Chapter 64: 64
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Even in this game of love and hate, of death and lies, right from the very first time the council spoke their ill will about the creatures who stalked the darkness like unholy shadows outside our borders of our clan, I have always known a warning has never been enough to stop for me.
And it never will be.
I grin at Soren, eyes gleaming nefariously as I take a hold of his collar and pull him towards me with a daring boldness whose only likeness is that of the Scarlet Prince himself. Adrenaline flies through me, pulsing in my veins like lava in the molten heart of a volcano, boiling in my blood: the thrill of playing with fire and not getting burnt. Despite being in the palace of the dead, a place where lifeless bodies dance with anguished hearts and serpentine smiles long into the night under the grey parlour of the satin moon, it occurs to me that I have never felt more… alive.
"And where would be the fun in killing you? Who am I supposed to mess with when you are gone?" I smirk broadly, wiggling my eyebrows as I tighten my grip on his collar, and suddenly I realise it is true. I don't want to kill him. And maybe after all this time, I never really did.
Perhaps I have fallen for his trap.
"But who is to say you don't want to kill me?" I retort, taking a comically large step back and folding my arms across myself now, pursing my lips in mock sternness. The look of glaring disbelief on Soren's face is priceless. He drops his hand from my chin. A small portion of anger drains from his eyes as though sand in an hourglass, leaving in its place a shimmering, luminous gold, heavy with the tones of bereavement.
"I do not want to kill you," comes his faintly whispered reply, so soft that the words seem to be barely there. The now gentle nature of his voice catches me off guard, and I almost have to do a double take, unprepared for the sudden change in tone.
The room darkens a fraction. I peer at him cautiously.
Yet, I think carefully to myself, there is something is his voice, in the insurmountable earnesty in the way he whispers those words and tender fondness of his tone that sets my heart alight with a fiery spark, burning itself into my skin.
And that spark, that shock of enamoured joy that catches in my breath, swirls in the beating of my heart and the rush of blood through my veins like the coming of spring on the eve of winter, consuming me in its unyielding ferocity. And all at once, I find I cannot let the feeling go.
My heart pounds. My face reddens.
Something softens in his face a little. Yes, I think, he must see it in me. That fire, that spark.
I catch murmurs of my name on his lips, so low I can barely hear it. He moves a finger to run across my lips in the brazen and brash manner a vampire might, lingering on the swell of my lower lip. I shudder. His lips are parted but barely breathing, pupils wide, as though behind his eyes his mind is running, fast and quick, the mind of a predator, of a creature well seasoned with the knowledge of attraction. I can almost see the cogs turning in his brain.
And then the instinctive vampire nature kicks into his body, driving through him as he pushes me firmly backwards. My back bumps against the wall and my pulse quickens further, driving the rush of adrenaline through me like a poison shot to the heart.
"You wanted to know," he says, unusually breathlessly, sliding a daring hand down to my waist. "How the souls tied in with you. How you connected with them."
I nod slowly, my heart sky-rocketing as his hand slides further down, brushing delicately over my thighs to induce a heavy shiver coursing through my body.
"S-Soren," I stammer, but he only purrs in a gloriously ardent delight. And perhaps I would have called him a hedonistic vampire, that is, if I hadn't been enjoying it too. Maybe that makes me a traitor, but I find as I lean closer into him, the soft motion of his hands gliding smoothly over my body, that I don't care.
"You know there are five souls" he murmurs, "Mind, Body, Heaven, Hell and death." he says, punctuating each word with a rising tap of his fingers up my thighs. My face reddens impossibly further. Silently, I curse myself.
"These souls, as you know, are fated. There are parts of their lives that no matter what, no matter who they reincarnate to, will forever remain the same, repeating over time for ages long to pass." I try to focus on what he is saying, on the meaning of the words coming out of his mouth, but my mind is blurry and heavy with the beginnings of lust, pinpointed at the creeping hands on my thighs. I can barely talk, let alone think.
Stupid brain.
"Two of the souls are a pair, twinned opposites, lovers if you will," he continues, curling his fingers past my cheek with an amorous fondness. "Can you guess which ones?"
His eyes are steady, trained on me, yet long gone is that vast brutality and wickedness, instead seeming to hold the tender affection- like of a lover to his mate. It is a look I have never seen on him before. Peculiar to the extent it is almost jarring. In all my time in the palace I have been used to cold stares, lusty gazes and the angry red glare that boils in the cauldron of his eyes, a flaming pit of authority and despise.
I thought once before that he would make an excellent lover. Now I am almost certain.
"The souls of heaven and hell," I whisper under my breath, so low that any moral would not have heard the faint whispers pronounced from my lips. "They are opposites."
He nods.
"When I met you in the Great Forest the first time, I felt it then,"
"Felt what? I press tentatively. The lanterns above us flicker as something wells in my chest, that flame, that spark blossoming inside me like a rose in the spring- fresh and renewed. Soren smiles knowingly, flashing a feline grin.
"I was going to kill you before it happened. I came out there to feed, not to fall in love. It is almost silly, really, to think about it. Then I felt... the bond snap into place. The mating link."
"The mating link?" I ask, not realising quite how close my face has gotten to his. So close that I can feel the icy chills of his breath upon my cheek; the golden glow smouldering like embers in the depths of his eyes.
The mating link was something that had been mentioned before- by Azrael. I frown. Azrael. I don't want to think about him right now.
"A mating link is a rare bond," Soren explains slowly, trailing a finger below my ribs in slow, lazy circles. "Its ancient magic: connecting the partners in mind and soul. You know when it has formed- the experience is… illustrious. As though your entire being has been set ablaze by some monumental force, consumed by an unquenchable love. No one can control it, the bond simply…" he fumbles for the words for a second. "Snaps into place." He clicks his fingers to demonstrate. The snap resounds through the room.
"The fate of the heaven and hell soul is to share this link, to be joined as lovers from lifetime to lifetime. I am host to the soul of hell. I'm sure you have already realised what that makes you." Gently, very gently for a vampire, he loops his hands around my waist and draws me into him, pressing my abdomen against his firmly. His hands grip onto my lower back, possessive and claiming. Heat courses through my body. My face flushes.
"Is that how you managed to get into my mind? Talk in my head? It was because of the bond?" I ask, voice rising from a mixture of embarrassment and breathlessness. Soren cocks an eyebrow.
Like this? He asks in my head, and I frown, knocking his arm lightly with my fist.
"Yes like that," I grumble, but not entirely displeased. I had always thought that was a vampire thing, something that enabled vampires to get into my head, so knowing it is just Soren certainly alleviates a fair few of my worries. Seeing the frown on my face, Soren curls his arms around me tighter and presses his lips to my cheek tenderly- so gentle- as if fearful his touch may send me scattering into the abyss.
"I have lived for hundreds of years with nothing but the coldness of death and the sickly sins of blood. I was feared, and loved, but never felt that love for myself. I am the monster who has killed thousands, who loses control to the hunger and the lust that drives my being. Yet you... you are so pure, so good. At first I hated myself for it, for the feeling of being so vulnerable, so willing to do anything for someone. I didn't know what to do with the feelings. And it made me angry. At first I tried to escape those feelings, surround myself with women, with distractions, with hunting. I have drained so many creatures these past few weeks out of unadulterated frustration it would be enough to earn myself the title of Scarlet Prince all over again." He inclines his head a little, hands pressing me further into himself, as though he is struggling to get enough. To feel everything. He swallows hard.
"But for the first time in my immortal life, I have found someone I am willing to die for."
As I rise up on my toes, drawing myself level to him, I find that any thoughts of fate or souls slip from my mind, replaced by one fatal, all consuming thought.
"Prove it."
That is all Soren has been waiting for.
His lips crash onto mine.
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Even in this game of love and hate, of death and lies, right from the very first time the council spoke their ill will about the creatures who stalked the darkness like unholy shadows outside our borders of our clan, I have always known a warning has never been enough to stop for me.
And it never will be.
I grin at Soren, eyes gleaming nefariously as I take a hold of his collar and pull him towards me with a daring boldness whose only likeness is that of the Scarlet Prince himself. Adrenaline flies through me, pulsing in my veins like lava in the molten heart of a volcano, boiling in my blood: the thrill of playing with fire and not getting burnt. Despite being in the palace of the dead, a place where lifeless bodies dance with anguished hearts and serpentine smiles long into the night under the grey parlour of the satin moon, it occurs to me that I have never felt more… alive.
"And where would be the fun in killing you? Who am I supposed to mess with when you are gone?" I smirk broadly, wiggling my eyebrows as I tighten my grip on his collar, and suddenly I realise it is true. I don't want to kill him. And maybe after all this time, I never really did.
Perhaps I have fallen for his trap.
"But who is to say you don't want to kill me?" I retort, taking a comically large step back and folding my arms across myself now, pursing my lips in mock sternness. The look of glaring disbelief on Soren's face is priceless. He drops his hand from my chin. A small portion of anger drains from his eyes as though sand in an hourglass, leaving in its place a shimmering, luminous gold, heavy with the tones of bereavement.
"I do not want to kill you," comes his faintly whispered reply, so soft that the words seem to be barely there. The now gentle nature of his voice catches me off guard, and I almost have to do a double take, unprepared for the sudden change in tone.
The room darkens a fraction. I peer at him cautiously.
Yet, I think carefully to myself, there is something is his voice, in the insurmountable earnesty in the way he whispers those words and tender fondness of his tone that sets my heart alight with a fiery spark, burning itself into my skin.
And that spark, that shock of enamoured joy that catches in my breath, swirls in the beating of my heart and the rush of blood through my veins like the coming of spring on the eve of winter, consuming me in its unyielding ferocity. And all at once, I find I cannot let the feeling go.
My heart pounds. My face reddens.
Something softens in his face a little. Yes, I think, he must see it in me. That fire, that spark.
I catch murmurs of my name on his lips, so low I can barely hear it. He moves a finger to run across my lips in the brazen and brash manner a vampire might, lingering on the swell of my lower lip. I shudder. His lips are parted but barely breathing, pupils wide, as though behind his eyes his mind is running, fast and quick, the mind of a predator, of a creature well seasoned with the knowledge of attraction. I can almost see the cogs turning in his brain.
And then the instinctive vampire nature kicks into his body, driving through him as he pushes me firmly backwards. My back bumps against the wall and my pulse quickens further, driving the rush of adrenaline through me like a poison shot to the heart.
"You wanted to know," he says, unusually breathlessly, sliding a daring hand down to my waist. "How the souls tied in with you. How you connected with them."
I nod slowly, my heart sky-rocketing as his hand slides further down, brushing delicately over my thighs to induce a heavy shiver coursing through my body.
"S-Soren," I stammer, but he only purrs in a gloriously ardent delight. And perhaps I would have called him a hedonistic vampire, that is, if I hadn't been enjoying it too. Maybe that makes me a traitor, but I find as I lean closer into him, the soft motion of his hands gliding smoothly over my body, that I don't care.
"You know there are five souls" he murmurs, "Mind, Body, Heaven, Hell and death." he says, punctuating each word with a rising tap of his fingers up my thighs. My face reddens impossibly further. Silently, I curse myself.
"These souls, as you know, are fated. There are parts of their lives that no matter what, no matter who they reincarnate to, will forever remain the same, repeating over time for ages long to pass." I try to focus on what he is saying, on the meaning of the words coming out of his mouth, but my mind is blurry and heavy with the beginnings of lust, pinpointed at the creeping hands on my thighs. I can barely talk, let alone think.
Stupid brain.
"Two of the souls are a pair, twinned opposites, lovers if you will," he continues, curling his fingers past my cheek with an amorous fondness. "Can you guess which ones?"
His eyes are steady, trained on me, yet long gone is that vast brutality and wickedness, instead seeming to hold the tender affection- like of a lover to his mate. It is a look I have never seen on him before. Peculiar to the extent it is almost jarring. In all my time in the palace I have been used to cold stares, lusty gazes and the angry red glare that boils in the cauldron of his eyes, a flaming pit of authority and despise.
I thought once before that he would make an excellent lover. Now I am almost certain.
"The souls of heaven and hell," I whisper under my breath, so low that any moral would not have heard the faint whispers pronounced from my lips. "They are opposites."
He nods.
"When I met you in the Great Forest the first time, I felt it then,"
"Felt what? I press tentatively. The lanterns above us flicker as something wells in my chest, that flame, that spark blossoming inside me like a rose in the spring- fresh and renewed. Soren smiles knowingly, flashing a feline grin.
"I was going to kill you before it happened. I came out there to feed, not to fall in love. It is almost silly, really, to think about it. Then I felt... the bond snap into place. The mating link."
"The mating link?" I ask, not realising quite how close my face has gotten to his. So close that I can feel the icy chills of his breath upon my cheek; the golden glow smouldering like embers in the depths of his eyes.
The mating link was something that had been mentioned before- by Azrael. I frown. Azrael. I don't want to think about him right now.
"A mating link is a rare bond," Soren explains slowly, trailing a finger below my ribs in slow, lazy circles. "Its ancient magic: connecting the partners in mind and soul. You know when it has formed- the experience is… illustrious. As though your entire being has been set ablaze by some monumental force, consumed by an unquenchable love. No one can control it, the bond simply…" he fumbles for the words for a second. "Snaps into place." He clicks his fingers to demonstrate. The snap resounds through the room.
"The fate of the heaven and hell soul is to share this link, to be joined as lovers from lifetime to lifetime. I am host to the soul of hell. I'm sure you have already realised what that makes you." Gently, very gently for a vampire, he loops his hands around my waist and draws me into him, pressing my abdomen against his firmly. His hands grip onto my lower back, possessive and claiming. Heat courses through my body. My face flushes.
"Is that how you managed to get into my mind? Talk in my head? It was because of the bond?" I ask, voice rising from a mixture of embarrassment and breathlessness. Soren cocks an eyebrow.
Like this? He asks in my head, and I frown, knocking his arm lightly with my fist.
"Yes like that," I grumble, but not entirely displeased. I had always thought that was a vampire thing, something that enabled vampires to get into my head, so knowing it is just Soren certainly alleviates a fair few of my worries. Seeing the frown on my face, Soren curls his arms around me tighter and presses his lips to my cheek tenderly- so gentle- as if fearful his touch may send me scattering into the abyss.
"I have lived for hundreds of years with nothing but the coldness of death and the sickly sins of blood. I was feared, and loved, but never felt that love for myself. I am the monster who has killed thousands, who loses control to the hunger and the lust that drives my being. Yet you... you are so pure, so good. At first I hated myself for it, for the feeling of being so vulnerable, so willing to do anything for someone. I didn't know what to do with the feelings. And it made me angry. At first I tried to escape those feelings, surround myself with women, with distractions, with hunting. I have drained so many creatures these past few weeks out of unadulterated frustration it would be enough to earn myself the title of Scarlet Prince all over again." He inclines his head a little, hands pressing me further into himself, as though he is struggling to get enough. To feel everything. He swallows hard.
"But for the first time in my immortal life, I have found someone I am willing to die for."
As I rise up on my toes, drawing myself level to him, I find that any thoughts of fate or souls slip from my mind, replaced by one fatal, all consuming thought.
"Prove it."
That is all Soren has been waiting for.
His lips crash onto mine.
Even in this game of love and hate, of death and lies, right from the very first time the council spoke their ill will about the creatures who stalked the darkness like unholy shadows outside our borders of our clan, I have always known a warning has never been enough to stop for me. And it never will be.I grin at Soren, eyes gleaming nefariously as I take a hold of his collar and pull him towards me with a daring boldness whose only likeness is that of the Scarlet Prince himself. Adrenaline flies through me, pulsing in my veins like lava in the molten heart of a volcano, boiling in my blood: the thrill of playing with fire and not getting burnt. Despite being in the palace of the dead, a place where lifeless bodies dance with anguished hearts and serpentine smiles long into the night under the grey parlour of the satin moon, it occurs to me that I have never felt more alive. "And where would be the fun in killing you? Who am I supposed to mess with when you are gone?" I smirk broadly, wiggling my eyebrows as I tighten my grip on his collar, and suddenly I realise it is true. I don't want to kill him. And maybe after all this time, I never really did.Perhaps I have fallen for his trap."But who is to say you don't want to kill me?" I retort, taking a comically large step back and folding my arms across myself now, pursing my lips in mock sternness. The look of glaring disbelief on Soren's face is priceless. He drops his hand from my chin. A small portion of anger drains from his eyes as though sand in an hourglass, leaving in its place a shimmering, luminous gold, heavy with the tones of bereavement."I do not want to kill you," comes his faintly whispered reply, so soft that the words seem to be barely there. The now gentle nature of his voice catches me off guard, and I almost have to do a double take, unprepared for the sudden change in tone.The room darkens a fraction. I peer at him cautiously.Yet, I think carefully to myself, there is something is his voice, in the insurmountable earnesty in the way he whispers those words and tender fondness of his tone that sets my heart alight with a fiery spark, burning itself into my skin.And that spark, that shock of enamoured joy that catches in my breath, swirls in the beating of my heart and the rush of blood through my veins like the coming of spring on the eve of winter, consuming me in its unyielding ferocity. And all at once, I find I cannot let the feeling go.My heart pounds. My face reddens.Something softens in his face a little. Yes, I think, he must see it in me. That fire, that spark. I catch murmurs of my name on his lips, so low I can barely hear it. He moves a finger to run across my lips in the brazen and brash manner a vampire might, lingering on the swell of my lower lip. I shudder. His lips are parted but barely breathing, pupils wide, as though behind his eyes his mind is running, fast and quick, the mind of a predator, of a creature well seasoned with the knowledge of attraction. I can almost see the cogs turning in his brain. And then the instinctive vampire nature kicks into his body, driving through him as he pushes me firmly backwards. My back bumps against the wall and my pulse quickens further, driving the rush of adrenaline through me like a poison shot to the heart."You wanted to know," he says, unusually breathlessly, sliding a daring hand down to my waist. "How the souls tied in with you. How you connected with them."I nod slowly, my heart sky-rocketing as his hand slides further down, brushing delicately over my thighs to induce a heavy shiver coursing through my body. "S-Soren," I stammer, but he only purrs in a gloriously ardent delight. And perhaps I would have called him a hedonistic vampire, that is, if I hadn't been enjoying it too. Maybe that makes me a traitor, but I find as I lean closer into him, the soft motion of his hands gliding smoothly over my body, that I don't care."You know there are five souls" he murmurs, "Mind, Body, Heaven, Hell and death." he says, punctuating each word with a rising tap of his fingers up my thighs. My face reddens impossibly further. Silently, I curse myself."These souls, as you know, are fated. There are parts of their lives that no matter what, no matter who they reincarnate to, will forever remain the same, repeating over time for ages long to pass." I try to focus on what he is saying, on the meaning of the words coming out of his mouth, but my mind is blurry and heavy with the beginnings of lust, pinpointed at the creeping hands on my thighs. I can barely talk, let alone think.Stupid brain."Two of the souls are a pair, twinned opposites, lovers if you will," he continues, curling his fingers past my cheek with an amorous fondness. "Can you guess which ones?" His eyes are steady, trained on me, yet long gone is that vast brutality and wickedness, instead seeming to hold the tender affection- like of a lover to his mate. It is a look I have never seen on him before. Peculiar to the extent it is almost jarring. In all my time in the palace I have been used to cold stares, lusty gazes and the angry red glare that boils in the cauldron of his eyes, a flaming pit of authority and despise.I thought once before that he would make an excellent lover. Now I am almost certain. "The souls of heaven and hell," I whisper under my breath, so low that any moral would not have heard the faint whispers pronounced from my lips. "They are opposites."He nods."When I met you in the Great Forest the first time, I felt it then,""Felt what? I press tentatively. The lanterns above us flicker as something wells in my chest, that flame, that spark blossoming inside me like a rose in the spring- fresh and renewed. Soren smiles knowingly, flashing a feline grin."I was going to kill you before it happened. I came out there to feed, not to fall in love. It is almost silly, really, to think about it. Then I felt... the bond snap into place. The mating link.""The mating link?" I ask, not realising quite how close my face has gotten to his. So close that I can feel the icy chills of his breath upon my cheek; the golden glow smouldering like embers in the depths of his eyes. The mating link was something that had been mentioned before- by Azrael. I frown. Azrael. I don't want to think about him right now. "A mating link is a rare bond," Soren explains slowly, trailing a finger below my ribs in slow, lazy circles. "Its ancient magic: connecting the partners in mind and soul. You know when it has formed- the experience is illustrious. As though your entire being has been set ablaze by some monumental force, consumed by an unquenchable love. No one can control it, the bond simply" he fumbles for the words for a second. "Snaps into place." He clicks his fingers to demonstrate. The snap resounds through the room. "The fate of the heaven and hell soul is to share this link, to be joined as lovers from lifetime to lifetime. I am host to the soul of hell. I'm sure you have already realised what that makes you." Gently, very gently for a vampire, he loops his hands around my waist and draws me into him, pressing my abdomen against his firmly. His hands grip onto my lower back, possessive and claiming. Heat courses through my body. My face flushes."Is that how you managed to get into my mind? Talk in my head? It was because of the bond?" I ask, voice rising from a mixture of embarrassment and breathlessness. Soren cocks an eyebrow.Like this? He asks in my head, and I frown, knocking his arm lightly with my fist."Yes like that," I grumble, but not entirely displeased. I had always thought that was a vampire thing, something that enabled vampires to get into my head, so knowing it is just Soren certainly alleviates a fair few of my worries. Seeing the frown on my face, Soren curls his arms around me tighter and presses his lips to my cheek tenderly- so gentle- as if fearful his touch may send me scattering into the abyss."I have lived for hundreds of years with nothing but the coldness of death and the sickly sins of blood. I was feared, and loved, but never felt that love for myself. I am the monster who has killed thousands, who loses control to the hunger and the lust that drives my being. Yet you... you are so pure, so good. At first I hated myself for it, for the feeling of being so vulnerable, so willing to do anything for someone. I didn't know what to do with the feelings. And it made me angry. At first I tried to escape those feelings, surround myself with women, with distractions, with hunting. I have drained so many creatures these past few weeks out of unadulterated frustration it would be enough to earn myself the title of Scarlet Prince all over again." He inclines his head a little, hands pressing me further into himself, as though he is struggling to get enough. To feel everything. He swallows hard. "But for the first time in my immortal life, I have found someone I am willing to die for." As I rise up on my toes, drawing myself level to him, I find that any thoughts of fate or souls slip from my mind, replaced by one fatal, all consuming thought. "Prove it."That is all Soren has been waiting for. His lips crash onto mine.
