Insatiable

passenger seat of his rental car. He didn’t need her texting her undead lover any warnings so

Felix could call his vamp friends and set up a trap.

It wasn’t the most uplifting drive over to Felix’s place. Especially because Sarah sobbed

most of the way and whispered, “Please, please…don’t hurt him. You don’t understand…he

doesn’t want to be the way he is. He hates what he is. He hates that he has to…hurt me.”

“Yes?” Alaric glanced at her. He’d turned the car radio to the heavy metal station. He

didn’t particularly like heavy metal, but he needed something loud enough to drown out the

sound of her sniffling. “So why do you let him do it, then?”

“Because,” Sarah said, sniffling, “he’ll die if I don’t.”

“You’re wrong about that,” Alaric said. “He can’t die unless someone stabs him with a

wooden stake through the heart or cuts off his head. Or, alternatively, if someone shoves him

into some direct sunlight or completely immerses his body in holy water. But then,” he added,

throwing a glance her way, “you must know all this.”

“None of that’s true,” Sarah said. “He told me all those things were myths. Also about

how vampires can live on animal blood. He said if they do that, they’ll die. That’s why he has

to drink my blood. To stay alive.”

Alaric rolled his eyes. “Do you realize girls like you have been falling for that one for

centuries? Vamps just don’t like animal blood. It weakens them. And they don’t look as nice

after they’ve been drinking it for a while. And if they’re anything, vamps are vain. Human

blood’s like filet mignon to them. So if he told you he’ll die if you don’t let him drink your

blood, he’s a damned liar, in addition to being a putrid stinking woman-abusing soulless

abomination.”

Sarah seemed to find his language objectionable, since this statement only made her

weep harder.

Alaric felt a little bad about this. Holtzman was always telling him that he needed to

work on his people skills more.

Accordingly, Alaric passed her a tissue from the little packet the rental car agency had

left in the car.

“You’re mean,” Sarah said, blowing her nose into the tissue. “Felix isn’t a soulless

abomination. He’s sensitive. He has feelings. He reads me poetry. Shakespeare.”

Alaric wanted to pull the car over so he could throw up, but they didn’t have time. The

sooner they got this over with, the sooner he could go back to the hotel; order some room

service; have a nice, relaxing bath (in the world’s tiniest tub, which had those grainy strips

attached to the bottom, so guests wouldn’t slip in the shower—this was Alaric’s number one

pet peeve about less-than-five-star hotels; he was a grown man, he knew how to stand without

falling in the tub); and go to bed.

Then, tomorrow morning, he’d fly to New York, check into the Peninsula, find the

prince, and kill him.

This made him quite happy to think about.

“This,” Alaric explained to Sarah in what he thought was a kindly voice, “isn’t love

you’re feeling. Only dopamine. Because Felix isn’t like anyone else you know. Being a

creature of the night, he’s new and exciting and activates a neurotransmitter in your brain that

releases feelings of euphoria when you’re around him…especially because you know you can

never actually be together, and he seems complicated, and perhaps even sensitive and

vulnerable at times. But I can assure you: he’s anything but.”

“How dare you?” Sarah demanded hotly. “It isn’t dopa…whatever! It’s love! Love! ”

Alaric wanted to argue. Vampires were incapable of love—human love—because they

didn’t have hearts. Well, technically, he supposed they possessed hearts, since that’s what he

had to stab a stake into in order to kill them. But their hearts didn’t pump blood or beat.

So how could they feel love, much less return it?

But arguing with a teenager over the semantics of vampire love didn’t seem like a

winning proposition to him.

“Oh, come on, then,” Alaric couldn’t help saying finally, noticing that his passenger

continued to sob quietly to herself. “It’s not all bad.”

“How?” Sarah demanded, flashing an aggravated look at him. “How is this not all bad?

You’re going to try to kill my boyfriend!”

“True,” Alaric said. They were nearly to the address she’d given him. “But look at it this

way. He promised to turn you into a vampire, didn’t he?”

“Yes,” Sarah said, sounding a bit surprised. “He said he was going to turn me, just as

soon as he got his strength up. Then I’ll be beautiful, like him. And immortal.”

“Right,” Alaric said a little sarcastically. He knew this Felix had no intention whatsoever

of turning her. Doing so would deprive him of his primary food source.

What Alaric was sure the vampire would do instead was string her along for a few more

months; then, when she grew too sickly from anemia to be of any more use to him, he’d move

on to some healthier host. He’d probably tell her it was him, not her…that he needed time to

“think about things.” Then he’d disappear.

Then, after her broken heart—and even more broken body—had healed, Felix would

probably find his way back to Sarah—and to Chattanooga—and start the cycle all over again.

Unless Sarah found the strength to put her foot down and tell him no, she would not be abused

in this way.

But that wouldn’t happen. The vamps were just too alluring. And their victims just never

seemed to think they deserved better than the treatment they were given. It was almost as if

they were afraid to put their foot down, because they thought they’d never get anything

better….

But that was what Alaric was for. He would be Sarah’s foot, since she didn’t have the

strength, or willpower, to put her own down. He’d make sure she got something better and stop

the cycle from continuing. Permanently.

Alaric found a parking space…except that it was beside a fire hydrant.

It didn’t matter. They wouldn’t be there that long.

“Supposing he did turn you into one of his kind,” he said, switching off the engine and

turning to look at her, “then me, or one of my fellow officers, would only have to kill you

eventually, because that’s what we do. We’re demon killers. And trust me, you really wouldn’t

want any of us on your tail. We’d be your worst nightmare. It’s much better this way. This

way, you’ll stay a human, and maybe you can go to college and get a degree and a fun job

doing something you like. Or maybe you can find some nice guy back at the Walmart you can

go out with, even marry. And, assuming you want them, you two can have a few babies, and

grow old and watch them have babies, and be grandparents someday. Wouldn’t you like that?

You could never have babies with Felix.”

“Vampires can have babies,” Sarah informed him. “I read it in a book.”

“Yes,” Alaric said, feeling annoyed. “Well, in books, the vampires struggle nobly against

themselves not to bite you, because they love you so much. But that didn’t exactly happen, did

it? So the books aren’t really very accurate, are they?”

Sarah glared at him.

“I hate you,” she said.

Alaric nodded. “I know,” he said. He reached across her and opened the car door. “Get

out.”

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