“And you need that now, don’t you? To feed from me.”
Bast paused, unsure of what to tell her. How to tell her. “Normally, I can go days without feeding. What I took from you, while not a full meal, should keep me satisfied for a while. Normally. For some reason I don’t know about or understand, I am as starved as if I’d gone days without feeding.”
“Does that mean yes or no?”
“Yes,” he replied. “Yes, I need to feed from you. Or if not you, I must leave and find sustenance. I’m not sure how long I could go on without nourishment. When I told you earlier I don’t get sick, I meant it. This fever is completely foreign to me.”
Alice sat back on her haunches, watching him. There was no way to tell what kinds of thoughts were rushing through that brain of hers. Whether she was more afraid now than before. Whether she wanted to run straight for the front door and never return. Whether she was looking for a way to exterminate him now and rid the world of a would-be menace.
“Am I being naïve in trusting you?” she asked.
It didn’t matter whether the question was directed toward him or a general musing aloud. “You’re not. I gave you my word, and I will hold to it. But you can either decide you trust me or decide I’m not worthy of it. What you do now is totally up to you.” There were consequences to her knowledge and he’d undertaken a new responsibility, but it was a burden undertaken willingly.
Her hand lowered, moving away from hiding the area of her neck he coveted. Mouth watering, Bast waited for the permission he desperately needed.
There was a brief nod from Alice, a quick jerk of her chin, and he crawled cautiously toward her. Not intending to frighten, hopefully settling some of her apprehension instead.
Alice rose to her knees, facing him, and Bast heard the fluttering of her heartbeat. The way it raced. He wanted to rest his hand against her chest, to feel its frantic movement as he drank from her. But because this gift was so precious, he chose not to revel in it but to give her trust in him the respect it was due.
His gaze went to that beautiful pulse, the place where her flesh rose and fell in rapid succession. The place where he would kiss. “Just a little bit, princess,” he whispered. It was a promise.
She trembled as his arms wrapped around her, but Alice turned her face away, allowing him access. Her chest rose and fell during each shuddering breath, and his cock stirred at the feel of her breasts pressed against him. By the time he bit down, blood immediately flooding his mouth, he was rock hard.
Alice gasped, her hands tightening on his shoulders. A soft whimper escaped her mouth, the motion sending more of the sweet blood he’d been craving as he nursed the wound. The cry that came upon its heels was less surprised, however, and more seductive in nature. Bast pulled again, and Alice released a sound so innocent yet so carnal, he was at a loss as to whether to continue the pleasure she was feeling or to end it before he gave in to its lure.
She writhed in his arms, her pelvis brushing against his straining erection. The fervor in her movement, the way she dug her fingertips into his muscles, was not lost to him. Bast wanted to keep her there enthralled, in the place where she shuddered. He could scent her arousal and imagined their naked bodies coming together the next time he drank from her. And there would be a next time.
And maybe when that time came, he would be buried deep inside her cunt. Her slick walls grasping onto his cock every time he pushed inside of her and then withdrew. If this sensation of feeding from her—taking her life’s blood—was this passionate, this all-consuming now, it would only be that much more glorious when he took her as a man, not just as a vampire.
Alice cried out, and he glanced into her face to watch the way it twisted as she came again. From between closed lids, tears leaked and ran down the sides of her face. She looked as otherworldly as he felt in that moment. Beautiful and serene. When she went limp, becoming a dead weight, his wonder hastened into heart-rending concern.
“Alice?” Christ, he almost forgot to lick the wound closed. Heart kicking, Bast tended to the puncture wounds, studying her composure in the meanwhile. “Alice, are you with me?”