Chapter 45

ELEANOR

He bit me. I felt his fangs digging into my throat, the warm blood gushing out, the texture of his rough tongue lapping at my blood, and an insane burning feeling throughout my body.

It was like my body was on fire but in such a delicious way.

It must have felt similar to Aric because he let out a low, intimate growl and tightened his grip around me, pushing his thigh between mine. My heart was racing wildly, and I knew he could hear it.

The weirdest emotion came over me. I wasn’t afraid. I was just really turned on by Aric.

I tipped my neck further back, giving him better access.

He held me tightly, one hand pressing against the small of my back, the other moving slowly up my waist, lightly touching my breasts and lowering back down, tracing to my hips.

He drew back very slowly, wiping the blood from his mouth, smearing it across his face, and holding my gaze with his own bright-red orbs.

He really looked like a vampire with his fangs bared. I could barely breathe.

He held me against him, lifted a hand to his mouth and bit down slowly on his wrist. His blood pooled on his skin. Holding my gaze, he placed his wrist against my lips.

Automatically, I opened my lips and let the blood drip into my mouth. It was unlike anything I had ever tasted; sweet, sour, salty, and spicy at the same time.

It sent tingles through my body, right between my legs.

Aric moved his hand away, dipping his fingers in his own wound. He applied his blood directly to the bite on my neck. I was in utter awe as I felt the bite heal itself.

His wrist healed just as quickly. I was left, panting, my heart racing, still clutching his chest, gazing up into his burning eyes.

“Now we have an Infinity,” he whispered.

“Oh,” I remembered him telling me about it as a child. “So, you can feel what I’m feeling?” I asked. He smiled, a lazy grin splitting his face.

“It’s more. I can sense your emotions, how far away you are from me.” He licked his lips. My blood still coated his mouth.

“How do you sense I’m feeling now?” I asked breathily. He looked mildly surprised by my question, but the grin never left his face.

“Excited,” he replied. Studying my face, he narrowed his eyes. “I also know, when your brows draw together like that, that you’re confused.

“But you’re not pushing me away. So, you’re not afraid of me. I think you feel the same as me.” He lowered his head and placed his forehead against mine.

“Really?” I whispered.

“Yeah.” He chuckled and pulled away from me, taking a step back, gazing at me. His hand lingered by my waist.

“Do you want another glass of wine?” I asked, feeling oddly shy.

“Yeah.” He grinned at me.

I moved to the kitchen on slightly shaky legs and grabbed a new glass for him. I served him red wine and took a glass of white.

I brought the glass back to him, and he sat on the couch, his long legs spread out in front of him. He took the glass and gave me a small smile. I sat across from him on my red armchair.

“So, how did you find me?” I asked, sipping my drink. Aric gazed at me, his eyes slowly ebbing back to blue.

“It took me a while,” he admitted. “When Henry first told me about you, I went to UCLA, but you weren’t there.”

“I ran to France. And then we were in Ireland for a while. Then Brazil. Finally, we came here,” I told him.

“You did a good job keeping me on my toes.” He chuckled. “I found you thanks to Father. His Infinity with you indicated that you were in the States.

“From what I could get out of him, I cornered you down to the east coast. Then it was looking up your new name and narrowing it down.” He arched his brows. “What made you stay here for so long?”

“School and Logan mostly.”

“Logan. Is that the human who was all over you?” he asked, his eyes flashing red for a second.

“Yeah, my boyfriend,” I nodded, sipping at my drink. “He’s got a job here that he really likes.”

“I understand that the relationship is coming to an end,” he murmured.

“Well, it’s not easy. We have a lot of history. He was there for me when I needed him when my father was ill. And he followed me across the world without hesitation. It seemed I owed it to him to stick around.”

“Feeling like you owe it to someone isn’t what you should be feeling in a relationship,” he scoffed, tipping his glass and swallowing all of it.

“I know you’re right. But it’s not an easy decision to make.”

“Do you love him?” Aric arched his brows.

“I do. I always will. But not like I did, not like he loves me,” I pursed my lips. “It’s been like this for a couple of months now, and we can’t seem to be able to work it out.

“There’s something missing. Something I can never tell him.”

Aric was arching his brows at me, obviously bored with my human boyfriend problems. “I didn’t like to see you with him,” he told me darkly.

“He’s a good man,” I insisted. Aric breathed out heavily, eyeing the rim of his glass.

“I’m sure he is, Eleanor. But I don’t think anyone is good enough for you,” he said very quietly, not meeting my gaze.

“I can take care of myself,” I told him. He looked up and gave me a little smile.

“I know you can. And I’m here to help you.”

“Aric, if Demetrius still had his Infinity with me, why didn’t he ever come and get me? Why did you let the foster system raise me?” I asked. Aric pursed his lips.

“Come here.” He indicated for me to sit beside him. I hesitated. “Come, I won’t bite you again.” He chuckled. “Unless you ask me to.”

His eyes were red again. I could feel my heart racing as I stood up, walked around the coffee table, and sat on the couch, a foot from him.

He suddenly reached out, grasping my arm in a cold, strong hand and pulling me against him.

I let out a small gasp as he crushed me to his side, his arm resting on my shoulders. I gazed up at him.

“From what I was able to pull from Father, when you traveled from Peru to Italy fifteen years ago, he had plans, just in case. He lied to Mother, telling her he’d given you blood, so you wouldn’t turn.

“When she drained you, you died for a few minutes, the time it took for him to take you out of the castle and feed you his blood, bringing you back at the last second. It could have gone either way.

“You were very lucky. A fighter, I suppose. He then dumped you at the hospital and walked away, not looking back.”

“And I became Ellie Martinez.”

“It was the only way he could keep you safe. Hidden from our world as long as they believed you dead. He hid it from all of us.”

“What about Mother?” I asked.

Aric gazed down at me, his thumb making small circular movements on my shoulder.

“He never told her. I haven’t told her.”

“So, she thinks she killed me?”

“She does.”

“That’s terrible! How could he do that to her?”

“I also believed you’d died, that I failed to save you. After I promised you I’d never let you get hurt,” he murmured.

“I did resent you for that,” I told him.

“I’m sorry,” his eyes were wide, bright, sapphire blue, just like Mother’s.

“I forgive you,” I said quickly. He let out a short breath and leaned toward me, resting his head on top of mine. My heart was racing, and I knew he could hear it.

“I don’t want to let you go now,” he said softly, rubbing his cheek against my hair, breathing in deeply.

“So, what now?” I asked.

“Now,” he pulled back, gazing at me, grinning. “You become the best-kept secret in the pureblood world.”

“Will you leave me alone again? Do I have to keep running?”

“I will keep you safe,” he replied quickly. “And I will stay with you for as long as you want me.”

His eyes were wide. “You don’t have to keep running. I can protect you,” I felt my heart racing. I gazed up at him. His eyes bore into mine.

“If I move to France, to Toulouse to work on the Airbus, will that be okay?”

“You don’t have to ask for permission, Eleanor. I will protect you and watch over you, but you live the life you want to live.” He gave me a small smile. “Consider me your guardian angel.”

I let my head fall back and giggled. “You are by far the scariest guardian angel I’ve ever heard of,” I scoffed.

“Perhaps, but also the most attractive.” He winked at me, and I blushed bright red.

He chuckled, running his finger down my burning cheek. “When you do that, you make it very hard for me,” he whispered, his voice lowering, the red slowly ebbing into his eyes.

“Not to bite me?” My voice came out a small squeak.

“Hmm,” he mused. “Among other things.” I just blushed even more, and he grinned at me.

“You didn’t use to be so shy,” he murmured.

“You didn’t use to be so…so fucking gorgeous,” I blurted. He winked at me.

“Actually, I have. You were just a child looking at a big brother. What do you see now, Eleanor?”

His eyes were bright red. I could see his fangs as he grinned at me.

“Aric,” I breathed. My heart was racing. “I think you know,” I uttered.

He laughed, tossing his head back, his eyes slowly ebbing back to blue.

“Yes, I’m aware. I promise you, Eleanor, I am only here to watch over and protect you if you need. I will not do anything you don’t want me to.” He leaned toward me, grinning.

He slowly dipped his mouth to where he had bitten me and slowly ran his nose up my throat into my hair, breathing in heavily. “Unless you make the first move, I will not,” he whispered.

“Thank you,” I managed, my breathing coming out in shuddering gasps. I didn’t know if I was afraid or intoxicated. Aric leaned back. He stood up smoothly and served himself another glass of wine.

Then, in a split second, he was sitting next to me again, sipping his drink.

“Aric.” I paused, watching him. “How is it possible pureblood vampires even exist?”

His brows rose, and he chuckled. “We evolved in parallel to humans,” he started. “We’ve been around as long as you have. A kind of population control or balance.

“You are our prey, our primary source of nourishment. A pureblood cannot survive without human blood. But you have daylight and can escape from us easily.”

“You have to kill humans to survive? You cannot survive just on animal blood? I remember you hunting caribou.”

“Purebloods need human blood. That allows us to be stronger than turned vampires, and we are able to have families. If we just drank animal blood, we’d eventually fade away.

“Turned vampires can survive only on animal blood, but if they do, they’re very weak.”

“Do you see me as food?” I asked him. Aric pursed his lips and shook his head slowly.

“I did, for years, like a pet. But the older you got, the more interesting and less appetizing you were. Then I fell in love with you, like Father and James and Aunt Selene. We all did. You took us all by surprise.”

“I didn’t do much.”

“No,” he agreed. “You were normal. You are a normal human. But to us, you were ours, to love and protect, and raise.”

“What about now? How do you see me now?”

He grinned at me again. “Now, you’re another creature entirely,” he chuckled. “You smell and taste like a human, but you’re not to me. You’re something completely different.”

“So, you don’t want to eat me?”

“Hmm, it was very hard to stop before. You are ~delicious~.” His eyes were red again, wide, boring into mine. “But I also want to keep you safe, to make you smile, maybe make you scream.”

“Scream?” I frowned. Aric gazed down at me; his fangs bared.

“Scream my name,” he said very softly. “I’ve never wanted to touch a human so much without wanting to drink them dry.”

I just stared at him. Every single muscle in my body was tensed, except my heart, which had apparently decided to explode. I knew he could hear it. ~I~ could practically hear it.

Aric was leaning away from me, sipping his drink, his gaze on mine. “As I said, I won’t make the first move unless you ask me to.”