The Vampire Playboy - Blood and Lust

Chapter 26

Charlie's POV

"Tell me how you met Noah?" Liv mumbles with tiredness in her voice.

I smile to myself, this is a much more complicated story than I'd be able to tell her.

"Our families are sort of loosely connected so we had an awareness of each other, but a little similar to your upbringing our families had different outlooks to Noah and me" I smiled to myself.

"So you're related?" Liv asked, sounding confused.

"Not exactly. I met Noah when I was younger, a lot younger, briefly during a meeting between our parents. From the moment I met him, I knew he was different from everyone else in my world, he was different to his family and my family. He had freedom and strength that I didn't and I was in awe of how he was choosing to defy his father and live differently from how he wanted. He was his own person."

This wasn't a lie, not exactly. I'd gone with my maker to meet her maker. Noah was part of that group. He was living in a mansion with his maker and a lot of others, a wealthy lifestyle in a Manor house with titles as Lords so as not to raise suspicion. They had utter contempt and disdain for humans and saw them as nothing but a food source. But Noah. He was different, he didn't hunt and kill for sport, in fact, he was the first vampire I'd ever known not to kill his food. He would drink until he had just enough then would compel them to forget and to go far from the Manor and never return. I was mesmerised by his behaviour at the gluttonous parties his maker would throw everyone else would partake in the killing, feeding and f*****g and Noah would feed without killing or he wouldn't feed at all. I had no idea until that point that there was a different way to live.

"So when I returned home with my parent, I wanted to try to live differently, by my terms and my own rules, my parent wasn't happy but went along with it for a while. I wanted to be a different person, I'd grown tired of my lifestyle which was full of excess and gluttony and I wanted to be better. Things worked for a while and then they got really bad again, but I couldn't go back to how it was, that wasn't me anymore so I left home. Not long after that Noah found me, he had left home too and we became best friends, living similar lifestyles separated from our families."

"I'm sorry you had a rough start. But I am glad you and Noah found each other. Are you still in contact with your families?" Liv asked

"We all keep in touch from time to time," I said smiling.

When I returned home with my maker, I told her I wanted to live a life as close to humans as possible. I didn't want to feed to kill anymore, I didn't want to kill for sport, and I no longer wanted to feel like an animal. My maker tried to go along with it as best as she could, but she was raised to be the apex predator. Whilst I liked to live among humans and liked turning on my humanity she didn't. She was the opposite and so she would slip back into the old ways until I finally had enough. That was the first time I ever left my maker, we parted ways, though she didn't want to and I went out on my own. Noah sought me out, he had been watching for a while and waiting for the chance to show me that there was another way. That we didn't need to kill, that we could live off animals or just take enough from humans. That we could live as humans and move on before anyone would suspect. And we did live like that. Noah was always much better at it than me, he had courage when I was weak, and strength when I didn't. He always pulled me back from the brink of losing my humanity altogether whenever I would fall, or whenever I'd join with my maker again for too long. I'd be lying if I said I didn't kill again after I met Noah, like any reformed addict I had many occasions when I fell off the wagon and unfortunately people paid for that mistake with their life. That changed when we discovered Tom and this town. The council had rules that we had to abide by that kept me on the straight and narrow but at the same time allowed me to live among humans and pretend to be human. Tom tolerated the antics of Noah and me, provided we didn't step out too far. We always knew the boundaries, we had seen what happened to vampires who went against the council. If you were lucky you would be banished. If you were unlucky, you would pay with your life.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to pry," Liv said in a voice that sounded so small.

"What? No, I don't mind, you have nothing to be sorry about."

"It's just you looked slightly pained just there."

"Just pensive," I said, smiling to reassure her. "I try to live in the present and not the past, I can't change the things I have or haven't done but I can change the things in the here and now"

That wasn't a lie either. But I couldn't tell her that I didn't like talking about my past with her because I felt guilty for lying by omission. That if she knew me or my past or what I was she wouldn't be sitting here like this.

Liv yawned and leaned into me, I instinctively put my arm around her and pulled her closer to me, before then taking the blanket and covering her completely. I could hear her breathing getting heavier as her body became limp and heavy against me and it didn't take long for me to realise she had fallen asleep. I leaned down gently and placed my lips on the top of her forehead. She looked so peaceful like this, angelic even.

I didn't dare move for fear of disturbing her and enjoyed watching every second tick by on the clock. Tonight she was mine and mine alone, right now I didn't have to share, but I knew that I needed to go before anyone else got home, probably once the sun came up. If David walked in and saw me like this he would have my head on a plate and Tom would probably agree to it. Then there was Noah. I needed to talk to him about what had happened last night. That was too close, too close to hurting Liv and too close to exposure. He was reckless and careless which wasn't like Noah. He was the sensible one. I took out a phone and sent him a text telling him to meet me outside Liv's at sunrise. I didn't care that he might be pissed that he spent the night. He needed to know how scared she was and I wanted to know how the fu*k this happened.

As sunrise approached I could sense him outside. I gently carried Liv to her bed and covered her up. Her curtains were closed so I felt safe in giving her one final gentle kiss on her soft pink lips. I watched as the side of her mouth curved up ever so slightly before she rolled over and pulled the covers up to her chin. I would check on her later via Owen.

I made my way outside, locking the door and posting the key through the letterbox. Noah stood in the trees waiting for me. He looked like crap when I finally reached him.

"Is she ok?" He asked whilst looking at his foot kicking a hole in the dirt.

"She's scared and confused. She doesn't know what happened last night but she knows you were different and she was frightened. What the fu*k were you thinking getting that fu*king hungry around humans, around Liv!" I said, raising my voice.

"Look, I'm ashamed enough as it is without you laying it. I know I fu*ked up, I know I am lucky you were there and I'll be fu*king lucky if she ever speaks to me again after this. I thought I was fine ok, but my stock of blood was running low and there was a delay in shipping more, when the delivery did get through the blood was spoiled. I didn't expect that and didn't have any spare. Should I have just gone out hunting with you instead? Yes, but I thought I had it under control, I thought I could handle it until that moment. And even when you were telling me, I still thought it was under control, I didn't realise until it was too late. If you hadn't been there, I think….I think I would have fed from her."

My breath caught from the shock of his words. He would have fed from her? This wasn't Noah talking, sure he had weak moments but not like this. He didn't lose control just like this. Normally Victor, his maker, was involved when he would lose control, Victor liked to push him to see how far he could go before he would snap.

"Noah, are you alright?" I was concerned.

"Dude, I thought I was and then tonight, her blood just smells so amazing to me, I've not had that urge in a long time. I'm disgusted with myself for even thinking about it. The thought of hurting her makes me sick. She's amazing, and sometimes I feel her pulling away. Charlie, I like her and I don't want to lose her. I need to fix this. Do you think she might pull out from the weekend?"

I shook my head.

"No, we chatted about it, she's still going, though, I've told her I'll arrange separate bedrooms for us all," I said testing the waters.

Noah sighed and I watched his face drop.

"I suppose that's only fair and to be expected. I swear I'll spend that whole weekend making this up to her. Wait, was David home?" Concern was evident in his voice.

I laughed.

"Do you think I would have been allowed inside if he were?"

Noah laughed at that. "I just need to hope she doesn't tell him what happened or he really will demand my balls on a plate." He laughed again and I joined in.

I could just hear David's conversation with Tom right now. He would be livid.

"Just give her space Noah, don't crowd her."

He nodded. "Did you go hunting?"

"Yeah, but my head wasn't really in it, fancy a run to see if we can land a buck or two?" He asked with his twinkle back in his eye.

I felt hellish for feeding my best friend bullshit about Liv. I thought back to what I'd told Liv earlier about how we met. The truth was Noah had saved me many times over and I was who I am today because of him. I owed him everything and yet here I was sneaking around behind his back. Guilt consumed me and I knew I needed to think out my next move carefully. I wasn't sure if I could have both Noah and Liv in my life, what if I had to choose? Could I choose? Was there a way to have them both without hurting Noah? For him to give me his blessing? I wasn't sure but I knew I had to be more careful. No more sneaking around with Liv. That needed to be over until they were over.