Ch. 38
“Wily”
I look at the wooden door and the metal doorknob. One I could burn to ash in a matter of seconds but warded… it becomes a frightening door of an impenetrable prison cell. Oana slips past me, and I see her eyeing the dirty red tainted floor. Iamys is close behind her. He meets me with a smile as he moves through the door.
I remain, still I can’t move. Cold now stinging along my skin.
That feeling is soon overpowered by warmth that is radiating off my hand…my hand that is in someone else’s.
I watch as he raises my hand in his to his lips.
Like I said, you will never be trapped again. You are always in control, and that is my bond.
His lips graze the tops of my knuckles. Warmth pulsing down my hand and pushing away any cold that still lingered. Shit.
I sense it before I noticed what is happening. Along a finger on the hand that rests in his, my middle finger to be exact, a rune, or what I am guessing is a rune, I have never seen one like it before, starts to form. On his same finger, on his right hand forms the same rune.
“Did you just?” The words fall out of me. My mouth falling next. Eyes wide. You do realize that you are in a clan, full of shapeshifters, highly trained scouts, and guards, one of the most powerful shapeshifters in the world, who you royally pissed off, you are currently mortal with have no powers, and you think you get to decide if I remain trapped in this place or not.
A single shadow dances around our feet before is dissolves back into him. Second most powerful shapeshifter, and I remember someone saying that they are not defined by their powers, and neither am I. He laces his fingers within mine. Now come on, I am curious what your room looks like.
He is pulling me along before I have a chance to say anything snarky back. Much like he did through the Tavern, he drags me along without another word. Warmth is all that I am feeling in my bones, my muscles, my cheeks. Oh, shit. I’m being buried in a hole, and I am not sure if I will be able to get out…But do I really want to? I threaten this man within an inch of his life, and still here he is, standing up to Mother, and coming to distract me from almost exploding the wing with an early winter. Fucking, Nyx.
But, what the actual fuck? He just gave me a bond. A fucking bond. A protection bond. A word, his word, that I would never be trapped again, trapped here… and I let it happen. I said nothing. Bond are an agreement between both parties. My mind spoke for me. Like…what? Better yet how? FUCKING NYX.
We pass the doorway. I close my eyes are we pass the red stained floor.
Breathe, little bat.
Breath in, breath out. I open my eyes with a deep sigh.
We walk down a hallway, at the end is a reading nook with a large bay window that leads to a small roof section where I have spent many sleepless nights, thankfully the wards reached past there. At the end of the hallway there are two rooms, one on the left and one on the right. Halfway down the hallway, a metal door with a lock on the handle sits. That can only be opened by me, and not one else. The beast room.
The room at end of the hallway on the left is a huge room filled with a piano that I could never master, an easel with many half-painted canvases, bookshelves filled with books, a couch and few chairs, and other things to fill my time while I was stuck in this wing. The room on the right is my bedroom that connect to a large bathing chamber.
I see Oana unloading her hoard of books on the table at the end of the hallway by the reading nook. Iamys doing the same. Oana starts shoveling through her books, laying them all out, deep in thought. Iamys watches her eagerly.
Zanir looks back at me as we pass the metal locked door, but I see his eyes change once they move to the wooden door behind us that starts to close. The claw marks carved deep into the wood. His cerulean eyes, the orange vanishes, and it is replaced with dark swirls, that are taking over and slaying the blue in his eyes.
His stare moves back to me, my face, eyeing everything. The line of my jawline. The curvature of my nose. The cheekbone that hide behind my full cheeks. The lavender that fills my irises. The scar that goes through my left eyebrow after falling…falling as a child…falling over…I can’t remember.
I shake my head motion to the room at the end of the hall on the right. I need to just get through this dinner, and then I can release, and my mind will be clear, or at least more than it is now.
Zanir stare lingers, studying, but he eventually turns back down the hall.
Am I really letting a mortal vampire man lead me into my room? Letting HIM lead me into my room? Like what is my life coming to? Luckly for Zanir he holds some powerful information and thank Nyx, Mother doesn’t know about the new powers growing inside me...yet.
Mother would have spited him on sight if she knew where we were going. I mean I am not taking a man back to my room to do naughty things or anything. Plus, I am an adult. I could do whatever I want. Even though it felt like the total opposite sometimes. Although I am not sure what I want right now…
I need a bath. Cleanse myself of all this, all these thoughts.
Once we pass the entrance of my room, Zanir releases my hand. I move past him and brush past him accidently and my shoulder grazing his chest. The shoulder that has ward burns that look like they are spreading like a sickness. The burns making my skin more sensitive. I can feel the muscles under his shirt as I pass. Warmth moves onto my shoulder and down my arm. Shit.
I let out a heavy sigh to divert myself and take in the sights of my room. Still how I left it almost a fortnight ago. The pillows and blankets on my bed are neatly made, a dark silk lays over the edges of the bed. The headboard of the bed connects to wood framing the top of the bed that has faint wisp lace. It always made me feel like a caterpillar in a cocoon, patient waiting to turn into a beautiful butterfly. To unleash myself into the world. Off in the corner of the room stands an armoire filled with dresses I would never wear, and clothes Devlyn gave me that I usually selected instead. Next to the armoire is a full-length mirror that I have stood by for hours questioning what was wrong with me before hitting it and breaking the mirror. It has been replaced many times.
The walls of my room are filled with sticks, leaves, flowers, plants, anything I found interesting, torn page out of books, and even letters Oana and I have written to each other. The room is faintly lite with a few torches, but a skylight above the bed brings most of the light into the room. Currently moonlight fills the room with hints of blue.
“Quite the collector.” Zanir says and I realize I haven’t heard his voice outside of my head since he spoke to Mother. It is rich and thick. Moving through the room like a gust, moving past me.
I look around the room again, before saying. “I didn’t get out much. When I did, I made sure to bring some stuff back to remember it by.”
Zanir moves past the bed to the side table where there is a bowl full of rocks and crystals. He touches one, tiger’s eye, Oana has told me. He picks in up and toss it between his hands.
“You should keep this one with you.” He toss it to me with such speed that I nearly drop it as it hits my palms.
“Why?”
“It is supposed to balance one’s soul, alleviate fear.”
“Okay, philosopher Zanir…” I says shoving the stone into my pocket next to locket I shoved in the same pocket earlier. His eyes flash to me. That flame is back, and it is dancing with the cerulean. I hold my stance, holding his exposing stare. “I’m going to my bathing chamber. Don’t break anything and be nice to my friends.”
He flops onto my bed kicking his feet up and throwing his head back on one of the pillows. He runs his fingers through his hickory hair, and I can tell he is biting the inside of his cheek. A subtle tell.
I walk over to him and push his boots off the dark silk covers.
“No boots on my bed, Zanir.”
His eyes flash with orange, the blue is almost completely gone from his eyes. The flames are taking over.
I would suggest you go get in your bath.
Or what?
He slowly sits up on the bed. His flaming eyes never breaking from me. I know what I am doing. I am not sure why I am doing it though. But I can’t stop…I don’t want to…but I should…but I don’t. I remember that look in his eyes when I first said his name out loud, and here it is again. Another subtle bit to his cheek.
Don’t want it to get cold.
I scuff and start to make my way to my bath chambers. I feel a tug on my wrist.
You are playing a dangerous game, little bat.
With my free hand I reaches up and running my hand through his hair. I have to stand on my tippy toes to do it. He is so fucking tall. His hair is like the silk that lays on my bed which is surprising with the last few days we have had. I have to stop myself because the feeling to keep touching it, touching him, sends warmth all across my skin. His eyes are ablaze, and I can feel the heat coming from his hand on my wrist. I will have fingermarks for sure. Long sleeves it is tonight. Focus.
My lavender eyes narrow, and a smile creeps on to my face. I take a deep breath and wind swirls around us and some paper flutters across the room. The wind moves past his hair, blowing it exactly how I wanted. It moves past his ears. His pointed ears.
So are you. I grip the back of his hair, push his head down, making him look down at me, fully. I smile before letting him go. He loosens his grip on my wrist.
Oh, little bat. Game on.
His eyes are raging, but a smile moves across his teeth.
Be prepared to lose. I say while quickly, but confidently hurrying to the bath chamber leaving him standing by my bed. A using my wind to shut the door with force that make the wood shake in the doorframe.
Holy, fucking, shit.
Ch. 38
“Wily”
I look at the wooden door and the metal doorknob. One I could burn to ash in a matter of seconds but warded… it becomes a frightening door of an impenetrable prison cell. Oana slips past me, and I see her eyeing the dirty red tainted floor. Iamys is close behind her. He meets me with a smile as he moves through the door.
I remain, still I can’t move. Cold now stinging along my skin.
That feeling is soon overpowered by warmth that is radiating off my hand…my hand that is in someone else’s.
I watch as he raises my hand in his to his lips.
Like I said, you will never be trapped again. You are always in control, and that is my bond.
His lips graze the tops of my knuckles. Warmth pulsing down my hand and pushing away any cold that still lingered. Shit.
I sense it before I noticed what is happening. Along a finger on the hand that rests in his, my middle finger to be exact, a rune, or what I am guessing is a rune, I have never seen one like it before, starts to form. On his same finger, on his right hand forms the same rune.
“Did you just?” The words fall out of me. My mouth falling next. Eyes wide. You do realize that you are in a clan, full of shapeshifters, highly trained scouts, and guards, one of the most powerful shapeshifters in the world, who you royally pissed off, you are currently mortal with have no powers, and you think you get to decide if I remain trapped in this place or not.
A single shadow dances around our feet before is dissolves back into him. Second most powerful shapeshifter, and I remember someone saying that they are not defined by their powers, and neither am I. He laces his fingers within mine. Now come on, I am curious what your room looks like.
He is pulling me along before I have a chance to say anything snarky back. Much like he did through the Tavern, he drags me along without another word. Warmth is all that I am feeling in my bones, my muscles, my cheeks. Oh, shit. I’m being buried in a hole, and I am not sure if I will be able to get out…But do I really want to? I threaten this man within an inch of his life, and still here he is, standing up to Mother, and coming to distract me from almost exploding the wing with an early winter. Fucking, Nyx.
But, what the actual fuck? He just gave me a bond. A fucking bond. A protection bond. A word, his word, that I would never be trapped again, trapped here… and I let it happen. I said nothing. Bond are an agreement between both parties. My mind spoke for me. Like…what? Better yet how? FUCKING NYX.
We pass the doorway. I close my eyes are we pass the red stained floor.
Breathe, little bat.
Breath in, breath out. I open my eyes with a deep sigh.
We walk down a hallway, at the end is a reading nook with a large bay window that leads to a small roof section where I have spent many sleepless nights, thankfully the wards reached past there. At the end of the hallway there are two rooms, one on the left and one on the right. Halfway down the hallway, a metal door with a lock on the handle sits. That can only be opened by me, and not one else. The beast room.
The room at end of the hallway on the left is a huge room filled with a piano that I could never master, an easel with many half-painted canvases, bookshelves filled with books, a couch and few chairs, and other things to fill my time while I was stuck in this wing. The room on the right is my bedroom that connect to a large bathing chamber.
I see Oana unloading her hoard of books on the table at the end of the hallway by the reading nook. Iamys doing the same. Oana starts shoveling through her books, laying them all out, deep in thought. Iamys watches her eagerly.
Zanir looks back at me as we pass the metal locked door, but I see his eyes change once they move to the wooden door behind us that starts to close. The claw marks carved deep into the wood. His cerulean eyes, the orange vanishes, and it is replaced with dark swirls, that are taking over and slaying the blue in his eyes.
His stare moves back to me, my face, eyeing everything. The line of my jawline. The curvature of my nose. The cheekbone that hide behind my full cheeks. The lavender that fills my irises. The scar that goes through my left eyebrow after falling…falling as a child…falling over…I can’t remember.
I shake my head motion to the room at the end of the hall on the right. I need to just get through this dinner, and then I can release, and my mind will be clear, or at least more than it is now.
Zanir stare lingers, studying, but he eventually turns back down the hall.
Am I really letting a mortal vampire man lead me into my room? Letting HIM lead me into my room? Like what is my life coming to? Luckly for Zanir he holds some powerful information and thank Nyx, Mother doesn’t know about the new powers growing inside me...yet.
Mother would have spited him on sight if she knew where we were going. I mean I am not taking a man back to my room to do naughty things or anything. Plus, I am an adult. I could do whatever I want. Even though it felt like the total opposite sometimes. Although I am not sure what I want right now…
I need a bath. Cleanse myself of all this, all these thoughts.
Once we pass the entrance of my room, Zanir releases my hand. I move past him and brush past him accidently and my shoulder grazing his chest. The shoulder that has ward burns that look like they are spreading like a sickness. The burns making my skin more sensitive. I can feel the muscles under his shirt as I pass. Warmth moves onto my shoulder and down my arm. Shit.
I let out a heavy sigh to divert myself and take in the sights of my room. Still how I left it almost a fortnight ago. The pillows and blankets on my bed are neatly made, a dark silk lays over the edges of the bed. The headboard of the bed connects to wood framing the top of the bed that has faint wisp lace. It always made me feel like a caterpillar in a cocoon, patient waiting to turn into a beautiful butterfly. To unleash myself into the world. Off in the corner of the room stands an armoire filled with dresses I would never wear, and clothes Devlyn gave me that I usually selected instead. Next to the armoire is a full-length mirror that I have stood by for hours questioning what was wrong with me before hitting it and breaking the mirror. It has been replaced many times.
The walls of my room are filled with sticks, leaves, flowers, plants, anything I found interesting, torn page out of books, and even letters Oana and I have written to each other. The room is faintly lite with a few torches, but a skylight above the bed brings most of the light into the room. Currently moonlight fills the room with hints of blue.
“Quite the collector.” Zanir says and I realize I haven’t heard his voice outside of my head since he spoke to Mother. It is rich and thick. Moving through the room like a gust, moving past me.
I look around the room again, before saying. “I didn’t get out much. When I did, I made sure to bring some stuff back to remember it by.”
Zanir moves past the bed to the side table where there is a bowl full of rocks and crystals. He touches one, tiger’s eye, Oana has told me. He picks in up and toss it between his hands.
“You should keep this one with you.” He toss it to me with such speed that I nearly drop it as it hits my palms.
“Why?”
“It is supposed to balance one’s soul, alleviate fear.”
“Okay, philosopher Zanir…” I says shoving the stone into my pocket next to locket I shoved in the same pocket earlier. His eyes flash to me. That flame is back, and it is dancing with the cerulean. I hold my stance, holding his exposing stare. “I’m going to my bathing chamber. Don’t break anything and be nice to my friends.”
He flops onto my bed kicking his feet up and throwing his head back on one of the pillows. He runs his fingers through his hickory hair, and I can tell he is biting the inside of his cheek. A subtle tell.
I walk over to him and push his boots off the dark silk covers.
“No boots on my bed, Zanir.”
His eyes flash with orange, the blue is almost completely gone from his eyes. The flames are taking over.
I would suggest you go get in your bath.
Or what?
He slowly sits up on the bed. His flaming eyes never breaking from me. I know what I am doing. I am not sure why I am doing it though. But I can’t stop…I don’t want to…but I should…but I don’t. I remember that look in his eyes when I first said his name out loud, and here it is again. Another subtle bit to his cheek.
Don’t want it to get cold.
I scuff and start to make my way to my bath chambers. I feel a tug on my wrist.
You are playing a dangerous game, little bat.
With my free hand I reaches up and running my hand through his hair. I have to stand on my tippy toes to do it. He is so fucking tall. His hair is like the silk that lays on my bed which is surprising with the last few days we have had. I have to stop myself because the feeling to keep touching it, touching him, sends warmth all across my skin. His eyes are ablaze, and I can feel the heat coming from his hand on my wrist. I will have fingermarks for sure. Long sleeves it is tonight. Focus.
My lavender eyes narrow, and a smile creeps on to my face. I take a deep breath and wind swirls around us and some paper flutters across the room. The wind moves past his hair, blowing it exactly how I wanted. It moves past his ears. His pointed ears.
So are you. I grip the back of his hair, push his head down, making him look down at me, fully. I smile before letting him go. He loosens his grip on my wrist.
Oh, little bat. Game on.
His eyes are raging, but a smile moves across his teeth.
Be prepared to lose. I say while quickly, but confidently hurrying to the bath chamber leaving him standing by my bed. A using my wind to shut the door with force that make the wood shake in the doorframe.
Holy, fucking, shit.
