Alex, on the other hand, chose food by sniffing. Even things in packages. He didn't read labels, or look at prices, he just snuffled everything he picked up. "This is amazing!" he'd say, drawing a deep breath over his latest discovery. Or he'd say, "What is this? This is crap."
Whatever he liked he tossed in the cart. She gave up on trying to guess what he was going to cook and just enjoyed the show.
They spent a long time in the produce section. While she sat there, buried to her chin in French bread, cradling the fish, offering apologetic smiles to the other shoppers, he walked around fondling the vegetables, holding them up to the light like a connoisseur and of course, sniffing them. "This doesn't smell right at all." He extended a melon toward a mom with a stroller. "Don't you think?"
"It's not in season," she said, nice, reasonable mom person that she was.
"Ah! What fruit is in season right now?"
She pointed. "Try the mandarins."
Alex buried his face in a box of mandarin oranges. "It's perfume! It's like heaven." His flashbulb smile stunned everyone within its range. "Thanks for the tip."
"Your boyfriend's a doll," the mom whispered to Helena with a wink.
"I can juice these, Helena." Alex said, running up to her with his arms full of oranges. He really was kind of cute.
When they reached the checkout line, he lifted her out of the cart. Swinging high in the air, she instinctively braced her hands on his shoulders. Neither of them let go of the other when her feet touched ground. They were posed for a slow dance, but the store speakers were playing Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA".
"Who's the DJ in this place?" Alex murmured, looking into her eyes as if he'd just asked a much bigger question.
Remembering the train, she forgot how to breathe for a second. It wasn't good. Liking him this much. The only place it could lead was somewhere she didn't want to go. A life without sunshine. A liquid diet.
"What are you thinking about?"
"That you're healing fast." She pitched her voice for his ears only. "Do you need to find another elk tonight?"
His hands tensed on her waist. All his playfulness evaporated. "I don't think I can do that again. But I'll probably go hunting later."
"People?"
"Yes."
"Paper or plastic?" The bagger asked. Alex let her go.
While he paid for his groceries an idea occurred to her. It was a horrible idea, but it took hold, the pressure of it growing and growing until, as they unloaded their groceries into her trunk she blurted, "I want to watch you hunt. Here."
Alex shut the trunk. "That's a bad idea."
"Why? You said there'd be no more sugar coating."
"You're not ready to see it."
"I am."
He met her eyes, his expression full of warning. "Then let's say I'm not ready."
"You're ashamed. You want me to forget what you are."
She knew what she was doing. She was distancing him. But knowing didn't make it stop. It made her all the more determined to finish the job. "Why don't you pick someone out right here?"
"Helena, no. Just no."
"It's that ugly? You're ashamed?"
He gave her a long "what have I done to deserve this?" look and seemed about to say something sharp. Instead he threw up his hands. "If that's what you want, I'll do it. Choose your victim. Someone alone."
Helena scanned the parking lot until she spotted a cute little blond in a fur hoodie unloading her groceries. "That one."
"I only hunt men."
"You told me you prefer women."
"Women offer me their blood. If I'm going to take someone by force, it's going to be a man."
"You're very delicate in your distinctions. What does it matter?"
"You're right. I'm a monster. I can take anyone I want. Old ladies, babies. What the hell." He turned on his heel and headed toward the woman with long, determined strides. Helena hadn't really expected him to agree. She expected him to tell her to fuck off.
Swinging back around, he grabbed her arm. "Stay close to me. Smile and don't stop smiling."
Their victim was just climbing into her SUV. Alex raised his hand and called out to her like he was an old friend. Helena smiled nervously. Then it happened. Fast as a snake strike. Helena couldn't understand how it went down, but one moment Alex was saying "Hi," and the next the woman was wilting in his arms. Alex held her up like a puppet, so it looked like he was hugging her.
Helena locked her face into a smile. Happy happy. We're all happy here. Just hugging and saying hi. No one glanced at them.
Alex pulled the woman's hair to one side and bent over her throat, just like a movie vampire. Helena was close enough to hear him make a small noise of animal satisfaction as he bit down. The woman made no noise at all. Her eyes weren't closed, just vacant.
After just a couple of seconds he hitched her up in his arms and refastened his mouth on her throat. As he did, one of his hands grabbed hold of the woman's perky ass. Helena clenched her fists. She really hated that he was holding her that way. Hated it.
A few seconds later Alex murmured something in the woman's ear and kissed her gently. On the lips. Then he had Helena by the arm again and they were walking away. Helena looked over her shoulder and saw the woman standing there, dazed but apparently undamaged. Sort of like in nature shows when they catch animals for tagging and then drop them back on the savannah.
They climbed into Helena's car, both of them slamming their doors at the same time. Suddenly they were trapped with each other in the quiet intimacy of the car with all the world bustling around them. They both folded their arms and glared sideways at one another.
Alex broke the silence. "Satisfied?"
"That was disgusting. Did you have to molest her on top of everything?"
"I thought that's why you chose a cute one."
He caught her wrist before she could slap him. "What's wrong? Did I fail your test? Didn't I do exactly what you wanted me to do?"
She twisted her arm, trying to get free. "I just wanted to see you feed. Not watch you feel up her ass."
"It was a nice ass. Why do you care?"
"I don't."
He crawled over her, straddling her hips, reclining her seat so she was on her back and he caged her with his body. A passing man raised his eyebrow at them. "Planning on putting on a show, Faustin?"
"Maybe." He swiped his nose along her neck, brushed his lips over her cheek. "You want to?"
The train dream came back in full force. She wrenched her head to one side to avoid his lips, imagining his saliva mixed with Miss Hoodie's blood and cooties. "If you think you're going to kiss me after sucking on her—"
"You hate that I kissed her," he said, all sexy and smug. "That I touched her."
"I don't care. You're just a tick. A big, bloated tick."
"Then why are your panties in a knot?"
"They're not. Get the hell off me!" She punctuated her request with a punch to the chest.
Chuckling, he rolled back into his own seat.
Alex couldn't hide his grin. His wife-to-be was jealous. And she wasn't scared of him anymore. And whatever little mind game she was trying to play had just backfired.
Would it make her feel better if she knew the blond's blood tasted worse than bruise blood? Worse almost than rat blood. At least he expected rat blood to be repulsive. He'd almost gagged on his first sip of this woman and the foul backspin still coated his throat. It wasn't her fault—only Helena's blood would appeal to him now, and it would remain so until he'd completed bonding with her.