at three in the morning. It’d take one look to see if the shape of her blood cells were changing to the vampiric form.

Robert was snapped out of his thoughts by a quiet moan from the girl. She hadn’t opened her eyes yet, but she was starting to come around. He glanced at her heart rate on the monitor and noticed a slight increase. He leaned forward and lightly touched her arm.

“Can you hear me?” he whispered. He watched her eyes flicker behind her eyelids. She was definitely coming around. Her fingers flexed on one hand, and when he took that hand in his, her eyes popped open in wide-eyed terror.

* * * *

Willie came out of her stupor and noticed that the pain wasn’t as intense. Maybethey had figured out she wasn’t dead and had put the fire out. She could hear beeping and the slight rasping sound of someone breathing near her. Panic invaded her thoughts as the last memory she had played through her mind. The gorgeous man had stopped and let her climb into his car. He had talked to her about the weather and asked questions that she didn’t want to answer. Then he had turned black eyes on her, and terror had skated through her system just as he moved with superhuman speed to grab her. A mouth full of sharp canines and dripping saliva slid into her thoughts. When a warm hand grabbed hers, she opened her eyes, ready to bolt.

It took her a moment to realize that