"Baby, You've Changed"
By Angela Knight

I know it's never comfortable meeting an old lover again for the
first time in 15 years, but I think I hold some kind of record
for "worst reunion of all time."

Oh, I'm told everybody squirms a little on seeing somebody they made
love to as a teenager. Maybe you gained weight. Maybe he picked up
a few scars. Maybe, like me, you said something stupidly thoughtless
when you broke it off that make you wince as an adult.

I'd still bet my reunion with Captain Gage Deauxville beat yours all
hollow.

To begin with, our little meeting didn't exactly take place at a Star
Academy reunion. Nope, I and the rest of the crew of the Xe'vit had
just been captured by Deauxville's Intrepid after a running four-
hour space battle during the conquest of Arcana.

Not that we made it easy. After the Xe'vit was disabled by several
really well-placed Intrepid antimatter volleys, we fought like hell
to repel enemy's boarding parties, with me and my Arcanan Marines in
the lead.

Didn't do much good. Deauxville's mercs were just too damned battle-
hardened for a shipfull of Arcanan draftees, no matter how
desperate. Most of my shipmates were grass-green fresh recruits, no
match for Deauxville's troops, fully half of whom were either vamp or
genetically engineered anyway. I knew when the boarding started we
were fucked, and I was right.

After the obligatory ass-kicking – and the post ass-kicking trip to
the ship's medtechs for treatment of some ugly beamer burns – all us
Marines were ordered to report to the Xe'Vit's quarterdeck. My boys
and girls didn't like the sound of that much, and to tell the truth,
neither did I. My old lover had built himself a very dark
reputation, so dark I was still wondering whether it really was him.
Until they lined us up on the quarterdeck, us unarmed in our
shipsuits, them in boarding armor. Deauxville came out to review us
all, and my heart sank. It was him, all right.

Of course, he was a hell of a lot bigger than the gawky 17-year-old
I'd seduced as a cocky, bitchy little teenaged Fem. Hard to tell how
much of it was him and how much was that matte black boarding armor,
but he towered over every Marine in the line. Except maybe Tiny, who
wasn't really human to begin with.

But that face – that face I knew. He'd been such a pretty kid all
those years ago, with that beautifully sculptured bone structure that
looked like something Michangello had chiseled out of a piece of
marble, with big blue eyes and a sweet, kissable mouth. A young
archangel I had thoroughly enjoyed corrupting with all the wicked
experience that comes from being a whole year older.

The beauty was still there, but it was darker now, harder. A scar
slashed from his forehead, across one eye, and down an elegant cheek,
but it set his looks off instead of ruining them. I imagined what
the wound must have been like and winced. Miracle he hadn't lost
that eye.

I also wondered why he hadn't had the scar surgically removed. What
kind of statement was he trying to make with that?

As he walked down the line of my Marines, I saw him study each of
them in turn, meeting their eyes with that icy crystalline stare. If
any of them had any thoughts of giving the Intrepid's crew a hard
time, they didn't by the time he was past.

Watching him terrorize my unit, I remembered the time I used my Fem
strength to hold him down and suck his beautiful young cock into a
gushing orgasm. I remembered the adoration in those blue eyes when
he told me he loved me.

And I remembered telling him I could never fall for a mere human like
him. With the sort of thoughtless cruelty only a teenaged girl can
manage, I told him I was a Fem, a genetically engineered for battle.
I wanted a man of my own kind who could match me strength for
strength, and more. Dominate me, even. Not a guy I could hold down
and suck off without working up a sweat.

I wanted a Warlord.

God, what a fucking idiot I was.

I don't know whether Deauxville read the wince of apology in my eyes
when he reached me in that line. I do know he stared down into my
face for a long, long time while I tried to decide what, if anything,
I should say.

Then, slowly, chillingly, he smiled, revealing half-inch fangs.

My beautiful Gage Deauxville wasn't a "mere" human any more. He was
a vampire. And one of the nastiest military commanders in this part
of the galaxy.

Without saying a word, he pivoted on his heel and aimed an offhand
command at the Intrepid trooper behind him. "That one."

"Aye, sir." The trooper lifted his stun rifle and pointed into my
face.

Shit.

Before I could react, the lights went out.
I came too lying in a puddle of drool on cold deck plate. Eeeeww.
I lifted my head which promptly began to pound so hard I dropped it
again. Making a supreme effort, I managed to roll over and blink at
the ceiling a long, long way over my head. It wasn't a familiar
ceiling. I wasn't on board the Xe'vit anymore.

No sooner had the thought registered that I must be on the Intrepid
than I realized something else. My back, pressed against that cold
deck, was completely bare. Lifting my head, I discovered that so
was the rest of me.

I was naked.

To make matters worse, Gage Deauxville towered over me, his blue
eyes locked on my face with a distinctly hostile gleam. And he was
just as naked as I was, every last centimeter of tanned, gleaming
muscle on breath-stealing display. Including his huge, rock-hard
erection. As I watched, completely frozen with astonishment, he
deliberately squirted a tube of something into one hand and slicked
it over his shaft.

"Damn, you've grown." I winced and wished I could recall the words
the instant they were out of my mouth.

He gave me a slow, nasty smile, still slowly stroking that massive
dick. "A lot of it in the last few minutes."

Lying on the deck was beginning to seem like an invitation. I
scrambled to my feet, though my head throbbed in protest. Licking
dry lips, I eyed the hand stroking that long, thick organ. "Is
there a reason you're greasing your cock, Gage?"

"I'm planning to celebrate my conquest." The smile widened, making
it uncomfortably obvious just where he intended to do his
celebrating.

I swallowed and met his hot, threatening gaze. Even without the
armor, he was a full head taller than I. If he'd still been human,
I could have kicked his ass anyway; my Fem strength would have been
at least three times greater. But Gage Deauxville was a vampire
now, which made him significantly stronger than even a Viking class
Warlord.

I lifted my chin anyway. "The Gage I knew wasn't a rapist."

"You dumped the Gage you knew." He stepped closer to loom, a wall
of male muscle and hostile sensuality. "At the time, you said you
wanted someone who could ... take you. Hand to hand."

"I said a lot of shit I didn't mean." Including the part about not
loving you. "I was too young and dumb to know better."

"Don't try to play me, Tamir." That was genuine anger flaring in
his eyes now. "You meant exactly what you said. I've researched
Warlord culture all those elaborate courtship and dominance
games. You would never have treated a Warlord the way you treated
me."

Because a Warlord would have seen my actions as the sexual challenge
they'd been -- an invitation to a dominance duel. And if I'd lost
that fight, the Warlord would have seen it as his right to indulge
in what my people view as the ultimate act of conquest: a hard, deep
ass fucking.

Something I'd still never experienced -- though I wasn't about to
admit that to Gage.

My mouth was completely dry. Deep down, as humiliating as it was,
some part of me was getting turned on. God help me, my sweet young
lover had turned into the kind of hard, dominant male my darker
fantasies had always revolved around.

So why did I feel ... regret?

"I never meant to hurt you." I winced again. Not a smart thing to
say to a guy you've humiliated.

Sure enough, something nasty sparked in those blue eyes. "Don't
worry, darling I plan to get my revenge." His eyes flicked
downward. I followed them automatically. On the deck at his feet
lay a broadsword, with a lethal point and a visibly sharp edge. It
definitely wasn't a blunt practice weapon. I felt something cold
coil in my belly.

When I looked up again, I found him watching me, cool and
calculating. "Pick it up, Tamir."

I took a step back. "What?"

"We're going to fight my own variation of a dominance duel." He
crouched and picked up the blade, gave it a few practice
swings. "If I win, you become my bloodslave, and I do my ...
celebrating in your tight little ass while I feed." His smile
revealed fangs so long, sharp and white, I instantly imagined how
they'd feel sinking into my throat. With an offhand gesture, he
tossed me the sword. I caught it automatically. "If you win, you
avoid a permanent spot on my personal menu. Know how to kill a
vampire?"

Of course I knew I was a space marine. I'd even done it, when I'd
had to. But the idea of beheading Gage Deauxville made my gut twist
in such horror I almost dropped the sword. "Gage, I am not going to
fight you."

"Good." He bared his fangs. "Bend over wide, Tamir."

I stared at him as he began to stalk me. He was fucking huge, in
every sense of the word. It hit me again that this wasn't the Gage
I'd known -- this was a vampire. I didn't know what he
was capable of, what had happened to him over the past fifteen
years, what -- or whom -- he'd done. Though part of me found him
deliciously arousing, and part remembered the Gage of my
girlhood, I was too much a hardened mercenary to turn myself over to
a vampire without a fight.

I lifted the sword. "Kiss my ass."

"Actually, I'd rather fuck it." And he came for me.