“Here.”
She glanced up to see Justin holding out her belt. “Where did you—?”
“Your closet,” he interrupted and when she opened her mouth to ask when, he said, “We’re fast. I nipped in and back while you were gawking at your pants.”
Holly just stared at him. She’d only looked down for a matter of seconds. Surely he hadn’t “nipped” in and out that quickly?
“Put it on and we can go get you blood. Bagged blood,” he added dryly.
“Bagged?” she asked with a grimace. The thought of bagged blood simply didn’t hold much appeal, not like the smell of James had just now.
“Yes, bagged,” he said dryly and then his lips quirked. “Save a man, bite a bag.”
Holly shook her head at what she supposed was intended as a joke and turned her attention to threading the belt through her pant loops as her mind wandered. She hated to admit it, but she might have been going to bite James . . . and she should be very ashamed of that, she knew. Instead, she was disappointed that Justin had stopped her. How bad was that? Apparently, she wasn’t handling this whole vampire/immortal thing well. She did need the training. At least she did if he could teach her to control herself. She also, apparently, needed the blood he said he would get for her. She didn’t want to bite her husband. Well, part of her did, but the still human part knew it was wrong and didn’t.
That thought made Holly sigh unhappily. She was thinking of herself as not quite human anymore. But Justin had said she was alive still and had a soul, so surely, she was still human . . . wasn’t she?
“Let’s go.” Justin turned and started downstairs.
Holly stared after him briefly, and then heaved a resigned breath and followed. In truth, she didn’t feel like she had much choice. It seemed obvious she couldn’t stay here without risking feeding off her husband, possibly to death. That thought made her wonder how much blood was too much to take. Would she be able to tell when she should stop? And if so, would she be able to stop when she should?
Holly fretted over all of this as she followed Justin downstairs and out the front door. She expected him to have a vehicle of his own, so was surprised when he led the way to her own car.
“We’re taking my car?” she asked, pausing in front of the old beater.
“It’s how I got here from the hotel. I followed you,” he announced and opened the passenger door for her.
Holly walked reluctantly to the open door, then paused and turned to peer at him with sudden understanding. “You made the taxi driver let me go into the house.”
“You’re welcome,” he said for an answer and turned to walk around and get into the driver’s side.
“Thank you,” Holly mumbled and slid into the car to watch him dig her keys out of a side pocket of . . . her purse? She hadn’t noticed him grabbing that on the way out. It must be when he’d done it, but she’d been so distracted with her own thoughts she’d apparently missed it.
Holly shrugged and simply waited for him to get in. She had no problem with his driving. If anything, she’d prefer it at that point. She was a bit shaken up by everything at the moment, a fine tremor running through her body, and was happy to leave the driving to him.
“Seat belt.”
Holly glanced over with disbelief when Justin muttered that as he got behind the steering wheel. “Are you serious?”
He peered to her with surprise. “Well, yeah. It’s safer.”
“Safer how? I’m a vampire,” she pointed out. “I can’t die.”
“You’re an immortal, not a vampire. And of course you can die. Everyone can die. Even us,” he assured her.
Holly goggled at him. “Do you even hear yourself? Immortal by definition means never dying.”
“Yes, well, it’s something of a misnomer then,” he muttered, starting the engine. “You can die. You’re just harder to kill . . . and you’ll never age. Or get sick, and you’ll heal from nearly every wound.”
“Then how can we die?” she asked, curiosity getting the better of her.
“Beheading. Or burning. We’re very flammable.”
“Hot stuff,” Holly murmured, unsure where the words came from. It was like a memory, but not . . . just the words echoing in her head. She glanced to Justin, surprised to find him staring at her with an odd expression on his face. “What?”
He hesitated, but then shook his head. “Nothing.”
Holly peered at him silently for a moment, and then leaned her head back. Her stomach was killing her. It had started with a mild gnawing sensation earlier, but now it was like someone had poured acid into her stomach. Or like a million little piranha were eating her alive from the inside out. And the shaky sensation she’d had earlier had turned into full-on tremors. In truth, she felt sick as a dog, but he’d said they didn’t get sick, so Holly supposed this was something else . . . hunger maybe. Despite being away from James, she could still smell the tinny sweetness of blood in her nostrils . . . and she wanted it.
Closing her eyes, she inhaled deeply and repeatedly, trying to calm down and rid herself of the sensations attacking her. It didn’t help though; the more she inhaled, the more that remembered tinny scent filled her head. It was like James had followed them into the car and was sitting right beside her.
Surely Justin couldn’t be giving off that scent? Could he? She wondered suddenly. He had said they were still human, so she supposed they still had blood.
Holly felt something shifting in her mouth as she had that thought, and instinctively ran her tongue around her teeth, stiffening when she pricked her tongue on a needle sharp canine. One of the fangs she’d spotted in the bathroom mirror, she thought at once and then tasted the blood in her own mouth. It was a little bit of heaven. Holly found herself sucking at her own tongue, drawing it farther back from her teeth in an effort to draw more blood from it, but apparently the wound had already closed. There was no blood to be had.
She sat still and silent for a moment, but then couldn’t resist deliberately running her tongue across one fang again, this time inflicting a good gash on the sensitive tip. It hurt like the devil, but tasted so good. If anyone had told Holly a month, a week, or even a day ago that she would enjoy and even begin to crave the taste of blood like a drug addict jonesing for heroin, she would have laughed in their face. But right at that moment, as the sweet juice slid over her taste buds and down her throat, it was nectar . . . and she wanted more . . . and if she was still human enough to have blood in her body, then so was Justin.
Justin glanced to Holly as he pulled into the hotel parking lot. He’d noticed her closing her eyes at the start of the drive and she now appeared to be sleeping. He turned his attention back to driving as he found a parking spot and steered into it. Then he turned off the engine, undid his seat belt and turned in his seat to peer at her. He’d stared at Holly a lot as she’d gone through the turn. Through most of that, though, her expression had been a rictus of agony, which was really unattractive. Not that he’d cared. He’d attended more than a couple of turnings over time and had known to expect that. Now however, while her mouth was stern and grim with what he suspected was pain, her expression was still more natural than he’d yet seen it.
Holly had lovely, long dark raven hair and . . . well, an average face, he supposed, but it was beautiful to him. Her face was almost an oval. At the beginning of the turn, it had been rounder. Her body had also been fuller with more curves to it. She’d been what people nowadays would have considered heavy. But he’d always liked larger women; they were soft and warm and . . .
Justin let those thoughts go. While Holly had carried the extra weight he liked on a woman, she no longer did . . . and he still liked her. Hell, she could be a bag of bones and he’d like her. The woman was his life mate . . . and completely untouchable, he reminded himself unhappily.