Chapter 5 #2
Ember chuckled, and he heard her footsteps padding away from him. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Glad for the distance, Nyte drew in a deep breath to calm himself, only to be struck by her fragrance.
Enticing gardenia, warm vanilla, and something beneath those notes that was wholly her.
He bared his clenched teeth, squeezed his tail, and dug his toe claws into the floorboards as her scent flooded him.
There was a soft thump of cloth hitting the floor. The towel.
Ember was unclothed behind him, begging for his hungry gaze, tempting him, torturing him. Beckoning him to turn and behold her. Licks of heat coursed up his spine and through his wings, as though she were a fire giving off the warmth he so desperately needed.
He refused to turn. He would not give in to that urge, would not indulge these base desires.
Movement in front of him drew his eye. Everything in Nyte stilled.
A vanity stood against the wall, and Ember’s reflection was in profile in the tall mirror attached to it. If he thought he’d been suffering already, it had been nothing compared to what he felt at seeing her curvy body on display.
As she pulled open the top drawer of her dresser, Nyte’s gaze raked over her, from her bare feet with their gray painted toenails, up her legs, and along those delectable thighs to her shapely hips and rounded ass.
Nyte gritted his teeth as he fought back the urge to bite it, to mark it.
His eyes continued upward, stopping on her large breasts, which were tipped with pink nipples.
He craved to draw one into his mouth, wondering what sounds he might wring from her as he teased it with lips, tongue, and fangs.
She turned, and before she bent over to draw on her lacy underwear, he glimpsed the slit of her bare cunt.
His nostrils flared as he tried to maintain control and remain in place. It would be easy to overcome her, to shove her onto her back and spread her thick thighs to see the delicate flesh between them.
The fire within him blazed hotter, and the ache in his groin intensified, railing against his restraint.
When Ember drew on another lacy garment that covered her breasts, he mourned the loss and found himself battling a new impulse to stride over to her and tear that fabric away. Somehow, he kept his feet rooted.
His tail, however, battled fiercely, tugging at the hand still wrapped around it with more force than seemed possible.
Infernal thing.
But the distraction it provided proved just enough for him to finally pry his attention away from the mirror, away from Ember.
He swung his gaze toward her bed, staring instead at the window over it.
Sunlight bled in around the edges of the curtains.
Perhaps if he stared long enough, it would blind him, and he wouldn’t have to endure such visual temptation again.
Then there’d only be her bewitching scent, her warm, soothing touch, and the delightful sound of her voice to taunt him.
He heard her open a door, heard cloth rustling and whispering against her skin, and he forced his eyes shut, not that it could block out the visions of her now etched forever into his memory.
“It’s safe,” Ember said.
Safe? So long as this inferno of lust rages inside me, neither of us is safe.
Seemingly unaware of his turmoil, Ember stepped past him to the vanity. She sat on the stool and flicked a switch. The lights surrounding the mirror flared to life, bright enough that he had to briefly slit his eyes and turn away.
“So light doesn’t hurt you, but you’re sensitive to it?” she asked.
“I simply need a moment to adjust. A bit of warning would’ve been appreciated.”
“I’ll be sure to do that next time.” She met his gaze within the mirror before opening one of the drawers and removing a few items, setting them atop the vanity. “How old are you?”
“How old is the night?” Nyte strode to her bed and sat down on its edge, looking her over.
She’d put on a black lace dress with a low neckline.
The inner skirt was shorter, revealing her legs beneath the long, sheer, lace-embroidered outer layer.
Though he’d just seen what lay beneath her clothing, the way the fabric hugged her body, the way it accentuated some of her curves while hiding others, was as tantalizing as her naked form.
No one, especially not a mortal, had any right to be so beautiful.
“So what are you saying? That you’re billions of years old?” Ember asked with not a little bit of disbelief.
“I have existed since time immemorial. But awareness came much later, along with this form.”
“Wow. You’re old old.”
“By your reckoning, yes. But time flows differently for immortal beings.”
“I’m still trying to wrap my mind around this not being a dream.” She lifted one of the bottles, opened it, and began applying the skin-colored cream inside to her face with a tiny pink sponge. “What did you mean when you said your awareness and form came later?”
He snatched up a pillow, taking it between both hands.
One of her long, silver hairs lay upon it.
“It is not something easily explained. I coalesced from the night. I am a manifestation of it. For a long, long while, I was…a force. An entity. Formless power, drifting through the darkness. Feeding on fear. Gradually, that fear shaped me, and as I became aware of myself, so too did this form come into being. A mirror held to humankind’s fear of the dark and the unknown. ”
She met his gaze in the mirror with a grin as she set down the bottle and sponge. “You’re not scary looking to me.”
“You’ve made that abundantly clear, witch.”
Chuckling, she picked up another item along with a small, soft brush and applied powder to her skin.
“I was never scared of the dark. I actually…find comfort in it. I grew up on a farm, and when I was little and couldn’t sleep at night, I’d sneak outside and listen to the crickets chirping while I stared up at the stars. It was peaceful.”
“There is a certain comfort to be found in the night’s music.
Those songs the sun will never hear, whispered beneath moon and stars…
” Nyte plucked the hair off the pillow, rubbing it between his fingers.
He felt a sudden urge to stroke her silken strands, to tuck them behind her ears, to feel their ends tease his skin.
Barely holding back a growl, he released the hair, letting it fall away, and returned his gaze to the female who was the focus of these unwelcome desires.
Ember was now coloring her eyelids.
“Why are you painting your face?” he asked.
She paused, drawing the thin brush away to look at it, then at her reflection, before finally turning her face toward him. “My makeup?”
“Yes. Why apply that paint—that makeup—to your face? It’s unnecessary.”
Her lips curled into a wide smile. “Are you saying I’m pretty, Nyte?”
His eyebrows fell. “You are…not unappealing.”
She laughed and shook her head. “I’m assuming you don’t freely give out compliments, so I’ll take that as one.
” Ember turned back to the mirror and moved the brush back to her eyelid, adding a touch of purple to the black she’d already applied.
“I just like wearing it. It’s a way to express myself. ”
The contrast between the darker colors blended on her eyelids and the light blue of her irises made her eyes ethereal and mesmerizing.
To keep from staring into them, from losing himself in them, Nyte dropped his gaze to the pillow.
Her fragrance was everywhere in this room, but here on the bed, it was strongest of all.
This was where she slept. Where she was at her most serene, her most vulnerable, where the covers caressed her skin, where she dreamed.
Something sparked within him. Another impulse, this one too quick, too powerful, to deny. Nyte raised the pillow to his face and inhaled deeply. Ember’s sweet scent flooded his nose, washing over him to haze his mind.
“Are there others like you?” Ember asked.
Her question pierced that haze; only then did he realize what he’d done, and that his tail was thumping atop the bed.
Biting back a snarl, he tossed the pillow aside and let out a huff as he tucked his tail beneath his thigh. This would be the longest month of his existence if things continued like this.
He shoved himself to his feet and moved away from the bed, away from that concentrated, enthralling scent. “Yes, there are other nocturni.”
Ember turned on the stool to look at him. “And since you’re not born, I’m assuming you don’t reproduce like humans?”
“We do not reproduce at all.”
“So does that mean you don’t have a…” Her gaze dropped to his groin.
Nyte blinked at her. There was a weight to her words, amplified by her pointed stare. Hers was not an innocent curiosity.
“I am formed of the very essence of the night. Every part of me shaped from it, free to be made or unmade. Physical form is a matter of will for the likes of me, not of being.”
Her eyes flared. “You can…summon a dick?”
“Should I so desire, yes.”
“Oh my God, really?” She grinned. “Can I see it?”
“I am not a spectacle, witch. I am here neither to entertain you nor to pleasure you.”
I’m here because that damnable sprite thinks she knows what is best for me!
Ember stuck her plump bottom lip out in a pout. The expression drove straight into Nyte’s core, and it was nearly enough to convince him to acquiesce to her request. Nearly.
He thrust a finger at her with a glare. “I will not be swayed by your charms.”
She smirked and turned back to the vanity mirror, picking up a long object and unscrewing it. “I’ll have to keep working on them then, since I’m this supposed witch.”
Nyte forced himself to spin away from her. By the hells, he was hardly able to resist her already. How was he going to endure until the next full moon?
“What suffering was Starling referring to?” Ember asked.
He gritted his teeth. Starling had spoken far too openly in front of this human, and Nyte had no intention of divulging any details. “That is no concern of yours.”
“I’m not trying to pry. I was just curious.” There was a pause before she spoke again. “She’s your friend?”
“Allegedly.”
Ember chuckled. “She seems to want the best for you. How long have you known her?”
“I’ve known her almost as long as I’ve been aware. Thousands of years.”
“So she’s more like a sister?”
A frown tugged down his mouth. His kind were solitary beings, rarely intermingling as they wandered the night. “I cannot say. Such familial relations are not familiar to me.”
“Family isn’t always blood related. It can be the people you choose. Someone who is close to you, someone who you’re comfortable with, who you can share your most treasured secrets and your hurts with. Someone who will always be there for you no matter what happens.”
“Does it also involve meddling in my affairs and laughing at my misfortune?”
Ember laughed. “It can. I say this from experience as a middle child with two brothers. They’ve laughed at my misfortune, and I’ve meddled with them plenty enough to deserve it. But it all comes from a place of affection.”
Her laughter almost coaxed him to look at her again, but he resisted. It was a delightful sound, one that threatened to ease his irritation and make him forget the circumstances currently trapping him.
And it granted him space to ponder her words.
Despite Starling’s latest plot, she had always been there for him. Her companionship had been constant, steady, dependable, and supportive. She’d helped him more than he could express and had never given up on him.
Nyte folded his arms across his chest. “Then I suppose my answer is yes. She is like a sister.”
“Is she like you? Formed from the night?”
“No. She’s fae. A starlight sprite, to be specific. As should be evident, our domains have a bit of overlap.”
“How is it that you and all these other supernatural beings exist, really exist, but humans believe you’re all just myths?”
He shrugged, waving nonchalantly. “I cannot speak for your kind. Humans knew, long ago, but somehow grew away from that knowledge. My…prolonged absence leaves an unfortunate gap in my knowledge.”
“It’s still fascinating. Like a whole new world has been opened up to me.”
There was a scrape against the floor as she slid her stool back from the vanity and a swish of fabric as she rose.
“All ready!” Ember announced cheerily. “I guess you’re coming to work with me today.”
Nyte spun on his heel to face her, meaning to refute her assertion and tell her exactly how the day would go, but the words died on his tongue as he beheld her.
Her hair was down, hanging long and loose in waves about her shoulders.
Black star earrings with violet centers dangled from her earlobes.
And her face…it was beautiful. The makeup didn’t mask her features, but accented them.
The dark eye paint contrasted both her eyes and her silver hair.
But it was the deep, deep shade of violet-red on her lips that drew his attention to her mouth and fixed it there.
He was stricken with the inexplicable need to kiss her. To feel those lips against his, to taste her.
His tail lashed behind him as heat surged through his body.
Fuck. He was worried about making it through the month? How was he going to make it through this day?