Page 6 of Maddie

With what he most likely believed were quick motions, Noah had her backed into the wall. His hands gripped her arms, his chest pressed against hers. She glanced at Ferris who watched her, his gaze rolling to the sky. He had to know Maddie was having a little fun with the mortal by allowing him some sense of control.

“Just leave him alone,” Alice pleaded while Ferris held onto her. “He doesn’t understand.”

“Listen,” Noah said, his voice low. “I don’t know what drugs you’re on, but you need to get the fuck out of here before I call the police.”

Maddie chuckled then, and he looked at her as if she were mad. But that was nothing new. She quirked a brow and slowly raked her gaze down his lean and muscular form. Now that she was looking, his body wasn’t a bad one at all, but it wouldn’t tempt her today … or tomorrow. “You wouldn’t have time to pull it out of your pocket and make a call.” Noah was a fool for even threatening a vampire. If Rav and Imogen had shown up first, he would’ve already been dead.

“Now you—”

“Tut, tut.” Maddie interrupted his pathetic threats and stared into his green eyes, luring him in with her influence. “Now, step back.”

When he obeyed with glazed eyes, Alice gasped, her hands balled into fists against her tulle skirt. “You did to him what Rav did to me.”

“It’s fine. It had to be done.” She turned to Ferris and, with a flick of a hand, said, “Time to go.”

“He’s going to have to come with us.” Ferris sighed as he glanced at Noah. “Rav has her purse, so he’ll know where they live. He’ll kill him.”

Maddie peered up at the mortal, who blinked at her, waiting for her next command. “No. He stays here, Ferris.”

“Please,” Alice begged, tears sliding down her cheeks, over her silver piercings. “This is all my fault. I—I can’t leave him.”

Maddie narrowed her eyes. She couldn’t let this man or Alice ruin her plans to save her sister, but damn it all, Ferris was right. “I suppose. We’ll bring him back for a few days, then he can return home. However, the influence remains on for now. No argument.”

Alice nodded, yet her body trembled, still fearing Maddie. But Maddie was nothing like Rav—he used his influence to torment humans in a variety of ways before killing or turning them. Sometimes even experimenting on the ones he turned.

Footsteps sounded and a couple rounded the corner. Maddie stilled as her gaze latched onto long red hair falling down a woman’s back. The breath in her lungs pumped again when the woman’s face looked nothing like Imogen’s, and the darker-haired female she held hands with wasn’t Rav.

The couple didn’t spare them a second glance.

“Maddie,” Ferris warned, his voice serious, “we need to leave now.”

Maddie focused once more on Noah’s green gaze. “Continue to stay quiet and stick close to me.”

Ferris moved down the path first, checking both ways before motioning them on. She wasn’t certain Imogen and Rav would appear tonight, but something in her bones told her they would.

Maddie glanced at Alice’s still-trembling form. Rav had been the one to take her, and she knew the tricks he liked to pull with his victims.

“Did Rav fuck you before the change?” Maddie asked, her nostrils flaring.

“No,” Alice gasped, a look of horror crossing her face. “Nothing like that.”

Lucky duck, then.

Alice groaned, clutching her stomach and hunching over.

Perhaps she hadn’t turned as easily as Ferris had thought.

“Have you fed?” Ferris asked and pointed at his throat.

“No.” A look of disgust crossed Alice’s face. “I was hiding in a bin all day until the sun set.”

Alice hadn’t fed, and if she didn’t soon, she might not complete the change and die, or she would grow mad and try to drink from the entire city of London.

“You need to feed,” Maddie said as she walked beside Alice. “When we get to the safe house, you can drink from the pouches stored there.”

“No!”

“That’s your only option for a bit.” They didn’t have time to scavenge a human in Wonderland to please Alice, and Maddie was certain she wouldn’t want to feed from her brother.

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