His Stoic Mask, Her Bleeding Heart

Chapter 11: Desperation

"You should...sleep or something," Kai rasped as he closed his bedroom door behind Elyria. She looked around, that creepy smile still plastered on her face. The room was small in comparison to most of the others she had seen here, more like a large closet than a bedroom. He didn't seem to need much, though, just a bed shoved against a wall and a chest of drawers beside it. The top was covered with small candles of all colors, their flames flickering to cast a small amount of light throughout the room, and Elyria stepped closer to look at them.

"Why so many candles?" she asked, sweeping her fingers through the tip of a flame and making it dance wildly in their wake.

"I prefer them to electric lights," he answered, and she heard the creaking of the full-sized bed as he sat down on the edge of it. "They hurt my eyes less."

"Why not have only darkness, then?" she asked, turning to him even as she dragged her fingers through the flame again.

He shrugged and averted his gaze. "I just like them."

She nodded and sat down beside him, a foot or so of space between them. "So, do you have anything that I could clean myself up with?" she asked, her eyes wandering about the room. For someone with such a deeply engrained animal side, he sure kept his space tidy. "I've stopped gushing blood, but it's still dripping a bit."

"Doesn't that bother you?" he asked, and she turned to find that his eyes were on her slowly bleeding neck.

"No," she said, letting out an eerie laugh to accompany her odd smile. "Nothing's bothering me right now."

"You should sleep," he said again, meeting her eyes now.

"Why?" she asked, crossing one leg over the other and leaning back on the bed. "I feel fine."

"You're obviously not fine," he grated as he glared down at her sternly. "You're not yourself right now. You need to rest."

"But aren't I like you now?" she asked, crawling to her knees on the bed beside him. She leaned close to him, running a hand gently along his cheek and smearing blood across his skin in the process. The smell of it was potent, sweet and strong and cloying, and she saw his nostrils flare as he caught the scent. "Aren't I more beast than man, now, too?"

"Not like me, no," he said, though his voice was gentler now, his gaze much less harsh. "You aren't supposed to be the way you are; you can be fixed."

"And you can't?" she asked in a murmur, taking his earlobe in her mouth and giving it a light, playful nibble. Her hand rested on his shoulder, having left a trail of blood down his neck.

He pushed her back, a low growl rumbling in his throat. "Stop it," he said. "You need to rest."

"I told you," she said, giggling. "I feel fine." Her smile turned suddenly seductive, and she leaned close to his face once again. "Besides, why would Hale have sent me off with you if he didn't want this to happen?" She lay her hand on his cheek again, careful to keep her bleeding wrist right beneath his nose. "He knows how much you like my blood."

His eyes drifted shut, nose trembling as he breathed in the sweet scent. It seemed as if he were going to give in to her for a moment, but his eyes suddenly snapped open, and he lurched hurriedly to his feet. "No," he rasped, his voice strained beyond the norm. He was at war with himself; she could tell. "Hale left me in charge of you because I'm the one who can keep you in line. This has nothing to do with your blood."

"And how do you intend to keep me in line, exactly?" she asked in a low purr, rising slowly, gracefully, seductively to her feet before him. She rested her forearms on his shoulders, her hands tangling loosely behind his neck, and the fact that she was only wearing a tiny shirt and underwear hit him hard. "Are you going to try to fight me like Bethany did? Or did you have something a little more...sexual in mind?"