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I struggled to sound calh his hair and squeezing out the excess water Grabbing the towel that was half draped over his shoulders, I pulled it onto his head and scrubbed "Done Let’s have a look"

Eli straightened, grabbed onto the towel, and dried his hair, and I couldn’t help watching the muscles move and flex with the es of his stomach and chest; his biceps bunched into rocks, shoulders broad Long veins snaked up his aruy manner When he dropped the towel and looked atabout it Eli’s new black hair hung in wet, shaggy strands over blue eyes that grew dark and dangerous as he looked down at me, and I couldn’t ht with an aran to race erratically, and I moved a bit closer I felt like I’d been placed under a spell, knowing in the back of my head that what I did was a bad move but unable to help aaze dropped to e, then rose to my mouth, where it froze A muscle flinched in his jaw "I suppose I’m part to blame" He looked at me and moved closer, his mouth at my ear, his voice even, low "Ever since I heard you say you wanted to fuck me, I haven’t been able to shake you" Eli moved his entire body in front of ainst the counter, his arrasped h pressure to force aze, then held it there He inhaled deeply, his face inches froh the , and it’s grown stronger with each encounter" He searched my eyes, his voice lethally quiet "Do you want to knohy I’ve been gone for twelve years, Riley?"

I could barely breathe, ht restraint as Eli’s penetrating gaze "Yes," I finally said, forcingwhy the hell he was torturing me He was so close that his war me thrilled and shivery at the sa each word as a low, painful growl, his breathing becoed I could feel the air snap between us with a gled "So stop twitching your tight little ass in front of aze drop to my breasts once reater terasp" He let o "And I don’t know if I’d be able to stop with you" He pushed off the counter but kept his eyes trained on mine "There’s tooso hard and fast, it hurt; s Inside, I shook, and all I couldmute and ed with fear sucked evenroom, escape Eli’s scrutiny So twisted inside that I could hear my own heartbeat, feel it beneath the thin cotton of my cami, I hurried to my bedroom I’d escape theI’d be cool; his transfor to his hair, and I didn’t exactly trust ht now

I felt his eyes on h rooms separated us, I could feel hi my skin, and I wanted to screao away--the Arcoses, the Duprés, everything

Thewould ever be the saain I stu at the now-open double doors of my balcony Reaction to action took over, and I ed with holes, emotion

The look in id, vacant, and terrifying at once He looked like himself, yet didn’t; he lookedstarved Before I could ust of air blew past ed viciously towardI hadn’t even seen Eli ing hie

My scream reverberated off the centuries-old bricks ofrip--in an atteet at me--ripped my heart out and terrified me at the same time It also kicked in my adrenaline, and I reacted As scared as I was, I hurled rabbed his arm "Don’t hurt him!" I yelled, and pulled hard "Eli, stop it!"

As if in slow rossly distorted into the saed creature Gilles had turned into--onlyI physically flinched,Eli transfor snapped inside of me, and I didn’t release his arm All-white eyes with tiny pupils bored intome, maybe even a little asha became crystal clear If Seth and I survived, our lives would never, ever be the salimpsed my brother Seth didn’t seem to care that a vaet at me, and my unique blood, which now tery, and while his face wasn’t contorted, he clawed and kicked the air as he struggled against Eli’s hold Deep in his throat, Seth made a noise thatdidn’t even sound human Definitely not Seth I can only explain it as desperate If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought he was on drugs, and trust s were sweaty, his skin pasty, his eyes rabid If only it were drugs

"Are you sure you want o?" Eli asked, and his voice, too, was soled harder

"No," I answered angrily, and I hated saying that wordI kneasn’t Eli’s fault that Seth was in transition, but I blamed him all the same, and he obviously read my mind, because he narrowed his eyes "Leave us"

I stared first at Eli, then at Seth, and my heart ached to hold him, smack the hell out of him, and shake his lanky adolescent body until he snapped out of it But I knew that wouldn’t happen, and no a It killed me to obey Eli, but I did "Don’t hurt hiree or even acknowledge my request, but I knew by the way he looked at me that he’d not hurt my brother I turned and headed for the door, and just that fast, a gust of briny air brushed the side of one Uncertainty and an agonizing pain I couldn’t define washed over y froht there on the floor I wanted to run to the , to see where Eli and Seth had gone, how they’d gone; I couldn’t My insides were locked, and an inescapable feeling of helplessness overcaoddamn tears I hated them, hated the weakness they represented, and hadn’t allowed myself the luxury of them since the day I found my mother dead in a bathtub By the tiry and the tears had dried, and I hadn’t shed onehtly around them, put my head down, and cried

How much time lapsed, I couldn’t say; I must have seriously been in a haze, because when next I was conscious of s, I was in my bed I could come up with no conclusion other than that Eli had putthe floor and clihts were out, the roo up on ht co I wished to hell wasn’t really happening I sat up and rubbed my swollen eyes

"Go back to sleep, Riley" Eli’s steady voice came from a dark corner of the room "It’s early"

"I think you’ve confused me with someone you can boss around," I answered, just as steady "Seth?"

There was a long pause, and my heart leapt But then Eli answered "Safe for now"

My body eased at his words, and I shoved h ?" I asked

In the tiht froure into a silhouette, his face nothing more than a black cutout "It’s called sentry, sarded his dark profile "Thanks for not hurting ed to say it with soer than the last "Had he hurt you, he wouldn’t have been so lucky"

My insides shook at Eli’s words I kneas dead serious, and while it pissed , "Why?"

"It doesn’t matter," he said flatly, and I knew then he’d never tell o to sleep" Still, he stood above me, next to the bed

I sat there for a while, rebellious and determined that Eli Dupré’s self-prescribed supreet the better of o to sleep so badly? Apparently, I sat there too long With my next breath he’d pushed me flat back onto h he wasn’t as hot-blooded as I was, the electricity rehtened at his closeness and the tension it caused You could feel it in what little air there was between us