“Why can’t you love me?” Frank moaned, secretly hoping to wipe out Tobias’s offspring and impregnate Nicolette with his own seed.

“Get off me!” she cried.

“I’ve waited too long for this, Nicki. I know Tobias won’t be back for another two weeks at least. Remember? I’m to look after you. To make sure all your needs are met. That’s what I intend to do, my sweet.” He didn’t move, except to begin rocking back and forth once more.

Jade pulled away, removing her teeth from his flesh. Nauseated by what she saw, she spewed Frank’s blood all over his floor.

Frank was still alive.

Barely.

“You’re the fucking monster!” Jade cried out. She felt Tobias standing next to her. He was speechless.

“She felt so good,” Frank whispered. His voice was raspy from the gouges in his neck.

Tobias gently pulled Jade away from Frank.

Jade was grateful Frank was dying. She prayed he was suffering, like her mother had. No. Worse.

“She was worth it. So sweet, so-so sweet.”

She could see his body was giving out. Next to the set of Jade’s puncture marks, Tobias dug his fangs deep into Frank’s neck.

“No, Tobias! You don’t want to see…” Jade’s voice faded away as Tobias witnessed his wife’s last moments.

She lay on the floor, weeping uncontrollably. Frank stood over her, wiping the sweat from his brow.

“Leave! Now!” she demanded, curling up and pulling herself over to a kitchen chair. Her legs were wobbly, but she managed to stand. She walked over to the kitchen sink and ran some cool water on a dishtowel.

Frank watched her every movement. She took the cool rag and spread her legs, gently placing the soothing cloth on her raw skin.

She looked over at him, ready to scream for him to leave again. Her gaze rooted onto his growing erection. He took a step forward.

“Mm, mm, but you look so hot standing there with your hair all tussled and those gorgeous legs spread open wide. Want some more? Third time’s the charm.”

Nicolette dropped the cloth and grabbed a filet knife from the sink. “Get away from me. I will kill you.” Her voice was oddly calm and icy cold.

“No, you won’t.”

He strode across the room and walked right into her as she fought to slash at his throat. He grabbed her wrist and clasped his fingers around the handle of the knife.

She missed.

He slammed her hand into the kitchen cabinet and the knife fell. He worked his hands up her skirt, aroused by the energy in the room, the game of cat and mouse. He lifted her onto the counter and slammed inside her again. She felt along the granite counter for something to use as a weapon while he grunted, trying to fill his near life-long desire for this woman.

She grabbed for the can of apple juice she’d left out, and with one swift blow, she connected with Frank’s chin. She drew her legs up and used them to push him away. He landed with a thud on the kitchen floor. His head hit the ceramic tile, hard.

Nicolette ran to the phone. She got as far as grasping at the dial. He grabbed her from behind, wielding the tip of the filet knife at her throat. “I can’t let you have another one of that demon’s children. I can’t. And as much as it pains me, there is only one solution. Unless, of course, you have an abortion and marry me.”

“I’d rather die,” she spat.

He turned her around and slapped her hard across the face then grabbed her by the nape, yanking her toward him. Knife in hand, he moved over to the wall and pushed her back up against it. He jammed himself into her, knocking her against the wall, pounding her with anger, frustration and vengeance.

“Oh, my sweet, sweet Nicki…” he moaned over and over. “I should have taken you so much sooner. You can’t hide your desire. I feel you, baby.”

She just sobbed, biting her lip and praying it would all end soon. Her fingers ran down the length of his arm, trying to get at the knife, but he took her hand and slapped it on his rear as he rammed deeper into her.

“Oh… Nicki…yeah!” he cried out as he came once more.

He leaned up against her while he caught his breath. When he stood back, she crumpled to the floor.

Frank grabbed her shirt, which he had tossed on the floor. “Put this on.”

Taking his trousers off the floor, he slid them on, staring at her all the while.

“Thank God,” she thought, “He’s finally going to leave.”

Instead, he dragged her out back. “Tobias loves this house. So secluded. No neighbors for miles and miles. It’s perfect.” Frank spun Nicolette around, grabbing both of her wrists firmly in one hand. He smoothed the folds of her skirt and tucked in her short-sleeved blouse.

“Nicki, I want you to marry me. When we made love inside just now, I felt your desire for me. We can be together. I’m not afraid of Tobias. You don’t have to hide your feelings anymore, baby.”

“M-made love? You r-raped me! M-my d-desire for you? Y-you disgust me. I never hated anyone, until now. You are the monster, not my Tobias.”

As he reached to slide his hand under her skirt, she cringed. “You were all wet, sweetness, and I felt you.”

She jerked backward, and as he pulled his hand out, she noticed the blood on his fingertips.

“You bastard! My baby…my baby…Tobias!” she cried, trying to wrench her arms free from his vise-like grip. “I hate you, Frank!”

“It didn’t have to be this way. I’ve wanted to be your husband since we were teenagers. I asked you when I was sixteen to marry me, but you just laughed. I asked you again at eighteen, but that’s when you told me about this man you’d met-Tobias.”

She sobbed harder at Frank’s mention of her husband’s name. That set him off.

“I’m so sorry, Tobias,” she repeatedly lamented. “Forgive me, I’m so sorry.”

His face was void of all emotion now as he stared deeply into her eyes-eyes that he knew would never look at him with love.

Eyes that would never look at anything ever again.

One hand pulled at her arms, while the other, which held the knife, sliced deeply into her wrists. “No. I’m the one who’s sorry,” he whispered.

Tobias held her gaze through Frank’s memories that were washing over him. At the precise moment when Nicolette’s eyes glazed over in death, so did Frank’s. Jade pried Tobias off him. “No more, Tobias. You shouldn’t drink anymore.”

Davis arrived from the hospital in the medical examiner’s van to transport Frank’s body to the morgue. Joe Menendez handled the paperwork. It would read that Tobias was informing Frank Dubois that he was about to be arrested for the murder of Nicolette Strigoi and Mayor Dubois went wild in response.

As a result, he attempted to kill Jade Laroque during his psychotic break, and Tobias had no option other than to subdue the mayor. By any means possible.

Of course, that paperwork would never be found, kept in a confidential file. And the mayor’s certificate of death certainly would never see the light of day.

Deidre Dubois would fill out a missing person report in due time, and they would conduct a cursory search for the missing man. There would be no body to autopsy. If all worked out, even Philippe Laroque would never know what happened.

Unless his daughter told him.

“What the fuck?” Bo yelled as Tobias tried to explain what had happened in Frank’s office. Jade stood off to the side, observing the shifter. He fidgeted, barely able to stay still.

“I know it’s a lot to absorb, but I saw for myself.” Tobias turned toward Jade. “Although I still don’t understand how you kept your transformation into Lamai a secret. Who turned you and when?”