I found myself on my back. The cool sheets of Lucian's bed chilling me inside out. I tried to scramble off but a hand firm on my middle kept me flat.

I turned to the raised sounds around me. Blondie and Redbeans were naked and in the midst of arguing with Lucian over their rights to his bed.

But Lucian was in one of his famous moods. Ice cold and impenetrable. Their words brushed over him without making a dent. Instead he bodily hauled them out and said in a tone that brooked no denial, "Leave and don't ever come back."

Just like that Blondie and Redbeans were esconded to the remote fringes of our lives. I couldn't quite hide the elation over never having to see them again but then Lucian was on the bed beside me. Shirtless and sensual. Crowding into me. His nail flicked against the skin of his chest slicing a thin line that bled for me.

" Drink," he ordered but I hesitated.

" It isn't time. There's no full moon," I said looking into his dark hued eyes. Rafe had washed away the golden embers of only hours earlier. Now he looked as hungry as ever. Only he had just fed.

"Feed!"

I shook my head refusing to obey his command. I watched as what little bright specks of gold that remained faded away into pitch darkness. My refusal angered him.

"You will heed me. You will drink," he said insistently but I shook my head once more not able to find the voice to speak my denial.

"You're hurt. My blood will heal you," he explained slowly, his expression tight with barely suppressed frustrations. But I had come to a decision. One I made all on my own. Of my own choice. It was the only choice left that I could make. One that Lucian had no way of controlling ..of enforcing his will.

"No," I said strongly. " I will feed from you no more."

I stared at the explosive rage within his eyes no longer afraid to offend him. I didn't owe him anything. I refused to comply.

I would never feed from him again. And he couldn't make me. Not without changing the dynamics of our coexistence. It was a rule that could never be broken.

Blood freely given and freely accepted. The marks of a true scion.

I would give that up. I would give him up. I loved him too much to remain. To go on as I have was impossible.

"You could die!" He exclaimed, his expression anguished. His voice tortured. His fingers running over my bruised and battered ribs. I appeared to be more beat up then I had imagined.

" Then let me die," I said simply.