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Chapter 23
Vahadr
When I push open Asili’s door later that night, I find that he is not alone. And I am glad for it.
Ana sits on the bed with him, leaning back against the headboard while he curls into her side, her fingers running gently through his silver hair. His eyes look puffy and red as he stares across at nothing, one of his hands fisted tightly around hers, and for a moment I’m unsure as to whether I should interrupt. But when Ana’s eyes dart to me, she lifts the hand that’s in his hair and gestures me over.
I click the door quietly shut and make my way to Asili’s other side, sitting lightly at the edge of his bed. At first I find myself just looking at him, at the dejected slump of his shoulders and the tight way his small fist clings to Ana, but when he turns his eyes to me and he looks unsure of himself, looks hesitant,I sigh and lean back beside him, swinging my feel up over his quilt cover so that I can sit closer.
With a few quick taps against my coms device, I send out the small camera drone and set it to capture our image and reflect it back at us through the holo-screen.
“Asili,” I say quietly, “what do you see here?”
He looks between me and the reflected image of the three of us, and with a two-fingered gesture, I zoom in to focus on just my face and his.
“Do you know what I see?” I ask him, and I don’t wait for a response as I direct his gaze back to the screen and start pointing to his features. “I see eyes that are the very same distinct shade of blue that all Tzeliks have. I see skin just as white as mine, hair that’s a matching shade of silver, and you see how your chin comes to that aristocratic little point? Mine used to look just like that at your age.”
He looks away from the screen and back at me, his eyes wide, and I smile softly and lift my own hand to his hair, gently moving Ana’s fingers away as I push back the pale strands flopping down into his eyes.
“Look at this,” I continue, and point back at the screen. “Even the shape of our hairline is the same, you see? Your nose, your lips, your cheekbones…they’re all the same as mine. You are practically a carbon copy of me, Asili.”
It looks at the screen with wet eyes as they dart between our faces, and I drop my hand from his forehead and grasp his chin, turning him to look at me directly.
“You are my son,” I tell him with all the certainty on this sphere. “You are my son,and I love you. You will always be enough, more than enough. Nothing will ever change that.”
When he suddenly presses his face into my side, I wrap my arm around his shoulders and rest my fingers in his hair until he falls asleep between Ana and me, still clutching her hand in his.
***
“Ana,” I murmur quietly as we click Asili’s door shut behind us, and then I decide that words are not what I want after all, and with a hand in her hair I pull her towards me.
I do not want to talk anymore, to think anymore, to deal with anything at all. I am tired. I just want her.
Her chest presses into mine, her curves soft, her body pliant. When I lean down, she parts her lips in anticipation of my kiss. I find more satisfaction in that small act alone than I probably should.
And then I brush my mouth against hers, and she stands up on her toes to receive me.
Her lips are getting softer, I could almost swear it. Every time I press her to me, she is warmer, sweeter, she grows more addictive with each kiss I claim. And when her body melts into mine, when her arms slide up my chest and her tongue darts out, hot and slick, I find my heart rate increasing and my need for her instantly flare up.
I step forward and she stumbles back, but I have her and I won’t let her fall. I want only to lean her against the wall, to have something to push her into, and she tightens her fingers in my hair when I slip my knee between hers. I want this female. I have never felt like this before, not with this intensity, with this driving force inside me that demands to be engulfed by her, to have her wrap herself around me and take everything I have to give.
She is comfort, she is desire, she is beautiful.
I run my fingers down her side, squeezing her thick hips, pulling one thigh up and holding it against me so that I can push into her, feel her breath shudder as it mingles with mine. Although we do nothing more than kiss, my head spins and my body is lit with fire.
I wrench my lips away from hers and press my cheek into her hair.
“Analina,” I breathe out harshly, feeling almost entirely overcome by her heat. “If you would have me, I could mate you against this wall right now and not have a second thought about it.”
She’s dropped one hand around my waist, and when I speak, her fingers convulse against me as though instinctively trying to draw me closer, although there is no room left between us.
When she strangles out a choked, “Oh,” I smile and leave a lingering kiss at the corner of her jaw before pulling back to look at her.
“What happened today?” Her eyes are tracing over the dried blood across my jacket now. “Kyrin said you were supposed to be home early. He dragged me out in the middle of a lecture.”
I don’t immediately respond, but when her eyes climb back up to mine, the word ‘nothing’ catches in my throat, and I sigh.
“There is…” I am trying to formulate a clever way to skirt the issue while giving her just enough information to settle her curiosity, but I am tired. Tired of always being on guard, of being mindful of every word I speak, second-guessing every motive of those around me. “The Kuznezhens want me, or someone close to me, dead. They are looking for revenge because I obstructed their ability to make money exploiting orphans four years ago and did so again recently by removing the head of their family, the one organizing it all, from the picture. Today, I realized that they might actually be in a position to follow through with that revenge.”
