No, it had been longer than that, Justin thought as he followed Dante and Holly back to the house. While they’d hooked up Holly to both the sedative and blood when they’d first got her here, they hadn’t replaced that bag of blood when it had run out. As a new turn she needed to feed more than that.
“She needs to feed a lot more than that,” Dante announced, pausing at the door to wait for Justin to open it for him. “She was diabetic while mortal. No doubt there was a lot of damage to different systems over the years for the nanos to repair. She’ll probably need a lot of blood for quite a while to mend everything.”
“Of course,” Justin said with a sigh, as he pulled the door open for him to enter. Holly had calmed down somewhat now. At least she wasn’t twisting her head about anymore.
“I’ll get her a bag of blood,” Justin said as he followed him inside and pulled the door closed.
“You better grab several of them,” Dante advised as he set Holly in a chair at the kitchen table and held her there with his hands on her shoulders.
Justin nodded and moved to the fridge. He retrieved six bags of blood, set four on the counter and took the other two with him to the table. One glance showed him that her fangs had retreated during the walk inside and he expected to have to cut his finger or something to bring them back out. New turns usually had to have their fangs coaxed out in such a way, but he had barely raised his hand in front of her face with the intent to do so when she inhaled deeply and her mouth dropped open, her fangs suddenly sliding out.
Eyebrows rising, he immediately popped one of the bags to her upper fangs and prevented her attempt to push it away. It was just an instinctual reaction. After a moment, she calmed and let her hands drop. When the first bag was empty and he replaced it, she raised her hands again, but this time to hold it herself.
Nodding, Justin offered her a half smile and returned to the counter for the rest of the bags. When he saw that Dante was no longer having to hold Holly in the chair, he offered him a bag, then popped one to his own mouth.
“I’m sorry,” Holly murmured, avoiding Justin’s gaze as she pulled the now empty bag from her mouth a moment later. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“You were not thinking. You were in the throes of blood lust,” Dante said after removing his own bag. “It is difficult to think at that stage.”
Holly shook her head unhappily. “I was hungry when I got up, but I thought it was just for food, so I grabbed an apple and . . .” She shrugged helplessly.
“Then that will be our first lesson,” Dante announced. “Teaching you to recognize the difference between hunger for food and blood hunger.”
Holly nodded solemnly, and accepted the third bag of blood Justin offered. This time, she popped it to her own mouth. He smiled encouragingly at her, and watched her feed, his mind now considering ways to woo her. It seemed Decker and Anders explaining about life mates hadn’t made much difference in her reaction to him. At least she hadn’t broached the subject with him and wasn’t treating him any differently. Which meant he would have to woo the woman. The next time she grabbed him and rose up on her toes, he wanted it to be because she was hungry for him, not his blood.
Anders had said she liked fish, flowers, wine, puppies, kittens, picnics, documentaries, nature shows and anything to do with nature, he recalled and ran through the list slowly in his head. Well, it was too late to get her flowers, take a picnic, or find a pet store, but there was plenty of wine here at Jackie and Vincent’s. They’d got it in for Tiny while he was still mortal, but then he’d turned and so it sat languishing in a rack. He could make dinner and serve her wine to start and impress her with the knowledge that he knew how to cook. That was a newer skill. He’d always been more of an eater than a cook, but after trying to help Cale Argeneau claim his mate, Alex, who owned a pair of fine dining restaurants in Toronto, Justin had found he was interested in cooking. He’d been terrible at it at first, but between watching the Food Network and helping Sam at the house, he’d picked up some skills and was sure he could manage to cook Holly a meal that would impress her.
Justin was smiling widely at the thought, when he noted that Dante was looking at him with one eyebrow raised dubiously.
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing,” the other man said and took a fourth bag of blood from him to replace the one Holly was tearing away. “Nothing at all.”
Justin frowned at him, then set the remaining bag on the table and turned to start searching the kitchen. They hadn’t bought any fish when they’d been shopping, but with any luck, Jackie and Vincent might have some in the freezer or something. They were newly mated and both ate and he’d been here before and knew they had a huge freezer. Surely they’d have at least one fish in it, he hoped. He needed a cookbook too, though, or a computer so that he could find a recipe. Something gourmet, he thought, his mind planning feverishly.
Nine