Free To Love and Serve by Caridad Piñeiro

any way it played out. “Do you think the Slayer Council will care that someone is doing non-sanctioned terminations?”
    “There are rules in place, meant to keep order and avoid another war. Hopefully they’ll agree and help us put a stop to the killings.”
    Ryder leaned a hip on the lab bench and tucked his arms across his chest. “By ‘us’ I hope you mean the Vampire Council.”
    Diego dragged a hand through the spiky wisps of his stylishly gelled blond hair and nodded. “We’ll gather the elders. All of them. Jeremy should be back from London by now. We need to decide how best to reach out to the slayers.”
    Relief swamped Ryder that Diego hadn’t pressed for Diana’s involvement. But if the two Councils wouldn’t work together, someone else would have to step in to investigate the murders. Unfortunately, the one person who had the skills to do that was the last person who should. Especially now that her suspension was almost over and Hernandez had her reviewing a different case. But Ryder kept his fears to himself. No sense giving Diego ideas.
    After his friend had departed, he went out into the apartment to face his former keeper and her husband. The worry on their faces was clear.
    “There’s trouble, isn’t there?” Melissa twined her fingers with Sebastian’s. They stood together now just as he hoped he and Diana would do one day.
    “It won’t involve you. I promise.”
    “And what about my sister?” Sebastian demanded. “Can you make the same promise about her?” The tilt of his chin reminded Ryder too much of his lover in a defiant mood.
    Ryder gave a grim smile. “Doesn’t matter what I want. Diana is the one who will make that choice.”

Chapter Ten
    It had been hours since Diana heard the front door open and close. Apparently Ryder had called it an early night.
    She ignored the vague stirring of annoyance that he hadn’t come by her office before retiring. The welcome mat wasn’t out when her door was closed, so he was just respecting her wishes. But she missed him.
    Fatigue bit deep from the many hours she’d spent working on the case, weakening her muscles and creating that weird chill in her core she’d experienced off and on since being contaminated with Ryder’s blood. At first the sensation had been infrequent, but lately it moved like a glacier inching across the tundra, slowly and inexorably spreading the chill from her core to her extremities until it was time for another treatment.
    The chill was a symptom that she’d pushed too hard these past two days, spending impossibly long hours with her ass in the chair or pacing before the evidence-laden boards. As much as she wanted to return to work full time, it worried her that she couldn’t even handle intense desk duty at home without her body’s weakness threatening to take her out. She needed some rest.
    Shutting down her computer, she rose, and dawdled gathering her papers. At some point she would have to head to the bedroom. And Ryder. And deal with what had happened during the keeper’s kiss.
    Until a few months ago, the aphaeresis treatments had worked well. When she got the transfusions she’d felt almost normal, and her relationship with Ryder had flourished and deepened. She’d even held hope for her future, despite her suspension from work. But when her body no longer found the same relief from the treatments, Melissa had cautiously suggested that a keeper’s kiss, with a small infusion of Ryder’s blood, might contain the contamination going on in her body.
    The keeper’s kiss had done exactly as Melissa hoped. It had also brought intense new joy and pleasure to their lovemaking. But the strain on her lover to subdue his demon became more evident with each encounter.
    Worse, she’d felt her own darkness rise up in vivid response. The violence within her had surged and cried out for release—which frightened her even more than Ryder’s tenuous control over his.
    She needed to deal with her turbulent