5. The betrayal

ARIA

I ran across the shabby living room in an attempt to escape Narcissa, the crushed bricks and pieces of wood scattered pierced my feet, but I couldn't feel the pain near the mid entrance where Kai flew when I punched him, based on Jax's hoax story.

"Aria, running sucks. I want to fly." Narcissa mutters as she slowly stops running while fake panting hard from running. I mean, she's a ghost, and I am, too, except for the flying part. But I am sure I can teleport like I did when I landed here at Kai's house.

"I can't fly, and you can. That's unfair."

Narcissa shrugs. She bends her knees and jumps in the air without the need to land back down. I am jealous. "This is not fun."

"Tell that to my invisible wings!"

The smell of strong coffee lingered in the air. My attention quickly changed from Narcissa to the source of an excellent-smelling coffee.

"Like my coffee?" The man who claimed to saw everything a while ago teased. He whirls the cup while giving it a soft blow with his rugged smirk, tainting the delicious coffee in his grip with a rotten smile.

I ignored him.

Jax seems to be the kind of person─or dog who likes to ruin every person's mood in his perimeter. As we wait for Kai to heal in his room, I am stuck here with Jax, who doesn't know the value of privacy.

"Playing with your imaginary friend?" He starts. I know now that he'll be teasing me a lot about Narcissa, who he cannot obviously see because he is not exceptional like me. I smirked at the thought of returning to the flower shop and hit Jax with every rose thorn I could find. Aggressive yet satisfying.

If he hadn't scared me off in the first place, I wouldn't have accidentally teleported here and hurt Kai. It was unintentional. I wouldn't know what I'd done if Jax was not there. But thinking about what I did, how exactly did I do that without breaking my hand or sparing any strength?

"Go away. What do you even need? And how did you find me here?"

I asked what I had to do, but it seemed like I opened another portal of chance for him to do what he'll do right now. He sets his cup of coffee down and slowly walks toward me. It was not threatening at first, but then his stupid eyes glowed into a fury red color, making me step back until my back hit the wall.

I'm in danger, and Narcissa would vanish. Great.

"You want to know how I found you?" His breath hits my neck, making my breath hitch to the back of my throat.

"S-Stop," I turned my head to the side to avoid our faces clashing mistakenly.

His fingers trail down my thighs. I forgot that I wore a black ruffled mesh dress before turning into an Astral ghost.

"I found you because of your scent. It makes me hungry." A low growl comes from his throat like how a wolf does before it devours its prey. "Roses and rain. You are a human. It disgusts me, but your scent... you are so much more."

His touch sends a different wave of feeling inside me. I smiled impishly, knowing he was just doing this to confuse me, like what my mother said.

"Never trust a man. They will do anything and everything just to get you. Once they do, they will do nothing after they got enough of you."

I gathered my strength and the thoughts of seeing my mother again to fuel me as I escaped this nightmare. "Fuck off!"

He didn't even budge, but I took it as a chance to run when he slightly did. Where? of course, the only place I know that I'll be safe. Kai's room.

─────────

JAX

Aria is going around with her scent leaving a track for hungry wolves. I need to claim her soon enough before a rouge wolf does. If only she didn't hit Kai, this would be all over. That weak little vampire couldn't even handle a second from the sun. When Aria hit him, he flew fast and hit the wall until he was lying like a lousy human who tripped over some pebbles.

Now we are here waiting for him to heal his wounds and pride after being beaten by a girl, human to be exact.

I stared at the big hole on the wall where the sunlight could slightly slip through as it set down.

Aria is not human.

I rolled my eyes at the voice of my wolf, Dom. He usually commands me around when it comes to my mate since I blindly rejected my last two mates. He doesn't want me to be punished forever. I've made a terrible mistake towards the moon goddess. Now she gave me a mysterious mate with a plus one lousy vampire.

Look! It's the same monster who killed Aria.

My thoughts quickly went away when my sight landed on the freaky tall shadow standing behind the tree. It was almost sundown, so I couldn't distinguish if it was a tree branch or the monster who was back to kill Aria again.

The broken wall with a vast hole makes Jax feel slightly threatened since nothing can cover the gap. For the first time, he felt unsafe and worried, for instance.

Let's get mate.

I immediately ran into a flight of stairs. I have no information on the tall shadow, is it gone? No, idea. But its presence sends chills on my back, I know it's near, and I am ready to fight it.

"Kai! You need to hide, Aria." I screamed as I ran through the hallway. There's no one following me, but being alert will help Dom ease up.

My heart was all over the place. When did I get so weak? I found my mate. I should be getting stronger.

Dumbass, you and Aria are still not bound together. Mark her and enjoy your new skills or whatever you call it.

"Thanks for reminding me of my only goal." I rolled my eyes at my wolf.

I placed my hand on the knob and opened the door without knocking, which made me regret it. My body was frozen, Dom was silent, and my heart was aching.

Here I stood, clearly unaware of what was happening right before my eyes.

"How fucking dare you two kiss behind my back!?"

────────

ARIA

I successfully ran towards Kai's room. I am panting as I close shut the door. Everything Jax does makes my knees weak and my mind crazy. The first thing is I hate him, then it'll just take a brush of his slender fingers down my thighs, and I'm all soft.

"What are you doing here?"

My eyes widened. I forgot that I ran inside Kai's room without thinking straight. I slowly turned around with a small awkward smile resting on my face. I saw him sitting on a chair while drinking a bottle of whiskey. "Jax and I were playing who. Ever gets inside your room will win a coupon for 1-day privacy."

"And you won?" Kai placed down the glass. His slender and veiny hands would be nicely wrapped around my─

"I can hear your thoughts. You're aware, right?"

When he said that, I almost exploded from embarrassment. How could I think of him like that? That dirty and sinful stuff.

Erase. Erase. Erase.

"You cannot think of sinful kinds of stuff and patch them up with Erase. Erase. Erase." Kai stood up. I also forgot to mention that he is wearing nothing for a top.

"Kill me. This embarrassment is worst than being stabbed multiple times and w-wear a shirt or something!" I stuttered in the last part. Nothing can mess up my dignity regarding flawless, handsome, and... naked boys.

I gulp.

He only smiled at my statement. Now that I know that he can read my mind, I must practice how to control my stupid thoughts. I watched him pick up blue linen sleepwear in secret, of course. How can a vampire have that kind of glorious body?

Great structure, muscled up in the right spots, pale, and did I mention his curly hair that falls through his forehead? No? Then I did now. His fangs are to die for.

"Enough with you swooning over me. Let's get you back to your body." His husky voice gave me an eargasm.

Kai walks to the end of the bed. His eyes left trails on me and then to his bed.

Oh, he wants me to sit on his bed? Gladly.

I released an awkward cough as I walked toward his bed. I slowly sat down, staring only straight at the door while he stood tall above me. He slowly places his hand on my shoulder like he did before I hit him. Speaking of hits...

"Is Jax telling the truth?" I looked up at him.

"It seems so. He saw what had happened. I only saw myself hit the ground while the sun burned me."

I blushed at his statement. The first meeting and I had already caused havoc.

"I'm sorry, even I didn't know what happened. When you were removing the dagger, I saw something flash before my eyes. I guess it's a memory. I could still remember a bit of it."

"You can tell me before my second attempt of pulling this." Kai laughs gently while pointing at the dagger.

"I forgot. Maybe start pulling it so I can remember clearly."

He nods while I close my eyes, preparing myself for the pain I'll feel.

"I'm halfway..."

I opened one of my eyes to look down. Kai was pulling nothing, but why does he say that he does?

"Kai? You're pulling nothing." I laughed, thinking that this was one of his old jokes. But I stopped giggling when he straightened his body with a confused look.

"What do you mean? It's right there buried in your chest."

I shake my head. "There's no pain. When I looked, you were pulling nothing."

Kai only stared at me, which, to be honest, made me a little insecure about my body, so I raised one of my hands and rested it on my chest as I pursued my lips and looked everywhere, clearly avoiding his melting gaze.

He slowly bent to his knees in front of me. Now our faces face each other, but I made that impossible since my head is faced to the side where he couldn't stare at my eyes. I suddenly felt his cold hands rest on my cheeks, slowly guiding my face to turn and meet his stunning and glorious eyes.

So much for impossibly avoiding his fucking gaze.

"What are you doing?" I obliviously wander even if I know what is happening.

I just don't want to take the risk and expect. That shit hurts.

"Kai! You need to hide, Aria." I heard Jax's scream from the hall, making me snap back into reality after overdosing under Kai's scent.

"I think Jax is saying something─"

I couldn't finish my sentence when I felt a soft pair of lips. They were cold, but it felt amazing. I was frozen on my spot that I couldn't distinguish what was real, Jax's blabbering and Kai kissing me.

Am I dreaming?

His lips felt so real. I'm in awe. As I fell into his comfort, I finally got the strength to kiss back. I felt his hand resting on my back to deepen the kiss.

"How fucking dare you two kiss behind my back?!"

Oh, fuck. Jax, you whipping turd.