“I’m not breakfast,” I growled, desperate to remind myself that she was a vampire. A killer. And I was just food to her.

Mira’s smile widened a little, but not enough to show her fangs. She had grown very careful about that around me. She leaned closer, rubbing her cheek against mine. I could have stopped her. My hands were still holding her thin waist, but I couldn’t move them. My choices were to release her or slide them higher. Since neither was a solution I was currently comfortable with, they remained where they were.

“I wouldn’t drink from you if you begged me,” she said, her lips grazing my ear.

Had any other vampire said that I would have laughed. Yet when Mira pulled back and I gazed into her eyes, I believed her. Mira wasn’t one to lie. To her, the truth tended to be more shocking, which she in turn found amusing. Somewhere along the way, I had filled some strange niche in her existence, become something I think she was still figuring out. But it had officially moved me out of the food chain.

“What do you want?” I demanded, surprised at how steady my voice sounded.

“The same thing you want,” she replied. She pressed her hips into me, moving close enough that her breasts now brushed against my chest. There was no denying my desire—I was rock hard and holding her. I could have pushed her off the moment I opened my eyes but I hadn’t, and it was taking all my self control not to lean forward that extra inch and kiss her. Everything within me screamed for another taste of her mouth.

Instead I did the only thing I thought would snap us both out of this. “Is this how you pay everyone who protects you?”

Mira leaned forward and brushed her lips against mine as she spoke. “My relationship with Gabriel has nothing to do with his job as my guardian.”

“But you don’t love him,” I said, desperate to keep her talking.

Mira pulled back suddenly and looked at me. Her smooth brow furrowed and she cocked her head to the side in stunned puzzlement. I was grasping at straws and we both knew it.

“Can you look me in the eye and tell me that you’ve loved every woman that you’ve been with?” There was no mocking in her voice, just gentle amusement.

There had been more than one occasion where I had lied to her, but even I couldn’t convincingly lie about this. While there had not been as many women as one would expect in my 1,800-year lifespan, there had been enough. And not one of them I would be as bold as to describe using the word “love.” To make matters worse, there had been more than one that I been less emotionally involved with than Mira.

But I didn’t have to say anything. My silence was damning enough. She leaned back into me, molding her lean body against mine. Her lips returned to mine, the tip of her tongue running along my bottom lip, entreating entrance. My hands tightened on her waist and I somehow managed to turn my head. Undaunted, she kissed my cheek, drawing a trail back down to my ear.

“Please, Danaus, touch me,” she said. Her voice was like velvet, rubbing against every part of my body that she touched. “I need you.”

I was drowning and with my last breath I finally managed to cut her. “Is this how you’ve acquired all your lovers? With begging?”

For an instant, I felt her whole body stiffen and then there was the shock of cold air where her warm body had been a second ago. I turned my head to look at her, but she was moving too fast. All I felt was Mira grab the front of my shirt and then I was flying through the air. Out of sheer luck, I hit the bed and bounced once. I’m sure she would have preferred it if I had gone through the concrete wall. I jerked into a sitting position, but the door had already been thrown open and she was gone.

I fell back against the bed, covering my face with my hands. I had regretted the words the second they left my lips. I hadn’t meant it. I was drowning and desperate. If I had any real self-control, I would have pushed her away and left. I cursed Mira for pushing me and I cursed myself for wanting her more than air.

I could make excuses like she caught me off guard or that I was half asleep, or even that she got what she asked for, but it was a lie. I wanted her. I’d wanted her since our first encounter months ago in the abandoned house. Regardless of how lifeless she was during the day, at night she was more vibrant and alive than any other creature that I had ever met. She had no regrets about who or what she was. And when she was near, I wanted to wrap myself up in her energy. Her cool powers surrounded me, calming the anger and frustration that seemed to perpetually burn within me.

Reluctant, I pushed to my feet and trudged up the stairs to the first floor. I couldn’t take the words back and nothing I could say would erase the pain. I walked through the rooms, and had finally settled in a chair in the living room when I heard the shower running on the second floor. Tristan wandered in with Lily following close on his heels. Both had matching expressions of concern and confusion.

“Mira said we are to meet her at the town house,” Tristan announced when he was standing in front of me.

“I’m waiting for Mira. Will you take Lily to the town house?” I asked. I needed to talk to Mira. I needed to find some way to soothe her ego and feelings. Of course, I hadn’t a clue as to how I was going to accomplish that mean feat, but I had to try.

Lily stepped around Tristan to come stand next to me. She crossed her arms over her chest and frowned down at me. “What did you do?” she demanded. I didn’t need to know how she knew that this was my fault, though I wasn’t willing to take all the blame for this matter. Maybe it was a female thing. They could sense when another of their kind had been slighted by a man.

“Nothing. It’s a personal matter that I would rather handle privately,” I said sharply, glaring up at her. A teenager didn’t need to be involved in my personal life.

I clenched my eyes shut and gritted my teeth at that very thought. Mira wasn’t a part of my personal life. She, like all other nightwalkers, was business. Nightwalkers were a part of my professional life, as I was a hunter. Or at least, I had been at one time. Now I didn’t know what the hell was going on. Six months ago, I had hunted and killed nightwalkers with ease and a complete lack of remorse. Tonight, I’d kissed Mira and a part of me knew I would do it again if she gave me half a chance. I craved her like a vampire craved blood. She sustained me and gave me direction in a world that was growing more foreign to me with each passing night.

“I’ll take her to the town house,” Tristan confirmed, laying a hand on the teenager’s stiff shoulder. “Mira should be down in a few minutes.” With a little pressure, Tristan directed Lily away from me and back toward the kitchen. She didn’t say anything as she walked away, content to just shake her head at me.

Mira reappeared downstairs thirty minutes later, but the sight of her was like a knife twisting in my chest. She was dressed in her usual black, but it was different. Instead of her typical tight-fitting leather and flashes of skin, she wore a pair of long cotton pants and a matching turtleneck sweater. Over that was a black leather jacket that fell to her thighs and a pair of soft leather gloves. In fact, only her face was visible and even that was in the shadow of the molten waves of her hair and a pair of large dark sunglasses. Mira was hiding not only from me, but also from the eyes of the world.

“Meet me back at the town house in an hour,” she said then left, her heels clicking ominously across the hardwood floor before she slammed the front door shut. There had been no chance to apologize. No opportunity to offer up a lame explanation.

I knew where she was going. Feeding was the only thing at this point that would drown out the anger, pain, and humiliation. Normally, she wouldn’t have to feed so soon after feasting on both Ryan and Gabriel the previous night, but I had left her with no other option. She would hunt tonight and it was my fault.