A Realm of Hell

Chapter 10

She was still as my lips pressed up against hers. But she was not frozen. No it wasn't as if she was shocked, but as if it did nothing to her. To have my lips move against her full pale ones did not send her heart ablaze the way it did mine. Her eyes remained open and her body moved neither forward or away from me. She was neutral about me. I could see it now.

The touches, her caress was nothing but a blind movement. A unthought twitch of muscle with no meaning behind it.

Still my being craved her. The same way the waves of the ocean craved the land, I brushed and tugged toward her, only to return back to my waters.

Her lips twitched under mine, sending my heart racing. They moved against mine into a smile, her pointed teeth grazing my lips. I back off an inch, shocked by the contact.

Her chuckle is heard behind my closed eyes but I do not open them. Instead I savor the feeling. The high that she brings me.

"It's unnatural. The way you are drawn to me," I feel her hand come to stroke my cheek, "a moth should be drawn to flames. Not the shadows it causes."

"And if I am?" I breath, memorized by the smooth movement of her finger on my cheek.

"Then i sympathize. Flames will kill you but darkness, darkness will devour you," she whispers her warm breath fanning my parched lips.

I hold my breath. My mind hazy with only thoughts of her. Her hand stops it's movement making my crack open my eyes. The being in front of me rooted my feet. I should be afraid. I should turn and run from those much too deep of pools. Their darkness promising endless danger. But I can't. I can't will my legs to move even a step out of her reach. Her smile glows as she examines my features.

"A string of fate that connects two souls. What do you think would happen one of those souls were to disappear? Would the red string still connect?" She asks, her finger coming to twirl a piece of my golden locks.

"Would the string not be broken?" My eyes searching hers. She blinks up at me, her brows pinching together.

"I'm not so sure anymore," her finger stops its movement. She tugs and the wave, making it spring back into its form.

"Why do I feel that you are not telling me everything?" I catch her hand before it returns to her side. Bringing it to my mouth I press softly on the warm skin, my eyes never leaving hers.

"Some information will only hurt," using her pointer and middle finger she pinches my bottom lip, tugging it out a bit. My teeth come to graze her skin.

"Someday you will know it all," she continues, the taste of her skin sweet against my tongue, "and you will never look at me the way you are right now."

I hear her warning, I let it go into one ear and swirl inside my brain, but it does not stick. A feeling, the draw I have to her blocks these warning bells and all i can think is just how lovely her skin must feel against mine. How, if she allowed me, I would worship even the dust within her air.

"Will you make me leave you?" I question, noticing the deeply rooted pity in her eyes, "Will you drive me away?"

She laughs at my question, tugging her finger out of my grasp she brings it to her own mouth, tasting where I had been. Her cynical grin widens as my heart begins to tighten.

"There is no ounce of good inside me," her face inches closer, her whisper a enticing snake, "I will only bring you closer."

I can't stop the shuttering breath that leaves my lungs. The captivating pulling that leads my face closer to the mouth of a lion. I wait this time, I wait for her to move, knowing that I was not the one who was in charge. I knew that no matter how hard I would try and will us to be closer, for us to take a step toward...what exactly was I racing toward? I wasn't sure what I was hoping to gain from these interactions all I knew is I wanted her. Or maybe I wanted to be hers. Either was fine with me because this creature, this monster that lurked in the shadows was a thief that had stolen my will for life from the first time I met her. All I wanted was darkness, as long as she was hidden within it.

She stops, her eyes growing wide as she assesses my features and I don't have time to ask what is wrong before she backs away. Her movements not the usual graceful dance. Her feet stumble, I reach for her only to have her put an arm between us.

"No," she demands, making my hands fall to my sides.

"What is it, Lylith?" I am rooted by her somehow scared expression. Not knowing what to do I stand perfectly still, afraid that this spooked animal may come to bite my hand.

Her cautious hand comes up to hang in the air as if she were to touch me, if she wasn't so far away.

"No," she repeats, "not this soon."

"Lylith?" I speak but she does not hear me, instead she glares at the side of my head, making me look at what she is seeing.

The strand of golden hair that she had been so casually twirling now matched the night sky.