Sheridan tore open the door to the hallway, her heart racing. "Kenzy!" she yelled. A scream echoed from down the hall.

Sheridan followed the sound as loud male voices joined. She reached the last room in the hallway and stepped through the partially open door.

Kenzy stood in the middle of the room, her hair mussed, and her slight form trembling as she held her hands over her eyes. Beyond her, Marco was trying to calm down his client .

Sheridan grabbed Kenzy and pulled her into an embrace as Marco ’s client raced to the corner of the room to grab his belongings. A trickle of blood ran down the man’s neck toward his collarbone.

"What the hell ?!" the client yelled. "Are you out of your minds?! I paid for one thing here tonight—anonymity. And now you’re letting…" he gestured at Kenzy where she stood sobbing on Sheridan’s shoulder, "children wander the halls?" He scowled at Marco. "You’ll never get another dime from me."

Marco grimaced as the man stormed out.

"Oh my God, what was that?" Kenzy gasped, pulling out of Sheridan’s embrace. "There was blood, and the noises—slurping and…" She shivered in disgust.

Marco moved toward them, but Kenzy squeaked and grabbed onto Sheridan’s arm, her grip like a vise. "Don’t you come near me!" she admonished to the male vampire. "J-just stay away."

Sheridan sighed before running her hands up and down Kenzy’s bare arms, trying to pull the teen’s attention away from Marco, who stood and glared.

"You’re okay. Everything is okay. But what were you doing here?" Sheridan asked.

"I was hungry!" Kenzy wailed. "I came down the hall trying to find a vending machine when I heard these weird sounds." She paused, giving Marco a scathing look. "Seriously, what is going on here?"

"That," Hunter’s deep voice, dripping with disapproval, came from the open doorway. “Is what I’d like to know.”

Marco mumbled something about "my cue to go" and left like the hounds of hell were after him.

"Go back to your room," Hunter instructed Kenzy. "Now."

Kenzy pouted but stomped past Hunter out the door.

"This is precisely why I didn’t want her here. The two of you just cost me a hundred grand," Hunter growled, stalking toward Sheridan. "We pride ourselves on anonymity and now that client will never come back again. He was one of our highest-paying regulars."

"She was hungry!" Sheridan snapped back.

"She shouldn’t be out walking around," Hunter replied, crossing his arms and widening his stance as if preparing for a fight. Sheridan, her frustration boiling over, was more than ready to give him one.

"Are you serious? This is all your fault! You’re holding us prisoner here, and you won’t even tell us what is going on! Who is that woman? Why did all those vampires disappear when you got there? What do the Barlows have to do with any of this?” Hunter just stared at her, his expression unreadable. “You won’t tell us anything, and we aren’t even allowed to walk around inside? We can’t help it that every room in the place has some sort of shady stuff going on inside it."

Hunter advanced another two steps, and Sheridan felt a shiver run down her spine—not fear exactly, more like electricity.

Hunter’s voice turned soft and rough as he held her gaze. "Not everyone finds it shady ."

Sheridan swallowed, her throat suddenly dry. She knew that Hunter was changing the subject, deflecting her accusations, but she couldn’t help herself. "What does it feel like?" she asked, her tongue darting out to wet her lips. Hunter’s gaze on her mouth was sharp and his breathing audible. "When a vampire drinks from someone…what does it feel like?"

"For the human?"

She nodded.

"It’s pleasurable. Our fangs emit a substance that brings humans pleasure. It’s how we kept them from fighting us off when we used to drink without restrictions."

Sheridan felt her own breath hitch as she stared at Hunter’s glistening fangs.

"If my fangs broke your skin…" He paused, his gaze so hot it set Sheridan’s skin on fire. "The pleasure would be unlike anything you’ve ever felt."

Sheridan leaned toward him, her chest tight with the effort to breath, her head light and buzzing. But before either of them could do anything else, Hunter’s phone buzzed in his pocket, and he answered it brusquely.

"Yes…okay…I’ll be right there."

Without another word he strode out of the room, leaving Sheridan to wonder what had just happened.

**

Colette paced up and down the cold, damp underground room. She looked at her minions Matteo and Brandon, wondering which of them she should torture first. The chest had been inches from her hand and then the entire endeavor had been screwed to hell and back. She was livid, and someone needed to pay.

As she spun on the two worthless men, her phone chimed. Her blood lit with a new fire when she saw who it was from.

"You may have just earned a reprieve," she told the men. "Our little friend at the hotel has some news."

**

"So it’s no different than any other legitimate hotel ," Sheridan summarized, back in Kenzy’s room. "But they bite people too. The people experience something new , the vampires get the blood they need, it’s kind of a win-win."

"No. Way." Kenzy said, her eyes wide. " This is wild. And this place is so lux, I’ve never seen people with this much money." She gestured to her own silk pajamas incredulously.

"I’ll show you around in the morning, but now you really need to try to get some sleep."

Kenzy yawned and nodded.

"I’m serious though, Kenz, it isn’t safe to leave the building. You have to promise me you won’t ever do that. Look at what happened to me today when I ignored Hunter’s warnings."

"Ok, Mom," Kenzy teased. "I promise." Then she snuggled down deeper in the big bed.

"I’m going to go smooth over the last of the ruffled feathers from your big night, and then I’ll be back," Sheridan said, looking at the young woman under the covers affectionately.

Kenzy waved and rolled over to go to sleep, while Sheridan left the room and made her way to Marco’s.

**

Marco opened his door still bare chested, and Sheridan blinked a couple of times before she was able to form words. The smooth expanse of his golden skin and defined muscles were enough to make a girl tongue-tied.

"Come on in," he swept an arm aside.

"I wanted to apologize for everything earlier," Sheridan said, sitting on the sofa in front of Marco’s fireplace. "Kenzy is like family to me, and she needed somewhere to go. She’s in danger if she leaves the hotel. I understand she’s a little young to be here, but she’s got a good head on her shoulders. We just don’t have any other choice, and this was a lot for her to take in all at once."

Marco leaned against the small bar that ran along one wall of the suite. "I get it. All of this is a bit much for most humans when they first see it. I wish I hadn’t lost a client I liked so much, though. He was cute. "

Sheridan looked at him from under her dark curls. "So…you’re into men too? "

Marco raised one eyebrow. "And if I am into men ? Does it bother you?"

Sheridan took a shaky breath, her heart rate speeding up. If my fangs broke your skin…the pleasure would be unlike anything you’ve ever felt. "Um, no. It doesn’t bother me. Sort of the opposite in fact," she muttered.

A grin broke out across Marco’s face. "Sooo…" he pushed off the countertop and stalked across the room. "It turns you on, then? Would you like to watch me with another man? Both of us grabbing each other’s tight asses…"

Sheridan’s nails bit into the leather of the sofa where she clutched at it, her skin burning with a flush. "Ah," she sighed. "Yeah, I think I might like to see that."

He placed a finger below her chin and raised her gaze to meet his own . "Want me to call one of the other guys here at the hotel? Have him come up?" He inched closer to her lips . Then he took a deep breath, his breath hot against her mouth .

Sheridan gasped as he grabbed her waist and pulled her close to him in one quick movement.

"Vampires are really strong," she gasped, letting her hands roam over his bare shoulders, feeling his muscles flex beneath her fingertips.

"Vampires are really hungry," he growled before he kissed her neck .