Father walked towards me, the echo of his footsteps ringing in my ears.
"You are my only child, Isa."
I straightened and looked up at him, quelling the urge to shout that he was wrong. That he had another daughter—that he had killed her in cold blood, simply for something she couldn't control. My blood began to burn but I merely nodded my head.
He took a lock of my short hair between his thumb and forefinger. "You are the only member of my family who has stayed loyal to me. It's what has kept you alive."
I didn't reply. I just stared right at him, taking note of the coldness in his eyes. When he'd looked at my sister, the darkness in those orbs had vanished, destroyed by his love for her. It made me think. If he could kill the daughter he loved the most, what was stopping him from killing me?
"You're fourteen now," he said softly, shaking his head. "The age she was when I...when I killed her. She was my daughter. My only—the only person I ever truly loved."
His words should've hurt me. They should've cut through me as if I was made of paper, but I had long since built iron walls around myself. I raised an eyebrow—that was my only show of emotion, if it even counted. I didn't feel much anymore.
"A girl your age needs a mother." he sighed, backing away from me as if I had some kind of disease. "It's a shame I had to kill her, really. She could've helped you with all of that...girl stuff."
"Yes." I said robotically. "It is a shame." A shame that you're not dead.
"You are my last hope, Isa. Your powers, combined with your superior fighting skills, make you the perfect Huntress. Never betray me." he said, anger sparking in those icy blue depths.
"I won't."
He smiled and kissed my cheek, lingering for just a moment. Hot, searing anger sweltered in my abdomen and it screamed that I should fight; it screamed that this man murdered my mother and sister and he was touching me, probing me, marking me.
But I was as unmoving as ever.
He withdrew and the heat grew stronger still, encasing me with an insatiable thirst, eating savagely into my bones and muscles and blood.
"I'm burning."
I'm burning.
Burning.
Burn.
It was all I could do.
I woke up flailing in my bed, kicking the covers off of my legs. I was too hot. Even the air burned my lungs to a crisp and heated my blood until I could only scream, shivering and tensing and thrashing all at once.
"Isa? Oh my god!"
Hands, hot and slender, flew over my body and I writhed away, heaving a hoarse scream. My eyes were squeezed shut but red reigned amidst the blackness, pulsing and beating like a heart.
"Isa, look at me!" the voice was familiar but I couldn't muster the energy to put a face to it. "Damien?! Damien, come here!"
Something told to heed the person's advice so I fought through the sea of pain and pried my eyes open. Thea's face swam in my vision, wobbling like a mirage. I released a shuddering sob.
"Oh, sweetie," Thea murmured, her eyes filled with worry.
She placed a tender kiss on my forehead and shouted once more for Damien. I convulsed violently, my body arching away from the sound. Everything was too loud, too vibrant, too hot.
Another voice, this one deep and gravelly, drifted into my hearing. Damien. He approached me quickly and silently before placing a hand on my forehead. His touch burned me, just as Thea's had, and I jumped away.
"She's in heat." Damien muttered, running a hand through his hair. Thea bit back a sob and looked at her mate, desperation clear in her eyes.
"What is it?" I cried, knotting my hands in my shirt. I so desperately wanted to take it off but with Damien in the room I could only tug at it.
"The heat is the side effect of a repressed mate bond, Isa." Thea said, ripping the covers from my legs. "Only your mate can alleviate the burning...but other unmated males will scent your arousal and try to force themselves on you."
Great. I groaned and tangled my hands in my hair. My veins throbbed so intensely that I thought they may burst. Even my heart was racing, galloping a hundred miles a second, hammering against my ribs so hard that I thought they may break.
"I need..." I gasped, my hand flying up to scratch at my throat, "a drink. W-water. I need water."
I stumbled out of bed, body burning, lower region pulsing and aching with need. I'd never felt anything like it. Damien placed a hand on my arm and I practically threw him off, suddenly desperate for Phoenix; I wanted his lips on mine, his hands clutching at my waist, his teeth grazing over my neck and sweeping lower, and lower, and lower...
"Water." I mumbled again, staggering towards the door, shaking as the fire devoured me whole.
"Isa, you can't!" Thea objected, flailing wildly for my wrist. "If any unmated males smell you...let me go and get you the water instead."
But I was too far gone, both in body and mind, to consider Thea's proposal. I practically flung myself down the stairs, mumbling incoherently, and made my way towards the kitchen. The entire world was off-kilter, as if it'd been torn savagely from its axis.
It was his voice, barely audible yet somehow unbearably loud, that had me regaining my balance. I sped up, my body lurching forwards, awakening amidst the fire and blood and betrayal. I couldn't even think. It was pure, tangible instinct driving me towards the door.
I stumbled into the kitchen and all conversation died. Phoenix was the first and only person I saw. I looked at him lazily, almost deliriously; my eyes dragged across his toned chest, his broad shoulders, his full lips and his piercing, hypnotising eyes. His nostrils flared and he almost stumbled backwards, his features shifting into something shocked and something...carnal.
"W-water." I gasped, finally taking note of Lexus, Vilkov and Terra. "I need water. Please."
But no one listened. Lexus stared at me for a moment, his body rippling with a wave of power, before leaving the room.
Vilkov, however, showed much less restraint.
When I turned my heady gaze on him, lips parting on unconscious demand, his eyes burned black and he dove towards me, growls tearing from his throat. His arms wound around my waist, not overwhelmingly hot as I'd come to expect but rather cool and inviting. I groaned, pressing myself as close to him as I could.
And then his body was gone.
I opened my eyes in surprise. Phoenix was standing over Vilkov, growling and snarling. Terra ran towards him, tugging relentlessly at his arm, but the Alpha shook her off with a furious roar. Hurt flashed in her eyes.
"Get out." Phoenix ordered, his voice shaking with anger.
Vilkov rose unsteadily and, after shooting me one final, primal glance, left the room.
"What's that?"
I turned to face Terra, my vision swaying dizzyingly. She pointed directly to my neck, her skin blanching.
At first I didn't understand and I frowned, too distracted by the fire to pay her words any attention.
And then, as I ran a hand over the skin, the realisation hit me in a sickening flash.
My mark.
I hadn't covered my mark.
I stared at her with wide eyes, nauseous and filled with fear.
"You're his mate." she said, and then she said it again, staring at Phoenix as if he was someone she didn't know. "You're his mate."
For a moment, only silence reigned. Bile rose up my throat. She knew. The fire grew hotter still.
"She is." Phoenix answered, his voice quiet and subdued.
Terra's eyes fell on me and I shifted from foot to foot, my entire body trembling. "You didn't say. That's why you were so hostile. I had stolen your mate."
My mind screeched that it was time to run. Phoenix's stare, when combined with Terra's, was enough to make my stomach churn. I couldn't stand it. The fire, her sorrow, him...it was all too much.
So I turned.
I stumbled.
And I ran.
A cry of objection tore from Terra's thought but I was gone, flying outside, feet slipping outwards on wet leaves. I continued to run, not stopping when her voice faded from hearing, not when the sun began its descent, not when the rain began to pour from the sky and break across my skin like bullets, aiming directly for my heart. For a while I was confused and betrayed, angry and upset, but then the emotions seemed to collapse into ash.
Numb.
That was all I was.
The rain spilled in diagonal sheets and gathered in swirling vortices, splattering against my skin. But I didn't feel it—not really. My tender flesh erupted in goosebumps and the hairs on my arms stood to attention but I was immune, blinded by the colours of his betrayal.
He'd ensorcelled me with twisted lies and poisonous compliments and I'd fallen without thought; a single penny dropping into a boundless, ubiquitous ocean.
I shivered, though not due to the merciless onslaught of rain. No. The rapid contraction of my muscles was the result of an innate pain; one that did not submit to the laws of mortality but rather branched every form of being, permeating the very depths of my soul like ink does paper. I felt it stain me in dark hues, offsetting the lingering, half-discarded remnants of morality.
So, with a heart that hung heavily in my chest, I collapsed onto solid turf and stared into the woods. The fire still raged but I no longer cared; in fact, I embraced the burn, the dizzying heat, for at least I could feel it.
That was where I sat for seconds that stretched into minutes, and then minutes into hours; that was where I sat when the rain finally ceased and when the midnight sky, twinkling with stars, cleaved the ominous clouds, spearing the world with shadows and peaceful darkness.
The snap of a twig. The rustle of a bush. The squelch of soil beneath boots. It all heralded his arrival but I remained as stoic as ever, legs sprawled outwards, toes pointed towards the boundless sky.
A hand, hesitantly skimming over my goose-pimpled arm. Then a word—my name, uttered like a prayer—billowing across the silence like a cloud across the sky.
"Isa." he said again.
I looked up at him. His face was like a mirage and I ached to touch it. I ached to draw my hand across his temple, then the sharp planes of his cheekbones, and then his lips, so eminently full and inviting.
But I didn't. I just stared, utter betrayal and hurt arising once more.
"You lied to both of us." I whispered, tears gathering in my eyes. "Why did you do that?"
He tried to touch me again and something surged within me, something angry and feral. I stood up, leaden legs stuttering and stumbling in protest, and pointed a finger at his chest. It trembled.
"Don't." I hissed, venom clear in my tone. "Don't fucking touch me."
He grabbed my wrist. I looked up at him, intending to scowl but failing miserably. His eyes had darkened and his expression was intense, almost angry.
"Fuck the promise." he growled, yanking me closer to him. "Fuck everything."
Before I could protest he covered my mouth with his, branding me in a hungry kiss. I responded immediately, nerves spiralling into a wild frenzy, the fire fizzling to a low simmer. His lips were cool and warm, firm yet gentle, and I melted against him, my entire body seeming to collapse against his, my arms winding around his neck. He pushed me into a nearby tree, groaning my name into my mouth. His hands shot out and grabbed my thighs, pulling me upwards where I settled against his hard body, legs snapping around his waist. Desire pooled between my thighs.
I'd never been kissed and I hadn't expected it to be like this. The sense of abandonment, the way our teeth clashed in fervour, the way his tongue slid into my mouth...it was all as foreign as it was dizzying. He rocked his erection against me and I mewled, needy and craving his touch.
The way his stubble grazed against my cheek, the way his scent flooded my nostrils, musky and wild...it almost made me forget how he'd betrayed me, so quickly and easily...
"No!" I shrieked as the thought crossed my mind.
I pushed him away as if he'd burned me and the Alpha, in his state of lust, actually fell backwards. I placed a hand over my heaving chest, angry counteracting the arousal that'd gathered between my legs.
"How dare you?" I shouted, watching as Phoenix righted himself with a growl. "Fuck you, Phoenix Nightfall. I'd rather die than be yours."
I walked away, even as the fire began to roar once more, even as he bellowed my name and staggered after me.
I walked away.
A/N: A bittersweet kiss :)
QUESTION FOR TODAY: Rain or snow?