Bleeding Love (14 page)

“I honestly don't
know kiddo,” he lied, and she knew that too. “Maybe you were using your psychic
ability while you drank from him, or maybe—”

There was a small
pause.

“Or maybe what?” Adrienne
was on the edge.

“Maybe he didn't
want to push you off him because he thought it—his blood—was what you wanted.”
Carter Stahl was turning into a Philosopher. “He didn’t stop you because he
wanted to give 
you
 what 
you 
wanted.”

Amidst the
seriousness of the situation, Adrienne had the indecency to say, “Or maybe he
just liked the feeling of having a girl pressed up against him.”

Adrienne and
Carter's ears twitched. They heard something on the second floor fall, a loud
crash. It had come from Xavier's room. It was obvious that he heard Adrienne
and her father talking.

“You should go up
and check on him,” said Carter, his voice commanding.

Adrienne was fast
to retort, “He's a number of centuries of old. He's not eight. He's old enough
to take care of himself.”

Her father's
voice turned forceful. “Adrienne.”

She sighed in
defeat and quickly ran up the stairs. In seconds, she was standing outside Xavier's
bedroom door. After a single knock, she entered without his permission. The
walls in the room had been painted a dark shade of blue. Just like his eyes.
Right now the room was dim. She stayed by the door. The curtains blackout
drapes and they had been drawn shut, with only a small sliver of light
illuminating the man on the bed. Xavier was lying on his side with his back
facing Adrienne.

“Yeah?” his voice
resonated in the room.

The sound of it
caught her off guard, making her heart thump loudly. The sound of it was
intoxicating. He was intoxicating. Adrienne shook her head. She was just
feeling those things because she had some of his blood inside her. That was all
it was.

“Quit the act.”

Xavier shifted on
his bed before he sat up. He looked coldly at her. “What act?”

Adrienne smirked.
Was he really playing dumb? And here she thought that the Night Class students
were the brightest crayons in the box.

“We all know you
don't need to sleep,” she said, walking to the sliding doors and drawing the
curtains to the side. Light passed through the glass and brought a certain glow
to the whole room. Xavier, on the other hand, was far from glowing.

“What's with the
growl?”

She made her way
over to him and his bed. She didn't remain standing for long because after a
few moments, she decided to take the space beside him. The bed sank an inch or
two down, and she turned to look at him. He turned his head away from hers, and
that was when she once again saw the bite marks she’d made.

“Did it hurt?”
she asked, reaching to touch his skin, and when she did, he stiffened.

Her hand was
soft, and he couldn't help but rest his head upon it. He closed his eyes, and
when he opened them again, they were a dark burgundy color. He opened his mouth
and showed off his fangs. Another growl came from deep within him. “Did you
have to ask that question?”

She drew her hand
away from his neck. She was scared with the way he looked at her. He was
glaring, his eyes piercing hers like knives, and not knowing what else to do,
she moved back. Then stood and settled for leaning against a wall.

“I don't know if
it hurts or not,” was Adrienne's smartass reply. “No one has ever bitten me
before.”

Xavier looked at
her with the darkest, and bluest, eyes she had ever seen. Within moments his
eye color had turned back to red.

Adrienne had
started to realize that the eye color was often an indication of mood. The more
passionate the mood, whether that was just pissed off or aroused, the redder
the eyes.

Xavier got up
from the bed and began to pace around until he moved right in front of where
Adrienne stood. Their bodies were mere inches apart from each other. They could
feel body heat radiating between them.

“And it should
stay that way,” he said, stepping back from her, out of temptations way, and moving
to the terrace. When he was on the balcony, he put a hand over his eyes to
shade them from the light of the sun.

Adrienne followed
suit and remained close behind him. “I guess,” she sounded hesitant with her
answer but she shrugged away the nervous feeling. “Do you have any plans today?”

Xavier nodded
before saying,” Do you want to come?”

Adrienne stepped
forward and stood beside the other vampire—her fiancé. His gaze remained
staring off into a distance while hers settled on looking at him. She had never
really noticed the contours of his cheekbones and his jaw, until now. Now she
saw how sharp, definite, and defined they were, and she liked the shape, the
form, and the edge. It made him seem
untouchable
. “It really depends on
where you're taking me,” said Adrienne in reply.

The sun was
slowly rising, yet as noon got closer, so did the clouds. The cumulus balls of
fluff were starting to cover the sun. But there was still enough light for
Californians to plan a trip down to the beach.

Xavier wouldn't
be taking her to a beach. “You'll have to find out for yourself,” he replied
with a cheeky smile.

* * * * *

An hour and a
half later, Adrienne found herself standing in the middle of a forest with Xavier.

“I never knew
there was a forest near home,” Adrienne said, checking her watch. “And you
could've told me the drive was going to take this long.”

A sheepish smile
made its way to Xavier's flawless facial structure. “You never asked.”

Adrienne
childishly stuck her tongue out at him as she explored the place and let her
eyes wander. The forest was had a lot of felled trees, but there was a lot of
groundcover, and the land was sharply slopped uphill, which provided quite a
bit of privacy, which Adrienne guessed Xavier wanted. The landscape was a
myriad of different hues of green, brown, and red. The trees were tall, their
trunks colossal, whilst the ground was covered fallen leaves, vines and small
bushes. The place was pretty isolated. He’d driven several miles from the main
road. Then they had parked the car and hiked in.

Xavier looked
around and realized they were finally away from civilization. He could relax
and unleash his vampire instincts.

“What do you want
this kind of seclusion for?” Adrienne couldn't help but ask.

Xavier smirked,
amused with her limited knowledge when it came to vampirism.

She frowned at
him. She felt like he was denigrating her once again.

“I want something
fresh, something other than the blood your father buys from hospitals and blood
banks.” He crouched down. “Want to join me?”

Smiling, Adrienne
shook her head.

“I'll just watch
you hunt,” she said.

With that, Xavier
began searching for an early dinner. Hunting wasn't as gruesome and as
vomit-inducing as Adrienne thought it would be. With the way Xavier approached
the small deer and started drinking its blood, the action seemed natural, and
humane. He was simply taking sustenance from nature, not much different from
what humans did. Only where the humans would have killed and butchered the
animal for its meat, Xavier simply drank its blood.

 When Xavier
started to suck the animal’s neck, she turned away. When he was done the doe
lay in the grass. It was tired, weak, but alive. Xavier had some animal blood
on him.

Adrienne waved
her hand at him. “Hey, you well…dribbled blood on yourself. Could you clean
that up?” She didn’t really like the sight of blood. She sighed, thinking that
she was eventually going to have to get used to it.

Xavier simply
nodded, and left for a while. After at least twenty minutes, he still wasn't
back.

“Xavier!”
Adrienne shouted. “Are you done yet?”

She started
walking around, getting farther from the trail that led to the car. She was
delving deeper into the forest, trying to use her vampires’ sense of hearing to
listen for any sound that might indicate where Xavier had disappeared to.

She walked for
what seemed like miles. Then she stopped. “It's not funny anymore,” she said,
her voice cracking, and then she began to run, as fast as lightning but still
not as fast as a normal vampire. She felt like she had already circled the entire
border of the forest. She was beginning to worry. What if someone saw her run
at such a fast speed?

Worse, what if
someone saw Xavier hunt and feed from the deer? Adrienne shook her head. Xavier
had assured her that no one was in this part of the forest. He would have heard
them, smelt them, something. This area was very secluded.

And that was when
she heard footsteps. They were slow, and very careful, like someone was
stalking her. Before she could spy on the owner of the footsteps, Xavier
appeared right in front of her. He ran right into Adrienne and they both fell in
a tangle of arms and legs, to the ground.

“Ugh!” Adrienne
shouted, growling and cursing.

She felt her back
crash against the ground as a few leaves were sent flying by the very strong
force exerted by the two vampires. When Adrienne opened her eyes, she glared at
Xavier. He was lying on top of her, smirking, and was quite obviously enjoying
their provocative position.

He lowered his
head just a few inches, to claim her lips.

She relaxed,
letting him kiss her for a few minutes, and then she pushed him off and jumped
to her feet. Adrienne ran, looking back and calling out to Xavier, “Try to
catch me!”

He could see the mischievous
glimmer in her eyes.

The two continued
running, playing a version of paranormal tag with Xavier trying to catch Adrienne,
but every time he got near he would let her slip away, using her psychic
abilities.

She kind of
cheated, draining his energy every time he got close to her. Those energy
spikes allowed her to be stronger and to push him away from her without much
effort. “I'm still faster than you!”

They continued running,
and running, and running, hitting trees and sending them crashing down onto the
forest floor with their super-strength. Adrienne sped past trees and animals
with a smile on her face. The strong wind whipping against her body was a
refreshing feeling, and the adrenaline she felt with Xavier pacing her was
exhilarating. Before she knew it, he drew along side of her, and pinned her
against him. He dove for the ground and they rolled over until she was on top
of him. Lying on top, she could feel the rise and fall of his chest. She looked
away from his neck and up at his face. They were smiling, shining with
happiness.

“That was fun,
but I'm tired again,” he said, not even inching away from her. “Feels like the
blood I took from the deer has worn off. You wear me out.”

Adrienne shook
her head in return before she leaned it to the crook of his neck. It kind of
felt weird—two eighteen-year olds lying on top of one another in the middle of
a forest—but neither cared. They were too immersed in the situation to even
bother about their surroundings.

“This feels nice,”
she said, hiding her smiling face from him. “
You 
feel nice.”

In response, he hugged
her, his voice held a tiny hint of amusement and agreement. “Not at all
awkward?” he asked referring to their position.

“Well,” She was
trying to control herself from laughing. “Your scent is making it awkward.”

He knew what she
meant.

“I know I don't
thrive on blood for survival, but if you don't keep your distance from me, I'm
going to be forced to suck you dry.”

Xavier's face lit
up. “You're going to 
suck
 me?”

They were
laughing now, and because of the weird conversation, Adrienne rolled off him.
They sat beside each other, their arms still touching. “That came out wrong, I
think.”

Xavier sighed
then ran a hand through his wispy mop of black hair. After, he looked at her
again and leaned his face closer to her neck.

“I guess it
wouldn't hurt so much,” Adrienne said to him, her eyes looking out far into a
distance. “And I owe you anyway for what I did to you at Sabrina's party. I'll
consider it payback.”

He wasn't
supposed to, but he couldn't stop himself from inching his face closer to the
barest part of her neck. He had her full permission, and the scent of her blood
was enticing, words couldn't even do it justice. He opened his mouth, his fangs
starting to protrude out of his gums. She could feel his warm breath against
her skin, and she liked the feeling, so she continued waiting, waiting for him
to drink her blood, but they were interrupted.

“Damn cell phone,”
Adrienne muttered out along with a string of blasphemous words.

On the other
hand, Xavier breathed out a sigh of relief. He had not wanted to drink her
blood. It was only his instincts. He was saved by her mobile, and he couldn't
be any happier. He didn't want to endanger her by draining too much of her
blood.