Mira stood and walked back over to me, her face carefully blank. But the connection was still strong between us. I could sense her frustration and self-loathing burning away at her soul like acid. She hadn’t enjoyed it like those hanging on her every movement. Dirty drifted through her mind for a brief second before she could catch it and hide it from me. The threats and violence had been a necessity. It was what her culture was built upon, what they responded to. She told me herself months ago that the most important thing in her world was power and the only way to express it was through fear and violence. While she might not like it, she was a master at the art.

Reaching up, I slipped my hand under her hair and touched the tips of my fingers to the back of her neck. It was easier to communicate using my thoughts when we were touching. It required less energy and I was trying not to draw the attention of the others to us as they watched David crawl over to his child. Mira flinched at my touch, surprised that I was reaching out to her.

You had no choice, I said firmly in her mind.

There is always a choice. Her emotions were solemn and dark, creeping into my brain like an icy fog.

You have to maintain control. It’s like you said, you can’t afford to be weak.

When her thoughts reached me again, they were weary. I should have killed them both.

Her statement made me pause. True. But they do not think you are weak because you showed mercy.

Mira’s thoughts were blank for a long time as we watched David cradle the young vampire in his arms, soothingly brushing her hair from her face. Her sobbing had slowed to a soft whimper. Her initial fear had begun to subside and now the steady throb of hunger had begun to overwhelm her thoughts. I could feel it in my brain beside Mira, a burning need next to her cool, somber presence.

A quick death from me would be more merciful than one meted out by the naturi. Her haunted whisper crept back into my brain, surprising me.

You don’t know that is their fate.

But it’s mine, and the naturi will destroy everything in their path to get to me. Mira reached up with her left hand and gently pulled my left hand away from her neck and drew my arm around her slender waist. I tried to pull my arm free without struggling, but she held tight to my wrist. She leaned into me, pressing her back into my chest. Some of the tension eased from her shoulder and her mind was silent.

Mira. My tone had hardened and I tried to sound threatening, but her calm mood was leaking into mine. I had wanted to ease her worries because any distractions could put us both in danger, but for all intents and purposes, we were still enemies. Right?

Hush. It’s about to start.

We’re going to watch her feed? I demanded, pulling at my arm again.

And then some. I could feel the slight rumble of laughter roll through her mind and into mine. My attention darted back to the center of the room as a slender man in his late twenties pushed off the wall to my right and walked toward David and his child. He wore a pair of worn blue jeans and a faded black T-shirt. The man’s eyes never left the two vampires in the center of the room except to briefly flick over to Mira. Kneeling beside the young woman, he ran his hand over her head and down her back, smoothing her hair.

David leaned close and pressed a kiss to the man’s temple then whispered something in his ear that I couldn’t quite make out. The tension around the man’s mouth eased and he almost smiled.

Mira?

He be longs to David. I think his name is Peter, but I’m not sure. He will be Emma’s first meal.

I was about to question how she knew the fledgling’s name, but remembered that she had already spoken to David about bringing the girl into the family. There was also the chance that Mira had dipped into Emma’s mind, inspecting her.

The newborn nightwalker turned in David’s arms so that she was now facing Peter. I caught the faint glow of her eyes before her back was to me and her hunger was now pounding in my brain to the point where I could barely feel Mira’s presence. I pulled against Mira’s grip and tried to take a step away, but she held tight. I had to get out of there. I couldn’t watch this. I couldn’t watch another creature feed upon a human. I was drowning, my breath coming in shallow gasps between clenched teeth. The hunger was not just coming from the fledgling anymore, but from every vampire in the room. A cold sweat broke out across my arms and rolled down my back despite the chill that hung in the air.

Wait for it! Mira’s voice sounded almost breathless in my mind, eager and a little desperate.

I never saw Emma place her mouth to Peter’s throat, but I felt her sharp fangs piercing his flesh. I flinched, resisting the urge to touch my own throat to see if I was bleeding as well. And then the first wave hit.

Sensations exploded outward from Emma and Peter, slamming into my chest with enough force to push me back a step. The wave sucked me under, bathing me in a feeling of warm, liquid pleasure. I breathed deeply as the blissful sensation sank into my rigid frame, melting my bones. The air grew warm, drying the cold sweat that had formed just moments ago. Time slowed until I could crawl between the seconds and hold them apart. Tension drained from my limbs to pool at my feet.

As I grew accustomed to the feeling, I looked up in time to see the other gathered vampires pulling their human companions closer. It was like waves pounding on the shore during a violent storm, but this time there was no sensation of piercing fangs, just mindless, raw pleasure flooding my brain.

A deep moan slipped past my parted lips and I buried my face in Mira’s neck as my eyes fell shut. I wrapped my right arm around her waist, pulling her tighter against me. My hand slipped under her untucked shirt, sliding across her smooth stomach. Her skin was like cool satin and I suddenly had the overwhelming desire to touch every inch of her. But even as the notion glided across my mind, I knew it wouldn’t be enough. I wanted to know all of her; to be buried deep inside of her as her tongue grazed my feverish skin.

Mira arched against me, pressing her backside into my groin as I grew harder. Reaching up, she slid her hands along my shoulder into my hair. She held my face imprisoned against her neck.

My left hand tightened on her hip, keeping her pinned against me, while my right hand glided over her stomach, across the softest skin I had ever felt. Cool satin. I wanted to rip her clothes off and press her against me. Only the feel of her skin would cool the heat that continued to rise within me. My right hand closed over one breast and a soft moan escaped her as her hands tightened in two fistfuls of my hair. I breathed in her scent, letting my lips and teeth skim along her bare neck, nearly biting her.

Thoughts of our constant fighting were just a worn, faded memory. At that moment, there was only Mira and the need to possess her completely. I wanted to sink into this feeling that seemed to have been hiding in the shadows of my mind for months now and let the world slip away from us.

What felt like hours later, the waves lessened and my thoughts crept back to something that resembled logic. I drew a deep breath in through my nose, inhaling Mira’s intoxicating lilac scent and a faint hint of her shampoo. I started to lift my head and my hand dropped from where it was still caressing her hard nipple through her lacy bra when her voice skipped through my mind.

Wait. The throb of need in her tone gave me pause. Her right hand slid from the back of my neck along my face, a gentle caress from my temple to my jaw. I got a deep sense of peace from the nightwalker; something I had never encountered in her.