“Rachel,” Ivy said, her gaze fixed on the wine. “I know what you’re thinking. Let the FIB handle it. Or give it to the I.S.”

Glenn stiffened but remained silent. The memory of her fingers around my neck made it easy for me to find a flat tone. “I’ll be fine,” I said.

Piscary rose, his bare head coming below the hanging light. “Come see me tomorrow, Ivy girl. We need to talk.”

That same wash of fear that I saw in her yesterday swept her. Something was going on that I wasn’t aware of, and it wasn’t something good. Ivy and I were going to have to have a talk, too.

Piscary’s shadow fell over me, and I looked up. My expression froze. He was too close, and the smell of blood overwhelmed the sharp tang of tomato sauce. His black eyes fixed to mine, something shifted, as sudden and unexpected as ice cracking.

The old vamp never touched me, but a delicious tingle raced through me as he exhaled. My eyes widened in surprise. His whisper of breath followed his thoughts through my being, backwashing into a warm wave that soaked into me like water through sand. His thoughts touched the pit of my soul and rebounded as he whispered something unheard.

My breath caught as the scar on my neck suddenly throbbed in time with my pulse. Shocked, I sat unmoving as trails of promised ecstasy raced from it. A sudden need pulled my eyes wide, and my breath came fast.

Piscary’s intent gaze was knowing as I took another breath, holding it against the hunger swelling in me. I didn’t want blood. I wanted him. I wanted him to pull upon my neck, to savagely pin me to the wall, to force my head back and draw the blood from me, to leave behind a swelling sensation of ecstasy that was better than sex. It beat upon my resolve, demanding I respond. I sat stiffly, unable to move, my pulse pounding.

His potent gaze flowed down my neck. I shuddered at the sensation as my stance shifted, inviting him. The pull grew worse, tantalizingly insistant. His eyes caressed my demon bite. My eyes slipped shut at the tendrils of aching promise. If he would just touch me…I ached for even that. My hand crept unbidden to my neck. Abhorrence and blissful intoxication warred within me, drowned out by a hurting need.