A Soul to Keep: Duskwalker Brides: Book One, page 14
“N-no, it’s okay,” she answered in a small voice.
She clasped her hands to her chest, bringing her knees along with them like she was curling away from him. She didn’t smell of fear, which relieved him, and her breaths were just as short and shallow as before.
“But you are bleeding.” A whistling of a whimper rattled at the bottom of his lungs. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
Was I too rough? Orpheus had been too excited, had been lost in the taste of her, the smell of her, at the feel of her around his tongue. She was so soft inside.
He knew he hadn’t been thinking straight, hadn’t being paying close enough attention to her delicate and fragile body when he’d been devouring the delicious taste of her honey. He’d been trying to go slowly, savouring it, but he knew he must have made a mistake.
“I think you broke my hymen.”
“Your what?” he gasped, tilting his head as he looked down towards her pelvis. “I broke you?”
Have humans gotten weaker over the eons? Dread crept through him. If he broke her, shouldn’t she be screaming and crying?
“What? No!” she laughed with a panicky tone, her eyes wide and stark. “You broke my hymen, like the thing that proves that I’ve never been touched by a man.”
“I... I don’t understand.”
All he was hearing was that he broke her, and he knew he’d hurt her by the taste of her blood.
“You... uh.” Her cheeks flushed a bright red. “You took my virginity with your tongue.”
“Your virginity?” Now that he understood. The first penetration done or received by man or woman. “Humans bleed when this happens?”
“Just the women! We have a piece of skin called a hymen that is broken.” Then she grumbled as she averted her gaze, “I can’t believe I have to explain this. I thought you would know this.”
He nearly growled as a flare of anger rose in his chest.
“Why would I know something like this about a human?”
“Because you asked for all your offerings to be pure!” she shouted as she curled her hands into tight fists. Her cheeks were unmistakably red, more so than he’d ever seen before.
She shouted at me. He couldn’t believe she would. Humans rarely showed their anger to him.
“Of disease.”
“Wait, what?” she quickly said, her voice breathy like a gasp.
Her gaze swiftly came to him. The tension in her fists faded along with the spike of anger he’d seen in her mirroring his own.
“Pure of disease, of sickness.” He tilted his head in confusion. “I didn’t want the humans to pass on those to me that were going to die.”
“Oh, my God,” she gasped, her eyes trailing over the bed in thought and realisation. “We’ve always thought you meant pure of sex, like untouched virgins as your brides. We didn’t know if it was for sex, or because perhaps you could taste the impurity of a touched human. I didn’t understand why it would matter to something like you, but this makes so much more sense.”
Something... like me. She would never know, but her words hurt him terribly.
“Then... then are you not hurt?”
Her arousal had softened during their conversation, but he could still smell it. Orpheus wanted more. He’d been enjoying himself, awash in the taste of it, or her, hearing the sounds of her moans. Her body twitching and shivering due to his attention.
All of it coming from her for him, because of him.
“It hurt a little, but I’m okay now. The pain didn’t last long.”
Her cheeks reddened a little more, so easy for him to see and understand due to her snowy complexion.
Orpheus reached across the bed with the intention of stroking her cheek with a tender touch. She flinched, her shoulders turning inwards as she shied away.
He withdrew his hand from the air, knowing that whatever had caused her arousal had passed and she was no longer filled with desire. She didn’t want to continue, even though he would have been happy to remain where he’d been until eons passed and the world crumbled around them.
But it had happened once. Hope blossomed freely within him at the idea of it possibly happening again. I tasted her, made her come.
He would hold dear this memory for the rest of his life.
His vision returned to its usual blue as he crawled backwards off the bed.
“Sleep well, my little doe.”
Then he left her room, feeling a swell of tenderness and joy in his gut.
I have to run, Reia thought, as she sprinted through the forest. Don’t look back, just keep going forward.
She felt the teardrop jewel tapping against her forehead like a rhythm to keep her focused and calm. Her legs and lungs burned as exertion strained her muscles, but she continued forward, never daring to slow or to rest.
Placing her hand on the rough surface of a large boulder, she kicked her legs over it to jump and then pushed off to keep running. Trees whistled past her, blurring in the edges of her vision as debris filled wind, from leaves and dust, fluttered around her.
She didn’t know how long she’d been running. An hour, maybe a little more?
Shrouded in a white cloak, gripping a dagger firmly in her hand, Reia ran through the darkness and gloom of the Veil. She refused to feel fear, hoping that the amulet and her faith in it would keep her safe.
I can make it, just keep running.
After their interlude of Orpheus having his fucking tongue inside her, Reia had sat on her bed panicking. Shame and embarrassment caused her blood to rush with adrenaline. She’d let him touch her, lick her, and her body had been begging for more. Even when he left, her body had been thrumming with the hope he’d return and finish what they’d started.
And it had freaked the hell out of her.
Just as daylight was breaking, with her wrapped tightly in the fur nearly hyperventilating due to stress, she’d heard him leave.
Perhaps he thought she was asleep, but she knew he must have left to obtain her water like he’d promised. He wouldn’t be gone long, maybe an hour or two, but Reia had started moving.
She’d dressed in her green gown, made sure her amulet circlet was firmly in place, grabbed a dagger, and jimmied the lock until the door opened. He probably thought locking it would be enough to keep her inside, but Reia had been barred inside her house in the village so many times that she’d taught herself how to break through them.
Then she bolted, heading toward what she thought was the way to the Veil’s cliff edge so she could escape.
The smart thing to do would be to wait until he left to hunt, when he might truly be gone for hours. But after what they’d done...
Reia couldn’t stay, refused to stay.
I am NOT going to be one of those people that falls in love with their captor. She couldn’t remember what the word was – she wasn’t thinking straight enough to. But Reia didn’t want Stockholm Syndrome to be in her future.
I can’t believe I came because of him.
Her breaths sawed through her lungs as she continued to sprint, thankful her bath was hiding her scent and she hadn’t seemed to come across any Demons hunting her.
He’s a Duskwalker! I let a Duskwalker lick me!
And she had wanted him to. Once more, shame crashed through her like a fist to her very soul. I’m a pervert. People would laugh at me. Not that she actually cared what anyone thought of her, a harbinger of bad omens. But she was using anything she could to fuel her feet to keep moving like her heels were on fire.
Which they were, filled with cold as she lacked any shoes. None of the other offerings had feet that were the right size for her. Her feet weren’t dainty, but they sure made her fast.
She groaned when a part of her wanted to turn back in hopes he might run his tongue over her again. Okay, fine. I like his stupid tongue, and glowing eyes, and bony face, and his stupid smell. Why does he even smell so good anyway? It was evil, calling for her to want to sin in its embrace.
She refused to turn back despite that she liked how sweet and thoughtful he had been. He thought he hurt me. And his reaction was so damn... adorable.
Guilt weighed on her, though. She was running away, fleeing, and she was sure that was going to hurt him. Why should I care if he’s lonely? He can find someone else to be with, someone that actually wants to live in the Veil.
No one wanted to live in the Veil.
Who cares if I’m the first one who made trinkets with him? She continued to sprint. Who cares if I’m the first one who had wanted to sit in his garden? She had to stop her feet from slowing when she thought, who cares if I’m the first one that had wanted him to touch them?
And she knew that was the truth, simply because he hadn’t understood about why she’d bled. She was the first human he’d taken the virginity of; Reia knew that deep down to her soul.
Am I really the first one who wanted him to touch them? Her eyes bowed in sadness for him. But he’s not so bad. He’s gentle, and sweet, and he just wanted to make me happy. She was sure he’d tried to do the same for all of them.
She knew he’d been taking humans for over a hundred years at least, maybe even two. Had no one else seen this in him?
His touch in the bath was filled with care, wanting to make sure they were protected within his home. The amulet, the salt circle, the dill trinkets. He wasn’t a beast trying to lure humans into feeding him.
Am... Am I running away because I like him? Was that why Reia had done this, something even she considered very, very stupid?
She sprinted harder, shaking her head to clear her thoughts. I don’t want to like him. I don’t want to be excited by his touch, his voice. I... don’t want this.
Trapped in the Veil, surrounded by a gloomy forest that was quite beautiful in its own way. It was filled with monsters that would eat her.
It didn’t matter that his home was warm and cosy. That it had a nice garden that actually had sunlight. That it had him in it.
Reia grunted when she tripped over something, feeling her amulet dislodging and pulling from her hair. It bounced away and she went to go to her hands and knees so she could get up.
She tripped again, losing her dagger this time, then she felt her foot tangled in something. She turned to dislodge her foot and ended up wrapping it further in whatever had her trapped.
Her brows drew together into a tight crease when she could see something wispy and white surrounding her foot. She yanked her foot and it yanked her back.
Leaning forward to pull it off, the substance stuck to her fingertips and her hand caught also. Stuck to whatever it was, she wrapped her other hand around her wrist to try to yank it away. It remained firm, keeping her to it by both her hand and foot.
What the hell is it? She relaxed her tugging and inspected the wispy, sticky substance. Her eyes widened as dread so cold crept through her it chilled her all the way down to her bones.
No. Nonono. She attempted to get to one foot, her body arched and bent as she used all her strength to pull away. It’s a spider’s web, anything but a spider!
Not much made Reia afraid, but there was always something creepy about a spider. She didn’t care if they had cute little eyes and furry little paws. The fact they were small, could get into anything, and were usually venomous had always freaked her out.
She fell over and started clawing at the ground, her eyes searching around for a way to leverage herself, only to find more webbing was around her. She looked back, realising she’d only been running through this area covered in webbing for a few metres, but she’d been so distracted by her thoughts that she hadn’t noticed.
I’m stuck! And now her body was bent awkwardly because even placing her hand against it had ensnared her. She hopelessly reached for the dagger and the amulet, but both were totally out of her reach.
Just as she was searching for a stick to wack them closer, the snapping of a branch, not a twig, caught her attention. Such an ominous sound was followed by the loud crunching of leaves getting closer and closer.
She desperately tugged to free herself while looking around her surroundings until her eyes fell on a black figure crawling closer in the white mist. Multiple spindly legs moved, and Reia’s heart leapt to her throat.
Spider. That’s a big spider.
And she wanted the fuck away from it.
Fear slithered under her skin when it emerged into the space she was in and was as gigantic and tall as Orpheus.
Its void, black-like skin told her it was a Demon. Its shape was so similar to that of spider, yet so completely different that it was off-putting.
It had eight arching legs, black and hairy, attached to a fat behind like that of a tarantula. Its upper segment was human-shaped, except backwards, arching its back so it could see. Human elbows almost touched its forward facing back, the shoulders twisted so it could use them in front of itself. The head was arched back and upside down, and the breasts were pointing towards the sky due to its upturned body.
Three sets of human-shaped red eyes with no whites in them spanned its forehead, while its mouth didn’t have lips and the exposed gums highlighted its many fangs.
“Well, what do I have here?” it hissed at her with a feminine pitch, snapping its jaw open and shut to make a chomping sound. “It looks human, but it doesn’t smell human.”
“Stay the hell away from me!” Reia yelled.
It crawled closer, each of its eight legs working at different times. It grinned, but it looked like a frown with its face upside down, and it was more grotesque the closer it came.
“Yes, definitely human.” Its thin body made the skin around its rib bones hollow further as it took in quick breaths when it laughed. “A human has wandered into the Veil and is caught in my territory?” It came so close that the black hair dangling from on top of its head tickled her neck while it peered deeply at her. “I smell your fear, tasty morsel.”
She attempted to punch it in the face, but it ducked away just in time. It snickered, the sound similar to a wheeze, and the hoarse sound of it elicited a terrible wave of disgusted shivers.
“Oh, how much fun you’ll be.” It reached down with its twisted arms to obtain webbing from the pointed spinner at its backside. “I wonder how quickly I can make you scream and cry.”
It didn’t need to wait long.
A scream immediately broke from Reia, muffled by webbing when it started wrapping her in it. She struggled, but it was short lived as the non-sticky webbing was strong and wound around her tightly to force her still.
Once she was wrapped in a thin cocoon, it used its claws to cut her free from where she was trapped. Lifting her off the ground, hovering her underneath its body, it started walking away with her.
Reia eyed the amulet and dagger on the ground, her heart thundering and racing.
This was no ordinary Demon. This wasn’t a weak one, but one who had eaten many humans. She wondered if the amulet would have done anything to protect her. But without it, she knew there was nothing to stop it from eating her.
A spider. Why did it have to be a spider? She couldn’t think of a more terrifying combination than a Demon and a spider, and currently she was in the clutches of it.
It took her deeper into its web-covered territory before coming to an opening that had a large hammock-like spider’s nest. It hovered above the ground, and it took her to the centre of it to lay her upon it.
Then it started climbing the trees, crawling to the canopy above until its human body dangled and made it the right way up.
“You are not as afraid as others.” It closed its eyes as its body shuddered in delight. The hairs on its legs rose and vibrated, showing Reia just how ecstatic it was that it had her. “But it still smells delicious on you, little morsel.” Its tongue came up to lick at its lipless face. “However, I desire a different emotion from you.”
Reia’s body ached in the tightness of her bounds. Her body bent in a way that wasn’t natural as her hand remained stuck to her ankle.
It leaned down with its arms reaching forward to cup her face. She couldn’t speak to it, her mouth covered by webbing, but her free nose allowed the pungent smell of rot and decaying bodies that came from it to churn her stomach with it so close.
It brushed its nose against her cheek in a stroke.
“Will you not be sad for me? I love the sour taste.”
Reia narrowed her eyes into a glare, refusing to give it anything it wanted. Its mouth opened and closed quickly, making that sharp snapping sound.
“No?” It snickered. “Is there no one you miss? No one you wish... to see?” Its voice became twisted and echoed before a shadow fell over its face.
Reia’s eyes widened when a ghost figure’s face fell over its own; a familiar one. Mother?
Blonde hair covered its own as a blue, singular pair, of eyes looked beseechingly into her own. The image was a perfect creation, looking exactly like the memories of her real mother.
“Why?” it asked her, her mother’s eyes bowing as her voice filled Reia’s ears. “Why did you bring the Demons on us?”
Her heart squeezed in her chest. She tried to shake her head, to tell it no. To tell her no.
“It’s all your fault.” Her mother’s voice made it convincing as Reia could see nothing else about the Demon. It was so close to her that it blocked out everything else. “If it wasn’t for you, we’d still be alive.”
No! Reia clenched her eyes shut, feeling tears collecting in her them. It’s a Demon. It’s not my mother.
“Why won’t you look at me, Sweetpea?”
Sweetpea. Only her parents called her that. It’s not her. It can’t be her. But how was this Demon able to conjure this? How did it know to use that very name?
“Can you not bear to look at me because of what you did?” Reia tried to squirm but gained no room in her trappings. “You killed us, Reia.”
My name? She opened her eyes to find her mother’s face, and it was filled with anguish and pain.
“You let them eat us. You brought them to our home by the will of your soul. You attract Demons like a bad omen.” It’s... it’s not my fault. It couldn’t be her fault. Being a harbinger wasn’t real, it wasn’t true. It was only a label the scared gave her. “You killed us!”
