Chapter 1

She knew that she was foolish to go out alone late at night like that.

But Laurie was struggling to sleep, and the idea of a cup of hot milky chocolate had grown in her mind, whilst she had lain tossing and turning in her bed.

Once the idea had formed, she knew that trying to sleep was hopeless, and so she pushed back the covers and slipped into her robe, and then padded across the tiled floors of her apartment, to her kitchen.

The refrigerator revealed the almost empty carton of milk, just enough for her morning coffee, and then she had remembered.

Laurie’s plan had been to buy some on her way home from work tomorrow night.

She slammed the fridge door in a fit of temper, and padded back to her bed.

But the idea of a hot milky drink, had taken root, and now it was all she could think about.

With a frustrated little sigh, she got out of bed again, and pulled on her stretchy jeans and then her boots.

She bundled into her coat, and snatching her purse and her keys, she marched from her flat, and thumped the button on the elevator.

The little metal box took her from her top floor suite to the ground floor.

“Evening Miss Beaumont,” the middle-aged doorman greeted her jovially. “This is a late hour to be out an about?”

“Good evening, George,” she smiled sweetly, and her pale blue eyes lit up in her pretty, tired face. “I am having trouble sleeping,” she explained. “So, I thought that a nice hot milky drink would help me.”

“That sounds like a good idea?”

“Yes, the only problem being – I ran out of milk!”

“Ahh.”

She looked at him hopefully. “I don’t suppose...”

He smiled down regretfully at her petite five-foot person. “Sorry miss Beaumont, but I’m off milk for a bit, the doctor thinks that I might have a lactose problem!”

“Oh well,” she sighed tiredly.

“But there is that all night shop just on the corner, less than five minutes’ walk away.”

“That’s what I was thinking too,” she smiled again and George wondered if he should offer to go for her.

“Do...” he began, but she just held up her hand.

“Thank you, George, – but I would hate for you to get into trouble for leaving your post.”

“Well then, the least I can do is watch you go,” he sighed. “I should be able to keep you in sight until you get to the main road, and I will wait out on the kerb to watch for you coming back as well.”

She had to admit that the idea of the affable George watching out for her – did make her feel a little bit safer.

“Thank you, George ... I shouldn’t be long.”

She marched briskly down the darkened road, and relied on the street lamps to plot her course to George.

At the deserted main road, she turned back and saw the shadowy figure leaning out of the shadow of the building. With a little smile she held up her hand and waved, and then marched across the road, to the row of shops, most of which were closed.

The shop on the corner was at the other end of the row, and she could see as she walked that it was all lit up and welcoming.

The alley way in the middle of the row, was the only bit to cause her concern, but she simply walked on the road close to the kerb, but keeping well away from that dark entrance.

A few steps further, and she was at the shop, and she stepped inside with a little sigh of relief, totally oblivious to the shadowy figure who was watching her from that alleyway.

Michael had been away for the weekend, and arrived back at just after eleven o’clock in the evening to find George the door man hovering on the kerb and wringing his hands.

“Good evening George, how are you ... is everything okay?” he asked in an affable if disinterested way.

George looked at him awkwardly. “Good evening Mr Richards, sir ... it’s that miss Laurie, sir she just popped out for some milk, sir,” he said anxiously. “She was only going to that all-night shop down the road, but she’s been gone for a bit longer than I think she should have been...” He looked up at him almost beseechingly. “I was just thinking that I should go and look for her, but I shouldn’t be leaving my post at this time of night.

Michael turned to looked down the darkened street.

“I had to nip inside for minute, just a minute I was, so surely something could not have befallen her then?”

Michael blocked out the man’s droning and opened up his senses, his sense of smell, his hearing, all became that much keener.

He heard the muffled sound of a phone ringing inside, and then a frightened whisper touched his ears.

“Please ... don’t ... don’t!”

“Why don’t you go and answer your phone George, while I go and find your miss Laurie, and escort her back.”

“Yes sir, right you are sir!” George said so eagerly that Michael grinned as he began to walk quickly down the street.

The moment he knew that George was gone, Michael began to run, in long quick strides.

His senses were still open, and he heard a whimper and then the tearing of fabric.

“Don’t!” he heard again as he neared that alleyway.

He heard a laboured breathing, and there was the foul smell of stale body odour mingling with a faint flowery aroma.

Michael turned down that alleyway and thundered down its length.

He vaguely remembered the young girl, he thought as she fell away from the man and clutched at her torn jacket.

The man would have followed her down, had Michael not shouted loudly.

“You there!” he bellowed, and the man whirled on him in panic and surprise.

“Me sir, I did nothing sir! You misunderstand sir!” he gabbled, as he backed away.

Michael curled his hand, to hide the black claws, but all the man saw was a thunderstorm attached to a fist, coming right at him. He gave a low groan and turned and bolted, further down the alleyway.

Michael stared after him for a moment, and had to stamp down the urge to follow, and let his animal instinct deal with the creep.

He gave a low sigh, as his metallic eyes cleared, and his claws retracted leaving him fully human once more. He bent slightly and held out his hand to the young woman half lying and half sitting in shock. “Here, let me help you up.”

She looked up at him in bewilderment, and their eyes met and locked, and he vaguely noticed the golden sheen to her blue eyes, and then he lost the moment, as a memory invaded his consciousness.

Michael was transported back to another moment in an elevator.

A moment when a strange young woman had looked at him, and had locked eyes with him, and he had seen a flicker in her pale blue gaze.

Her pupils expanded and then contracted back again, leaving a deep blue almost smouldering gaze, full of promise and hope and unconditional love.

He had felt a jolt low in his gut, and had begun to close the distance between them, when the elevator doors had opened, and his senses had been swamped by the smell of perfume and pure sex of the woman who joined them.

“Well hello,” the woman smiled at him, even as she cast a quick glance at the girl cowering in the corner. She dismissed her immediately as unimportant and unthreatening, as she stepped closer to Michael.

Michael remembered how only a few minutes later, he had stepped out of the elevator, with that woman – Sheila, and had accompanied her back to her place.

He remembered how he had spent the night with her, had screwed her brains out, had penetrated and violated, and stroked and caressed, until she cried out in ecstasy, and begged for mercy, as he had been driven and determined to stamp out all memories of the girl in the elevator.

He had thought that he had succeeded too ... until now.

Now as he looked down at the girl and her eyes swirled with the hint of an inner light, the pale blue deepened suddenly to a dark smouldering deep ocean blue, and he knew that he had just been kidding himself.

She had been there all along in the back of his mind – the edge of his subconscious; as he realised suddenly just why he had felt a sense of disappointment every time he had ridden the empty elevator ever since.

He felt himself sinking into the depths of her eyes, her soul, her being.

He knew that he would bury himself deep inside her, and never want to leave again.

“Thank you,” she suddenly stammered nervously and the spell was broken.

Her hand touched his, and reality returned.

She felt cold and weak, and he pulled her effortlessly to her feet. She would never – ever be able to handle him and his animal instincts.

“Come on, I’ll walk you back,” he said distantly, as he pushed down the gut-wrenching disappointment.

All of his life he had felt out of place.

He was a highborn of his race, one of the old true blood, he was seen as a prince – a king, a forgone leader, and was held in great respect and sometimes even fear, by others of his kind.

As a young man he had realised quickly that he would never find the perfect mate; that any female from his kind, would see him immediately for what he was and would always be slightly – if not completely in awe of him.

Michael knew that he wanted an equal in his mate. That the one he would bond with for life would never be less than him.

But that ruled out almost entirely his own kind – which in itself would be a problem since he was of the old blood.

But Michael also knew that he could not bond with a human pure blood either. He would always be too much for a human female – as his encounter with Sheila had proven. She had cried for mercy – just as he was getting going!