Shadow's Light by Nicola Claire Page B

spent. Then nothing. Just a still form covered in a sheen of sweat and smelling of sex.
    He wasn't breathing. He wasn’t moving. I knew I hadn't killed him, he hadn't burst into dust. But, I might have blown his mind. Who knew what a Light induced orgasm could do at that sort of volume. I had my erotica-meter negligently turned up high when I pelted that baby out.
    I watched him for a while and then began to feel a little worried. Avery might be a Dark vampire who could take advantage of me in an instant. Hell, he'd been playing me since he got here, I was sure. But, he had been trying to help me tonight. He'd also saved me from that fairy. Taken a beating at the hands of the Fey to get to me. And had even been trying to get me to fight back through the entire mind episode right now. To the point of yelling at me to fight and use my Light.
    Ah shit. What had I done?
    I crawled towards him across the bare floorboards and reached out a hand to roll him over on to his back. He thumped down on the wooden floor, a dead weight. He could be in that place vampires go when trying to heal. I hoped he was, because that would mean he would come back to me.
    I tried shaking him. Shouting at him. Pinching him. Slapping him. Anything I could think of, save from my Light. He'd had enough of that. Nothing worked. He just lay there. Like a statue.
    I could tell dawn was approaching, so I got up and shuttered the windows. I had a drink of water, but couldn't stomach any food. And then spent the next hour sitting next to Avery telling him my life story.
    From when my parents died on that road in the South Island. How I had been the only survivor of the car crash that took them. Of my aunt and uncle who had raised me. The farm where I grew up, tending the little lambs. Of my job in the bank, counting coins and notes. How I loved fighting. I'd been obsessed with any form of martial arts growing up and had tried to master most of them. Not all successfully. How I loved Auckland, but truly could not see myself ever living there again.
    When I reached my memories of Michel, I stopped. I couldn't voice them. They were still so raw. So, I sat in silence, listening to Rio de Janeiro waking for the day, until eventually I lay down beside his still form and fell sound asleep.
    Warm, clean sheets and a soft bed enveloped me. Firm, strong arms around my body. A faltering heartbeat. A whisper of a kiss against my flesh. Michel?
    Then fangs entering my skin at the base of my neck woke me completely from what was probably going to be a harrowing dream anyway.
    Sorry , Avery's voice mumbled in my head. Need blood.
    I came fully awake in his arms on top of the bed. He'd obviously shifted us there, but been able to do little else. I was sitting across his lap, both his arms around me and his head buried at my throat. Every pull of blood from my vein was accompanied by a growl from him. He was trying not to make it something more than a sense of warmth and safety. Not wanting me to panic. His need for blood must have been strong to take from me while I slept. The fact that he was controlling his influence over me was actually quite surprising, given the circumstances.
    He was taking more than even he normally would. I'd blasted him with my Light and left him nearly dead. The least I could do was let him have my blood.
    His purr was the last thing I heard before I fell back to sleep in his arms.

Chapter 6
Practise Makes Perfect
    I woke wrapped up in a body. A warm, hard, big body. Arms protectively cradling me, a leg thrown over my own and a hot breath washing past my neck and chest. I tried to move away instinctively, but Avery's arms just tightened and pulled me closer to him. A low growl coming from the back of his throat. I didn't think he was awake. He had no idea what he was doing.
    I lay there for a moment, convincing my heartbeat not to increase. If Avery had been near death and had fed from me for survival, his vampire-within probably saw me as essential