“And you’re between boyfriends,” he said, politely getting a dig in.

“And I’m between boyfriends,” she admitted. Danika bent her face to the table but raised her eyes to stare hard into his. “Are you implying that this is just a booty call?”

Craig laughed and delayed his answer with a sip of wine. Danika’s eyes didn’t leave him. “I said nothing of the kind,” he said at last. “Where do you want to go after dinner? Your place or mine?”

“Yours,” Danika said. “Mine’s a mess. I haven’t made my bed in a week.”

“So,” he grinned. “Easy entry.”

Dinner dragged for both of them after that, as they caught up on each other’s social circles. When the waiter brought the dessert menu, Danika passed.

“You barely touched your pasta,” Craig said. “Wasn’t it any good?”

“It was great,” she smiled. “I’m just hungry in a different way.”

He hurried to pay the bill, and then escorted her to his car, hand possessively placed on the small of her back. Spirals of sensual heat moved down her spine with every slip of his fingers.

They didn’t run to his apartment, but the walk from his garage was not slow either. Danika was in his arms before the door had fully closed behind them.

“I love what you’ve done with the place,” she whispered, breathing in the heat from his neck.

“You haven’t even looked at it,” he laughed.

“I love it anyway.”

His hand worked at the clasps on the back of her dress, and she followed suit, punctuating the unbuttoning of his shirt with hard fast kisses. She shivered out of the dress and kicked it to the side of the foyer as he dropped his shirt to the floor, and then Danika hugged him tight again. The hair on his chest prickled against her; Danika could feel the blood rising in her nipples.

“Did you … want to … see the apartment,” he said, in between the touch of her lips.

“Soon,” she said, and pressed her hips against him. Suddenly she shivered. An icy heat shot from her groin to her neck. The feeling blossomed into a warmth of pins and needles and then morphed again, into a desperately pleasurable sensation that made Danika moan.

“Don’t start without me,” he laughed.

“No worries about that,” Danika said. Her words sounded slurry. “You’re my dinner and dessert.”

Her jaw shifted in a heartbeat, and Danika didn’t wait an instant. She opened her mouth to suck on his neck. And bit him.

Craig’s yelp of surprise only lasted a moment, as Danika’s fangs found their home and released their poison before accepting his life. Between what she’d learned from Swan and the various theories she’d read, she knew that part of her change involved the development of a tiny gland in the back of the jaw. Now, with that knowledge, and her experience, she paid attention and could feel it pulse as her teeth slipped beneath Craig’s skin. What she gave through her bite, she didn’t know, but it quieted her food quickly. His blood flowed hot and fast down her throat and she sucked and sucked. It was both a hunger and an erotic sensation to feed, and unconsciously, she ground her hips against him as she drank from his veins. As her belly felt close to bursting, she climaxed, pulling her mouth back from his neck to gasp.

He lay there, on the floor, head just a foot from the door. Eyes rolled back. Quiet. Blood continued to leak from the holes in his neck, but Danika wasn’t hungry anymore. She stood up, wobbling slightly from the sense of fullness, and the aftermath of orgasm.

“Wow,” she said, staring at his body for a moment, before walking into his living room. There was a new couch and recliner there since the last time she’d slept with Craig. And a much bigger widescreen TV. Danika picked up the remote and flicked the set on, settling back on the couch. She wiped her hand across the sweat on her chest, smearing some blood across the edge of her bra in the process. Danika took a deep breath and looked around the room as she relaxed. She didn’t plan to stay long, but at the moment, she didn’t feel much like moving. She flipped to Channel 7, and laid her head back.

“I do like what you’ve done with the place,” she said.

— 18 —

The only problem with being constrained to feed on people you had a strong emotional relationship with was, at least for Danika, the very limited supply. In the weeks after inviting Craig out to (be) dinner, she rekindled relationships with five other past flames. But her “Little Black Book” was quickly running dry. Danika was an exceptionally social person, but also a driven one. She “knew” a million people, but she was close to very few. She had not taken time to cultivate friends and lovers over the past few years, as she focused instead on her climb at the station. Driving ratings had been her passion. Which was why Lon stood in her office with his arms crossed, looking … cross.

“A scientist?” he said. “You want to have a scientist on the show? Have you completely lost it?”

“Not just any scientist,” Danika said. “Maggie Ruiz! Nobody knows more about the whole vampire wave than Maggie.”

“I’m sure that’s true,” he said. “But let me remind you, that’s not what we do!” We explore the world of trailer trash. Husbands sleeping with babysitters. Love triangles with the postman. We don’t talk about the hard science of an epidemic.”

Danika crossed her arms. “Well, maybe we should.”

Lon shook his head. He knew when he wasn’t going to win. “I’ll look her up.”

— 19 —

“You’ve been studying Michael Fayne for a while now,” Danika asked. “What have you learned about vampires, and what do we still need to find out?”

The cameraman focused in on Maggie Ruiz. The epidemiologist had gotten a crash course in how to handle TV interviews over the past few weeks, and she looked comfortable as she formed her answer.

“Well first of all, we’ve learned that there’s no magic about this,” Maggie smiled. “All of those stories about garlic and crosses keeping vampires at bay, and not being able to see their reflections in a mirror … well, I’m afraid none of that’s true. Vampires are human and alive … or, at least, they’re a type of human. But they’ve undergone a genetic change. We’ve identified the change in Michael Fayne’s genetic structure that has altered his digestive track and created his need to consume blood over any other sustenance.”

“But why him? Why now?”

Maggie nodded. “That’s the question, isn’t it? We don’t have the answer yet. But we do know that it’s not happening because of some mystical bite, and I can assure you, Michael Fayne’s heart is still beating.”

“So wait a minute,” Danika said. “You’re saying that people can’t become vampires from being bitten?”

Maggie hesitated. “Well, I guess I wouldn’t say ‘can’t’ … but we have not found any evidence of it in our studies. Victims seem to be either drained and die of blood loss, or they recover and continue to live normally. We’ve not found any evidence of a gene-altering agent being transferred. So something else is activating the change in those whose genes have altered.”

“So a vampire can’t give away eternal life with his bite,” Danika said. “You’ve dashed all of my dreams of meeting a tall, dark and handsome vampire and living with him in his mansion forever.”

Maggie laughed. “Sorry. Vampires die, just like you and I. You might be able to find one to live with for a while, but he’d likely end up killing you and that would be the end of the story. They do not appear to have any ability to transfer their condition. Of course, we also have noted that the gene produces different changes in different racial types, so anything is possible, I suppose.”

“That’s an interesting point,” Danika said. “We talked with Luther Swann last month, and he mentioned that there were all sorts of vampire types. He even talked about a vampire that can only feed on people that it is close to.”

Maggie nodded. “I’ve studied all the legends, given what we’ve been dealing with. The Russian mythology talks of a wurdulac, which can only feed on its family and friends. The interesting part about that legend is that the creature is somewhat self-defeating. I mean, if your food source is constrained that way, your race would quickly become extinct, or, at least, have a pretty self-limiting aspect. The wurdulac strain might live on as it carried from family to family, but the individuals would run out of prey fairly quickly and die. I honestly can’t see a biological benefit to the limitation, so I suspect that this is part of the cultural embellishment of the vampire reality, rather than a true limitation of the strain.”

Danika nodded and smiled … but she knew better. After she finished her interview and escorted Maggie from the set, she told Lon that she’d have to miss the afternoon pre-production meeting for tomorrow. She had a couple of appointments she had to keep.

Appointments with ex-boyfriends that she’d killed.

She had a theory.

Her first stop was Craig’s apartment. And when she knocked, Craig answered the door. He looked a little pale. But mostly he looked angry.

“What the fuck did you do to me?” he asked. Then he grabbed her by the shoulder and yanked her through the door.

“I woke up here on the floor,” he pointed at the carpet of the foyer. “And then I spent the next two days throwing up. And then I went to my mom’s house … and I ate her! I fucking ate her!”

Danika nodded. “My sister was my first. I know you’re probably pretty pissed.”

“Pissed? I’m gonna fuckin’ kill you, you damn bitch. I should have known better when I got your voicemail that day. Of course you didn’t miss me. You’ve never cared for anyone but yourself.”

Craig raised a fist in the air as if to slug her, but Danika smiled and only moved into the circle of his arms.