Chapter 5 #2
I watch as his nostrils flare ever so slightly. If he wasn’t currently explaining his sense of smell, I likely would have never noticed. “Just those emotions?” I discard my plate and sit up, turning towards him and crossing my legs. My knees touch his beneath the blanket.
Xander’s eyes glow brightly, and I realize how much more metallic they now look. Rather than a silvery grey from earlier tonight at the club, they now look like chrome. Just how much of himself has he been hiding?
“I can smell you’re attracted to me. Your scent is spicy, like cayenne pepper.” Xander’s voice drops an octave, and a shiver skirts up my spine. I feel my cheeks heat with a blush, but my gaze is glued to Xander’s.
“I was hoping to lay it on thick next week. Give you some time to like me back.” I smile smugly.
Xander carefully sets his hand across my knee, letting go of the cushion at his chest. “I’ve known you would come here for a very long time, Noah.”
My heart leaps in my chest. “You have?”
He nods, and I find myself leaning towards him.
Xander is unlike anyone I've met. He’s gentle, understanding, and a natural protector.
He’s never once shown me an ounce of hatred or frustration.
Everything he’s done for me has been with his best intentions.
For some unbelievable reason, I feel like I have always been looking for a man like him.
I wasn’t looking for dark hair, broad shoulders, and a voice that sends warm shivers across my skin, but deep down, beneath every character in my books, every person in my dreams, every actor in a movie, I've seen him.
“Every vampire has a skill. Mine is scent tracking,” Xander explains.
“I have scented you for years before you stepped foot at my front door. I’ve caught whispers of you in the wind, the taste of you in the morning mist. Humans who find their way to Moonfell are chosen by the magic that binds us together. ”
I sit frozen. Hardly able to breathe as Xander continues.
“Humans who come here are chosen to become a supernatural mate. It’s been happening for eons.
Well before the town existed or had a name.
This place, this house specifically, was a ritual site for couples from all walks of life to bind themselves together.
I have known you were coming for decades, Noah. ”
His voice breaks as he says my name, his hand now finding mine and giving my fingers a gentle squeeze.
“I’ll understand if this is too much for you to handle. Or if you want nothing to do with me. I’ll always give you a choice and I'll accept whatever you choose,” he manages, yet his throat convulses, and his hands shake.
“I don’t want to leave, Xander,” I whisper. “I’ve always been a dreamer. A believer of… more. I was attracted to you the moment you opened the front door.”
Xander lets out a sigh, his shoulder relaxing. “This must be moving like lightning for you. It’s been less than two days, and I'm already proclaiming my affection for you.”
I giggle, “I ran away from my ex-boyfriend with no idea of where I was headed, with no friends or family to help me, and with two suitcases with all my belongings and my cat. I think I can handle fast-paced.”
Xander smiles at me, his teeth catching the light. My stomach swoops, and I lean in closer. “I want to see them again.”
With pride, Xander’s smile turns wicked and his canines descend. With two large fangs on each side of his top jaw, I nearly lift my hand to touch them.
“Four fangs?”
Xander licks them, making them shine under the living room light. My body heats at the sight, and his nostrils flare again. He can smell me.
“Not every vamp has the same layout of fangs. Some have just two, while others have some on their lower jaw. A friend of mine has fangs similar to a snake.” Xander continues, “Each has their strengths and weaknesses.”
“Strengths and weaknesses? What’s wrong with yours?” I tilt my head and watch as his fangs retract into his gums.
He chuckles, “I’m rather boring to be honest. Mine do their job when I need to feed.”
“Who do you feed from?” My tone comes across far too strong, yet I can't help the sharp bubble of jealousy that rises in my chest. It’s none of my business who he feeds from, but the idea of him feeding from someone else has my skin crawling.
“I get blood donations from the hospital. I usually have them in the fridge, but because you didn’t know what I was when you came here…” He trails off, and my bubble of jealousy pops. Oh, thank God, I don’t have to fight a bitch anytime soon.
“But you won't need to stock up on bagged blood ever again because now you have me.” I grin, opening my arms and making my hands shake as if to say, ‘Ta-da’.
“You want me to feed from you?” Xander’s eyes widen as a look of pure shock morphs his naturally gorgeous features.
I nod. “I do. Like I said, I'm not running away from this. I want to be here. Surely I've made it clear that you don't scare me and that I fancy you, right? Or do I need to spell it out?”
Xander chuckles and raises his hands in surrender. “I won’t doubt you again. However, it’s been a very long day for both of us. You especially, and it’s well past midnight.”
I slump and bite my lip. “But I'm not even tired. And I still have questions.”
Xander cocks a brow. “Like what?”
“How did you become a vampire?” I know the question is loaded, but it’s been burning in the back of my mind and I can't keep it to myself any longer.
Xander grins from ear to ear. “Now you’ve asked the best question. Most people start with it.”
I roll my eyes and slap his leg. “Just tell me, Mr. Vampire.”
He chuckles. “My best friend turned me. I had known he was a vampire for a few years, but when I caught the Bubonic Plague, he turned me before I could suffer.”
“The Bubonic Plague?" I ask. “How old are you? Like a thousand?”
Xander’s eyes sparkle as he chuckles, his head tilting to the side as he studies me. Yet his smile doesn’t drop. “I’m 130 years old.”
I let out a rushed breath and try to count backwards to the year he was born, but math was never my strong suit.
“Too old for you, Noah?” he asks, his tone flirtatious and his grin wicked.
My heart skips a beat, and my stomach flips as my blood rushes south. Suddenly, I'm very aware of how close we have grown. Our faces only inches apart, and our hands resting in each other’s laps. Not only that, but my dick has also taken notice. It gives a gentle nudge in my pants.
Xander’s grin widens, and his leathery scent surrounds me as if he’s manufacturing the stuff. I suck in a deep breath, letting it fill my lungs as I commit it to memory. “I think if you were maybe 135, you’d probably be beyond my age limit.”
Xander rolls his eyes as he lifts a hand and cups the side of my face. “Good thing you have an appetite for old men like me.”
I giggle, feeling the way my head falls into his hands, his warm skin brushing against mine. “How are you so warm? Isn’t that a werewolf thing?”
Xander scoffs, “Don’t group me with those mutts.” He smiles. “I was changed when I was alive. It means my heart keeps beating and I stay warm. But I breathe because in the vampire world, I’m still young. The older vamps no longer have the instinct to breathe.”
“Huh.” I nod as my mind stores every ounce of new knowledge Xander is giving me.
But as I file away my thoughts, something niggles me.
Xander has already explained why Moonfell is so different, but something just doesn’t sit right.
As if I'm sitting above the town, not completely a part of its world.
“What was that thing you said about the reasons why humans live here?” I struggle to form the question.
Without a drop of frustration or any indication that my likely dull questions have bothered him, Xander smiles warmly down at me. As if anything I were to say would give him utter joy.
“The humans who live here are mated with their supernatural partners. It’s what drew them here in the first place. It’s why they were accepted by the magical wards.”
My brows furrow. “Mates? Like soul mates? How did they know, though?”
“Exactly like soulmates.” Xander’s hand drops from the side of my face, and somehow the feel of his skin against my cheek feels so natural that I’ve completely forgotten he had been cradling my face all this time.
“I’ve been told it feels like an invisible pull towards each other.
As if there's a force drawing them together, no matter where they might be.”
I nod, biting my lip. Did I feel that way towards Xander? Is he even my soulmate, or is it someone else entirely?
The thought alone makes me shiver, and not in a good way. The idea of someone else touching me, holding me, has my mouth growing dry by the second.
“You look like you’ve just sucked on a lemon,” Xander laughs.
It’s a nice laugh. Not just a chuckle, but a laugh that vibrates through his chest and seeps into me until I also find myself laughing with him.
Maybe I don't need to worry about who my soulmate is, I think I might have found him already.