Dark Cravings [Claiming Series, #2]

- Final -

They finished the exorcisms just in time to get back before daylight. Soren wrapped her in a blanket and carried her in his arms the entire way. Beth, despite the night's terrors, had only one wish: that he'd never put her down.

The dawn painted the eastern sky a faint pink as Beth and Soren slipped into his condo. Without pause, they headed for his bedroom and locked themselves within.

He hugged her tight, then tumbled onto the bed with her fully clothes. "I'm sorry," he said. "I can't stay awake."

"I know. It's ok."

But as she watched death steal over him, she felt all too wide awake herself. The night had left her feeling chilled to the bone, weakened after all the fear and adrenaline. She lay wide awake staring into the dark that preserved him, her entire worldview shattered as surely as if it were a glass she had dropped on the floor.

Things she hadn't believed in such a short time ago had become real. Too real. As she lay there, she wondered if she should try to reassemble her old life, or move on into this new world.

She could probably go back. In a few weeks or months, this would all seem like some kind of dream, a nightmare, scarcely real. And out there in the ordinary daytime world, everything would reinforce her old view. She knew that.

But that would mean giving up Soren. Wiggling around, she turned on the dim bedside lamp and looked at him. How could she wonder if she even had a choice? Maybe all she was to him was that "tempting morsel" he'd called her. Maybe he wanted nothing from her beyond a mating and a drink.

Maybe he would be glad to see her walk away and leave him safe in the isolated toward he had built for himself away from temptations he loathed.

Maybe he loathed the urges she awoke in him. How could she know, unless she asked? And she didn't know if she dared to ask, because she wasn't sure she wanted the answer.

Anxiety ran through her every cell, and she thought she'd never be able to sleep. The night had taken a toll, however, and finally, utterly exhausted, she slipped into dreams, many of them scary, all of them filled with an aching sense of impending loss.

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Soren woke first. The heat of Beth curled up so closely against him, her arms sung around him, held him suspended in those fiery moments of resurrection and then in a heaven only a vampire could know: human warmth.

After last night, he wouldn't have been surprised if she had not wanted to stay with him any longer. She had glimpsed his capabilities last night, could no longer even remotely think he was simply an odd kind of human. Whatever questions Kane's abduction of her hadn't answered, his own behavior had.

He'd been ready to kill for her, and he'd made no bones about it. That alone should have been enough to send her on her way.

But perhaps she was just frightened enough to need the comfort of his protection for a little while longer?

She stirred, murmuring, then he watched the amazing moments of her awakening, the soft flutter of her green eyes as she slowly emerged from slumber. And then she smiled.

"Are you all right?" he asked huskily. Last night would have made a wreck out of most people.

"I'm fine."