And then, when she thought it couldn’t get any more intense, Gabriel tilted his head back and worked his fingers through her hair, guiding her with gentle pressure on the back of her head to kiss his neck. Her heightened senses brought the sound of his heartbeat and the scent of his blood to her and it was more a matter of instinct than of conscious thought when her kisses changed to nibbles and then to the inevitable conclusion as her sharp fangs broke through the surface of his skin and she tasted the hot rush of his blood.

She had never tasted human blood before. She had taken the blood of deer and rabbits, horses and cows, and that had been good, but this! The rush was incredible as it poured through her, seeming to fill her whole being with the heady energy of it. It was like liquid fire, like pure energy, indescribably wonderful. And then came a second surge of sensation as her mind came into contact with Gabriel’s. Suddenly she could feel what he was feeling, her own pleasure and passion doubled as her emotions touched his. And he could likewise sense her emotions, their mutual pleasure feeding off of each other in an incredible rising loop. It almost overwhelmed Serapha’s senses, there was more than she could take in, more than her mind could handle.

But as she adjusted to her new awareness a sudden sense of wrongness crept into her mind. She could feel Gabriel’s feelings toward her and there was something missing. The passion was there, the intense physical attraction, but it was shallow. There was little more than simple lust there. Where was the love, the caring, the warmth and tenderness that should have been there? She reached out, searching, and reeled in shock as she found not caring but contempt. He thought her naïve, foolish, easily used. She couldn’t read his mind, couldn’t actually see the words themselves, but the emotions were clear enough. He’d been using her! She’d just been some kind of game, just another conquest!

She broke off, not being gentle as she removed her fangs from his neck and practically flung herself away from him. The link between their minds began to fade, but it was still there, and she poured all the hurt and anger down that channel at him. He cried out in shock, putting his hands to his head

“How could you!” shouted Serapha. “How could you do this to me!”

Gabriel’s emotions shifted rapidly from shock to anger, and he raised his head and looked up at her with the contempt she could feel so clearly written equally clearly on his face. “You seemed to enjoy it well enough,” he said.

“I thought you loved me!”

He lashed back at her with a sudden storm of vicious contempt. “Ha! Me, love a silly bumpkin like you? Not likely! I just wanted to know what doing a vampire would be like. And if you’d had any sense you would have just laid back and enjoyed it.”

“You… you slimy toad!”

“You’ll come to see my finer points eventually,” said Gabriel with a renewed sneer and a sudden sense of victory in his mind. “After all, how else will you get back home?”

Serapha had thought she was beyond being shocked any further, but she found she was wrong. How could he think that she would trade her body for passage home like some cheap prostitute! “I’ll never touch you again!” she said, her anger suddenly gone deadly cold. With another shock she realized that her magic had gathered around her, that she was literally glowing with the force of her rage. She was a hair’s breadth away from letting the power loose on the sneering pig of a captain. Struggling for control she spun away from him and walked out into the calm ocean. The water seemed to cool her fury slightly.

“Are you going to swim all the way back to Snowcap?” laughed Gabriel.

“Yes,” said Serapha and, folding her wings, dove smoothly into the water, focusing her gathered power. When she surfaced again she was no longer an aerian girl, but a silver-sided dolphin. Gabriel gaped at her and she sent one last jolt of anger mixed with triumph down the fading blood-bond as she turned and swam away.