I swallowed the blood quickly, concentrating on the taste of it, willing myself to access the cellular memory it might carry. The room spun as if I were drunk, and I slid to the floor, my head lolling back to rest on the mattress. Slowly, my vision blurred and a rushing sound built in my ears. Dahlia's memories seeped into my consciousness without any goading from me.

Was this something that happened with all vampires? Human blood didn't affect me this way, at least not often. It had happened when I'd fed from Ziggy, but he'd been trying to communicate with me then, I think. Was Dahlia conscious enough to manipulate my brain now?

I became too absorbed in the pictures flashing through my mind to think further on it. Dahlia's thoughts were concerned mainly with Cyrus, a fact that didn't surprise me. A noisy club packed with writhing bodies—the club where I'd met Dahlia?—seethed around me; the monotonous pounding of industrial music filled my ears. The crowd parted like something out of a movie—perhaps Dahlia embellished this part—and she caught sight of Cyrus across the crowded room.

This was the first time she'd seen him. And she'd wanted him at first sight She approached him purposefully, and when he noticed her, I recognized his expression. Hunger, and deviant lust. He'd wanted her, too.

It made me oddly jealous to know he'd felt this way for her. I wanted to believe she'd been more passionate for him than he had been for her, but there was no mistaking his intent as he rose, took her hand and lifted it to his lips.

"I'm Cyrus. And you are?" he asked, and she had to strain to hear him, as he didn't raise his voice over the loud music.

"Going home with you tonight," she responded boldly. Then I was rushing forward in time, to the car where Dahlia sat in Cyrus's lap as he tugged her head back by her hair and bit her neck, not to feed but to arouse. Then to his room, where he pinned her to the bed and showed her his true face. She feared him, but she didn't show it, and he liked that. That's why he didn't kill her like the other girls. That, and when he held her down and fed from her while he fucked her, she invaded his mind and gave him a sense of her true power. If there was one thing Cyrus hadn't been able to resist in his former life, it was the promise of power.

I lost track of time as I watched her short life unfold from that moment. It was like watching a movie on a broken projector. Sometimes the images moved too fast to comprehend, sometimes so slowly it seemed they would burn up. Still, I wasn't frightened. I felt I could pull myself out at any time, though I couldn't control what I saw or heard.