good, though, wasn't it? The first time's always the best."
There was no denying that fact. Carlos blinked twice, staring. "Damali?" Two inches of fang glistened crimson in the moonlight within her lovely mouth, and a thin red line of blood had dribbled down her chin between her breasts. He resisted the urge to sit up and lick the dark trail to her stained lips.
"Who else?" She shook her head, sat back with him still in her, and folded her arms over her chest. "Oh, so you had some other Jane on your mind while I was working?"
"No... Oh... shit..."
He grabbed her by her hips, and extricated himself from her to stand, stumbling a bit, but he needed motion - fatigue and the siphon notwithstanding. He had to break the physical contact with her. The pleasure wave of aftershocks were impairing his judgment, and if he bit her in this condition, he'd flat-line her for sure. Even standing away from her, he could still feel her hot seal. "No, no, no, no, no - this cannot be happening."
"That's not what you said a minute ago, baby. Last I heard you were hollering, 'Don't stop,' and some por favor mess before you went over the edge. Men." She laughed and flopped back on the bed, lazy and sated, twirling one of her locks around a finger, then closed her eyes. "Damn, that was awesome. We should get you something to feed on, soon, though. I'm two quarts to the good, myself."
He could feel panic bubbling within him, and he had never been the kind of man to outright freak about anything. But this, of all the things he'd seen and been through so far, was scaring the hell out of him.
"No!" he said fast, walking in a circle, then going from the deck back to the side of the bed, gesturing with his hands in a naked frenzy. "Something went wrong. I have to get you back to the guardians - to Marlene, your mom... baby, you're turning - "
"Turned," she sighed with a smile, "and I love it. Relax. What's done is done."
"You're supposed to be immune to my bites! What the fuck? No. I'm not having my woman go out like that - oh shit, baby - "
"You're panicking because you need to eat." She ran her finger down the side of her throat, summoning him with a lopsided grin. "You didn't finish... or did you want to save it for when we wake up?"
He shook his head no, and backed away from the glorious temptation.
Damali yawned and nodded toward the opened deck doors. "Suit yourself, but it's late, it's almost dawn, and it's time to go to bed, honey. Just - "
"Oh, my God, D - "
When she hissed and held both sides of her head and glared at him, he could feel hot tears begin to form in his eyes. He could call on the Almighty, but the Neteru couldn't? What the hell had he done?
She was sitting up now, seeming thoroughly annoyed. When she stood to fetch her white silk nightgown, she almost glided; her stride was so smooth, supernatural. Horrified, he watched her sashay out to the deck and turn her face up toward the moon, as though to bay at it.
"I'm going to get us something before the sun fries us both," she muttered, and then was gone.
It took him a moment to process what he'd just witnessed. The edge of his lair was built into a cliff with no passable roads leading to it. But she'd walked down the stairs to the mountainside and was nowhere to be found in the dense, tropical foliage. However, he was painfully aware that the sounds of the night had gone still. She'd turned. Even the creatures knew it.
Instantly, he sheathed himself with a pair of pants and his boots. Near dawn, his woman newly turned, and he was running around two quarts low on blood.
Carlos rounded the deck, stood out on the cliffs, and willed Damali's return. If he'd made her, then she had to come when he called... Then again, she still had a lot of Neteru running through her, not to mention general-purpose stubbornness that not even the underworld could probably sway. But what had gone wrong? Marlene had told them both that Damali was immune. All Neterus were supposed to be able to take a bite and survive it, unturned. He'd held off until she'd crossed over to full huntress... and when did she