Two days.
Two whole days passed in silence without any visits from a certain Devil in disguise. Cara had felt paranoid, yet at the same time relieved when she didn't see his shadow creeping up on her from behind. Time had been exactly what she needed to process everything and get her mind in order, and she suspected Sin somehow knew.
After her talk with Alistair, Cara had spent her days mulling over everything that he had told her. His information had been both helpful and very unhelpful at the same time.
His words had forced her to come to terms with certain truths. Truths that, like Alistair, she didn't want to admit to and had hidden because confessing to them... confessing to them would ruin her whole life.
Torn, Cara had felt restless and confused for two whole days until on the third day, she woke up with only one thought in mind; The answer that could end all of her troubles and hopefully make them all go away.
She had to face her sins.
That's why, as the morning came and her and her family made ready for the day, Cara waited patiently and tried to prep herself. She kept herself calm and tried her best to seem unaffected to her parents as they both left for work and reminded her to shop for groceries later. Her brother was off to the library to help out one of their mom's friends, who happened to belong to the church as well. She had agreed to keep an eye on Sam while he continued being moody.
That left the house completely deserted as Cara waved goodbye to Mrs Williams who had picked up Sam with her own son and then drove off to the library. The second they were out of sight, Cara turned around in the entree and looked around.
It was now or never.
With a deep breath and clenched fists, Cara gritted her teeth and exhaled. "Sin."
Summoning him had worked in the past, but she wasn't sure if it would this time. After all, he had been gone for two days, and despite always being there to pester her, she assumed he had other things to do than to wait around for her to call for him.
After a few seconds where nothing happened, Cara looked around. He always popped up out of nowhere, but this time, he was nowhere to be found.
"Sin?" She hesitantly tried again.
Nothing. The house remained deserted and quiet, not a soul besides her own to be found.
Irritated, Cara looked up at the ceiling and swallowed a few choice curses. Out of all the times she hadn't wanted him around, where was he when she actually did? Typical.
Taking a deep breath, Cara decided to leave it there. Screw him. If he didn't come when she finally felt ready to face him, it was his loss. She gave him a chance to get what he wanted and now he had missed it. She wasn't going to give him any second chances; just like him, she didn't wait around for whenever he wanted to suddenly enjoy her company.
And wasn't that wonderfully hypocritical.
Cara shook her head and turned towards the kitchen to get the grocery list her mom had left her. She usually cooked on the weekdays she had off from the restaurant, but on the days where she worked evening shifts, her mom and her divided the duties into shopping versus cooking. Today her mom was working, so it was Cara's turn to shop the food. Now that she had written Sin off, her whole day suddenly opened up to do what she wanted.
As Cara went for the fridge where the grocery list hang under a magnet, she smiled when she saw how her mom had drawn a little heart at the bottom with a note. Don't forget to pick up the clothes dye from the dry cleaners for your brother's graduation suit.
Clothes dye... dye.... die.
A sudden thought popped into Cara's head.
Could Sinners die?
As Cara stared at the grocery list, she felt her stomach grow with unease. Was it possible for Sin to die somehow and she wouldn't know? Was he even mortal? And was there a chance it had happened and that that was the reason why he wasn't answering to her summon?
The questions suddenly filled her head as Cara realized there was a chance that the reason why he wasn't responding could be because he was gone... for good. Could it actually be?
The times she had tried to hurt him, he hadn't even as much as flinched. Granted she wasn't the strongest person out there, but he might just be. A simple accident wouldn't kill him.
So perhaps humans couldn't hurt Sinners, but maybe other supernatural creatures could? Assuming there were others out there, there was a slight chance.
Cara furrowed her brows as something else then suddenly occurred to her.
Those guards of his... she assumed they weren't just for show. What if whatever he was protecting himself against had finally gotten to him?
What if... Sin was dead?
"Is that sentiment I detect?"
Gasping, Cara spun around with a hand over her heart and then immediately forgot how to breathe as Sin stepped right up against her and trapped her against the fridge. His hand calmly came to the door and his handsome face was curled in a little smirk as he stared down at her. Cara instantly felt anger course through her body.
"You... you bastard," She snapped furiously when he scared the living shit out of her. "Why didn't you come when I called you earlier?!"
"I'm not a dog," He flatly replied with a face that read he wasn't pleased with her means of contact. "I've told you time and time again, I don't do orders. I should start teaching you the hard way since you don't seem to understand."
Pressing her lips together, Cara forced herself to be calm. She wouldn't be triggered by him this time, not now. Meeting his yellow, hypnotic eyes, she instead fiercely said; "I've thought about a lot of things."
"So you have." Did he already know? Did he know she had talked to Alistair?
"I want you to look me in the eyes," Cara said and watched as his eyes squared on hers and slowly darkened to a dangerous shade of sin. "And tell me if it's true, what he told me; Am I just a vessel to you?"
If at all affected, he didn't show. Instead he kept looking into her eyes. "That's not the question you really want the answer to. Ask me that and I will answer."
Gritting her teeth, Cara glared up at him and felt a hate towards his ever arrogant tone. He was an asshole and he was going to exploit her until she asked him what she really wanted to know.
"Was I just a challenge to you?" She therefore whispered, lowly. "Was all you wanted to drain my battery and be done with me, like a used-up syringe?" Or had he actually wanted... more?
At that, she finally caught a reaction from him. She saw the yellow in his eyes flash, and just like that, she knew she was in trouble. Her body suddenly felt warm all over and she realized it was because his was coming closer.
"The words that come out of your mouth..." He slowly whispered, his voice a deep and threatening sound sending her heart into overdrive. She braced herself for the onslaught.
But instead of feeling his possessive grip wrap around her throat or hands, she felt nothing but a coldsweat run down her back. She stared up at him with defiance and slight confusion, but refused to crack under. "Answer the question—or is that another order?"
She didn't realize it until it was too late—or maybe a part of her had always known but didn't want to admit it—but the second the words snarled past her lips, she knew she had finished the game. It was the last push this thing between them needed, and maybe that was why she didn't fight it when his hand caught her and swung her around.
Cara gasped and let out a shriek as she was pushed up against the kitchen counter. The palms of her hands connected with the hard surface, but it was the hard surface that she felt push against her rear that she was more concerned about. A strong hand kept her pushed against the marbled countertop while the other circled her ass. Warm, threatening and enticing, it explored her languidly. Temptingly.
"I've never met a more disobedient sub than you, or quite possibly a more stubborn human," He harshly spoke above her, causing her to feistily struggle in his arms. The backlash was on the tip of her tongue, when suddenly—a sharp smack stung against her right asscheek.
Cara gasped and felt her mouth fall open as everything inside her tightened in shock and... heat.
Something in her stomach turned, and as the sore flesh of her ass was nursed by a soothing hand, the something in her stomach turned utterly liquid. "You—"
A sharp lash on her ass stung again and Cara jolted forward, feeling her knees buckle. She sensed Sin move, leaning in over her to reach her ear.
"No more speaking from you until I say so," He warned. Speechless in shock, Cara did nothing but gape. He just commanded her like she was a dog and she actually listened. What was the matter with her?
Cara felt her cheeks flame up with embarrassment as his hand slowly moved around her throat and caressed her pulse. His intoxicating touch made her shiver, and no matter how much she tried to fight it, she felt the ultimate effect in her lower regions; The crevice between her legs felt warm, wet and throbbed ever so slightly in tact with her sore ass.
"You think I'd waste my time chasing a human around for the taste of their pent-up sin?" His voice suddenly filled her ear. It was angry, yet rumbled with the promise of something deeper. "You think I'm that desperate?"
"Isn't that what you do?" Cara snarled, more brave and fierce than she currently felt. "Chase humans around and make them sin?"
A third smack hit her rear and she could no longer hold back the sound stuck in the back of her throat. A garbled moan escaped her, followed by a whimper as his hand smoothed over her burning flesh.
"I said, no talking," His hand around her throat tightened and Cara gulped. "One more violation and I'm going to punish you, Cara. Consider this your last warning."
Cara stayed mute, not because she didn't want to speak, but simply because she was shocked by the array of emotions that suddenly flocked through her system. As his hand tightened even more around her throat and made her breathing more labored, her stomach clenched. But not from fear.
– Having his hand locked around her throat, holding her very freedom in the literal palm of his hand, was both terrifying, infuriating and... delicious.
And it was the last part that made her feel utterly stupid and pathetic.
Because how could letting someone grab you and touch you so roughly possibly be thought of as respecting your own self? How could she even have allowed it to get this far without putting up more of a fight? If what Alistair told her was true, she could make him go away with a single word if she really wanted him to.
But the problem was, she didn't.
"There are many humans out there that possesses the energy you could give me," Sin now rumbled in her ear. Cara felt her toes curl and her skin tickle from where his breath struck her. "Humans that might even possess more than you're capable of ever containing. Your sin is nothing compared to others, and you ask me if I'm just here toying with my food."
Cara clenched her teeth and balled up her fists. Her insinuation had been fair if you asked her, considering everything Alistair had told her. She was a loaded battery and he was a power hungry Sinner; It all seemed pretty straight forward to her.
"You still don't get it, do you?" He slowly whispered in her ear. Cara closed her eyes when he leaned all the way down to her, so close she could feel the intensity of his hypnotic gaze on her skin. "I've told you time and time again what I am to you and what you crave. I haven't been toying with you, Cara. I have been waiting for you."
"Waiting for me?" She breathed.
He suddenly moved behind her, and that's when Cara felt the unmistakable hard steel of an erection. The gasp that flew from her lips was smothered when Sin growled in her ear and clenched her throat.
"I am a Sinner by race, but a man by birth," He voiced, pressing his hardness firmly against her sore rear so that she felt every full, long inch of him. "Many can give me the energy I need to survive, but rarely do I find one that can give me what I just need. You give me both, Cara, and that makes your sin all the sweeter on my tongue."
A garbled moan expelled from Cara's lips before she could stop it when his tongue suddenly touched her neck, followed by the sweet suckle of his lips. Cara's legs gave out, and if it hadn't been for the counter she was practically lying on top of, she would've collapsed in a heaping mess.
She tried to process his words along with the hardness she felt digging into her ass, and as the final pieces snapped into place, so did the conclusion.
"You want me?" She breathily whispered.
"Because you want me," He whispered back.
Cara closed her eyes and finally, she understood. The picture became whole.
All her life she had been suppressing this part of herself, the naughty side her parents taught her was bad and how it was the Devil leading her into corruption. When Sin entered her life—the literal depiction of the devil in her eyes—she fought because that's what she was taught to do.
But deep down, as Sin had known from the start, her urge to try the forbidden had been bursting to get out. She wanted it all and she wanted it hard, and she wanted it from someone who could give it to her the right way. But in a wrong way.
Now, with all that Sin had just told her, she realized how they in a twisted sense completed each other. How they both needed something from the other to feel what they craved to feel.
It was true, he was a Sinner, and her sin was delectable to him no matter the size or proportion. But, as she now discovered, his own preferences made her all the more tempting to him in particular. You could say her sin was custom made to please him.
And because of the way her mind was wired, she automatically sought out the strongest, most dominant male around.
And that was him.
'What are you?'
'Everything that you want.'
– But she was what he wanted, too.
"Now you understand," He whispered.
Cara pressed her lips together. She understood.
But that still didn't make everything okay.
It didn't take away the guilt she felt from betraying her religion and the remorse she felt from disrespecting God's will. It didn't remove the shame she felt when she looked at her parents or entered the church and lied during her confessions. With all the things she wanted, she would end up in Hell if she ever unleashed her sin, regardless of what liberation Sin thought it gave her. She just couldn't.
She couldn't face her sins.
"Please let go of me," She whispered. She was prepared to fight him, to tell him to move away and get his hands off of her, but to her surprise his hands disappeared almost the same second she spoke the words.
She had meant it.
Cara straightened out and slowly turned around to face Sin, but in the last second chickened out. She turned her eyes down, but felt him looking hard at her with his yellow gaze. She closed her eyes and felt the knot in her stomach grow.
"So that's it?" He spoke, his voice calm, yet tainted with something else. Disappointment? He had read her mind again. "You'd rather live your whole life in a lie than go for what your heart desires? All because of your guilt towards God?"
"Don't talk to me about God," Cara replied. She kept her eyes closed, but felt the knot growing inside her. She was seconds away from breaking down. "Judge me all you want, but don't insult my faith."
There was a short silence wherein Cara couldn't tell whether or not he had left the room. Tempted to check, she almost opened her eyes when she suddenly felt a single touch.
His finger hooked under her chin softly and lifted it up. Her eyes opened, and although she was used to his yellow orbs by now, she hadn't expected to see the look inside them as she looked up and met his intoxicating stare.
"It's not my place to judge you, and whatever you chose to believe in is none of my business," He spoke. His face then changed and his gaze lowered to her lips. "My only concern is with your soul. You are conflicted and you need time to choose."
"I don't," She replied, pulling away from his touch. "I've already chosen. I-I want you to leave and never come back."
Mean it, he once said. Mean it and he would be gone forever.
– In that moment, she meant it.
Sin slowly pulled back and pocketed his hands. He stared her down, his jaw clenched. "Your sin will eat you alive. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but it will come for you some day, Cara. Don't say I didn't warn you."
Despite everything, Cara felt a note of nostalgia come over her. She might not have liked his presence in her life, and on some level, she wished she had never met him. Because now that her hidden sin was out in the open, it was so much harder to ignore.
And yet, as she looked at him now and made her decision, she felt sentimental saying goodbye.
"Thank you for letting me know," She whispered, holding herself together as well as she could. Inside, she was crashing. "And thank you for teaching me. Goodbye, Sin."
He watched her for a long moment, and she swore she saw the disappointment brew below the yellow glow. He then turned his eyes down and clenched his jaw, before looking up again with one last haunting look.
You are making a mistake.
"Goodbye, Cara."
And with that, he disappeared into smoke, leaving Cara alone with a trembling heart and her mother's grocery list.
She had made her choice.
• • •
Lol, okay.
(Still not back yet)