beLIEve

Prologue

Trust Me.  The words rolled across his tongue in an angelic whisper, the passion of heated deception revealed with the curl of his lips.  I could feel his warm breath against my temple as he caressed my cheek with his gentle lips, tracing the waves of dusty blonde that collected at my scalp.  I felt myself desire him; his golden irises hypnotizing me in a restless trance.  I felt my heart pulse with a deep seated anxiety, a fear in which I could not distinguish.  I felt my body tense; and my blood run cold as I felt his nimble fingertips glide across my collarbone; I clenched my own eyes shut, dislodging myself from his gaze.  I cringed in a fire of deep want, and I could feel the wisps on the back of my neck begin to stand on end, as if an invisible windchill drifted through the dense wood.  When I allowed my perception to re find his placid face, I felt my head twist into a nod as I felt his fingers entangle with my own.  I felt his heavenly caress once more, and my anxiety seemed to vanish.  I felt myself separate from my wall of solitude, and I, for once, felt wanted -no- Needed.  My feet carried me with him, further away from the land of my kin.  Further away from the civilization I have only just betrayed.

If only I knew that his perfection was weaved into a web of deceit, his words a collection of calumny and malevolent intentions.  If only I knew that his fingers plucked at my heartstrings to lead me to a downfall of spiralling complexity, while his own heart ceased to beat for any other besides himself.  Despite my own suspicions, my love was uncontrolled.  My heart polished with the idea that within this nebulous youth, a desire for me remained sacred.  I did not see his flaw and pernicious evil.  I did not see that he had wanted me for simply one intention.  That intention being that he needed someone. No. Something.  Something that would know everything about them.  He needed a weak heart that would easily betray.  He needed the now shattered heart that was mine.  A heart that is now plagued with the guilt that I lead to the destruction of my own kind.

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The terrain was rough and unshifted.  The brisk chill that drifted with the breeze nipped at their revealed flesh as each stood at the base of a towering stone.  Their eyes were diverted forward as their perception redirected to that of the scene before them.  The clouds held a dismal state as the beckoning light that signified morning was in existent, the hearts of each hardening in an impassive fury as the depraved company made their formation on the earth opposite in which they stood.  Many of those at the base of the rock released a lowly growl originating from the fathoms of his or her throat. 

Tai emerged from the internal groupings of his allies.  His face was a placid scowl as his irises of a striking blue narrowed on the approaching figures.  He was a youth himself; only aging about sixteen, his childhood innocence taken from him by the betrayal of his own.  His short hair curled around his ear in a dusty blonde, his skin marked with dust and dried blood from scars that remained open.  His stance was statue like, his expression impassive. 

"I look foward to tasting their flesh within my jaws." he growled in a lowly hiss of infuriation, wrath and angst clinging to his voice. 

A young man aged only 18 himself turned to the dusty haired minor; "Cockyness is an ill-fated weakness.  Strive for one goal...survival.  Protect your own.  Display no mercy." he responded in an unappealing and raspy voice; a long slash from his left eyebrow to the center of his neck a permanent reminder of the hatred in which was bestowed amoungst the opposite parties. 

Tai trembled at the authority's words; his eyes widening as he attempted to understand his advice, his nails digging into his palms as he felt his fists clench. 

"I will protect my own." he repeated, his voice caught in his throat as he recalled that he may go up against his own blood. 

The scarred lad looked down upon Tai, as if already realizing what he was thinking.  "She is a betrayer to us.  She allowed her own selfishness to lead her own people to a demise." he growled, gnawing his lip as he did so.