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If Marius was not holding me, I feared for her. For what I longed to do. But Marius promised the feeling would pass once I had my first fill.
And I imagined I would soon be full past the point of bursting.
“What are you thinking about?” I asked, my hand squeezing his as we looked out over the view before us. I sensed his halting anticipation as if it was my own. It was strange, for I sensed more of his emotions now after he had brought me back, as though a tether of shadow kept me pinned to him.
I had wondered if he felt it too. But it was not the time for questions. We would have time for that after I fed.
“I had imagined the possibility of leaving on too many occasions, I hadn’t dared to keep count. Yet I always believed, if it would happen, I would be leaving this place alone. Not with someone by my side.”
“Someone?” I snapped my teeth, feeling my lips tug into a smile over the new points that protruded from my gums. Sharp teeth that kept ripping at my skin, only for it to heal moments later. Similar to Marius’s who had pressed his own deep into my skin, sharing in a lustful, dangerous kiss. “Is that all I am? Just a someone?”
Marius pulled my arm, spinning me around to face him. He was stronger, but I felt as though I could match him with this new strength. It was one of the many differences since waking. I was resilient. My hearing and sight as sharp as the two fangs that pressed into the skin behind my lower lip.
“You are Jak, my Jak.” There was still sorrow in his eyes for what he had done to me, yet I felt no pain or hate for his actions. Only… relief. Before meeting him I was equally trapped by the curse, prisoner to the fate I had been born into. And now… Now I was free. From my mother whose corpse was rotting in an unknown location, a place I did not care to know. Marius had shattered the bindings on my fate, just as I had for him.
Marius bowed his head as though holding my stare was impossible. With a hand I lifted his defined chin with a thumb and urged him to stop moping. “I am yours, and you are mine. For an eternity.”
“I should have given you the choice.”
“And if you had I would have agreed without question.”
“You do not know what this means. And I cannot explain it either. It was foolish—”
I raised onto my toes and pressed my lips to his, silencing him. Everything about his taste was an explosion, as though my sensations had been set ablaze as I touched him. I wanted more than to just kiss. The action did not feel strong enough, intense enough, for what I felt deep within. Pulling away slowly, Marius kept his eyes closed and mouth parted slightly, wishing for my return.
“We will discover what it means to be… us. It is a big world out there; we cannot be the only ones.”
“And what if we are?” he asked.
I smirked. Was it the thirst or excitement that made me so giddy? “You made me, what is stopping you from doing it again?”
Marius peered over his shoulder to where Katharine hovered in the distance, arms wrapped around her thin frame. “She may not want this.”
“Then you can respect that wish. But what if she does? She has no one left living. Like you. Like me. I promise you, Marius, what you have done for me is a gift. Katharine… well, she may feel the same.”
Marius lowered his head. “Not yet.”
“So, what next then?” I asked, urging for him to look at me. “You are the author. Tell me where you see my story going.”
It must have been something I said that encouraged the beautiful yet deadly smile to spread across his face; his eyes lit from the inside and lines furrowed his forehead.
“Perhaps we start with a feast.” My stomach grumbled in agreement as we looked back to the town and the unsuspecting victims that waited behind their closed doors. “You will need to feed before the urge becomes impossible to ignore. Then, once you are satisfied… and I, we can spend endless nights lost in one another’s bodies. I fear that I have many a thing I would like to do with you, to you.”
I did not hide an embarrassed grin.
“And what of your own story, Marius…?”
Marius smiled, flashing the points of his teeth. “For the first time in a long time I feel as though my story can be left open-ended. And with you by my side it will make turning the page that much easier.”
If I did not have the growing hunger within me I would have dragged Marius to the ground and devoured him in unspeakable ways. But alas, the feeling was becoming harder to hold back, the want to race for the closest living thing to feed off.
I raised a hand, noticing the ashen tones that clung to my skin, and pointed towards Darkmourn. “I know where I want to begin.” Pinching an eye closed, I looked down the length of my finger towards the direction my home would be nestled within. “Leave the coven to me. There are many I would enjoy devouring, whereas some that I would prefer to stay untouched.”
Lamiere. I did not need to say her name to conjure a clear image of her. Although my memories from the attack were hazy, I felt deep in my core that she was not with Mother and her coven when they came for us. Just the thought gave me reprieve from feeling betrayed by everyone I had known in my life. Lamiere had always been different.
She would be spared.
“Jak, I will follow your lead. That is your world out there, and this has been mine. I feel foolish to admit, but I think that I would never have the courage to take the first step out there without you.”
