Called to Order by Lydia Michaels

thigh.
    His eyes, dilated to their fullest, more animal than human, flashed open and focused on that fine vein. His ears honed in to the thrum of her warm blood pumping and pulsing just a centimeter away. Under her cries he heard her heart beating a fast tattoo of ecstasy. His body closed the last remaining distance that separated them. His tongue shot past his fangs caressing the flesh of her thigh. Knowing he could not yet claim her completely, he needed to steal just one taste of her. He needed to pacify his control before it snapped.
    His mouth opened wide and in a flash of movement his fangs were embedded deeply into the warm flesh of her inner thigh, her blood quenching his appetite, flowing down his throat and mixing with his own. The cry that escaped her was pure, undiluted pleasure. Her leg muscles tightened. Adam glutted himself on her thick richness and felt his lips curve proudly around her plump flesh as his mate shattered beneath him, seeming to find the satisfying end she had been searching for.

Chapter 9

    Annalise had never awakened so disoriented in her entire life. Images of her dreams came rushing back to her with such vividness she felt physically cornered by them. What was going on with her subconscious? She was like a Freudian wet dream. Even her body seemed to ache as if her dreams had actually worked her muscles through the motions of her suddenly active fantasy-induced mind. She wasn’t sure who the stranger of her dreams was, but she was positive it wasn’t Kyle.
    She stretched and winced at the tenderness between her hips. Perhaps a wet dream was exactly what she’d had. She frowned and tried to remember the details of her dreams. First she recalled the most divine attention being paid to her body. She wasn’t clear on the setting of the dream, only that the softest lips God ever created had made a meal out of her. She felt as though she had been sipped and savored like a fine wine until she was transformed into champagne, bursting onto the tongue of some mysterious lover. She felt depleted, deliciously drained of every last lusty drop.
    She could vaguely recall being brought down from this precipice of ecstasy slowly, cradled and caressed by large hands and gently loving touches. Then she was alone. The emptiness where her dream had been surrounded her like a weight pressing on her heart and sinking her into an abyss of loneliness.
    From there her imaginings only grew darker. She had been in a tepid body of water and it was dark. The water reached to her ribs, her breasts only grazing the still pool when she took a step. She could not see the water’s edge, no shore to escape to. Claustrophobia began to set in from the overwhelming sense of darkness, nothingness. Then she felt something tickle her leg.
    She looked at the black water but saw nothing. It was as black as the air around her, almost confusing her perception of how high the water touched on her skin. She yipped at the small pinch that plucked at her hip. There was more tickling, the water seemed to come alive with tiny beings twirling and circling throughout her legs. She felt another nip at her flesh and gasped. Taking a step away from the small, offensive stinger, she tried to calm her nerves.
    The sound of her breathing and the quiet ripple of water lapping at her breasts was all she could hear. Suddenly a sharp sting pricked her ankle. She cried out and balanced on one foot. Bringing her sore ankle closer to the surface, she reached into the water and rubbed the tender spot. She felt a quick sting on her wrist and she jerked her arm out of the water. Blood trickled down her arm. Diluted with water, it ran freely down to her elbow.
    She frowned and washed the red smear away. It was like a nick from a razor, one that bleeds generously with no sign of clotting. She located the puncture and saw two tiny pinpricks. Then she felt another bite, this one to her belly, then another to her thigh, and another to her rear. They started to