Reacting purely on instinct, Merrick curled his fingers into fists, snuffing out the gathering magic, and willed the nearby shadows to envelop his body like a burial shroud. The woman’s gaze lingered on Merrick’s position, but he could tell by the way her eyes moved that she couldn’t see him amidst the gloom.
Human eyes struggled in the dark.
He studied her over the course of a few heartbeats. Her large, brown eyes gleamed with fear and uncertainty, and yet they were utterly beautiful—they were the most expressive eyes he’d ever seen. Her full lips were tantalizingly pink. She wore her brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, with a few curled strands hanging loose at the sides of her face.
Her features had an alluring, feminine softness to them, but they also bore evidence of the hard world from which she’d come—her cheekbones were accentuated by a hint of gauntness in her cheeks, and there were dark circles beneath her eyes.
Though she was clearly an adult woman, there was a certain innocence to her face—but it was an innocence that had somehow been sharpened and hardened by her experiences.
A strange but powerful urge rose inside him, fluttering in his chest. It took him a moment to realize that it was a magical resonance, a mana song, singing soft and sweet—a gentle melody existing beneath his own, existing within it.
Suddenly, he wanted to go downstairs, wanted to go to her. Not to kill her or frighten her, not to reprimand or confront her, but to be near her, to find out why she looked like she carried the world on her shoulders, to find out why she was so sad, so worn, and yet so pure.
The boy moved out of Merrick’s view, proceeding toward the parlor.
“Danny, we should—” the woman whispered before hurrying along behind the boy. “Danny!”
Merrick’s brows fell low. He stepped forward and grasped the railing, leaning over it to glance down, but the two had already moved beneath the overhang.
He tightened his grip and clenched his jaw. Why had he hesitated? Why hadn’t he, at the very least, demanded an explanation from them? Instead of confronting the intruders, he’d hidden himself and stared at the woman like a smitten fool.
They broke into my home, he reminded himself, and they are human. That makes them as dangerous as any monster that’s awoken since the Sundering.
Merrick shoved away from the railing and walked downstairs. The footsteps and voices of the humans drifted to him from the parlor; they spoke in hushed but excited tones—the boy’s excitement fueled by wonder and the woman’s by fear.
Ignoring them for a moment—he told himself it wasn’t because he was concerned with how he’d be affected by taking another look at the female—Merrick turned his attention to the front door. They’d broken a pane of the left window, close to the latch. The damage, along with the fact that they’d left the front door open, was enough to rekindle his annoyance.
It would be overly merciful to toss them out unharmed.
He closed the door quietly and lifted a hand, drawing on the magical currents flowing through him. Everything in the universe, whether living or inanimate, whether organic or otherwise, was touched by magic and possessed its own magical resonance, each like a unique song wrought from mana.
He’d worked with glass before. He knew its energy, knew the way it felt, the way it resonated.
The glass shards rose from the floor, glowing faintly blue, as he cocooned them in magic, drifting to the empty window frame. After a few seconds of manipulation, the pieces were lined up and in place. With a final flare of energy, Merrick sealed the fissures between the shards. No indication of damage remained when the light faded.
It was a minor expenditure of magic. The Sundering had left him with immense stores of energy, which had been increased by the proximity of the ley line. Fixing the windowpane was like removing a cupful of water from the ocean. But he let the unnecessary usage fuel his irritation, nonetheless. Were it not for the humans, he’d still be upstairs in his study, reading peacefully rather than repairing a window that had been intact for over a century.
He turned away from the front door to see the humans exit the parlor and walk down the north hall. Releasing a heavy breath, Merrick pulled more shadows from his surroundings, thickening his shroud and venting a bit of the magic racing along his arms and crackling up his spine. He kept his gaze on the boy this time; it was concerning that Merrick’s eyes seemed inclined to shift toward the female of their own accord.
“Danny, really,” the woman whispered, “we should get out of here.”
Yes, you should.
“It’s okay, Addy. If someone was here, they would’ve already shown up, right?”
Merrick squeezed his fists; they trembled in his anger. That attitude—just another version of because I can—that human attitude, had tainted his life from his youngest days. But humans had squandered their time on top. They’d failed to cement their dominance before the world had shifted. Now was the time for beings like Merrick.
Now Merrick was the one with power, and humans would learn how helpless they truly were.
Silent as a stalking cat, he followed the humans along the hallway, keeping several paces behind them.
Addy hurried to keep up with Danny, falling behind more than once as she scanned her surroundings and peered into dark rooms, her concern apparent in her expression. She was the older of the two; why hadn’t she asserted control? Why hadn’t she reined in this child before they’d done wrong?
Danny stopped suddenly and turned his head to the right. “Look, Addy! I bet there’s food in there.”
Like a rat sniffing out grain.
Why was Merrick following them? He should’ve acted by now, should’ve confronted them. Did he simply want to see how far they would go to fuel his own anger?
The boy stepped into the kitchen. Addy hesitated, twisting to look toward Merrick. Her brows were knitted with worry, and her lips parted with a soft exhalation. She looked through him; he knew it was an effect of his magic, but it was oddly disappointing.
What would she look like with her features relaxed, with her luscious lips upturned in a smile? What would she look like when joy sparkled in her gaze rather than fear? What would she look like with those big, expressive eyes half-lidded in desire?
When he breathed in, the air was scented with a hint of lavender—her scent. A deep ache stirred in his groin, and prickles of heat skittered briefly across his skin.
When was the last time I bedded a woman? When was the last time I felt any sort of lust? Perhaps I’ve simply denied those urges for far too long…
But that didn’t ring true to Merrick. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had such an urge. That could easily be explained by his tendency to avoid contact with people as much as possible, but for desire to stir so strongly within him after a single glance at an attractive woman…
The resonance he’d sensed when he first saw her reasserted itself; he’d let it fall to the back of his mind, but he couldn’t ignore it now. It lured him closer to Addy, coaxed him with its gentleness, its sweetness, to approach her. Was it coming from her? He didn’t understand how it could be—it seemed familiar somehow, and he’d never seen this woman before today.
He shifted his focus away from the mana song again; he needed to direct his attention toward the situation at hand.
This is more than attraction…and that I cannot explain it is infuriating.