by M. J. O'Shea
I opened my mouth, thinking of the juicy pulsing blood gushing through her veins, ready for my tongue to taste it. The tiny sting of fangs poking through my gums distracted me from my goal for a split second; then I was back, brushing her skin with my small newborn teeth, trying to prolong the anticipation.
The second I bit into her neck, my brain exploded. Her flavor was a heady mix of fruitiness and sultry heat. I saw hundreds of colors floating behind my eyelids, the colors I could sense in her scent; reds and purples and pinks, warmth and passion. I was instantly overcome by desire. Desire for more blood, of course. I would always want more blood. But I also wanted to touch her, a need I’d never associated with a woman before.
I ran my hand up her torso lightly and traced her collarbone with my fingers, caressing. I felt the blood gushing through her veins, headed for my mouth. She covered my hand with her own and squeezed, moaning and arching her head toward me. Her moan seemed to vibrate in my head, causing the multitude of colors to burst and sparkle. My own blood rushed headlong between my legs and I moaned a little, swallowing the sweet hot liquid. The sexual heat combined with the lust for blood, making me want to increase the suction.
My stomach started to feel full and sloshy. I knew it was time to pull away, but I was so tempted to keep drinking. In my mind, I knew I didn’t want to hurt the girl. My instincts were telling me to drain her dry.
It took a gentle throat-clearing noise to break my trance. Leila was looking on, her face serene, eyebrows raised.
Damn! I had to watch myself. I understood why Noah didn’t want to drink from me when he was hungry. I licked Trista’s neck and gently released her. She shivered and gripped my elbow to right herself.
“You okay?” I asked.
She gave me a wobbly smile. “Yeah, that felt incredible. You’re a natural.”
“Really? I thought I might have taken it too far.”
“No. Just the fact that you thought about not hurting me is more than so many out there would ever do.”
“How’d you know I was thinking that?’
She winked but didn’t answer. “I hope I see you around, Zack.” She gave me a short kiss on the cheek and sashayed off toward the bar.
I felt a strong pair of arms encircle me from behind. Breathing in, I trembled slightly and laid my head back against his shoulder.
“You did great, babe.”
“For a second there, I really didn’t think I was going to be able to stop.” I put my hands over his and entwined our fingers.
“You were fine,” Leila assured me. “All it took was one tiny reminder from me and you let go. If you were really in danger of losing control, I would’ve had to haul you off of her.”
“I agree. You weren’t going to hurt her. It was pretty damn hot, though.”
I was glad Noah couldn’t see my face. It had to be bright red. “You were watching?”
Leila rolled her eyes. “Of course he was watching. That was about a half step away from an X-rated movie. Most the people in this bar were probably watching.”
I shrugged, then squeezed Noah’s hand and turned to brush a kiss across his lips. “I know how he feels. I love watching him too.” We stared at each other for long moments. I was all of a sudden tired of the vampire bar.
“Okaaay. So I’m going to leave you two alone and go find Jason.” Leila laughed and turned to go. “Have a great night, boys. I imagine you won’t be here much longer.”
Noah barely glanced at her. “No, we won’t.”
Chapter Fourteen: Feel
IT SEEMED like hours before we made it home. I decided there needed to be a bar we could go to that wasn’t clear on the other side of town. I felt bad for the cab driver too. Noah and I must have treated him to quite a show. We couldn’t keep our hands off each other. By the time we were halfway back to our apartment, I had his tank top untucked and my fingers were creeping under the waistband of his pants. He’d slipped his hands under my shirt too and was tracing soft fingertips in circles all over my lower back. I was still so turned on from the blood coursing through my system and the new tactile sensations I wasn’t quite used to that his simple little touch had me ready to blow. I think I may have moaned out loud. I was beyond caring.
Noah’s tongue slipped out and traced the line of my neck before breathing warm air all over it. I shivered violently and gripped at his back with my free hand. The other one struggled to touch him but kept getting hindered by his snug jeans. Looking up for a second, I tried to gauge how much the cab driver could really see. I’d just about decided he couldn’t really see anything and it would be fine if I dragged Noah’s shirt off when we finally pulled up to our building. With trembly hands, Noah pulled his wallet out and handed the driver a bill. It could have been just about anything. The cabbie didn’t complain, so I guess it was good.
We jogged for the door, clutching each other’s hands and trying not to laugh. The elevator ride was another test of restraint. We barely passed. Finally we were standing in front of our apartment, fumbling through our pockets to find a key. Noah was the first one to find his successfully.
“If we’d gotten another red light, I might have exploded,” he mumbled as he tried to fit his key into the lock.
I laughed breathlessly at Noah’s remark and shuffled on my feet. I couldn’t wait to be on the other side of that door. I was going to get rid of his annoying jeans immediately. I needed to feel his skin rubbing up against mine.
As soon we were on the other side and the door had closed behind us, I grabbed the hem of his shirt and ripped. The sound of the material being torn apart kind of surprised me, but I was too intent on getting to his skin to really be concerned.
“Hey,” he murmured.
“I’ll buy you a new one.” My lips were muffled against his neck. I breathed him in again before I licked his neck and bit at the soft part of his ear.
That was all it took. He lifted me, kissing me with desperate intensity, and turned for our room. I wrapped my legs around his waist and pushed our bare chests against each other. It had always felt amazing to have my skin touching his. Now there were no words. It took my breath away. We collapsed onto the covers, legs and arms and hands tangling in the dark. It didn’t seem dark, though. I could see Noah perfectly. His pale hair shone, his lips glistened from my kisses. His beauty was surreal.
I lifted my hand, slowing the intensity, and cupped his jaw, rubbing my thumb on his cheek.
“I want you all the time,” I whispered, in awe of the strength of my feelings. “Do you think the need will ever go away?”
“I hope not.” He smiled and nuzzled his cheek into my palm. Then with gentle hands he reached between us and started to unbutton my jeans. My hands went immediately to his waistband too. He beat me to it and tugged my jeans over my hips, which I lifted eagerly. Then with my help, he shimmied out of his pants and briefs, leaving him naked and beautiful, ready for me to touch.
I wanted to feel him everywhere, to test all his textures with my new senses. His chest was smooth warm velvet over springy muscles. I rubbed the bumpy satin of his nipples, loving the new type of skin. He breathed and curled his hand around my arm loosely, moaning softly.
“Zack.”
I sucked on his lower lip. His hands reached for me too, touching the flesh that needed to be touched the most. I lifted my hips into his caress and scraped my teeth along the skin of his neck.
Kissing my way down his body, my lips and tongue tested every inch my fingers had just relearned. Finally he reached down and pulled me off him.
“Not yet.”
“But I want to.”
“Me too. But not like that.”
Oh. I’d almost forgotten. Almost. He pulled me down so I was lying on top of him, anchored his heels on the mattress, and arched up, rubbing against me with his entire body. My skin burst into waves of sensation.
“Can we both?”
He nodded. “It’ll be easier if we turn and bite each other on the leg. Remember
how I did it last week?” I trembled at the memory. I shifted around quickly, eager to feel the new sensation. Noah nuzzled up against me and wrapped his arm around my waist. “You ready?” I nodded. “You bite first, then I will.”
With a deep breath, I sank my teeth into the succulent flesh of his thigh. His flavor detonated in my mouth, a hundred times stronger than that of the girl. He tasted just like he’d smelled; like everything I had ever desired. I convulsed in pleasure and looped my arm around his waist, pulling him closer. In that moment, I felt the brief slice of pain caused by his teeth slipping into my skin. Then his taste and the rush of being bitten sang through me; a mind-blowing pleasure more intense than I could have ever imagined. It hit me with the strength of a tsunami.
I felt his love, his desire, the very essence of who he was blending with me and making us one. All of a sudden, I was hanging on to the precipice with the tips of my fingers, the roaring blackness swirling below me. I couldn’t hold on any longer.
In a blinding flash, I released my hold on his leg, felt my fangs slip out of his skin, and cried out. Noah shouted and his arms tightened around my waist. We both lay there in shock, panting and silent. I couldn’t form words to describe what had just happened between us. He’d been right before. What we’d done was so intimate, so vulnerable, that it would have been impossible to share it with anyone other than him.
Eventually I moved, turned and crawled tiredly up to collapse against Noah, my arm flung across his chest. I felt so connected to him, so attuned to every little part of him. It was almost as if I could read his emotions, as if what we’d done had bonded us to one another. Forever.
Finally he whispered in the dark, “Zack, you awake?”
I lifted my chin and rested it on his chest. Then I moved my hand, which had been resting against the sheet, to entwine my fingers with his.
“Yeah, I’m awake.”
“I….” I could tell he was still trying to fathom the hugeness of what had just happened.
“I know. It’s impossible to even describe, isn’t it?”
“I feel like we’re not two people anymore. Like we’re connected—God, you’re right. It is impossible to describe.”
“I wonder if the bond will fade.”
“Maybe. But I think the closer we become, the more intense it will be.”
I laughed shakily. “It gets more intense? I think that might kill me.”
He chuckled and wiggled his arm under my body to squeeze me close. “Death from pleasure. Is there a better way to go?” We both smiled in the near darkness of the room. The sun was starting to creep in through the miniscule cracks in the curtains. It wasn’t unpleasant, just enough light to give the room a kind of ethereal glow.
I closed my eyes, not quite ready for sleep, but happy to bask in the flush of early morning and the warmth of Noah’s embrace.
IT TOOK me a week or so to get used to my new dizzying senses. Every time I touched something, felt a weird breeze, smelled the rancid stench of the hot dog vendors outside, I was thrown. It was hard to regain my equilibrium, even though I was getting better and better at it all the time. I knew that soon, I would feel normal and I wouldn’t have any memory of my dull human senses.
The most challenging part of my new body remained the same. It was impossible for me to walk down the streets of Manhattan without running into some woman who I wanted to take a bite out of. There were just too many of them. Restraint was difficult, and I sometimes had to hold my breath if one of them smelled particularly delicious. Noah said I was doing really well, but I hated even thinking about attacking some unsuspecting girl… well, hated and loved thinking about it.
Drinking blood was my guilty pleasure. Part of me wished it wasn’t so pleasurable, but God, it was. That first bite into the soft fragrant skin of a woman’s neck was better than sex—well, at least better than sex with anyone but Noah. Nothing compared to that.
He had been right about the sex too. It was getting more intense. The pleasure and the closeness kept getting stronger. It had gotten to the point where I felt Noah’s emotions most of the time, and he easily felt mine. We’d been close before, but now I didn’t even have to ask what he was thinking. I couldn’t hear his thoughts, but the blasts of emotion he projected were so strong and clear that there was no doubt what was on his mind.
With anyone else, the bond would have scared the hell out of me, even more than the intense feelings during the act. But with Noah, I liked it. It was just one more way for me to feel like he was mine. I wanted to claim him in every way possible. Even the thought that we could potentially be with each other for hundreds of years didn’t make me feel anything but happy. He was my forever.
“HEY, BABE, guess what tomorrow is?”
We’d been lounging on the couch watching some afternoon TV and waiting for the sun to set so we could meet the others at Red—yeah, that was the name of the vampire bar. I know. I didn’t name it.
“I know what tomorrow is. We’re not going to make a big deal out of it.” He sounded wary.
I rolled my eyes at him. “Uh, yes we are. A guy only turns eighteen once, even if he is going to live forever. We should all go dancing or something. There has to be a place we can get in.”
He gave me a pained look. “I can’t dance. I refuse to dance.”
“That’s what they all say.”
“Please don’t tell Leila that tomorrow’s my birthday. She’ll make it into this huge thing.”
I raised my eyebrows in a challenge and pulled my cell out of my pocket. He made a grab for it, I leapt off the couch, and we spent the next twenty minutes or so laughing and chasing each other—which turned into wrestling on the bed, and the next thing I knew we were in bed kissing, legs wrapped around each other.
Needless to say, we were a little late getting out the door.
When we finally did burst out of the building and into the soft summer night, freshly showered and dressed in Noah’s designer clothes, I was so focused on him that it took me a minute to realize something felt off. A small prickle danced along my spine.
“Hey, Noh, stop for a second.” We both stood still, then looked around. There was nothing but the muted roar of the city. Neither one of us could see anything. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something out there.
Someone out there.
Were we being followed?
“There’s nobody here.” He looked like he wished he could believe it. We walked a little faster than usual out to the corner to catch a cab. I noticed Noah looking back a few times. I was relieved when a cab finally pulled over and we could slip into the relative safety of its somewhat fragrant backseat.
“Do you really think there wasn’t anyone there?”
“I don’t know. I hope there wasn’t.” We were quiet for the rest of the ride. I held his hand and tried to relax, but I was scared. There was no doubt in my mind that there had been someone waiting for us outside my apartment, and there was only one thing that could mean.
The hunters had found us.
WHEN WE pulled up in front of Red, Noah leaned over and whispered, “Don’t be too obvious about it, but get inside quickly. If one of the Harpers, or any other hunter, is out there, they’ll know better than to start something in a room full of vampires.”
We paid the driver quickly and scooted into the front door of the bar as speedily as possible, while still looking nonchalant about the whole thing. Leila, PC, and Jason were waiting for us there, with a very familiar-looking brunette. In the midst of my semi-anxiety attack, it took me a second to place her. When I did, I felt a wave of embarrassment… as usual.
“Hey, boys!” Leila called, waving us to the table. “Zack, Noah, this is my sister Trista,” Jason gestured.
I turned red and looked at the floor. “We’ve, uh, met already,” I mumbled when I could finally talk. I shot Leila a murderous look. “I didn’t know you two were friends.” They both laughed.
“She left out a pretty big detail a
bout you too, Zack.” Trista gave Noah a significant look. “I was a little disappointed when she finally told me a few minutes ago, but now I get it.” She fanned herself with a napkin, and she and Leila burst into laughter again.
Great. It was going to be one of those nights. I decided to take the focus off me.
“Hey, guess what tomorrow is, guys?” Noah pinched me in the side and I smirked at him. “It’s Noah’s eighteenth birthday!”
True to form, Leila screeched loudly. Jason had to cover his ears and PC just laughed. “Dude, I can’t even take you out and get you drunk or something. What are we going to do?”
“Nothing is fine with me.”
“Nonsense,” Leila scolded him with a swat.
I decided to go whole hog. “I was thinking dancing. It would be fun.” He pinched me again. I knew I was going to be in for it when we got home. That announcement garnered another shriek from Leila and a moan from Trista.
“I want to go dancing! I look like I’m fifteen and my ID says sixty-five. It’s not fair.”
Leila rolled her eyes. “Like we can’t get you in anywhere we’re going. These are not the droids you’re looking for.” She made a little waving motion with her hand and we all laughed.
I was always taken aback how modern Leila sounded. It would be expected for someone who’d lived as long as her to seem all wise and seraphic, but she could have fit right in with the girls I went to high school with.
“You’re in big trouble, mister,” Noah teased when the others drifted off to order drinks.
“Hey! You’re in trouble too. Why didn’t you tell me she was Jason’s sister? That would be like you biting Maya!”
Noah made a face. “Luckily that will never happen. Better keep her away from Leila here, though. Anyway, I didn’t know she was Jason’s sister. I’d never met her before.”
“Jason’s fine with it,” Leila assured me. “He obviously knows she comes here, and she is a big girl, after all.”
