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the glass down with trembling
fingers.
    “Are you all right?” His voice seemed normal
when he whispered in her ear. Before, when he’d been giving her
orders, he sounded commanding in a way that should have made her
angry and insulted. The fact that it made her tremble with
forbidden desires frightened her and made her feel slightly
shameful.
    “I’m fine. I don’t see Elena.”
    “This isn’t the whole club. What we’re going
to have to do is wait a little while, then on our way out take a
walk through the grotto in the back.”
    “There’s something farther back than this
lousy table?” She felt suddenly brave, giddy in fact. She wondered
what exactly was in the drink.
    He laughed. “There’s another room around the
corner there.” He pointed to a spot where slashes of orange neon
paint converged in a caricature of a couple in a fevered
embrace.
    Erica felt a jolt of anticipation at what
might be back there, and the still-coherent part of her brain
reigned in the aberrant impulse. All she wanted was to find Elena
and get out of here, get away from Max Hart and go back to her
normal human life. At least, that should have been all she
wanted.
    She concentrated on keeping her hands steady
as she lifted her glass for another sip. “Drink it slowly,” Max
said.
    “What ... what’s in it?”
    “Just scotch and soda.”
    There had to be something other than alcohol.
Only a drug could explain the way she felt. Her eyes drifted back
to the threesome, just barely visible in the dimness. The woman on
the floor began unbuttoning her blouse and while Erica stared, she
rose and switched places with the other. When the man bit into her
flesh, Erica looked away.
    “Why do they do that in public?” she asked
under her breath. She bit her lip as the waitress sauntered by with
a tray of drinks and prayed no one but Max heard her question. His
response was to inch his fingers a little higher up her thigh.
    “Careful. Keep your voice down.” He dipped
his finger in the cool amber liquid in her glass and brought it to
Erica’s lips. “Lick.”
    She hesitated only a second. Some unknown
force made her desperate to obey him, and she captured the
shimmering drop on the tip of her tongue.
    “You’ll think this is amusing, but it’s a
privacy issue. Many vampires lead human lives. They maintain homes
in town, hold down jobs. A very small percentage even have
families....”
    “How--” Erica’s question died on her lips
when Max dug his fingertips into her leg.
    “Shhh. I’ll answer all your questions. As I
was saying, they have friends and family who may not know they’re
vampires. It’s a difficult existence. They come here to feed
without fear of being seen by someone who doesn’t know what they
really are. They can be free here. Not everyone comes to the bars.
Some find feeders other ways and are able to feed privately. I’d
say most of us envy them.”
    Erica lifted her glass, but her mind was on
the position of Max’s hand. She wondered if he felt the moisture on
her inner thigh. She wanted to move and relieve the sudden pressure
between her legs, but that would only draw his fingers higher.
    “And yes, some vampires have families. No, we
can’t procreate. But some were turned after they had spouses and
children. There aren’t many. It’s a terrible burden, to know you
won’t die--a natural death anyway--and your children will grow old
while you remain young.”
    Erica nodded. The pang of sympathy she felt
concerned her. Why would the plight of a vampire affect her? How
could she have spent more than a minute thinking of something other
than Elena?
    “You need to relax,” Max said, dipping his
head close to her neck again. “Your muscles are like bowstrings.
Take a breath.”
    She tried to comply but a nervous giggle
threatened. “What’s in the drink?”
    “Nothing really.”
    “Come on.”
    “What would you like me to tell you? That I
drugged you so that you’ll be compliant later? So