1. Chapter One

Istared at the man in front of me and my body turned to ice.

“What have you done to me?” The words tasted like dust.

Mordecai smiled back at me. “Only what was meant to be done.”

My heart gave a giant lurch in my chest. The thud of it hammered in my head as I tried to organise my thoughts.

“Am I…?” I couldn’t even form the words.

“Yes, little one.” His red eyes gleamed with misplaced pride. “You’re a vampire.”

Nope. No way. This couldn’t be happening. My mind tried to piece together what had happened, but it was all a blur. The harder I tried, the harder my pulse pounded in my ears. My vision turned hazy, and my lungs burnt with the effort of trying to just breathe. I tried to reach out to my demon, and my shadow mage magic, but I couldn’t reach any of it. It felt like they were buried, caged somehow. I couldn’t even catch a glimpse of them.

“Calm down, Lori. You need to take a deep breath.” His voice was soothing and instantly sent a wave of calmness over my mind. The room faded around me until all I could focus on was the sweet caress of his voice.

Wait a minute.

“Stop that.”

His grin widened. “Stop what?”

“That whole mind mumbo jumbo thing you’re doing.”

“Impressive. Most new vampires can’t tell when they’re being manipulated. I knew I’d made the right choice in you.” There was a possessive glint in his eye that made my stomach churn uncomfortably.

Fear trailed an icy finger up my spine, and I shuddered. I was cold. Why was I cold?

I looked down and yelped.

“Why am I naked?” My voice was a squeak as I frantically tried to cover up my bare skin. I looked back at Mordecai. “Why are you naked?”

Oh, shit.

“Did we…?” Do the horizontal tango? Get down and dirty? Urgh, I couldn’t even say it.

I mean, he was ridiculously good looking, with the long silver hair, beguiling red eyes, and sexy grin, but the guy pretty much kidnapped me and turned me into a vampire. I was going to have serious doubts about my sanity if I’d done that with him.

His sexy grin widened. “No, little one. We did not.”

Phew. Not crazy then. That would have been awkward. Especially if I couldn’t remember any of it. Which would have been a shame because he looked delicious and—

Dammit. Focus, woman!

“Besides, necrophilia isn’t my thing,” he said as he slipped into a blood red silk robe.

“Huh?”

He handed me a similar robe which I immediately put on, grateful I was no longer standing there with a practical stranger in nothing but my birthday suit.

“You’ve been unconscious for two days.”

My jaw dropped. “Two days?”

“Mm-hmm,” he muttered softly. “It seems to have taken you longer to transition into the vampire state than normal. I stayed with you to make sure nothing untoward happened to you.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “And we had to be naked for that because…?”

“It aids the transition. I am your sire, and as such, being close to me as you change makes the process easier.”

“And that’s all?”

“Yes.” His voice dropped and there was that possessive glint in his eyes again. I’d have to ask Jasper if that was actually a thing or if Mordecai was taking advantage of me.

Oh, God.

“Where’s Jasper?”

Mordecai scowled at the mention of my vampire’s name. “He’s fine. He’s occupied running some errands for me.”

I took a step closer to the vampire. “I want to see him. Now.”

His face hardened and his hand shot out to grip my throat. “Do not make demands of me, little one.” His nails lengthened into wicked talons and a mouth full of deadly sharp teeth snarled in my face. “I am in charge here. Not you. Do you understand?”

His grip tightened.

“Yes,” I forced out from between my teeth and his grip immediately relaxed.

“Good,” he hummed, all traces of his outburst vanishing. “Don’t forget it.”

“Or what?” I goaded. Stupid mouth.

He dipped his head and ran his tongue up the length of my neck. “I’ll rip this pretty little throat to pieces.” He pressed a soft kiss against my cheek before releasing me. “Now, get dressed. We have work to do.”

“Mordecai—”

He pressed a finger against my lips. “Please refrain from using my name in public. Call me Master.” I snorted. “Or Sire, if you prefer.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes. Don’t make me imprint the command on your mind, Lori.”

I shuddered. There was no way I was going to let him have any sort of control over me. I guess I’d have to play along until I could find a way out of here. Because I was definitely getting out of here. Wherever here was.

“Fine. If that’s what you want, Master.”

His nostrils flared and his tongue darted across his bottom lip. “Good girl. Let me know if you get hungry. You’ll only be able to feed from me until your first thirst is quenched.”

Oh, great.

“Can I take it in a bag to go?” Anything would be preferable than having to put my lips on his skin again. He might be beautiful to look at, but I knew there was a monster buried underneath his skin.

His eyes flashed and he bared his teeth. “Absolutely not. You will take it from my vein.”

“What difference does it make?”

“It’s not natural.” He scraped a talon down my neck and sent a shudder through me. “Scared you might enjoy it?”

“No.”

He laughed softly. “You don’t sound convinced.”

I wasn’t. I remembered the taste of him. The sweet, glorifying, delicious, taste of Mordecai and I knew, somehow, that taking it from a bag wouldn’t be nearly as satisfying as drinking directly from him.

My eyes dropped to his jugular and my mouth instantly watered. There was a sharp sting as my canines elongated in my mouth. My stomach tightened as a new hunger flared to life. A hunger for him.

For his blood.

Mordecai wrapped a hand around my waist and pulled me closer. “Go on, little one. Take what you need.”

And I did need it. I needed it like I needed to air to breathe. It was an inferno that raged through my veins, pushing me towards his neck. The hunger burned, and it was going to keep on burning until I’d satisfied it.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew I was doing something monstrous, something that would make me feel shame, but I couldn’t resist the call of his blood. However much I wanted to.

Tears stung my eyes. “I can’t… don’t make me.”

“It’s okay, Lori. You need to.” Mordecai’s eyes softened slightly, turning this from a strange mind game into something more intimate. “It will only get worse if you wait.”

Already I could feel the hunger growing and bringing with it a stabbing pain deep in my gut.

I hated him for doing this to me. How could he be my enemy and my saviour all at once?

I suddenly doubled over in pain, the hunger raging through me with the force of a tsunami.

“Lori! You need to feed, or you’ll die.”

His voice snapped something inside me, and I sank my new fangs into his neck. The relief was immediate, like lightning firing energy through my nerves, making my body sing in sheer bliss. Mordecai moaned by my ear as I drank deeper, pulling more of his blood into my mouth to satiate the thirst that had me in its grip.

My hands tangled in the strands of his beautiful hair, yanking his head further to one side to give me better access.

“Fuck,” Mordecai hissed as I started to gulp his delicious life force.

Oh, God. He tasted like the sweetest nectar, rich and honeyed, and it set off a throbbing ache deep in my core.

I wanted to pull away. I wanted to stop but I couldn’t. I was a slave to this madness.

Mordecai’s hands tightened around me as I gorged myself, holding me tighter against him. Power danced through my veins with every mouthful, fuelling my body and filling me with a restless energy.No doubt a sign of how powerful his blood really was.

Then I was ripped away from it all.

“Enough.” Mordecai’s voice was a low, lethal growl tinged with a command I could feel slither along my skin.

A delicious warmth settled in my limbs and the hunger dissipated into something more manageable.

“Better?” Mordecai raised an arrogant eyebrow.

A wave of nausea washed over me. I was feeling better. Oh, God. I’d just fed from the bastard. But that wasn’t the worst thing. No, the worst thing was that I’d enjoyed it. I was a monster.

I swiped my hand across my mouth, trying to get rid of the evidence of what I’d just done.

Mordecai laughed darkly. “You need to come to terms with what you are, Lori. Otherwise, you’ll never survive.”

“Why did you do this to me?”

“Because it was prophesied. This was inevitable.”

That goddamn witch had a lot to answer for. If Millicent Blackwood was still alive, I’d hunt her down and kill her myself. Her little book of revelations was becoming the bane of my existence. She’d written that I was somehow part of a plan to destroy the world with Lucifer which had me being chased by warrior angels and now, according to the asshat in front of me, required me to be a vampire. I must have missed reading that one.

Mordecai folded his long limbs into an armchair by the fire. “Do you know what a Triune is?”

“Nope.”

“It’s a combination of three things in one being. There has only ever been one Triune.” His eyes fixed me with a gleeful stare.

Fuck. Don’t say it. Please don’t say it.

“Until you.”

Crap. Could my life get any more complicated?

“You are special, Lori. A demon, mage and now vampire. All combined in one body.” His voice dropped to a lethal growl. “You are the ultimate weapon, and I will use you to get what I want. What I’m owed.”

Anger flared and drowned out the panic. “And what’s that?”

He smiled thinly. “Not for you to know.”

“Fuck you, Mordecai. I’m not going to do what you want. You’ll have to kill me.”

He shot out of his chair and in the blink of an eye, he was stood directly in front of me. His face cold and expressionless. This was the monster beneath the man.

“No, little one. I’m not going to kill you. But if you don’t do what I ask, there will be consequences. I will quite easily make your loved ones suffer and force you to watch.” His hand caressed my cheek, but I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of pulling away. “I’ll imprint the command in your mind, so you won’t be able to take your eyes of them as I slowly drain the life force from them. You’ll watch the light drain from their eyes, their bodies turn to nothing more than dust, and you won’t even be able to look away.”

“You’re a monster.”

His smile was manic. “I know. Now get dressed. We have work to do.”

Then he left me, and I’d never felt so alone. Panic gripped me. I sent a distress signal along my soulbond connection to Lucifer and felt nothing. Memories flooded my mind. Selene fixed the bond, but it had sent him to death’s door. She’d had to fool the bond into thinking he’d died in order to strengthen the tie between us. And then all Hell had broken loose when Jasper came and then there was blood. So much blood.

My stomach rolled thinking about it. I’d done that. I’d called Mordecai and let him take me. And now I couldn’t reach Lucifer. I didn’t know where Jasper was, and had I let my team die?

This was all my fault. And I didn’t know what to do.