ATOM: Luna – IV

 

His teeth reached her neck and sunk in her flesh, her bloodstained body pressing against him, taking him in, squeezing his shadows out of him straight into herself. He felt every tensed muscle, every drop of sweat over her body. The screams stopped some time ago, replaced by the sounds of his subjects, enjoying the night.

The court was drunk with lust and wine. His beautiful, dangerous court of collarbones and phalanges, of honey and blood. The forest whispered his name, silently, when he climaxed, taking Nymre with himself. His release pushed more shadows into her womb and made her finish too.

“Curse you, Lorian” she murmured into his mouth, when he left a wound on her neck in peace and offered her a shadowed kiss. Deeper than his tongue could reach.

He chuckled into her lips and responded with fire. Once more.

He would abandon himself in her again, if not a noise in the corridors, leading to the ballroom. The fae’s eyes drifted there, as always alert, ready for danger. Ready to respond with even more of it.

His court of death’s hellebores and frozen trees.

And now they all bathed in the spark he ignited.

Nymre raised her hazy eyes, turning her head to the entrance, her whole body crimson. The murmur of the fae sounded like a whisper of the forest as well. Leaves and traveling roots. Rain soaked moss… and falling snow.

Whoever it was, they liked tension. Or were just stupid.

When Lorian thought he would have to drag them by himself into the feasting chamber, the door opened. Wings. Massive, raven-like, black as coal. Slender body, beautiful but in an uncanny, not obvious way. And eyes like green orbs, too big to be beautiful, adding even more unnatural charm to their owner’s features. Light aura repressed, the scent of a stone warmed by the sun in the noon.

Bean Sidhe. Her wings torn in so many places, her skin as well, showing patches of burnt flesh.

Lady Avel.

Sent by him with Nymre’s ravens to have an eye on the vessel.

And she barely made it.

Dragging a tall faery on a silver leash, his eyes white like snow, his body also stained with blood, but wounds not as numerous as Avel’s.

“My lord…” Bean Sidhe coughed and small drops of blue blood left her mouth, dripping down her chin. Just on the not less blood-stained floor.

Lorian looked at her lazily. His one brow lifted with a well-repressed curiosity.

The faery whom Avel brought before him, was tossed mercilessly on the stones. Just over a torn and tormented body of a human Lorian offered to his court. The white eyed looked at it with badly hidden disgust, mixed with fear. Good.

“Yes?” Lorian’s silent voice filled the chamber. Cold like snow in an unknown fairy’s eyes. Nymre smiled at Avel and the faery, running her fingers through Lorian’s hair.

His court looked in no less lazy way at the white eyed one, considering if he is worthy of being interested in or not.

“Your Majesty” Avel eventually reminded herself of her position and fell on one knee, even if her wounds wailed. “The Saru warrior. From Nor’learl. A spy, all the same.”

“How curious…” Lorian’s eyes gleamed with amusement. “And how unfortunate for him.”

Saru lifted his heated gaze at the throne, at Lorian, Nymre, and embraced the court with utter contempt. So bold. And so stupid. Lorian kissed Nymre in the neck, catching a few blue droplets trickling from her wound.

“Is your wish for me to interrogate him, Your Majesty?” Avel pulled the leash, causing the spy to fall back. Nymre looked at him with her ideal, blue eyes, like she wanted to carve a soul from him.

Lorian clicked with his tongue.

“The court is in the mood, Avel. Maybe we should leave this for tomorrow. Tonight, this sweet fool would not survive an hour, not less an amount of time needed to pull information from him.”

One eye of the battered body under Saru’s feet opened. The human slave moaned, his nerves and tendons visible, moving in agony. His mouth catching breath, hopelessly. The spy opened his eyes wider.

Lorian smiled kindly at the Saru warrior. The court around him smelled of blood and dark desire. Like a predatory animal just before attacking its prey. Like a calm before the storm. It had a delicious scent, and he knew that Saru would not survive longer than the flesh which was lying under his feet, mutely begging anyone to end his suffering.

“We are good hosts,” mused Lorian, his fingers digging into Nymre’s exposed skin. “And during the celebration of the New Lunar Year we should be even kinder. Even to a spy, who wanted to know our secrets so badly that risked reaching Dal’coler. I must admit, I am impressed.”

Saru’s gaze filled with both despair and fear… and some kind of bold determination. So beautiful, with a beauty that Lorian was fond of. Harder to break, but the process more fascinating as well.

“Lift him up” Lorian ordered, and Avel obliged. The silver thread around the prisoner’s neck became even tighter., digging hard into his skin “Your boldness is intriguing. I would love to reach deep into the core of it.”

His smile became predatory. Nymre ‘s fingers dragging slowly over his chest, her lips touching his face, her hand delving between his legs – her knowledge how to punctuate his words was flawless… His power trembled around them and shifted, making the air thicker… filled with violets and night. Saru’s eyes now beamed, he had to feel it too.

“Take him somewhere where he can think more about his own courage. Maybe even plan how to use it against me. It will be such a rapture to see how it all fails.”

The fae around him looked at the spy intensely, curious of him. Saru. The race of the morning dew and the starlit ponds. Ain’asel swallowed their realm years ago, but the water folk were amusingly resistant.

“I won’t scream” a melodious voice reached all of them, a rippling of a stream, a sensual touch of a rain over skin. “I may fear and feel pain… but won’t scream.”

Nymre laughed. Like bluebells on the wind.

“Maybe we don’t want to make you scream.”

Lorian’s hand closed over her tight. She growled, approvingly.

“Screams… are beautiful” he smiled, his most tempting smile. “But not needed. Some things are better left for imagination.”

Lorian’s smile was hunger incarnate, when Nymre’s leg rubbed against him, just in the right place. He felt as he becomes hard again, as she was looking with scorn at the the spy, caressing Lorian’s chest, in slow, deliberate way.

Avel pulled the leash and bowing before Lorian again, she dragged the spy to an entrance. Nymre’s eyes narrowed. Her body still heated, but her worries slightly overcoming the heat.

“Saru, Lorian. Here?”

“Oh yes, my raven. It was the matter of time.”

“How did he harm Avel so much?” she didn’t let go.

“So many things to unravel” he purred into her ear. “With him and in him. And in you.”

Nymre sighed again, when his hand closed around her breast, and trailed a path around her nipple.

“You are careless, my lord.”

“On the contrary. Today is a day of victory. But I delved into his thoughts. I know who he is.”

“And?” Nymre’s body pressed against his chest, her hands over his back.

“I will tell you, when having less ears around us’ ‘ he kissed her behind her ear, making her slightly shiver. “Maybe, in the end, we can retreat and disappear… like hunters after a good pursue.”

Her eyes glimmered.

“Allow me to steal you, my raven” he sighed into her hair, inhaling the scent of leaves and moss.

“Always” her lips tasted his, tasted violets and jasmine, tasted his eternal hunger.

And his lies.

His shadows.

His everything.

And she knew that this time, she would know everything.