“Have you told her how you feel about her?” Thomas asked.

Gabriel turned his head to look at him. “And then?”

“Don’t you want to know whether she feels the same?”

“And what if she doesn’t?”

Thomas cast a look back at Maya. “The way she craves your blood, I’d venture a guess that she craves your body just as much.”

Gabriel was saved from answering when the bathroom door finally opened and Drake and the witch stepped out, their faces serious. His stomach sank. How bad could the news be?

“We both agree.” Drake glanced at Maya.

“What is it?” Gabriel asked and ran his hand through his hair.

“She’s in heat.”

Gabriel didn’t understand. “Heat? What do you mean?”

“Sexual heat,” Drake explained. “Like a feline.”

“But that’s impossible,” Gabriel protested. Heat was a sign of fertility. “She’s a vampire. Vampire females don’t go into heat—they are sterile.”

“I know that. Don’t you think I know that? But she isn’t fully vampire—whatever else she is, it’s making her go into heat.”

“So, it’s going to go away again?” If it really was sexual heat, surely it was only temporary.

“It would, but—”

“But what?”

“She’s burning up. It’s too much for her body. She could die. And there’s only one way to stop the heat.”

Gabriel had stopped listening. “Die? No. We can’t allow that. We can’t let her die. Doc? There must be something we can do.”

“Not we,” Drake said. “You.”

Gabriel snapped his gaze to Drake and the witch. “Me?”

The witch took a step toward him. “The only way to stop sexual heat is to satisfy her.”

Her words echoed in his head. Satisfy her.

“How?”

Drake had the audacity to chuckle. “I’ll leave that entirely up to you, Gabriel. I trust you do know how to make a woman come.”

Finally it sunk in. They wanted him to make love to Maya. Stepping closer to the doctor, he hissed low under his breath, “But, I can’t. You know I can’t.”

Behind him, Thomas cleared his throat. “If you want me to do it, I will. After all, it’ll be like touching my sister. It won’t mean anything.”

Gabriel swiveled. “No!” Despite the fact that Thomas was gay and had no interest in Maya, he would never allow any man to touch her.

Thomas gave a crooked smile, and Gabriel instantly realized that he’d only made the offer to get a reaction out of him. Well, he’d gotten one, and if he wasn’t careful he’d get the taste of his fist in addition to it.

“I’m not saying you should fuck her,” Drake added, “God, even I wouldn’t suggest doing such a thing to an unconscious woman, but there are other ways. Use your hands and your mouth on her. She needs to orgasm. It’s the only way the heat will break.”

Fifteen

The room was eerily quiet except for Maya’s heavy breathing and the rustling of the sheets as she tossed and turned. They had all left: the doctor, the witch, and even Thomas, to give them privacy. Gabriel knew that Thomas was still somewhere in the house, but had retreated far enough so his sensitive hearing wouldn’t pick up what Gabriel and Maya were doing. It was embarrassing enough that they all knew what was about to happen. Yet it didn’t dampen his arousal.

This certainly wasn’t what he’d planned. For starters, when he made love to her, he’d wanted her conscious and fully aware of him—fully accepting him—and not in this feverish state where she drifted in and out of consciousness. But he wanted to touch her and make love to her, even knowing what state she was in, and he cursed himself for it. She was vulnerable, and he was going to exploit her for his own pleasure.

Disgusted, he turned away from the bed. Would she hate him for it when she came to her senses and realized what he’d done, hate him for touching her without her permission? Would he lose her and any chance he might have ever had of obtaining her affections? But he had no choice, because he couldn’t let her die.

Even in her delirious state, she’d sought to be close to him. She’d writhed against him just the way she’d done it when she’d fed from him before. And the way she’d sucked his thumb, wasn’t that proof enough that she wanted him?

Her heavy thrashing made him turn back to her. She needed him, and no matter what happened later, he couldn’t ignore that need. Stripping off his shoes in midstride, he climbed onto the bed and gathered her in his arms.