Every fiber of her body protested that.

He put his hand to her cheek and she sighed at the heat his body gave off. When he snaked his other hand around to her nape, she winced and tried to back away. His grip tightened. Forcing herself to not fight him, she gritted her teeth and stayed in place.

“Are you absolutely sure you want this?” he asked.

A whimper lodged itself tightly in her throat. She nodded once.

He stepped forward, closing the slight space between them, and set his lips to her cheek. She flinched away, but he grasped her upper arm and held her in place. Drawing a deep breath, she closed her eyes and psyched herself up to be bitten. Every muscle in her body felt strung tight.

“Shhh,” Alejandro soothed. He leaned in, bathing her lips with his intoxicating breath. Daria was sure he did it deliberately. It had a calming effect that she welcomed right now. She opened her eyes and inhaled, letting the serenity wash over her.

She was taking a huge risk here. If she were unable to push though the entire transformation, she’d end up destined to live her life surviving from the lust of others. The thought of being a vampire disgusted her, but the thought of ending up succubare absolutely terrified her.

“God, you smell so good, Daria,” he murmured into her ear. “Remember that night right before you left the bureau on your suspension? Remember how good we were together? We were tangled together all night long, sweaty and oblivious to the rest of the world.”

Despite her apprehension, the chemical in Alejandro’s breath made her muscles languid. “Uh . . . huh. I remember,” she murmured.

She stopped herself from purring at the memory of his bare chest rubbing against hers, how he’d pulled her beneath him and parted her thighs with his knee, the feel of his cock pressing into her pussy inch by delicious inch. She shivered.

He’d filled her so well, stretched the muscles of her cunt until she could barely take all of him. She’d felt deliciously possessed by him, overwhelmed by him.

God, she’d loved it.

She’d found comfort in Alejandro’s arms for that night. Surely, she could find comfort there again.

“Just relax, and we can be that good during the Choosing, okay? Relax,” he murmured.

Daria’s body softened against his. Her fingers found his upper arms and gripped so she could allow herself to sag against him a little.

Alejandro trailed the hand cupping her cheek down her jaw, neck, and shoulder. It briefly caressed her waist, and then pressed against the small of her back. He brushed his lips lightly across hers but didn’t linger. Instead, his mouth traced down over her jawbone to her throat.

The hand at her nape traveled up and twined in her hair. Using it as a grip, he slowly tilted her head to the side, exposing the vulnerable line of her throat. All the while he nuzzled her sensitive skin, raising goose bumps over her flesh.

Daria’s heart rate and breathing sped from more than the impending bite. Even while her mind railed against the thought of sleeping with him again, her body primed itself.

The plain blue V-neck T-shirt she wore didn’t impede Alejandro and he got right to business. With the sharp edges of his fangs, he lightly nipped the area where her shoulder and throat met. She shuddered in pleasure. Christ, she’d never get through this without spontaneously combusting.

“Alejandro, cut the foreplay. Just do it.” At this point, she’d welcome his bite just to distract her from how bad she wanted him.

“Be patient.” His tongue flicked out and sought her pulse, then settled in to lap at it. A tremor ran up her spine. Her legs suddenly unsteady, she twined her arms around him and held on.

Her voice shook when she replied, “I don’t have all—” She gasped. Sharp fangs penetrated. Sweet, jagged pain made her stiffen.

The pain receded, and warm pleasure enveloped her. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Daria understood that Alejandro had rolled his veil over her. It was designed to mask the pain with pleasure.

Oh, and how it worked. Suddenly she understood the veilhounder’s addiction.

Desire poured into her like thick, sweet honey, pooling in all the right places. Every time he moved, he brushed her hardened, sensitive nipples against his chest. The suction at her throat increased, causing the heady mixture of pleasure and pain to affect an area of her body much further south.

When he disengaged his fangs, withdrew his veil, and held her close, regret flickered.

With one hand he stroked her upper back. “Are you okay?” His voice sounded heavy, aroused, thick. It rumbled through her, and she fought the urge to lean against him and close her eyes. She needed to be able to stand on her own.

“I’m—” The word came out a strangled rasp. She pushed away from him and staggered back. “I’m fine.” She reached up and touched the two puncture wounds at her throat to distract herself. “Wow, uh, I see what you mean about the lust.” Damn it, her voice sounded quavering and thin.

He smiled. She noted uneasily that it seemed predatory. “I haven’t Chosen you yet, Daria,” he said in a purring, thick voice.

She felt the blood drain from her face. “O-oh.”

“I thought you read the handbook.”

“I did.” Daria turned away from him and closed her eyes. She was not going to give in to him. She was not. A man like Alejandro was more dangerous than most and she wasn’t going to let him in, not even if it was just for sex.

“Daria? Are you okay? You don’t feel faint, do you?”

She turned, masking her worry with an expression of anger. “No, I don’t feel faint.” The word sounded like the lash of a whip in the quiet air.

Laughter lit his eyes but he obviously valued his balls enough not to let it slip from his throat. He was smart. “Good.” He walked toward her, biting his wrist as he came. He twined an arm around her waist and pulled her close, placing his wrist to her mouth at the same time. “Then you can drink.”

She eyed the blood dripping from the wound he’d made. “Uh.”

“Drink, Daria. This is the Choosing.”

She hesitated, then closed her eyes, screwed up her face—and her courage—and flicked her tongue out to taste his wrist. The flavor of his life force coated her tongue like aged, expensive wine. It had a silken texture with an edge of sweetness. It was a Chosen chemical quirk that made it taste so. She didn’t want to spit it out like she had before. She licked his skin and closed her eyes.

It was irresistible.

Hold on . . . how could it be irresistible? Was he using his veil on her? Was Alejandro making her like it? No matter. She wanted, needed, more. Daria grabbed his forearm and latched her mouth to his wrist, licking and sucking.

His free arm tightened around her. “Daria.” He let out a hard breath. He didn’t say anything more than that, but lust infused her name, letting her know he was feeling the desire, too.

Gently, he lowered her to the floor, keeping his wrist to her mouth and his arm around her waist. Daria was intensely conscious of the length of his hard body against hers. He cradled her in his lap.

Her body felt taut, ready to fire. His arm brushed her breast, and she whimpered. She didn’t care about anything right now except her body’s sudden intense demands. Daria let the blood fill her. It was as though she could feel it actually running through her veins, investigating her body, finding it suitable and infusing her.

“Stop. You’re killing me,” he groaned. “In more ways than one. You’ve had enough blood, Daria.”

She relinquished her mouth’s hold on his wrist. The wound seemed to close up immediately. In fascination, she watched it.

Alejandro pulled his hand away and she moved off his lap. He rolled onto his back with a guttural groan. Daria let her gaze travel from his head of thick black hair down the chiseled features of his face, to the rise and fall of that magnificent male chest, and to the obvious mound where his erection pressed against his pants.

She didn’t know if it was an effect of the Choosing or if it was due to Alejandro’s veil, but her mind felt folded under a thick cotton blanket. Daria fought for clarity, for logical reasoning, but it slipped through her fingers. All that remained in the wake of the fast departure of her senses were her body’s needs.

Right now, her whole world was all about her overwhelming arousal and how Alejandro could take the sharp edge off of it. Somewhere in the back of her mind a whisper of remembrance lingered. She’d wanted to resist Alejandro, but the heavy spell of the Choosing trumped her former resolve.

She had to have him.

Daria shifted to her hands and knees and crawled up Alejandro’s body. He opened his eyes and stared at her. Those dark brown orbs were heavy-lidded and appraising. Daria knew he wanted her as much as she wanted him. His muscles felt strung tight and he kept his hands carefully at his sides, as though he fought the impulse to touch her.

Daria wondered what she could do to make him lose that fight.

With confidence born of the knowledge of mutual attraction, she straddled him so he could feel the heat her sex radiated. One by one, she unfastened the buttons on his shirt, revealing his tan chest. She ran her fingers over his skin, tracing around his nipples.

He grabbed her wrists fast, making her gasp. “Daria, you’re in the throes of the Choosing. What you’re feeling is an effect of the chemical changes that are taking place in your body. I can’t accept your invitation right now. I want to, don’t get me wrong.” He groaned. “Dios, I really do, but I can’t.”

Clarity emerged. She pulled her hands from his. He was right. He was so very, very right. What the hell was she doing? Then, as soon as it flickered, the thought was gone, leaving behind only her lust.

She traced one of his flat nipples lazily, and Alejandro shivered beneath her. Heat flared in his eyes. She wanted that heat to turn to fire, so she rotated her hips slowly, grinding her cunt down on his hard cock through their clothing.

“Daria,” he rasped in warning. “Don’t do that.”

She only smiled. “Come on, Alejandro, I know you want to fuck me.” Daria reached down between their bodies and rubbed his rock-hard shaft through his clothing. “You want to slide this cock deep inside me, just like you did so many years ago.”

“I do.” He flipped her and pinned her wrists to the floor on either side of her head. The hard press of his body wiped the smile from her face and heightened the need she felt. She squirmed beneath him, pressing up against the delicious, rigid side of his shaft. “I want to fuck you, but, Daria, please,” he groaned. “You’d regret it in the morning and I don’t want to be one of your regrets.”

Despair filled her. He couldn’t reject her now, not when this desperation for release seared her. She tossed her head and moaned, fighting the pleadings that crowded the back of her throat. She wouldn’t beg him, but the need to do it felt almost irresistibly strong.

“Please.” The word came out of her twisted, choked, desperate. “I need you, Alejandro.”

Alejandro made a frustrated sound. His hand slipped between her thighs and found her clit. Methodically, he used the hard hem of her pants against the aroused bundle of nerves. Daria writhed on the floor beneath him, moving her thighs in time to his touch. “This will make you feel better.”

“It’s not enough. More,” she moaned.

He hesitated, then his breath hissed out of him. “You’re going to kill me with this, Daria.” Alejandro undid the button and zipper of her pants and slid them down and off along with her panties. Cool air bathed her bare skin.

She thrust her own hands between her thighs, but he gently pushed them away. Dragging his strong fingers over her hot, flushed pussy, his breath hissed out of him. “You want my cock, here, baby, don’t you?”

Daria bit her lower lip and nodded. Oh, so bad . . .

He slid a finger inside her, stretching muscles that hadn’t stretched that way in a long, long time. With the pad of his index fingers, he rasped over her G-spot. Her breath shuddered out of her. “Just like that, querida? Is that how you want me to fuck you?”

“Yes,” she breathed.

“Good. Spread those pretty legs of yours and let me make you come.” His voice sounded ragged, hoarse.

She tossed her head as he added one more finger, stretching her muscles even more, but not as far as his cock would. He thrust in and out of her, making her body rock back and forth on the floor of the tent.

Her cunt was wet and eager, tingling with the erotic pleasure Alejandro bestowed on her. Daria was drunk on it, lost to it. She couldn’t stop herself from digging her heels into the floor of the tent and moving her hips in time to his thrusts.

Daria’s hands found the hem of her shirt and pushed upward, finding her breasts so she could roll her nipples between her fingers. Her whole world was only about getting off right now, finding release for the intense sexual pressure the Choosing had built in her.

“Fuck, I can’t take it,” he growled. “I have to taste you.”

He parted her legs and pushed her down, pinning her with strong hands to the floor and making her gasp. If she had wanted to move or get away, there would have been no way she could’ve. Her cunt was spread wide open for him, swollen and aroused with need.

Alejandro blew along the sensitive skin of her inner thigh and over her aroused cunt. Daria shuddered in delicious anticipation. Then Alejandro groaned and lowered his head, pulling her clit between his lips.

Her fingers found his hair and fisted. She watched his dark head bob between her thighs as he dragged his tongue up and down the length of her pussy. Alejandro acted like she was the best thing he’d ever had in his mouth.

He raised dazed eyes to hers. “You taste good. Sticky, hot, sweet heaven. Just like I remember.” He removed one hand from her leg and slid two fingers deep inside her cunt, rasping along her G-spot as he rolled her clit back and forth with his tongue.

Orgasm swelled, receded . . . exploded. She tipped her head back and closed her eyes. Sweet release poured through her, drenching her cunt and making her spine bow. She gasped his name as it rippled through her. Alejandro licked over her as the waves eased and faded away, like he couldn’t stop tasting her.

“I need more,” she murmured, reaching for him after the waves of ecstasy had passed. “I need your cock inside me, Alejandro. I want you to fuck me.”

Alejandro stared down at her sated pussy with carnal intensity. His fingers traced her labia, now red and swollen from his attentions, and she shivered and closed her eyes. “The process is faster than usual with you for some reason. It’s almost time for it to start.”

“What’s it? What’s going to start?” she murmured.

A tornado began in her mind.

She cried out. He released her and she rolled away from him, pulling herself into a little ball on the floor, not caring that she was half naked, not caring about anything at all beyond the sudden change in her mind and body.

Knowledge slammed into her, like a massive PComp download at the speed of light. Her body seemed to contract and then expand. Colors swirled through her mind, and sensations too numerous to register racked her body. She squeezed her eyes shut and lay panting under the onslaught.

Images from her childhood assaulted her mind’s eye and battered her senses. The rubbery scent of her favorite doll. Her father’s smiling face right before he’d died. The heavy weight of her mother’s heirloom brooch in her hand. The sound of the crowd cheering the new class of Galactic Patrollers on graduation day.

The images faded, and she squeezed her eyes shut and fought the urge to vomit. Now she had the sensation of ascending, faster and faster. Wind ripped at her clothing and at her hair as she sped straight up through darkness with nothing to halt her progress. Even though she knew her body still lay on the floor of the tent, her mind had been launched like a rocket.

Something loomed before her, something tall and wide and shimmering in the black.

Daria screamed and arched her back as she hit it. The barrier shattered with a bright tinkling sound and crystal shards flew out from the impact. Her ascension slowed from the collision and, instinctively, she knew she had to speed it up somehow.

Writhing on the floor of the tent, she clawed out in front of her, groping the air in her search for more momentum. Another shining barrier glimmered up ahead. She knew she had to punch through it.

Panting, Daria used every last reserve she had to increase her velocity. Almost there. She was almost there, but she was so tired, so tired . . . She let her body relax.

“Fight, Daria,” Alejandro whispered in her ear. “Don’t give up. Don’t give up now. Punch through.”

Her eyes flickered opened, then closed again. He was right. She couldn’t give in to the exhaustion now, but it was so hard. She felt like she’d been running in the desert for three hours. She couldn’t take even one . . . more . . . step.

“Remember Julia,” Alejandro whispered.

The name jolted Daria’s body and an image of Julia filled her mind. Julia leaning across the lunchroom table, laughing, her badge glinting in the sunlight and her soft brown eyes crinkling at the edges with amusement. The next flash made Daria gasp—the sight of her friend sprawled on the floor, her eyes unseeing and glazed, the pupils blown.

Julia. She had to fight for her.

Daria sought way down in the recesses of her mind for her will. Her will had always been strong. One last burst of strength that poured pain through her body propelled her to the next barrier at an inching pace. She pounded on the wall until her fists in her mind’s eye were bloodied and ravaged. She yelled and fought and kicked.

Finally, she punched her fist through the crystal barrier. A heartbeat later, it shattered.

The images flipped off like someone shutting down a commview and she went limp. Alejandro’s warm body spooned her from behind and she was grateful for the support.

Apparently, that had been the it.

Her eyes fluttered open. The world looked so strange. She could see everything in minute detail if she concentrated hard enough. If she focused, she could pick out individual fibers in the tan-colored tent wall in front of her. If she concentrated very hard, she could hear each separate grain of sand blowing outside. She winced at the incredibly loud noise of it and ceased to put her attention there.

“Oh, my god,” she breathed.

“Are you okay?” asked Alejandro.

“I-I don’t know,” she panted.

“Are you sleepy?”

“Yes.” In fact, fatigue was starting to engulf her now. Her body relaxed involuntarily into exhaustion and it became difficult to keep her eyes open. Her body demanded rest. No matter the questions she had. No matter what her mind wanted. Darkness enveloped her.

“Did . . . I do it? Did I . . . push through the succubare?” she murmured as she lay on the edge of sleep.

His hand smoothed the hair back from her forehead. “We’ll know when you wake up, querida.” She floated away on the deep, sweet tones of his voice.