Chapter 22
Room service arrives not long after and Carla digs in, sitting on the bed. Me and Anthony sit beside her while Anthony rattles on about how to drink blood.
“Drinking blood is not as simple as you would imagine,” Anthony tells me, leaning over Carla and sniffing her neck with a smirk. She flinches and glares at him.
“I will escape from you,” she vows to Anthony, while chowing down on the last of her vegetables. The sight of food disgusts me now. And I didn’t blame her for wanting to get away from such a prick of a vampire.
“It’s cute how human’s think they can simply run away,” Anthony mutters to Carla, as she pushes the tray off her knees and onto the bed. Anthony winks at me and I try not to growl, “Watch and learn, Isobel,” he says, grabbing Carla’s hand he pulls her up to a kneeling position in front of him, so he is behind her, “Pay attention to everything I do.”
I watch as he puts an arm around Carla’s stomach, and she turns her head away from him as he leans over her but he uses his other hand to run comfortingly up and down her arm. He slowly nuzzles into her neck and despite her protests before, I see her close her eyes and visibly relax back into him. Accepting the inevitable.
“Slowly is the key,” Anthony says, eyes locking onto mine to see if I understand. I nod and watch him focus back on her neck and quickly sink his fangs in. She makes a small whimper, but it’s a whimper of pleasure.
She arcs back into him as he sucks the blood out of her. The tangy and sweet smell of her blood filters through the air and rushes into my lungs.
I find myself pushing up out of my sitting position and crawling up to in front of Carla, while Anthony slowly lifts his fangs out of her neck, he reaches forward with a hand and grabs my own hand. Anthony jerks me forward and then wraps an arm around me as well, pulling me into Carla… closer to her neck.
Anthony watches me as I move into the two puncture wounds dripping blood down her neck.
“Lick it up,” he orders, “Don’t bite yet.” I lean in, my eyes solely focused on the line of blood down her neck. With surprising control I am able to lick up the blood without wanting to sink my fangs in. Anthony’s hand rubs up and down my bare back as I lick the blood up from her neck, “I want to drink,” I say huskily, looking at Anthony, pleading with my eyes.
I realise the reason I haven’t bitten her yet is because Anthony used compulsion on me to wait for him. He really did care about Carla and wanted her to be safe.
I vaguely hear the bedroom door open, but my focus is on getting my fill of sustenance. Anthony slides around Carla, who has opened her eyes and has a dreamy look on her face. He comes to me and grabs my hips.
“Do it now, but don’t be too rough,” Anthony says in his silky smooth voice. I can only nod and then my gaze focuses on his neck as he leans in towards me.
I open my mouth.
My fangs prick the outside of his skin.
“Isobel,” I hear Maximus’ voice by the doorway, a warning in his tone.
I can’t comprehend what is about to go down though, I just sink my fangs in nice and slow and instantly get a rush of warm, sweet blood in my mouth. I drink greedily and grab onto Anthony’s shoulders, pulling him in closer.
I needed a big fill of blood. It was my first time after all.
I was starving and the blood tasted like liquid heaven, powering up all my muscles and senses. Just as the rush of power seems to feel like too much I pull away, and take my fangs out of Anthony’s neck.
Arms come around from behind me and pull me off the bed, lurching me away from Anthony’s warmth. I growl low in my throat as I see Maximus stand in front of me, glaring at Anthony and Carla, who is scrambling off the bed, getting to her feet. Anthony jumps off the bed gracefully, arms folded across his chest.
“What’s the problem?” Anthony asks in a husky low tone.
“The problem is you didn’t follow orders,” Maximus snarls, “You were ordered to train her to drink from a human – and why is she undressed?”
“It helps her drink less if she feels vulnerable and turned on,” Anthony states, hands out in surrender, “Like I said, what’s the problem? She had to practice on me first before she drank from Carla –”
“Leave, now,” Maximus says in a deadly tone, “Unless you want to have your head ripped off and shoved up your ass.” Anthony grins mockingly, and lowers his hands to his sides. He shrugs.
“Very well,” he says, in defeat, “Thanks for thanking me, Maximus,” Anthony walks over to Carla, grabs her hand and quickly stalks from the room.
When they are gone, Maximus slowly turns to face me, raising an eyebrow.
“I feel so alive,” I say, “My senses are so heightened it’s like they are on fire. I feel really restless. I need to move.” Maximus looks at me suspiciously.
“Why did you undress?” he asks, and I can detect the strong hint of jealousy in his tone.
“He used compulsion on me,” I admit, but still angry. I hadn’t done anything wrong! “Anthony helped me in the end, taught me how to take blood slowly.”
“Did you enjoy taking blood from Anthony?” Maximus asks me and I know not to push him.
“Why are you so angry? Anthony did what he needed to do,” I state, “What happened Maximus?” He sighs and runs a hand through his hair. Which I find incredibly sexy.
“There was a breach in security,” Maximus explains, “Jennifer and Jaime were attacked.” I instantly tense.
“What?”
“Claudia and Johnathan are also missing. I’ve done as much as I can do for now. We have a new threat, an undead witch called Eddrick is after Jennifer and Jaime. We think he kidnapped John and Claudia. All this has been going on, while you get down and dirty with another vampire…” Maximus shakes his head in disbelief, “What am I going to do with you?”
“I’m not the problem here. Is Jennifer okay?” I ask, crossing my arms over my chest, I glare at Maximus. He was still jealous from what happened. It annoyed me greatly.
He thought he had so much control in my life.
“For now everyone is okay, I think,” Maximus says, walking up to me, “You still haven’t taken blood from a human.”
“I haven’t gone hunting yet either,” I say, coldly. Knowing it’ll piss him off more that I wasn’t worried about him being jealous. I could just use it to my advantage. I could distract him. Possibly escape.
I had to find Luke.
“Oh, I’ll take you hunting,” Maximus affirms, grabbing my chin and leaning down to look in my eyes, “You’ll find out vampire hunter blood tastes the best of all.”
“Let’s go hunting now,” I blurt out. Maximus smirks and takes a step back, letting me go.
“Eager to please me, little hunter?” Maximus asks. I shrug.
“Sure,” I say sarcastically.
“We’re going to have to work on that attitude of yours,” Maximus growls.
“What attitude?” I ask, “I need to get changed, out of my way.” I shove past him to pick up my top and pants off the ground where I had left them, “Then we should go hunting.”
I might be able to find Luke if I go hunting. And then I would be able to see if he still accepted what I was. I needed to know. He was my closest friend.
I needed to know he didn’t care I was now the very thing he hunted.
“Fine, we’ll go hunting,” Maximus growls, and I look over my shoulder as I pull up my pants to see him staring at my ass.
Typical.
But at least we finally agreed on something.
We were going hunting!