It was mentioned in the previous chapter that the feeding process makes the prey feel as if they're under the influence of alcohol. That's part of the reason behind her slightly different behaviour.
THERE ARE REFERENCES OF:
CHAPTER 16 and Chapter 21.
IMPORTANT POINT:
She calls past one, "Lord Ares" and future one "Ares."
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Time stood still as her warm plump lips crashed against his cold luscious ones, sucking her partially uttered name along with his soul out of them. She could sense his surprise at her audacious move by the way his body had turned deathly still under her touch whilst his unblinking eyes kept gawking at some invisible point located in far space behind her head.
For a second or two, her lips, too, stayed unmoving, bathing in the warmth radiating off of those freezing lips, before starting their exploration by placing small gentle pecks on his upper lip repeatedly. The sensation of her mouth ceaselessly coming into contact with his own was ethereal to say the least. She felt as if several ice cold snowflakes were slowly falling all over her burning body, pricking her senses wherever they touched before withering away on her skin in a heap of small melted drops.
Out of nowhere, a sharp pain shooting up her throbbing bottom lip hindered her way to the train of ecstasy, causing her to stop assaulting his cupid's bow for a small period. Gingerly, her trembling lips moved away from his heaving ones at the same time as the feathery shadow cast on his sunken cheeks by his long dark lashes slowly lifted off to reveal a glassy scarlet gaze.
"Your lip is bleeding, love."
She could feel his razor sharp fangs, poking out of his half parted mouth, rubbing ever so slightly against her swollen ones as he let those words out in the form of a breathless sigh.
"Mm."
Maintaining only a hair's breadth distance between their gasping lips, her tongue slid out of her mouth, running along the length of those glinting canines, drawing a low grunt out of the back of his throat to her astonishment.
'His kisses feel like the first drizzle of autumn.'
Not being able to hold her craving off, her starving mouth once again found its way back to his parted one, continuing to kiss it fervently.
A booming crack of thunder resounded outside, resembling close enough to the explosive sounds of fireworks going inside her own head. Her ears felt clogged with the loud whooshing of blood rushing towards her beet root face whilst light pitter pattering of rain shortly joined the deafening cacophony flooding her already overwhelmed senses.
Despite being under the shade of a dimly lit prison, she could feel herself getting drenched to the core, all because of those cool wet pair of lips currently pressed against her own. There was no rain in the dungeons yet she was soaked to her bone, leaving every inch of her soul transparent to the eyes of the man whose arms she presently occupied.
Suddenly, she was back in the basement of this very castle, sharing a bloodied kiss with a centuries old stone statue on a similar rainy night, the only difference being that in this moment, there was no magical trance involved that had clouded her judgement.
This time, it was out of her own free will.
It was out of love.
"My lord.."
Reluctantly, she once again moved back, detaching her shivering lips from his stoic mouth, gazing inquisitively at him,
"You aren't responding."
For some slow painful moments, he did nothing but stare square into her eyes with his rapidly contracting and dilating pupils. Bright red ripples were swirling in his green irises closely resembling floating waves of blood causing disturbance in the serenity of a forest pond. His heated gaze was causing her breathing to hitch as she stared back at him with her own caged storms.
"If I start this now, I shall not be able to stop myself, love."
Hearing his provocative reply, a shy smile bloomed across her lips causing her to hurriedly hide her face inside the solace of his arms.
"Cruel lord."
The strings of hi shirt had come loose, exposing the upper part of his pale muscular chest, allowing her to rest her cheek directly on top of his cold skin.
"When have I been cruel to milady?"
Her question had caused him to stiffen immediately,
"No. You've been cruel to yourself,"
Removing herself from his embrace, she raised up her hands to his chiseled jaw, gently grabbing it from both sides to make him look down at her,
"Since the moment I landed in this timeline, I never saw you doing anything for your own selfish reason. Every other deed, every single action was either to protect Henry or to take better care of me. You even spared the killer of your kin just to keep your promise to me,"
Her hold on his jaw had tightened more by now,
"Why.. are you so cruel to yourself?"
A pained smile suddenly kissed the curves of his scarlet lips as his large hands slowly covered her smaller ones, grasping them firmly in his own,
"Because this is how I was raised,"
His reply caused her to wrinkle her eyebrows as she saw him let out a cold puff of air before starting to speak again,
"Growing up, I did not have much contact with the world outside. I had books in place of real life companions. Whatever I learned, I learned through them. I lived several lives through their words, I felt countless emotions through those pages,"
She didn't fail to notice that his gaze had returned back to its original grassy state,
"But what I failed to comprehend at that time is that books seldom tell us the whole story. They twist the reality in such a way that we are only able to took at the bright sunny meadows whilst the barren landscapes of desert remain covered by a thick curtain of delusion. We are shown magnificent feasts but not the hunts that take place before it."
For a slight moment, some small dots of crimson appeared in his irises, tainting his pure emerlad gaze before disappearing again in the next second,
"For better or worse, books have taught me to be a righteous man. I see no point taking part in the shrewdness of this world. At the end of the day, we are all answerable to our own principles and I, for one, refuse to live with a dead conscience for the rest of my unending life."
By the time he was finished speaking, her jaw was close to hitting the floor. If he hadn't been gripping her small hands in his cold ones, she was sure they would've already dropped down in her lap as well,
"H-How did I get so lucky?"
Mirroring her internal turmoil, her voice came out as a barely audible whisper getting almost drowned out by the thudding of rain followed closely by a loud thunderclap.
"How.."
Cold fingers accompanied her rhetorical question, grazing her soft cheeks with the back of their hand,
"I should be the one asking this question, love."
His unexpected remark caused her head to shot up instantly,
"Why, Lord Ares?"
"I fail to understand the question, love."
"Why are you being so nice to me? Don't you despise the fact that I'm just a replacement of your original beloved? Don't you feel wronged that the Prince of Vampires is bound to a good-for-nothing human?"
She watched with a bated breath as his warm gaze suddenly hardened at her query causing her eyes to widen. Before she could even comprehend the situation, he had already gripped her waist to bring her impossibly close to him. Everything had happened too fast and now that she had finally found focus, she caught herself clutching onto his shoulders while straddling his lap,
"Do not ever call yourself a replacement."
Not giving her a chance to protest, he had already placed a finger on her parted lips,
"You are underestimating the power of destiny. Though the vampiress was my original beloved, it does not necessarily make you an imposter. You may have been granted to me through the means of magic but it was Deborah's magic. She gave me a new life through her death and I shall forever remain thankful to her for that. It could have been anyone from that abbot's lineage, but fate chose you. It is you who finds me trapped in this castle. It is you who travels back in time to meet me. It is you who has a part of me inside of you and now that I've fed from you, I, too, have a part of you incorporated inside of me."
The cold finger resting on top of her warm mouth had started tracing the edge of her soft lips, rubbing them gently in the process,
"It is you, love. It has always been you."
Unable to handle the overflowing emotions wrecking havoc inside of her, she shut her eyes, letting her head fall in the crook of his shoulder,
"Take me to our room, my lord."
She could feel him turn visibly rigid under her touch. He was clearly not expecting her to make such a bold remark yet it did not take him much time to comply.
After a brief contemplation, she heard him shuffling under her before she was lifted up in his strong arms.
"It is pouring outside so I have to use my abilities. Hold tight."
Hearing his voice, she tightened her hold more on his broad back.
"Keep your eyes closed."
The immediate moments following his sentence all felt like a big black blur to her mind. All she could feel was wind tearing at her skin in an unnatural way causing her to dig her nails harder inside the skin of his back impulsively.
"We are here."
His rich voice had miraculously managed to reach her ears in spite of the constant ringing rattling her skull.
"I am placing you down now, love."
"Mm."
Just as he placed her feet back on the ground, her legs gave way undearneath her.
"Ah!"
Before she could fall face first on the ground, a strong arm wrapped around her waist tugging her back up towards a firm chest.
"Ouch!"
In her hasty state, she failed to stop herself in time and had ended up hitting her forehead against his broad chest, inciting a painful moan out of her lips.
'Is his body made of bricks?'
Narrowing her eyes at the amused lord peering down at her, she furiously rubbed her throbbing skin with her palm,
"My lordship should've let me kiss the floor instead. I'm sure it would've hurt less than headbutting a brick wall."
Following her statement a loud chuckle found its way to her, causing her hand to stop its action midway.
'Huh?'
Not trusting her own hearing, her bewildered gaze shot up to gawk at the man standing in front of her.
"You're laughing?!"
Carefully sliding down every nook and cranny of his delicately carved features, the first thing her awestruck gaze noticed was multiple small crinkles forming around the outer corners of his glimmering emeralds. Travelling down, she couldn't help but gawp, watching the cold pair of lips that she had been kissing so lovingly only mere moments ago, now stretched into a full blown smile revealing a perfect set of white teeth. Soon, her gawking was replaced by a flustered expression as her eyes abruptly zeroed in on the small crescent like depressions in his pale sunken cheeks gracing both sides of his mouth.
"It's all because of you, love."
Finishing his statement, he gave her a heart warming smile, causing his dimples to be reduced into a small shadow hovering over his pale skin,
'Why didn't I ever notice it before? His dimples are so fricking adorable!'
Not giving it much thought, she gripped his shoulders, raising herself on her tippy toes to reach up and plant a quick kiss on his right dimple, leaving him stunned.
The excited grin dancing on the curves of her lips gradually faltered as she leaned back to see his pale fingers gingerly touching the place on his cheek where her lips had delivered a kiss out of the blue.
'Why isn't he saying anything? Is he upset that I touched him without consent?'
"Uh, sorry. I couldn't control myself."
A cherry red tinge had covered her rapidly heating cheeks as she finished whispering the sentence in a small voice.
No answer came from him.
'This man is going to be the death of me.'
Just as she was lowering her head in a failed attempt at hiding her burning face from his prying eyes, a cold pair of lips quickly pecked her soft mouth, stealing a kiss before she even had the time to blink.
"Eh?"
His unforseen action had caused her eyes to turn to saucers while she gaped at him with her mouth wide open.
"I apologize, love. I could not control myself either."
Pursing her lips at his brazen reply, she turned her eyes to slit for a moment, trying to give him a poor impression of a glare which soon dropped, turning into a bewildered one as she watched him tilt his head to one side while keeping a charming smile plastered on his breathtakingly beautiful visage.
'Screw that. I'm already dead.'
Messy mop of hair resting on top of his head were casting a raven curtain in front of his right eye resembling bars of a pitch black cell guarding the world's most precious emerald from the soiled gazes of onlookers. In contrast, his unguarded eye seemed to shine brighter in comparison almost coaxing her into touching it to confirm its unearthly existence for herself.
'He looks otherworldly.'
Thick long eyelashes lowered for a brief momemt, producing a feathery shadow over the pale skin of his hollow cheek before lifting up again to reveal crimson rubies in place of glinting emeralds,
"I should leave for now, love."
His voice broke her trance, making her realise that she had unintentionally walked closer to him while observing his looks. His dangling coat on her was the only thing separating her heaving breasts from touching his firm abs.
"His beauty is indeed bewitching."
Not having full control of her senses at the moment, she had uttered the sentence out loud drawing another chuckle from him.
"Beauty is a given for a vampire. It helps us in attacting our preys just as nature has provided flesh-eating plants with a much colourful body to lure insects."
She had thought previously that her cheeks couldn't get any warmer which was surely proven wrong after her unintentional slip up. She felt like her face was going to explode with embarrassment, but underneath the shadow of that god-forsaken shame, something else had crept up inside her as well. Something that made her feel warm and fuzzy. She couldn't pin point the emotion but it somehow resembled the feeling she had experienced when she had witnessed him delivering his first order as a lord in her dream.
'He's much more sophisticated and knowledgeable than the barbaric society he lives in. No doubt, he's considered an abomination here, not only because of his looks but more so because of his unconventional ways of thinking. Man has always been afraid of change and in this case, He is the change himself."
"I had better leave."
His gentle voice pierced through her internal thoughts leading her to shift her attention back to the beautiful predator occupying the space in front of her vision.
"Ask me to leave, Faith."
Her eyes squinted subconsciously as a broad built blocked her view of the lone lantern burning in far corner of the room, letting a black shadow crawl all over her small frame. Unable to decipher their current situation, she felt unable to move from her spot. With a deer-caught-in-the-headlight look platered all across her face, she watched as the fast approaching blood soaked emeralds seemed to grow bigger and bigger in size.
"Wha-"
"Sshh.."
For the second time in a single night, his long pale finger found her trembling lips to shush her before she could let another word out.
'What is he doing?'
Not being able to handle the intensity of his gaze, she lowered her eyes, letting her gaze slip down towards the intricate web of veins popping out of his paper thin pale skin, moving up and down as he gulped inaudibly every once in a while.
'He's nervous, too.'
Meanwhile, his face had come exceedingly closer to hers. She could feel his ice cold breath washing all across her rosy cheeks in form of small prickling puffs, making her insides tingle with an unknown feeling.
A minute or two passed in complete silence, without him making any move or producing any kind of sound. It almost felt like he was questioning his own behaviour.
Ensuing an indeterminable period of silence, a long dreadful sigh broke out of his half opened mouth leading her to think that he was going to move away from her. Just as she was planning to step away first to reduce the tension, he surprised her by closing the remaining distance between them and planting a soft cold kiss on top of her forehead.
"Eh?!"
A small gasp escaped past her parted mouth, causing her lips to rub across the finger he had placed on them.
"Faith."
His lips made small delicate movements against the skin of her forehead as they uttered her name in a slow tortuous murmur whilst his left hand found the back of her head, trying to keep her face as much close to him as possible.
"My lord.."
The urgency in his tone as he addressed her by her original name had startled her causing her to hastily tilt her head up to peer inside his burning eyes.
"I asked you to run because I knew I would not be able to control myself. Even now, my animalistic needs are fighting to overpower my senses. Do you know how much I want to mark every inch of you in this moment? Sink my teeth deep down your flesh till my scent is imprinted on you like a second skin."
His fingers had slipped down her raven locks to reach the side of her neck where they were gently rubbing his bloodied bite mark marring her soft swollen skin.
'These words, he has said these words before, but when?' Her eyes narrowed a bit as she furiously tried racking her brain to find the lost memory.
"Look up at me, love."
Before she could even lift her gaze up to meet up his burning one, he had already placed a chaste kiss on her right cheek, just under the lower rim of her eye, making her gape at the familiar situation unfolding before her,
'Isn't this how he had behaved on the day I went to his castle to find him? The day I met Henry for the first time.'
Tilting her head up, the Vampire Prince had now started placing small butterfly kisses down her cheek to travel towards her chin, right under her bottom lip.
"You have said this to me before, as well."
He must not have been expecting that as a response. She could guess it by the way he abruptly stopped his venture midway.
'Did I say something wrong?'
Thick dark lashes suddenly lifted up to reveal glimmering grassy orbs whilst the finger resting on top of her lips crawled down her chin to grip the back of her neck. With a sudden tug, he had brought her exceedingly close to him,
"Have I?"
His lips were touching hers as he voiced his thought out loud in a gruff tone.
"You.. have. Y-You said it meant you wanted to drink my blood to cover me up with your scent, but.."
She paused for a brief second, sucking in a sharp breath to control her nerves from going bersek at the constant contact their lips were making whenever one of them spoke before resuming to utter the rest of her sentence,
"You've already fed from me."
Just as her warm mouth finished letting out her query. he carefully pressed his mouth against hers for a quick moment before freeing her from his hold to move away swiftly. She could see one corner of his mouth lifting up into a satirical smirk as if he were mocking her words.
"Either my future self doesn't trust you or he doesn't trust his own self with you."
He had put great emphasis on the word 'future.'
"What?"
"He did not tell you the whole truth. Marking your mate, not only does it portray feeding, it also means mating with them physically."
'Mating physically?'
"Sleep well, my love."
His grave voice broke her chain of thoughts causing her to snap her head towards his direction. She could see his broad back turning smaller and smaller as he started trudging towards the door silently.
'He's going to run again, even in this time span?'
Not giving it much thought, she ran after the said vampire, her hand shooting out to grab his forearm before he could reach for the door's handle.
"Don't go,"
Stopping midsentence for a small moment she looked up to see whether she had been successful in gaining his attention. He still had his back turned towards her but the hand reaching out for the door had dropped back to his side.
"I know it's selfish of me but please listen to me one last time before you decide to go,"
She took his silence as a sign to continue her blabbering,
"I've been alone in this castle for days. I'm afraid. I'm not even able to trust my own shadow in here let alone the servants. I don't want to spend another sleepless night tossing and turning in an unknown room. I had prayed for your speedy arrival every single moment in the past few days and now that you're finally here, don't make me go through that all over again. Please, don't leave me."
No movement came from his side.
"Please, Lord Ares."
"You really have a way with words, my little lady."
In a heartbeat, cold hands had encircled her waist, lifting her off her feet in two familiar strong arms.
"Sleep before I lose control."
He had kept his gaze ahead, purposely avoiding eye contact with her as he continued walking up to the bed.
'Is he upset?'
After a moment, she felt herself getting lowered into a soft meshwork of silk sheets whilst cold finger grazed her shoulders gently in an attempt to remove the oversized coat from her body. Soon the shuffling of clothes stopped as another soft fabric was draped over her, covering her almost to her chin.
"Are you upset?
"Sleep, love."
"Are you going to leave?"
"I am here. Do not worry."
"Are yo-"
Her sentence got trapped inside the back of her throat as he whirled around abruptly placing his large pale hands on both sides of her head, caging her inside his deadly embrace. Instead of the beautiful shade of green she had come to love, dark crimson orbs were staring back at her with inhumanly dilated black pupils sucking her in like a black hole.
"Sleep."
Every thought circulating inside her ringing skull left her the moment he let out that single word. A tiredness she had never felt before rose from deep within her, trying to claim her and take her with it to an unknown place. Fighting hard to keep her eyes open in a futile attempt, her brain managed to allow a few scattered words to escape past her semi parted lips,
"Love me, Ares?"
Just before sleep could overtake her consciousness, an aloof voice, resembling the repeated taps of a tree branch scratching at a glass window, starting rotating around in her clouded mind,
"Why am I the only one in love, love?"
Inadvertently, the distant voice had released a deeply buried memory in its path.
Her head rested on top of his shoulder as she gazed up at him with her half closed eyes.
"Do you love me, Ares?"
He held her gaze with an unknown expression. She tried desperately to stay awake but the loss of blood wasn't helping her condition much. She saw his lips move and this time she was able to read their movement perfectly well,
"Why am I doomed to be the only one in love?.."
Pink tip of his tongue clicked against the back of his upper teeth before rolling down to touch the floor of his mouth causing his bottom lip to be pressed by the top set of pearly white fangs,
"...love."
He had called her 'love.'
-
FOR ANYONE WHO DIDN'T GET IT:
Last scene is the continuation of the end of chapter 21.