Bite Me! (3 page)

His mouth coaxed mine open. When our tongues touched, my skin sparked and the white screen behind my eyelids grew as bright as the halogen lamps in science class.

My arms snaked around his neck, and I nearly scaled up his torso, trying to push my body closer to his.

My skin itched to be touched, and my senses opened to
every smell and sound in the forest. Crickets, owls, bats—mushrooms, pine, moss; all of it earthy, all of it strangely sexy.

As if Noah read my mind, his hand found its way under my top. Goose bumps trailed after his touch as he softly caressed my belly, then my waist, then around to my lower back.

Noah took his time, working his way up my spine, then to my shoulder. He slid the spaghetti strap down and worked his mouth down my neck. Then he scooped me up in his arms and laid me down on the blanket.

“I
'm glad we're finally hooking up,” Noah whispered into my neck as he sprinkled my bare shoulder with kisses. “The timing was never right before.”

“It's right now,” I said. Actually, I think I purred, because he flushed and his aura lit up like a fire.

I reached up and pulled his mouth back to mine. My senses were in hyperdrive, and every touch and every kiss felt like a thousand. A flickering thought of Ryan drifted through my mind and my heart splintered, but I stamped down the guilt with another hungry kiss.

Nothing but untamed lust for this boy I'd only been mildly attracted to before. My body practically acted on its own, and I had to fight the tingling in my gums to
keep my fangs banked.

I want to bite him.

The thought drifted casually through my head as everything inside me cried out to take him, bite him, and make him mine. Noah's finger brushed the pink lace of my bra strap, and the white behind my eyes flashed red.

Noah's mouth trailed from my neck to my shoulder; suddenly the red behind my eyes brightened, like a fire consuming a pile of dry leaves.

My incisors exploded from my gums, and I growled in pain and frustration. I licked Noah's neck first, knowing my saliva would numb the area like Lidocaine while my fangs were out. Thank God it was just normal spit when my fangs were banked. Otherwise I'd never be able to feel my tongue and that would just be weird.

When my tongue touched his skin, I tasted sweat and hunger and it filled me, driving me forward without thought. With Ryan, I had been aware and able to regain control. Did the booze make it different with Noah? Whatever the reason, I was spiraling forward on instinct alone. Aware but unable to control my desire…my powers.

It was like thousands of years of vampire history and instincts were mushrooming inside me and I couldn't do a
damn thing about it.

Strangely, the world around us silenced, except for one lone voice.

Go ahead. Taste him. It's what you were born to do.

I hesitated while the voice in my head wrestled with my gut. Was that my voice? Where had that come from?

Noah ran his hand up my thigh and the voice tempted me again.

Just. One. Taste.

The tips of my fangs touched his neck, and my mouth actually watered, like a wolf drooling over a fresh kill.

“AJ! Where are you?” Bridget's voice broke through my red fog. “AJ! I have a surprise for you!” It sounded like she was standing over us, but when I opened my eyes, we were alone.

Then Ryan's voice filled my head. “AJ? You won't believe who's back,” he yelled.

“Shhhh,” Noah said, pinning me to the ground. “If we stay quiet, maybe they'll give up and go away.”

They were close enough that Noah could hear. What the hell was I doing? I closed my eyes and tried to focus. I forcefully pushed the red away and concentrated on white. I needed the white. I'd never been in a situation like this before; I had been a millisecond away from biting Noah.
And I had no idea what biting him would do.

What if I was venomous? Could one bite change him?

Finally—the red began to slowly fade to white. I sighed with relief when my gums opened and my fangs disappeared.

“Over here,” I yelled back. I reached down and pulled my bra strap back to my shoulder. “I'm so sorry, Noah. This was a mistake. I'm not ready.”

I tried to wriggle away, but he tightened his hold.

“You seemed ready enough just a few seconds ago,” he snapped. “I never pegged you as a tease.”

“And I never pegged you as a sleaze,” I retorted, finally pushing him off me. I grabbed my shirt from the ground and shrugged into it. “Bridget, Ryan! Can y'all hear me?”

No answer. I had no idea how close they were because my hearing was still super sensitive. But Noah had heard them, too, so they couldn't be too far away.

We both stood. Noah huffed as he pulled his jeans up. Things had progressed a lot further than I'd realized. Thank God for Bridget and, as much as it pained me to admit it, Ryan.

I heard footsteps, so I took a step in the direction of the sound.

“We're not finished,” Noah growled, grabbing my arm. “You wrote me a check and now you're going to cash it.”

He crushed me against him, forcing my hand to his crotch as his mouth half-swallowed my face. Red glowed bright in my head. Fear and anger shot through me and I struggled to pull free. Panic burned my throat, and my gums started to tingle.

I tried to stop them but couldn't. My fangs forced their way out and sliced into Noah's tongue. He screamed and pushed me away.

“You bit me! You bitch!”

“You forced me to touch you. You're lucky that's all I did,” I muttered from behind my hands. But there was no need. My fangs had already receded like good little teeth.

Bridget and Ryan both called my name again, but this time I could tell they were close.

“Over here!” I yelled.

Bridget raised her eyebrows, her eyes darting from me to Noah as she approached. He had picked up his shirt and was using it to wipe the blood off his face.

“Um. Did we come at a bad time?” she asked.

“No, you came at the perfect time,” I said. “I thought Ryan was with you.”

“I'm here,” Ryan said, his aura turning black when he
looked at Noah. But when Ryan looked at me, his brown eyes shined dark with pain, not anger.

“And I'm here, too,” a once-familiar voice said as someone else stepped into my view.

“Malia?” I cried when the girl with Ryan came into focus.

I squealed as she ran over to me, and we danced around in a hug. Malia Gervase was our closest friend from childhood. Our freshman year, her parents died in a car accident, and she'd moved away to live on the coast with her grandmother. We'd kept in touch via email, text messages, and Facebook, but it just wasn't the same as live and in person.

“Long time no see, Noah,” she said, giving him a look that could kill. She took my hands and gave me the once-over. “You are smokin' hot, my friend.”

Malia was a good two inches taller than me. She'd obviously had a growth spurt since I'd last seen her. She'd also added a few blond highlights to her long straight brown hair and had gotten blue contacts to cover her iced-tea-colored eyes. It really worked for her.

She smiled wide, showing off her now brace-free teeth. “I wanted to surprise y'all,” she said. “I just couldn't stand one more year in that crappy little wannabe town.
And after Katrina, we had to find somewhere permanent. It feels good to be back in a house without ten other family members.”

“I can't think of a better surprise. Isn't it awesome, Bridge? We're a tripod again!”

“You're gonna regret this,” Noah spat.

Crap. I had almost forgotten about Noah. He stood there bleeding and scowling. My senses were returning to normal, but I could still smell his rage.

“It's obvious the only thing that matters to you is helping little Noah park his Ark. Why don't you call Twittany? I'm sure she'll be happy to reopen her tunnel of love.”

“Here,” Bridget said. “Sounds like you need this more than I do.” She handed him a beer.

He took the beer and drank it down in one long pull. Bridge, Malia, and I hooked arms and turned to walk away.

“You coming?” I asked Ryan.

“Not just yet,” he answered.

“Don't be stupid, Ryan. He's not worth it.”

“I'm sure he's not,” Ryan said. “But it'll make me feel a helluva lot better.”

Fine. Let them sort it out in testosterone. Ryan obviously wasn't in any mood to listen to reason.

“Wanna tell me what happened?” Bridget asked as she tugged me away from the boys' pissing contest.

“No, I just wanna catch up with Malia, then go home.”

“Are you okay to drive?” Bridget asked. “I know you didn't drink much, but wow, you look a little wild-eyed.”

“I'm fine. I didn't even finish the second beer, and that was a while ago. Besides, if that thing with Noah didn't sober me up, nothing will. C'mon, let's get out of here.”

T
he sound of feet pounding down the stairs echoed through the house, waking me from my dead sleep. The twins were laughing as Rayden screamed at them about staying out of his room, especially when he had his “Do not disturb” door hanger on. Poor kid. “Do not disturb,” to the twins, was like an open invitation to snoop.

My head was still foggy. I barely remembered getting home. And I didn't remember going to bed at all.

I must've passed out right away, because I was still wearing last night's outfit. I slipped off my tank top and started to toss it on the floor when something on the shirt caught my eye.

Little dots of crimson were sprinkled on the shirt. Weird. Where did that come from? I glanced toward my bed and saw a larger red stain on my pillow. That's when I really started freaking out.

I rushed into my bathroom and sighed with relief when I saw the crusted blood around my nose. Generally, vampires only experience nosebleeds when we're overstuffed or overstressed. I hadn't had a nosebleed since I had over-indulged on bloodsicles as a kid.

Since I was currently starving, I could rest easy knowing that I had
not
gone into a sleepwalking feeding frenzy and stuffed myself with hemoshakes.

Doreen's voice echoed after the slamming screen door. “Ye'll mind each other well, ye will! Stop this foolishness.” I heard a pop, like a giant tree limb breaking. The twins squealed in unison.

I glanced out my bathroom window. Sure enough, a giant limb had broken off of a pine tree and crashed to the ground. Doreen and Rayden stood next to it, talking to each other. The twins were nowhere to be seen.

Disappeared, just like that. If I didn't know better, I'd think they'd inherited the rare trait of invisibility. Man, what I wouldn't give to have
that
power.

A knock sounded on my door, followed by my Mom's
lyrical Southern voice. “AJ? May I come in?”

It's not like I could fake being asleep. I mean, I could try, but the reality was, Mom knew I was awake. And probably, she knew something was bothering me, which was why she wanted to see me. I quickly washed my face, shrugged into my robe, and flipped over my stained pillow.

“C'mon in.”

Mom closed the door behind her, walked over to my bed, and sat down, patting a place next to her. She was dressed in a pair of khaki shorts and a green polo that really brought out the green in her hazel eyes. We have the same wheat-colored hair, as do the twins. Today she sported a ponytail at the nape of her neck.

Mom has always looked young for her age. We've even been mistaken for sisters before. Not that she's old. But right now, she even looked a good ten years younger than thirty-eight. We've always been more like friends than anything else. It's hard being a vampire and having almost nobody to talk to—so we talk to each other.

“What's up?” I asked.

“My spidey-sense is telling me something's wrong with my number-one girl,” she said.

I smiled weakly and sat next to her, putting my head on her shoulder.

“I know this isn't easy,” she said, wrapping her arm around me. “And I know it wasn't fair of Rick and me to just throw this at you guys. But, honestly, we thought it would be better than a long, drawn-out engagement. Especially with you and Ryan dating. We didn't want you two to get any more involved. A whirlwind wedding seemed like the easiest answer.”

“Easy for you, sure. But not for me. Not for Ryan. Mom, I screwed up, and it's all your fault.”

“How did you screw up? You and Ryan aren't still sneaking around, are you? You know, honey, there's a great big world out there and you're not the only person in it. Rick and I did what we thought was best for the family, and in the grand scheme of things, this is a small problem. I know not being with Ryan seems like the end of the world. But you're almost eighteen. There will be other boys. You'll see.”

I sighed. “Well, there kinda already was another boy. And if you and Rick had waited—”

She stiffened. “What did you do, AJ? Did you have sex last night? Please tell me you were safe.”

I had to laugh at this because my mom isn't like most other mothers. Besides the whole vampire thing, she's also a doctor. Actually, a lot of health care workers are
vampires. Why do you think there's always a blood shortage? It's not because the donations aren't being made—it's because they're being cycled out to underground blood suppliers.

Anyway, Mom has never been one to shy away from sex talk. Since the sex thing and the vampire thing go hand in hand, it's just something that we grow up understanding. The longer we wait for sex, the better our control is—and the sooner we have sex, the more likely it is we screw up. (I guess that's really no different from regular teens, come to think about it.)

Mom
didn't
wait. She and my dad had this intense love affair and wound up pregnant with me. The marriage lasted ten years. Then the intensity faded and Dad moved on. We haven't seen him since.

So she's always preached the safe-sex thing. Not because of diseases. Vampires are generally immune to STDs and most illnesses. (We're made of some sturdy stock.) No, we have to avoid pregnancy until we're ready because, thanks to our old friend evolution, we also tend to be very fertile. And Mom knows good and well I'm not anywhere near being ready. What high school kid is?

“No, Mom. No sex. But I…kinda sorta drank last night.”

“Ariel! I thought you were smarter than that. What happened?”

“Ryan was making out with Lindsey and I was so hurt, so I grabbed a beer and…everything was so intense. The smells, the sounds, the touches. I totally lost control. I was seeing red and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't refocus on the white. It was like nothing I'd ever felt before. And then my fangs descended. Mom, my teeth were on his neck when Bridget and Ryan called out for me and broke through my fog.”

A tear rolled down my cheek. “Momma, I wouldn't have stopped if they hadn't been looking for me. I wouldn't have stopped.” A sob escaped, and I buried my face in her chest while she held me and stroked my hair.

“Shh. It's okay, baby. The only thing that matters is that they got to you and you did stop.”

She cupped my face in her hands and made me look her in the eyes. “You stopped. The boy is okay. You're okay. But AJ, you have to realize how serious this could've been. Do you understand?”

I nodded.

“Don't let this happen again. I know you're scared, and you should be. We've all had a close call at one time or another, but this one could've been avoided if you
hadn't touched alcohol.”

“I know.” I sniffed. “It was stupid.”

“Yeah. It was.” Mom stood and gave me a gentle smile. “Once we get settled in here, you and I are going to start working on more control exercises. But for now, you need to stop dwelling on what could've happened. It won't change anything. So, as your doctor, I'm ordering you to put it out of your mind, at least for today. What do you say to some shopping in Memphis?”

Like I would ever turn down a trip to the mall.

“Sounds like a miracle cure. I'm in.”