Page 20 of The HalloQueen

“Oh yes, Annabel, your binge-watching history is clearly enough to determine the value of my honor.”

I slammed my hands onto my hips and raised my brows, “Then why are you acting like this?”

“Maybe because you’re accusing me of hurting you?!” He took a few alarmingly fast paces my way as if he was going to grab me by the shoulders and though I tried not to, I flinched, causing him to freeze and shake out his hands.

“Mon coeur, I didn’t touch your drinks. I didn’t poison any food or hire anyone to do it for me. I would never do that to you.”

“Then why are you looking at me like that?”

“Christ, Annabel, you don’t like it when I don’t look at you, you don’t like when I walk around, you don’t like when I-”

“If I drop off that urine, are you going to jail?”

“Non!” He leaned into me with the words, “I did nothing to hurt you.”

I hesitated, “did you do anything to me that may not have hurt me but still violated me in some way? Cop a feel on your way out? Make me fall asleep so you could rob me? Doing a test run on me before you do the real thing on someone else?”

“I did not! Like I needed to fondle your unconscious body.”

“Then why for the first time in the ten years I’ve been drinking do I have a gap in my memory and why do I feel like I got hit by a bus?!” My heartbeat picked up and my breathing became shallow, cracking my voice, “why do I feel like you took something from me?” Thomas visibly deflated and my heart broke a little, “you did, didn’t you? You did something.”

He extended his toned arms out to me as if offering an embrace and I cringed.

“Why would I let you hold me when you clearly did something to me?!” I took a step back instinctively.

“Let me show you,” He said quietly and waved his hands asking for a hug again.

“Tell me what the fuck is going on. What if I go to hug you and you like…stab me in the neck or something? I know there are arteries in there that if you hit them I’ll bleed out in a matter of minutes. I’ve seen it -”

“Yes, you’ve seen it in the media many, many times. I understand. Please let me touch you and I will show you what happened last night.”

I hesitated. I shouldn’t. If I thought he had the ability to do something awful to me I definitely shouldn’t let him near me again, but I could feel calmness radiating from him and I began to wonder if I was overreacting. His eyes calmed me and it was like they implored me to listen to him.

I stepped into his arms stiffly, and he delicately cupped one hand under my chin while the other wrapped around to the small of my back, pulling me to him. He leaned in and placed his lips on mine.

The feeling was instant. It was like I was drunk. The anger and fear quickly dissipated and was being replaced by peace and lust. It wasn’t like getting a kiss that made you swoon, it was like getting kissed while a movie witch was sucking the soul out of a child with big, straw-like sucking breaths. I broke my lips from his, pushing him away and stepping back fast enough that I bumped into the air mattress and fell onto it. “What the fuck was that, Thomas?”

10

THOMAS

Ismelled her before I saw her. The delicious citrus and ginger seeped through the disgusting tang of the high-school-gym-locker stinking teenager named Jonah that was next to me. To keep up appearances, I’d hired a crew of teens to work alongside me on weekends. They were easy harvests and if I worked all day, every day people would get suspicious. I had no doubt that I could run the place by myself, but mortals could be annoyingly observant sometimes.

I hadn’t so much as needed a sip of their energy, still satiated from my night with Annabel, but the hunger grew to desperate levels the minute I saw she was angry with me as if my body knew it needed to subdue her. My mind spun with everything from, “she’s back for more,” to “she just wants to shop,” to “she regrets kissing me,” though if she regretted kissing me, she would need to get over that very quickly. She was mine. I couldn’t imagine going back to harvesting a stranger's punitive amounts of energy after tasting Annabel’s powerfully course through me while we kissed. I imagined that it probably felt similar to the difference between smoking a joint versus doing heroin. After all, they say it only takes one hit to become addicted, and Iwasaddicted.

I was pacing the room as my beast slammed against his cage inside me, desperate to taste her. She accused me of trying to assault her and the need to force her to apologize for the insult was as potent as the desire to lay at her feet and beg her to realize I did no such thing. I settled for going to grab her shoulders but thought better of it when my beautiful girl flinched at the thought of my touch. Last night our touches had become so casual that I didn’t need to harvest throughout the night, only taking what she threw at me. There were actually times when we were just able to exist together. It was amazing. Magical. We kissed - a lot, and now, now the woman flinched from me.

“Mon coeur, I didn’t touch your drinks. I didn’t poison any food or hire anyone to do it for me. I would never do that to you.”

She was wearing a mask that was intended to make her appear strong, but I could see and smell the fear she held that she was alone with someone who might hurt her. If she thought I would hurt her, why would she possibly choose to be alone with me? If she pulled this shit with someone who really meant her harm I would have her delicious ass over my knee in an instant. “Then why are you looking at me like that?” She bit the words, clearly thinking she had the upper hand.

“Christ, Annabel, you don’t like it when I don’t look at you, you don’t like when I walk around, you don’t like when I-”

“If I drop off that urine, are you going to jail?”

Rage and hurt coated what I imagined was left of my soul, “Non!” I leaned into her, practically begging her to push me one way or the other. Who did she want to take control of this? “I did nothing to hurt you.”

She hesitated, assessing my words and taking inventory of herself, “Did you do anything to me that may not have hurt me but still violated me in some way? Cop a feel on your way out? Make me fall asleep so you could rob me? Doing a test run on me before you do the real thing on someone else?”

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