Page 19 of Maddie

“This is his first feeding,” Maddie whispered to the stranger.

“I figured as much.” The man’s smile was kind as he rolled up his sleeve and approached the settee. “My name’s Elijah.”

“Noah,” he replied through clenched teeth. He didnotwant to bite someone. Let alone some stranger they pulled off the street like some sort of prostitute. People couldn’t just go around drinking random blood.Or any blood, he reminded himself. But he was a vampire now—that was exactly what he needed to do to survive.

“Nice to meet you.” He held his arm out to Noah. A few light-colored scars dotted his skin from prior bites. “Don’t worry. As a vampire, you can’t catch anything from blood—not that I have anything to catch.”

“Are you a mind reader or something?” Noah grumbled.

Elijah laughed. “No, I just recognize that look. I’ve been doing this for a while.”

Maddie hovered beside them, glancing from Noah to Elijah and back as if she was worried that Noah would refuse. He damn wellwantedto refuse, but the sound of the steady heartbeat mixed with the warm, heady scent wafting off Elijah had his mouth watering.

He sighed in defeat and took Elijah’s proffered arm. “Let’s get this over with.”

“You’ll like this even better than the bags.” Maddie smiled encouragingly as Noah swiped the tip of his tongue across a fang. “And I’m right here to stop you.”

Noah closed his eyes for a moment, mentally preparing himself, and lifted the wrist to his mouth. Saliva flooded his tongue as an intoxicating scent reached his nose.Ah, fuck it.Instinct took over and he sank his fangs into Elijah’s soft flesh.

Hot blood exploded into his mouth and he moaned as the different flavors mingled together on his readied tongue. Iron and … and he couldn’t identify everything he tasted. Whatever it was, it was euphoric. A crackling fire on a cold day, bringing him back from the edge of death. This was so much different than the bagged blood. Those bags quenched his thirst, but this was like drinking life itself.

Noah pulled in a deep mouthful and swallowed, again and again. Energy sparked through his body, blazing through his veins. And still he drank. Until it felt as if he would explode with power. And then he drank some more.

“Noah,” Maddie called through his haze.

He ripped his mouth away from Elijah’s arm and gasped for breath. His body practically hummed, and his cock was hard as steel.Shit. He’d just gotten a hard-on from drinking blood? Was that supposed to happen?

Elijah said something, but Noah was too preoccupied with the new sensations flowing through his body to comprehend. Maddie leaned down to look Noah in the eyes. “He’s fine,” she chirped to the human. “I’ll see you out.”

Noah’s gaze landed on Maddie’s arse as she led Elijah to the front door and placed a coin in his palm, exchanging a few quiet words. How he wanted to see that arse bent over for him, him unbuttoning his trousers, freeing his cock, then sliding into her with one swift thrust and…Stop.He rubbed a hand over his face and his fangs retracted on their own.

“Feeling better?” Maddie asked, returning to him.

Noah let out a long breath and peered down at himself. Other than the raging boner straining against his trousers, there was blood dried into his clothes from where he’d bled out on Osanna’s settee. He sniffed himself and blanched. Sweat and blood—not a good combination. If everyone in Wonderland could smell as well as he could, it would definitely draw attention. “Do you have anything else I can wear?” he asked.

“I stashed some clothing for Ferris here, but they might be large on you.” Maddie quickly disappeared into her bedroom and Noah winced at how loud the squeak of the dresser drawer was.

“Are sounds always this … grating to the ears?” he called.

Maddie laughed as the sound of her rummaging through fabric filled the air. “It’s only because there’s nothing but us here to make noise so your ears pick up on more. Outside, for example, there’s the sound of animals and bugs and the wind to contend with.”

“I know you don’t want to waste time, but you should probably clean yourself as well. Everyone will know you’re newly-turned if you go around like that, and fresh vampires tend to turn curious heads.”

He wanted to argue, but she was right. There wasn’t time. Nor was it wise to draw attention to themselves when that could lead Imogen and Rav straight to Alice. “Fine.”

Noah hurried toward the door across from Maddie’s bedroom. Swinging the door shut with what was meant to be a gentle push, it slammed with a loudbang. He glanced at his hand. With the amount of effort that took, he was sure he could’ve turned the wood to splinters with a single punch. Part of him wanted to test the theory, but he might destroy Maddie’s home in the process.

“Sorry,” he called.

“You’ll get used to it,” Maddie replied from the other room.

Noah wasted no time cranking the water on and sealing the plug in the clawfoot tub. Every second he spent wearing the crusty, ruined clothing, nausea churned his stomach more.Once everything was removed, he shoved the fabric into a bin and hoped it was meant for either the rubbish or dirty linen.

The bathtub filled quickly, and he stepped in, purposely ignoring how badly his cock ached with need. As he sank down, a groan escaped him. The warm water felt fucking amazing against his skin, his muscles, and he immediately began scrubbing. Maddie thankfully had a bath sponge and soap in plain sight, even if it did smell like cherries. He scrubbed every inch of his body, thinking about how she would have used this same sponge on her milky skin, her breasts, in between her legs…Stop, damn it.

When his body and hair were both clean, he settled back into the curve of the bathtub.Only for a moment,he told himself. He still didn’t have anything to put on anyway. He thought about borrowing Ferris’s clothes. The vampire was larger than him, but not so much bigger that his clothes would fall off.

A sudden suspicion crept into his mind and before he could stop himself, he called out, “Why do you keep clothes for Ferris here?”

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