Gia frowned and closed the front door. “Hasn’t Mac delivered the blood yet?”
“No,” Holly said wearily, quite sure she was going to have to let the policemen go without even a nibble. That was so unfair. She really was in pain for want of blood, agony even, and she’d been that way all night. If this wasn’t an emergency, she didn’t know what was.
Gia clucked her tongue as she started forward. “All right. Make it quick though. I’ll see what’s taking Mac so long. I called the order in right after we got off the phone. It should have got here shortly after that,” she added irritably and then asked, “Can I use the house phone? I didn’t get the chance to charge my cell.”
“Of course.” Holly waved her into the living room and then followed, pulling the officers in behind her by their hands. They were both being incredibly docile about this. She was amazed they weren’t asking questions until she glanced at their faces and noted their blank expressions. Frowning, she glanced to Gia. “Are you controlling them?”
Gia nodded and gestured for her to get on with it as she pulled the phonebook out of the bookshelf next to the phone and began to rifle through it.
Sighing, Holly turned to her dinner and glanced from one man to the other. They were both pretty much the same height, which was just tall. Determination squaring her shoulders, she stepped in front of the blond, grabbed his shoulders and tried to get him to bend forward. He didn’t bend. Scowling, she placed her right foot against his knee and tried to climb him instead.
“For heaven’s sake, Holly, stop playing with your food,” Gia snapped.
“I’m not playing. They’re too tall, and you’re controlling them so I can’t make them bend over or anything.”
“Per l’amor del cielo,” Gia muttered and glanced to the men. They both immediately moved around Holly to sit on the couch behind her.
Instead of following right away, Holly peered at Gia narrow--eyed. “What does por favor del cello mean?”
“Not—-” Gia shook her head and sighed. “I said per l’amor del cielo. It is like ‘for heaven’s sake.’ ”
“L’amor means love doesn’t it?” she asked suspiciously.
“Yes.”
“What is cielo?”
“Sky,” she answered.
“So you said for the love of the sky?”
“Dio mio!” Gia said impatiently. “Stop stalling and feed or I will send them away.”
“I’m not stalling,” Holly said at once.
“Yes, you are,” she said more gently. “You’re nervous. This is all still new to you. But you can do this. You did it at the club.”
“Right,” Holly breathed, forcing herself to relax as she realized she was nervous and stalling. While she’d practiced feeding on mortals at the club, that had been two weeks ago, and these were cops, for heaven’s sake. It was bad to assault cops.
“Think of them as blood donors,” Gia instructed.
“Blood donors,” Holly murmured and turned to survey her meal. The two men had settled side by side and straight backed on the couch. She considered them briefly, and then moved in front of the blond and bent over, but she couldn’t quite reach his neck.
Muttering under her breath about the inconvenience of being so darned short, she climbed onto him and settled on his lap with her knees on either side of his legs. Clasping his head, she pulled him forward, and then paused to glance to Gia, who was now punching in numbers. “Are you going to control him while I feed or—-?”
“I have them, go ahead,” Gia said, sounding a little distracted.
Shrugging, Holly turned to the blond and urged him back against the couch again. She then leaned against him and planted her face in his neck. Hungry as she was, she had absolutely no difficulty locating the vein, and she released a little sigh of relief and let her fangs slide out.
The moment Holly’s fangs pierced his skin, the man moaned and slid his arms around her waist to pull her close. She ignored that and the way his hands were now roving over her back as she concentrated on counting to thirty. This time it seemed like no time at all had passed before she reached thirty, but Holly reluctantly retracted her fangs and released the man.