colours of viridian | BOOK ONE | J a d e d ✔️

F r o z e n

S o n g : C o n q u e r o r - A U R O R A

C h a p t e r XVI
M a k e n n a

I could feel the relief when he told me he'd stay. I still blamed him for that pain, but I found the pain to be disappearing from my mind. It was as if my mind was slowly taking it away involuntarily. But that was okay. The more I forgot the more I could breathe.

My stomach growled suddenly, causing my hand to press onto my stomach in surprise.

Viridian's lips twitched up for a moment before walking away towards the door, "Come on, little human. Let me feed you." I could hear the amusement in his voice from the irony, "Your body was frozen in time for three days, you're going to feel like your starving soon as it readjusts." He explained quickly, leading us through the large magnificent hallways.

His house was incredible as I scrambled after him; feeling my stomach grow more impatient for food. My eyes took in everything, trying to distract myself from the emptiness in my gut. It was Victorian Gothic inspired, with a touch of modernness. I liked it. The colour from his bedroom spread out on almost every wall in every room, but there were different textures everywhere too (wood, metal, brass, the wall trimming.)

"What do you mean my body was 'frozen in time'?" I frowned as I really thought about his words. I remembered my body flailing and screaming -it was definitely not frozen.

His bright eyes flickered over to me, "The spell was mental -not physical. The pain you experienced was all in your head. At some point you went into a sort of coma since your body couldn't handle it. But since it was a coma brought on by a spell, it made time stop as you went deep into your mind to fight off the effects of the compulsion." He hesitated with furrowed brows, "It might have been three days out here, but where you were...there was no time. It was endless. You couldn't possibly put a time to it."

I shivered as the blood in my veins dropped in temperature, "But it did end," My voice was tiny. I knew he was right. The pain that I hadn't yet forgotten had just kept going and going. It felt like an eternity.

His hand grabbed mine, shocking me out of my memories as he squeezed it. "Yes. It did end." He kept his eyes straight forward but I briefly wondered if he felt the magnetic pull between us like I did.

It wasn't romantic. It was just...this. Like a mutual beneficial, uh, acquaintanceship. He'd probably disagree, but I think he needed me like I needed him. He was the only thing I knew was real. And I was the only one who could see him for who he really was. But he'd have never admitted it.

His large cold hand enveloped my small warm one, pulling me down the stairs and eventually lead me to a large opened door frame. "Sit at the breakfast bar." He ordered as he released me to go to the fridge.

My lips curved up as I unbraided my still moderately clean hair and pulled it into a bun. "You have human food in the house? Do you eat it?" I watched in wonder as he brought out normal everyday containers of eggs, salt, and pepper.

I could practically feel him roll his eyes as he prepared the food expertly. "We still have taste buds. They are just heightened to taste the individual differences in-" he stopped awkwardly.

"Blood?" I finished for him, feeling another shiver. "But wait, so that must make food taste a lot better. So why do you need to drink blood if you can eat food and enjoy it more than us humans?" My face turned into a frown as I crossed my arms disapprovingly.

"It tastes good. But it turns directly into acid instead of nourishing us. It doesn't sustain us since we aren't really...alive. Our organs and all our insides don't work." He shrugged as if it were no big deal.

"Ew, are you all decayed and mushy inside?" My nose crunched up in disgust.

Yuck! Viridian could have been a rotting corpse. And yet he was attractive. Gross!

He threw me a sharp glare over his shoulder. "No. That's disgusting." He said sharply. "Our bodies are just...I guess like yours had been for three days; frozen in time. Everything should work and it's all in perfect condition, but it doesn't."

My eyes widened, "So, what you're saying is I was practically a vampire for three days." I grinned, I could officially put 'was a vampire for three days but decided I didn't like it' on my resume.

He rolled his eyes again before turning back to the cooked egg omelettes and placing them on a plate. "Sure." Viridian sighed with a head shake, deciding to let me have it while he put the black and purple plate in front of me.

"Does that mean you don't have to shower or anything? You could just sit there forever with blood bags and stay perfectly like that?" I stuffed my face with the food, feeling famished from all the hard work of being frozen. It was delicious.

He stole a piece of one of my eggs with his fork as I wrinkled my nose up at him. "Yep." He popped the bite into his mouth, smirking slightly. "But just because I don't need to do something, doesn't mean I don't do it. I like showers and sleeping and eating. I can just skip them more than you." He gloated in a voice that made it seem like he didn't care -but I could see that sparkle of 'ha! In your face' in his colourful eyes.

I stuck my tongue out at him childishly and he smiled. It was one of those real show-off-his-dimples-on-both-cheeks-adorably smiles. Even his viridian coloured eyes were smug and happy as they held mine impenetrably captive.

I think I melted, and I think he noticed because his cheeks flushed and he looked down.

But he was still smiling.

†⚜†

I'm dying. Viridian is so cute 😍😭
I honestly just love Kiri/Venna (you pick) they are so in denial. They're so digging each other. ❤️💜💙💚💛
(Picture of the kitchen!)