Raz knew he was in an unfamiliar place before he even woke up.
It was because he hadn't woken so gently, urged back to sleep by the softness of a mattress or the comfort of a shaded room. His room at Castle Elysium didn't have curtains and he usually woke up with light invading through his eyelids.
Then there was the scent.
He could smell apples and vanilla mixed with an older scent.
It was then he woke up.
Raz bolted off the bed before his body had had a chance to awake, almost tripping over his feet.
He was in a strange place. A room as spartan in furnishing as his own in Castle Elysium but this one was different. His room was spartan with a purpose and this one was bare with neglect. Mismatched furniture dwarfed by a colossal rococo closet that might have belonged to a member of a royal family.
Worse still, was the twinge in his stomach made by the barest flex of his torso.
Stab wound.
Raz had been stabbed.
He'd passed out because of it. That much he remembered, the rest was a blur. What had happened? Had Theron come to collect him? Why had he housed Raz in this place?
Raz treaded silently out of the room, into an ornate hallway. If Marie Antoinette lived today, this is how she might be housed, with baby blue walls and hand-painted floral patterns on top. Were those actual gold frames that hung up those paintings?
Where was he?
"You're up, I see," a voice spoke from somewhere to the right of him.
Selene emerged from yet another hallway, dressed in a matching set of a silk dressing gown and a satin slip, the colour of emeralds. Unfortunately for him, the material moulded onto her body, leaving little to the imagination.
"What happened?" Raz asked, rubbing his head. "Where are we?"
"My apartment, of course," Selene answered before turning back into the hallway.
Her apartment?
Raz followed her to a cavernous kitchen. Raz had expected it to look something like the kitchen in Castle Elysium, which served a thousand Redeemers who lived there; laboratory-like, spotless and filled with stainless steel appliances.
Selene's kitchen was... Unexpected.
She had the latest appliances and sure enough, marble countertops. But the room was light and airy and there was a mess on her counters, with flour scattered across and utensils crowding the space.
Raz picked up a ladle in the shape of a dinosaur from the kitchen island.
"Hey!" Selene snatched the ladle from his hands. "Don't touch my things."
Although he wanted to laugh, he asked, "Are you going to explain how I'm here?"
Selene opened her mouth to stay something but her eyes darted to his stomach, narrowing.
Raz realised he was still shirtless.
Selene reached out a trembling hand to his abdomen, at the redness left behind by the healed wound.
"It's all healed," she said.
"Yes," Raz gritted, trying not to react at the feel of her icy fingers on his warm skin. "I was stabbed then it's all a blur. What happened next?" He had more questions, namely how he'd blacked out from a simple stab wound.
"Well, you passed out so I brought you here. To my apartment."
"You brought me here? To your home?" Raz repeated, his eyebrows shooting high to his hairline. Selene had brought him to her home? Her safe place?
"Yes, so what?" Selene shrugged, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear.
"You brought me to your home when I was passed out," Raz continued, moving closer to her. "Defenseless. Unable to fight. Giving you the perfect opportunity to make a break for it."
"Okay..." Selene licked her bottom lip.
Raz grinned. It was a large grin. A fully-formed one that spread slowly at first, making indents in his cheeks before it widened, dragging the edges of his lips high, revealing his teeth. It was a grin that hurt to hold and Raz was powerless to stop it.
"What?" Selene snapped.
Raz dimmed the grin to a tiny smile, answering, "I think you like me."
"What!" Selene laughed out a little too loud for a bit too long. "I actually dislike you very much. You're a boring and stodgy person who has no idea how to have fun."
"And yet," Raz said softly, "You kind of like me."
Raz had an inkling that it might not have been a 'kind of' like but rather a straight forward 'like'. Selene had stayed...
For him. Despite having the perfect opportunity to run away, never mind that he would have eventually caught up to her. He knew it from the moment they made the deal that Selene would escape the first chance she got because a person like her had no concept of honour. She had said so herself.
But she had stayed.
Even though he wouldn't have died, she had stayed with him.
Suddenly, Raz realised, as if he had been electrocuted that Selene was his mate. He couldn't have any smidgen of doubt after this. Although he knew he was drawn to her, like gravity pulling down, now he knew she was drawn to him too.
Selene's smile cracked. "If you insist."
There were so many thoughts fighting for attention in his mind like fish swarming beneath a frozen lake, that was about to crack at any time. Raz couldn't reel any of them up to consciousness though because he was consumed by only one thought at this moment: His mate liked him.
Raz's hand reached forward, of its own volition, ensnaring Selene by the waist. His other hand drifted up the contours of her spine to rest at the back of her neck. Before he was even aware of what he was about to do, his head dipped down towards her face and he kissed her.
He was all disconnected parts now. Lips and hands. Every other thought fluttered through his mind, he was consumed by only one thought. Selene. Despite it all, she cared for him.
Raz raised his head up in surprise, he hadn't meant to kiss her.
He was about to apologise when he saw the look in Selene's eyes. It was dark, hungry and tormented. It seemed to scream, more!
Raz was only happy to oblige. He bent back down, kissing her as if he might never have the chance again.
Selene stunned him by deepening their kiss. He could feel her hands at his chest, sliding down to his belly where he felt like he had been branded inside by those icy hands. Not only did he care for him, but she also desired him as he desired her. He couldn't be sure before if she were just trying to seduce him to get away but this moment proved it. She wanted him!
He could smell all of her, the strange scent of apples, vanilla mixed with a cedarwood perfume scent.
He was drowning in it. Raz might just die if he pulled away.
Selene gasped and Raz slipped his tongue inside her mouth, testing. Selene gripped her hair, pulling it almost painfully, sending tingles throughout his scalp. Her body was quivering beneath his arms, he could feel the warmth burying deep inside him.
Raz shifted his attention from her lips, kissing down from the corner of her lips to her neck, landing at last where her neck met her shoulders. A lovely place. He placed a chaste kiss before Selene gripped harder, pushing his head down. Who was he to deny her? Raz sucked hard at the sensitive skin, kissing it better after.
He would leave a bruise there. An animalistic part of him was proud to leave his mark.
"Oh, isn't this cozy, Denise?" a strange voice called out.
Raz pulled away, tucking Selene behind him, away from the voice. He didn't even have any weapons on him.
"Urgh, Kali and Denise," Selene grumbled, stepping away from him as if scalded. "Can you not teleport inside my apartment, Denise? I'm pretty sure it's a federal crime."
Raz didn't know who Kali and Denise were but at this point in time, he hated them. They had awful timing.
"Don't be ridiculous, Selene. There aren't any laws against teleportation." Kali sat on the kitchen island, crossing her legs. "What are we making?"
The one called Denise stood at the entrance of the kitchen glaring at Selene and Raziel equal amounts.
Selene glanced at the piles of bowls behind her. "Muffins, actually."
Was it him or was her face flushed? She ran a hand through her hair, trying to smooth it out. Kali smirked at them, staring at Raz's hair which seemed to declare exactly what happened between him and Selene.
Selene grabbed a bag of frozen blueberries, "Would you prefer blueberry or apple?"
Raz wasn't sure who she was asking but Kali seemed to answer for all of them, "Apples."
"I like blueberry muffins," Raz countered.
Selene threw the bag of frozen blueberries back into the freezer, "Apple muffins, then."
Raz couldn't help but smile. "I didn't know you could cook Selene. And who are these people?"
"Actually, you don't even know me. And these people kind of saved you so you might wanna be nice to them!" Selene snapped, a few octaves short of yelling.
For some reason, Raz wasn't annoyed by this. In fact, he felt pretty damn good.
"Selene's very domestic if you must know. Denise and I"-Kali pointed to the sullen woman -" carried you here."
"Not that I doubt you all but how did the three of you carry me here - Where exactly is this place by the way?"
"New York and Denise teleported us here. We would need a teleporter to drag a half-dead hunk away from a Redeemer infesting city," Kali winked.
Raz frowned. Redeemer infested? He felt one of those fish thoughts swimming right under a wall of clarity, probing through. He was forgetting something important. What was it?
"Yeah, we basically saved your life there so you might be grateful!" Denise added.
Selene and Kali both whipped their heads towards her, glaring.
The fish wriggled and fought, colliding against the frozen wall. He could feel the cracks in the ice.
Abruptly, it surfaced.
Galen.
He was dead.
Raz had just killed a Redeemer.
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A steamy one for you all this week!
So I know I said I was going to start putting out two chapters a week after my exams were over since I'd be a free bird and I really wanna finish this before I get really busy again...
But if there's one thing you all should know about me, it's that I'm a damn liar. I reread the first couple chapters of this story and I forgot how crap they were. So I really need to rewrite them because it is annoying me - the characters aren't where I want them to be at the start. I wasn't going to focus on that because I'll never finish if I focused on my previous chapters but the first few are so bad. The rest I will fix once I am done with the first draft.
So, I'm going to fix them first which I am thinking is not going to take too long.
You don't have to reread them because they won't change the plot - it's just edits concerning the characters personality kind of. So, it will all make sense if you don't go back but if you do want to reread them I will post on my profile when I finish rewriting them and what chapters I'm rewriting.
But then it will be smooth sailing all the way till the end!