Dark Surrender by Mercy Walker

say—so neither ever talked about it. They simply kept the store going, and Andy looked for old and forgotten text every weekend, while Min poured over them every night, looking for a cure.
    A cure. Guilt washed over Min as she looked at the bundle of books lying on the counter. She needed to ward off the house against the vampire she’d bedded last night. That was of vital importance. Without preparation, the vampire would most assuredly find a way through her protections, and then she’d be dead, or tortured or even worse. So she couldn’t just fall onto the books looking for what was never there. She would have to put them off.
    She needed to have her protections bolstered and in place before nightfall. As she got up and poured herself another cup of coffee, she told herself that she wasn’t up for another fight tonight. But as her sore body moved to sit down again her mind flashed upon what she’d been doing that had made her so achy. The feel of his cold, smooth flesh, his hard muscles and even harder sex, how he had ground himself against and into her.
    She shuddered and shook her head. When she looked up Andy was staring at her, a smile on her face.
    “ What?” Min snapped laconically.
    “ Nothing,” Andy taunted, leaning her elbows on the counter and getting that cloyingly romantic, moonstruck look on her face. “It just looks to me like you’re thinking scandalous thoughts this morning? Did you have a date last night?”
    Min almost lied to her. She felt so ashamed, and yes, utterly moronic. But then she smiled and admitted, “Kind of.”
    Andy perked up like a cartoon dog being offered a juicy steak. “Did he spend the night?”
    Now that would be something…
    Maybe a secret hidden compartment for daylight hours?
    “ No,” her sister said, cutting her off as she tried to speak. “You’d have him leave as soon as you were—”
    “ We’re through talking about this.” Min cut her off. She just couldn’t wrap her head around what she’d done, and talking about sex with her little sister wasn’t much less disturbing. “And you’ve got the store to run today.”
    “ Yeah, yeah, yeah…take the fifth. But whatever you did—or with whom—you really, really should do it again.”
    Min stood up and shooed Andy out through the pantry to the backdoor, assuring her, “I have way too much work to do to—”
    “ Plan any immoral liaisons?” Andy sang.
    “ Goodbye!” Min shoved Andy through the door, pushed it shut and threw the deadbolt. She had to smile at her sister’s choice of words— immoral liaisons —and the rabid enthusiasm she had for Min’s love life.
    You really, really should do it again.
    Now that was a terrible, dangerous idea. Stupid in fact. But the thought stayed with Min and warmed her as she retrieved the family recipe book from behind the Oreos, snagging the bag and taking it with her as she started searching out protective charms and spells.
    The thought of doing it all again, and with the vampire, made her pulse race and her skin grow hot. She pushed the thought out of her mind . Not likely…well, almost completely unlikely. The hulking bag of books her sister had brought caught her eye. Andy had been gone over the weekend at a conference—actually a bacchanal—and had found them more books to work through. Min felt a pang of guilt as she reached out to take one and then pulled back. She needed to work on warding off the house. She needed more than just a few new tricks if she was going to keep a vampire—probably a royally pissed off vampire—at bay.
    And why is that? Her guilt chided.
    “ Because I can’t mind my own business.” She answered. She just had to save that vacuous blonde last night. And she just had to invite a vampire into the house…for sex—no, for oh-my-god-I–can’t-even-stand sex! And because of that, the spell books on the table would have to wait. She had to force herself not to rush as she poured over the recipe book. She couldn’t