Page 4 of Maddie

With a fortifying breath, Noah turned to face Harper. She’d already closed the distance between them, so he held his hands out to keep her at an arm’s length. Mascara trailed down her freckled cheeks and her dark hair was in a messy knot atop her head.

“You’re datinghernow? I should’ve known! She was always staring at you,” Harper spat.

“I’m not dating anyone,” Noah said in a calm voice. Rising to meet her anger only made things worse and they were in the middle of a public street. “After dealing with your shit, I doubt I ever will again.”

Her eyes narrowed. “I said I was sorry. You make me lose my mind, is all.”

Noah still hadn’t told his parents that, after the breakup, she had splashed paint all over their hand-crafted wall mosaic or purposely snapped the wings off the cherubs sculpted on the living room fireplace. The walls were fixable—a little elbow grease, the right chemicals, and a lot of time would take the paint right off. But the wings were another story.

“Don’t make this my fault, Harper. Your issues are your issues and I have too much going on to put up with them, okay? We had a good run.”Good sex, at least. The rest of the relationship was rather brutal on his psyche, if he were being honest. All two years of it. “But it’s over now.”

She grabbed his arm as he turned to leave. “Please, just give me another chance.”

“You cheated onme.” With his best friend, no less. “Go leech off someone else, yeah? I’m done with you.”

“Noah,please,” she begged.

But he wasn’t having it and hailed a taxi, price be damned. It was worth it to get away from Harper. She’d gotten more chances than anyone should have, and now he was going to relax and enjoy his last year of university. No more drama, no more gold-diggers. Just studying during the week and letting loose on the weekends. When he didn’t have to work, that was. His parents were letting him stay in their London flat rent free with two conditions: keep a job and make sure his sister, Alice, stayed out of trouble.

One of those was easier than the other. His little sister had taken full advantage of the freedom university bought her. She’d always been well-behaved and had gotten straight-As, but there hadn’t been any other option. Their parents would’ve skinned them alive for any less. But now that Alice was out from under their thumb, she’d made some … interesting choices. Not that it mattered to Noah. He was actually proud of his sister for trying to find herself.

“Girl trouble?” the driver asked.

“You have no idea.” Noah rested his head on the back of the seat and gave his address. Harper wasn’t worth all this trouble.

By the time they reached the front of Noah’s house, his eyes had drooped, his head bobbing with sleep. He shook himself out of it and swiped his credit card. “Thanks, man.”

“You bet,” the older driver said and pulled carefully back into traffic.

Noah walked around the corner to the back entrance in case Alice was napping. Her room was adjacent to the front door, and she was a notoriously light sleeper. If she had any plans to go out again tonight, she would need the rest. She and her friends partied harder than he ever had—he wasn’t even sure if she came home last night.More power to you, sis.

The gate clicked shut behind him as he entered the small garden. Tall bushes lined both sides of the stone pathway and every inch of dirt between them bloomed in bright flowers. Above them, creeping vines snaked over the brick exterior of the house.

Noah’s phone buzzed in his pocket, and he pulled it out to see a text from Harper. He rolled his eyes and unlocked the screen to block her number without reading it. Before he could manage it, he tripped over something large in the middle of the pathway and landed on the ground with anoomphnext to his sister’s prone body. He recognized her black hair and blonde roots immediately as well as the new piercings through the bridge of her nose and in her cheeks.

“Alice?” He pushed himself up with a grunt. “What the hell are you doing out here?”

When she rolled away from him and curled into a fetal position instead of answering, he got to his feet. “You’re pissed again, aren’t you? I told you not to drink so much.”

“Help me, Noah,” she moaned.

Such a lightweight. He grabbed her arm and tugged her into a sitting position. “Come on. You’re just knackered. Let’s get you to bed.”

Alice shook her head. “I have to leave.”

With another tug, she was on her feet, clinging to his upper arms. Her hair was a snarled mess, the straps and buckles of her white dress were covered in dirt and grass stains, the tulle skirt ripped in places, and her skin appeared paler than usual. His brows rose at the sight. “What happened to you?”

“Vampires,” she breathed, her expression wild. Alice’s irises were a light blue which was a change from the red contacts she’d been wearing most of the time lately.

Noah rolled his eyes. He knew about her obsession with the mythical beings, knew about the clubs she went to with her new, like-minded friends. She must’ve meant one of them. Each one he’d met dressed in all black, bodies laden with tattoos and piercings, and a few even sported fake fangs. Still, they’d all seemed decent, harmless. Either he wasn’t as good at reading people as he thought, or he hadn’t met the person responsible for her condition.

“Who hurt you?” he asked softly.

“There was a man with white, red-tipped hair and fangs…” She released Noah to prod at her own teeth.

“Yes, a vampire. They have fangs.” He spoke carefully, running through his memory of her friends for one who fit that description. Demanding their name when Alice was in this state wouldn’t do any good. Demandinganythingfrom her in any state never ended well, actually. It was just who she was. He had to go easy to keep from spooking her into utter silence. “What did he do?”

“He took me to a hole in the park.”

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