Stormy sat in the sailboat, her hands bound together, watching as the man she believed to be Dracula himself manned the sailboat with the skill of a seasoned sailor. He aimed for the dark horizon as the night wind billowed in the sails and sent them skimming over the ocean at dizzying speeds, farther and farther away from everything she had ever known...
And toward something she both anticipated and feared. Something strangely enticing, oddly familiar, and yet terrifying, all at once. Something that both drew and repelled her.
Just like the man himself.
Dracula.
He looked back at her, his long black hair whipping in the wind. He looked at her as warily as if she were one of those vampire hunters she'd heard Max talking about.
She said, "You can untie me, you know."
"I don't trust you not to try to escape. And if you do, you'll drown, Tempest."
Tempest. Somehow the name wasn't so unpleasant when it came from his lips, in his voice. She couldn't take her eyes off him, couldn't stop feeling his mouth on her, his teeth-God, her neck tingled and came alive at the mere memory. "I promise I won't try to escape. I couldn't swim all the way to shore from here, anyway. And I know you aren't going to hurt me."
"Don't be so sure of that, little one."
He leaned down, and she lifted her bound wrists to him. He drew out a blade and held her hand in one of his, while he used the other to slice the ropes cleanly. Then he held it a moment longer.
"What you are feeling, " he whispered close to her ear, "has an explanation."
"Does it?"
He nodded, lifting his black eyes and locking them with hers. "I drank from you. It was foolish of me. I should not have done it. All for the sake of making a point, shocking your friends. But I am sometimes...impulsive?'
"It wasn't like I thought it would be."
"No. And it creates a...an attraction. That is why your blood heats when you meet my eyes, little one. It will pass."
She held his eyes with hers. She said, "I don't think so."
"No?"
Shaking her head side to side, she whispered, "No. Because I was feeling... what I am feeling...long before you so much as touched me. Maybe...before I even met you. Maybe...maybe far, far longer than that."
He narrowed his eyes on her. "What do you mean by that?"
She drew a breath, eyelids lowered. "I don't know. I don't know, Vlad."
He stared at her for a long, long time as they sailed on. "The sun will be up soon. I will be forced to seek shelter. I hope you won't mind resting through the day with your body bound to that of a dead man."
The thought made her shudder with fear. And with something else. Something that felt like desire.
