The Cursed Dragon

Chapter 23: Erase

I know it has been a little while, I have been very busy working on my novels. I hope you enjoy this chapter, it is nice and long.

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"He's all I can see when I sleep," she murmured into his shirt. "I don't want to see him, make him go away."

What did she want him to do?

Ask, a quiet voice pushed him. He wanted to make it better. He wanted to scrub the image of Grimma from her mind. She didn't deserve to be haunted by him.

"How, tell me how." He needed to know, whatever it was if he could he would do it.

"Kiss me."

Cadimus froze in place.

Kiss her?

Surely he hadn't heard her correctly.

"What?" the word slipped from his lips.

He wasn't wearing his ring. She was looking at Jacob...she was looking at his scarred wretched face and asking for a kiss.

Airne reached up towards his face and he went to pull back until her hand dipped and found purchase in his shirt collar instead and he relaxed. She was not going to touch his face. Good, that was good, he...couldn't handle that strange gentleness.

Too much like kindness, and kindness was too close to pity.

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She wanted to touch him, wanted to get lost in him and forget the nightmares, forget the bad part of the dungeon and go back to it just being him and her there in her mind like how it had been. She remembered the static that had been between them then as he had let her touch and heal him.

Her hands tightened around the collar of his shirt, knuckles turning pale with the force of the grip. She leaned against his body and tilted her chin up towards him. She wanted to be lost in him.

Was it wrong?

Was it wrong to want to find solace in the one person here who had shown her kindness?

One hand crept up to the back of his neck, her fingers tangling in the soft black silk strands. His eyes were so beautiful, so pale and blue.

"No one...no one wants to kiss a face like this," he said as she slowly went to her toes bringing their mouth closer to one another.

"I do," she said on a breath and then she pressed her lips to his. For a moment he was still, there was no response, and then his lips parted slightly and she felt her chest swell with a pained sort of joy at having a hope fulfilled, even one so small as a kiss.

Take me away from this hell, she whispered mentally and her hands fisted in his shirt and hair.

Jacobs arms came up to wrap around her, but instead of kissing her back his lips separated from her as if he were holding himself back from getting too close. She suddenly felt herself backed up against the nearest wall and her heart pounded from the close proximity.

It was there again between them, that same static and heat from the Dungeon as he held her pinned against the wall.

Jacob pulled back slightly to look at her as if he was truly surprised that she had followed through and kissed him, his eyes were searching for the truth...trying to see if she really had  wanted to kiss him.

She had. She did. She wanted to kiss him again.

There was so much in those pale blue eyes, a strange tortured torment and a yearning. She felt like he was crumpling in her arms, pushing her away and drawing her closer at the same time.