Mirage by Kristi Cook Page B

fingers. “Adele—she’s pretty scary—and Melina. That’s it, besides the Eldest.”
    “The Eldest?”
    “Yeah, the eldest living vampire, Isa. Nicole’s the chairwoman, but that’s more like an administrative position. All the true power lies with the Eldest, though it’s a dangerous position. Isa’s been in power as long as I’ve been alive, but every couple of hundred years or so, there’s unrest among the ancients. Imagine a king with hundreds of younger brothers, all desperate for the crown—only with no familial ties to keep them in check.”
    “That sounds crazy. And dangerous,” I added. “So what’s this Isa like?”
    “Pretty much exactly what you’d expect from a thousand-and-something-year-old female vampire. The only real difference between her and the Propagators is that Isa is far more concerned with quality than she is with quantity. While the Propagators are indiscriminate, Isa sees vampirism as a gift only to be bestowed on the most deserving—the smartest, strongest, bravest. She’s far more calculating, more cunning, but just as dangerous.”
    “Do me a favor and try really hard not to get sent to the Tribunal this year, okay?” I still felt ill when I thought about those three days he’d spent in their clutches last year—being tortured , apparently.
    “You got it. Things are pretty stable right now, but you never know who’s plotting what and with whom. Which is why I prefer to stay out of the politics and why Mrs. Girard poking around the lab makes me nervous. Especially after Jenna’s little revelation about Blackwell.”
    “I think we’re all a little freaked out by that. Did she tell you anything else?”
    “No, and I honestly don’t think she knows anything. She was as much a pawn in the whole thing as we were. Anyway, we don’t have much time before curfew. I told you I had a surprise for you, remember?”
    “Yeah, but I don’t much like surprises.”
    “No? Well, I think you’ll like this one.” The candlelight flickered across his face as he gazed down at me, his eyes the same pale blue-gray as the sky at dawn. My pulse leapt in response.
    “Wow, you sound awfully sure of yourself,” I said, my mouth dry.
    “I am.” He reached for my shoulders and drew me closer.
    Electricity skittered across my skin as his lips met mine. I leaned into him, expecting his usual tentative kiss—soft and searching, until the bloodlust took over and he was forced to pull away.
    He always pulled away, not because he feared his bite would turn me into a vampire—it wouldn’t. Or even because he thought he might kill me. Oh, that was a possibility, I suppose—that he would lose control and suck me dry—but I was pretty sure he wouldn’t. Sure enough to risk it. It was because he feared his bite would hurt, and he had vowed never to hurt me.
    Besides, it went against his own personal “code”—he didn’t bite innocents, didn’t drink their blood. For him, it was a punishment dealt to the deserving—criminals or would-be criminals, dangerous souls who showed no remorse.
    The problem, however, with this self-imposed code was that it was directly at odds with an integral part of his vampire nature—the part that made his bite necessary for sexual satisfaction. Oh, he could have sex without biting, without drinking blood, but he wouldn’t actually enjoy it. At least, not fully.
    And as far as I could tell, he’d only done it once—the sex-while-biting thing. With Isabel, his ex from the past who looked just like me. And since Isabel had been killed as a result of her relationship with Aidan, it seemed a safe bet that, in his mind, sex plus biting equaled a dead girlfriend. Yet there was no stopping the dual, intertwined needs from increasing his bloodlust whenever we made out. Thus, the need for caution.
    But this kiss … this one was anything but tentative and cautious.
    No, this kiss was slow and languorous, mind-numbingly thorough, and without any reservations