Once inside the abandoned building, he sat on the metal steps that led to the second floor, waiting. Now that he was still, the drugs finally took hold, doing their job. Perspiration gathered at his hairline and beads of sweat slid down his back. Time ticked by, fast then slow, then fast again, like he was in a spaceship, warping through space and time.
He tilted his head back until he was gazing up at the metal rafters. There was a hole in the ceiling framing the night sky above, a singular beam of moonlight spearing through the darkness. How had Noah not noticed it before? He smiled as the stars and moon blurred and sharpened, then danced, chasing each other in and out of the opening on the roof to wind around the supports. He held up his hand and the stars poured through his fingers like sparks, the embers popping against his skin like tiny rubber bands.
“Noah?”
He inhaled sharply at his name on Adam’s lips. He jerked upright into a sitting position, hanging onto the rusted metal banister so he didn’t tumble forward. Adam glowed. His skin shimmered like he was a vampire in a bad teen movie, like his skin was made of light. His aura throbbed a deep red that made Noah want to touch it. He wished Adam wasn’t so beautiful. It would have been better that way.
But he was. Adam was so pretty. His hair was so black it appeared blue in the moonlight, and his eyes were the palest blue. Maybe he was a vampire. No human should look that good. He narrowed his gaze as his eyes fell to the deep vee of his t-shirt. The top of a moth or butterfly wings peeked out from the center of his chest, and his neck was adorned with a large wraparound snake tattoo and a necklace with a bullet hanging from it.
“Are you real?” Noah heard himself ask, then snorted at the wonder in his own voice. What the hell had Bailey given him anyway? It was clearly the good shit.
“Are you high?”
Noah lowered his voice to a stage whisper. “Are you a cop?” His heart caught as Adam grinned, revealing perfect teeth. “Probably veneers,” he muttered.
“What?”
Noah could have said nothing, but, instead, he said, “Your teeth. They probably aren’t even yours.”
Noah knew he wasn’t making any sense but he was unable to stop himself from saying whatever popped into his head. He wanted to touch him, to pet him, to comb his fingers through his hair and taste his skin that still glittered like spun sugar. Did he taste sweet?
“They’re mine,” Adam assured him. “But if it makes you feel any better, my dad paid a lot of money for them. They were pretty jenky when I was little. My birth mom wasn’t real big on dentists. Or hygiene. Or kids for that matter.”
Noah processed that bit of information. Adam had a birth mom. Had Noah known that? Maybe. He knew Adam had been adopted. All of Mulvaney’s children had been. He was the Gen X Daddy Warbucks.
Noah fell back onto his forearms. “Are you here to kill me?”
Adam moved closer, head cocked like a German Shepherd. “No.”
Disappointment settled inside Noah. “Are you following me?”
Another step. “Yes.”
“Why?”
That seemed to stop him in his tracks. “I…don’t know.”
Noah sighed. “You should kill me. I know too much.”
“You probably shouldn’t say that to somebody you suspect is a murderer.”
“If I was going to tell anybody I would have by now,” Noah admitted. “If that’s what you’re worried about.”
“It’s not. I’m…not.”
“That’s good,” Noah managed before his eyes unfocused and his head lolled on his shoulders.
Adam’s palms suddenly cupped his face. “Hey. What are you on?”
Noah shrugged, his lids going to half-mast. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?” Adam echoed, his thumbs pulling at the skin just beneath Noah’s eyes, like he’d tattooed the answers under the skin there.
“I told Bailey to surprise me. I have to admit, I’m surprised,” Noah confided, his hand reaching out to cup Adam’s face the way he was cupping his. “What are we doing?”
Adam snorted. “I’m trying to make sure you don’t die of a drug overdose. What are you doing?”
Noah splayed his fingers over Adam’s knife-sharp cheekbones. “You’re really pretty. Has anybody ever told you that?” Noah asked, examining him for even a single flaw but finding none.
Adam snorted. “Yes.”
“Oh,” Noah said, letting his hands fall. He hated how defeated he sounded.
Adam didn’t drop his arms, though, just continued to cup Noah’s face in his large hands.
“You’re really…big,” Noah said, letting his gaze roam from Adam’s booted feet to the top of his head. Well, as much as he could while Adam held his face hostage.
Adam tilted his head once more. “No, I’m average in size. You’re just kind of small.”
Noah scoffed. “Not where it counts.”
That wasn’t really the truth either. He was pretty proportionate in every way. He didn’t know why he said it, but Adam grinned and Noah’s heart tripped in his chest. What was wrong with him?
Noah couldn’t help but notice Adam’s pointy incisors. He pressed a finger to the sharpened point. “Are you secretly a Cullen? You have vampire teeth. Is that why you’re so pretty?”
The grin slipped from Adam’s lips, and he closed his mouth, trapping Noah’s finger between his jaws briefly, just enough for Noah to feel the pointed tip press into him. Not hard enough to break the skin but hard enough to leave an indentation. Still, Noah’s dick took notice.
When Adam released his finger, Noah ran his thumb over the mark. Adam had marked him. Like an animal. Adam was an animal. A predator. A killer. A killer who was still holding his face. “What are you doing?” he asked again.
“You have stars on your cheeks,” Adam mused, a strange look in his eyes, one that made Noah’s half-hard cock thicken behind his zipper.
“Bailey’s girlfriend turned my freckles into stars,” he said, hand raising once more against his will, this time to drag a thumb along Adam’s bottom lip, gasping when he felt Adam’s tongue against the pad of his finger. “Your lips are so red,” he said, voice full of wonder. “Are you wearing lipstick?”
Adam shook his head. “No.”
“Why are you following me?” Noah asked again.
“Because I can’t stop thinking about you,” Adam said, sounding confused, like he hadn’t meant to say it.