Knowing how she’d worry, he hadn’t been able to bring himself to tell Sheree, but his mother knew. There was no way to hide it from her. Or from Logan.
“Are you all right?” Sheree asked.
“Sure. Why?”
“You seem so far away.”
“Sorry.” Forcing himself to relax, he nibbled her earlobe, ran his tongue along the side of her neck. “A taste?”
She tilted her head to the side. “You don’t have to ask, you know.”
He closed his eyes, inhaling the sweet scent of her skin, listening to the excited thrumming of her heart as she anticipated his bite. As always, it amazed him that she was so willing to give him what he needed.
She shivered with anticipation, sighed with pleasure as he drank from her.
It was both heaven and hell, he thought, an addiction for which there was no cure, a hunger like no other.
He sealed the tiny wounds, then kissed his way along the curve of her neck to her cheeks, her lips.
Murmuring his name, she wrapped her arms around him, willing to give him anything he desired. And he desired everything she had—heart and soul, mind and body. There was nothing gentle in his kisses this night. His rough caresses should have frightened her, perhaps, but she reveled in them, and in the certain knowledge that he would never hurt her.
He aroused her again and again, taking her to the point of fulfillment, then backing off, until she writhed wildly beneath him, sobbing for him to take her.
His release came hard upon the heels of her own. It left her feeling totally spent. And totally, forever, his.
After making certain Sheree was sound asleep, Derek dressed and left the room. A thought took him to the house in the Hollywood Hills, where his mother and Logan waited for him, along with Pearl and Edna.
He felt like an animal in an exhibit, the way they all stared at him, as if waiting for him to explode. And that was exactly how he felt, as if he might blow up at any minute and destroy everything and everyone in his path.
“How are you feeling?” Pearl asked.
“Like shit.”
“Well, I guess that’s to be expected.” The elderly vampire’s nose wrinkled. “You’ve been eating meat.”
“It’s either that or people,” he growled.
“You mustn’t eat any more,” Pearl said. “It only feeds the werewolf and makes it stronger.”
Derek dragged his hand across his jaw. “Now you tell me.”
“I think she’s right,” Logan said. “I can smell the werewolf in you. I couldn’t last time.”
It wasn’t surprising, Derek thought. He could feel the beast prowling inside him, eager to be released. It was stronger than before.
Hungrier than before.
“We were discussing how best to handle this before you arrived,” Mara said. “We all think it would be wise to go back to Romania and inject you there, inside the dungeon, since we have no idea what your reaction will be.”
He nodded, hands tightly clenched at his sides. “What are the odds of my surviving?”
“I’d say very good,” Pearl answered. “You’re young and strong, with the best blood of our kind running through your veins. I’d say the worst that can happen is that you turn into a werewolf and remain that way. And once you learn to control the werewolf, as you’ve learned to control being a vampire”—she shrugged—“your problems should be over.”
“Except for the people I kill along the way.”
“Yes,” Pearl said dryly. “There is that.”
“The full moon is on the twenty-fifth,” Mara said. “When does the serum need to be administered?”
“With the modifications we’ve made, I’m thinking it should be taken the night before,” Pearl said. “Edna, what do you think?”
“Sounds right to me.”
Mara glanced out the window. There were still a few hours until sunrise. “If we leave here by five, we can be there by three P.M. Romanian time.” She looked at Edna and Pearl. “You can stay in the servants’ quarters in the castle. There are no lights down there, so you should be able to rest comfortably until nightfall.”
“What about Sheree?” Derek asked, his voice thick.
“She must go with us, of course.”
Derek shook his head. “No!”
“She’s all that saved you from killing the last time,” Mara reminded him.
“It’s too dangerous. No one should go with me except Pearl.”
“What?” The old vampire’s voice was little more than a squeak.
“Pearl, the serum, and a gun loaded with silver,” Derek said. “Let’s end this one way or another.”
“Pearl is not going alone,” Edna said, moving to stand beside her friend.
“And I’m certainly not staying here!” Mara exclaimed.
Logan put his arm around his wife’s shoulders. “And your mother isn’t going without me.”
Mara smiled at her husband and then at her son. “We’re all for one,” she said in a voice that brooked no argument.
“And one for all,” Logan added.
“You’re all crazy as hell,” Derek muttered. But he was damn glad to have his own musketeers at his side.
“You don’t have to go with us,” Derek said. “I can take you home to Philadelphia. You’ll be safer there.”
“Are you trying to get rid of me, Derek Blackwood?” Sheree asked, jabbing her finger against his chest. “Because if you are, you can just forget it. I’m your wife now, and my place is with you, wherever that might be.”
Touched beyond words, he pressed his forehead to hers, closed his eyes, and breathed in her scent. His life might be a mess, but right now he wouldn’t trade the woman in his arms for anything in the world.
“It’ll be all right,” Sheree murmured. “I know it will.”
Lifting his head, he gazed deeply into her eyes. “I love you,” he said fervently. “No matter what happens in the next couple of days, remember that.”
She nodded, unable to speak past the lump in her throat.
Thirty minutes later, Derek transported the two of them, along with their luggage, to the castle in Transylvania.
Mara was waiting for them in the main room. “Logan is upstairs,” she said. “Edna and Pearl are resting.”
Derek nodded.
“I’ll keep Sheree company while you rest.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Sheree said. “I want to stay with Derek.”