Page 20 of The Biting Bargain

While I'm distracted for a second, the guy lying under me scrambles up, gets to his feet and does as his mate did, getting the hell out of here.

The beast gives a feral snarl of victory. The enemy is defeated, the prey is mine.

Mine!

I trot over to where she lies on the cobblestone, like a broken doll, skin white, eyes closed. The troll thug has thrown her too hard against the wall. Blood trickles from a laceration on her forehead. The sight makes the cold rage and the urge to chase after the guys and shred them into a bloody heap collapse.

Whimpering, I lean down to her, nudging her with my muzzle. When she doesn't react, I lick her wound once, twice with my broad tongue. She moans softly, and the taste of her blood washes over me, her intoxicating scent and aroma racing through my veins like a violent punch into my mind. The growl in my throat morphs into a scream, bones crack and deform.

It’s like vomiting backwards when I shift back.

Gagging, I snap back from beast mode into my calculating and gritty vampire mind, kneeling on the cobblestones and breathing in huge gulps of air.

Damn, I forgot how disgusting this feels. It's been over one hundred and fifty years since my last shifting. How could this happen?

I take stock.

The girl, Polly Bukowski was her name I think, is still passed out, lying heartbreakingly fragile beneath me, looking like a lost Little Red Riding Hood in her coat. Plastic containers of food are scattered across the cobblestones around us. Gritting my teeth, I kneel beside her, cradling her head carefully underneath her handbag. She needs medical attention, and fast. A quick glance around confirms we're all alone, but it's probably only a matter of time before some concerned citizen calls the authorities over the screaming.

And they must not find me here. It would raise questions why a member of one of the most respected vampire families is kneeling stark naked in a dark alley over a fainted girl.

I have to act.

No one must ever find out what’s wrong with me. That would be the ultimate disaster.

Her cellphone lies next to her on the pavement, the display cracked in several places, but otherwise it’s still working. I use her finger to unlock it and dial Aidan's number from memory.

It rings once.

"Sir, is this you?" My assistant sounds alarmed in the extreme. And Aidan is never alarmed. Aidan has my entire life meticulously planned out in advance for the next thirty years.

"I need you to come get me," I say calmly into the phone, looking around left and right. Still no one to be seen. My eyes fall on the girl again. And something in my chest clenches at the sight of her.

"We need medical assistance."

"Medical assistance, sir?" Aidan sounds like he needs to sit down because he is on the verge of hyperventilating.

"We can track you through the number you're calling from, sir. The car should be with you in a few minutes."

"Good, and get the lab ready."

"The lab?"

I sink back to my knees, looking down at the girl on the cobblestones. My mind is spinning.

Something happened to me when she kissed me, three days ago at Club Sanguine. I haven't shifted in one and a half centuries. And then she comes along and kisses me — and it happens again?

What fresh hell is she?

"We need to run some tests," I say.

"Tests, sir?"

"Do it, Aidan!"

I stare at the girl.

She kissed me.

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