as potent.
Angel’s blood. So clean and vital. So beautiful, he thought, as he sucked hard, feeding from her. Feeling himself growing stronger with each pull of his mouth. Feeling her respond to the desire the vampire’s bite created as she lifted herself against him and mewled with pleasure.
He wanted her to be satisfied. He needed this time, if it was meant to be their last, to be perfect.
He reached between their bodies and cradled her breast. Found the turgid tip and caressed it, her soft cry of contentment urging him on.
Slowly, he moved, shifting his hips to pull himself in and out of her, the long, slow movements creating delicious friction. So much so that he cried out against her neck and broke from his feeding.
Shaking his head, he drove away the vampire who wanted yet more blood from her. He was not that demon, he told himself, mustering the control to morph back to his human form and savor these moments with her.
Moments which might be their last together.
He braced his arms on either side of her as he rocked his hips, urging her to climax.
She gazed up at him, her dark eyes locked on his as he loved her. He rolled onto his back and let her straddle him, deepening his penetration.
She gasped at that sudden move and the joining that it wrought, but the surprise was short-lived as she began to ride him. Drawing out her own pleasure with the roll of her hips.
He cupped her breasts, squeezing and playing with her nipples. Earning her soft cries of pleasure as she closed her eyes and tossed her head back. She arched into him until her body exploded with her climax, the waves of it washing across him. Squeezing and caressing his erection deep within her until he, too, came with a rough shout.
But even then he did not leave her, using his immense strength to sit up and encircle her hips with his arms, keeping her joined to him.
“I wish I could keep you here for always,” he said, kissing the side of her face and then lower, over the site of his bite that was already healed, but still sensitive.
Angelina shivered at that and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, likewise loath to leave him. Although she knew she would. That was the only thing of which she was certain.
Tomorrow they would be apart.
He must have sensed the finality of the moment, also. It was as if God himself understood it, as well, for suddenly there came a rough pounding on Damien’s front door.
Ramirez clearly was too impatient to wait for them to come to him.
CHAPTER TEN
WITH THE KIND OF SPEED only a vampire could manage, Damien dressed and armed himself with a knife and a revolver.
Angelina’s heart sank as she sat on the edge of the bed, watching him prepare for battle. She gazed up at him as he paused by her side and tenderly cupped her chin.
“Do not worry. I will get your wings back. Stay here,” he commanded and before she could offer her goodbyes, he was gone.
Sadness twisted her gut at the thought of being without him, but that had always been the only certain outcome. Her role here in this mortal realm was to guide him to the right path. It was not to walk beside him on that journey.
Hurrying from the bed, she grabbed a shirt from Damien’s closet and slipped it on. Because of his size, the shirt hung down to midthigh, covering most of her body. Barefoot, she raced down the stairs, the soft pad of her feet imperceptible against the noise of the men clomping in from outside and the scrape of something heavy being dragged along the wooden floor.
The storm still raged beyond the walls of the building, darkening the morning sky. That false night had made it possible for Ramirez and his men to invade their peace. The wind howled and blew snow into the hallway before one of Ramirez’s vampire crewmen shouldered the door shut and strode into a nearby room at the front of the house.
She hurried to the room’s entrance and peered inside. Fear gripped her heart as she realized that Damien was at an immense disadvantage. Not only was Ramirez there, but also two other large and powerfully built vampires who were minding the large wood-and-leather trunk at their feet.
Damien shot her a glowering look when he realized she had disobeyed him. “I told you to stay upstairs.”
“Why should she miss