Bewitched, Blooded and Bewildered by Robyn Bachar

stomach.
    “No, she won’t. She won’t lay a hand on you again,” Zach assured me.
    “I thought you said she’s the jealous type?”
    “She is. She’ll get over it. Shall we?” Zach offered me his arm, and I took it. I glanced back over my shoulder, expecting to see the mysterious something that was missing, but nothing happened. Just more boring vampires milling about, spending their unlives looking at weird art.
    We took the elevator down to Harrison’s lair, and I paused when we stepped into the room. He opened his mouth to ask again if I was okay, and I held up a hand. “I’m feeling fine,” I said before he could ask. “Besides, if I start having negative side effects from the blood, wouldn’t you sense it?”
    “I would, yes.”
    “Then stop asking.”
    “I’m concerned about you,” he said. Zach smoothed a stray spiral curl away from my face. “I should have known Laura would try something like this. If I hadn’t bound us together, I wouldn’t have known you were in danger. She would’ve killed you.”
    “That’s a cheerful thought,” I said sourly. “I’m still mad at you, regardless.”
    “Is it such an awful thing?” he asked. His voice was low, and if I didn’t know better, I’d say he seemed vulnerable.
    “You didn’t ask. We’ve already been over this whole consent thing,” I said. I poked an accusing finger into his chest. “You’re pushy and manipulative and I don’t like it.”
    “No?”
    “No.”
    “May I kiss you?” he asked.
    I paused. It was progress that he was asking. I wasn’t sure I wanted to say yes. “Why?” I asked.
    “Because you look beautiful in that gown,” he replied. Zach moved closer, and I placed my palm against his chest to stop him.
    “That’s a lame reason. A dress form would look beautiful in this gown.”
    “Because I’ve wanted to kiss you again since the moment I kissed you earlier, before the party.”
    I bit my bottom lip as a shiver tingled down my spine. Okay, that was a better excuse. This time when he leaned in I didn’t stop him, and he kissed me softly. When I didn’t argue, he slipped his arms around me, drawing me close to him. He was warm—it wasn’t fair that he looked so alive and healthy. Monsters should look like monsters, especially when they’re about to eat you.
    “Stay with me tonight,” he murmured against my lips. I shivered again, and I knew it wasn’t from a sudden draft.
    “For observation, right? Because of the blood I drank?” I said, my voice barely more than a whisper. I should shove him away. I should knee him right in the groin and run for it. Instead I stood still, almost shaking, staring into his eyes.
    “Close observation,” he said. Zach grinned wickedly, and before I could argue, he picked me up and carried me out of the room.
    “Whoa. Not frolicky observation. I mean, I almost died last night—I don’t think strenuous activity is a good idea,” I protested. Nearly dying was the reason I’d ingested the icky, slightly-poisonous-to-witches blood in the first place, because it helped Zach heal me with his also icky necromancer magic.
    “I’ll be gentle,” he promised. Before I could say anything further he sank his fangs into my neck, and a wave of pleasure smoothed my protests away. I sighed happily, awash in the warm glow of the spell as Zach drank from me—okay, maybe necromancy wasn’t entirely icky after all. You’re so beautiful, Catherine, he thought, and I heard it as clearly as if he had spoken the words aloud. I doubted that, but I still reveled in every pull of his mouth against my skin. I gasped his name, and he stopped drinking.
    “You are beautiful,” he murmured. “And much more than that. You’re powerful. You’re strong.”
    Zach kissed me. I tasted my blood as his tongue teased mine, and I could hear his thoughts, as though the static on the radio vanished when I finally found the right station. Zach wanted me. Not just my body, but all of me—mind, heart