Chapter 14 - Marella #2
He crossed his arms again, not breaking eye contact, and I realized that arguing with him would serve no purpose.
"Fine," I finally relented, exasperated. "But you can’t blame me if you die."
"If I die, I don’t think I’ll really care whether you were right."
I let myself laugh, just a little, as I stepped forward, reaching out towards his shoulders to keep him still.
He jumped back, and I couldn’t stop the smirk that split my face. "Having second thoughts?"
"No," he hissed. "But not here. I don’t want someone to see us."
"No one will see us. I do this all the time, remember?"
"Still." He looked around. "Let’s go back to the apartment."
And without waiting to see if I was following, he started to walk away, leading me back towards my temporary home.
I could have slipped away right then, could have turned and ran the opposite direction, leaving him safely behind me and finding someone more deserving of my teeth on which to feed.
But my feet stepped forward as if of their own accord, and I found myself following him anyway. Something about the trust he’d placed in me made me want to live up to his expectations.
Because it had been a long time since anyone had truly trusted me. And an even longer time since I’d done anything to deserve it.
When we arrived back at the apartment, I felt what little confidence I’d had in my abilities beginning to drain. I was feeling dizzier by the second, and I knew that the thirstier I became, the more difficult it would be to stop myself from killing him.
And it wasn’t just because I needed his affection to break the curse.
It was because I genuinely thought he was a good person.
His decision to join the Fratelli notwithstanding, Garrett had shown me no reason to believe he wasn’t simply…
good. And it had been a long time since I’d interacted with anyone good.
The door closed behind us quietly, but it may as well have slammed, because I jumped anyway. Garrett walked to the middle of the small living room and turned in a slow circle.
"This is definitely not where I imagined I’d die," he said with a smile as he completed the circle and faced me once more. "The walls are far too white."
I could tell that he was trying to be funny, but I couldn’t bring myself to laugh.
"Well." He smiled at me encouragingly. "Might as well get it over with."
I swallowed. For a moment, I debated simply allowing myself to dry out. I could lie, tell him that I was wrong, that I didn’t, in fact, need any blood tonight. I could send him home, slip into the bathtub, and let myself die covered in at least a little water.
But then I remembered the cold stone fountain in the square below us, remembered that the lives and futures of my family depended on me.
So I took a step forward. And another. And then another, until I was only a few inches away from Garrett and could hear his breathing in the space between us. Despite his brave expression, I could tell that he was afraid of me, and that knowledge made something deep in my chest ache.
"You’re sure you want to do this?" I whispered, silently begging him to change his mind.
But he only nodded.
I stared at the vein on his neck. If there was ever a chance for me to change my mind, I had lost it. Because I’d rarely seen something as appetizing as the thin blue line pulsing ever so gently beneath his smooth skin.
I placed a hand on each of his shoulders and began to lean forward.
"Wait," he said suddenly, reaching up his hands to clasp my elbows.
Despite myself, I released a long, slow, shuddering breath.
"Thank God." I sighed. "I didn’t actually want—"
But he didn’t move away from me. Instead, he grasped the bottom of his shirt with both hands and pulled it over his head, so he now stood there in nothing but his jeans.
The prickling sensation in the back of my throat grew hotter.
"Why?" was all I could muster to ask.
He shrugged. "I don’t have many non-Fratelli clothes. I don’t want to get blood on this shirt."
I raised an eyebrow. "You could literally die, and you’re worried about your shirt?"
His answering smile was bright but filled with worry. "You have your priorities, and I have mine."
He took half a step towards me, closing the space between us even more.
This time, he tilted his head to one side, exposing the flesh of his neck completely.
He smelled of sweat and something sweet—perhaps cologne from one of the many shops in the city.
It was heady and intoxicating, and it made me sway on my feet.
Again, he reached out and steadied me. "Better get to it," he said gently. "I don’t know how I’d help you if you passed out."
I nodded and leaned forward, inching my mouth towards that little blue vein. When my lips touched his skin, I felt him shudder slightly. It would have been enough to make me pull away, but the monster inside of me had already taken over my conscious mind.
There was no going back.
I opened my mouth wide against his throat, letting my lips drag across his skin before my teeth pierced his flesh.
He gasped beneath my touch, and I thought he might try to pull away. But once I sealed the wound with my mouth and began the long, slow process of dragging blood across my tongue, I felt the tension leave his body. He relaxed into me, exhaling deeply.