Dead End: Midnight Hollow by Penn Cassidy (free novel 24 TXT) 📗

His eyes flickered between mine, but he didn’t say anything. He just reached out and skimmed one finger down the side of my cheek. His touch was ice cold, reminding me of the feel of his skin when I’d found him dead in the school bus. I shivered at the memory.

“You’re freaking me out right now,” I said. I rubbed the tops of my arms, suddenly cold instead of pleasantly warm.

“You smell so good,” he murmured. His voice was low, deep, and almost a purr. He moved his gaze from mine, landing first on my lips, and then descending to my throat. I swallowed, and his eyes tracked the movement, his pupils expanding until his eyes were nearly black. “Like crisp leaves and honey…”

“Norman,” I said, a little sharper now. “Did you drink any of the blood you got from the blood bank?” I’d seen him go in there, so I knew he had it. But from the look on his face…

“Why would I drink that swill when I have the most delectable source right here?” He licked his lips slowly, like a man dying from thirst. Fear skittered through me, but not only fear. There was a hint of thrill, too. Thrill at the way he devoured me with his eyes, hungering for my blood…and something more that made an ache right between my thighs.

I could see it there in his eyes, plain as day. The same look he’d given me countless times. The same look that had me giving him my virginity over a year ago, right into his skillful, strong hands. Back when our lives were so different, when we were human and normal and life was full of endless possibilities. He was looking at me like I meant something to him, but it was impossible. He hated me with a passion.

“You need to go drink. Fe told you you’d die if you don’t. You’re being reckless.” I was trying to talk some sense into him, but I failed to notice the way he slowly prowled closer until he was inches away.

He looked in my eyes again as he said, “I want you really fucking badly, October.”

My name on his lips nearly stopped my heart cold. “You don’t know what you’re saying,” I said. “It’s the bloodlust talking, Norman.”

He laughed, bitter and cold. “I think I can tell the difference for myself. I want you, October. You and your blood call to me every second of every day, always has. I’ve never stopped wanting you, not for a single second, and I think you already know that. I remember how good we were together, how you made me feel alive with just a single touch. I remember the way it felt to finally have you beneath me…and I want it. I want you again.”

Shaking my head back and forth, I tried to back up. Tears started to prick my eyes. These were words I’d imagined hearing for such a long time, but it was all wrong. Or…was it? I didn’t know anymore. My body screamed out for his touch. I craved everything and anything he could give me, but was it what he truly wanted? Did I? Could I go down that road again? I’d been without him for so long now that I felt like flinging myself in his arms and sobbing into his chest. I wanted him to want me, to stop the pain raging inside of me.

“I can see you puzzling it out, but you need to stop thinking for one damn minute. Let me take care of you, October.” He grinned, a flash of fang sparkling in the low light and sending my blood zinging. “I’m tired of fighting this. I’m tired of denying myself the things I crave.”

“Which is it, then?” I asked. “My blood or my body?” I was almost afraid of the answer.

His fingers skimmed my neck now, and I could have sworn the tips of his nails were just a bit longer than I remembered. I felt them graze my skin, right over my pulse. “Is there a difference?”

“You need to be straight with me, Norman. You know how I feel about you, how I feel about all of you.” There, I said it. I loved them all equally, and I wouldn’t hide it from them, even if it made them hate me more.

“I’ve always known, even when you pushed us away,” he admitted. “And I am being straight with you. I want you. I want your blood and your body. I want you in every way imaginable, and I don’t think I can hold it back anymore, even if I tried. I’m tired of fighting myself…”

A few heartbeats pulsed between us as I searched his face. He was still Norman. Still the same man I knew in my soul I was meant to love. He was still in there, behind the monster—no, he was the monster. They were one and the same, two halves of a whole, and he was beginning to embrace it.

“Then what are you waiting for?” I asked. I was done playing around. If he wanted me the way my body screamed for him, then he needed to act now, before I lost my nerve.

He only hesitated a second before his mouth descended on my throat, then I felt a skittering down my right arm. Little grumbling complaints filled the silence, and I felt Jessica leap from my hand onto the ground. “Oh hell no. There’s no way I’m watching this hanky panky… I’d have to burn all eight eyes out. See ya later, Toby! Wrap it before you tap it,” she howled out before disappearing.

I’d completely forgotten about Jessica. My cheeks flamed, realizing all she’d witnessed, but the second Norman’s fangs pierced my skin, all thoughts of my familiar fled my mind. All I could feel was a flood of pleasure filling my body from head to toe.