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said.
    A slow smile lifted his lips. “It is your power that you see.” A hint of an exotic accent now tinged his voice.
    “I may see it, but I don’t feel it. I don’t feel energy from you at all.”
    Another push to his chest didn’t budge him, but the feel of the wall of muscle under my palm produced the almost overwhelming urge to step closer to him. After a lifetime living a nun-like existence, I’d suddenly turned into what my grandma used to call a hussy in the last five minutes.
    I pulled my hand away. “You’re seriously weirding me out. Back off.”
    The relief when he backed off was quickly replaced with alarm when I tried to move. I grabbed the dumpster in time to save myself from going to my knees. Rune grabbed my arm to support me, but I shoved his hand away.
    “No, don’t touch me.” I grasped the dumpster with both hands. “What’s wrong with me? What did you do?”
    Concern flashed in his eyes. He reached for me again, but dropped his hand when I flinched.
    “I may have fed too much. It is hard to tell with you. You are not normal human energy. Yours is intoxicating nectar.” He reached out again. “Let me help you.”
    The world swayed as I shook my head. “Ohhhhhh, noooooo. You helping me is what caused this.” My hands had a death grip on the dumpster. I lowered my forehead to rest on them. They were cool and clammy.
    “My apologies. I meant you no harm.”
    “Well you should have been more careful. It feels like you could have killed me.”
    He didn’t reply. In fact, he became so still, I thought he’d gone. I tilted my head and peeked up at him. His unmoving stare spoke volumes.
    “You couldn’t have really killed me. Could you?”
    He looked away to the dark alley and took a shuffling step back. I straightened and leaned against the wall, leaving a hand on the dumpster to steady myself.
    “Oh my God.” My heart hammered out slow, thudding beats. There wasn’t enough energy left in me for it to race. “You could have killed me.”
    I scooted along the wall away from him. Leaving my hand on the dumpster until the last possible second, I reached for the other dumpster and fell toward it, willing my legs to take each step. Vertigo twisted horizontal and swayed vertical like a flag pole in a hurricane. The energy void of the alley now worked against me. I needed to get out into the quad area and restore myself with the ambient energy of hundreds of busy students from the surrounding classrooms. The food court ended twenty feet away, but right then it might as well have been twenty miles.
    He looked back, but didn’t pursue me. “I . . . do not wish to hurt you.”
    “Yeah, yeah.” I drug myself around the dumpster, using my hands as much as my feet to propel myself. “I’m sure the lady who ran over my dog when I was twelve thought something like that just before she squashed him.”
    He reached out to me again, and I threw myself out of his reach. My shoulder and head connected with the brick wall with a sickening crack. Lightening bolts of pain streaked across my vision.
    “Stay away from me, or so help me I’ll scream bloody murder.”
    “Let me . . . I . . .” He lowered his hand and sighed. “I have encountered no one as unique as you in such a very, very long time. I do not wish to frighten you.”
    I snorted and slid along the wall toward the end of the alley. “Too late, bucko. You scare the manure out of me, and I want you as far away as possible. I have enough problems in my life without some glowing-eyed gigolo sucking the life out me.”
    Angry tears flowed freely down my cheeks. Hysteria bubbled up from my thudding heart. A shrieking tone tightened my voice, and I felt a supreme rant coming on.
    He drew a deep breath and looked toward the night sky. When he looked back at me, his eyes lacked some of their earlier glow.
    In a quiet controlled voice he said, “I will see you again.”
    A blur of motion rushed forward and lifted me. The world