Nerina [eShort Series]

Wiccan | iv

Nerina knew she was certainly at a disadvantage but she did not care.

"Firstly, you are not human and secondly, I don't need to feed to kill." She released him abruptly taking a step back. "Now leave me alone." She was happy that she could keep her voice so level when this man, a stranger, affected her on such a primal level. She was glad she had no heartbeat or it would have been thundering so loudly he would have heard it. She was happy her skin could not flush with heat at the thoughts the momentary touches had conjured. It had only taken a second for the pictures to flash in her mind steamy and vivid.

How long had it been since she had been with a man? Not since Dmitri. The thought of him had a dull ache forming in her chest. No other man had touched her since then. No other man had aroused her or her interest in being touched. This man whose name she did not know, this witch, had no right to arouse anything but a healthy dose of annoyance.

"You want me," he said from behind her.

Nerina scoffed, "I do not."

"Your aura is aroused little vampire."

Nerina continued walking clenching her jaw. A witch had told her about her aura once before. Then it was with deep-rooted fear that coloured her aura. She was not sure which she preferred. Fear for a woman whose atrocities she knew or arousal for a man whose name she did not know.

Nerina rounded on him. "Stop following me." Instead of being mad, she just sounded desperate.

When he smiled, Nerina's eyes fell to his lips before she had the good sense to keep a straight face.

She took a step towards him before she pulled herself up short. "What are you doing to me?"

"I would never use my magic to seduce a woman." He seemed to think about it then added. "Not in the way you seem to be suggesting."

"Go use it on someone else witch." She meant to leave but once again, she was snared by an invisible bond.

"You—"

"Scoundrel?" he supplied as he stepped over to her, "or did you have something else less ladylike in mind."

"You insufferable, underhanded bastard. I will kill you."

He released her on her threat. Not that he was remote afraid. He had his head tilted to expose his neck, hands out to his side he stood there like an open sacrifice. "As you wish."

"You're a bastard and a lunatic."

That force again brought her up to him. She could feel the heat of his body stealing its way under her skin just as he was. It was all in his scent. His scent triggered primal urges in her only one other thing did... blood. She could feel the electricity moving through his fingertips to lick at her skin as he traced the line of her jaw. She could smell him his scent now laced with arousal. Almost taste him. His heart was a strong steady pulse in his chest. Nerina found herself in tuned with the man before her and she found herself irrevocably aroused. And equally disturbed by her reaction.

"Vampires are sexual beings. It makes no sense to deny it." He only touched her face but she could feel his fingers touching everywhere she wanted to be touched. A gentle slide of flesh over flesh but he never moved. He simply stood there staring past her outer self to her very core.

"My scent calls to you."

Nerina gasped as she felt him touch the most sensitive part of her. With only his mind, he brought her to the peak of madness, holding her there, never pushing her over, and never allowing her to free fall over the edge into release.

Nerina found herself clutching his arms for support as one wave after another washed over and through her drowning her, pulling her deeper into the temptation of him. In her mind, her reaction embarrassed her but the sensations he created soon overwrote all common sense. This man was a stranger. She did not even know his name. What was wrong with her? Was she so desperate for companionship that she would give herself to a man she did not know? A stranger in the woods?

Her aura changed now clouded by sadness and shame. He saw the passion being tainted. Nerina gasped when he released her from his energy. Shame was foremost in her mind as she turned away hands over her face.

"I must apologize. That was selfish of me."

When she faced him, again red tears stained her face. "Selfish? Is that the only name you can call it? I don't even know your name and you have me—doing things in the middle of the woods." Her voice dropped to a berating whisper as she continued to speak more to herself than to him. She had allowed him to do whatever he had done and what made it worse was that she liked. She wanted it. What was wrong with her?

"Fionn."

"What?" She had barely snapped out of it.

"My name is Fionn. I apologize for allowing my passion to overcome my good sense."

Nerina was about to tell him her name but settled on— "Marjorie."

"Marjorie, again I apologize for taking advantage."

Nerina sighed. "You never took advantage. You did exactly what I wanted you to do."

Then she was gone and Fionn was left standing there in the woods baffled by the oddity of the woman—Marjorie. A vampire, who did not feed on human blood, was concerned with the safety and well-being of three human women who she could easily have killed to feed, who worked as a barmaid in a tavern and who attracted him in the most primal way. Witches and vampires were not enemies but they kept their connection business oriented.

With Marjorie, he intended to make their connection more...personal. Her aura said she was just as attracted to him but it also spoke of fear and self-doubt. Of sadness. What did she fear? What reason did she have to doubt herself? But most importantly—what had made her so sad? He could, while reading her aura, tell she was not a young vampire. Time could be a cruel mistress.

Fionn did his best to stay away from Marjorie for the next couple of nights doing his utmost to give her space. She had anxieties that he did not know of first hand but was willing to be patient with her. His patience lasted only a few nights before he went to the tavern again. Marjorie was gone. At first, he had thought she may have been outside or she had not come in yet but the woman behind the counter, Elizabeth, said the night before had been her last.

Outside he cursed eloquently.

"Nothing that is lost remains so forever Marjorie."

He did what any man in his position with his powers would do. He hunted her down using his magic. With nothing belonging to her to use as a part of his spell he had to picture her face. Not a difficult task with it already etched into his mind. Her silvery blue eyes, the slight pout of her bottom lip. The thick silky mass of her dark brown hair. The smooth alabaster of her skin. Her face a soft oval held secrets. Secrets he was determined to unravel.

Clear in his mind, her face formed as he chanted the locating spell. In the space of a night—two nights she had made her way to a tiny island off the Greek coast. With a spell and a potion, he was where he wanted to be.