Night Children: Secrets are only secrets for so long

Night Children: Secrets are only secrets for so long Twenty-Two: Scent

A few minutes later and the three of us stood around the girl tied to a chair she was shooting daggers at me. “Name,” I demanded.

“I’m not telling.”

“Tell me your name,” I demanded this time specifying that she had to tell me.

She looked like she was fighting it but the words spilled from her lips, “Harper Creek.”

“Sounds like a Moon name,” Griever snarled.

“It’s not,” I said, “Is it?”

“No.”

“Why do you want Viktor dead?”

“Nothing personal, I have orders too you know.”

“And who do you get these orders from?”

Her head snapped to the sides wildly blood started coming from her mouth. Apparently she wasn’t to tell. “You don’t have to say.”

She stopped thrashing her head bowed. I walked closer and lifted her head her eyes were rolled back. I felt for her pulse. Nothing. “Shit.” Apparently the Soul Children die faster when disobeying…or her orders come from way high up.

“So she isn’t the one who wants my head on a stick,” Viktor murmured. “So who is?”

“Head of the Soul Children?” I questioned, “who would that be?”

Viktor and Griever looked to each other and both shrugged. “But why do they want to bring down the Night Children?”

“What about the Moon Children?” I asked, never once had I cared about them, “wasn’t there a time when there was piece between you two?”

“Yes, back before my father was king,” Viktor replied, “then they went mad and attacked killing hundreds of us.”

“What if they weren’t doing it of their own accord?” I questioned. “Dance with the Night Children, Feast with the Moon Children and are stronger than both. What if they can order Moon and Night Children?”

“That would make a lot of sense,” Griever replied.

“And made our lives a lot more deadly,” Viktor muttered.

I nodded in agreement. This was going to be bad… real bad.

“But they can’t order you?” Griever questioned.

“Seems not…” I said quietly.

We all headed back to the castle, Viktor wanted to speak with me more about this entire nonsense, and he probably seen the sadness in my eyes over the dead girl in my home. He assured me she would be buried. I was glad since I was at fault for her death.

Once in the safety of Viktor’s room I let out a breath and Viktor asked Griever for privacy which he complied to a little slowly. He probably expected me to paralyze the prince again. Which I had no reason for doing. Once the door shut behind Griever he took me in a tight embrace. “Breath!” I yelped. He let me go promptly.

We stood facing each other for a moment, before he started shuffling around the room. I took off my coat and threw it on a chair. He turned back to me and inhaled deeply, I watched him as he came closer his head burrowing in my neck, my long frosty hair waving over. “Your scent has changed,” he said calmly, “It must have been a barrier.”

“Barrier?” My voice was barely a whisper, him being this close felt intimate even though it wasn’t meant to.

He breathed my scent in once more, “some Night Children can cast spells. A handful of Moon Children as far as I’ve heard… and every Soul Child from the beginning of time.” He pulled back slowly and stared into my eyes. “You’ve changed, so subtly I nearly missed it.”

“Subtle? I went from being known as a man to a woman,” I said laughter ringing in my voice.

He smiled, “that wasn’t what I meant, the barrier broke it changed your scent slightly, not noticeable to most I’m sure.”

“But to you,” I whispered.

He looked at me studying me and he nodded, “I’ve always been well aware of you, even as a male, my best friend, I never wanted harm to come your way. And as a woman I startlingly became more and more aware of you.” He walked away sitting down on his bed and I joined him, “so when it changed I was probably the only one who will tell.”

“Griever?”

“Unlikely, Garrett… he might have been able to tell,” Viktor said. It had been so long since Garrett had graced our lips, both avoiding the painful subject. The final image I had of him in my head, crushed skull fragments and blood. I swallowed back bile and pushed the image away.

“The blood moon is near it’s end…” Viktor murmured.

“Yes,” I whispered looking at him, even the eye contact between us felt intimate. We just looked at each other. I felt like crap, I didn’t want him looking at me like this, the leather pants were man sized, my shirt was masculine. My hair was at least down, but it was knotted from the late autumn wind. And he… looked perfect, I was envious, his high cheekbones bright blue eyes, long dark hair that looked perfect as usual, his clothing refined and pressed.

His hand rested on my thigh but his eyes never left mine. His other hand cupped my face gently his cool touch sending a shiver down my spine, he drew it back slowly and like before I shifted to compensate for his movement my face staying with his hand. He smiled gently.

Viktor’s cool hand slipped behind my head and pulled me close, kissing my lips with passion I didn’t fully understand. What the heck did he see in me? Still I kissed him back with all the passion I possessed. I didn’t have to kill him anymore! I could have him! Still he could be using me. Needing me for the child, and yet I trusted him. I trusted the look in his eyes when we would find ourselves unable to brake each other’s intense stares.

We slowly fell down to the bed laying side by side facing each other messing with each others hair, kissing, our hands roaming over the other’s still clothed bodies. His icy touch went right through me. We stopped for a minute, his arm around my waist pulling me so there was no space between us. We stared into each others eyes for a long while, “I love you, you know.”

I smiled, “I think I know… and I love you too.”

“You think?” He looked a little hurt.

“I know.”

He smiled, “you better.”