Page 34

A group of women walk past, laughing and eager for their trip. My eyes lock on the vampire in the group as I’m drawn after her. Just… a little taste. Maybe if I explain myself, I could take just a little taste…

Fuck.

With a start, I realize I’d been following them. Hastily turning around, I slam into another vampire and jerk back.

“Sorry,” he mutters, barely looking up. I bet he’d taste…

No, no. Nope.

I hurry over to a little alcove with vending machines and push myself back into the corner where I can’t stare at the vampires moving past. I’m just going to become friends with this vending machine…

And then what? Get stuck on a plane with vampires packed around me?

Why did I get burdened with this curse? This inability to keep complete control over myself is going to ruin me. I hear footsteps and tense, prepared to flee to another spot, when I discover they sound quite familiar.

“Is there something secretive back here?” Mads taunts as he moves closer to me. That smile is on his face and his rich blue eyes are watching me closely. He finally has some color to his cheeks from the blood he’s consumed, and I’m over here wanting to take it from him.

“No, stay away from me,” I snap.

“Why would I do that?” he asks as he walks up until he’s mere inches from me, boxing me in.

I twist my head, trying not to breathe him in. “Stop. If someone saw us… people would question things. If she caught us… she could fuck this whole thing up. And I’m not draining you again. You’re struggling to recover as it is.”

“I’ve consumed enough blood to feed a small village. I think I’ll be fine,” Mads murmurs as he drapes his arms around my neck. “I heard I taste delicious.”

“Stop,” I say as I try to push him back, but when he refuses, I find myself pressing my face against his neck.

It’s like I’m hypnotized by this man, and I have no idea why.

My brain is telling me that I need to stay closed off, that I need to keep him as far away from me as I can.

I’ve always been able to do it before. I’ve always been able to drive a huge wedge between me and anyone who might want to be close to me, but Mads is proving hard to do that with.

“I can’t keep draining you. I’ll find someone else.”

“What if I don’t want you to find someone else? What if that’ll make me jealous?”

I scoff. “Why the fuck would you be jealous?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” he asks as he presses a finger under my chin.

“Go back to flirting with that woman and leave me in my corner where it’s nice and peaceful.”

“Well, that’s foolish. Why would I flirt with her when I have you? Or… wait… don’t tell me you were jealous.” The look of delight on his face sours my mood. What nonsense is this man spouting?

“I will drain you and leave you here to fly alone,” I threaten as I try my best to force myself to walk away. All I have to do is walk away and then get on a plane packed with vampires full of blood and go home. All while this man sits close to me, leg brushing mine, hand trailing… fuck.

My eyes drift up to his as he watches me closely.

Not wanting to deal with that knowing look, my eyes trail down to his lips and then to his neck and back up again.

What the hell am I even doing thinking about any part of this?

And why do I stand so still when he leans in and nips my neck?

His sharp fangs barely catch the skin of my throat, but the way he nicks it makes me shiver.

“It’s just a drink,” he says. “It’s not a marriage proposal.”

“Knowing you, that’ll come next.”

Mads chuckles as he licks the spot he’d bitten.

The way his tongue drifts over my throat sets me on edge.

The only issue is that I should be pulling away, not turning my neck to give him more.

And why would I even do that? Out of some sick twisted fantasy of a normal life?

Because I’ve deprived myself of touch for so long?

Or just because I’m fucking ravenous and the desire that comes with that is twisting my thoughts around?

“It’s just a little nibble,” he coaxes.

“You should be the one convincing me not to,” I mumble as I’m hypnotized by the way his fingers glide up my neck and over the spot he’d nipped.

“Maybe I like to live dangerously.”

“Maybe you just want to use me to take care of this nightmare of yours,” I say.

He hesitates, hand stopping its ascent, and I realize that I’m right.

This was all just another ploy to use me.

Unlike Abel, who used torture and psychological abuse to get me to do what he wanted, this man wants to use something much more intimate.

It’s nowhere near as bad, so why am I still so pissed about it?

Why does it infuriate me like this? I shouldn’t give a shit what he wants.

“Why would you say that?” Mads asks as he grabs my face.

“I guess that even though hanging out with each other in a psychopath’s den made me feel like I know you quite well, at the end of the day, we really don’t know each other as much as I’d hoped.

But I wish you knew me well enough to know that I wouldn’t do that to you.

Stop trying to make everyone out to be monsters.

Can’t you just trust someone until they prove otherwise?

It seems like everyone you meet, you want to make yourself out to be the bad guy so they all hate you and then you don’t have to deal with them.

You don’t have to worry about liking them if you or the person you’re interacting with is a ‘monster.’”

His eyes hold mine and I realize that I just don’t have an answer. I’m not sure if I ever will. He doesn’t understand that there’s absolutely no use in trusting anyone when they’re all out to destroy you.

“I will feed off you but nothing else.”

His teasing and alluring gestures seem to have fallen by the wayside. “Fine, fine.”

“After we return home, we go our separate ways.”

Mads sighs as he reaches up and pushes my hair out of my face.

“Can we be pen pals, at least? That sounds fun. I’ll tell you everything I do for the day.

‘On this fifth day of the third month of this grand year of the snake, I decided to see why my neighbor was so irritating. Oddly enough, the issue was not determined via dissection.’”

I try not to laugh and find it surprisingly hard to do. “Why are you always wanting to dissect people? You should have gone into a different field.”

The smile he gives me overrides the disappointed look he’d worn earlier. “I’m teasing, I’m teasing.”

“With your skills of chemistry, why wouldn’t you become like a drug lord or something instead?”

He gasps. “Can you imagine me as a drug lord?”

“No one would take you seriously.”

“I’d have the best drugs around.”

“You sound proud and that’s something you shouldn’t be proud of.”

“I… understand that. I tease, I tease. Now suck me, Daddy.”

I press a hand against his face and push him into the side of the vending machine as I decide I will simply starve to death.

Mads laughs as he grabs me so he can spin me around to push me against the wall. “I guess you’re more of a great-great-great-grandpa instead of a Daddy, aren’t you?”

“I think you’re delirious, and now I’m going to drain you in the hope it silences you.”

He just laughs again, but as I press my lips close to his throat, he offers it up without hesitation. How can he still be so trusting after I nearly killed him? How can he still deal with me when I do everything I can to drive him away? And why do I find it harder and harder each time?

My fangs break through his skin as my arm slides around his waist and the sweet taste of his blood touches my tongue.

I don’t realize I’m exuding an aura that’s washing over him until he moans while he clutches me.

I can feel his cock pressed against mine as he sinks into my arms. My hand is itching to slide under his shirt and down into his pants to grab his ass in my palm.

I want to feel him, touch him, fuck him…

be fucked by him. The blood is clouding my mind, driving me to a point I promised I’d never let myself go.

It’s lucky that tucked back here, no one walking by can see us because my hand wanders up his shirt, exploring his skin.

I want more but I can’t take it here, I can’t take it now.

Drawing back is one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.

I slide my fangs free and run my tongue over the blood, which makes him shiver.

I start to pull back but he presses me against the wall and licks the blood off my lips.

Then he kisses me, but I can’t kiss him back.

It’s already bad enough that Abel wants him.

What happens if I do kiss him? What happens when I’m forced to kill him like I did my own brother?

What happens when Abel finds out and knows how to destroy what’s left of me?

I want just a taste.

But I spend too long dreading what would come of this if I failed to kill Abel, and Mads pulls back before I can get more. He doesn’t seem as torn up about my lack of response as I assumed he’d be. Instead, he just smiles at me, gives me a wink, and turns.

“Come on now. Katherine was just asking about my whole life story. You definitely don’t want to miss it.

” The grin he throws back at me is so cocky that I find myself trailing after him.

It’s like I can’t even keep my thoughts straight when this man is around.

Half of me is kicking myself in the ass for not kissing him back, and the other half wants to leave him stranded at the airport so I don’t have to think about him being killed.

Maybe I’ll come back and collect him when this is all over… if I’m still alive, that is.

When we return, Katherine is all smiles. “You guys were gone a while; I was starting to get worried.”

“Sorry about that,” Mads says.

Before I even get to sit, the phone in my pocket begins to ring, and when I pull it out, I see that it’s Finn.

“Hello?”

“Are you alone?” Finn asks.