“How did you…what…how is this possible?” she asks in awe and turns her head to connect our gaze.
“I have no damn clue,” I offer in all honesty. “I had a dream and the image was stuck in my head. I rolled out of bed and worked on it all morning.”
“You didn’t even know we would be attending the gathering. We decided on it at the very last minute when it was already in full swing,” she whispers in a confused voice.
I can’t resist and place my fingers low on her hip. My mouth right next to her ear, I whisper back, “It seems I was already yours before we met.”
She clears her throat and dashes out of my reach. “It’s the eternal mating thing. A pure chemical reaction. It has little to do with love or dreaming about someone you care deeply about. We’re supernatural creatures, you must have had some kind of sense you were close to getting connected.”
We stare at one another and I take in her appearance. The skeptical look on her face for instance. Her fingers curling into fists is a second trigger and the quick rise and fall of her chest also shows her fierce display of emotion.
Emotion. Her statement of feelings being unattached and the connection of eternal mates is only an impulse due to a chemical reaction our body is triggered by; all of it makes it perfectly clear she doesn’t believe in the true meaning of eternal mates.
I know from my parents–who are eternal mates–that they instantly connected. They might have put the bond in place first but there’s so much more than the chemical reaction that triggers the body. End of the line, they love one another fiercely.
You can say it’s something similar as love at first sight between humans. Most do not believe it’s possible while others will fiercely tell you it happened to them. It only shows love, affection, a special bond, one, all, it’s all experienced differently by each person.
I’m not ashamed to say I believe in love. My parents are the living proof the eternal mating brought two people–who each consider the other one the love of their life–to spend the rest of eternity together.
Besides, your body can be fooled into being pulled toward someone who is your perfect match but the mind is a completely different thing. And when it comes to matters of the heart, I happen to believe in the whole package deal.
I guess we have a lot to learn from one another and at this time it’s best to tell her a little something about me. “My sketches aren’t always simply art. Some come from dreams and are glimpses of the future.”
Stepping toward the file cabinet sitting against the wall, I unlock it and reach inside to grab a thick binder. I take out a few sketches I’ve made over the past years and spread them out for her to see.
“Fragments of the future?” she croaks as her fingers hover over the sketch of two children running hand in hand. “Their ears.”
I lean in and it didn’t even catch my attention, it could have easily been the rough sketching but I can recognize pointy ears for what they fucking are.
“Our kids.” I swallow hard at the emotion swelling my damn throat.
Silence wraps around us when she glances through the other sketches.
Until she holds one up and announces, “This is not me.” The corner of her mouth twitches. “I would never cut my hair into a short bob.”
I let my fingertips slide over her purple hair and give a little tug at a strand while I slide it behind her pointy ear.
“Maybe that was just part of my fantasy when I was sketching the image,” I huskily tell her.
Her eyes dilate and her breathing picks up. Call it a chemical reaction or not; she’s affected by my words and touch. With her rapid rise and fall of her chest, my gaze catches her dermal piercing once more. The lust burning through me dims slightly at the reminder of the remote in my pocket.
I let my hand fall away and take a step back. Gathering the sketches, I tuck them into the binder and lock them away. Turning to face her, I reach for the remote and hold it out for her on the palm of my hand.
I wait till her gorgeous eyes land on it and tell her, “Mind explaining this? Your father mentioned something about you having abilities you can’t control?”
Her hand flies into the direction of the choker around her neck but falls away just as quickly as if she’s caught herself doing something she shouldn’t.
“My abilities are abnormal,” she says in a detached voice. “I don’t have wings and people have been rambling about some kind of legend involving a fairy born without wings. A nymph, a goddess, whatever they’re labeling me as since I’m a fairy minus wings. With fairies being vicious I could turn evil in the blink of an eye. People are afraid. My mother was and she killed herself because of me. The piercings are protection I asked for myself so people wouldn’t fear me. They hold fragments of celestine, it weakens me.”
I grip the remote between my thumb and forefinger and hold it up. “And this? Since I heard you mention how others fear you and ramble about a legend, while you only say your abilities are abnormal.”
“My father asked a jeweler to make this choker so he could knock me out with one press of a button.”
Her upper lip twitches in anger and mine instantly spikes. I didn’t like her father but hearing this and seeing her reaction to the remote? Fuck. It’s good he isn’t present because I would have kicked the shit out of him. Something I’m not sure Maze would appreciate since the asshole is still her father.
“Turn around,” I grunt.
She stares at me without moving so I jab my index finger into the air and swirl it around to get her moving. She narrows her eyes but slowly follows through on my request. I reach forward and carefully slide her hair to one shoulder and bare her neck. There’s a fucking lock keeping the choker in place.
I touch her skin right above the tiny lock. “Is this why you haven’t removed it yourself?”
“It’s locked by fairy magic so I can’t open it myself.” The words are a mere whisper but fucking loud inside my head.
I wrap my fingers around the lock and crush the thing to dust. My powers not only consist of vampire strength but with my mother being part angel, I have a lot of added abilities. Crushing a lock sealed with fairy magic isn’t up to facing my powers.
Next to go is the choker and to my horror I now see the burned skin underneath it. Not just burned…it seems as if…
“Fucking hell, did they just strap it on at an early age and never changed it so it fucking grew into your skin?”
She turns to face me and her fingers go to her neck but they keep hovering near the damaged area while she nods. As an immortal she has healing power but something as damaging as this will take some time to fully heal. I crush the remote and let the fragments fall to the floor.
“No more,” I growl. “You’re in control of your own damn life. No one controls the underboss’ fiancée, not even me.”
CHAPTER THREE
– MAZE –
“No more,” Fiero growls. “You’re in control of your own damn life. No one controls the underboss’ fiancée, not even me.”
“What have you done?” I whisper as I stare at the remote and choker lying in pieces at our feet.