And suddenly felt much better.

Alejandro lay beside her, fast asleep. His black jeans were slung low on his hips with the top couple of buttons undone, revealing a little black hair and the jut of one lean hip. He was shirtless and one of his arms was thrown up over his head in a position that defined his biceps.

Smooth muscle rippled over the expanse of his chest and arms. A light dusting of dark hair tapered into a trail that went down his stomach, past the waistband of his jeans.

She really wanted to follow that trail.

Her gaze found the pulse in his throat and lingered there. Hunger started low in her belly and spread out. She imagined peeling his jeans off and stroking his cock to hardness, slipping her lips around his shaft, and rendering Alejandro helpless to her every carnal whim.

She envisioned him rolling her over, forcing her thighs apart and sinking his cock deep inside her, taking her slow at first and then faster and harder. She’d bite his throat as they came together and satisfy all her desires at once.

She stared hard at his pulse and her mouth watered.

Shit. What was wrong with her? Was the Choosing still affecting her? She winced, remembering how she’d acted last night. Man, she’d made a fool out of herself. She’d begged him to fuck her.

God, what he’d done to her! And she’d rolled there on her back, begging him for more.

Even though that radically slutty response seemed to have disappeared, the sight of him still caused her body to respond whether she wanted it to or not.

His dark eyes opened and he stretched like a cat, delineating every luscious muscle from the waist up. Daria looked away, trying to master herself.

“You’re awake,” he murmured. “Do you want sex or blood?”

Both, her mind screamed. Both! She looked back at him and desire tightened her body so hard she had to grip the blanket with both hands to keep from jumping him. Daria couldn’t even form a sentence.

“Do you want blood at all?” he asked.

“God, yes.” The answer poured from her lips before she could stop it.

“Good.” He pushed up on his elbows. “You pushed through the succubare.”

Relief washed through her as she remembered breaking through both the crystal barriers. “Whew. I didn’t want to have to be a whore for the rest of my life to survive.”

Alejandro held her gaze for a moment, a smile playing on his lips. He sat up and moved so close his body heat touched her. “Vampires are still very sexual, Daria. Sometimes we fuck for no reason at all.”

She caught her breath at his proximity and her heart rate sped up.

“You put me through hell last night,” he continued. “You were so tempting. I’m surprised I didn’t give in to you.” His voice was like dark, liquid silk pouring over her skin. It made her shiver.

Daria drew a breath and concentrated on gathering enough strength to push away from him. How was she going to make it through this without letting him burn her?

“This is business, Alejandro. Remember? Business. I’m sorry about last night. I wasn’t myself.”

“I know and that’s why I didn’t take advantage.” He brought his face close to hers. His hot, sweet breath stirred the fine hair around her face. He cupped her cheek in one callused hand and brushed his lips across hers deliberately. It was a gentle tasting, not a taking.

For one wildly insane moment she wished he would take. She wished he would crush her mouth to his and roll her beneath his body.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“Today you are yourself. So what’s wrong with mixing a little pleasure with business?” he whispered against her mouth.

Daria inserted one hand in between their bodies and pushed him back . . . hard. She stood, and light-headedness washed over her, causing her to waver. Alejandro caught her and eased her down onto the mattress. A thousand pinpricks of pain assaulted her temples.

“You’re weak from the Choosing, Daria. No fast moves or large bursts of strength. You need to give your body time to adjust to the changes it has gone through.”

She fisted her hands against the pain and spoke through gritted teeth. “How much time?” She hated feeling so fragile, and right now she felt like prey to any animal that came along.

Alejandro shrugged. “You’re still stronger than a human, but it will take a couple of days for you to start to feel comfortable in your skin again. It will take years for you to reach your full strength as a Chosen. Be patient.”

She snorted. “Not one of my strong suits.”

“Hey, be happy. You pushed through the succubare and you retained your sanity. You’re one of the few unmarked humans to endure the Choosing and come out the other side a sane vamp.”

“Yeah, I only have three hundred years until I lose my marbles now. I’ll count my blessings tomorrow. I have room for procrastination.”

Most Chosen went insane once they passed their third century. That seemed to be the breaking point for a person’s mind when they lived so long. Most of them grew bored with existence. Became weary of watching those they loved pass on, the constant change of civilization, the beginning and end of wars. Eventually they started to feel the need for eternal rest, for escape, for renewal. All they saw stretching before them was a yawn of time filled with the same experiences over and over. That’s why there weren’t many old ones around.

Once a Chosen got to be about two hundred, their behavior grew erratic. Sexual appetites grew increasingly bizarre as they looked for new and different ways to amuse themselves. Some of them became sociopaths and serial killers. Still others took the path of monks and disappeared into the mountains of Darpong to become spiritual gurus.

Daria had heard the most common cause of death for the Chosen was suicide. Immortality wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

“Maybe you’ll never pop, like Sante.”

“Maybe he still will.” She glanced at him. Sante was four hundred and hadn’t gone insane yet. “What’s your take on that?”

Alejandro shrugged. “I don’t know how he’s managed to retain his sanity. He’s one of the few. However, his blood mother has not, and he remains unhealthily loyal to her.”

Her hand fisted. “Personally, I don’t care if he’s sane or not. Either way, he’s going down.” She drew a shaky breath, calming herself before asking, “How do you think you’ll handle immortality?”

He shrugged. “We’ll see, I guess.”

She chewed her lip, suddenly immersed in thought. “Yes, I will see, won’t I? I might actually still be around three hundred years from now.”

In that moment, Daria went just a little crazy herself.

She rubbed her eyes. “You have a shower in this sand trap? I need to bathe and change my clothes.” Not to mention brush her teeth. It felt like she’d sleepwalked into the desert and gargled with sand.

“Hey, Daria, you know you’re going to have to feed soon.”

She suppressed a shudder at the thought. “Yeah, well, I’m going to put it off for as long as I can.”

Alejandro shook his head. “It’s dangerous for a new vampire to ignore blood hunger. You feel it, don’t you?”

“Oh, you mean that persistent gnawing sensation in my stomach?” she shot back. “Yeah, I feel it.” She started to stand, more carefully this time. “That was in the handbook, too.”

Alejandro’s hand clamped over her wrist like an iron band.

“Hey! Let go!”

Inexorably, he pulled her toward him, back onto the bed. “You have to feed now, Daria. I can’t let you do anything else. It’s very important. The Chosen who deny satisfaction of their blood hunger for too long can go into bloodlust. It’s like going insane. Those vamps must be hunted down and killed by the GBC’s peacekeepers. Was that in the handbook?”

Of its own accord, her gaze sought and fixed on the pulse in Alejandro’s throat. The throbbing sensation in her stomach seemed to keep time with the beat of it. “You talk like the hunger is a beast within you that will devour you from the inside out if you don’t keep it sated.”

Even though she knew it was necessary for the fully Chosen, a part of her rebelled at the thought of taking blood. After all, this time it would be all her. She wouldn’t have Alejandro’s veil mischiefing her mind, making it sweet and irresistible.

The other part of her, the baby vampire part, she assumed, wanted it like nothing else. She tore her gaze away, but probably not quick enough to prevent Alejandro from recognizing her hunger.

“Your blood hunger is like a being that lives within you. One you must keep happy. If you don’t, bad things can happen, especially to a brand-new vampire. Come on, Daria. Just give in to it. Stop fighting for once and take what you need from me.” He drew her closer to him. “I’m willing to give.”

“What about the synthetic blood in your fridge? Can’t I drink that?”

He shook his head. “You’re a new vamp, Daria. You need it straight from the vein, it’s more powerful that way.”

She looked back at his throat and the hunger roared through her body. Her head pounded with it. Hunger curled in her stomach and tightened like a fist. She’d been hungry before, but this was like nothing she’d ever experienced.

As much as she wanted to delay this initial encounter, she wouldn’t be able to manage it. She licked her lips. The vampire part of her had won.

“Okay, but nothing sexual. Don’t think of this as an invitation.”

“As much as I might be tempted, I promise, Daria.”

Another hunger pang pierced her stomach and she shifted on the mattress, her palm pressing against her abdomen. Alejandro took her hand and guided her to sit on his lap, straddling him. The position felt seriously intimate. She could feel the hard stab of his cock against her cunt. Suddenly, she was very thankful for the clothing that separated them.

Because he was really happy to have her in his lap.

And, damn. She was happy to be there, too.

He arched his neck, showing his jugular. Her canines lengthened into little points, as the manual said they would, at the mere sight of a feeding possibility. The sensation surprised her even though she’d been expecting it. “What do I do?”

“It’s very simple. Bite me.”

She blinked. “Then what?”

He let out a little laugh. “Uh, you start sucking. Trust me, instinct will do the rest.”

The blood hunger bit into her stomach again and her vision swam. She had to feed, and she had to do it now. Daria took his head in her hands and lowered her mouth to his throat. She raked her teeth against his skin and felt him tense.

Her tongue stole out and licked the length of the vein, savoring the salty taste of him and feeling the prick of the stubble he needed to shave. Anticipation and arousal flushed her body and tingled between her thighs.

“What will it feel like for you?” she murmured, positioning her mouth over his vein. She didn’t know how to control her veil yet, so there was no way for her to lessen the pain. “Will it hurt?”

“No, it will feel like sex.” His voice was low, scratchy, and betrayed his arousal. “It will feel like sex, Daria, but without a climax. Just a tease.”

She bit. Her fangs slid into his skin and found his vein like a heat-seeking missile. Sweet, hot blood coursed into her mouth, the combination of all the humans and succubare he’d fed from since he’d been Chosen.

It was ambrosia to her.

Alejandro’s hands tightened on her waist and he let out a long, low groan. The sound of it went straight to her cunt, making her throb and grow slick. Alejandro’s blood flowed into her, plumping her veins and satisfying her blood hunger.

Her eyelids fluttered closed at the ecstasy of it. Involuntarily, she thrust her hips forward, grinding herself against Alejandro’s cock.

He gripped her waist, forcing her to cease the movement. “You’re going to drive me insane,” he bit off after he’d let out a stream of Spanish. “Stop that.”

The ache in her stomach from the blood hunger eased little by little until it was completely gone. She released her hold on his throat and tipped her head back on a satisfied sigh. As much as she hated to admit it, she felt much better. Stronger.

She pushed off of him and stood. This time there was no wooziness at all. A hard flush enveloped her body as she glanced at Alejandro, who still reclined on the bed. Again she’d lost her control, and this time she didn’t have the Choosing to blame.

“Next time try and unfurl your veil. You have one. You just need to learn how to use it.”

She glanced at him. “I’m sorry. Did I hurt you?”

He shook his head and grinned. “You didn’t hurt me, no.”

“Can you tell if there’s anything special about mine? I read that some vamps have different veil abilities.”

“It’s true different vamps have different flavorings to their veil. Your specialized abilities probably won’t develop for several years, though certain aptitudes may show themselves immediately.”

“What are your secret ingredients?”

His fangs flashed as he grinned. “Pleasure. My bite gives more than the average amount.”

Daria rolled her eyes.

“I also have the ability to tear down people’s inhibitions with my veil. I don’t advertise that skill.”

“What do you mean?”

“My veil acts like a drug, or like alcohol on a human system. It frees the id, makes the receiver do exactly what they want to do, without the rational thought that would ordinarily hold them back.”

“You can compel people? I see how you’d want to keep that on the lowdown.”

He shook his head. “Not compel people. I can only free them of their inhibitions and make them do what they truly want to do. It’s a rare ability, and only a handful of people know I possess it.”

She considered him for a long moment. “Do not ever use that on me, Alejandro. I mean it.”

“Most people get nervous when they find out I can do that. I felt you needed to know everything. I won’t ever use it on you, Daria. Not without your permission. You have my word.”

“Where’s the shower?” she bit off.

“In the back.”

“Thanks.”

Daria gingerly made her way to the back of the tent and into the small bathroom. Catching her reflection in the mirror over the small travel sink, she stared. A small drop of blood dotted the corner of her mouth. Right before she licked it away, she caught herself. Her eyes widened as she realized that she had done it. She’d actually gone through with it. The blood drained from her cheeks.

She was a vampire. Immortality, whether she wanted it or not, was hers.

For a long moment, she gazed into her pale face in shock. Tears pricked her eyes. She ducked her head quickly and slammed on the tap to splash her face with water. She’d seen the tank at the back of the tent when they’d flown in. She didn’t know how much water was in there and she didn’t want to waste it.

After cupping her hands under the flow and taking a couple of gulps, she shut it off. Then she leaned her arms on the edge of the sink and listened to the plink, plink of water droplets dripping off her nose and hitting the porcelain. To her newly minted preternatural hearing, it sounded really loud. She closed her eyes.

What the hell had she done?

Even though she’d planned for this and had even fought for it, it seemed unreal to her now. Her thirst for revenge against Sante had been so much stronger than her will to live out her life as she’d been meant to. Her desire to take vengeance on him had eclipsed everything else, had driven her without thought or consideration. That was a frightening revelation.

How could she be capable of so much hatred?

She straightened and stared at her reflection in the mirror, wondering who it was she truly blamed, who it was she truly hated. Was it Sante?

Or was it herself?