Makeda heard it then, a growing roar in the distance. “The falls.”

He grinned like a boy. “Do you want to ride them?”

Her heart began to thump. “Can we?”

He turned and patted his shoulders. “Get on my back. I’ll make sure you’re not hurt. You may just be getting friendly with the Nile, but these falls have known me a long, long time.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck, and he turned his face. With a quick kiss, he swam into the growing rapids. Dodging rocks, logs and the remains of fishing boats, Lucien swam them closer to the edge. She could hear the falls. Sense the excitement of the water and the dropping away of the—

“Oh my God!” she cried as the edge appeared suddenly before them. “Lucien?”

“Hold on!” He laughed. “Don’t you trust me?”

She squeezed his neck so tightly she would have crushed his larynx if he’d been human. Then the water enveloped them, the current sucked them down, and the river threw them over the edge and into nothing.

Makeda lounged on the bank, her body resting in the shallow water as the mist billowed around her. It kissed her skin and clung to her hair. She had never felt more powerful. Lucien walked naked into the water. The current had ripped both their clothes off when they went over.

He’d been right though. She didn’t have a scratch on her. When they’d landed, they plunged into a massive pool that appeared below them, the falls sucking them down, then shooting them up and toward the edge of the gorge. Whether that current had been subtly directed by the earth vampire standing before her, she didn’t know.

“It used to be bigger,” he shouted.

“Really?” Makeda eyed his naked form, which was very very nice. “It seems pretty big already.”

He put his hands on his hips and turned to her. “Before they built the dam—”

“Oh, you were talking about the waterfall?” She nodded. “That makes more sense.”

Lucien paused for a moment, his mouth agape, before he threw his head back and laughed. “Who are you?” he asked between breaths. “And what have you done with serious Dr. Abel?”

She lay back in the river, the air around her filled with living water. “I feel amazing here. More alive than I have since I woke that night.”

Lucien moved slowly, prowling toward her. Makeda had never seen him look more predatory.

She’d never felt more like prey.

Lucien crawled over her, caging her body with arms and legs coated in copper-red water. His hair was dripping, and his eyes were narrowed on her lips. “I’ve always thought,” he said, his voice rough, “that the most beautiful places in the world are where earth and water mate.”

“You mean meet?”

“I mean mate.” He lowered himself and kissed her. Makeda felt the pulse of his amnis over her whole body. She was lying on the edge of the water, lush grass at her back, covered in mist and Lucien. He explored her mouth with leisure, his body a broad wall of muscle over hers. She felt surrounded, the earth at her back, the water filling the air.

And Lucien.

He tasted of salt and earth. Makeda could scent his blood and her own arousal. She could feel his heart beat against her breast. His hands tangled in her hair, and his body was warm and solid. Enticing. And she was so hungry.

Her body was alive with need. He explored her face with his lips. They were both drenched, and when she opened her eyes, rivulets ran from the corners. She didn’t know if they were her tears or the river’s. It didn’t matter. The river was her. She was the water. The sky. The mist. She felt it then, the universality of her element, infusing the air, the earth, and the space between her body and Lucien’s.

Desire engulfed her. She arched her back and let out a low moan. Her skin felt too tight. It couldn’t contain what she felt when his mouth was fused to hers. Her body was at once familiar and foreign. She’d become a creature of need.

“Say yes,” he said when he released her mouth. “Say yes, Makeda. This thing between us isn’t a challenge for me or a weakness for you. Don’t you feel it?” He linked their hands together and pressed Makeda into the earth. She gasped and arched under him. “Don’t you feel it, Makeda?”

She’d been overwhelmed by her own senses. She couldn’t think. She felt too much. Too much!

Makeda opened her eyes and saw the wheel of the Milky Way through clear eyes, the ordered constellations distracting her as the crashing water urged her to lose control.

Let go.

The earth was beneath her. It hummed under her skin. She felt it. How did she feel it? Living. Breathing.

This is eternal life.

“Yes.” She wanted Lucien. Wanted everything. She hungered not for blood but for the endless night and satisfaction of an entirely different appetite.

Lucien took her mouth, an edge of desperation coloring his movements. He parted her thighs and rocked between them. He bent and tasted the wet skin of her breast, running his tongue over the slick flesh before he traced a path back to her neck, sucking so hard she arched up again.

“Come in me.” Her trembling hand found his shoulder.

“Not yet.”

He was relentless. His teeth scraped over her breast again, and she cried out. His fangs teased her, the edge of pain bringing her hunger to aching focus. His fangs disappeared and his lips were warm. His body was hot, his skin a fever making the mist rise from his bare shoulders. Her thighs gripped his hips, her pelvis arching up as he twisted his body and tormented her.