means he’ll need blood to recover. No, not need. Demand. From me,” she said softly. “Not only because I’m here, but because we’re lovers, and he’s done it before.”
“You said he wasn’t your boyfriend,” he teased.
“Things change. But really, Brian, I should be down here alone. He won’t hurt me, but he doesn’t know you. And you’re a guy.”
“I am? When did that happen?”
“Ha ha. I’m serious. He’s a guy, you’re a guy . . . it could be problem. He won’t be in his right mind, not at first. And I’m the only one of us he knows. It has to be me.”
“I could stay,” Kerry said as the elevator doors opened. “I’m not a guy.”
“Thanks,” she said, and hoped the other woman heard the deeper meaning in the words. “But, no. It’s better if there aren’t any strangers here. I’m going to go in there and close the door.”
“How’re you going to open it by yourself?”
Layla smiled. “I won’t be by myself when the door opens,” she reminded Kerry.
She chuckled. “Oh, right. Duh.”
“Okay, see you all on the flip side. Casales out.”
She stood and stretched, then walked over to the vault, where Xavier and Chuy slept in motionless silence beneath the tents which they’d had to be moved in. It was undoubtedly the most primitive daylight protection that either one of them had ever been forced into. She didn’t know the name of Xavier’s Sire, but she knew he’d been a Catalan aristocrat. And Xavier was Chuy’s Sire, so as a vampire, he’d lived the same way Xavier did.
Closing the door on her well-meaning friends, she climbed onto the bed and unzipped Xavier’s tent, the heavy metal teeth scraping her fingertips due to her awkward position. She sat in the opening, close enough to see him, to know that he still breathed, that his heart still beat. That he was alive. Because contrary to popular superstition, vampires were not dead. They’d never been dead. To the edge of death, yes. But not dead. As a matter of fact, from a vampire point of view, they were the new and advanced version of humanity. Their blood carried something that they were unwilling to talk about, that gave them enhanced strength and senses, power—for some of them—that could only be explained as magic, and virtual immortality. And Layla didn’t see anything wrong with that, not as long as they consented to the change.
The chime went off on her watch, set as she’d advised Riv, for 2045. 8:45 p.m. Local sunset was at 9:10.
Twisting, she checked to make sure the door was shut. She felt almost guilty, she realized, because she was going to let Xavier sink fang and drink her blood. And she knew, although hopefully the others didn’t completely understand, what would follow. “Fuck that,” she decided, and crawling forward, did her best to reposition him so that he’d be a bit more comfortable. Although Xavier was so damn big, and it wasn’t like moving a sleeping person. His arms and legs didn’t want to stay where she put them, and moving his entire body was beyond her strength. She wondered idly if vampire bodies had a greater density than a regular human’s. “Makes you think,” she muttered, and finally gave up trying. The tent was designed for one person, but this wouldn’t be the first time she’d shared one with a lover. So she lay down next to him, and maneuvered until they were face to face.
And then, suddenly, his eyes opened. And the next thing she knew, a big male body was crushing her into a too-soft mattress.
Chapter Fifteen
XAVIER WOKE, AWARE and awake in an instant. And didn’t know where the fuck he was or who . . . No, he realized. He knew who was next to him. Layla. And he was starving.
He rolled, or tried to, but they were in some kind of tube. Reaching up, he tore away the flimsy fabric above him, switched their positions until he was half on top of her, with one muscled leg thrown over her lower body, trapping her as he lowered his head to sniff at the delicious scent of hot blood that flowed beneath every inch of her bare skin. Her eyes were wide with shock, but relaxed in a heartbeat, her hands cupping the back of his head, her body arching beneath him.
He licked her cheek, her neck, then burrowed his nose into the warm crevice beneath her jaw, while her soft moan fluttered