1
MATTIE
Tarik's hands were cold and unyielding, pinning Mattie against the bar while his friends laughed. She tried to struggle, but it was useless. He was just too strong, and she couldn't move a muscle.
His breath was hot against her neck, his fangs grazing her skin.
Mattie opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out.
"Don't fight it," he whispered. "You're mine now."
She looked up at his face, but it wasn't Tarik who was looking at her with those cold eyes and cruel smile.
It was Dimitri.
No. This wasn't right. This wasn't real.
Dimitri had saved her. Dimitri was kind and gentle and nothing like the monsters who were the masters of this island.
Wake up, she commanded herself.Wake up, wake up, wake up.
The dream shattered, and as Mattie's eyes flew open, her heart was racing and her skin was slick with sweat despite the cold airblowing from the vent. For a moment, she wasn't sure where she was. She thought she was in her room in the hotel staff quarters, the one she was sharing with three other women, but the big warm body pressed against her didn't belong in there.
Dimitri. It was his room, his bed, and she was safe.
"What's wrong?" His voice was thick with sleep. The mattress shifted as he propped himself up on one elbow. "Can't sleep?"
She pressed her hand to her chest, willing her heartbeat to slow. "I had a bad dream."
He was instantly alert. "About what?"
Mattie couldn't tell Dimitri that she'd dreamt about him being her attacker. It was so wrong on so many levels. It would hurt his feelings.
"The attack in the bar. My mind must have been replaying what happened."
Dimitri's arm came around her, pulling her close against his chest. He was so warm, and his heartbeat was so strong and steady beneath her ear.
So human.
Would his heart rate change when he became immortal?
"It's over, and you're safe," he murmured against her hair. "I've got you."
She let herself sink into his embrace and allowed his warmth to chase away the lingering chill of the nightmare.
Her body relaxed, but her mind didn't.
Why had her subconscious done that? Why had it taken Dimitri's face and put it on the monster who had attacked her? It was such a betrayal, such a wrong thing for her brain to conjure. Dimitri had risked his life for her. To protect her, he had stabbed an immortal with a syringe full of toxin, knowing it might get him killed.
He was becoming one of them, though, and that must be what had triggered the nightmare.
The venom from Tarik's bite had activated dormant genes Dimitri hadn't known he had, and now his body was transforming, and he would turn into one of them, with enhanced senses and increased strength. In six months or so, he would also have fully functioning fangs and venom glands.
He would be able to kill with them, but he could also use them to provide incomparable pleasure.
Mattie remembered the stories she'd heard from her roommates about the venom trip and the multiple orgasms it triggered, but she was not looking forward to it. She would much rather forgo those so-called pleasures and have Dimitri stay human.
Who needed drug-induced hallucinogenic trips?
