I’d never been a party girl. I’d been a ‘stay home on Friday night and get ahead on your homework (with the extra credit), girl.’ I considered it the height of irony that my chosen ‘job’ involved attending every party in Savannah.

I still hadn’t learned to cut loose and enjoy myself. Then again, that was a good way to end up dead at the parties I went to. Tonight wouldn’t be any different.

The creeping feeling in my gut told me this would go wrong. I was used to the disorienting flashing lights, deafening music, and crowds being elbow to elbow at these houses, but the instant magical high from whatever smoke was floating in the air?

That was new.

Someone at this party was friendly with a witch. A witch who liked her mind-altering substances. Damn it.

Unlike my friends, most witches didn’t hunt vampires. The McCormic coven’s vendetta against vampires went back centuries. One of their ancestors had been killed by one. They’d hunted them ever since. They felt vampires would enslave the world if their population weren’t kept in check.

Also, a lot of vampires tended to turn into ruthless killers, and when they did, you not only had a sociopath murdering innocent people, but you also risked exposing the magical world.

It was a pity more witches didn’t hunt them. We could always use more people loyal to the cause. It was high risk. More hunters tended to die than join. But some witches were pacifists, some didn’t care about the fight or felt it was prosecuting a vampire before they’d done anything wrong, and others thought going up against vampires was a suicide mission. It was difficult to disagree on the last point.

It took a savvy hunter to last as many years as I had. It didn’t hurt to have connected friends. I was convinced I’d gotten this far because of Kori.

That was the only reason I’d come with her tonight. I owed her. She’d kept me from dying more than once over the years. But I wasn’t sure I could support her in this decision.

I snagged a drink, leaned against a wall, and kept an eye out. I didn’t look for Kori. She’d snuck around back, and if anything seemed suspicious about us, we’d get into trouble quickly.

Any other night, I would line up a target of my own, but Kori was off her game. I was making it my one mission to ensure she made it out alive. I’d keep an eye on Laura, but she could deal with anything she came up against. It was Kori’s plan I expected to go sideways.

She was here to kill her sister. And unlike my sister, hers wasn’t a raging bitch.

Everyone loved Grace.

Had loved Grace…

Because now Grace was a vampire. A disgrace among Kori’s coven. I usually wouldn’t object to Kori killing a vampire, but I didn’t think she’d survive murdering her sister. She should have let me handle it, but no, ‘honor’ and ‘duty’ were involved.

Stupid coven laws.

Then again, killing Grace wouldn’t have been easy on me either.

As I glanced around the room, I caught sight of the woman in question. I tensed, but she was entirely absorbed by the male vampire who had a possessive arm around her.

I saw the appeal. He was cute. Big, blond. Too clean-shaven for me. Almost like he should be some shiny 50s frat boy, singing acapella in a Letterman sweater, but clean-cut had always been Gracie’s type.

But under that, he was the monster that had murdered her.

I casually slipped into the next room, needing to avoid her. She’d know me on sight, and getting spotted in this crowd would end badly for me.

My eyes scanned the room, and it took everything in me not to cringe and dart out.

I had to step in here?

The main feeding area.

Goosebumps broke out along my arms. If there was any room to avoid at a party or vampire club, it was this one. Once you walked in, you were fair game.

It all looked normal at first glance. Couples having passionate make-out sessions on the abundant seating. Hell, some might even be having sex. I tried not to look too close, but I knew one thing:

These weren’t just engrossed couples.

Vampires were feeding in here, and I wondered if any of these humans would die tonight.

These rooms always curdled my stomach. Odds were someone in here would make the missing person’s list in a few days, all while rotting out next to some highway. Friends and family would never know what happened. All that would be left of their loved one would be the video of their family pleading for their safe return on the news.

It was wrong—willing victims or not.

No matter how many vampires I killed, it never felt like enough. Not when I was standing in this room.

“You don’t look like you belong in here.”

I swallowed a gasp and blinked up at the man who’d taken up residence against the wall next to me. I’d been transfixed by a hand.

A limp hand.

Maybe unconscious. Maybe dead.

I hadn’t seen him sneak up on me, and he probably hadn’t been sneaky about it.

He was handsome—light hair, eyes I suspected would be blue. In the dim lighting of the room, it was hard to tell. And he looked suspiciously like the man next to Grace.

A brother.

There were supposed to be three of them.

Now, this man was more my speed. A couple of days of beard growth. Ripped jeans. Black t-shirt. An effortless sexy, and he knew it, and there was a compelling intensity about him. Something that made him seem out of place at a party like this.

I would guess they weren’t his idea of a good time, either.

He smiled and tucked a strand of my straight brown hair behind my ear. His warm palm brushed my face. He smelled fantastic. Oak-y, masculine. Like a good whiskey. I swayed toward him, almost like he had his own gravity.

I took a breath and tried to clear my thoughts, but more enchanted smoke entered my lungs.

My plan for the night shifted. I’d found my target. Or rather, he’d found me. If he hadn’t been related to Kori’s new brother-in-law, I would have found an impolite way to get rid of him and stayed focused on getting her out alive, but now that I had his attention, the best thing I could do was keep it.

I’d have him so busy he wouldn’t realize anything was wrong until Kori’s job was done.

Yeah, let’s keep him ‘busy.’

I struggled to keep my expression pleasant as the inappropriate and unwanted thought crossed my mind. I wouldn’t be keeping him occupied like that. I’d probably have to kill him. He was here to feed, and hell if I’d let him rip into me.

I set my cup down. I’d emptied it anyway after I’d slipped my strength potion in. I had two hours to kill him and get home before the potion wore off and I passed out cold.

Wrapping my hand around his, I pulled him out of the room, careful to keep my back to where I’d seen Grace sitting. “Dance with me.”

I might as well have a little fun while I was here, and I loved to dance. I’d been raised in ballet but had taken every other kind of dance class I could get into. Of course, it had been years.

I was busy hunting vampires. I’d gone from dance classes to martial arts and weapons training. My dance skills paid off in learning to fight, but it didn’t hold the same joy for me.

It had nothing to do with joy.

He grinned at me, and it didn’t reach his eyes. He wasn’t here to dance. He was here for blood. Well, he’d have to play my game before he could try for it.

He hadn’t struck me as the dancing type, but he didn’t argue, and when we started to move, he was flawless. I couldn’t keep the true smile from my face. Finding a guy who knew how to dance was like finding a gold nugget in a dingy gas station parking lot.

While my experience with the opposite sex was fairly limited, I did know that when you danced well together, the sex would be fantastic.

We swayed to the music, and I watched his attention jump to the different parts of my body as I slid sensuously under the beat.

I got in close to grind on him, and he put his hands on the skin left bare from where my tank top had ridden up. A sizzle of awareness traveled up my spine, and heat curled low in my belly as he ran his palm across it, fingertips skimming below the waistband of my jeans. Just enough to tease me.

I mentally cursed myself. I didn’t want to be aware of him. Aroused by him and every liquid move he made. He was a killer. He’d rip my throat out if he knew what I was.

I turned, and his warm lips brushed mine. Once. Twice. Damn that spark. I wrapped my arms around his neck and opened for him. His silken tongue tangled with mine in an intimate mimicry of what we were doing on the dance floor.

What we could be doing in bed.

When he lifted his head, the “wow” popped out of my mouth before I could stop it.

Heat swept over my face. How mortifying. Like I was some high school girl with her first crush. His knowing smile made me a little weak in the knees, and I rose on my toes to kiss him again, but he pulled away.

He grasped my hand and tugged me into a hallway leading to a darkened part of the house. Good, we needed privacy.

No.

I needed privacy.

To kill him.

And I’d keep my head on straight.

He threw open a door, leading me out into the night, and I took a deep breath of magic-free air. For a dizzying second, it seemed to make the effects worse.

I giggled breathlessly when he spun me and pressed me against the wall. Giggling? Oh boy. I couldn’t hold my witchy smoke. The next time I came to a party with that shit floating in the air, I was leaving. Before I could take another breath, he kissed me again.

The last one had been teasing. Exploring. This one was possession. Fiery burning passion. He hiked one of my knees around his hips, and I rocked against him.

“Let me make you come, Astrid,” he whispered in my ear before sucking on the lobe.

I tried to glue my thoughts back together, but he kept rocking against me, making me shudder. “But— I don’t even know your name.”

That’s your objection? The panicking, rational side of me finally decided to speak up.

“Jasper. I guess I’d better tell you if I want you to scream it.”

Wait. But how had he known my name?

Before I could push him away, a sharp pain pierced my throat. His bite! Oh God.

But the pain faded as quickly as it had come, and a wave of sexual heat boiled up my spine. Impossible to resist. I’d been bitten before, a hazard in my line of work, but it was nothing like this. This crushing need for him. His hips stilled, keeping me on the edge. I rubbed myself against him, seeking more friction. I’d never ached like this. I fumbled for the button on his jeans but couldn’t seem to work the damned thing.

He lifted his head enough to mutter. “So sweet. I might have to keep you.”

When his fangs sank into me again, my core clenched around nothing as the orgasm ripped through me. I just wanted him inside me. Needed him there.

He shoved himself away from me abruptly, and I crumpled to the ground, landing on my hip and elbow, barely able to hold myself up. I was dizzy and lightheaded. Everything had a fuzzy, dream-like edge. How much blood had he managed to take?

If he hadn’t let go, would I have let him take it all?

He knelt in front of me, and I cringed away from him. “You made a mistake coming here tonight, Astrid.”

Didn’t I know it.