The world was spinning, my head felt like it was being hit with a hammer and my body and skin ached under the weight of my clothing. “I fucking hate myself!” I sighed as I opened up my eyes, only to be overwhelmed by the light in the room. It didn’t take me long to become overwhelmed by the room itself. Gold walls upon which neat irises where painted, a large, wooden bookshelf in the corner, white rugs and that dreaded light blue sofa. And as my terror-filled eyes continued to scan the room, the memories of the prior night began to flood into my mind. I was beyond embarrassed, beyond annoyed with myself and needed to leave urgently. The last thing I needed was for the owner of the room to- “Hey.” Too late. Nicholas entered the room with a tray in hand, atop which stood a mug of coffee, a plate of eggs and toast. Immediately my stomach groaned at the glorious smell. He set the tray down on the bedside table and then sat down on the edge of the bed before glancing down at me, trying
While Nicholas was out, I decided to finally get out of the house as well, this time, to a place much further than the gardens. Dante had invited me out for the day to apologise for the previous night. Although Nicholas was hesitant to have me galivanting around without him, Dante suggested that Lovita and Floran come along with us. Their faces were as stoic as always and so I didn’t know whether they themselves were fond of the idea of babysitting me.“So, we’re definitely losing Lovita and Floran,” Dante said in a hushed tone. He’d taken me to the marketplace, and it was much larger than I’d ever anticipated. There were tons and tons of stalls. They were filled with fruit, food, trinkets, jewellery, gadgets and clothing. People filled the crowded streets and dirt paths, all huddling around all of the stalls. It was easy to see how we’d lose Lovita and Floran, I just didn’t understand why.“Where are we going without them?” I asked, matching his hushed tone.“You do trust me, don’t y
Kiyan’s eyes widened in urgency, and he quickly grabbed me and placed his hand over my mouth before whispering in my ear, “Sparrow.” What the hell was he on about? I bit at the palm of his hand, and he immediately let me go after mumbling a cuss. “What the fuck did you do that for!” he whispered. It was then that we were finally joined by Dante. Kiyan immediately rolled his eyes at him. “The fuck are you doing here Falcon?” Falcon? “Woah Sparrow, calm down. I was just showing my friend here one of our meetings. Don’t get your panties in a twist okay?” So, they were using codenames. Kiyan looked beyond furious, and I could see him clenching a fist. I was brought back to that day with Stacey. But unlike the Stacey incident, he took in a long, deep breath and then gazed around before lowering his voice. “You’re a fucking idiot. How could you bring Ariya here?” Dante raised a brown and then folded his arms against his chest. “So you know her and who she is to him.” Kiyan’s eyes wid
Jasper opened the doors for us the moment we got home and the moment he saw me, he had an almost relieved look on his face. He expressed his relief before enthusiastically attempting to announce our arrival. But I urged Jasper to stay silent and I advised Dante not to join us. He was reluctant at first, but I tried to rationalise it to him. I’d seen the way Nicholas had reacted to my bruised knuckles the first time I had arrived. There was no doubt that he’d end Dante within a second, no questions asked. And so, after we had decided not to tell Nicholas anything regarding Wolfsbane or Kiyan and Dante’s involvement in the organisation, he left. It didn’t take long for Nicholas to appear into the foyer. He had his car keys in his hand and a determined look in his eyes. But the moment he saw me, he paused briefly and almost instinctively tried to wear that calm mask again. It vanished almost as soon as he forced its appearance. His eyebrows then furrowed deeply, and he came right towards
Kiyan I barely made it through the door of the grand entrance before my sister grabbed my arm and tugged at it hard, stopping me from moving any further. I turned towards her, enraged beyond anything I’d ever felt, and filled with more hatred than I’d ever known. But I could see that in her eyes, Ariya couldn’t bear to see me this way. She was sad and angry, and she looked at me as though I were some sort of stranger to her. But there was also a look of desperation on her face and her eyes were pleading with me to stay, not to leave again. “So, what, you’re just going to leave? Angry and hateful and blaming everyone else. Just like how you left me and Ophelia that day.” I was right. Her mind was stuck on that day, the day I’d left. But just like then, I couldn’t go back on my words or way of thinking. I’d come too far, and my hatred had grown too powerful. So, I shrugged her hand off of me and took a step away from her before saying, “Ophelia? You expect me to be grateful to someo
“Ariya, are you sure that you’re okay? Your hands are shaking!” With that, Nicholas stood up from his seat and began to walk across the living room where I was seated. He knelt down in front of me and took my shivering hands in his warm ones and gently rubbed at them.I looked down at him nervously and tried to muster up a smile.“I’m okay, just a little shaky. I haven’t eaten in a while, that’s probably why.”Although I was wolfishly hungry, that was only partly the truth. Theodore had overheard the entire conversation with Kiyan just now, and I was afraid that he would tell his brother everything. My fear only increased the moment Theodore’s footsteps were heard through the house and I began to start making up a few lies and excuses in my head.But the moment Theodore entered the room and saw me, his eyes softened, and he winked at me reassuringly. Kiyan’s secret would be safe with him.“Your brother is really something! I’m glad that this never happened,” he said with a sad tone to
Nicholas leaned down, his hot breath fanning against my ear, “I can smell how much you want me Airya…” The moment he said it, I shivered and closed my thighs together, completely enraptured by his words and just how true they were. “Funny thing is,” he then placed a hot, open-mouthed kiss against the skin of my neck, “I want you just as much.” And with that he grabbed me even closer, placing his lips on mine in a wet, passionate frenzy, and carried me over towards the bed before laying me down carefully. His lips never left mine, not even when he climbed on top of me and pinned my hands to the bed. Every inch of my body revelled in his touch, and I couldn’t get enough of the feeling of his warm lips against mine. His lips then moved down to my neck where they sucked forcefully at my soft flesh and occasionally he’d bite and nibble. My mouth was agape and heavy pants escaped my parted lips. It felt so heavenly that my legs slid across the bedsheets and pulled up, so my knees were off
As I followed Melissa down the dark, quiet hallway, my mind filled the solemn silence, flooding with so many thoughts that I could barely keep up with them. Yesterday when I’d seen Dante, he was very much alive and well, and so I wondered what had happened between then and now to change that. I’d admit that we hadn’t parted on the best of terms, but Dante was still a good friend of mine. He’d been my first friend here and in him, I saw parts of myself too. Although we sometimes did not see eye-to-eye, I felt as though he truly understood me. And so, the idea of him being gone from my life, and gone from this house was heart shattering. And with every step closer to his room, I could feel my chest tighten and a sore lump begin to form at the back of my throat as the gravity of his loss began to crash down on my shoulders.Dante stayed with the rest of the staff members, in a separate section of Nicholas’ home which surprisingly still matched the grandness of the rest of the place. His
“Dante… what have you done!” I yelled out as the flames began to engulf the outskirts of the house.He frowned and shook his head, “You don’t look nearly as impressed as I expected you to be. Did you want it grander?”“Grander… you’re a sick bastard!” I said before spitting on the floor next to him. Then, I attempted to near the house to head inside, grab Nicholas and drag him out. But just as I reached the door, Dante grabbed my arm and yanked me back. Immediately I retracted my free arm, ready to punch him in the face. But someone else beat me to it, smacking him in the side of the head and causing him to fall onto the ground.“K-Kiyan?” I gasped out.“No time for questions! Let’s get your fiancé out of there before the rest of them come!”The rest?But he dismissed my words and ran into the house immediately. I followed suit, rushing towards the bedroom.“Can you stand?” he asked Nicholas who seemed half asleep still.“Sort of… what the hell is going on… and what’s that smell?” he
I fell asleep in the warmth and comfort of Nicholas’ arms, but my sleep was a restless one. Something had begun to worry me. It rang over and over in my head, nudging me with extreme caution. It was the words that Daniel had said earlier on today, “You wouldn’t by any chance need a bandage, would you? I always keep some on me, in case anyone has bruised knuckles…” And along with these words came a memory of the first night a spent here. It was a memory of Dante who had bandaged up my bruised knuckles. And although some part of me wanted to pass it off as some kind of strange coincidence, my instincts were telling me differently. Although they were twins, Daniel was too much like Dante. And so, a glaringly obvious deduction began to swirl around in my mind. And as outrageous as it sounded, it was the only one clear thought I’d had these past few weeks.Suddenly I was awoken by the loud sound of tapping on the windowsill, coming from outside and the harsh whispers of “Ariya! Ariya!”I ga
I gasped, completely dumbstruck by what he’d said. I thought that I would be the only weakness that King Nicholas would have. I thought that they were all completely invincible. But I was wrong.“I thought that, perhaps she had made a mistake,” Nicholas continued to speak, “that she’d take it back and apologise. But when I turned around, all I saw in her eyes was pure hatred. It had poisoned her completely and she drew another blade and tried to stab me with it. I tried to reason with her, but she wouldn’t listen. She was too corrupted… that was when Lorenzo entered the front door, a gun in each hand. I realised then, that the whole thing was orchestrated by him. He tried to shoot me with one of his silver bullets, but I was too quick and evaded his aim. But he was careless with his shots and at one point he almost shot Portia. That fucking careless bastard. Each time he pulled the trigger and each time Portia tried to lunge for me, my hatred for Lorenzo only grew. Until I couldn’t ta
Daniel had left soon after he’d confided in me regarding his mother. But the cruel experiences of Portia Knight stayed with me. Part of me could not believe what Daniel had said, and the other part felt bad for denying what had happened to his mother. I’d never known Nicholas to be cruel or vindictive. Then again, he’d lived for centuries, and I’d arrived here a few months ago. What I knew about him was only a drop in the ocean of who he was. And as I walked to his room, I’d resigned myself to approach this in a very logical and very open-minded way.“How dare you, you cruel bastard!”Or not.“Excuse me?” Nicholas muttered, his eyes were wide in shock, and I could see confusion slowly creeping into his grey irises.There was a moment of hesitation on my side. I was fuelled up on anger and I knew that everything I would say now would stem from that anger.“What have I done Ariya? Why do you look so disgusted?”But I couldn’t keep in the information I’d now learned.“Portia Knight… you
It had been more than a day after Nicholas had fallen ill, and although he was slowly starting to get better, his body was still extremely exhausted, and he found it difficult to use his abilities. He’d spent most of his time asleep, filling the hallway with the sound of his snores. I found it so strange for him to be this weak and powerless as opposed to the formidable man that he usually was. Nonetheless, I tried as best as I could to look after him, putting my relatively mediocre cooking skills to the test. In fact, I’d been in the kitchen, making a toasted cheese sandwich for him when I heard the sound of knocking at the front door.“I’ll get it!” I yelled. And as I tried to shift the pan on the plate of the stove, it slipped from my fingers, and I burnt my thumb. I hissed in pain and quickly tried to run it under some cool water before I rushed to meet whoever was at the door.One of the guards, Arthur, stood there with Daniel next to him. After the incident with Melissa, where t
And so, Kiyan explained the origin of his hatred. Kiyan had always hated being cooped in and so he always managed to find a way to get out during the day. Ophelia so happened to need eggs from the store that day, and so Kiyan was eager to venture out and buy some for her. Kiyan took his time wandering the aisles, until he stumbled across the eggs on the shelf. He reached up and retrieved a carton, and as he did, one of the staff members came crashing into him, knocking the eggs out of his hands and spilling their contents on the floor. That’s when the lycan owner appeared, completely set on beating both Kiyan and the employee who’d bumped into him. But, as Kiyan explained, he was left untouched once the owner recognised him as ‘Ophelia’s boy’. Kiyan recalled the shame he felt as he watched the human employee being hit by his lycan master. And that was how his hatred developed. He didn’t want to be some human favoured because a lycan had taken him in and he couldn’t take another day in
“You know what,” Daniel said, “now that I think about it, there was a man that used to come to visit Melissa. I saw him once or twice.” “What did he look like?” I asked curiously. Daniel fell silent for a moment as he sat and thought hard. Then his eyes brightened, and he nodded to himself before saying, “I didn’t get a good look at his face. He wore a shroud of dark cloth that covered most of it. The only feature of his that I could see was a pair of dark brown eyes… Oh! And on the clothing he wore was a purple flower.” My hands shook and my skin became covered in goosebumps. My mind was brought back to an interaction I’d had a while ago with a man who matched that exact description. It was Hawk, the leader of Wolfsbane. I wondered now if Wolfsbane really was responsible for this, but for a completely different reason. Perhaps Melissa had been a part of Wolfsbane after all. Perhaps something had transpired between her and Hawk, and he needed to get rid of her. Theo watched my cont
When my eyes opened, I was met with a pair of dark brown ones. A sense of confusion crept up on me and I whispered out a soft, "Dante..." His eyes furrowed and his lips parted as he took in a sharp breath and gazed down at me. Then, his brown eyes filled with a conflicted look, as though he were contemplating something very deeply. That was when realisation dawned on me, and I shook my head in embarrassment. "I'm sorry, Daniel. You just... still remind me of your brother," I said softly. Daniel smiled and gave a soft and awkward chuckle, "It's alright, I'm glad I remind you of him. You always seem to speak of him so fondly." His smile was genuine and bright and the previous feeling I'd had of discomfort when he'd brought me to my room almost completely vanished. But I couldn't help but wonder why he was currently in my room. And so I questioned him. Daniel's face turned a little more serious and he let out a deep sigh. "Melissa... was poisoned. She's unable to wake up.”Immediat
Silence ensued and the both of us just stared at each other cautiously. I didn’t know what to say or what to think. I was in a state of disbelief, unable to comprehend that he could have killed his friend whom he loved. Perhaps, I thought to myself, it had been an accident, just like with me. But that didn’t make it any less eery. At least with me, Nicholas hadn’t actually killed me. My body had been in a state of in-between, drawn to death, but able to come back to life. And so, I wondered if Theo could still bring someone back if they’d completely crossed over. If they’d already been kissed by death and embraced it openly. Was that what had happened to Portia Knight, or was it something else, something more sinister… “Say something, please…” Nicholas said softly, breaking the silence between us. There was a sense of desperation in his voice and his eyes were ashamed and seemed to be eagerly searching my face. But I couldn’t find my words. “I… I−” Suddenly, there was a loud, despe