Page 17 of Maddie

“No, not mortal anymore, is it?” She shrugged and gave him a sympathetic look. “Immortal.”

Chapter Eight

Noah

Noah used every ounce of strength he had to lift Maddie from his lap.Damn.He’d been dry humping her like a fucking teenager … and he’dlikedit.Andshe’dlethim. Maddie cocked her head and stared at him, then shrugged.

“Sorry,” he muttered, leaning back into the settee.

“Don’t be.” She padded through the living room, carefully moving hat materials from her path. Noah found himself staring at her long legs as she bent over to chase a rolling bobbin. Her skirt was just long enough to prevent him from seeing more. The view of her legs was tantalizing enough but he still cursed the extra inch of tulle.

Get it together, man.

Maddie finally made her way to the cupboards and grabbed a teacup, quickly filling it with bagged blood. “You need to drink.”

His veins were parched, his mouth a desert. There was no pain in his neck like he expected and, when he lifted his hand to Osanna’s bite, it was already healed. But the ache in his chest intensified with every slowed beat of his heart.My heart is still beating. Vampires were dead, weren’t they? He was still very much alive, though he was quickly coming to regret that fact as pain rattled through his bones. His body spasmed, joints locking, jaw clenched, as he fell over onto the cushion. Maddie rushed to the settee and rolled him to his side. The fit lasted only a handful of seconds but left him sweating through his shirt.

“Here,” Maddie said softly, holding the teacup right under his nose. “It will make the pain go away.”

Drink blood? Never.

But his body disagreed. It begged for the thick red liquid.Cravedit. His eyes had tracked Maddie’s movements as she poured it, but the idea sent chills through him.

Soon though, he would need to. He knew it, even if he didn’t want to admit it. There would be a point where he couldn’t deny the mounting hunger. His gums tingled at the mere thought of a sip, and he squeezed his eyes shut to erase the image of Maddie’s fangs dropping down.

“I have to check on Alice,” he croaked. If she’d experienced even a sliver of this agony, he needed to see her.

Everything made sense now: why she’d been sprawled on the ground behind their flat, the reason Ferris had carried her, why she’d attacked him at the safe house.

“Drink and live. Don’t and die. It’s all the same to me,” Maddie said with a flippant wave of her hand. “But you can’t see your sister if you don’t survive the transition.”

He scowled. “You turned me. Youshouldcare if I survive it.”

Maddie cast her gaze to the floor and chewed her bottom lip. “If you don’t pull through, it will be the same as if I didn’t turn you. This was the only way to give you a chance.”

“Vampires are dead either way,” he said, focusing on the painfulthump thumpin his chest.

“No.” Her laugh came out high-pitched as she sat beside him. “Mortals all think that, but it isn’t true. We are alive and we will remain that way forever.”

Alive? He’d think more on what that meant later, but it gave him hope. It would be much harder to cure death, yet, if what she said was true, this seemed like more of a disease. The cure existed—Maddie had confirmed it. All he needed to do was find the location of this werewolf swamp.Because werewolves were a fucking thing now too…“Unless someone drives a stake through your heart,” he said.

“More nonsense. We die by sunlight, fire, or if someone cuts off our heads.” Maddie shrugged. “Imogen removes hearts, which is also effective.”

At the mention of the queen who’d turned his sister, Noah pushed up into a sitting position. “We have to go—”

“Hush.” Maddie slipped from the edge of the settee where she’d perched and spun to face him. “You need to drink and finish the transition before we do anything. I’d prefer you do it quickly as I have my own sister to save.”

Noah swallowed hard. He’d forgotten Maddie’s sister was imprisoned, and that she was the reason Ferris saved Alice. “Fine,” he said through clenched teeth. “Hand me the cup.”

Maddie scooped it off the end table and placed the cup into his hands. “I promise you’ll like it,” she said as if that made drinking blood any better.

She’s completely mad.Noah raised his brows and gave her a final look before bringing the cold liquid to his lips. The metallic scent filled his nose and a groan slipped from him, unbidden.Bottoms up, he told himself and took his first sip.

A bright memory exploded behind his eyes. One of a sunny day at the beach with his parents and Alice—years before impossible rules controlled every moment. He was three, Alice two. His father spun Noah and threw him up into the air, only to catch him a moment later. That was what drinking blood felt like. A rush of soaring, the fear of falling, and the relief of being caught all at once.

And Maddie was right—hedidlike it.

Noah tilted his head back, downing the cup’s entire contents in two gulps. Then he licked the inside of the porcelain clean, followed by his lips. Whatever reservations he’d had about his new diet were officially gone and he couldn’t bring himself to feel ashamed. He glanced into the cup to find it spotless, and he frowned at Maddie. “More.”

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