I stood in the shower for nearly an hour. Blood and dirt washed off me, but the gritty feeling of death and torture still lingered in my mind. I couldn’t escape it, couldn’t rinse it away no matter how long I stood in the steaming hot water. I washed my hair twice and scrubbed every inch of my body so that my flesh was rubbed red, but the memories and the pain stayed.

As the water finally started to chill, I turned off the spigot and towel-dried as much as I could. Wrapping a robe around me, I walked back into the bedroom as I rubbed a fresh towel through my wet hair. I paused just over the threshold, my hands growing instantly still. Danaus was in the hotel room with me. The door had just slammed shut and I could now sense him moving through the room.

My first instinct was to summon Stefan back to my side. He could take me away so I wouldn’t have to face Danaus and his scathing words regarding my murder of Sofia. But I couldn’t keep running from Danaus. I just wished I’d had enough time to become numb on the inside so that his words wouldn’t have the power to reach my heart.

Pulling the curtains closed, I lit a handful of candles around the room with a wave of my hand, casting the room in a soft glow. I started to walk over to the closet when the bedroom door swung open and slammed shut.

“Just give me a minute to get dressed,” I said softly.

“You left me,” he replied. His voice was rough and ragged, as if it had been dragged across the concrete.

A sigh escaped me before I could catch it. “I’m not ready to do this now, Danaus.”

I didn’t have a chance to argue. He roughly grabbed my upper arm and spun me around. His lips found mine in a violent kiss as the back of my head hit the wall. Both of his hands cupped my cheeks as he kissed me again and again until his ragged breathing danced across my face. My eyes fell shut and I kissed him back, not questioning whether this was an illusion or just a hallucination of my own fractured mind. I didn’t care. I would welcome death of this sort so long as he didn’t stop kissing me.

My hand drifted down to his chest and I could feel his beautiful heart pounding beneath my fingertips. I knew the beat as if it were my own heart. His smell swam around me, that distinct scent of some distant sea and the soft caress of the summer sun. I wanted to drown in the smell so that it washed away my own scent. I wanted to become a part of him for a little while, just enough so the world would slip by us both unnoticed.

Danaus deepened his kisses, tasting me. My hands slid up to his arms and I kissed him back with the same passion, getting swept up in everything I had dreamed about for too many lonely nights. But he suddenly pulled back. He had pricked his tongue on one of my fangs—we hadn’t had enough practice kissing each other to escape a little bloodletting.

“I’m sorry,” I said, hating to ruin the mood. I didn’t want to shatter it, didn’t want him pulling away from me already. “I’ll be more careful.”

A frail smile crossed his lips as his eyes danced over my face, as if trying to soak in the sight of me. “I think my eagerness was to blame,” he murmured before leaning in to kiss me again. I tried to pick up exactly where we had left off, but he pulled away again. His large hands caressed my cheeks and swept down my neck. “I thought I had lost you,” he whispered in a wavering voice. “I came back to the hotel as they were leaving. They shot me. It knocked me out and I lost a lot of blood. I wasn’t conscious again until you reached out to me. I had nightmares. I thought you were gone. Thought you were dead forever. I thought I had lost you.”

“I’m here,” I replied in a shaking voice, leaning my forehead against his. “I thought I had lost you too. Sofia . . . I . . .” I stammered. I didn’t want to say the words out loud.

“I knew you were telling the truth. She was careless tonight, not bothering to cloak her powers. She used me,” Danaus said, and I knew that I had been forgiven. Everything had been forgiven for tonight. Tomorrow there would be more words, and more arguments waited on that distant horizon, but not tonight.

“Kiss me again. I want to forget,” I murmured, brushing my lips against his. Danaus leaned into me again, pressing me harder against the wall. He exhaled and I inhaled, drawing just a little bit of his soul into my body as he kissed me. My hands roamed down along his hard chest until I finally found the edge of his shirt. A low groan escaped me as I finally touched bare flesh. How long had I dreamed of the satiny warm feel of his skin? I wanted to run my lips along every inch of his skin, tasting him, memorizing him, but for now my mouth was trapped by his.

“Mira,” he growled at me as my hands slid under his shirt, exploring the sides of his stomach as they slowly worked higher.

“I need you, Danaus,” I said as his lips slid down my jaw to my neck. The edge of his teeth scraped across my flesh, sending a shiver down my spine and lighting a fire deep inside of me that I knew I would never be able to put out. “Please say yes. Say you need me too.”

He grabbed both of my wrists and stretched them above my head, where he held them with one large hand. He reached between us with the other hand and untied my robe, spreading it open so he could see my pale skin against the black silk.

“You’re enough to break any man,” he said in a low voice.

I smiled as I lifted my right leg and wrapped it around his left leg, pulling him back against me. “I don’t want you broken,” I purred in return. “It’s more fun when you’ve still got some fight left in you.” I’d run the tip of my tongue along his jaw and down his neck when I felt him stiffen but not pull away. Pressing a kiss to his neck, I nuzzled him once, chuckling. “I promise, no matter what happens I will never bite you.”

“Thank you,” he murmured before capturing my mouth in yet another rough kiss. His free hand slid up from my waist to cup my breast, leaving me squirming beneath his touch as I struggled to get closer to him. His hand was strong and firm, caressing me and pulling at the nipple until he finally got a moan out of me as I arched my whole body against his.

“Release my hands,” I commanded, but he only laughed at me as his lips drifted down from my mouth to my neck. His hot breath trailed along my collarbone, lighting little fires down my body before he finally took my breast in his mouth. I jerked and groaned, my head falling back against the wall. He touched my hip bone before slipping around to cup my bottom, keeping me pressed tightly against him. I could feel his body growing harder beneath me, and the thought wrung another moan out of me.

“Release me, Danaus! I need to touch you!” I choked out as he switched from my left breast to my right.

“Are you not enjoying this?” he asked, sending his hot breath against my wet nipple. “It certainly sounds like you are.”

“Damn it, Danaus! You’re killing me. I want to touch you,” I said between clenched teeth as I struggled to hold onto a single thought amid the pleasure shooting through my frame. It was unfair. I was standing there completely naked and shivering in pleasure, while he was still fully clothed and completely in command. Closing my eyes, I arched against him again, pressing as close as I possibly could. “I’ve dreamed of touching you for so long,” I said, lowering my voice so it ran like a hand over his cheek. “I need to touch you.”

A groan escaped him as he released my hands. His lips crushed mine as one hand tightened on my ass and the other closed over my breast. I kissed him back while I brushed both hands away so I could push his coat off his shoulders and down his arms. My lips never wavered from his as I ripped his shirt down the front, giving me full access to his chest. My fingers slid down as if I were reading him. I could feel hard unyielding muscle and smooth skin. My fingers tripped over the occasional scar from a wound too deep for even the bori-bound Danaus to heal completely. While his skin was soft and ageless, I could feel the centuries of life flowing through him. His powers brushed over me and through me, binding us together so that our powers were a single force within the room.