“I’m sorry tonight was ruined,” Aiden said. “I was looking forward to sexually torturing you.” He chuckled. I loved his laugh, deep and masculine, it sent tingles to all the right places. Funny how something so average could send me into a frenzy. Or maybe my body was just hyper sensitive to lust tonight. It’d been almost eight days since Aiden and I had been together.

“Does that mean you’ll make it up to me?” I grinned.

“Have you ever had sex in an Escalade?”

“There’s a first time for everything.” I leaned in and met his lips, then found out exactly how roomy the backseat was.

13

I woke up with a hangover from hell the next morning. Not from the alcohol, I’d only had three drinks; I deduced it was the after effects of the venom I’d ingested. I massaged my forehead to ease the headache crushing my brain. If witches blood was a drug for vampires, then vampire venom was like ecstasy for non-vamps that left you with a nasty hangover.

Three loud knocks sounded at my door, the noise almost deafening. I cringed as the sound reverberated in my skull and pulled the covers over my head, hoping whoever was at my door would go away. No such luck.

“Gwen?” Dorian said as my door creaked open. He was forming a bad habit of waking me up in the morning, and I wasn’t in the mood to deal with him today. My fortress of blankets did little to fool him. Dorian walked over to the bed and whipped the covers away.

“Go away,” I grumbled.

“We have training, since you skipped last night,” he paused. “What’s wrong with you?”

I peeked through one eye. “Too many drinks last night. Now leave me alone.” It was partially true; the venom had been in drinks. But I wasn’t in the mood to deal with a lecture or be tattled on to Holly.

“Tough shit. If you would have trained last night, you wouldn’t have to deal with it today,” Dorian said, a little pissier than I expected.

“Someone shove a scythe up your ass?” I laughed at my lame joke, but by the look on Dorian’s face, he didn’t find it as funny as I did.

“Your people are in the middle of a war. You shouldn’t be out drinking all night—and with a vampire no less. You have obligations, Gwen.”

Sitting up in bed proved harder than normal, my head pounded, and I had to squint to focus on Dorian’s angry face. This was ten times worse than any hangover I ever had. Those drinks must have been eighty percent venom.

Nothing like OD’ing on vampire venom. I snorted at my own thought.

“Something funny?” Dorian’s bulbous arms crossed over his chest as he sneered. What was the hell was wrong with him?

“Seriously, Dorian. You’re bitchier than a woman during PMS today. What’s your problem?” My fingers did circles around my temples, but it didn’t help ease the pain. Dorian’s constant bitching didn’t help either.

“I don’t like to be stood up, especially for a vampire,” he admitted. My hands stilled, and I looked up. His eyes remained focused on mine, the irritation evident in the stormy gray.

“I thought you were neutral? Since when do you hate vampires? Lemme guess, Holly fed you a big bowl of bullshit, and you ate it right up like a starving dog?”

He didn’t dignify my response with an answer. Instead, he grabbed my arm and hauled me out of bed. Stumbling over my own feet, I tripped and landed face first into his hard chest. My head bounced off of his muscles and throbbing pain ricocheted through my skull.

“What the hell?” I snapped. Dorian’s aggressive behavior threw me for a loop. He’d never displayed any sort of emotion other than nonchalance.

“Are you blind? Do you not see what’s right in front of you?” he yelled, but let go of my arm.

I watched him with fear and confusion. “What are you talking about?” I rubbed the spot where he grabbed and glared with as much anger as I felt. “Don’t ever do that again.”

Dorian closed his eyes and took a couple deep breaths. “Sorry. Get dressed; we are training this morning. Holly has excused you from training with the witches today.” He turned to leave my room, but when he opened the door, I used my magic to slam it shut. He wasn’t getting off that easy.

“What the hell just happened? You can’t assault me and then apologize and walk away.”

“I let my emotions control me, and I apologize,” Dorian apologized again, but still didn’t answer my question. I held out my hand to keep the door shut and walked closer. I wasn’t sure what he was capable of, but I knew I was pretty powerful and would have a fighting chance against him should his emotions take control again. Whatever the hell that meant.

“Gwen, don’t ask questions you aren’t ready to hear the answers to. Just forget it happened and meet me in the foyer.”

I considered his words. Both of us stared at each other, the question was who’d blink first? If I didn’t feel like I’d been run through the ringer, I could have stood there all day. But the throbbing pounding against my skull gave me little patience. Deciding it was better to let it go than argue, I released the door, and Dorian walked out. I may have been feeling crappy and unwilling to fight for the answers at the moment, but I would find out what he meant.

It took me a little longer to get ready than normal. By the time I dressed and met Dorian downstairs, my head throbbed with each step. Dorian wouldn’t look me in the eye which was strange, but I ignored it. I wasn’t in the mood to guess what was bugging the Angel of Death.

Dorian motioned for me to follow him and I did. We walked in silence down a couple hallways and stopped in the medical room. I remained silent as he opened drawers and cabinets in search of something. Finding a vial of pink liquid, he held it out to me.

“What’s that?”

“Cure for your hangover,” he said.

I took the vial and uncapped it. Bringing it to my nose, I sniffed the contents. It smelled like ginger and sage.

“Since when do you know anything about potions?”

“I’ve worked with witches a long time; I’ve picked up a trick or two. Drink it, you’ll feel better.”

Eying the pink liquid in my hands, I brought the bottle to my lips and tossed it back. It tasted horrible, but that was to be expected with potions, they were generally made with a mixture of unsavory items. Items I was trying not to think of as I forced the liquid down my throat. My lips curled inwards to hold back from vomiting. Once the potion settled in my stomach, my entire body began to sweat. I dragged the back of my hand along my forehead to wipe off the excess moisture and fanned my t-shirt to create some sort of breeze.

“What the hell did you give me?” My skin radiated heat as sweat gathered on my skin. When I was younger, I use to run long distance, but even that never made me sweat like this.

“It sweats the toxins out of your system. It may not be pretty, but it’s effective,” Dorian said.

I was to the point of wanting to strip off every stitch of clothing just so I could feel air against my skin. Audience be damned. “Thanks for letting me know my body would warm to a million degrees, jackoff.” Some people complained about being cold and hated winter, I was the opposite. I hated being hot and loved winter. The temperature inside my body was stifling and uncomfortable, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.

After twenty minutes of sweating what felt like gallons, I did begin to feel better. The heat receded and my headache vanished. My clothes were drenched, along with my hair, but the potion worked.

“So, was last night worth the discomfort of today?” Dorian asked. The arrogance in his voice made me want to punch him.

“You betcha,” I said with a smile, even though it was a half-truth. Most of last night was fun; I even enjoyed the venom tainted drink, until I realized what it was. I was happy to have the tricky stuff out of my system. I’d been teased and pleased by Aiden, and that always made for a good night. Knowing I’d given my verbal consent for the VC to drink from me was another story. One I’d worry about later.

“Kye explained astral projecting to you?” Dorian said, ignoring our previous words.

“Sort of. We practiced a couple times, but I’m still not sure how it works,” I told him. Being able to step out of our reality and into another dimension sounded cool—it wasn’t. It was scary as hell.

“Well, that’s your lesson for today,” Dorian said. “Go take a shower first, you smell like a dirty gym.” Before I could defend my stinky-ness, Dorian walked away.

I closed my eyes and said, “There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home,” as I tapped my heels together. When I opened my eyes, I was still in the medical room. “It was worth a shot,” I told myself and then set off to shower.

*****

Dorian found me, stuffing my face with cinnamon rolls the size of my hand, a half an hour later. While I was bathing, I hoped Holly would occupy him for the rest of the day, but like every other wish I’d made since coming to Moon, it hadn’t come true.

He didn’t say a word when he walked into the kitchen and sat down in front of me. We eyed each other, me with aggravation and anger, and him with scorn and bemusement.

“How does such a small woman eat ten pounds of sugary dough?” He finally spoke as I shoved piece after piece of roll into my mouth. I didn’t care if I looked like a pig or that I should be embarrassed by how much I ate, I was hungry and in no mood to impress anyone.

“How does an Angel of Death, someone who’s supposed to be neutral, have such a strong dislike for vampires?” I mumbled around the food in my mouth. I was thinking about the events of this morning while I sat in the kitchen and the change in Dorian’s attitude annoyed me to no end, not to mention he’d physically assaulted me. I wasn’t a wimp. I could handle a fight, but his grip had been strong and last night left me clumsy. If he pulled a little harder I could have gotten whiplash from bouncing my skull of his hard chest.

“I apologized for this morning,” Dorian said.