He pulled her tighter against his body. “I’ll cut down a field of flowers to give you when we reach the safety of home. We don’t have any restaurants in the village but I’ll cook you dinner.”

“That’s so sweet of you to say. Its total bullshit but I appreciate it.”

“You’d be surprised over what I’d do for you, Dusti.” Sincerity rang in his tone.

“You just want to finish what we started today.”

“I won’t deny that.”

“You can’t hide what you want from me in that regard. I can feel you digging into my stomach. My, what a big bulge you have.”

He tensed. “I can’t help it. You’re touching me and in my arms. I know you need rest though. You’re exhausted.”

She nodded again, enjoyed rubbing her cheek against his hot skin. She loved the way he smelled too. Masculine and woodsy. The woods part may be coming from the tree we’re next to, she acknowledged, but it didn’t matter.

She focused, pushing away lightheaded sensations that threatened to make her giggle. Her head swam again and she felt as though she might float away. Her fingers and toes tingled…

The symptoms sank in. She wasn’t having an emotional breakdown. It was more of a physical one.

“We have another problem.”

“I know you’re hungry. I can hear your stomach rumbling. We’ll catch something at first light, and I hope you enjoy sushi since we can’t start a fire.”

“It’s not my favorite but I can eat it. That’s not it. You said you had to leave your jacket behind. My shots were inside it. I’m feeling lightheaded and dizzy again. My thoughts are a mess and my emotions are all over the place. It’s going to get worse. I’ll start to ramble, as if I’m drunk, if I don’t pass out soon. I’ll go into shock next, then lapse into a coma. It happened once when I was fourteen. I hated taking the shots so I’d lied to my mom about giving myself one. I blacked out and next thing I knew, my mom was staring down at me with that look on her face that said I was in big trouble. She yelled at me for an hour about how dangerous it was not to take my shots and how I could have slipped into a deep coma.”

“I told you that you don’t need shots. You take after your grandmother.”

“Right. What are you going to do? Kill a rabbit and make me drink its blood? Big e I’d throw it up before I could even get it down. I know you said I’m part Vampire but I can’t stand the sight of blood. I tried volunteering at a hospital in my teens for extra credit during high school and fainted the first time I was in the emergency room, when they brought in some guy with a head wound. That makes me a shitty Vampire, doesn’t it?”

“Dusti.” He sounded irritated.

“I need a shot, Drantos. That’s what I’m saying. I think the cold water was too much of a strain or something on my body. I’m exhibiting all the symptoms of when I’ve gone without a shot for too long. Only worse. The stress probably didn’t help matters.” She fought to calm her thoughts and keep in control of her emotions. Tears filled her eyes but she managed to resist bursting into sobs. “It’s going to get worse. It always does.”

“Do you trust me at all?”

She paused to feel out her emotions. “Yes. You’re not a lunatic. You saved me on the plane, protected me again from that beast by the river, and you found me tonight to keep me from dying in the woods.”

He chuckled. “You don’t have to sound so irritated about it.”

“I just don’t feel well. I get kind of bitchy when I’m dizzy and scared. It beats the giggles. Trust me.”

“Straddle me.”

“You’re going to hit on me now? Really?”

“Straddle my lap,” he repeated. “Do it.”

“I thought you said you knew I was too tired for sex.”

“That was before I knew what you needed.”

“I need sex? I hate to break this to you but it’s only going to wear me down more and make me sicker if I do physical activity. I think the swim across the river exhausted me or sent me into shock.”

“Please trust me.”

She hesitated but when his arms released her, she moved. She didn’t have a lot of room to maneuver. She could feel the chilled vegetation brush against her legs when she faced Drantos and put her knees on either side of his hips. His thighs shifted together and she adjusted until she wasn’t touching cold Earth anymore except for under her knees. The rest of her sat on his lap. The bulge in his jeans pressed against her pussy and her hands flattened on his chest.

“Now what?”

“I’m going to supply you with blood. Lean in until your face is at my throat.”

It took her seconds to understand his meaning. “You want me to bite you?” The absurdity of it caused her to laugh. It wasn’t funny but she couldn’t help herself. “You are nuts. I don’t have fangs.”

“No, but I have claws. I’ll scratch my skin to bleed for you.”

All humor left. She wished she could see his face. “No. That’s insane. I’m starting to get a bit woozy but I’m not that far gone.”

“You need the iron, Dusti. You’re part VampLycan.”

“You drink blood?” She reached up to examine her neck on both sides where he’d bitten her the night before. She didn’t find any scabs or flaws on her smooth skin. “You drank my blood?”

“I nicked your throat with a fang, then I licked it closed. My saliva heals wounds. It’s one of the Vampire traits passed down to us. It hides the bite marks quickly on someone we’ve fed from to help us survive without detection. The more saliva, the faster the healing.”

Dusti leaned back away from him. “Are you serious?” She searched her skin again with both hands but couldn’t find any healing injuries on her neck where he’d been kissing her.

“Calm down. I smell your fear. We don’t need blood the way a Vampire does.”

“Then why did you take some of mine?”

His arms wrapped around her waist and he sat up enough to press against her chest, pinning her to him. She didn’t resist. He was warm.

“Easy, Dusti. We get our blood through eating meat. You’ll never find a vegetarian VampLycan. I told you that you take after Marvilella, your grandmother. She needed to drink fresh blood about once a week or she’d suffer some symptoms of illness. You obviously need it as well. I needed to test your blood to determine exactly what you are.”