"Umm," Mina hesitated.

"Excellent," he winked and strolled away to speak to a group near the podium at one end of the room.

Mina remained at the back, near one of the several brick supports throughout the room, hoping to hide as long as possible. But all too quickly, the meeting was called to order.

The Society's board members sat at a long table at the front of the room, and Jude Anthony, the vice-president, stood at the podium, waiting as the attendees hurried to find seats.

Jude was the opposite of Jackson. His appearance was that of a man in his early twenties, although he was actually much older than any of the preternaturals here. Or at least that was what Mina had heard; she wasn't sure of his actual age.

He was large and muscular with thick dark hair and piercing green eyes. The tall, suave vampire image created by Hollywood was blown by him. Jude looked like a tough and half-wild gladiator in a button-down shirt and faded jeans. Although Mina admired his work for the Society, he always made her nervous. He was going to make her really nervous tonight. Maybe it was a bad idea to come.

"Good evening," a smooth, almost oily voice said from beside her. Mina turned to see Daniel-she didn't know his last name. But she did know that if Jude made her nervous, Daniel made her downright jumpy.

Tall and thin, Daniel reminded her of the silent film vampires. A smile split his narrow face, making his slightly concave cheeks even more sunken. Definitely striking, but not necessarily in an appealing way. Yet, he was oddly mesmerizing.

"How are you tonight, sweet little Wilhelmina?"

Mina frowned at the strangely familiar greeting. But he always spoke to her that way, as if they were old friends rather than mere acquaintances, who only ever saw each other at these meetings and only spoke briefly.

As briefly as possible, she hoped.

"Have you been enjoying the warmer weather?" he asked, and again she felt as if ordinary small talk about the weather was referring to something she should but didn't understand.

"Yes, although I'm glad I didn't have to go out into the downpours earlier," she said, just to say something.

"I like the rain," he said with an enigmatic smile as if he was letting her in on a secret. Again, one that she didn't understand.

"It reminds me of the summers I used to spend on the coast," he said, a smile splitting his face again. "We had the most marvelous storms there. Very violent."

Mina stared at him, her breath catching in her throat. Suddenly she felt very threatened, but she couldn't say why.

"Welcome," Jude greeted the crowd and Mina released her pent-up breath, thankful that the meeting was beginning.

Daniel gave her one more inscrutable smile, then moved to sit up front.

Mina took a seat at the back, glad to be rid of him. She pulled in a calming breath, telling herself everything was fine.

That was until Jude said, "I'd like to get right to what our members have been doing since the last meeting."

Mina's stomach sank again.

Jackson pushed up from the table to join Jude, waiting, none too patiently, to speak. Jude gave the other vampire a sharp look, but he stepped back from the podium allowing the more flamboyant president to take the stage.

Jackson grinned at the crowd, a winsome flash of his perfect teeth.

"But before we get to the updates from the members on their assignments, I believe I see several new faces here tonight. So I would like to go over the Society of Preternaturals' mission."

Mina relaxed against the back of her metal folding chair. This would take awhile. Jackson was notoriously long-winded. Even though she'd heard the Society's philosophies and goals many times, she welcomed hearing them again. That was why she came tonight, to remember what she was working toward.

"We are a group of preternatural beings who believe that we can be accepted into mortal society. Although we are different from human beings, we have all made a solemn pact to live as closely as human as we can. That means we do not feed, hunt, or use humans for any type of preternatural sport.

"The Society has worked very hard to change the perception of our kinds. We are not monsters," he paused dramatically, "nor are humans our food source. We have a creed we all live by, which is... "

Again he stopped, to give his next words more impact.

"'Humans are super and natural, too.'"

Mina paused. Even though she'd heard that motto many times before, she even had a mug with the phrase on it which she purchased at a fund-raiser, it suddenly struck her as a little silly.

She straightened in her chair.But the organization did have a wonderful goal. She had to remember that.

Sebastian coughed, fighting back a laugh.

Humans are super and natural, too.Catchy.

He shifted closer to the brick column he leaned on, hoping he hadn't drawn attention to himself. But as the room was suitably dim and gloomy, he imagined he had gone unnoticed.

Sebastian shook his head. Good Lord, these preternaturals were nuts.

"We also feel that it is our sworn duty to stop any injustices we see other preternaturals enacting on humans. Integration is not a possibility if we are feared by mortals. We cannot allow ourselves to be seen as fiends."

Sebastian frowned. Seen as fiends? He was pretty sure none of his mortal patrons saw his preternatural clientele as fiends. Okay, maybe as sex fiends, but he knew that was half the draw of Carfax Abbey. Great hookups.

And in truth, none of the humans at his bar saw the preternaturals as anythingbut human. After all, that's how vampires and shapeshifters had survived for thousands of years. What the hell were these wackos talking about? They were integrated. Or as integrated as they would ever get.

After watching the speaker, who looked like an undead Liberace, for a moment longer, he considered leaving. He couldn't stand listening to this nonsense any longer. Then two messy, knotted ponytails on the other side of the room caught his attention. Mina. And fortunately she was in the back row.

Carefully, he approached her, not wanting to draw the attention of the nutcase at the podium, or the large faery guarding the entrance.

He'd lucked out getting into the place by straggling in with another group, when he realized he had to know some sort of silly secret knock. The faery hadn't even glanced at him, but he didn't think it would take much to make the members here realize he wasn't one of them.

As the vampire at the podium droned on about the injustices perpetrated daily on humans, Sebastian crouched down near Mina's chair, touching her arm.

She turned, her eyes growing impossibly large behind her glasses. She opened her mouth as if she was going to scream. But before he could clap a hand to her mouth, her bowed lips snapped closed as if she didn't want to draw any attention to herself, either.

"Come with me," he whispered.

She hesitated, and he thought she was going to refuse, but instead she gave him a slight nod. Then she glanced around as if to be sure no one saw him, which they didn't. Everyone was focused on the speaker, who was saying something about vampires being just like humans, except for their fangs, their liquid diets, their inability to go into the sunlight, their shapeshifting abilities, their unnatural looks, and their immortality.

Sebastian rolled his eyes.Yes, we're practically humans .

Mina carefully stood up and tugged on his sleeve. She gestured to the door, and he could tell she was anxious. Obviously she wanted out of this place as much as he did.

Then he noticed her looking around again, worrying her bottom lip with her teeth. No, she didn't want to leave, she just wanted to be surehe left before anyone saw him.

The idea pissed him off. She was embarrassed by him. When she was hanging out with these weirdos?

But he didn't react; he just turned and headed toward the door. They both slipped outside without incident.

Once they were around the corner from the door and in the dark, wet, smelly alley, Sebastian spun to face her.

"So is this group of loons the reason you were trying to sabotage my club?" Chapter 10 Wilhelmina gaped at Sebastian. When she'd turned to find him at the Society meeting, her first thought was she had to get him out of there. Since he was one of the Society's enemies, she didn't think he was safe. She didn't question why her first thought had been to protect him, but it had.

Now that she knew he was here about the sabotage, maybe she should have remained inside and let him fend for himself with the Society. Although she had to admit he appeared surprisingly calm. "Did they convince you to do it?" he asked. She considered playing stupid and denying everything, but she got the feeling he wouldn't buy it. "No, I offered," she told him.

Sebastian's golden eyes flashed with surprise. "Why?"

"Because you use humans. You treat them like sport, existing solely for your entertainment. Because you are immoral and... " She struggled for an appropriately insulting word.

"Narcissistic?" he supplied.

"No! Well, yes. But that's not-"

"Depraved, then?" he suggested, and she realized that he was again making light of her insults. This man

had a colossal ego.

She groaned, frustrated.

He leaned toward her, a sudden and beguiling smile curving his lips. "I love it when you do that."

She started to groan again, but caught herself. She'd be damned if she was going to do anything this

egotist enjoyed. As weird as those things might be.

When he realized she wasn't going to speak, he shifted away from her and asked, "But why me? I know we've never met, so how did you choose me?" "Are you sure we've never met?" she couldn't help asking. Given his memory, they could have met half a dozen times and he'd never recall. She was surprised, when he shook his head with absolute certainty. "No. We've never met." "Like you'd remember," she muttered. He reached out and toyed with a piece of her hair sticking out of her twisted ponytails on the top of her head. "Believe me, I'd remember you, Mina."

Her knees grew weak as she felt the slight tug of her hair where his fingers continued to stroke the escaped strand. She told herself to move away from him. To put distance between herself and the out-of-control feelings he caused inside her. He was dangerous, but her legs wouldn't move, except to continue trembling.

"So why me?" His voice again a brush of warm velvet.

She swallowed, trying to ignore the fingers still playing with her hair. Then she made the mistake of looking in his eyes. Golden fire. Her knees wobbled.

"Because you were on the list," she told him. "That's all." Maybe if she just told him the truth, he'd leave her alone. Stop making her feel like her skin was sizzling.

"What list?"

"The Society of Preternaturals Against the Mistreatment of Mortals has created a list of the most dangerous preternatural beings."

Sebastian's eyes widened, and he stopped touching her hair. She closed her eyes briefly; the truth was working. She managed a shaky step back from him.

"I'mon that list?"

She nodded. "Number three."

"Number three! That's crazy. I'm not dangerous."

Mina frowned, slightly taken aback by his offended reaction. He seemed more upset by this news than by the fact that she'd been targeting his nightclub. "Are you going to deny that you feed from mortals?" she asked. "You use them for the blood and the pleasure you get from them?"

"No," he said readily. "But I am a vampire. That's sort of what we're supposed to do."

She frowned at him, disgusted by his cavalier attitude.

"Come on, Mina, don't tell me that you don't love a nice... long," he stepped closer to her, his body nearly touching hers, his mouth practically brushing her ear, "slow... bite."

She shivered, tempted to lean against him. Instead she stepped back. "No."

"I don't believe that."

"Believe it," she said, meeting his eyes.

"So you are going to tell me that you don't bite, ever."

"Not just ever-never."

"You know that's not true. You bit me. Well, a nibble anyway."

She gritted her teeth. Of course he'd bring that up. "That-that was an accident. A reaction to being caught off-guard." "Uh-huh." He looked thoroughly unconvinced. "It's true. I don't bite. I don't... enjoy it." "That's just wrong," he stated. "Well, I think what you do is wrong." "No," he said slowly. "What I do is normal. It's superand natural, if you will." He smiled, pleased with his joke. She ground her molars, even as her body reacted to that beautiful smile. He really was impossible. She needed to get away from him. Even his lame jokes were making her insides do odd little flips. "So you have the truth," she said. "I assume we're done." Sebastian's smug smile disappeared. "I don't think so." Her breath caught, apprehension filling her. Did he intend to punish her in some way for her attempts on the club? She stepped back from him, her bottom hitting a metal trash can. The lid slid off, clattering loudly in the narrow passage.

She jumped, and Sebastian reached out and caught her wrist.

"I really wish you would believe there is no reason to be scared of me," he said, his thumb rubbing the back of her hand in what he meant to be a soothing gesture. But the touch did anything but soothe her.

Her skin felt electrified where he stroked her.

Oh, there were so many reasons to be scared of him.

"I'm assuming the Society is not pleased with the fact that you didn't stop me or my club in our dastardly

deeds."

He waited for her to confirm.

"They don't know. I haven't told them yet."