Daevas -I- ✔️

Chapter 12.5: Choice

"Blood and body do not equate to one another... Yet you... " 

"You are young. You do not know a thing," Cyrus said smiling. "Blood tastes better and lasts longer when you are intimate. What matters is if you share your name. Do not bother entertaining such thoughts when all I have in mind is you... and Auovin." 

Ari's face flushed. 

"Do not be so jealous either. You take from me, but I cannot take from the either of you." 

"I would not care either way... "

"Because you like him?" 

"I do like him... but I would not mind... if you liked him as well." 

Cyrus stared at him. Ari's ears were burning up. Ari was melting under his gaze. Cyrus' green eyes seemed to have a way of doing that to him time and time again.

"It is no wonder Auovin has taken a liking to you. You are so much like him which should not surprise me, but it does." 

Ari took hold of Cyrus' shirt keeping him from moving. 

"I like you... as much as I like Auovin. I did not mean to hurt your feelings. I am sorry if I had... I just... " Ari crumpled the bit of Cyrus' shirt in his hand.  "I just want to know things. Tell me, and surely I will understand you. I do not know much about you, but you know everything about me, after all." 

Cyrus turned around and looked at Ari. He let go of a small sigh before removing Ari's hand from his shirt. He left a soft kiss on the back of it.

"Such as?"

"How you came to know Auovin... and why you have grown such love for a man who seems to be doing things you may not fully agree with."

"When the fall happened... the demons that were not raised up were hunted and killed. For those who survived the first wave, they learned to adapt and survive by blending in with the humans. There were those of us who could not, however... for reasons you may think laughable but something we cannot hide very well."

Ari stared into his eyes seeing his growing discomfort. There was much suffering in those eyes. The same as when he had first saw them when Cyrus took him to see Ylanan. He did not like it. It pricked at his heart and made it bleed.

"I was one of them... " Cyrus murmured. "And the life given to me was a pitiful one. I was a tormented soul then... Some part of me still is. You can never truly forget. It stays with you like a spector waiting for you to give in, so it can swallow you whole." 

Cyrus was only touching the surface with Ari. He did not want to go into much detail; not even the smallest fraction of it. Like Auovin, Cyrus was reluctant to tell Ari anything and it was not because he did not want to. It was for the fear of reliving it in their minds. Memories could be painful. Ari knew that very well. Especially the ones you try to forget the most. 

"What reasons were those?" Ari pressed.

"The fangs... the markings... and ultimately the comely look that attracts humans to us." 

"I see... " Ari had an idea of what reason Cyrus may have fallen under. He was attractive and very much so.

"I was cast down so low, I did not think I would have been able to raise my head again." 

"And that was because...? " Ari was forcing himself to press for more. He wanted to know even though he knew it would hurt Cyrus. Was it a cruel thing for him to do? 

Cyrus sighed and brushed his hair back. 

"When we are not given blood for a very long time, if old enough, we do not die. We weaken. We weaken so much we can be like a human with human strength."