Alluring avoidance
~
Accalia
~
The touch of his lips sent Accalia into a dark void she didn't want to return from. Within the blackness, there was light. Amidst the light, there was a beauty.
His lips upon hers were too alluring that it enticed her body in igniting flames that eclipsed every measure of torment Lycus brought down on her into dust.
The taste of him was like black liquorice; bitter but deliciously sweet.
It wasn't just a peck like Accalia anticipated, but yet again, kissing a lycan wouldn't be a chaste and endearing thing.
Lycus overlapped his lips around Accalia's bottom lip and sucked harshly, wanting more of her. Accalia could feel every effort and action Lycus was putting in to prolong this moment that will never come again. Wanting this to last longer than it should.
And it worked.
To Accalia's shock, her lips moulded with his amazingly in a surging and unrelenting play of who could gain the upper hand.
Accalia knew she would lose, she hasn't kissed many guys and none as experienced as Lycus. And never as addicting as this one. Kissing him, she felt disconnected from reality, disconnected to the gravity and felt only connected to him. Bound to him.
Lycus snaked his arm around her back and pulled her even closer, threading his other hand through her wet and thick hair to almost tie his body with hers. Just to get near her.
Accalia couldn't believe this was happening, she was allowing this and how feeble-minded she felt to even push him away. She couldn't; not against his clutches and lips.
Accalia would give in to this, just this once, no matter how long it would last and the crack of opportunity would close, she'd submit to the bond. Give in to her mate's touch. Because after today, it will never happen again, this traitorous and binding kiss will never resurface and Accalia will count the days she's free.
Free of her mate. A lycan.
It was when Lycus's hand found her thighs, hoisting her up and her legs locked around his waist did Accalia realise this had to stop.
Their deal was made now.
But she couldn't find in herself to pull away. Not yet.
A sudden gasp left her throat when his hardness rocked against her core, lighting up a raging fire within her and blazing her skin in heat.
Lycus didn't stop there, his tongue slipped through her parted lips and danced with hers. Accalia clutched his damp shirt and felt her heart accelerate, responding to him without thinking.
She didn't want this to stop.
A moan slipped out of her, a needy and aching moan that made Lycus tighten his hold on her, eager to hear that noise again as he grinds her against him feverishly.
A withdrawn and lustful growl escaped from Lycus's throat and he pulled away as he came back to his senses, leaving a sudden emptiness amongst them both.
Accalia's eyes smacked open quickly, wondering why he stopped and it was clear as to why. His eyes were black and canines were elongated from his teeth.
Lycus wanted to mark her.
Accalia nibbled at her plump lip and Lycus adamantly tensed at this, a vibration coursing through his chest as he gave a low grumble.
"The deal is made." Accalia gulped and finally met the ground, unlocking her legs that were wrapped around his waist.
Accalia was surprised her stance was steady and grounded, she thought for a second she'd collapse once she was back on her feet.
Lycus had no response, his black eyes weren't even looking at her, not even acknowledging her presence that he was all over seconds ago.
With a stifled breath for air, Accalia didn't want to linger around as a notion of discomfort already began to take sanctuary in the depths of her entire being. A sting of discomfort that already began to stab at her chest.
Swollen lips, coldness attaching to her skin more than before, Accalia left Lycus where he stood and immersed herself in the forest she didn't want to leave from.
——
Cadence
~
If there was one thing Cadence Athena Larren will admit to the world, even spill blood over, is that she absolutely and passionately despised reading.
With a passion, she hated it.
But over these past two weeks, giving her time to boredom and efforts to nothing, she had recently taken up the hobby with keen interest. With brewing curiosity and a thirst for knowledge.
Knowledge. Such a powerful and representative tool that Cadence possessed no ability in.
Her tunnel of knowledge was just that. A tunnel. A straight and narrow line of information she had made herself aware of and that was it. That was as far as she would allow herself to go because she didn't care to know anything else she knew wouldn't serve her in the long run.
But as a hunter, Cadence was forced to do one thing. Read. Soak in as many words as she could that depicted the lycans and werewolves in such a light.
Grinding her teeth together, she dropped her chin on her knees, staring mindlessly at the window beside her and wondering when she would get out of this hellhole.
And not only with Alexene.
Since the day she got back to the Fenris territory after visiting Alexene and lying to Accalia about her whereabouts, the entire pack had been eerily reserved.
She had been chased by werewolves once she stepped foot in the territory two weeks ago. The wolves were on edge with suspicion, wanting someone to blame. Cadence had almost twisted her ankle but made it to the Fenris house unscathed. She would have liked to stab at least one of them in the artery for it, but there was already tension thick in the air.
Alexene had created a massacre of her own free will and it looked as though no one knew who the person was or what did it.
But Cadence did, she was told by the culprit itself. I killed those werewolves and lycans, but Lycus had it coming, Alexene had confessed without a drop of remorse. She seemed delighted in the fact — this was fun to her.
Cadence can't say anything or her life and everyone she cared about was on line to be ... bitten and drained the life out of.
She shivered, not taking in the news lightly.
Cadence had never felt more useless in her life, other than seeing her family members rotting corpses, but that was completely out of her control. This was different. She was a trained hunter, harbouring a specific responsibility to protect and exact bloodshed on whoever stood as a threat.
But this threat was something different, a creature Cadence had never heard of, or crossed paths with.
Cadence's responsibility was to shut her mouth and find the item Alexene had assigned her to find.
Truthfully, she wasn't putting in much effort, knowing she had time and she was going to waste as much as she possibly could. It may be stupid, plain idiocy but not to Cadence. Not when she had taken up the hobby of reading to understand every ideology and history of vampirism.
Google had been a help, but she felt the need to dig for more. Like a book or a source who knew a lot about them, but that seemed to only be Alexene.
Lycus came to mind.
He knew about vampires, it was evident he did with how Alexene spoke of him, but it was clear that he believed he wiped them out. Killed and slaughtered them all. Cadence tried to conjure a reason as to how the creatures came to be and what prompted Lycus to hail brimstone upon them.
It remained a mystery as did everything else right now. But Alexene did reveal that somehow, she became connected to the Fenris family one way or another. She knew Lycus's father who lived a long time ago and had a reign of an Alpha that kickstarted the brutality of lycans.
Alexene and Lycus were weaved together with reluctance, but that was all Cadence would be able to find out.
Cadence didn't consider asking the she-devil herself, it would be a pained experience that she wasn't willing to put herself through. Cadence enjoyed a thrill, but not a creature that can drink her blood anytime she wanted to.
That was one thing Cadence was curious about. Why do vampires need to drink blood? That was one of the first things she delved into, that, and how to kill them, but what she found only lead her down a rabbit hole she still hadn't come back from.
Vampires drink blood to survive. That was a given, Cadence gathered, but she needed more, a palpable reason and associated that with lycans. Why do Lycans need a mate? She already knew that a mate bound them to their humanity and brought them back from their animalistic nature.
Vampires drink blood not only to survive but to sustain their undead life by taking another living existence. To nourish, fuel and pleasure their bodies by taking humans' blood through their mouths, their fangs. Not only does it ensure survival, but preserving their form to fulfil their hunger and enticing their dead heart to feel the rush of taking blood.
What consuming candy for Cadence, was blood to a vampire. Greediness, but fulfilling.
It was sickening to Cadence's eyes as she read but moving on to the topic of how to kill them was all that subsided nausea.
Pretty standard: wooden stake to the heart, decapitation, exposure to sunlight and starvation.
Decapitation was Cadence's favourite one.
And yet, she still felt she had hit a dead end. She wanted more than what she could find on the internet, she wanted origins, bloodlines and the start of the creation. Could there be a creator? Did it start a virus? How did this all come to be?
All she found were fiction, myths and information that couldn't tie itself with the likes of Alexene.
Cadence decided to give it up together, for the time being, a throbbing sensation taking refuge in the front of her head. She felt a headache coming on.
Rubbing at her temples gently, the heaviness of everything toppling onto her brick by brick.
A sudden ding broke the silence in the room and Cadence's phone lit up, indicating a message has been sent through.
Gulping, she hovered her hand over the phone before picking up, not wanting to inspect the message the wretched bloodsucker has sent her.
But Cadence knew she had to and plucking up the confidence that immediately washed away once she peered at the message, Cadence wanted to ditch the phone at a wall.
Madam Dumb Bitch Bloodsucker: Any information to report, Cadence Larren?
Cadence had a long walk ahead of her once she left the cave those days ago and had time to spare a decent enough name for Alexene on her nonexistent contact list.
I have the information to report that your head isn't going to be connected to your shoulders next time I see you, Cadence thought wickedly.
Licking her lips that were chapped from nerves, Cadence typed back rapidly and waited for a response.
Cadence: Everything has been quiet since the massacre you caused in case you didn't know and I haven't found your item. I don't know where to start.
This all rang with truth. A day after Cadence left Accalia in the trusting hands of Lycus and came back the following morning, everything had grown strangely distant and quiet.
Alpha Gabriel and Luna Nina seemed to have left for their pack. Lycans and werewolves didn't hold a ceremony, but a meek and quick service for the deceased before heightening patrolling and instincts, locking down tightly that they had to find the person that caused this.
Cadence hasn't seen undying loyalty like that in a long time.
As for Lycus and Accalia, they've been more distant with each other. Cadence could even describe it as avoiding each other and for which reason, Cadence was completely naive.
Whenever they show in the same place, one immediately leaves, almost as if they can instinctively tell the presence of one another is in sight without looking. They didn't acknowledge, speak or interact with each other. It was as though they were ghosts floating around, making sure they didn't cross paths and holding each other at arm's length.
Come to think of it, Lycus hasn't been pestering, hellbent on finding whoever caused this and Accalia has been rather to herself.
It's probably because he's a lycan and she's a hunter, Cadence thought. How could that not be the reason?
And as for the object Cadence has to look for, no such luck. She had the drawing in her bag and every once in a while peeked at it to keep the image clear in her mind, but then it would wash away as she had no leads.
The phone dinged once again and the message Alexene sent showed:
Madam Dumb Bitch Bloodsucker: It's quite obvious, Cadence, start with Lycus himself. Look in his room, observe people he's close with and just take note of everything. It could be locked away somewhere, nicely hidden — hurry up.
Not bothering to reply, Cadence locked her arms together and pondered deeply on Alexene's instructions. How could she possibly get in his room and how can a hunter get close with his people? It's quite a stretch, a stretch she knew she had to make ...
The bedroom door knocked once and someone came bustling in before shutting the door behind them as though they owned the place. In Cadence's opinion, she most likely did own the place.
What's Lycus's is Accalia's, right?
"You hungry? I made some food." Accalia announced, shoving her hands in her back pockets and pursing her lips.
If there was one thing Cadence knew quite well when it came to lycans was that they are homely creatures. They value the roof over their head, they cherish their prosperities and security. They can also be welcoming to their guests. Cadence found it surprising that went far enough for her and Accalia considering who they are and where they came from.
Cadence sat up and brushed her fringe out of her face, pondering if she was hungry. Messaging Alexene made her lose her appetite, truth be told.
"Not really, but what did you make?" Cadence asked.
"I cooked steak, there's a lot of that here, you know? But it's not surprising with a lycan's diet."
Cadence grimaced with a scrunched up nose. "It's cooked well done, right?"
Accalia guffawed, "hence why I said 'cooked steak',"
Scoffing to herself, Cadence swung off the bed and got up. "Alright, smartass."
"Hey," Accalia blurted out and scurried over to the bed, "when did you get a phone?"
Suspicion coursed through Accalia's voice and it only made Cadence recoil with a cringed expression.
Whipping around, she mastered a cool and collected facade that plastered across her face like a robot without a hint of detail. "Oh, I found it on my way back here. I'm going to buy a charger for it soon."
Accalia nibbled at her lip with curiosity and picked it up, observing the device. "There isn't a scratch on it and you do need a charger, it's almost flat."
"I'll make a point of going into town tomorrow," Cadence grinned forcefully and watched as Accalia placed it back on the bed, looking more mopey than usual.
"What's wrong?" Cadence asked.
Accalia bit the inside of her cheek, playing with the words in her head before responding, but it was obvious, a meek sadness swayed across her pretty features and her broad shoulders hunched forward with disdain. Something was bothering her.
"Nothing," Accalia swallowed, swatting away her long locks that framed her eyes, "I just haven't gotten out in a while and I kinda can't with the Alpha being all protective."
"He's hardly acknowledged you these past two weeks, maybe he's lowering his guard?" Cadence suggested. She'd much rather say 'fuck the prick and go out' but she knew that was a statement she should keep to herself. Enforcing her opinion on Accalia wouldn't help anyone.
Accalia landed a hand on her hip and gave a half-shrug, "I know, but he's probably dealing with what happened on the night of the full moon and—well, Alpha duties."
Cadence sealed her lips shut, wanting this conversation to be dropped into a pit of obscurity and with each word Accalia sprung on her it only reinforced the fact she knew more than she let on.
With a creeping and lingering notion polluting her insides ... guilt, Cadence swung the door open and beckoned her mopey cousin out.
"It sucks, Accalia. But you watch, things will pan out eventually." And with that, Cadence swung her arm over Accalia's shoulders and cradled her tightly, trying to be caring.
But even now, Cadence couldn't vanquish that burying feeling of false hope clouding over as she lied through her teeth.
——
Updates may be a little slower now as I have to edit the second of half this story better so it can be published.
Thanks to everyone who has continued reading this story and I hope you enjoyed it thus far.
— Caranyx.