He slipped. One hundred years of immortality and vampiric grace shot to hell by one curse. He flailed and rocked like a cartoon character on the edge of a cliff, then let out a very undignified shout and crashed.
Onto something incredibly hot and soft—and loud.
“Get off of me, you idiot vampire! Egh!” Petite fists were pummeling him, and he couldn’t even hit back without the curse making it seem like a cannonball was ricocheting off of him.“Stop that! Stop, I slipped!” he protested, rolling onto his back, palms up like a defenseless piece of prey.
Humiliation galore. Abraxus Leon, once the scourge of New Orleans, the toast of the underworld, and now... broke. Friendless. Assaulted by puny women in panties.
He couldn’t even enjoy the sight because his entire body was seizing up with cold.
“You got a stake?” he groaned. “Go ahead and use it. I’m done.”
PENNY DECIDED THISwhole thing was ludicrous. For years following the hockey incident, she’d kept quiet about the monsters in town. When she was fourteen, she’d told her mother and father everything—and had a nice week drugged out of her skull in a hospital until she said they were all gone.
They were never gone.
One was with her now. This one on the ground was obviously pulling something. Somehow, he was killing her with his vampire evil, boiling her alive in her own skin. He was cold, so nice and delightfully cold, and he was lying on his back like he wanted a belly rub. A trap!
People needed to be warned. Vampires were lurking in their town! Everyone was at risk. Her parents should not shush her. They should applaud her. And if they put her in a straitjacket, she would ask for one with AC.
Her neighbor was rising slowly. His pale skin was even whiter than usual. Like snow.
Snow White. Was she a vampire? Maybe that’s how she slept so long in a glass coffin and didn’t die. Did the fairytale people ever think of that? Maybe she was cold as snow, too.
Brax (stupid name) was as cold as snow.
When he ran into her, it was horrible, of course—except that it felt so good. For a second, her mind seemed clear. When he stopped touching her, all the heated fog of fever came back. He was hot looking—yes, her delirious mind would tell her the truth about some things, it seemed, and that was one of them. The term ‘handsome devil’ made a lot of sense. Hot to behold, but cold to touch. To actually hold.
Somewhere in her brain, that was funny. Behold, hold, hot, cold. She was humming out a little rhyme.
Hm. Vampire fighting would be a good therapy for people with supernatural fevers. Or regular fevers.
Unless the vampires bit them, then they’d die. And the fever wouldn’t matter anymore, would it?
People should be warned. “Vampires are real! Silver bullets wanted!” Penny bellowed, looking right at her bewildered (yet hot and dangerous) neighbor.
“Are you outta your flamin’ mind?” Brax hissed, tackling her and pulling her back toward the apartment, looking around frantically. He clapped a hand to her mouth and smothered her scream. Or was that a moan of relief?
Brax didn’t seem to know, either. “Um. Was that a moan?”
“No! Shut up.” Penny blushed, but took comfort in the fact that no one would be able to tell, since she was the same color as an overripe Pink Lady apple from her forehead to her toes.
“All right, then. Look, you’re not dressed for this weather, and you’ve gone insane. I’m usually good with both problems, but—”
“Oh, my God! You’re perfect. You feel so good!” Penny struggled limply, and to her semi-surprise, Brax instantly released her, hands up and out, indicating he wouldn’t harm her, nor even try. She managed to face him and instantly smacked both her palms to his ice-white cheeks. “Ahhhh.” Her eyes fluttered closed.
He moaned back.
SHE WAS ON FIRE, JUSTa few degrees from burning him, but with this damned weather and whatever had whammied him and turned him into a walking icicle, she was perfect. He felt warmth begin to painfully prickle back into his body, starting from where her hands were clapped against his cheeks. “What happened to you?” he asked in a smushed voice.
“I’m sick. Got really hot. Apartment is like a million degrees, and I—dizzy now.” She pitched forward, and he caught her.
As he pulled her upright against him, her moan turned into something purely orgasmic. Brax jumped back as much as he could, even though he’d much rather press up closer. “Shit, Penny, why—”
“Can’t get cool! Burning my skin off, too many clothes, gonna die and burst into flames, but then you— you’re perfect. Like a big, cold ice pack that’s sexy and I can put lots of places at once.”
“The whole effing town is an ice pack, you loony. There’s a reason I never travel farther north than Miami in the winter,” Brax groused, but helped her upright. When she seemed reluctant to let go, rather preferring to cling to him like creeping ivy, he picked her up like a groom sweeping his bride over the threshold. She limply clung to him, arm around his neck, seeking the bare nape, still doing those very evocative moans that suddenly made it hard to walk. But walk he did. “I’m taking you home. You’re sick. Fever. Why in the world aren’t you tucked up with some tea at your mother’s house or something?”
“I’m contagious. Or I might be.” She looked at him with confused eyes. Sweet eyes. “I could get my father sick, and he just had surgery. I shouldn’t be near anyone.” She started to push off, and he held her.
