Thank God for her backpack and its supply of energy bars, but by the time sunset rolled around, she’d be making a beeline to the nearest restaurant and some real food.

In the meantime, she was making do. She’d showered and changed, feeling every strained muscle, every bit of deliciously tender flesh. There was a unique soreness to a woman’s body after sex, muscles used, secret places rubbed and invaded. Sid wasn’t an innocent; she had prior experience of that soreness. But never like this. Sex with Aden was like nothing she’d ever known before, nothing she’d ever thought existed. And she could hardly wait to do it all over again.

She smiled to herself, wishing she could be there when Aden woke, imagining his eyes opening, his broad chest expanding as his lungs drew their first deep breath of the night. And then he’d roll over and wrap her in his big arms, tucking her beneath his body, one thigh slipping between hers, the weight of his cock against her thigh…

She sucked in a deep breath of her own. She felt herself growing wet, her pussy aching as she remembered the feel of Aden’s thick shaft sliding in and out.

“Jesus, Sid, get a grip,” she muttered and forced her attention back to her computer screen and the article she was writing about hidden slavery in America. That was a splash of cold water on any arousal she’d been feeling. This was the reason she was here. Meeting Aden had been an amazing bit of luck all around, but her purpose in getting inside the world of vampires had been to expose their illicit business practices.

Had been being the operative words there. She’d had every intention of rousing the peasants with their torches and pitchforks, of dragging Klemens into the light and letting him burn. But now it was Aden she’d be exposing, and that wasn’t going to happen. Whatever sins he might be guilty of, selling women into slavery definitely wasn’t one of them. He’d been ruthless the other night in killing every one of the slavers, but when it came to the slaves themselves, he’d shown tremendous care. Knowing his background, it made sense to her, but not everyone would have come out of his horrific experience with compassion for others. Studies had shown over and over again that some of the worst abusers had been abused themselves. It spoke to Aden’s strength of character that he chose to protect the weak instead.

But Sid’s story still needed to be told. Americans needed to know what was going on under their noses. Maybe she could play down the vampire angle. The fact that the slave ring had been controlled by vampires wasn’t that important in the overall scheme of things. There had been plenty of humans down the food chain, too.

Her cell phone rang, and she glanced over. It was her oldest brother again. He’d been calling ever since the weekend, wanting to know what was up with her, why she’d left not just the party but the whole town so suddenly. She wondered what he’d say if she told him the truth, that she was shacked up with a vampire, and not just any vampire, but the next Lord of the Midwest. He’d probably send the men with their white jackets after her.

Sid touched the side of her neck. It was tender, but the wounds were almost gone. If she hadn’t been so pale, there’d probably be nothing left to see, no evidence of a vampire’s bite at all.

Her phone was still ringing. Two more rings, and it would go to voice mail. She should really answer this time. If her brother Jamie didn’t hear her voice soon, he’d get someone to knock on her condo door. And when no one answered the door, he’d get the super involved. Jamie took his responsibilities as the oldest child very seriously. Particularly when it came to his baby sister.

She exhaled a long-suffering sigh and took the call.

“Hey, Jamie.”

“About damn time,” he shouted. “You disappear from the party and then don’t even bother to answer the phone?”

“I’m sorry. Didn’t you get my e-mail?”

“Seriously, Sid? I’ve been calling for two days.”

“I’m sorry,” she repeated. “You know how I get when I’m finishing a story.”

He grunted wordlessly, but said, “So the slave story’s almost done?”

“Almost,” she agreed.

“You’ll be coming back home then?”

That had been Sid’s plan all along. Her move to Chicago was supposed to be temporary. A few months to write a story about drugs and violence, then back home to the suburbs. But the drug story had become a slavery story, and then Janey had died, and the slavery story had become a crusade to shut the whole ugly thing down. And now it was almost two years since she’d left her parents’ safe and cozy suburb for the wilds of the big city.

If Jamie had asked her that same question two weeks ago, she’d have told him, yes¸ that she was leaving Chicago and coming home soon. Her condo lease was up in a month, and she’d have been more than ready to get out of the big city and back to the quiet comfort of her parents’ suburb. There’d been nothing keeping her here.

But now that she’d met Aden, the idea of leaving Chicago made her chest hurt, because it meant leaving him. And she didn’t know if she could do that.

“I don’t know,” she answered Jamie’s question honestly.

“Mom misses you, you know. So does Dad, but Mom especially.”

“I know, and I’m sorry. But . . . I haven’t decided yet.”

“Hmm. I hear Will’s getting married,” he ventured carefully, as if testing the waters.

“That’s not the reason I’m staying in Chicago, Jamie,” she told him patiently. “Will and I haven’t been a couple for a long time.”

“Just thought I’d check. I’d hate to break the guy’s bones, but you know I would if he hurt you.”

“Will would never hurt me.” She didn’t add that that was part of the problem, that Will was simply too nice, just like every other man she’d met until now. She hadn’t realized it herself until she’d met Aden. Apparently, she needed a man with an edge.

“Okay, well . . . I’ll be in town next week,” Jamie told her. “We can do lunch, or dinner. You can cook for me.”

Sid made a dismissive noise. “Yeah, right. You can take me out, how’s that?”

“How’re you ever going to get a husband if you don’t cook, baby girl?”

“Who says I’m looking for one?”

“Mom wants grandbabies.”

“Mom’s got two perfectly good sons who can pop them out for her.” She paused. “Unless you’ve got something to tell me? Maybe the popping doesn’t work so well?”

“Fuck you.”

“Now that’s just sick.”

“Jesus, Sid, that’s disgusting. You’ve been hanging around the wrong class of people for too long.”

“Maybe.”

“Look, I’ve got to go, but we’ll definitely get together next week, okay?”

“Sure. Call me when you get here, we’ll work something out.”

“Love you.”

“Love you, too.” Sid disconnected, then put her computer aside and sat up, feeling suddenly restless. Maybe it was the call from her brother, trying to drag her back within the circled wagons. If it were up to her family, Sid would never leave the suburbs. She’d get married and have a few grandchildren for her mom to spoil, if not with Will, then with someone equally suitable. Suitable meaning one of their own—white, educated, and moneyed. She didn’t know how much formal education Aden had, but he clearly had plenty of money. On the other hand, she was pretty sure suitable didn’t include a vampire, no matter what.

Needing to stretch some of her sex-sore muscles, and desperate to think of something besides her immediate future, she grabbed a bottle of water and headed for the hallway. Aden’s office was one of three interconnected rooms, with the receptionist area the only one with a door to the hallway. The other two rooms opened off the receptionist area, with Aden’s office the largest of the three and the only one with windows. The lounging area where she’d been hanging out was the other room, with its small kitchen area and man-cave ambience.

Walking out into the hallway, Sid paused and glanced in both directions. Aden’s suite, and what she assumed were the apartments of his other vampires, were all to her right, secured behind the heavy red doors. At the other end, to Sid’s left was the elevator, and that was it. As she stood there, she was abruptly struck by the nearly total silence. No phones rang, no music played. There was the quiet rush of air that was the heating system, but nothing else.

She felt suddenly very alone. And very vulnerable. Not simply for her own sake, but for Aden and the other vampires. There was a war of sorts going on in this city. Call it a challenge or a competition, but vampires were dying left and right. What if one of Aden’s enemies decided to play dirty and attack during the day? Did the vampire culture have rules about these things? This was the sort of question she might have asked Professor Dresner not long ago. But for now, she had to rely on her own judgment, and her head was telling her that if, by some chance, any enemies managed to get to this floor, Aden had no one but her standing between him and disaster.

She spun around and headed for her backpack, which she’d left in the lounge area. She hadn’t told Aden about her gun, thinking he wouldn’t have approved. Besides, he’d only have insisted he didn’t need her protection, because his security measures would hold, what with Earl Hamilton guarding the fifth floor and the private elevator locked down. But empires had been lost because the loser believed himself invulnerable, and Sid had studied enough to know that no one was perfectly safe. If the attackers were willing to die, anybody could be gotten to. And if Sid had learned one thing about vampires, it was that their followers would do anything for their vampire master . . . or mistress.