Her blue eyes flashed at him. “Ha, ha, ha, you’re so funny, Gregori. Stop being so smug.”

“It is not being smug to know my own power, chérie.I am trying to care for you as best I know how. You do not make it easy for me. I find myself making poor decisions just to see that smile on your face,” he admitted reluctantly.

Savannah laid her head on his chest. “I’m sorry I’m so much trouble, Gregori.” She wasn’t certain if that was the strict truth. She rather liked stirring him up. “I just want us to be partners. That’s how I’ve always envisioned my relationship with my lifemate. I don’t want to be some shrinking violet protected from the real world and used as a brood mare to advance the Carpathian race. I want to be my lifemate’s best friend and confidante. Is that so wrong?” She was pleading with him for understanding. “They’re humans. We can handle them,” she said with more confidence than she felt. If Gregori was concerned, there must be good reason. Still, she was determined to go with him, to share every aspect of his existence. She knew the hunt would always be a huge part of his life.

His arm swept around her, held her close to him; his hands stroked her hair. “Humans have managed to kill our kind throughout the centuries. We have great powers, yes, but we are not invincible. I do not want these people touching you. I will see what Wade Carter and his friends have in mind, just what evidence they actually have, and who is in danger. Then we will discuss where we will be going and how involved I will allow you to become with this situation.”

She cringed visibly at the word allow,and he wished he could take it back. He tightened his hold possessively and dropped a brief, hard kiss on the top of her head. “You will stay within these walls, Savannah, no matter what happens.”

She clung to him for a moment “Don’t let anything happen to you, Gregori. I mean it—I’ll be very angry with you.”

A small smile touched his mouth but didn’t light his pale eyes. “I will stay in your mind, chérie,and you will know I am fine.” He hesitated a moment. “You may not like my methods.” It was a warning. There was a shadow in the depths of his silver eyes, one he didn’t attempt to hide from her.

Her chin lifted. “I may act like a child, Gregori, but I’m not. The preservation of our race always comes first, has to come first. I know it’s necessary for you to use whatever means it takes to make that happen.”

“I hope you do, Savannah. I hope you are prepared for the reality of my way of life. I can do no other than protect our people. It is not always pretty or clean.” He spoke gruffly, his beautiful voice mesmerizing. He stepped away from her abruptly, yet her small fingers retained possession of his hand. “You will stay inside, ma petite.I will provide safeguards for you. Do not attempt to defy me.”

She rubbed the back of his hand against her cheek. “I’ll do as you re quest.”

He caught her chin firmly, tipped her face up, and fastened his mouth to hers. At once the electricity arced and sizzled between them. White-hot heat enveloped them both. Then Gregori put her from him and simply disappeared.

He moved through space, unseen, with the ease of long practice, a soft wind blowing through the trees. Wade Carter was attempting to scale the west wall. Three of the wolves were pacing beneath him, fangs gleaming in the gathering dusk. Carter’s trousers snagged on a rock outcropping, momentarily holding him prisoner. Gregori shimmered, hanging in the wind, insubstantial, then solidified a few feet from the reporter.

Carter’s breath exploded out of his lungs. “My God, you really are a vampire! I knew it! I knew I was right.”

Gregori could smell the man’s fear, his agitation. He perched casually on the wall beside Carter with his easy, lazy grace. “I told you we would meet again soon. I always keep my promises,” he replied softly.

The voice seemed to slice right through the reporter’s mind. Wade rubbed his pounding temples. He had never been so afraid, never so excited. The real thing was sitting right beside him. He fumbled in his pocket for reassurance, felt for the dart gun. “Why did you decide to show yourself to me?” He tried to keep his voice from shaking.

Gregori smiled at him. There was no humor in that smile, just a white flash of gleaming menace. The cold silver eyes were unblinking, like those of a great jungle cat. Carter found it unnerving. “You disturbed my wife,” Gregori answered softly. His voice was beautiful, hypnotic.

Carter shook his head to banish the sluggishness from his brain. “Do you really think you’re so powerful that you can get away with killing me?”

Gregori’s muscles rippled, a hint of his enormous strength. “Do you really think I am not?”

“I would never have confronted you without support. I’m not alone,” Carter blustered. He was fighting to get the dart gun from his pocket, where it was stuck.

“There is no one else here, Mr. Carter,” Gregori corrected. “Just the two of us. I thought I might have a look inside your head.” His tone had dropped an octave, was soft and persuasive, impossible to resist.

Sweat broke out on Carter’s forehead. “I won’t let you,” he objected, but he found himself leaning forward to look into the molten silver eyes. He was supposed to be protected against a mind invasion! All in the society were protected. Vampires’ voices couldn’t affect them; the eyes couldn’t put them in a trance. No one could read their minds or take away their memories. All of them in the society had undergone extensive hypnosis to resist such an abomination. And they had worked on a formula for more than thirty years. Scientists, good scientists, who had the benefit of vampire blood to work with.

Gregori pushed through the surprisingly strong barrier to inspect the man’s mind. He could see the culmination of the secret society’s research, their eagerness to find a new specimen. They had extracted blood from several of the victims they had tortured and mutilated some thirty years earlier. Gregori inhaled sharply. They had a drug they were certain could be used to incapacitate their victim, so that they could imprison what they believed to be vampire and study and dissect it at their leisure. The society was larger than any of his kind had believed.

He released the reporter’s mind, deliberately allowing the man to know he had been extracting information. Carter swore obscenely and brought up the dart gun. The needle pierced Gregori’s skin right above his heart. He felt the penetration, felt the instant release of poison into his blood.

Gregori!Savannah’s distressed cry was in his mind. Let me come to you.She was trying to free herself from the invisible wall he’d erected around her, fighting his safeguards.

Be calm, mapetite. You think I did notdeliberately allow this imbecile to inject me with poison? I am the healer for our people. If they have something that can harm us, I must find an antidote.

Savannah pounded on the invisible barrier to get to Gregori. She could feel the hot tears gathering in her eyes, the terrible fear threatening to overwhelm her at her own helplessness. The poison was painful, crawling through Gregori’s system, paralyzing him. Cramps and sweating, muscles clenching and locking. She felt it with him and raged at her inability to get to him, to be able to help him, as was her right.

Gregori remained as calm and impassive as ever, studying the chemistry of the compound, as interested as any scientist. He was barely sparing the jubilant reporter any of his attention. He had gone seeking inside his own body, flowing through his own bloodstream to follow the path of the spreading poison.

Carter was nearly jumping up and down. If it had not been for his precarious perch, he would have. Of course, he had no idea how he was going to get such a big man into the car and back to the laboratory. He would have to call for help. But otherwise it had been so easy. The lab techs were right. The poison was perfect! All those years of research had finally paid off. And he was the one to get the glory!