Darkness Calls by Caridad Piñeiro Page A

now, it seemed, he would also curse her dreams. But she refused to dwell on him or the disturbing imaginings any longer.
    Later today she would again be bait. The earlier stakeouts and investigations had yielded little for them to go on. They had a mile-high ream of paper listing possible suspects and they had not substantially narrowed the list. The killer was due to strike again soon, and they were running out of time.
    She lay back in bed, closed her eyes and visualized all she had to get done in the morning and then at the club later that evening. As the items clicked into place, she used them like sheep, counting off each one until, little by little, her mental repetition lulled her to sleep.
    Â 
    This time Ryder knew the dream for what it was—a harbinger of things to come. She had somehow shared the vision with him, but he was uncertain whether or not she would recognize it for what it was.
    She was in his arms, soft and warm and pliable. So slight. He had wondered more than once in the last few days how she survived as an FBI agent, as small as she was. But in that slender, petite frame was the heart and soul of a warrior.
    A warrior, but a woman, as well. A woman who answered his passion with her own, her honeyed lips meeting his over and over again, opening to him so he could plunder her mouth and taste her surrender. Her spirit filled him with life, made him want more of the humanity he had avoided for so long. A humanity that could only bring pain.
    â€œRyder.” She twined her fingers with his.
    He held her tighter, wanting to go further, but there was something invading his senses. The smell, the sensation of something wrong.
    â€œDiana, I—” He stopped short and pulled away, blood staining their joined hands. He shook his head, denying what he was seeing, and met her gaze, realizing that she was unaware.
    The sticky blood bound their hands together. She looked down, confusion clouding the green of her eyes. Pain erupted through him and he growled her name.
    Her eyes glimmered with tears as she grabbed hold of his shirt, her hands fisted against the fabric, trying to hold him to her. Her perfect white teeth bit her lower lip as she battled her emotions.
    He couldn’t look any longer.
    Ryder forced himself from his sleep and, to his surprise, found that he was in vamp mode, his body humming with a need for…He wanted to feed, but he also wanted to satisfy the human desire that had his body hard and aroused.
    In the time since he’d become a vampire, he’d had few friends and no lovers. It hadn’t been a conscious decision, at first. In the beginning, the uncertainty of his new existence provided too many questions and too few answers. He had preferred secreting himself in his own world rather than dealing with the questions. By the time he had answers to the who and what of vampire reality, the decision to remain alone had already been unwittingly made. His sense of loss as one human after another passed away confirmed that his decision had been the only right one.
    Until Diana. She had intrigued him, and what was left of the human in him had responded. But now the beast in him had emerged, as well, he thought, reaching up and feeling the elongated fangs in his mouth.
    He had no idea which would win—the human or the demon. Maybe, he considered, as he imagined what it would be like to bury himself in her, there wasn’t much difference between the two. He wanted to taste the honey of her mouth and the sweet tips of her breasts. Take a bite of that smooth, satiny skin.
    Would she accept him or push him away?
    In the short time they had been together, he had come to…care for her. She was bright, determined, beautiful. Able to take care of herself, or so she had told him on more than one occasion.
    But if the dream was accurate…
    Ryder wouldn’t accept that. He couldn’t. Fate had screwed him once.
    He wasn’t about to let it screw him