She pulled her dress over her head, baring her body to him.

"I noticed no panties earlier. Nor a bra." He chuckled. "Oh, you are bad."

Tala traced her curves with her fingertips, noting his gaze following each movement. "I wanted to be ready in case we decided to act on our animalistic impulses." She pinched her already-taut nipples.

He moaned. "d.a.m.n, woman. You're going to kill me by doing that."

"You want me to stop?" Her voice was seductive, fluid as she climbed onto the bed.

"h.e.l.l, no."

"Feeling frisky?"

"What do you have in mind?"

"I wanna taste you...then I wanna f.u.c.k you."

He growled low in his throat. "Talking naughty, too. Oh, you are a bad girl tonight." "I'm feeling wonderful. I think we beat the curse."

His face suddenly fell serious. "Think so?"

"I think so. I hope so."

"We'll know in the morning."

"Until then, I wanna love you, explore you. I just can't seem to get enough."

"Oh, sounds like torture."

She pulled away the sheet, uncovering his erect p.e.n.i.s, large and pulsing with life. He was hot for her already. d.a.m.n, it looked like satin-covered steel, and she caressed it between her palms.

Lucius moaned in answer to her touch.

"Like that, eh?" She couldn't help but tease him.

He lay against the pillows, his eyes closed and his breathing rapid, already under the spell of her touch. "I wonder if you taste as good as you feel."

She swiped her tongue across the engorged head of his c.o.c.k.

He groaned and ran his fingers through her hair, silently urging her to continue.

"Oh yes, you taste so wonderful, salty and addictive." She enclosed his c.o.c.k in her mouth, taking him deep and sucking hard. Power over this vampire, this immense authority over his entire being, felt incredible. She needed to bring him to his knees more often, weakening him to her, giving his trust and love by surrendering the strength of control.

She increased the tempo of her ministrations, savoring his taste against her tongue.

He pushed her away. To her questioning glance, he breathed in a raspy voice, "I want you to ride me, Tala. Take me into you."

Crawling up his body, she relished the feel of her taut nipples gliding along his smooth skin. When she poised above his c.o.c.k, he rested his hands on her hips. The head of his p.e.n.i.s slid through the wet folds of her cleft, covering his shaft in her natural lubrication.

Tala slammed down over him, taking him into her to the hilt. She screamed at the immediate pleasure. He filled her body, completing her. She retreated, then roughly took him in again.

He palmed her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, teasing her hard nipples into straining points of pleasure. Again and again, she took him into her. She needed him to go deeper, harder, to touch her inner being, her inner core. She needed to have all of him at her mercy.

Her thrusts became barely controlled bouncing as she rode his c.o.c.k with wild, unbridled desire. When her body reacted to the sensual onslaught of their joining, she plunged over the edge and came. She felt like she flew through the air as her body spasms closed and released around him.

He filled her with his c.o.c.k and his essence while meeting her at the brink of ecstasy, the pinnacle of pa.s.sion.

With her strength spent, she lay across his body, catching her breath. Each time they mated, it felt more amazing than the time before. And she had an entire eternity to love him.

Or would she?

She rolled to his side, and he gathered her into his embrace. In the still of the night, he rocked her body in a gentle sway.

Fatigue hit her. Tala eased down to sleep in the arms of her mate, hoping the morning would bring promise to their future.

Lucius caressed her in her sleep, enjoying the simple warmth of her body close to his. He longed to protect her, treasure her. At the approach of dawn, he'd know if the ritual had been successful.

Being an ancient of his kind, he could tolerate the morning sun as long as he stayed out of its rays. There within the tomb, they were safe.

Even without seeing the sunrise, he would know when it arrived. And it would be hours from now. Until then, he'd hold her as she slept. * * * *

The sun began to peak on the horizon, and Lucius felt fatigue settle through his body. Tala still slept, and he was reluctant to wake her.

Her eyelids snapped open. Violent shaking wracked her body. "Dear G.o.d, what's happening?" She sounded panicky, and instantaneous fear filled her eyes.

All Lucius could do was hold her and try to ease the pain. As her body convulsed beneath his, she was beyond his touch.

"Tell her of your love," a misty voice whispered in his ears. The voice from last night, the invoked spirit that was to protect them.

Sitting up in bed, he cradled Tala in his arms, rocking her back and forth. This wasn't over yet, he realized, stroking her head, now drenched with sweat. This was the trial moment.

"Tala, love, fight for your life. Fight for us. I want to love you forever. Don't leave me to long for you alone like Damon longs for your sister. Stay with me."

Still, her body spasmed. She seemed out of reach as the curse coursed through her body, killing her before his eyes.

"If you leave me, I'll meet the sun and join you on the other side, Tala. I can't exist without you. I waited too long to love you." Anger at her obvious surrender to the power wracking her body and soul brimmed to the surface. "I refuse to let you go! d.a.m.n it, fight!"

Her body stilled and fell limp in his arms, as though she had lost all her strength.

Her heart ceased.

Lucius screamed in rage. He had lost her!

And for the first time, tears escaped his eyes, and the vampire cried over the body of his mate.

Darkness engulfed her, surrounded her, and she couldn't move. She became vaguely aware of Lucius holding her. His pain echoed within the darkness, calling her back to him.

The call of the phantom pack in the distance, however, was drawing her to them. She could run with them and be a part of their group. She'd never be lonely again. Never want for company or...

Love?

No, she had left her mate behind. She couldn't leave him, her lover and friend. The other half to her entire being.

The pack again called to her, and she felt her body shift form. She loped up to the pack, and recognized one dark gray wolf--Telia.

The others, mainly males, nuzzled her body. Their ghostly forms sent tingles of odd sensations through her, unlike touching the coat of Lucius in his wolfish form.

Telia trotted forward with a bigger black wolf. They howled and called for Tala to follow. Running with the pack felt exhilarating, never had she felt to free...

Or did she?

In Lucius' arms, she had felt a certain freedom. Lucius. Her mate. She longed for him. How could she choose to run with the phantom pack and leave her love behind to suffer?

Telia and the black leader led the pack through a ghostly forest. No, this wasn't right. Tala didn't belong here. This wasn't her place.

Then abruptly, Telia stopped, and the entire pack halted. Telia padded over to her sister. "You're right. It's not time for you to join us. Go back to your lover, back to earth."

"How could you...have left Damon? Did you have a choice?"

"Damon suffers, but his destiny didn't lie with me." Telia turned her head toward the black wolf, then glanced back at Tala. "There is another for Damon. Tell him..." Telia paused. "Tell him to never lose hope. I will always be with him until he finds love once again."

The pack now barked in excitement.

"Now, go back, sister. We will run together someday, but you have a destiny of eternal love yet to fulfill."

Tala stood motionless as she watched the pack leader caress Telia. They led the pack into a shaft of light, then disappeared.

Lucius' voice broke the silence surrounding her. "Come back to me."

Her heart filled with love for her mate, and that power drew her through the darkness, back into her mortal form.

And back to Lucius.

She gasped a large breath.

His tears of joy greeted her as he rained kisses over her face. "d.a.m.n it, what took you so long?" he asked through his celebration.

"Didn't you ever hear that patience is a virtue?"

"I have no patience, woman. Don't ever scare me like that again."

"There won't be a need. I'll never leave you again."

That evening, Lucius and Tala visited the Devil's Talon, where Monique and the others warmly greeted them.

"I see things worked out well," Monique quipped.

"Thanks to you," Tala said as she reached out to the other woman.

Monique squeezed the neophyte vampire's hand. "No, it was your strength of love for each other that broke the curse."

"I was afraid for a while that I had lost her." Lucius looked disturbed to admit his weakness.

"So, what are you?" Leonardo asked Tala, trying to ignore the inner feeling of danger lurking nearby. Something wasn't right this night. "A werewolf vampire?"

"I guess so." Tala absolutely beamed with the glow of a woman in love.

Some vampires have all the luck, Leo thought. "Anyone see t.i.tania tonight? She hasn't been around these past two nights."

"Yeah, noticed that," Raife said. "Any idea why?"

"Not sure. But I have a bad feeling about it." Leo had a bond to her, having exchanged blood in the past. And they'd been lovers when he first came to New Orleans, so he knew her fairly well. Staying away from her friends was unlike her.

"So, Lucius, you going to change your ways because of love?" Alonso teased, obviously feeling bold enough to take on the love-struck vamp.

"Just as many changes as you went through when you met Jolie." With a c.o.c.ked blond brow, Lucius added, "Watch yourself, young one. I know all your deepest secrets to get you in trouble with your mate."

"Oh, like you don't have any?"

"All right, you two. Enough." Jolie nipped playfully at Alonso's neck.

"Oh, Christ, no!"

t.i.tania's voice ripped through Leo's brain. Scared--no, petrified. Fearful of her very life.

Leo shot up and ignored the questioning looks from his friends. He rushed through the crowd and out the door. From there, he used his ethereal speed and followed her calls of pain and torture through the streets of New Orleans. A sharp pain radiated through his chest, and he felt t.i.tania give up to scorching pain.

What the h.e.l.l was happening to her?

Down a dark, side alley of Bourbon Street, he found t.i.tania, lying on the cold cobblestone. Over her stood a woman with long red hair and a fair complexion.

Then Leonardo saw it--a wooden stake protruding from t.i.tania's chest. This human woman had just murdered his friend.

A vampire slayer? Here?

The woman gazed up. Her emerald green eyes struck him, pinning him to the spot.

Anger bubbled to the surface. He approached, cautiously noting she had another stake within her one hand.

"Who the h.e.l.l are you?" he asked, rage spouting from his every pore.

"Your worst nightmare, vampire." Marianne LaCroix Author Marianne LaCroix aka Shaylee O'Hara dreamed of becoming an author ever since her parents gave her a little typewriter as a child. Luckily, her parents supported all of her creative outlets, be it oil painting or creative writing. When it came time for college, she majored in English and took art cla.s.ses on the side.