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But I didn’t even try to fight him. I swallowed immediately. One gulp. Then two.

Electricity surged through me, bringing me back to life, filling me with vitality and strength. The wound I had sustained began to close up on my neck. The cavern swam back into focus. I could feel the ground beneath me. The rapidly-cooling wetness pooled around me, soaking my jacket.

I could have cried with relief. I didn’t have to leave. I never had to leave Danny.

Michael. Michael. Michael.Relief and anguish flooded through the bond, mixed with joy. Danny knew that I wasn’t going to die. That Thierry had saved me.

The moment that Thierry pulled his wrist away from my lips, I looked over at Danny. At my mate. At the man I loved.

He’d finished taking care of the last vamp he’d been fighting. It tumbled to the ground, a wooden stake sticking out from its chest. The other one was on the ground at his feet, motionless.

Relief surged through me. Danny was okay. I was okay. We would be okay.

Danny started forward, his eyes wet with tears. He grinned at me broadly.

I was so scared.

Tears of gratitude prickled in my eyes. I owed Thierry my life. And I would thank him soon. But for right now, I just had eyes for Danny. I was about to tell him that he didn’t need to be afraid, ever again.

But that was when the red-headed vamp from the alleyway—the one who had turned Danny—materialized at my mate’s side. Her mouth was smeared red and contorted with malice. She was holding the limp body of a young man, supporting him the wayyou’d support someone who’d had too much to drink. His neck was already bleeding.

She shoved the young man at Danny with enough force to knock him off-balance. His hands darted out to catch the young man, so that he wouldn’t tumble to the ground.

I could feel how startled Danny was. His mind was pressed right up against mine. Why had the female vamp shoved this young man—who look barely old enough to vote—into his arms?

Then he smelled the blood. He froze, staring down at the young man’s neck.

Pain roared through the bond. It was white-hot and blinding, driving away all rational thought and replacing it with agony, withneed. Like Danny was being torn apart from the inside. His throat was burning, like it had been dipped in fire. And the only thing that would put it out wasright there.

Horror flooded through me as I realized what was about to happen.

If I could just get over there, I could stop this.

I tried to shove myself up, but Thierry put a gentle hand on my chest, pinning me in place. “Don’t try to move, Hunter. The blood hasn’t finished healing you yet.”

I batted his hand away. “Thierry, no. Look!”

Thierry turned his head to follow my gaze.

Despair welled up from deep within me.Danny, no. Please don’t.

Danny didn’t listen to me. All rational thought had been driven from his mind. His eyes went flat and cold. And his fangs were impossibly sharp in the murky light of the cavern.

The young man in his arms didn’t even move when Danny sank his fangs into his jugular.

Sheer animalistic lust surged through the bond, blotting out everything about Danny that made him a person at all. He wasreduced down to the desire to feed. To take and take andtakeuntil there was nothing left.

“No!” Thierry shouted.

He moved in a blur of speed, rocketing toward Danny.

The redhead vamp lunged forward, grabbed him, and threw him across the cavern. Thierry might’ve been far older than her, but that didn’t make him immune to the laws of gravity. He fell in a tangled heap of limbs, thirty feet away.

The redhead flashed a wicked grin in my direction, her eyes ablaze with sheer malice.

But I couldn’t tear my gaze from Danny.

The frenzy had set in. The same way it had with the blood bags. The same way it had when those vamps had killed Joshua.