Lord of Eternal Night by Ben Alderson

13

“You have been avoiding me,” I accused, gripping the doorway as I studied the hunched figure of Marius in the plush, ornate chair behind his desk.

He hardly looked up from the quill that danced across the parchment before him as I entered his study. “No. You have simply not looked hard enough for me.”

I scoffed a laugh. “I did not realise we were entrapped in a game of hide and seek.”

Marius flicked his ruby stare my way, the corners of his eyes creased by a faint smile. “Oh, had I not made that clear? Why don’t you come in and close the door, you are letting out the precious heat.”

I did as he said, closing the door gently, feeling the welcoming warm kiss of the twin fires that burned. And I now knew who lit them. It had been short hours since Victorya had disappeared through the wall of the bed chamber, leaving me with that uncovered truth.

“Last night you left and did not return. Now you expect me to hunt for you?” I scoffed. “How entitled you are.”

“Yet you came looking for me?” Marius studied me as he dipped the quill into the ink pot. A single drop of black spilled onto the polished oak desk. “It would seem your hunt has been fruitful, for you have found me.”

I swallowed my reply, unsure why irritation roiled through me. “It was easier to navigate my way back this time.” It was. After Marius had explained his ability over the shadows and darkness I wondered if I would have made it back. But today, it seemed that the walkway was entirely lit by the candles in iron-wrought holders across the walls.

“I willed it so. I told you this study can be used for your… enjoyment. I felt no need to keep it hidden from you.”

I had mentally mapped out my walk back to my rooms the evening prior, keeping the direction lodged in my mind. Part of me expected to find the way lost to Marius’s shadows, but it was simple to find. How I had missed it before was beyond understanding. But so was his strange power.

I padded across the room, keeping my focus on the bookshelves before me, and not on the devilish creature that sat, muttering quietly, in his chair.

“Have you eaten, Jak?” Marius asked, face alight with concern.

“I am not hungry.” My appetite had not clawed its way back to me since seeing the walking spirit.

“Is something bothering you?” I turned from the shelf to Marius who no longer sat behind the desk. Now he stood inches behind me.

I inhaled sharply at his sudden closeness. “You need to stop doing that.”

“What?” he breathed; his white hair perfectly arranged. Not a single strand out of place.

I dropped my gaze to my feet, placing my hand on his still chest. “Please, Marius, give me space.”

Marius stepped back without the need for me to ask again. “I have had enough company to understand that something bothers you, Jak.”

Something had bothered me, but I was not prepared to tell Marius of the company I had shared in his room. Victorya. Now, with Marius before me, I realised just how affected I had been from the interaction. Mother was usually the one to remind me of the heavy pressure of my fate. Now, with her far away, I had a phantom of a young girl to do it in her place.

“And what do you want for me to do? Spill my heart to you?”

“Jak, you do not need to do anything you are not comfortable with. Not with me.” His voice was as soft as the expression he made. He took another step back, reluctantly. “I was simply asking.”

I thrashed out with my tone, rather than fists as I wished. “Stop that.”

One brow raised in confusion above his concerned gaze. “I fear to ask what I must stop doing.”

“You speak in such a way that I do not want to hear. Just stop.”

Marius’s expression melted slightly, his jaw clenching as he regarded my outburst. “If you do not want to hear what I have to say, you are welcome to leave.”

Leave. And where would I go? Back to the room, or to another empty place filled with the ghosts of his past? I could not return home, and he knew it. It was strange how quickly the anger took hold within me. Just in time for Marius to close the gap between us, only stopped by the thump of my fist against his chest.

“Get away from me,” I warned.

Before I could pound upon him a second time, he caught my fists in his hands. The length of his fingers and width of his palms encased my fists as if they were small apples. His strength was unwavering. His touch cold.

“My kindness offends you?” Marius asked, his grip tightening as I tried to pull free from him. “If you want me to be a beast, then ask me.”

“I want you to be…” I couldn’t say it. Not aloud. I want you to be easy to hate.

There it was. The truth that spilled out in my mind, a fact that spurred fear in me far greater than the beast Marius warned of. Marius was nothing like he was supposed to be. Nothing how I was lead, taught, to believe.

“Do not plead shyness now, Jak, go on. Say it.” His voice deepened as he hoisted me towards him, my chest crashing into his. He released my hands, wrapped his arm around the curve of my back and held me close. He leaned down until his face was a breath away from mine. “Tell me what you want from me.”

“Release me.” I forced as much command into my tone, but failed as my voice cracked.

“Make me believe what you ask of me.” A snarl erupted from the pits of his stomach as his lip curled over his teeth. Two points flashed in warning.

“Release… me, Marius.” Even I could hear how my own tone conspired against me.

I could hardly breathe as I lost myself in his ruby gaze. Deep down I fell through the darkness that curled inside of him. Somewhere in the distance I felt the four elements sing to me. But there was no siren call that would distract me from him.

Marius leaned down, and as he moved I could not take my focus from his mouth. The dream I had filled my mind, and twisted my stomach in knots, sending thrilling warmth through my chest, my stomach, my entire being.

Perhaps this was all it was. A dream. One of him, and his awfully cold touch, pressed against my body. But I knew that was simply wishful thinking.

Thoughts were almost impossible to hold onto as Marius’s lips tightened as he spoke again. “If you want me to release you, perhaps you should release me first.”

My entire body chilled as I realised what he spoke of. My arms were wrapped far around the lower half of his broad back, grasping onto him. My knuckles tensed as I fisted his jacket and kept him pressed to me.

But even as his words sunk in, I did not release him.

“I—” There were no words to speak, only the muffled spluttering of a sound as I pushed myself onto my toes. Marius’s stare was intense, but so was the thrashing river of my heart that I’d lost my control upon.

Then, without thinking further, I crashed my lips into his. Marius’s entire body stiffened in response. Enough to make me regret my actions immediately. But before I could pull away, his demeanour relaxed and he melted into me like butter over an open flame.

Only our lips danced together at first. Until his tongue slowly eased itself into my mouth, parting my lips and coaxing my own to join in. A waltz we both partook in.

I finally relaxed my hold on him, busying my free hands by running them up his torso. His shirt rumpled upwards to expose the cold, hard touch of his midriff. Marius’s hands held me close, one even reaching for the back of my neck to hold me in place.

I sensed his want to keep me trapped.

But I was not going anywhere.

As we kissed I lost all ability of reason and memory. Gone was the task set at hand for me. All I could think about was his taste. How I inhaled and smelled the incense of sandalwood. His kiss was clean, as though he chewed on clumps of freshly picked mint even now. It also forced any reasoning to a dark cage in the furthest parts of my mind. Locking them away, where I could not reach them.

It was intoxicating.

One moment I was standing, then next he had scooped me up. Instinct had me wrapping my legs around him. I did not fear to fall as his hands now held me up from my behind.

Momentum had us crashing into the shelving. The shock of the crash had me gasping, breaking away from the kiss.

“Did I hurt you?” Marius growled, voice full of allure.

“Not enough.” My words were no more than a gasp, a whisper.

His gaze narrowed and he tilted his head as he grinned at me. Marius trailed a pink tongue across his wet lips as he studied me intently. “May I continue?”

I tightened my legs around him, signalling my response.

In anticipation I closed my eyes, ready to give into his kiss again. But his lips did not find mine. Marius nuzzled into my neck, causing my head to tilt backwards.

A moan escaped my mouth as I exhaled in pleasure. Marius kissed and nipped at the skin of my neck, only breaking the intense sensation as he ran a tongue slowly across my jugular onto the other, untouched, side.

I rolled my neck, doing everything I could to make his access easy. My hands found the back of his head. I trailed them through his hair, ruining the perfect style as I held him close.

Marius growled, but not from anger. From something far sinister. Hunger. It was similar to the sound that the blood hounds made.

“Don’t stop,” I pleaded as he raised his mouth from my neck. I tried to pull him back but he held firm beneath my grip.

“I need you to tell me you are certain you want this.” There was hesitation in his voice. I looked at him, deep in his eyes, noticing his inability to hold my gaze as though he readied himself for disappointment. “If you tell me to stop now then I assure you this will not happen again.”

“Marius.” His grip on my behind firmed as I said his name. “Continue.”

“Have you ever…”

I put my finger to his mouth, almost catching on the points of his canines. “I am grown. I have lived a life before coming as your Claim. And I can assure you I made the most of it.”

“There is something dangerous about you.”

A grin kicked up the corners of my wet mouth. “Do I frighten you?”

Marius’s laugh set my skin afire. “A little. But you also thrill me. In ways I fear I could not explain.”

His mouth found mine again, stopping me from responding. Books fell, scattering across the floor as he dragged my body across the shelving. Marius stepped over them effortlessly, lifting me from one shelf to the other.

My body tingled, the feeling spreading through every length of me.

I knew Marius felt the same for something hard pressed into me every time he hoisted me in his hands to get a better grip.

I held firm on the back of his neck, tongues dancing among each other.

Lost in the moment, Marius took a misstep and fell. Down to the wooden panelled flooring we tumbled, Marius pulling me close into him. As his body took the impact he hardly made a sound.

I rolled off him, laying on my back next to him as I lost myself to a fit of giggles. It was impossible to keep my eyes open as the laugh intensified and turned into a chuckle that shook my stomach. I had to press a hand down in worry it would jump out and run away. And I was not the only one who laughed, for Marius’s deep chuckle joined in with my own.

“I fear I’ve ruined the moment,” he said, barely catching a breath.

“I can honestly say I’ve never been dropped before.” I rolled onto my side to face him. “Do you have a habit of being so reckless?”

Laying upon the ground his face was more defined. Gravity pulled down upon his skin, carving out his jaw and cheekbones. And his skin, it glowed. At the same level as the burning fires it caught the light and glittered.

It was… beautiful.

“It has been many years since I have been in such a … predicament. Forgive my clumsiness for lack of practice.”

My chest pranged at the thought of Marius with another. I pushed the feeling down to the pits of my belly where I uncovered another I had buried.

He was my enemy. At least that was what I had come to know. Yet here I lay beside him with the phantom touch of his lips across my own.

I rolled onto my back, a rush of anxiety coursing through me as the realisation flooded back through the barrier of reality.

My breath caught as I looked up at the vaulted ceiling. It was painted entirely with dark navy all besides the lines of gold and black that sliced in precise and deliberate shaping’s. Peppered across the ceiling were gold markings of connected lines through star-like figures.

It was a celestial chart. A map of the sky similar to those I had seen in Mother’s many tomes. Except this, this was far more skilled than anything she could have shown me. Albeit, more beautiful than the night itself.

As though the ceiling was made of glass and I looked up at the constellation of night through it.

Noticing my awe, Marius spoke softly. “It is the very same design that has lasted all these years without the need for repair. It is breath-taking, is it not?”

I leaned back on my elbows, still focusing on the chart of stars and constellations. Although they were not labelled, they did not need to be. I recognized many of the shapes from my short lessons with Lamiere.

“What do you see?”

“Aquila, the eagle.” I lifted a finger to point to the shape that had been joined with a line between ten different markings of stars.

Marius too lifted a finger and picked out the very same shape I had seen. “Crowned with the star Altair. You see the one we made bigger than the rest?”

I could. Only by a small margin, the shape was slightly bigger than the rest it was linked up with.

“Who is we?” I asked him, latching onto something he had just said. Marius kept his stare on the ceiling.

“A long lost… friend.”

The air thickened with sadness as his lashes thickened with moisture. Although I lay mere inches from Marius’s side, I felt his body stiffen. Then, in a blink, he was standing. His movements a blur.

I sat up with a sinking feeling in my gut. “I apologise if I have pried too far.”

Marius had his back to me, arms folded over his chest as he contemplated in silence. “Tonight I have overstepped, Jak, forgive me.”

“What are you talking about?”

Marius faced me with an expression of cold stone. “I should”

“If you think for a moment that you can just disappear on me again, stop. You cannot keep flouncing in and out, leaving me to ponder my thoughts.” The words came tumbling out of me as a result of my pure desperation for him to stay. Deep down this feeling sickened me, but I kept it buried. For now. “There is something you are not telling me. You have said it, I am going to die anyway. Why not spill your secrets to me? Let me listen to your story for you count yourself to be a storyteller.”

Marius looked back to the floor. Before he could utter a word, I closed the space between us and pressed a hand to his chest. There was no flutter of a heartbeat within it.

“The mural was completed during a time in my life when I was free. Free of this curse. When I was trapped by another, one who held my love.” A single tear slipped down his cheek. “It was that love that resulted in… in this.”

The curse. He did not need to say it aloud for me to understand what he suggested.

“When you lose everything you have loved, sometimes the grief can return to ruin the small moments of good that are left. Grief is a silent assassin, lurking in the dark of one’s soul, ready to cloak any light in shadow.”

I reached up, instinctively, and brushed the cold tear from his equally cold face. It soaked the tip of my thumb where it continued its descent to my wrist. Unlike Marius, I had never lost anything so dear before.

“Thank you for sharing that with me,” I said quietly.

Marius took my forearm in his monstrous hand and lifted my wrist to his mouth. He placed a kiss upon my skin where his tear had left a wet trail. “I should be thanking you. It has been simple to grow such habits of running away from these feelings. In all these years that have passed I have run from room to room, shadow to shadow. There is something about you that makes it easier to… cope.”

I blushed, guilt stabbing its talon-like grip into my stomach. The need to change the course of the subject was intense.

“Care for a drink?”

Marius grinned through his glistening eyes. “Do you read minds, Jak?”

I stiffened. That was a power that my kind had long lost. “Impossible. It was simply a wild guess.”

“Then yes, Jak, I would love a drink. You stay here and I will be back shortly.”

“Last time you promised that you did not return at all.”

Marius leaned in close, casting a shadow over me. “The difference is that this time it seems we have some unfinished business to attend.”

A tickling sensation spread from my feet until it roared through my entire body. Beneath his intense stare I felt my knees buckle ever so slightly. And the promise of his return moistened my mouth with anticipation.

“Do not disappear on me, Jak,” Marius said at the doorway to his study.

“Couldn’t even if I wanted to,” I replied, unable to hide the raw truth in my words.