"I'm a misfit werewolf because I'm mostly human. Other than the teeth and a few quirky things, I've got very little wolf in me. When I reached p.u.b.erty, the necessary hormones to actually turn me into a wolf didn't ever develop. Even then, my pack accepted me. They knew there weren't exactly over-the-counter medications for that type of thing. What got me kicked out was that I became a feminist in college. One winter during break, I challenged the alpha male's authority over a trivial mistake he had made. That blunder on my part left me an outcast."

She tapped her fingernails on the table. "But like you, I'm a creature of the night. I crave digging my teeth into flesh, only I rip it apart. It's the ultimate thrill."

I dug through my purse for my ballpoint pen and a sc.r.a.p of paper. Using the back of a receipt, I wrote my street address and directions. I slid the information across the table toward her. "I want you to be at my place tomorrow night after sunset. Like you said, I'm going to call it like it is. I find you gorgeous. You're so attractive, I would take you here and now if you'd let me."

She placed the receipt between her thumb and index finger. "You're on as long as you're willing to have safe s.e.x with me."

I frowned, thinking. Finally I said, "Dental d.a.m.ns don't work well for me. My teeth are too sharp. They always end up with slices in the middle."

"That's not what I mean," Luna said. "You'll see what I mean when I arrive at your place. I can't wait to lick you head to foot, Sangrina."

When Luna did appear at my house the following evening, she brought Hazel with her. I quickly pulled my long, black hair into a ponytail, wiped the black lipstick from my mouth, and brushed the baby powder from my arms while I saw them exit the car from my window. Hazel was the vamp who bit me all those years ago. She was my superior and a purist. If she saw the makeup or powder, she would flip out and castigate me. I couldn't take the chance. Holding my breath, I waited for the knock on my door.

When I heard it, I admitted both of them. "Hazel, what a pleasant surprise to see you here," I said. "How do you know Luna?"

She pointed to my bedroom. "Luna will tell you about that later. First, I'm here to facilitate the safe s.e.x. I'm on a strict schedule today, so let's skip the pleasantries."

My eyes widened. "Facilitate the safe s.e.x? I don't understand," I said as I led the two women down the hall to my bedroom.

As soon as we were looking at my bed, Luna said, "Hazel is going to make sure you don't bite me. She a.s.sures me she is physically and emotionally stronger than you are, so she is going to help us enjoy each other's bodies without destroying each other."

Hazel sat on my bed. Her skin was even paler than mine, her hair blacker, and I doubted Luna fully understood how much more powerful she was than I. Hazel was four thousand years my senior, my own alpha. If she gave a direct order, I couldn't disobey her. My heart was beating at a frantic pace just being in the same room with Hazel, let alone in a s.e.xual situation with her. My distress must have been obvious, because Hazel took a softer tone with me.

"You'll have fun. I'm not here to spoil Luna for you, just to help. Luna is a good friend of mine. Now, what I'm going to do is hold your hands behind your back while she explores you. My own orders not to bite her will flow through your veins as I hold onto your pulse in your wrists. You will not bite her."

I opened my mouth and in a meek voice asked Hazel, "How will you ensure Luna won't bite me?"

Luna answered instead of Hazel. I couldn't believe Luna interrupted her so easily. "I won't bite you. My hunger has been satisfied. Hazel fed me before we arrived. We share our food quite often. That's why we're such good friends."

I trembled as Hazel took my wrists into her hands, forcing me to stand in her grip. I wanted to be intimate with Luna with such l.u.s.t as I hadn't felt in a century, but the trembling wasn't from the antic.i.p.ation of Luna's exploration of my body.

"Peace, now," Hazel said. "I mean you no harm."

My breathing slowed and the tremors stopped. I watched Luna's smile as she stripped for me. First, she pulled her tight-fitting sweater over her head. Her b.r.e.a.s.t.s were youthful, as if no children had ever suckled them. I licked my lips as I imagined nibbling on her erect nipples. The contrast between her gray hair and young b.r.e.a.s.t.s was breathtaking. Luna never appeared old to me; I a.s.sumed the gray hair was part of her wolf.

"I want your b.r.e.a.s.t.s in my mouth," I said.

"Not today. Not yet." Hazel held me even tighter. "You aren't ready yet. Your will isn't tamed enough to have them in your mouth-not at the moment, anyway."

Luna neared me. "But I would love it if you would touch them." She offered her creamy, smooth orbs to me.

I reached for them. Hazel released me, but she moved her hand to my neck so she could still force her will into my pulse. While I cupped both of my lover's b.r.e.a.s.t.s, Luna slid her skirt and panties off. She was waxed from her neck down. I didn't know if it was just her legs and pubis that were waxed or if her whole body needed it, but I did know that the effect was stunning. Her p.u.s.s.y was already glistening for me as I rolled her nipples between my fingers.

With forcefulness, Luna took my shirt into her mouth. After only one solid yank, she tore through my shirt. My own b.r.e.a.s.t.s were held tightly by an underwire bra. She snarled when she saw it. The violently tender motion of digging her bottom teeth beneath the underwire, then biting through the metal, was unreal. She repeated the process with the other side of the bra. Then she bit through the lace and elastic, tearing the undergarment from my body as if it were as easy as doing it with a pair of scissors. I sure hoped she wasn't hungry, because if she did decide to sink her teeth into me, I thought my bones would easily snap.

The pants she chewed up weren't my favorites. My thong ripped like tissue paper within her teeth. Droplets of sweat began rolling down my face when Luna knelt, my bushy s.e.x at mouth height for her. She licked as if the fuzz between my legs wasn't in her way. When her tongue parted my outer lips, she lapped at me, worshiping my slick flesh. I was almost at climax when she stopped.

Luna kissed my mouth. I kept my jaw tight and closed. If I were to open it, I wasn't sure I would be able to control my urge to penetrate her flesh with my fangs. She ran her tongue along the outsides of my teeth before she pressed her own hard enamel against mine. Her breath was hot, but smelled clean.

"I just had to feel them for myself," she said before returning to my triangle of curly, black hair.

"Your tongue is so supple," I said between breaths as my chest heaved with antic.i.p.ation. It was clear to me she had used her tongue this way many, many times before. I suspected she had studied it like an art. Never before, at least not while I was a vamp, had I been at the beck and mercy of a living creature. What struck me was that she looked so human as she p.u.s.s.y-worshiped me with her tongue. Humans were usually too weak for my liking. The moment before my o.r.g.a.s.m was like the eye of a hurricane: calm amid a torrent of swirls.

Hazel whispered lightly into my ear as soon as my o.r.g.a.s.m subsided. "Hold still while I fetch the vial of blood from my pocket." She released me with one hand. After a moment, she held the gla.s.s to my lips. I drank with the greed of the starving. "Now if you allow me to help you keep control, I'm going to guide you to be nice with your teeth," she said as she released one wrist while grasping the other.

Luna's skin turned as gray as her hair. "You're going to let Sangrina's mouth near me?"

"Yes, but I'll keep her under control. You deserve her to lick between your legs also." She turned herself and me around so we were facing my bed. "Now lie on your back with your a.s.s at the edge of the bed."

Even in her fear, Luna obeyed. I wasn't sure how or why, but Hazel held some kind of power over her as well. After all this was over, I would have to find out what the story was between these two women.

I watched as Luna positioned herself, then closed her eyes. Now it was she who was shaking. Not sure I could keep my impulses in check, I hesitated until Hazel produced another vial of blood for me to drink. Thank heavens she carried back-ups. I gulped the liquid, still warm and without clots. Hazel had more tricks up her sleeve than I had suspected. How had she kept both vials fresh?

I concentrated on the hard little nub of flesh between Luna's legs rather than the pulsing in my heart to bite her. The whole tactic worked, but I sucked Luna's c.l.i.t with speed anyway. I wasn't sure how much self control I had within me. Her wetness as I plunged my tongue up her cunny tasted of rosemary. My tongue returned to her c.l.i.t, my lips wrapped around it. I savored the little gush that exuded from her onto my cheeks and nose. It tasted vaguely of cinnamon. I knew a woman's diet could affect her taste, but I would have to see what else beside raw flesh Luna ate to make her taste so good.

I heard her o.r.g.a.s.m before I felt it. She howled. The sound surprised me, causing me to jump.

"No, don't stop."

I was going to apologize, but resumed my sucking instead so that she could finish without having a ruined o.r.g.a.s.m. Afterward I said, "I'm sorry about pausing as you were in the middle of climax."

Via Web cam, Luna and I grew to know each other more intimately. Hazel wasn't free to chaperone us very often, and we were both hesitant to be together alone. On the first Web cam meeting, I asked Hazel more questions about how she knew my matriarch.

"I told you I rejected the alpha male of my werewolf pack. What I didn't tell you was that I have a primal need to be led. The first time I met Hazel, we were both hunting the same human. For the sake of efficiency, I offered to let Hazel bleed the human out before I devoured him. She wanted to keep the blood stored in case of an emergency. Ever since then, we have had a mutual understanding that we share our prey. Plus, if I need guidance from an alpha female, Hazel steps in to fill that void in my life."

The subject was fascinating to me. I didn't ask any more questions, but I held a plethora of other questions within me that I wanted to ask. First and foremost, if Hazel bit me, would I become a werewolf? If I bit her, would she become a vampire? Would some strange cross-breeding occur? I was sure Hazel knew the answer, but I didn't want to ask her, either. It had seemed wrong to me on some level that Hazel wielded the power over me not to bite Luna. That's what vampires do. We bite people.

After two months of Web cam contact only, I felt more intimate with Luna than I had ever felt. I wanted to be near her without Hazel. Before I felt comfortable trying to be alone with her, I had find out what would happen if I bit her. I could undead with myself if I turned her into a cross breed. I could undead with myself if I turned her into an outright vampire. That was my goal, in fact. We could undead together forever if that were the end result. I could not, under any circ.u.mstances, undead with myself if my bite were to cause her to die outright. I had to find another werewolf to bite first, to see what would happen.

I conducted quite a bit of covert research as I asked more and more questions one day of Luna. "So, where does your pack live? Are they local, or did you travel after you were banished?"

Her image on my computer screen darkened after she heard my question. "I don't want to talk about the pack. It brings up too many bad memories."

"Oh, I see. I'm just curious, though. We don't have to talk about it anymore if you don't want to," I said in a pa.s.sive-aggressive manner.

"Yeah, I really don't want to talk about them, but I'll answer your question before we change subjects. They live north of town in the Cedar Forest."

The few deciduous trees in the Cedar Forest were budding as I spied on the pack. The conifers provided a better hiding place. I listened as the alpha p.r.i.c.k whom Luna had described droned on and on about the importance of subservience as the rest of the pack sat around an extinguished fire. Without fear of harm, I charged him. My teeth sunk into his neck before he even understood who and what I was. The pack charged me. Pointy teeth and strong jaws clamped on my appendages like mousetraps.

The alpha went limp while I continued to drain him. I spat him out lifeless onto the cleared earth. The stupid wolves didn't realize they couldn't kill me with the attack. I wasn't alive that I could be killed. It took a while for the bunch to realize I wasn't fazed by their jaws, their teeth, and their entire defense. Only when the pups began crying at the death of their leader did the warriors release me. I walked away, my victory empty. I couldn't just bite Luna in the hope that I could turn her into one of my own kind. She would die.

"Do you really love her?" Hazel's gla.s.sy eyes rolled into the back of her head. I could see myself in the whites of her eyes.

"Yes."

"Because there are a lot of things that people confuse with love." Her irises returned into view. "Loneliness is a big one."

I sat at Hazel's feet. "I want to be with Luna, if that's what you mean."

"Companionship is another."

"Doesn't that go hand in hand with love?" I rubbed Hazel's feet as she sat.

"It can, but in your case, I think they're not necessarily compatible. Rub me harder on my arch." She paused until I found the right spot. "Even if you could control the impulse to bite Luna, what will you do when she dies? That will happen, regardless of how much you want her to be immortal, like us."

"I don't know. I guess I'll do what humans do. I'll mourn her, then move on with my existence." The icy foot in my hand was as hard as marble.

"Because true love means you're willing to do what is best for the one you love. Don't you think continuing your relationship at a distance is best? If not, wouldn't leaving her altogether be better for Luna in the long run?"

I took Hazel's other foot. It was just as stiff and icy. I kneaded her arch as if it were dough rather than rock. "Can't I have my fangs pulled? Wouldn't that solve my problem?"

Hazel kicked me in the jaw so hard that if her appendage had been any other substance besides a vampire foot, it would have shattered against my jaw. Instead, my lower jaw and her foot remained intact, though I was badly bruised. "Who do you think would or could pull your teeth? I'm much more powerful than you are and my hard kick didn't even break your jaw. Besides, after Luna dies, how would you eat without your fangs? You wouldn't receive handouts for very long."

"Point taken," I said, rubbing my bruised mouth.

Luna showed up at my doorstep a week later. She was alone. I hadn't eaten anything yet that day, so to avoid problems, I left the screen door closed and locked.

"Won't you let me inside?" Her brow furrowed.

"I can't. You don't know...I don't know what would happen. I care about you too much to take the chance," I said.

She ripped the door off of its hinges. I stood back, not sure if she was angry, or something else. Luna approached me, and as she did, I stepped away from her again. "Look, I'm sorry I didn't let you in, but this is irrational," I said.

"There's nothing rational about love. That you or I or anyone else would bed down with someone until death or eternity's end is irrational." She pulled me toward her, licking my neck as soon as she was within tongue's reach of it. Her touch was warm, inviting.

"I'm hungry. We need to wait." I tried pushing her away.

"But you're aroused. I can smell it on you." She licked my ear, then my neck, then my mouth.

I parted my mouth for her. My kisses returned her kisses until we were awash with heat and sweat. To get near me, Luna had pushed past the doorway into the living room. Her tongue and mine danced like the Argentine tango in a rhythm all our own. She gave me a little push and I played along. Once I was on the floor and she was on all fours, she growled at me. It was Luna who dominated, crawling on top of me like the animal she was, though she appeared every bit as human as she had every other time I had seen her. It was then that I remembered the full moon.

She opened my blouse while I tore at the one hanging on Luna's body. Hers was the inhibition of the intoxicated. "I need you now," she said as she rubbed her b.r.e.a.s.t.s against mine, her hardened nipples grazing my own. She pushed my skirt up around my waist before yanking my panties from me.

Her p.u.s.s.y hair had grown back in since I last saw her. It intermingled with mine once we were able to free our hips of clothing. I panted as she worked her way down my body, her teeth dragging across my neck, my shoulder, my breastbone. She growled again, this time more guttural. Her mouth parted once it was on the bottom half of the crescent of my breast.

I knew she would bite me. With all the strength of the immortal, I yanked on her hair to bring her eye to eye with me. "If you're going to do this, I'll reciprocate."

Luna turned her body around, giving my fangs access to the artery in her leg as she knelt over me to take my breast. Her p.u.s.s.y heaved, directly above my head as we both broke each other's flesh simultaneously. I wish I could remember how it felt, but I blacked out as soon as she drew blood. When I awoke, I was still dizzy with excitement, but Luna was gone.

Hazel entered my house shortly afterward.

"Where is she?" I asked.

"You pa.s.sed the test," Hazel said, her back to me as I draped my clothing back over my gaping wound.

"Test?" I couldn't believe how sore I was.

"You waited for her to approach you rather than ravishing her at your leisure. You waited until she made the choice for you. Sure, you could have forced Luna to leave. Vamps are stronger than weres; everybody knows that. Instead, you submitted and allowed her will to take precedence over your own."

I was fully dressed again. "So where is she and where does that leave the relationship?"

Hazel laughed with a darkness like the bottom of the ocean. "She's at the hospital, in the emergency room. You'd better get there yourself, to get st.i.tched up. You don't want infection to set in."

I shook my head, "Infection?"

Hazel grinned, reaching under her cloak. She produced an insurance identification card. "Yes. I said infection."

I took it from her, the information foreign to me. "Why do I need this?"

"Because you're now both fully human." Hazel lifted her chin. "Go, find your lover and take refuge in her."

"But why didn't she die like that other werewolf did when I bit him?"

"Luna was never much a werewolf, remember?"

I c.o.c.ked my head to the side, trying to let the cogs in my mind turn. "Then why didn't she turn into one of us when I bit her?"

Hazel flicked her hand upward with a rapid twisting motion of her wrists. "Because you needed her as much as she needed you. Some things are stronger than both myth and magic. Love is one of those few things."

The throbbing in my breast was the only thing that made the reality of Hazel's words stick. War drums were beating in my chest. "Thanks," I said. "Thanks for letting me learn all this on my own."

As I left for the hospital, I was still hungry. I remembered the steak tartare that Luna and I had eaten on our first date. The rumbling in my stomach was enough to tell me I wouldn't be ordering that dish any time soon. Even hospital food would be better.

Keeping Score Kaysee Renee Robichaud Only after the warm blood dotted my fingertips did I comprehend how screwed up the situation was.

Because we had the bad luck to call Corynn a friend, Rachel and I were up to our throats in trouble: The three of us crouched, stunned and staring, in the bank's lobby as twilight dawned steadily brighter. Alarms sang over the grinding screech of my drill rig working on the vault. A cop lay dead on the floor; Corynn knelt over him. She was drenched from feeding and playing. More civilized minds might have paused for a while, wondering just how we had gotten into this situation. We did not have the luxury of time. Reality was a ticking clock.

We were robbing a bank because we needed the money. Hard to believe, huh? Three vampires-oh yes, all three of us-needing money and resorting to simple bank robbery? We tried to be smart about it. We tried to plan it all out, every contingency, but as Rachel opined: "A plan only lasts until first encounter with the enemy." Pre-vampire Rachel had been U.S. Army, so she knew what she was talking about.

I knew a thing or two about electronics and locking mechanisms from years of installing Snyder Alarms, so my focus was the vault and security systems.

Corynn- Corynn held a sort of supervisory position. So long as she thought she was calling the shots, either Rachel or I could supervise just what she was up to. Or so we had thought.

"It's just one guy," Corynn said. "The plan is not completely f.u.c.ked."

"Your 'one guy' is a cop," I said. "Other cops aren't going to let this drop."

"It's done," Rachel said. "Let's finish what we came for."

Corynn grinned through a b.l.o.o.d.y belch. A part of me wanted to puke, but another part of me-the one that was a bloodsucking fiend itself-mentioned how both the pot and the kettle were matching shades of eggsh.e.l.l-at least in my dream kitchen.

"I'm on the vault," I said.

"How much longer?" Corynn asked.

"As long," I replied, "as it takes." Fact of the matter: it was not much longer at all. But would it be sooner than the arrival of more police? Would we manage to get out through the tunnel we had dug in the sewers? Would we split the pot up three ways even, then go our separate ways? Would Rachel leave me cold?

No time for this plague of worries. We had miles to go before sunup, or else we were all going to burn.