Chapter 11 #2
I’d heard that once or twice. It was the eyes. And the hair. Although, what usually followed such a sentiment was: But do you taste like one? Does the color on your bottom half align with the top? Yes? Let me see. Come sit on my face.
My nostrils flared when he exhaled a spicy smoke into the washroom, its scent warming like roasted cardamom and star anise. “Of course, I’m human.”
“Oh, I know, darling,” he said. “I can smell you.”
I swallowed.
“What is your name?” he asked, leaning back against the vanity with his ankles crossed in an air of nonchalance that didn’t match the mood in this washroom. Especially considering all the broken glass that covered the floor and his bleeding side from where he’d been stabbed seconds ago.
I chewed the inside of my cheek, eyeing him cautiously like the lethal predator he was.
“Oh, come on,” he said, flicking ashes onto the floor. They floated to the tile like tiny feathers. “What am I going to do with your name, love? I can’t stab you with it, for example.”
I flicked my gaze down to the stab wound in his side, which was beginning to bleed through his shirt in an alarming, growing circumference. Strange. He should’ve begun healing by now.
“Tell me yours first,” I said.
“We’re negotiating?” His expression brightened as he held a palm to his chest. “I’m Prince Alek. It’s a pleasure.”
My mouth lost its moisture. Alek, as in short for Alekus. I was right. This was the future king of Novithia.
“Now your turn, human.”
I couldn’t soften my shoulders if I tried. “Feloré.”
“Fe-lor-é,” he whispered, his tongue dancing over his teeth, like he was tasting each syllable. “North. The Scandorian mountain region.”
I tried not to jolt in shock, but that was an awfully obscure piece of knowledge for him to gather from the pronunciation of my name. “How do you know that?”
“Because I am the future king of these lands.” He sucked a drag from his herbs. “And those lands. And a few others.”
Yet, I’d just stabbed him, then promptly called him a demon. And he wasn’t retaliating.
“Just like how I know your name means snow…” He squinted, eyes searching the walls. “Rabbit? Is that right?”
I sucked my cheeks. It was a bit embarrassing. “Snow fox, actually.”
“Snow fox.” His gaze wandered up to my hair. Then his face split into a sparkling smile. Gods, his teeth were moon white and flawless. “Well, that is just so fitting, isn’t it?”
This was perhaps the strangest thing to ever happen to me in my life. So, he wasn’t going to cut out my tongue for slander or retaliate for stabbing him. He wasn’t even going to try to fuck me. He was just going to lean against the vanity. Casually chatting.
“How old are you?” I asked. “Nineteen? Are you nineteen?”
“By all means, ask questions at your leisure,” he said, wafting a hand around. “Perhaps next time, you’ll even ask the questions first, then stab.”
My swallow limped down my throat. “Are you a virgin?”
A grin broke across his face. Stunning. Moon white. Demonic. “I am.”
Fuck. Fuck, so I was right. My heart began to race again. I was the chained-up food for a virgin prince.
He pushed himself off the vanity, and I stumbled backward until my back collided against the wall, to which he chuckled. With the herbs clenched between his teeth, he fucking chuckled as he began unbuttoning his shirt.
They were cruel. All of them.
I shook my head at his working fingers, like I could stop it. “I don’t agree. I don’t agree to be your first. That’s not how it’s supposed to work, and you know it.”
“I don’t think you understand how things really work, my love.”
“Come any closer, and I’ll fucking kill you,” I hissed. “I swear it.”
“Oh?” There was something so mischievous in his smile. “You have another weapon hidden somewhere in…whatever it is you’re wearing?”
My cheeks heated. I was suddenly very aware of how little I wore, and how see-through it was. It barely even concealed my cock.
He peeled his shirt down his shoulders and dear gods, he could crush me with his chest and stomach muscles so supremely toned, just a landscape of strength. It directly contrasted his sickly appearance.
“Your heartbeat sure does hasten as you look at me,” he said. “Is that because you’re frightened? Or because you like what you see?”
I glared. If he was going to kill me, then why even talk? Why ask my name and where I was from? Just to toy with me? It was pure evil.
“Fuck you,” I spat. “You’re a fucking monster.”
“Oh, yes. Very much so.” A ghost of a smile teased his mouth as smoke coiled from his nostrils like two serpents. “But I bet there’s a part of you that secretly likes ‘fucking monsters’.”
Chills twisted down my arms.
“See? There it is again,” he whispered, grinning as he stepped closer. “Your heart reacts so prettily to me, human.”
What the hell? I couldn’t explain it, but it was like he was inside my chest. Inside my body, listening. I couldn’t press myself any further into this wall.
Then he suddenly dragged his gaze away from me, twisting over his shoulder like he was listening to something besides my body.
A knock sounded on the door, and I nearly jumped out of my skin.
He snorted, eyeing me like it was just so much fun to watch me squirm. “It’s only my attendant. Don’t worry. He’s not as frightening as me.”
I didn’t respond, struggling instead to conceal my body when his molten copper gaze fell the length of it.
He sucked in a long drag of his herbs as he lifted his gaze once more. His exhale was slow and his smile wicked. “Come, human. Do not trip on your leash.”
With that, he was gone, leaving me behind in a cloud of smoky winter herbs and fucking confusion.
Was I…to do as the virgin sex demon said? Was I to follow him into his BEDROOM?
That was an awful idea, but then again, it wasn’t like I had any better options.
I carefully stepped around the broken shards of mirror, hesitating by the door. A peek through the crack revealed a normal, healthy looking vultus kneeling beside the prince, face white in alarm as he studied the stab wound.
“What the hell happened?” he was asking. “Who? Did you get a name?”
“I did,” the prince said, coughing. “Oh, human.”
“It was a human?” the attendant asked, squinting. “How in the gods’ names did a human do this? Where are they now? Did you kill them?”
No, he did not kill me. I was still standing, and I wasn’t going to get anywhere by cowering.
I stepped from the washroom and stood before them with my chin lifted, the silver chain curling around my feet. The attendant stood, his face blanching even more at the sight of me. He was young. Terribly young. Seventeen? Eighteen? Another virgin, but likely one who hadn’t awoken yet.
Just fuck me. I had the worst luck.
He stumbled over his words as his body began to vibrate in twitches. A lot of twitches.
“Shit,” he muttered, breathy, trying to stabilize his trembling wrist. “Shit, I’m sorry. You are—wow. I just wasn’t expecting to see one of you here. Looking so, um. What’s the word I’m searching for?”
The prince cocked his head at me. “Fox-ish?”
“Yes, that’s precisely it.” The attendant was trembling hard as he scanned my outfit, the collar, and the chain bolting me to the floor. “Fox-ish.”
“Don’t beat yourself up, Lucc,” Alek said, patting him on the back on his stroll to the armoire, the smoldering herbs between his lips. “He’s dressed like that for a reason. Besides, I’m sure he’s used to it.”
My eyes narrowed on Alek. I just noticed something. He hadn’t twitched. Not once.
“Who is he?” Lucc asked, unable to peel his gaze from me. “Why is he here?”
“He is a gift from my father.”
Lucc’s eyes widened as he swiveled around. “Oh, shit.”
“Oh, shit is right.” Alekus grinned, something about it forced as he pulled a fresh new shirt from his wardrobe and worked it over his broad shoulders. “Would you be so kind as to fetch the king? I’d like a word.”
“Yes, Prince,” Lucc said with a bow, wheeling to dart down the hall. “I’ll make haste.”
He vanished, and I was, once again, alone with a creature whose very presence threatened my life, and yet, he hadn’t twitched. Not once.
What’s wrong with you? I wanted to ask. Are you not normal?
He summoned fire into his palm once more as he stood before his full-length mirror with his shirt draped open. “Perhaps cover your ears, human. Just in case.”
Something was wrong with him. Something was off. I cupped my palms over my ears, but I could still hear his flesh searing as he pressed his burning palm against the stab wound.
The sound alone was enough to make me want to throw up, but he didn’t break into his natural voice. He simply gritted his teeth, his expression cold and determined like he was no stranger to pain.
Then he clenched his palm into a fist to snuff the flame and adjusted his shirt. I slowly let my hands fall from my ears. The wound looked gnarly, all red, puffy, and barely fused together.
“While it’s been absolutely lovely chatting with you, darling, and getting stabbed by you,” he said, the air of nonchalance back as he started to button his shirt, “I’m afraid our time together has come to an end.”
I studied his reflection’s molten copper gaze. And just what did he mean by end? “What does that mean? I don’t deserve to die. I haven’t done anything—”
“My darling Snow Fox,” he whispered, his voice so deep, smooth, and compelling. “Shh, you must take it easy, baby. I’m not going to kill you.”
My lips pinched into a hard line. It was like I was at the mercy, having to beg for answers about my own well-being from the same creature who threatened it. “Then what are you going to do?”
He grinned. Sparkling. Demonic. “Get you the fuck out of my room, of course.”