"What?" Austin propped himself up on an elbow.
Darcy gasped when she noticed the vein in Austin's neck. It wasn't her heartbeat she was hearing. It was his. It was his blood, pounding through his arteries, calling to her.
"Darcy." He touched her shoulder.
She jumped. "Yes?"
"I asked you a question. Are you all right?"
"Yes, I'm fine." God help me, I'm hungry.
"Is there a way to turn a vampire back into a mortal?"
"Roman thought there was, but they experimented on a pig and it died. There's no way Shanna's going to let Roman try it on himself." Darcy's gaze wandered back to the vein in Austin's neck.
Good God, she could actually see it pulsing. She could smell the blood. This was terrible. This had never happened to her before. But then, she'd not been around any mortals for the last four years.
And now, she was acting just like a… a vampire.
"How does the experiment work?" Austin asked.
"It doesn't work." Darcy gritted her teeth with frustration. A curious ache pinched at her gums.
"Why not?"
"Aren't you wearing your anklet?" She glanced down, but the comforter was covering his legs.
"I took it off when I showered. Darcy, why doesn't the experiment work?"
"Something about our DNA. It's mutated. Roman thinks it will only work with the original human DNA." The smell of Austin's blood flooded her brain. His heartbeat thrummed through her body.
Good God, what if Austin was right? She had no control over her eyes or her strength. What if her fangs sprang out?
She jumped from the bed and scrambled for her clothes on the floor. She couldn't find her underwear, so just grabbed her shorts and pulled them on.
Austin sat up. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." She located her top and pulled it on. The tingling in her gums was growing stronger. Oh, God, what if she bit him? What if she killed him?
He climbed out of bed. "Don't go. We still have round two."
She donned her bathrobe. "I don't want to fall asleep here. The sun will shine through your windows." She stuffed her feet into her slides. "I'll be more comfortable in the pool house."
He grabbed a pair of underwear from his suitcase and started putting them on. "I'm coming with you."
"No!"
He glanced sharply at her. "Don't push me off. You made the decision to come here tonight, and it was beautiful. You can't back out of this now."
A sharp pain lanced her gums. "I have to go." She wrenched open the door.
"Dammit, Darcy!" He strode toward her. "You will tell me what's wrong!"
"It was beautiful." Her eyes blurred with tears. "But it can't happen again. I'm sorry." She rushed down the hallway.
"We have to talk," he yelled. "I'll be at your place in five minutes!"
"Hey!" Garrett's voice rang out. "What's going on?"
Darcy speeded up so the second CIA man wouldn't see that Austin's girlfriend was a vampire. It was bad enough that she was breaking Austin's heart. She didn't want him to lose his job, too. With her super-sensitive hearing, she could still detect their voices.
"Problem with the girlfriend?" Garrett asked.
"I'll fix it," Austin grumbled. "This is only temporary."
Tears welled in Darcy's eyes as she climbed the stairs to the roof. The problem wasn't temporary.
She was stuck being a vampire forever.
Five minutes later, Austin knocked on the pool house door. No answer. "I know you're in there, Darcy." He'd watched her on the surveillance camera while he'd thrown on his clothes. She'd grabbed a bottle of Chocolood and a box of tissues and gone straight to her bedroom.
He knocked louder. "We need to talk."
The door cracked open. Her eyes were red from crying. Damn, he hated to see her suffering. He hated even worse not knowing why. "What the hell happened?"
"I'm really sorry," she whispered.
"We were talking about that experiment, then all of a sudden—wait, is that it? You're upset because the experiment failed?" He tried to pry the door open, but she was holding it steady with her super strength. "Don't shut me out, Darcy. You know I love you."
A tear rolled down her cheek. "I can't ask you to give up everything for me."
"You don't have to ask. It's my choice."
She shook her head. "No. I won't have anyone sacrificing themselves for me. I won't allow it."
"Why not? Don't you know you're worth it?"
She sniffed as another tear tumbled down. "I don't believe in sacrificing oneself."
"Of course you do. You did it yourself when you saved Taylor."
Her face crumbled. "And look what happened. I lost everything. I won't let that happen to you. You would grow to hate me. After you lost your job and your friends and your family, you would hate me."
"No!" He rested a hand on each side of the door and leaned forward. "Darcy, you were Taylor's hero. Let me be yours."
Her breath caught in a sob. "I'm sorry." She shoved the door shut.
He stared at it in disbelief. God damn it. He was willing to give up everything for her, and she'd slammed the door in his face? He curled his hands into fists. "No!" He punched a fist against the door, then stalked back to his room.
Damn, damn, damn! Each step increased his rage. How could she do this? He'd come such a long way, all the way from being a vampire hater to her lover. She couldn't just toss him aside.
She wouldn't, dammit. He'd show her. He wasn't that easy to dismiss.
Thirty minutes later, Darcy jerked to a sitting position at the sound of loud banging on her door.
"Oh, go away," she moaned, falling back onto her tear-soaked pillow.
There was a silent pause, and she imagined Austin pacing outside with indignation. Or maybe he had left and accepted the inevitable. Fresh tears ran down her face. She was doing the right thing.
She was probably saving his life, but there was still a secret hope deep in her heart that he would burst through the door and refuse to ever give her up.
The banging started again. Oh, please. Don't make me have to reject you again. She rolled over and pulled a pillow over her ears to muffle the noise. The banging continued. She tossed the pillow aside since the damp pillowslip chilled her ears.
"Darcy, if you don't come here, I'm breaking the door down!"
Vanda? Darcy stumbled from the bedroom to the front door of the pool house. "I'm coming." She didn't have to yell too loud since Vanda's hearing was as good as her own.
"Well, thank God. I was beginning to think you were sick or something," Vanda muttered.
Darcy opened the door. "I'm fine."
Vanda's eyes widened. "The hell you are. You look awful."
"Thanks." Darcy peered through her swollen eyes at the figure huddled behind Vanda. "Oh, no. Maggie, what happened?"
"Yeah, she looks awful, too." Vanda dragged Maggie into the pool house. "I thought you'd be able to cheer her up, but—"
Darcy took one look at Maggie's red-rimmed eyes and tear-stained face and burst into tears.
"Great," Vanda muttered. "This is going to be fun."
"Oh, Darcy. It was terrible," Maggie wailed with a fresh supply of tears.
Darcy wrapped her arms around her. "Poor Maggie."
With a sigh, Vanda shut the door. "Looks like I brought the right stuff." She lifted an unlabeled bottle. "Now, we can all get hammered."
Darcy sniffled. "What is it?"
Vanda strode into the kitchen. "Gregori gave it to me. It's Roman's latest venture into Vampire
Fusion Cuisine. Still in the experimental stage, though. Not for sale yet."
Darcy and Maggie wandered toward the kitchen, their arms still looped around each other.