She had no idea what to expect, no idea what to do. She nodded her head and followed Christian to the dining room and took a seat across the table.
"I've never done this before," she blurted out. Maggie had never been good with pressure or hanging silences. She needed to fill the void with something, even if it was stupidity and awkwardness. Her brown eyes were wide as she watched Christian take a seat in front of her. He looked a lot more pale than a vampire should look, and that was saying a lot. "When was the last time you fed?"
Christian blinked and she watched as he shook his head, almost as though he wasn't quite sure, as though the thought hadn't even occurred to him.
"I, uh, I don't know," he replied.
Maggie pressed her lips together, nodding her head. "I know I gave you synthetic blood for lunch yesterday," she said slowly. "Did you drink it?"
"I hate synthetic blood," Christian told her, his jade green eyes dull and almost lifeless.
Maggie nodded. "Of course," she said. "Right. Why do you have it, then?"
His eyes flashed to hers and the corner of his lips curved up. "My uncle," he said. "He gave me a case a couple of months ago after that doctor from the NDS was kidnapped. He thought a war against supes was about to start and since he knew I didn't have an official feeder, he wanted me to be prepared."
"Sounds like a nice guy," Maggie murmured.
"He isn't," Christian snapped and looked ashamed for overreacting. "I'm sorry. I've been with my uncle my entire time on earth and I'm not exactly thrilled that we're both blessed with long life." He shrugged but the gesture was stiff. "I don't drink that if I don't have to. Even when I should."
"Do you need to feed now?" Maggie asked. "Not that I'm trying to tell you what to do. I mean, it's none of my business. I just figured considering you're here and not at work, you might have been forced to stay home because of work issues and maybe that's, in part, because you're not eating."
"I have particular tastes," he told her.
"And we can talk about all that," she said, "but maybe you should eat first?"
"Maybe you're right," he agreed.
Christian stood and walked over to Maggie. He knelt down and shifted awkwardly in her seat. She grabbed her long brunette hair and threw it over one shoulder so he had better access to her throat. Her heart beat sped up. She was sure he could hear it.
"I'm going to sink my teeth into your flesh," Christian said. "You'll feel a pinch but with the blood rushing to my fangs, you'll feel a sense of euphoria and any pain will go away."
Maggie nodded, swallowing. Christian leaned forward and clicked out his teeth. He hesitated only a moment before he leaned forward and finally claimed her as his.
Chapter 8
"What are you?" Christian asked her slowly. It took everything in him not to pull her back to him, to sink his fangs in her throat and suck her until she was dry. There was something special about her blood. Something different. It tasted like sunshine and rainbows and four-leaf covers. It wasn't like anything he had ever tasted before and his ignorance scared him.
Being alive for a thousand years meant he had tasted many different types of people. Tasting a person meant knowing them in a way no one else knew them before. It didn't matter how they looked on the outside or what they did or what they said. Christian knew a person’s true intentions came from their internal position in the universe. A man could donate a huge sum to domestic violence charities, but if he still came home and beat up his wife, it really didn't mean he was good. And he could taste that in the blood.
Blood never lied.
Maggie was something new. Something entirely different. He tasted contentment and assimilation - she was good at adapting to change and seemed pretty adjusted. There was also a trace of anger directed toward a couple of people in her family, a hint of loneliness (which was odd, considering he knew she had a big group of friends), and in innocence. Which meant she had yet to have sex. Christian had to bite the inside of his bottom lip to contain himself. Just thinking about bedding Maggie - with the way she looked and acted and tasted - made him get hard.
Jesus, he was like some kid in high school who got hard when his teacher wore yoga pants on Friday.
"I don't know," she told him. "Did I... did I do something wrong? Do I taste... bad?"
Immediately, Christian shook his head. "No," he told her. "Absolutely not. You taste..." He couldn't quite put into words what he felt when he experienced her blood and he wasn't going to attempt to do so now. "You just don't taste completely human."
That was the truth. There was something supernatural about her, something otherworldly that he couldn't quite put his finger on. It definitely wasn't werewolf - dogs had a unique taste the same way they had a unique smell - nor was it traces of his own kind. Vampires - no matter how small the bloodline - made the blood a degree or two colder in temperature. No. This was earthy and light. Something new. Something rare.
"Oh," she said. Maggie reached across her chest and grabbed her arm, looking around the room with an uncomfortable glint in her eyes.
"I'm sorry," Christian said. "Let me get you something to eat." Before he did that, he leaned close to her - it was a risk he was willing to take - and slowly licked the small puncture marks on her neck. When he pulled back, they instantly closed. He swallowed slowly and distanced himself from her once more. She was going to be the death of him, he was sure of it.
--
When Christian left, Maggie let out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding. Had she done something wrong? She didn't know what she tasted like but it seemed as though he didn't like it. He literally asked if she was all human. Which meant there was something in her blood that was off. Which had to be bad.
He had already paid for her services for the entire month, and it was a lot of money. Maggie wasn't quite sure what the exact price was but she got to pocket five grand of it. Could he return her if he signed a contract? Probably there was some kind of forty-eight hour probation period where if the vampire wasn't satisfied, they could return the feeder and break contract without penalty.
Shit. If Christian returned her, she'd be blackballed. She wouldn't be able to get a feeding job anywhere which meant she wouldn't be able to afford her dorm payment in the time she needed and she'd either have to commute from her aunt's place - drama city considering she was in charge of figuring this whole money thing out and not conducive to study, plus two hours south of the university - or look for some cheap apartment in a dangerous part of Somerset that was much closer to campus.
When Christian came back with a couple of Oreos and a glass of milk, Maggie stood up.
"Look," she said. "I'm really sorry about what happened when you fed on me. Really, I am. But please don't fire me. If there's a way for me to taste different or if there's something I can do to make myself taste better, please let me know and I'll do it. I just really need the money. I have this semester to finish up before I graduate and I'd really like to be able to do that."
Christian furrowed his brow, shooting her a look of confusion as he handed her the cookies and milk. He slid back into his seat and she followed suit, preparing for the worst.
"Fire you?" he asked. "Why would I fire you?"
"The way you responded to my taste," she said slowly. "You seemed like maybe you didn't like it."
Christian blinked. "No," he said. "No, your taste..." He let his voice trail off and she watched as his shoulders hunched forward, a shudder ripping through him. "Your taste sets my blood on fire. Your blood is rare and it makes me burn with..." He stopped short and gave her a reluctant smile. "I'm sorry. I'm not trying to scare you. Your blood is perfect. I want it. More. But I can't. I'm babbling." He shook his head. "To answer your question, no, I'm not firing you."
"Okay," she said, letting out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding.
"It's just..." He let his voice trail off, slipping his hands into his pockets and pacing up and down the dining room. "There's somethi
ng supernatural about your blood, Maggie. Can I call you that?" At Maggie's nod, he continued. "Do you... would you mind if I ran some tests? My uncle's company works extensively with genetics labs and I'd love to see if maybe you have traces of the supernatural in you."
Maggie shifted uneasily in the chair, toying with the cookies in her hand. Black crumbs fell on the white table cloth and she instinctively pushed them off the table with a sweep of the back of her hand.
"You're nervous," he stated rather than asked.
Her eyes found his, surprised he could so easily read her emotions.
"I know," he said, sliding back into his seat. "Let's talk about our arrangement first. Then I can tell you why I think it might be a good idea to get tested. How does that sound?"
Maggie nodded her head. "That sounds fine," she agreed. Her voice came out raw. She wasn't sure if that was a side effect from the feeding or if it was something else entirely.
"Okay," he said. Christian had a low, soothing voice. For a vampire, his accent seemed primarily American. She didn't know if he changed it to fit in or if it happened that way naturally because of the amount of time spent here. Regardless how he came to acquire the sound, it felt good. It helped relax her. She liked it. "Should we start off with the basics?"
"I know vampires are technically dead," Maggie said. "They need to feed off of human blood in order to keep themselves alive. I know that finding love could cause a vampire's heart to start beating again, like Nikolai did when he and Lizzie got together. I also know that if a vampire turns a human, he can still feed off of her or him, because technically, their heart is still beating and their blood is still fresh. You were turned, right? You weren't born."
"I was turned," Christian agreed.
"Is your heart beating?"
He shook his head. "My heart stopped beating a long time ago," he replied. "It's hard to think of love when you're going to live forever."
"You don't believe love lasts that long?" Maggie asked, cocking her head to the side.
He shrugged, leaning back in his chair casually. "I've never experienced it," he told her. "The heart can only last so long until it realizes it has nothing to beat for. Once that's apparent, it stops. It's a pretty black and white concept."
"But there's always the possibility of it starting back up again," she pointed out. "If you found the right person."
"I suppose," he agreed, then quickly added, "Look, we aren't getting anywhere. Vampires feed on humans to keep themselves alive. They can also feed on humans who they, themselves, turned, if they wanted to."
"Or they could drink synthetic blood," Maggie pointed out, pushing her brows up and wrinkling her forehead.
Christian shot her a look but didn't contradict her. "That, too," he agreed.
"Which is why you're paying me such a huge sum of money," Maggie continued. "You don't want to drink that synthetic shit, as you so lovingly refer to it, even though it's available and feeding on humans isn't a requirement to sustain your life anymore. Am I right?"
"Yes," he said with a nod. "The way it works is I pay your agency and you get a percentage of that. However, if I require you to, let's say, come to my office because I need you for an emergency feeding, I pay you directly and it's extra. Basically, I require feeding every five days. Typically, vampires range from every three to five. I try to push it as far out as I can."
"Why?" Maggie interjected. "I don't mean to interrupt, but why not feed every three days? Maybe that will help you with what's going on at work?"
Christian furrowed his brow. "Work is..." He let his voice trail off. "I don't like my job. It makes me good money, yes, but I don't particularly care about that. I don't care if I mess up and lose a bunch of money. My uncle does, but I don't."
Maggie pressed her lips together. She needed to change the subject or he would get even more frustrated than he already was.
"What else?" she pushed gently, perking her brows.
"Right." He wrinkled his brow and shook his head. "Um, well... you'll live with me. I know rules say no relationship can form between us because it would be inappropriate. You have a room and a roof over your head. All the food you can eat. You don't have a curfew and if you have a boyfriend..." His voice hitched at the word and he clenched his jaw, popping it, before he regarded her with his jade green eyes. "Do you have a boyfriend?"
"Me?" Maggie asked, surprised. "Um, no. No boyfriend."
"Okay," Christian said and it almost seemed the nod he gave her was one of approval. Which made no sense because who cared if she had a boyfriend or not? "That's probably a good thing. In my experience, significant others develop a jealousy over the feeder even though the act of feeding, while sensual in nature, is practical. Though the feelings are erotic because of the endorphins coursing through your body, there is by no means any sexual actions going on between us."
"Of course," she said.
"Talk to me, if you want," Christian said. "Sometimes humans don't understand the feelings that are going on in their body and they deal with a slew of feelings as a result of the feeding. It can be easily addicting." He pressed his lips together and his eyes dropped to her neck, where he had bitten her just moments ago. "Do you have any questions? Are you okay?"
Maggie nodded her head. She needed to get away, to let the moment sink in, to realize what she was now, what she had become.
"I need to get ready for class," she mumbled and left the dining room, only eating a half of a cookie.
Chapter 9
Maggie took an extra-long shower before getting ready for school. She had a lot to process. Truth be told, she wasn't quite sure how she felt about what Christian said - that she had some kind of trace of supernatural in her blood - but there was no way he could be right. Granted, she had never met her father. From what her mother told her - which was barely anything - he was her high school sweetheart who left Orange County to study abroad and never came back. She hadn't even thought to reach out to him or search for him on social media. Since Maggie didn't even know his full name, she couldn't do it herself. It was her grandparents who helped Maggie's mother, both financially and emotionally, and Maggie managed to turn out relatively well-adjusted - unless being a vampire donor counted against her.
It probably did.
But now that Christian mentioned her blood and how different it was, she couldn't help but wonder about her father. Maybe she should call her aunt and arrange to go to brunch with her over the weekend like they used to before Grandma died. Maybe her aunt would actually tell her something more about her father now that Maggie was twenty-two and about to graduate college, living on her own, paying her own bills. If this wasn't adult enough, Maggie didn't know what was.
When she stepped out, she wrapped her hair in a towel and dried off before pulling on a pair of boyfriend jeans, cute flats, and a nautical-striped white and blue striped shirt that scooped low in front and had three-quarter length sleeves. She blew dry her hair for the next ten minutes and put extra styling gel in it so her hair wasn't frizzy in the bitter January wind. She finished her outfit with a heavy black leather coat and headed down the stairs with her purse and binder.
Christian's place was twenty minutes away from campus if there wasn't any traffic. Traffic, however, was relatively unpredictable, so Maggie liked to leave an hour ahead. As long as she was out by ten in the morning, she was positive she'd make her eleven am The Sexuality of Supes, one of the required classes for her sociology major. It was fascinating and they were only a few weeks in. Considering she was now living with a vampire made it all the more interesting, especially since he had fed from her.
Even thinking about that caused her cheeks to turn pink, and as she walked into the kitchen, she couldn't bring herself to look at Christian, who was sitting at the dining table, reading the newspaper, like nothing had happened between them.
He looked up when he saw her and he folded the newspaper down and tossed it onto the table. She felt penetrated under his piercing stare, even thou
gh there was no hostility in it. It was like he could see straight through her, like now that he had tasted her, he had access to all of her deep dark secrets. Like the fact that while she talked a big game, she was secretly a virgin nervous about even the thought of having sex.
She pressed her lips together and shook her head. She couldn't allow herself to think about sex right now, not when she was living with one of the most gorgeous men - vampires - she had ever come across. He was six foot four inches - at least - with broad shoulders and muscles on his lean body. His short, chestnut brown hair was slicked back from his face most days, but now that he was home, fell into his face carelessly. He had a crooked smile when he decided to smile - which was a rare thing, she was beginning to realize - and beautiful jade green eyes. She was certain he was more than a little experienced when it came to women and possibly men - she heard that living forever meant being more open-minded about certain things - and she did not want him to find out that she was sexually inexperienced because...
Well, because.
"Listen," Christian said, slowly coming to a stand. Maggie had no idea how it was possible to make pajama pants look sexy but he somehow had that talent. "I feel as though I came across rather crass earlier, about setting you up for an appointment. That wasn't my intention. If you don't want to do that, that's completely understandable. I'm not going to force you to do something you don't want to do. I'm just... I have an insatiable curiosity and you are something I've never tasted before. I wanted to understand why."
"No, that's okay," Maggie said with a shy smile. "I totally get it. I do. I've just never been asked if I'm part supernatural before. I've always felt pretty ordinary."
Christian furrowed his brow. "Humans are anything but ordinary," he said. "Do you know how difficult it is just to carry a pregnancy to term? When people say a baby is a miracle, it's the truth. Some women can't even get pregnant. Some women can and have difficulties staying pregnant. Everything has to go perfectly - chromosomes have to line up, the uterine wall has to be strong enough, everything has to be perfect to carry a child to term. Yet we take it for granted because babies are born every day. Every minute. Every second. For vampires, miscarriage is incredibly high. There's less of a chance when mating with a human but it's still higher than werewolves and humans."
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