I want you. I want you. I want you.
The words ring, bouncing around so many times in my head that I feel dizzy. Or maybe it's the fact that Hadrian is so close to me, his icy blue eyes pouring over my bare skin. His hands that hold my wrists feel so hot, and a flush is creeping along my forearms, towards my shoulders and neck.
I thought it's supposed to be cold in Hell, I think furiously. This place is as hot as its king.
I glance again at the man holding me. His dark hair is wet, so it sits like silk around his carved face, curling enough to want to run your hands through it to straighten it. His nose is sharp, strong, bridged in the middle. Eyes that cool and simmer at the same time.
A mouth that puckers so temptingly that my mouth goes dry seeing it.
Hadrian smirks, leaning his wonderful face closer.
No! No, stop frying my brain! I'm trying so hard not to be attracted to you!
Hadrian doesn't listen to my inner torment. He knows how much I'm squirming, and he moves closer. I'm certain he's going to kiss me; his eyes are level with mine, and he's so close our eyelashes are almost tickling one another.
I'm frozen. I know I should speak out—say something off putting—but I don't say a word. I don't even breathe.
This is what I wanted, I think. If he sleeps with me, I get his power. If.
I can't mess this up.
Hadrian moves to the side of my face, moving back to my ear, brushing his lips against my cheekbone, causing me to jitter. His hands steady me.
I realise that he's sniffing me.
My hands finally move in protest, fighting against his hold. 'What are you—?' I begin.
'Hush...' Hadrian's words are more like the wind, breezing down my ear, than a command. He's staring at my face once more, searching me.
'What?' I ask, trying to turn away from his impenetrable gaze. His hand shoots out to hold my chin, and I bristle with anger.
Again, he leans forward, until his forehead is touching mine, sending hot waves of pleasure right down to my little toes. He whispers, 'You smell like spring.'
For such a small sentence, it has an immediate reaction. I shiver all over, feeling right into my chest where my heart thuds.
His eyes flicker over mine, still searching. 'Why? You're just a human. But...you smell like sunshine. You smell like the first rain after the snows of winter. And...blossom. You smell like blossom.'
'I...I get a lot of sun...' I answer lamely. Hadrian is still looking at me like I've just solved all of his problems, because I smell nice.
I smell nice! Me! A street rat. Ha!
'He's a foolish boy...' the King whispers. His fingers trace the outline of my face, along my cheeks, along my jaw, and over my lips. 'You're right here in front of him, and he doesn't realise.'
He continues to run his fingers along my skin, down my neck, towards my collarbone. At the same time, he angles his head downwards, so that his lips are no longer by my cheek, they're on my neck.
I feel my knees go weak. His lips are on my neck, sending pulses of pounding blood straight to my head. He's trailing down my body with his hands, and I'm afraid to wonder where, because I'm enjoying it.
He nips my neck playfully, and I jolt into his arms. They wrap around me, holding me firm, so that his lips can take better hold of my neck, whilst squeezing my hips so sensually I'm sure I'm about to pass out.
'He wants you too,' I hear Hadrian murmuring, in between biting and sucking on my neck. I gasp each time, as it sends odd feelings through my body. All I know is that he's a snake, paralysing me with his venom.
He wants me? Who?
Wait...who was foolish?
Who is kissing me?
I squirm away, breaking the spell.
'Who are you?' I demand, but the effect is lost as I'm panting and clutching the wall for support. You really suck, Nerissa.
The predator before me grins, showing glinting white teeth. He moves towards me, but I sidestep, hitting the desk.
'I'm Hadrian,' he says, 'the real Hadrian. The one who's lurking underneath, the one who takes care of unpleasant things, and...'
He steps forwards, reaching to touch me again. I flinch this time, suddenly afraid that this wasn't Hadrian, not the Hadrian I knew.
How well do you know him really, though? Not at all.
'...the one who is honest about his desires.'
As I peek back at the man launching himself at me, I sigh internally. As desperate as I am to obtain the King's power, to sleep with him now, when he wasn't himself, would feel too much like taking advantage of him. I'd be no better than the people I'd seen preying on the extremely intoxicated, looking for a quick fix.
Damn my morals, and my conscience. To hell with you all.
As the King steps to grab my wrist again, I turn with my back to him. I hear him chuckle; he thinks I'm going along with his game, and he reaches to embrace me, pressing hard into my back. I blush.
Now is not the time to start enjoying his attentions, Nerissa!
Sighing, and taking a mental picture of this hunk in tight fitting underwear pressed against me, I take hold of his wrist and drop to my knee.
The man goes thundering over the top of me, hitting the floor with a cold, hard, smack.
'I'm sorry!' I whisper, looking mortified down at the broken Hadrian. He's wincing in pain, but I notice his voice no longer sounds like a bull on heat.
'Shit!' he says, wheezing and doubling over. He blinks, leering at me. Then he appears to recognise me, and him, in his underwear, and what's just happened.
'Shit,' he says again, groaning and falling to the floor in a heap.
I shuffle over to where he lies, bringing back the blanket from earlier as an apology. He'll be bruised in the morning, for sure.
He mumbles something beneath the blanket.
'What?' I say.
The King lifts his head up, and to my surprise, he's bright red. He clears his throat, unable to look me in the eye. 'I'm sorry you saw that. Thank you for...wait, what are you doing in my room?'
Busted.
'Cleaning,' I say immediately, and it's that moment I realise how terrible a liar I truly am.
Cleaning? Really?
Hadrian quirks an eyebrow. 'Cleaning,' he repeats, giving me a dead look. He sits up, so that his eyes are level with mine.
I blush, because ten minutes ago he'd been eye level right before devouring my neck, and I'd been enjoying it.
Block it out, block it out!
'Cleaning,' I agree.
'Cleaning,' sighs Hadrian. By his tone, something startles me. His voice speaks a warning.
'What?'
'You can't lie, Nerissa. You're a dreadful liar.'
Well, denying it would be no use, apparently.
'Okay, I wasn't cleaning...'
'You weren't cleaning, no. But neither did you come here to find out why you could see me,' he continued, looking bored. 'You don't need to see me catch a soul, but you want to. Why is that?'
My mouth doesn't drop open. It jumps off a cliff and falls open.
'No more bullshit,' he says, and stands up. Crossing to his bed, he gestures for me to sit beside him. 'Why were you honestly in my bedroom?'
I swallow. Opening up to him would be like prying myself open, and giving him all my weaknesses. A terrible lie is better than a difficult truth, right?
But something in Hadrian's face stops me.
I've seen a side to him nobody else sees: his dark side. He hasn't shouted at me for breaking into his room. He let the other lie rest, not forcing the truth.
There's a decent monarch beneath those sexy dark curls.
'My brother,' I say before I can stop myself. The words come out of my mouth like vomit, desperate to escape.
Hadrian listens.
'You killed my brother. You took his soul. I knew he was dead. But I saw him again.'
Hadrian's eyes flash— I see a deep, dark anger. 'Go on.'
'I was in town, still in mourning for him. I caught a glimpse of someone that looked just like him, and for a moment, thought I was going mad. But I just knew it was him; he was my twin, and it's something I can't explain. I had to make sure, so I bumped into him, to see him close up. It was Nate, but it also wasn't. All his personality, his likes and dislikes, his relationships...they were gone. He didn't even recognise me. He was blank.'
I don't realise that I'm shaking until Hadrian places a hand on my arm. The warm is a comfort, and I lean against it.
'I couldn't help it. I followed him, I didn't know what else to do. But he realised I was following him, and he attacked me.'
I pause, remembering Nate's blood, running past my feet. I've never told anyone. Maybe I never will.
'I came here because I figured out that something was going on. The city has been hiding murders and attacks by the dead for years, but it's getting worse. Something's happening out there, and I decided to find out what.'
Hadrian's eyebrows raise. 'You died for that purpose?'
Put like that, it sounded drastic. 'I knew there was something; I'd seen you. The Grim Reaper. The King of the Underworld was no myth, so I did some investigation. There were many legends of you,' I laugh at this last part, remembering some of the wild fantasies I'd read. 'One included a harem of maidens who worshipped you...every night.'
Even Hadrian had the grace to look ashamed. 'I can assure you, I don't.'
'I know that now,' I chuckle, 'I wanted to kill you back then. I thought you were going to be a disgusting pig.'
'I'm sorry to have let you down,' he replies with a grin. 'I am just a lonely, lovesick king, it seems.'
'Yeah, I don't think she's into you anymore,' I say with a wink. I'd learned about Hadrian's "long lost love" in a textbook, but this was his first indication that it was true. To my dismay, I feel my heart clench at the thought of him admitting it.
'What's another couple of hundred years waiting?' is his reply, and I try not to feel disappointed.
Brushing back to our topic at hand, I say, 'So I was here in your room to try and find out who or what this person is that's bringing people back from the dead in my country. If I'm honest, I thought it might be you.'
Hadrian shakes his head. 'The one thing the King of the Underworld cannot do is raise the dead. Against some ancient laws. But you're not the only one who's noticed things...I too have been doing some investigation.'
'You have?' I frown at him. 'Is that where you've been today and yesterday?'
A shadow crosses Hadrian's face, but he quickly hides it. 'No. I've been elsewhere.'
'Then...' I struggle to think. 'When...? Oh!'
That day I met him, what had he said?
"I found the culprit." He had been talking about the dead Ferryman. Why had the Ferryman been dead?
'The Ferryman?' I ask, and Hadrian nods sombrely.
'Up and down the river, a number of Ferryman have been murdered, all in the same manner; in a grotesque and inhumane way. They seem to be strategically placed by the largest feeds of the river, usually where two tributaries meet.'
Hadrian's report is very factual, unlike mine.
'I was investigating the most recent murder when I discovered you,' Hadrian continues. 'And I thought that it was you, until I noticed that you were a bride and not a savage...'
'Savage--?!' I yell, giving him a push. He hits the bed next to me, staring back at me, smiling.
'You think whoever is murdering humans is also killing Ferrymen?' I ask, stumped. The King nods, clicking his tongue as he tries to explain it to me.
'By killing humans, this necromancer – that's someone who can control the dead— has an endless supply of those to raise. And the fastest way around to the waterfall is via the Ferrymen, hence killing them will slow down the ability to move beyond the waterfall, safe from magic.'
Demand and supply, I think. In a hideous way.
'Story short, neither of us is to blame,' Hadrian puts his head in his hands, sighing again.
'But we're back to square one,' I huff. 'If I had your power, I'd have found them by now. Now, can you tell me where you've been going for the past couple of days?'
A/N: More Nerissa and Hadrian action! What do you think of their flirtatious behaviour? And Hadrian's "other" self?
PLEASE keep voting and commenting!!!!!!
lots of love,
Larissa