Dead End: Midnight Hollow

by Penn Cassidy

  Shaking my head back and forth, I tried to back up. Tears started to prick my eyes. These were words I’d imagined hearing for such a long time, but it was all wrong. Or…was it? I didn’t know anymore. My body screamed out for his touch. I craved everything and anything he could give me, but was it what he truly wanted? Did I? Could I go down that road again? I’d been without him for so long now that I felt like flinging myself in his arms and sobbing into his chest. I wanted him to want me, to stop the pain raging inside of me.

  “I can see you puzzling it out, but you need to stop thinking for one damn minute. Let me take care of you, October.” He grinned, a flash of fang sparkling in the low light and sending my blood zinging. “I’m tired of fighting this. I’m tired of denying myself the things I crave.”

  “Which is it, then?” I asked. “My blood or my body?” I was almost afraid of the answer.

  His fingers skimmed my neck now, and I could have sworn the tips of his nails were just a bit longer than I remembered. I felt them graze my skin, right over my pulse. “Is there a difference?”

  “You need to be straight with me, Norman. You know how I feel about you, how I feel about all of you.” There, I said it. I loved them all equally, and I wouldn’t hide it from them, even if it made them hate me more.

  “I’ve always known, even when you pushed us away,” he admitted. “And I am being straight with you. I want you. I want your blood and your body. I want you in every way imaginable, and I don’t think I can hold it back anymore, even if I tried. I’m tired of fighting myself…”

  A few heartbeats pulsed between us as I searched his face. He was still Norman. Still the same man I knew in my soul I was meant to love. He was still in there, behind the monster—no, he was the monster. They were one and the same, two halves of a whole, and he was beginning to embrace it.

  “Then what are you waiting for?” I asked. I was done playing around. If he wanted me the way my body screamed for him, then he needed to act now, before I lost my nerve.

  He only hesitated a second before his mouth descended on my throat, then I felt a skittering down my right arm. Little grumbling complaints filled the silence, and I felt Jessica leap from my hand onto the ground. “Oh hell no. There’s no way I’m watching this hanky panky… I’d have to burn all eight eyes out. See ya later, Toby! Wrap it before you tap it,” she howled out before disappearing.

  I’d completely forgotten about Jessica. My cheeks flamed, realizing all she’d witnessed, but the second Norman’s fangs pierced my skin, all thoughts of my familiar fled my mind. All I could feel was a flood of pleasure filling my body from head to toe. It was like a drug, tingling cold and hot all at the same time. Norman moaned deeply against my neck, and I felt it rumble through me. His arms closed around my torso, dragging me closer. I gripped his clothes, needing to feel every inch of him against me.

  Tipping my head back farther, I made sure I was at the right angle for him to take more. To take whatever he wanted, because right now, I’d have given this man anything. I felt the pull of his fangs taking what he needed, felt it all the way down like a straight shot to my pussy, and I could feel his cock hard and heavy against my stomach. My belly flipped as I clawed at his shirt. He hissed a growl and pulled back, my blood dripping from his mouth. In seconds, he had his shirt ripped over his head, then he dealt with mine tearing it straight down the middle with strength I didn't know he possessed.

  I moaned as I ground myself against his hardness, and he echoed the sound deeply in his chest. My hands were shaking as I ran them up his sculpted torso and over his shoulders, raking my fingernails down his back to give him the same amount of pleasure and pain he gave me. His lips hit my neck again, and I felt each pull he took, the blood siphoning from my artery. It dripped out of the sides of his mouth, coating both of us in its sticky warmth.

  I should have been terrified. I should have been screaming and thrashing and trying my hardest to get away from the monster, but all I could feel was the thrill. The ecstasy. I needed more. “More…” I moaned, echoing my thoughts.

  He growled against me, quickly reaching down to unbutton his pants. I was wearing a skirt so there was no need for me to strip completely, and since my stockings only went up to my thighs, it was simple to get to my pussy when he flipped my skirt over my waist.

  I couldn’t believe what was happening, but I wanted it. I needed it like I needed to breathe. I’d craved his touch for so long now, even when we were both hurting each other inside and out.

  Norman fisted himself, stroking slowly. He was no longer sucking my blood, but rather, he was leisurely licking the wound, lapping up every single drop that had spilled down my neck.

  I yelped as he lifted me up and pressed my back against the damp glass of the greenhouse. There were vines hanging all around us, and I could only just make out our surroundings though the thick light of the orange moons. It was as if the world had come to a standstill as he settled me over his rigid, wide cock. I slid down easily in one roll of my hips, relishing the full feeling of him inside of me, then my head fell back and thumped against the glass. Moaning in pleasure, I let my eyes fall closed, and Norman growled roughly in his chest as I settled around him.

  His fingers dug into my hips, and I could feel him shaking, as if he were doing everything possible to hold back. But I didn’t want him to hold back anymore. I needed him to take me like the monster he was.

  I ran my fingers through his damp black hair and pulled, hard enough for him to snap his eyes to mine. “You don’t have to be gentle,” I said with a wicked grin as I ground against him desperately.

  That was all he needed. He thrust up into me hard, and I screamed in raptured pleasure. He pounded inside me in rough strokes, enough to press me into the glass, the window groaning behind me as if it would crack at any moment from his forceful, long thrusts. I had one hand in his hair in a tight grip that I knew he would love, and the other was braced on the window pane to hold my balance so I could grind my clit against him with each roll of his hips. I prayed there was nobody outside right now to see us in here, especially my aunties.

  I couldn’t think as every thrust had a heavy, burning pleasure rushing through my veins. Blood dripped down my neck and flowed down my exposed breasts, covering the both of us. We moved together in sync, and Norman’s thrusts became erratic. His whole body was taut, and his hands gripped me hard enough to bruise. He was losing control, and I loved every hard second of it. I supposed I should have been concerned about the blood loss, but my mind was somewhere else as he took control of my body and pleasure.

  I felt a pressure building in my stomach, a low, warm tingling sensation, and knew I was about to come. He could feel it too as I tightened around him, my moans becoming louder. His mouth latched into my wound one more time as he held me tight to his body, and I came hard as he sucked and thrust in sharp movements at the same time, my head banging against the window. The two sensations in tandem were nothing like I’d ever experienced before, and I was pretty sure my soul left my body at some point.

  He was shaking, quickly pounding into me in long strokes and drinking every drop that flowed from my neck. Then I felt him go unnaturally still as he pulsed inside me. His lips left my throat, and he buried his face in my shoulder with a deep groan as he kept coming. He panted heavily, his breath warming the cool part of my neck that bled freely.

  My mind flickered to the last time Norman and I had sex. It wasn’t like this. It wasn’t this…intense. We’d been fumbling in the dark as we were both experimenting for the first time. But now…this was something else. This was supernatural, glorious, and dirty, all while being kind of nasty in a romantic way.

  It felt like forever before we broke apart. I was breathing hard, and a pulse of pain in my neck brought me back to the present. He was still holding me up against the glass when I noticed that his skin felt much warmer than before. I looked up, wiping the hair out of my eyes, and noted the changes in him.

  Norman’s skin ha
d a healthy glow, and the bags under his eyes were less pronounced. He was still pale as death, but it wasn’t sickly looking anymore. Those wide lips that were once bloodless were now crimson, painted with my blood, then he slowly licked his mouth with a swipe of his tongue. Why was that hot? His eyes were clear, and the green was striking against the greenery around us. Fuck, he was handsome. I felt like I could spend all night contentedly staring at his angular face.

  Reality started to pour back in as the sexual fog left my head. I cleared my throat and felt another pulse of pain. My palm slapped over the fresh wound, and I winced. Norman’s gaze followed my hand, and he frowned.

  “Fuck, I hurt you…” He grabbed my hand and pulled it away. Cold air rushed over the open wound, and the trickle of blood dripping down my skin started to feel itchy.

  I must have looked incredibly uncomfortable, because he just said, “Shit, hold on,” and clamped his mouth back to the wound, shocking me, because I didn’t have much more to give.

  I was about to squirm out of his arms when I felt a more pleasant tingle. I went still as Norman ran his tongue over the incisions, leaving a warmth behind that had me sighing in relief. He pulled back, eyes glued to my neck, and I felt my wound knitting itself back together. Somehow, Norman had healed the bite marks with his saliva.

  I wondered about the biology of a vampire and how it all worked. Would I turn into a vampire now that he’d bitten me? Or was this a Twilight situation and I’d have to drink his too? Or did I have to die first? What if I started to sparkle?! I was freaking myself out just thinking about it.

  Norman pulled away, setting me back down on my feet. It was then that I remembered I was shirtless. Now, with the heat of passion behind us, I suddenly felt incredibly vulnerable. I snaked my arm in front of my breasts, and Norman frowned. “Oh, hold on a sec,” he said as he bent down. He swiped his T-shirt off the floor and handed it over with a small smile as he shook it out for me.

  I gratefully took the shirt and tossed it on, not caring that it was probably on backwards and inside out. I was just happy to be covered. Norman, on the other hand, looked incredibly pleased with himself in his shirtless state. Honestly, I wasn’t complaining.

  “That was…” Norman said, trailing off.

  “I know,” I said. “Did you think it would be anything less?”

  He smirked, a little bit of that cocky asshole simmering there. “I’m up for round two if you are.”

  My heart flipped, and then a moment later, guilt crashed down on my head like a wave. “Norman…I have to tell you something.”

  He snorted. “That never means anything good.”

  “I'm serious.” I smacked his shoulder lightly. “But I have a feeling you’re not going to like what I have to say.” God, I didn’t want to talk about this, but I owed it to him to be truthful. I was sick of keeping things to myself. That was the old October. I didn’t know her anymore. “Something happened—”

  “If you’re going to tell me about how my brother fingered you in The Wicked Quill, you can save your breath. I already know, and I don’t give a shit. I’m not blind, I know you have a thing for all of us.”

  My mouth must have been hanging wide open, because Norman’s finger on my chin had my jaw snapping shut. “What—”

  “You can stop shitting your pants over it. I knew the moment you guys came out from the back of that store. Freddy can’t keep a secret for shit anyways, and I always share everything with my brother. But you see…” He came closer, his lips a breath away from mine. “It only made me more desperate to taste you again, to see if my memory lives up to the real thing.”

  Our lips were brushing, and every one of his smooth words made my stomach do somersaults. “And?” I whispered.

  “I’ll make love…night and day to…Fuck…all the...time.” His voice was a fleeting, broken, and jumbled thought in my mind.

  I felt him smile against my mouth. “I think you know the answer to that. I think my cum dripping from that pussy tells you everything you need to know, baby girl.”

  I took a long shower, standing under the scalding hot spray for what felt like hours, just replaying my encounter with Norman over and over again. I was still in a state of disbelief. Did all that really just happen?

  I was still giddy over it, but there was still a small part of me that felt sick and nervous. What if he’d been messing with me… No. Norman wouldn't do that, not like that. He wasn’t that kind of asshole. He knew what sex meant to me, knew how I felt about him, and he’d never use me like that. But the only other explanation would be that he meant it. Not to mention the fact that he’d spoken to Freddy, and Freddy told him about what happened at The Wicked Quill. I didn’t know whether or not I should be offended that Freddy opened his big mouth, or relieved that Norman wasn’t being possessive or jealous.

  After drying off, I went back to my room. It was still so strange every time—the room was pretty much the same as I left it in the mortal world. I supposed I had the aunties to thank for that. My clothes were all here, and I was suddenly glad I’d taken to dressing in all black. Maddie was borrowing my clothes too, and they helped us to blend in a little better. I dressed in a pair of black leggings, lace up boots, and an oversized T-shirt that said Moon Child on the front. I smiled. Who knew this wardrobe would end up being so damn appropriate.

  I left my hair to air dry and simply threw my cloak over my arm, leaving the room and heading downstairs. I was halfway down the hallway when I heard a knocking. It was the same knocking I’d heard when we first got here—the knocking Auntie Fe had completely brushed off. It sounded like someone was rapping on a wooden door, but the sound was almost hollow and far away. It was such a quiet sound that I couldn’t pinpoint which direction it was coming from.

  I filed the issue away for later. Maybe I’d ask Maddie to do some snooping with me at some point. The smell of something sweet and spicy filled the house, and I let the scent guide me down the stairs. I knew from how delicious it was that it had to be Auntie Fe. Pip’s cooking would’ve had me escaping out my bedroom window just to avoid it.

  The others were probably out of their classes by now, and my nerves were shot at the mere thought of seeing the guys. Not to mention the walk of shame I was about to do in front of my eagle-eyed best friend. She’d know in a second that something happened. I tried to seem as casual as possible as I made my way into the kitchen. The smell of that sweet spice was thick, and there was a high pitched shrieking coming from the stove. Steam filled the kitchen, and I watched as Auntie Fe rushed over to grab the kettle.

  Everyone was sitting around the table, reminding me of the day we got here, except this time, we weren’t wide eyed and covered in sweat and dirt. Maddie sat closest to the kitchen talking with Pip. She was chopping something on the cutting board, and my auntie was gathering the small slices into a tiny bowl. I smiled, remembering all the times Maddie would come over in the past and help with dinner after my parents died. She probably spent more time at my house than she did at her own. It seemed like some things never really changed.

  She turned to me as I moved towards the kitchen. Our eyes met, and her brows furrowed, scanning my face. I looked away, cheeks already tomato red by now. Oh lord, she was never going to let me hear the end of this. By tonight, she’d have me spilling the beans with no way out of her interrogation.

  Jessica was perched on the back of Norman’s chair, and though she didn’t have a human face, I could already tell my little familiar was smirking, even inwardly. I narrowed my eyes at her and steadily avoided Norman’s piercing gaze. I could feel all the guys watching me bustle around the kitchen.

  I grabbed some herbs from the cupboard and took the kettle from Fe and poured myself some tea. The spicy sweet scent warmed me from head to toe. I added a little bit of honey for some more sweetness. Glancing up, I met Freddy’s stare. He, along with the others, seemed like he was actively trying to make me look at him.

  “Michael dear, that needs more sage,” Aunt
ie Pip rushed to Michael’s side. “Sprinkle lightly. If you glob it all on, it won't have the same effect. Patience is a virtue, child.” Michael pinched a pile of sage, bringing it over a cauldron placed on the table in front of him and sprinkled it in while Pip watched.

  I smirked, and Michael glanced up at me just in time to see it. When he sneered back, Pip snapped her fingers in front of his face three times, demanding he pay attention to whatever spell she was teaching him. My aunties meant business, especially when it came to cooking. Or…I supposed this was spellwork. I needed to get used to this reality fast. I wondered how many times the aunties had made potions right under my nose and I had no clue.

  “What’s got you looking so chipper, luv?” asked a low, British accented voice. Dread pooled in my stomach as we all collectively turned to Jason.

  He was perched on a wooden barstool near Michael, resting his elbow on a high table and smirking at me. His eyes were bright yellow, slitted down the middle, and the person looking out at me definitely wasn’t Jason.

  Damon had come out to play. He grinned, those yellow eyes running the length of my body. “Looking a bit flushed.” Those sensuous lips curled upwards. “It’s a good look on you.”

  “Bring Jason back,” I demanded, downing my tea in one gulp. It burned my throat, but I didn’t care. I suddenly felt the need to get out of the room.

  “He’s right here with me, actually.” His eyes flickered from yellow to grey and back again. “Aren’t you, Jason?”

  “Well, isn’t this an interesting development,” Auntie Pip said, coming around the kitchen island. She went right up to Jason/Damon, and proceeded to poke him in the cheek. I snorted at the dumbstruck look in those once again yellow eyes as he reared back from Pip’s finger. “A demon familiar… I haven’t seen one in ages.” She sounded amazed. Like a science teacher staring at a completed equation. “Tell me, demon, what’s your name?”