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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

ENDER

When we reach the airport, a member of the local Vampire Related Crimes unit meets us at the car with clothes for us to change into, as the blood-soaked ones might attract some attention. I’m immediately wary of the woman, but Mads is ready to be best friends with her.

“So lovely to meet you, Detective Baran, right?” Mads says as he hurries out of the car to greet her once we’ve discreetly changed inside the car. The woman’s smile widens, and it lights up her entire face like this is the meet-cute she’s been waiting her whole life for.

“Yes, but call me Katherine! I am so excited that I can help both of you. You two look like you’ve been through hell and back.”

“We have,” Mads says. “But everything is better now.”

And while I assume he means now that we’re at the airport heading back to where we were before a psychopath abducted us, she acts like he means now that we’re in her presence, and it annoys me.

Katherine pats his shoulder as I look away and wonder when we’re going to start getting the hell out of here and stop this nonsensical flirting.

“This way. Do either of you have any belongings?” she asks.

“I didn’t even have any shoes! I had to steal them off a guy!” Mads tells her, which she finds hilarious .

“Oh, that’s too funny!” she says as she smacks his shoulder before setting a hand on his back and guiding him over to the door in case he’s never opened a door before.

Maybe he doesn’t even know what a door is.

Maybe he’s become incapable of stepping in front of the device that opens automatically without her guidance.

Maybe she thinks he’s like the vampires of folklore who have no reflection so the automatic door opener wouldn’t work for him and will only work once she guides him to it.

“Fucking hell,” I grumble.

She looks back at me and evidently doesn’t like my tone because her face scrunches up before she goes back to staring at Mads.

“We’re in a bit of a hurry,” I say.

“Your flight isn’t for another two hours,” she assures me. I feel like she takes great joy in doing so. “But don’t worry, I’ll stay with you the whole time.”

I grimace. “You really don’t have to.”

“I do. I promised DeGray I’d get you on safely. And I will definitely not break my promise.”

After we’re given a bit of time in the bathroom to try our best to clean up, we rejoin her.

She just yammers on and on while we walk, and I catch myself staring at her throat as I think about what it’d be like to sink my fangs into it.

But those thoughts have me shifting away from her and over to Mads.

I’m not sure why when it doesn’t matter whose blood I take, I just want to take some.

But more than anything, I want the sweet taste of Mads?—

I quickly look away. I improved after whatever Mads injected me with, but it doesn’t mean I’ve fully recovered. What little blood of his that I kept taking went right into making sure I was alive, so my body is convinced I’m absolutely starving. I just need to fight it a little bit longer.

“Let’s get you some blood. I’m sure that’ll perk you right up,” Katherine says, and I hope she hasn’t noticed me fixating on throats. It’s one thing to be fixating on the throats of humans, but if she notices the way I’m craving vampire blood it could give my identity away. “But first, security!”

She hurries us over to a private area, flashes her badge, and then talks to a vampire she seems to know.

All I know is that the vampire’s vein is distractingly close to the surface of his skin.

He tilts his head back as he laughs at something she says.

And then Mads is laughing and I’m just standing here staring at their throats and envisioning what it’d be like to taste them.

But my eyes stray back to Mads. I can practically taste his blood, having sampled it many times now, and I really want to shove him against the wall and?—

“Hey,” Mads says as he reaches back to me, snapping me out of whatever the fuck that was. Do I really need to shove him against the wall to feed from him? I’m pretty sure wall shoving is not needed to drink some blood. “They need some information from you.”

My wariness immediately spikes. I knew I shouldn’t trust the VRC. Why would I? Why would they give a shit what happens to me? And Finn let Alexei, the one who rightfully wants to murder me, set it all up.

I’m not sure if Mads notices the way I tense or what, but his hand slips around my wrist, tightening enough that if I tried to flee, I’d have to drag him after me and in my current state, I feel like I wouldn’t get overly far.

“The VRC got your ID sent through, you just have to look this over and sign here,” Mads says as I glance down and see that my “ID” was forged.

Did the VRC keep my identity secret even from this group? I haven’t offered my name to the woman and don’t plan to.

As soon as I sign the name on the document, they lead us over to the metal detector.

“I will say that he was shot with some type of ammunition that left pellets or shards in his shoulder, so I bet that’ll go off, and I bet it’d be really neat if you let me watch so when I dissect him later, I’ll know where to remove them,” Mads says.

“Oh, are you a doctor?” Katherine asks, interest piqued.

“No… not at all,” Mads replies, not bothering to explain any more than that. Even knowing that the man she’s in love with likes dicing into bodies doesn’t deter her.

“That’s fascinating,” she says.

Is it? Is it ?

Concerning should be the only real response here.

Once we get through the scan, she hurries us off to a restaurant. Like… can’t we just grab some synthetic blood and then wait at our terminal in misery? But nope, we must sip it out of wine glasses and socialize, which is the very last thing I’d ever choose to do.

Katherine smiles at Mads. “I wish you guys had come up here for something more fun.”

“The abduction did put a damper on things but there were fun moments, for sure!” Mads says, which is questionable. I don’t remember any of these “fun moments,” but it’s also become clear to me that Mads is strange… and has a really bitable neck.

Fuck.

I tear my eyes away from him and stare at my hands as the lady talks and talks and Mads laughs, and then she laughs.

“Boy, oh boy. Sure taking them a while for that blood. You think they’re having to catch a person and drain them first? Ha ha…” Mads sounds a bit delirious with that last part.

“I’m sure it’ll be out shortly.”

The waiter finally brings the blood. “Here we go!” he says as he starts to give it to Katherine, but Mads snatches it up.

At first, I think he’s trying to be gentlemanly and guide it to her, but instead, he tips that glass back and chugs it while the waiter stares at him, hand still outstretched like he’s holding an invisible glass.

Realizing what he’s done, Mads hesitates and wipes a drop of blood off his lips. “Uh… do you… possibly… have more of this in like… a pint?”

“You want… you want a pint of blood?” he asks as he slowly sets down the other glasses between Katherine and me. I can already see Mads eyeing them.

“I will also take a pitcher if you have it. Really… any… large, hefty container will do. Even if it’s in like a saucepan, I can make it work. Thank you.”

The waiter stares at him for a long moment before nodding. “A bucket of blood. Okay…”

Mads turns to me. “You?”

“No, I’m good,” I say, repulsed by the smell of it. Even so, I lift it to my lips and try not to recoil when I taste it. It won’t hurt me, but it also does little to help me. It generally just makes me feel unwell to drink human blood, but if it’s the only option, I have little choice.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t think about you being so thirsty,” Katherine apologizes as she slides her glass over. “Would you like some more while you wait?”

“No! No! I really couldn’t drink yours,” he says while downing it. Like how can he even pretend he’s not interested as he licks the glass like a dog trying to get the very last crumb out of their bowl?

I take one more sip of mine and find that I can’t stomach the stuff, so I slide it over to Mads who now has a glass in each hand. Maybe it’ll make him stop licking the glass.

“Oh, I really couldn’t. Thanks, but I really couldn’t,” he says, even though my glass is already gone as well.

“You’re not thirsty?” Katherine asks me.

I’m fucking ravenous. I’m starving, but the only thing I could easily eat is sitting next to me, and he’s over here starved and deprived of blood because of me. “No, I’m fine.”

Mads stops licking the wineglass long enough to give me a concerned look which I promptly ignore.

“You really are okay?” he asks.

“I’m fine.”

“I’ll share my jug with you when I get it,” he assures me.

“I love your accent. Where are you from?” Katherine asks him.

“I’m currently working in the council out of London. I have this cute little apartment that overlooks the river.”

The waiter returns with a large glass of blood which Mads eagerly takes even though he looks disappointed that it’s not quite a bucket.

“You sure you don’t want more?” Mads asks, offering up some of the glass he’s treasuring.

“No,” I say as he manages to slide the glass near me, which seems to take a lot of effort on his part when he obviously wants to down it all himself, but my eyes are too fixated on his throat. I quickly stand up. “I’m going to go check the terminal. Make sure everything is on time.”

“Katherine would get an alert on her phone if it wasn’t,” Mads assures me.

I notice she isn’t planning on stopping me, which is more than fine with me. They can flirt to their hearts’ content; I’m going to go find someplace to cool my head… somewhere very far away from Mads’s throat.

Once I figure out the direction of the terminal, I begin walking.