Chapter 1 #2
“Awesome.” Man, he looked so good standing there, framed by the mantel and the chimney stack behind him, electric light sparkling on his exposed skin.
My dick twinged, hungry for him.
Shit. “I love your taste in flowers,” I said tightly, pointing around the room.
“Thank you.” He gestured to the sofa. “Have a seat. Relax. I brought you here to escape for a while.” His eyes moved to one of the windows. “I’ll take you back before sunrise. Unless you want to stay a while.”
I sat on the right end of the sofa, my arse enjoying the soft hug the cushions provided.
“We can’t hide from our problems,” he said, taking a pew on the left side, “but we can have a…what is that saying?”
I turned to face him. “A time out?”
“That’s it.” He stared ahead, eyes on the flames. “I come here to think, to clear my head.”
“Good place for it.”
With this house being on top of a hill, it provided amazing views of the ocean. Clean air, open spaces, height, they were good for brushing away the mental cobwebs.
I could quite happily hide away from my problems here.
With him?
Bollocks. Here we go.
I folded my hands over my crotch, pressing down on my dick. It’d only just started to deflate, and then he had to go and look all yummy by the fire.
“Do you want to talk things through?” he asked.
I wanted to shake my head, but what if he needed to vent?
Wait. I wanted to listen to his problems? Really? Wow. Let the weirdness run free.
“Okay, let’s talk,” I said, throwing my arm over the back of the sofa. “Where do you want to start?”
It seemed like an easy thing to say, but there were many entry points to come at this bullshit from.
Long beats of silence followed, the only sounds the crackle of the fire along with the wind and ocean outside.
“I loved him,” Silvanus finally spoke, leaning back. “Aidan. I really loved him.”
They’d become lovers after Aidan arrived in Selene Haven. And it soon went to shit, Aidan killing Lucius Clarence—Silvanus’s brother and the previous vampire king. After that, Silvanus came to Quintrealm with the vampires, which he still couldn’t remember doing.
He would, in time, seeing as his memories were returning to him after my singing helped restore them.
A talent I wasn’t supposed to have, but was given to me by the creature inside me.
Caer, deity of the elves, who’d exchanged curses with Aidan before she ‘died,’ bringing us to this point.
He’d killed her, but she’d managed to languish in some kind of limbo until she woke up inside the body of a baby boy.
Me. Set up shop inside me, and was now using me as a conduit for her magic.
She liked to call me ‘precious one.’ Wanted to get to a place called the Carving Glade to use elvish magic through me.
From there we’d find a new weapon to kill Aidan with and save the world from his rot.
The world’s hope and her hope, she’d also called me.
No pressure, huh?
I was now waiting on her to rest up and give the go ahead on the next stage of the plan.
“Through you, I have restored some memories,” she’d said. “Through you, I can use my power and grow. Together, we can defeat him. My essence is inside you, your body adapted to carry me. Now you see, now we can begin.”
Only by freeing Aidan from his prison in that tower could the fight against him begin, which served to piss me off with its whole must-be-consequences type of bullshit.
“The kind of love that consumes you,” Silvanus continued, breaking my thinking loop. “I believed my dreams had been answered, this golden-haired beauty dropped in my lap to fill my life with wonder.” He turned his scarlet peepers to me. “What a fool.”
My breath caught in my throat, no response available. What could I say? I’m sorry you were tricked? Aidan’s a lying scumbag? We’ve all made googly eyes at the wrong guys?
The vampire king carried on. “I wish… I wish I…” His eyes narrowed, still fixed on me. “I wish I could see what he did. How he killed my brother, and what happened to my realm to make me come here.”
These broken memories were a big problem. Caer said the song was spent for the time being, and that we’d learn more moving forward. That was frustrating as hell, but what could I do other than wait for her to speak to me again?
What was she doing there inside me? Sleeping? Plotting? All of the above? She had the gift of foresight, but she also needed me to sing and channel her special voice to help.
Ugh. It all made my skull throb.
Silvanus sighed, his hands clasped together. “Sorry. You don’t want to hear me complaining.”
“Complain away. This whole thing is super annoying.” I plucked my battered pack of mistrock cigs from my pocket and lit up, taking a deep drag on the vanilla-scented stick, the heady rush of the magical nicotine substitute a blissful relief.
He watched me like he was searching for something. I squirmed and took another drag, butterflies fluttering in my chest.
“Thank you,” he said, voice sounding like a purr.
Whoa. I pressed down harder on my dick. “No problem.”
I could still feel the dying echoes of the thrall bond inside me. It’d mostly broken when he’d killed me, yet there it was, a thrumming kernel in the deepest core of my being.
Ugh.
And ‘killed me’ was, well, a funny thing to say. Yeah, I think I’d died, but only for a moment. I’d come back from some screaming darkness to fight another day. Twice now, the first time possibly being when I’d come to on the frozen Albion River.
There were no answers forthcoming for that weird slice of the drama pie.
Pfft. Why would there be?
“I suppose we must be patient for the next stage,” he added.
“Guess so.”
Man, he looked so vulnerable, which only added to his appeal. The big bad king displaying a shed-load of warmth, the icy monster nowhere in sight.
The longer I stared at him, the more painful the ache between my legs became. I pressed my thighs together, willing it to deflate, puffing on my cig.
But it wouldn’t soften. It needed release, to follow up the kiss with something harder.
“Paris?” Fuck. Why did he make my name sound so delicious?
My brain swam in a confusing soup, my skin hot, my desire about to break free.
We were supposed to be discussing our problems, not sliding into any of this. Sure, I’d initiated the kiss, but I sure as hell wouldn’t pull the trigger on anything else.
Right?
He might not be the true bad guy, but there was still a lot to unpack.
I couldn’t simply let go of my baggage with the snap of a finger.
I mean, my blood consisted of mer, werewolf, human, and mage, along with my natural elf blood.
That’s how executioners were made, we were given those bloods to match the strength and speed of vampires.
I was literally the sum of my parts, built to kill his kind. So where did that leave me?
Evolving, my mind responded.
Damn. I’d been so lost when the Global Order made a deal with the vampires to screw my kind over, only to find myself lost again.
Lost with lust for the vampire king.
Lost without a purpose.
I got to my feet, my dick creating a tentpole in my jeans.
“Shit,” I grumbled, cig hanging from my mouth. I turned away, trying to adjust myself. Embarrassed beyond belief.
“Paris?”
Stop with the sexy voice, please. “Just a minute.”
I sensed his movement, the hairs on the back of my neck bristling. Shit. He was right there, so close behind me.
“Paris…” A breathy, rich tone came at me, enough to melt the boxers from my body.
Don’t turn around.
Don’t turn around.
Don’t—
I turned around, gasping at his proximity.
His eyes tracked down my body, lingering on my boner.
“I… I…” I couldn’t speak.
“You’re aroused.”
“Thanks for pointing out the obvious,” I blurted, meaning to think it only.
I covered myself with one hand, taking the cig from my mouth with the other.
He didn’t say anything, the space between us hot, containing its own magnetic energy. Tugging at me, begging me to close it.
Absolutely not. “Sorry, you were talking and I’m—”
He came even closer, my body freezing in panic.
“What…what are you doing?” I asked, my voice a quivering squeak.
His eyes were boring into me. The scarlet shone brighter, driving me crazy.
What the hell was wrong with me?
“Can I touch you?” he whispered.
Hello, heavier head-spin. “H-huh?”
He repeated his question, huskier this time.
Damn. Damn. Damn. The mere thought of his hands down there was enough to get my underwear sticky with precum.
“Shit…” I breathed. “Shit…”
“I can touch you and take you away from this,” he said.
“You can…what?”
“Pleasure. Pleasure can help us both escape from reality for a while.”
Well, yeah, it could. But that didn’t mean it was going to happen.
Why not, though? We’d already kissed, and fucked, so why not indulge ourselves?
Don’t do this…
Hesitant, I stared at him, a yes and a no fighting for dominance on the tip of my tongue.
Don’t do this…
What would it feel like to be touched by him in a gentler way?
Don’t do this…
Our previous fuck didn’t really count, seeing as he’d killed me. Well, I guess it kind of did, but that wasn’t really a fun first time together. This could be a more sensual do over.
Don’t do this…
“Paris?”
“Yeah?”
“Can I touch you?”
Don’t do this…
“Y-yeah. You can touch me.”