Cravings by Laurell K. Hamilton, Eileen Wilks, REBECCA YORK, MaryJanice Davidson Page A

nearly covered the sleeves
and lapels, putting a little glitter of color near all that white skin. His
pants were black satin, poofy, like there was way more cloth there than was
needed for Damian's slender legs. He wore a wide green sash for a belt, and a
pair of black leather boots that folded over just above the knee. The outfit was
very pirate-y.
    "How was work?" I asked.
    "Danse Macabre is the hottest dance club in St. Louis." He kept walking
towards me, gliding rather. There was something about the way he looked at me
that I didn't care for.
    "It's the only place where people can go and dance with vampires. Of course
it's hot." I looked at him, and I knew he had fed tonight, on some willing
woman. Willing blood feeding was considered the same as willing sex. Just be of
age, and you could feed the undead, and have bite marks to show your friends.
I'd ordered Damian to only feed from willing victims, and because of our bond
together, he could not disobey me. Necromancers of legend could boss around all
types of undead, and they had to do your bidding. The only undead I could boss
around was Damian, and frankly, I found even that unsettling. I didn't like to
have that kind of control over anyone.
    But then, Damian had a kind of control over me. I wanted to touch him. When
he entered a room, I had an almost overwhelming urge to touch his skin. It was
part of what it meant to be master and servant. This attraction to your
servants, this need to touch and tend them was one of the reasons that most
servants were treasured possessions. I think it also kept even the craziest,
most evil of vamps from killing their servants out of hand. For often a vamp
didn't survive the death of his servant, the bond was that close.
    He walked around the table, fingers trailing on the backs of the chairs. "And
I am one of the vampires that they have been pressing their bodies up against
all night."
    "Hannah is still managing the club, right?"
    "Oh, yes, I am merely a cold body to send into the crowd." He was around the
table now, to the island that separated the working area of the kitchen from the
rest of the room. "I am merely color, like a statue, or a drape."
    "That's not fair. I've seen you work the crowd, Damian. You enjoy the
flirting."
    He nodded, as he came around the end of the island. Nothing separated us now
but the fact that I was still leaning against the far cabinets, and he had
stopped at the end of the island. The urge to close that distance, to wrap my
hands around his body, was almost overwhelming. It made my hands ache with the
need, and I ended with them pressed behind me, pinned by my body the way
Nathaniel had leaned against the Jeep earlier.
    "I enjoy the flirting very much." He traced pale fingers along the edge of
the island, slowly, tenderly, as if he were touching something else. "But we are
not allowed to have sex while we work, though some of them beg for it." The
emerald of his eyes spread and swallowed his pupils, so that he looked at me
with eyes like green fire. His power danced along my skin, caught my breath in
my throat.
    My voice started out a little shaky, but I gained firmness as I talked, until
the last was said in an almost normal voice. "You've got my permission to date,
or fuck, or whatever. You can have lovers, Damian."
    "And where would I take them?" He leaned against the island, arms crossing
over that expanse of pale chest.
    "What do you mean?"
    "I have a coffin in your basement. It is adequate but hardly romantic."
    He could have said a lot of things that I'd expected, but that wasn't one of
them. "I'm sorry, Damian, it never occurred to me. You need a room, don't you?"
    He gave a small smile. "A room to use for my lovers, yes."
    Then I realized something. "You mean like bring strangers here. People you've
just picked up, and have them like sleep over, be at the breakfast table in the
morning?"
    "Yes," he said, and I understood the look on his face now; it