4
The world around them spins for a moment to stop spinning in a location similar to the last, the differences being that there is no Kail, nor the threat from the unknown attackers. Anisa bites her lip softly, tightly wrapping her arms around herself.
“Mom sure is convincing… In that brief moment… I saw what he saw… heard what he heard… when my mother walked in, holding my ruined crown… he was devastated…”
“I bet. She’s very good at tricking people when she wants to.” Shan sets the bag on the bed and opens it. Wiping the tears from her face she looks at the bag.
“What’s that?”
“Our stuff…” he pulls out two big boxes, one marked with her mother’s writing, the other an unknown hand.
“Oh… Duh… totally knew that…” she sniffles softly and clears her throat “So umm… I think I heard you say something about training earlier…? What kind of training..?”
“My kind, but it can wait, you’re a mess and I need to treat a few cuts.”
“Fine… Do you mind if I take a shower? Or do you call dibs on the bathroom?” she smiles softly in an attempt to make a joke.
“I think we can share.” He winks, the little remainders of his clothes threatening to fall off at any moment
“Tempting but no thanks.” she walks to the window, looking out “You go on ahead…”
“Too bad.” He chuckles, wraps an arm around her, dragging her with him into the changing room of the bathroom, and shuts the door behind them.
“Why are you so damned insistent on this?? Don’t you know the consequence????”
“Of having a good time and enjoying oneself? Not really.” He chuckles and slides a door closed between the bath and the changing room. She growls threateningly, crossing her arms over her chest. “Relax young one, if I really wanted to make a move on you I’d be a little less direct.”
“Quit calling me that! I’m not a child!”
He chuckles and turns the water on “If you want to join then you may. If not then you can take care of a few things out there then get in once I leave.”
She curses him under her breath, sitting down as far from him as she can get.
“Suit yourself.” Water splashes about and shortly he walks through the door with nothing but a towel around his waist, deep cuts marring the sculpted build he had before they had run.
“Stop…” she walks up to him, her fingers gently touching the cuts “Do… Do you want help….? Bandaging these…?”
“You want to help? I would like it, but I honestly wasn’t expecting you to offer, I’m touched…” He smiles sweetly at her, every inch of him relaxing at her touch.
“Easy tough guy… Don’t turn into a teddy bear on me now… I’m just… worried that you won’t disinfect these and they’ll really get nasty… If that happens then I’d have to clean puss and dirt and crap out of them for days on end… not to mention the smell… So really I’m saving myself trouble later by doing this now…” she smiles softly back at him “I’ll clean them when you’re finished, ok?”
“I think it’s safe to say I’m out.” He winks at her playfully.
“Fast shower…” She shakes her head softly, gently pushing him towards a chair “sit. I’ll see what I can do…” she rummages through the box with her mother’s handwriting on it, pulling out a clear bottle of brown liquid. Then she goes to the cabinet and looks until she finds several bandages, some peroxide, and a tube of triple antibiotic ointment “I’m not gonna lie to you… This stuff will sting like fire…” she sets the supplies on the little table that appears beside him and then grabs a needle “But I promise that’s the only pain you’ll feel. Ready?”
“Born for it.” He relaxes and stays still for her to work on him.
“Alright… Just… Hold still…” she gets a rag and holds it against the edge of each of his cuts, pouring peroxide in them. Then she takes the bottle and opens it, using the applicator attached to the lid to apply the brown liquid to his skin, smoke rises from his cuts when she applies it, quickly she takes the needle and, using a red string that seems to have appeared from nowhere, she stitches up his cuts. The string instantly dissolves into his skin as it flawlessly comes together, looking like there were never any cuts to begin with. She sighs softly “All done…”
“Thank you. Now, is there any way I can repay you?” He asks, grinning softly, his arms sliding around her waist.
Thinking for a minute she says “Don’t hit on me… Unless you mean it…” getting up she shuts the door between the bath and the changing room, leaving her clothes on the floor.
“What would you like me to do to mean it then?” He chuckles softly, standing by the door.
“You should already know the answer to that question… Would you hand me a towel please?” She leans her head out to look at him, her hair dripping water on the floor
“Maybe you should come get it from me.” He winks playfully and steps back, holding the last clean towel behind his back “Come on Anisa.”
Anisa grins softly “Hand it over… Or the panther behind you rips your head off…” Anisa softly lowers her head in acknowledgement to her mother’s familiar “How’d you find me Spook?”
“The stench of this one could not hide your perfect blood, daughter of Caroline, Mistress of The Darke.”
“You know I resent being called that Spook, I’m as pure in my blood as your mistress, and you know it. And he found us because I let him, otherwise he’d be floating in space.” He hands her the towel and walks off, steam raising from his shoulders as the last drops of water boil away.
She wraps the towel around herself, smiling broadly “You’re such a good boy Spook… So what’d you bring me?”
“A letter… From her highness, stating that your father knows your alive and well. Also reminding you what’s at stake, why you can’t choose him, why you shouldn’t mate with him and more of that… Also the council believes that your father is no longer fit to lead. Your mother has given me her permission to speak to you freely about my opinions, if I may?”
“Of course Spook” Spook shifts into human form, his hair jet black and his eyes sparkling pools of emerald green.
“Miss… I believe that you have two options… Either way you must marry and bring an alliance to the peoples… the obvious choice was Kail, but you dishonored that when you wiped his memory. Lady, that leaves your new ‘friend’… And if you want to save that relationship I suggest you get in there and calm him down. Reapers, especially Draconian Reapers, have very bad tempers. So be careful, and choose wisely… I will return in three days for your decision” with that, Spook disappears into the shadows. Anisa, still wrapped in only the towel, goes back into the bedroom in search of Shan.
He paces the porch, roaring into the night, the stars, blinking in and out wildly, as if frightened or wooed by the sound.
She stands in the doorway, illuminated by the light from inside, although her face is in shadows, concern pours out in her voice “Shan…? Please come back inside…?”
“Ok…” he turns to come back in, the stars all dim slightly as he moves from sight.
“Shan… Spook has a twisted sense of humor… I’m sorry if he upset you… He’s just… one of those people that gets his enjoyment at the expense of others and I’m really sorry about the way we both acted up there… That was truly awful of us… Forgive me?”
“Hmmm…” He makes an act of thinking.
Softly she moves her hair behind her ear, giving him a to-die-for puppy dog face “Please Shan, Master of this house, forgive the trespasses that my mother’s familiar and I took against you…?”
“HA!!!” He tackles her, spreading wings at the last moment and flies them into the bed room “I think you should accept my punishment first.” He winks evilly, the world around them getting darker moment by moment.
“You don’t really want to be mated to me for life do you??? Because that’s what will happen… That’s the consequence of being a daywalking Vampyre… As daughter of Caroline and John, Vampyre and SkyKnight, the one I mate with will become the heir to both their kingdoms, with me. And I can only ever mate to one man, meaning if you take me now… I will be your mate… for life… If you ever betray me… I will die…”
“Your Mother said the same thing to all my advances, and it just made the appeal to her stronger. It’s the same with you Anisa.” He winks, and licks her neck, the move so ancient, so Vampyric that it causes her breath to stop and her heart to skip a beat.
She shudders softly, barely resisting the urge to kiss him “The council hadn’t perfected the drug… Mom got lucky… lucky she didn’t die when my father kidnapped her from her family and did the same thing to her that you’re about to do to me… When she survived mating with him the researcher’s reconvened and realized that each dose had to be specific to the Vampyre’s blood, it couldn’t be general… It’s been tested… so I know for a fact that it works… my best friend was made to take the drug, to mate with two men, her cells… They… they say she exploded… Please Shan; please listen to me when I tell you that if you continue now you’ll be stuck with me for life…”
“Believe me, I know what I’m getting into, I’ve spent too much of my life alone, having someone there for the rest of it sounds perfect to me.” He rakes his teeth along her neck, softly drawing the skin taut.
“Really…? You… You don’t mind…?” she tries to remain level headed as her body screams out for attention “You… you know you can’t go back…”
“Who in their right mind would want to go back to being lonely??” He kisses her neck, slowly nibbling upward.
“One more thing… You’re not doing this because I’m the first one in a while are you? I mean… do you at least think I’m pretty?? I… I know you probably don’t love me… we’ve only known each other for a few days… but… do you at least like me…?”
“There is not a flower to which I can compare thy beauty, there are not enough words which I can use to tell you how I feel. It is my belief that for you to understand, I’ll just have to show you.” He winks and then kisses her lips, expertly using his to part them so his tongue slides across her teeth. She kisses him back, wrapping her arms around him rather than continuing to resist. He smiles, kissing her with a fiery passion “Thank you darling Anisa.”
“All I ask is that you don’t regret…” Anisa says, kissing him back.
“I never regret how I feel.” He smiles at her, the feel of it on her lips like the sun on flowers. “Now…” He gently pulls her to the bed. “Shan I… I mean I’ve never…” she closes her eyes, blushing.
“I know.” He smiles back, “I know the rules of your people, and several of the medical texts as well.” He stands back for a second and lets his shorts fall to the floor. “I know that you can only pick one person, and it’s still not too late to back out.”
“I have chosen Shan… By going with you, I chose you over Kail, it’s too late to change my mind now.” She says, letting her eyes wander freely across his body. Softly she sits up and grabs his wrist, pulling him onto the bed she kisses him. He kisses her back, and presses against her, his shaft only inches away. Slowly he slides into her, meeting resistance he stops.
“There’s still time to back out of this Anisa,” he whispers softly in her ear, she whimpers softly then shakes her head.
“I already told you, I’m not backing out.”
“Alright then.” he smiles lightly into her eyes as he pulls back slightly then thrusts, breaking her hymne. She screams out, her nails digging into his shoulders. He kisses her softly, his hips wriggling back and forth. She moans softly, her fingers twisting together behind his neck. They continue that way for several hours, her moans filling the house, until neither can go any longer and both are fast asleep. Shan’s body lying against hers, the sheets and blanket twisted around them.
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