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Tobias started for the door—ignoring me. That had never happened. Tobias was levelheaded and willing to listen and discuss; he’d never turned his back to me. I hissed. He wasn’t getting near her.

I rammed into him, sending him into the wall opposite from the living room entrance. He caused a Tobias-shaped hole.

He pushed off the wall and calmly dusted the plaster bits from the front of his shirt. In a burst of motion, he charged, slamming his shoulder into my midsection. I slid across the rug, crashing into the settee. Wood cracked, and the soundechoed off the walls. I grinned through the pain, letting it course through me.

If the mere mention of the human wrought this havoc, keeping her around a little longer would be fun.

After she’d sunk her blunt teeth into my neck, I shouldn’t have been surprised she had little tricks she’d used to draw in the others . . .

“Come back to our conversation, Ren,” Tobias spat, braced against the wall with the large hole.

“Her taste . . .” I hummed. “She was made for being drained.” Her blood reached through the foggy veil coating my human memories and brought forth the taste of sweets from my childhood. Flavors I’d forgotten about. Her taste coated my tongue, and her blood satisfied my cravings and calmed the violent hunger that had dogged my entire existence as a vampire.

She was so fucking delicious my mouth watered at the thought of her.

I refused to be bound to a woman again, but I wanted to play with her and bleed her until I was satisfied.

My cock stirred. Very interesting. I’d never once been remotely tempted to fuck a human.

“You will not harm her.”

I slowly nodded.

“Yet.” I grinned, stretching my neck side to side. “The human is mine to find,” I repeated.

“Hubris is a sin, Ren.” Tobias sneered, his usually unruffled appearance a disarray.

“Shove your self-righteousness up your ass, Tobias.”

He ran his tongue over his bleeding lip. “I won’t go easy on you.” His irises flickered red.

We were fighting for the long haul. Long overdue.

A smirk lifted my lips, and I met him mid-run. We crashed together with a resounding thud.

TWO

catalina

Incessant,rhythmic beeping infiltrated my ears and burrowed into my mind.

I clawed back to consciousness and sucked in labored breaths. Something tugged at my philtrum. I scrunched my nose, triggering a coughing fit, and my eyes watered. I couldn’t breathe, but this time it wasn’t because of my lungs—a mask covered my nose and mouth. I smacked at the plastic and yanked it off. The band popped off from behind my ear.

A stabbing pain struck through my side and raced down my leg to my knee. I whimpered, struggling to catch my breath. Everything burned. But on the bright side, I wasn’t dead if it hurt this bad.

The flip book of the last few moments before I blacked out poured into my thoughts. The vampire coming at me, the car hitting me—it whirled in my brain and a sour taste coated my tongue. I attempted to scoot higher on the uncomfortable mattress, but sharp pin pricks of agony coursed down my spine.

I swallowed hard. That evil bastard that held me captive, feeding on me until I couldn’t even move . . . I shivered, nausea rising.

Had it been him? Had he found me?

Death should have swallowed me whole.

I slumped, panting and weak. An empty bed sat a few feet from mine, the white bed sheets neatly wrapped around the thin mattress. Linoleum floors, pale walls, and the television mounted on the wall across from me all pointed to a basic hospital room. The scent of antiseptic filled my nostrils.

My legs rested at an incline; the left one wrapped up in a cast all the way to my knee. The small of my back pinched uncomfortably. I needed to stretch out, but every twitch sent pain to my ankle and my right wrist, which was also in a cast and lay in a sling close to my chest. Using my good hand, I braced myself and attempted to scoot higher on the bed. I didn’t budge.

Wait, there had to be a button to adjust the bed. Just needed to find where it?—