Ivy closed the cover of the cereal box and stood, pointing one long pianist’s finger at me. “How do you know you won’t like sleeping with me if you don’t try it—once?” she mocked, every word clear and precise.

It was as if her words took the last of my reason. Tugging the afghan up, I got in her face, pissed that I had to look up at her in her boots. “You are not in charge of me,” I said, neck flaming, but I was so mad it didn’t mean anything. “I am my own person. Don’t you ever forget it! And right now, I’d rather sleep with Trent than you!”

I turned to leave, gasping when she yanked me back into the room. Adrenaline sang as the world spun, and I found my back against the island counter. A pulse of fear dropped deep, igniting my soul, bringing me alive. Ivy’s eyes were black. They were utterly, beautifully black, and they pinned me where I stood. From my scar came a surge that made my knees threaten to give way. I couldn’t look from her eyes, and I tried to figure out what had happened. I was…I had been arguing with Ivy. Stupid vamp? No, stupid witch.

Suddenly stone cold sober, I stared at her. I wanted her to bite me, but not until I knew she could handle it. Or perhaps more accurately, until I knew I could. And there was the ultimatum that she had thrown down last year: all or nothing. Sex and blood both. Nuh-uh. Not like this.

“Back off,” I said as I gave her a shove to get her out of my way. “I’m not doing this.”

Moving with a provocative slowness, Ivy put her hand on my shoulder and pushed me back, her grip tightening to slow my backward motion until I hit the counter again. A tingling of sparkles lit through my old vampire scar, sending a twin pulse to ignite the one she had given me just this spring. Shit.

“I said I’m not doing this,” I said, ticked and scared all at the same time. “Ivy, I didn’t start this, and I’m not going to sleep with you to share blood. Get out of my way.”

“I started this, and you don’t have to sleep with me to share blood,” she said, utterly still.

I froze. I don’t have to sleep with her? My gaze rose to meet the faultless black her eyes now were, and she smiled, showing a slip of teeth.

“What do you think Rynn Cormel and I have been doing together for the last two months?” she said softly.