The Heat by Heather Killough-Walden

lower. It was wholly unnatural.
    But she couldn’t break free.
    Lily was weakening. She could feel the strength being sapped from her limbs as if by magic. Daniel deepened the kiss and a growl rose from somewhere within him, wrapping around her like thunder. She felt like he was drinking her in, slaking a thirst he’d had for too long, and she began to feel well and truly drained.
    Eventually she stopped fighting. There was simply no strength left in her body. She gave in to Daniel, offering no resistance as his grip lessened in her hair and his fingers dropped to gently brush against the back of her neck. He seemed to tremble against her and, somewhere in the back of her mind, she registered a change in the way he felt on her tongue. It was his teeth…. The canines seemed longer. Sharper.
    But she barely cared. She felt drunk. She wondered if she’d been drugged.
    So this is what it’s like, her inebriated mind whispered. This is what it’s like to kiss Daniel Kane.
    It was a full minute more before he broke the kiss. When he finally did, Lily’s breathing had become shallow and slow. Her body yearned for his in a way she never could have imagined. Especially not now, under these circumstances.
    She watched through half-closed lids as he slowly pulled away. There was no blue left in his gaze; his pupils had expanded entirely, mirroring the black of his hair, and she now knew what hunger looked like up close and personal.
    He gazed at her for what seemed like a short eternity before he picked up the knife once again and this time, he did not pause before he placed it to her forearm and quickly drew it down across the taut, pale flesh.
    Lily winced against the quick flash of pain and let out a small gasp. But there was no real fear. His kiss had drained it away.
    Daniel’s pitch black eyes found hers again as he then dropped the knife and wrapped his bleeding hand around her arm, covering her wound with his own.
    Lily let her head fall back onto the steel frame of his bed as the pain in her forearm almost instantly melted into a strange sort of heat. That heat snaked up her arm and across her body like fingers of flame. It licked at her breasts and she felt her nipples harden against her thin dress. Then it trailed across her stomach to that moist place between her legs and she moaned and closed her eyes. It was like being kissed all over again.
    She could feel Daniel lean into her, could feel his lips lower to her ear.
    “You have no idea how much I want you right now, cher. Your need is nothingcompared to mine.” His voice had changed completely. It was now much, much deeper and it resonated through her body, caressing her from the inside as if it were a living, breathing thing.
    Daniel’s grip tightened around her arm as he once more claimed her lips in a kiss. Lily moaned into his mouth as her body convulsed in an orgasm and her mind went reeling into forbidden bliss. Darkness wrapped itself around her, warm and tight, drawing her in like a pulling tide. She rode the last wave of her orgasm into that waiting blackness and slipped into unconsciousness.
    *****
    Daniel Kane very slowly pulled out of the kiss and opened his eyes to gaze down at the young woman cuffed to his bed.
    Need was riding him like a demon. It was a pain unlike any he’d ever known. It was merciless and cruel beyond measure, nearly bringing tears to his eyes.
    With a strength he hadn’t known he possessed, he released his grip on her arm and sat back, putting a few precious inches of distance between them. His breathing was ragged and uneven. He fought to get it, and his body, under control. His head dropped back and with tremendous effort; he forced his fangs to recede. When they were gone, he looked at Lily again. His gaze slid from her sleeping face to the mark he’d left on her arm. Where there had been a knife cut only moments before, there now rested a symbol. It was blue and intricately knotted and it entranced him to see it there, on