms around his sister, trying to pull her off me. The electric current charged violently through all of us.
Rather than electrocuting me, though, it boosted my power. Tristan could take it. Vanessa and Victor could not. Their bodies convulsed, and purple tendrils of smoke rose from their skin. They knew what would happen from the last time I nearly smoked the vampire bitch, and she finally released my wrist. Both of them fell to the ground, their bodies still writhing. Tristan and I used our powers together to send them flying back twenty yards, too far to follow our trails.
“Again,” Tristan said, and I followed him to a new place, more remote than the previous one.
We stood back-to-back, our knees bent in fighting stance, palms held out. My heart thrummed erratically as adrenaline and lingering electricity shot through my veins. Hundreds of beats thundered in my chest as we waited . . . and waited. When the two vampires didn’t appear, the air imprisoned in my lungs finally released with a whoosh. I leaned forward with my hands on my knees, panting, trying to slow everything down to a normal rhythm.
“That was . . . fun,” Tristan said, swinging around to face me. I looked up at him and lifted an eyebrow. A wide grin filled his face. He meant it. “You weren’t really scared of those two, were you? They’re not a real threat.”
“She wants to kill me. That’s a real threat in my book.”
“She missed her opportunity, ma lykita. You’re too strong for her now. I think you could have fried all of us and still be left standing.” He squatted in front of me and lifted my chin with his thumb to look into my eyes. His sandy-brown hair still crackled with a trace of electricity. “Just make sure I’m there when you fight her. I’ve been looking forward to watching that for a long time.”
I snorted. I wasn’t sure if he wanted to see me beat Vanessa or just watch two women fighting . . . especially because it was over him. Well, I was sure it was both, actually. He wanted me