Chapter One

" Y ou look as excited as a tick on a spotted dog."

That's Lennox. He's a mothman from West Virginia, and he says stuff like that.

"I am excited." My toes wriggle in the water, my dead-white skin prickling in anticipation.

Lennox keeps trimming back the overgrowing brush on one of the paths on the White Pines estate while I try (and fail) to get a tan, lying on the bank in my translucent white dress, everything on display under clinging wet fabric.

To Lennox's credit, he turns his back firmly so he can't peek, using his giant wings as a fan that cools us both. He has a fiancée, so I respect that he's immune to my seductive charms.

Still, a girl's gotta eat. "Cindy brags about that tongue of yours, big guy," I whisper. "Wanna taste?" I lift one leg, letting my dress drift up my thigh as I give him my most luscious smile.

A tentacle suddenly slaps down hard across my ankle. "Ow! What the hell?"

"Bad rusalka! Bad ! Marina, we talked about this. No hitting on your friends who are in relationships!"

I sit up and scowl at the hunk of kraken who is shaking his head at me as he scolds me like an incontinent puppy, his muscular arms crossed over his god-like chest. There's disapproval over every line in his gorgeous blue-gray face.

I'd like to be mad at Calder, but he's my oldest friend in Pine Ridge, and we water-dwellers have to stick together. "I wasn't serious. Honest!" (If there is a little bit of a fib in that statement, I blame it on the bloodlines, or whatever we have instead of DNA. Rusalkas are demons, after all.) "I was just about to tell Lennox why I'm excited. It's the second week of August! In two weeks, the college campus will be teeming with drunk, horny frat boys and lonely professors."

My friends make noises of cheerful support. They get it. I can either lure men to watery graves and gobble up their life forces and souls, or I can just siphon off the origins of life force—sexual energy. Believe me, the college hunks are only too happy to help out, and I'm so glad. I've been on a very unwilling diet since late May.

"Got your pool pass ready?" Lennox asks in a strained voice. He's trying not to judge me, but I know he is. His kind "imprint" on mates. One woman in the world will rule his heart. He'd rather rip off his wings than cheat on Cindy.

Sounds nice, but it'll never happen for me. I don't mind too much. I enjoy my buffet.

"Pool pass is ready to roll, along with my swimsuit." I slide back into the water. My whole body is instantly more at ease. Rusalkas live in the water. We can go on land for a day or two, tops, before we shrivel up like a raisin. I prefer to do my "dating" in hot tubs, showers, pools, and bodies of water.

"The campus has looked a little empty," Lennox murmurs thoughtfully. "Not too many kids in summer courses this year?"

"I guess not, but it won't be empty for much longer." I rub my stomach, but that's not where the ache comes from. It's deeper and runs through my chest and down to my hips, settling in a hot valley between my thighs. Rusalkas may leave the water, but we're always wet there. "Did you hear P-Cubed is planning to open an indoor pool in their expansion?" I turn from Lennox to ask Calder.

P-Cubed is the local gym. I prefer the campus athletic facilities because they're closer to the river and open to locals who have a pass (which I do), but P-Cubed is my main "grocery store" over winter break and summer. The news that they're putting in a pool is like hitting a jackpot for all the water-dwelling and water-shifting beings in town.

"Yeah, I heard, right before Labor Day." Calder nods, but you can tell he doesn't care. He may swim in the river most days, but at night he goes home to his future wife, their inground pool, and their extra-large hot tub.

Calder and Lennox both fell for humans. Saps. Not that I don't like their girlfriends, I do! We get along really well, but...

Humans. They screw things up. I thought when I came to Pine Ridge years ago that it would be easy pickings. I wasn't thinking about the college—I was thinking about the monsters, the demons who live for lust, the vampires with their uncontrollable sexual appetites, and the shifters in heats and ruts. If I was going to stop killing, I wanted to be sure I found a town that was a smorgasbord of sexual energy.

What do I get? Fucking Mayberry. Oh, don't get me wrong, there's enough sexual dynamite here to level Kilimanjaro— and it's all being hogged by cute little couples in committed relationships.

If I ever settle down, it'll have to be with a monster. I want someone who can give me the high-quality stuff, endless supernatural sexual energy, and someone who has the stamina to keep up with me. Not to mention, it'd be nice to have someone who'll have a shot at living as long as I will (a few centuries, give or take).

"I think I'll head over for a late lunch, now," I sigh, starting to slip through the water. "Since my friends won't let me snack on them." I glare playfully, and they both roll their eyes.

"Who's at the gym at two in the afternoon?" Lennox calls after me.

"I don't know. I don't care." At two in the afternoon? It's the grandpa-bod and pacemaker set, the yoga moms, and the third-shift guys who hit the gym before work. On occasion, you can find one of the nocturnal set who wakes up early and wants to burn off some energy.

As I swim away, I hope there's someone supernatural at the gym today, someone new in town or just passing through. With my luck, it'll be the grandpas or the bros.

I lick my lips, and my insides heave with lust. A lot of the older men I pick up are divorced or widowed. They're flattered that a "pretty young thing" like me gives them attention. The bros think they're God's gift to women and that I can't resist them.

I smile and lick my pointed teeth, the teeth that humans never seem to notice, so deadly and sharp, hidden under a sensual smile that's always perfectly crimson, like a burst of dark berries.

Choices, choices.

Bros are good for two rounds.

Grandpas usually know what the hell they're doing, not that it matters to me. They don't need to be good.

I'm good enough for both of us.