Lord of Eternal Night by Ben Alderson

23

It was Marius’s wandering hands that woke me. His gentle touch coaxed me from the deep sleep I had lost myself within. Tickling fingers trailed shapes around my thigh which sent shivers across my bare skin. I was facing away from him, but his body was pressed firmly into my back. Each of us slightly curved enough to fit into one another’s embrace like two pieces of a puzzle. Pieces that did not fit together, but were forced together and ruined in the process. Yes, that was what we were.

Stifling a yawn, I attempted to stretch out but his cool body kept me trapped within his limitations.

“Can we stay in bed all day?” Marius whispered, pressing a prolonged kiss to the back of my head. His voice was hoarse and raspy, but lighter than it had been the nights past. “I do not feel ready to face the night ahead just yet. Let it be me and you, just us. Just like this. And please do not make me beg.”

He slipped a hand beneath my side and wrapped the other atop me. One strong tug and I was firmly in his grasp. And I did not want him to let go. Not even with the bubbling sickness that brewed within, or the haunting knowing of what was to come.

I was still fighting back against the want to fall back into sleep. It was peaceful there. A place without the need to think. Waking this evening felt as though I had been thrust out of a body of warm water into a winter storm.

I barely managed to form words together in agreement. All that came out of my mouth was a string of mumbled, long sounds.

“You are dressed,” Marius announced, tugging at the shirt on my back. “But when I last left you I am certain your body was exposed.”

My eyes sprang open at his comment. I shifted beneath the sheets and felt the material that Marius still played with at my thigh.

“I was cold.” The lie slipped out before I had a chance to claw it back. I had to tell him what I knew of Katharine eventually. And with it the reasoning of how I knew. I was suddenly glad to have my back to him as I was certain my pinched and twisted expression would have given my secrets away.

“Are you now?” His voice rumbled.

“No.”

As I said it, his wandering hands quickened in pace as he gripped onto the material of the trousers with full fists and begun tugging them down off my legs. I groaned as the chill of his fingers skimmed up my leg, knowing the trousers were now discarded on the chamber’s floor.

“And what of the shirt… do you need it to keep warm now?”

I paused, my breathing shuddering. “No,” I said again.

Marius snickered, fingers moving as preciously as a spider weaving a web. Button by button he undid the shirt without needing to be standing before me, all whilst he still lay beside me, his heavy breathing prickling the back of my neck.

There was something different about him. How his hands, although gentle, seemed rushed.

Urgent.

“Has the cold made you lose the ability to say more than one word?”

I pushed back at him, nestling my arse into his crotch. Before I felt the hard rock of his length I could sense his arousal for me. My mouth watered as I rubbed back against him, slowly rocking my hips.

“No,” I muttered again, eyes held closed as Marius’s enthusiastic grip fondled further.

“If you continue using that word I will be forced to manipulate my further questioning to ensure it ends well for me. Tell me, Jak, will you waste yet another evening with me and not leave this bed?”

“There is nothing else of importance that needs to be done,” I replied, accepting his proposal without clearly saying so. Part of me felt wrong for doing this. Keeping the stone of destruction within me. Would one more night really matter before I finally threw it, shattering the glass castle within Marius?

Marius turned me around to face him, his strength enough to complete the movement without my need for assisting. We faced each other, noses a breadth apart. His stare did not linger from mine for a single moment. I was his entire focus, and he was mine.

One more night of peace. It was a promise to myself. Over and over I repeated it in my mind as I took in his face. His handsome, perfect face.

I reached for the strands of loose, white hair that fell over his ruby eyes. He forced his face into my touch as I pushed the hair out of the way.

“You are the most handsome creature I have ever laid my eyes upon.” He did not blink as he spoke. Did not look away. His lips hardly moved as he announced his thoughts aloud.

Him saying that played with the barrier of sadness that I was trying to keep erected. It was almost painful looking at him, knowing what was to come.

I smiled, masking the emotions that stormed within me. “As are you. If you are the very last person I see it would not be terrible. You have not seen the others I have endured back home. You are… different.”

Marius winced. “Different is good, is it not?”

“Different is beyond good. It is you.”

He parted his lips to respond, but I silenced him with a kiss. I feared that if he spoke I would crumble entirely. So, like the selfish offspring my mother had so perfectly crafted, I buried the feeling and lost myself to Marius.

I pushed at his shoulders until he was laid flat on his back. Hoisting my leg over his, I took my place upon his crotch as though it was my throne. The sheets fell off my back, discarded, exposing both of our now naked bodies.

Marius grinned, exposing his teeth, and raised both his hands and put them behind his head.

“Have your way,” he groaned, his sly grin causing my stomach to flip. “I am all yours.”

My hands explored his chest and stomach, moving over the mounds of muscle as he tensed beneath my touch. I did not stop until they found his throat. I squeezed at his skin, lowering my parted mouth to his neck as he had done to me.

I started off by simply kissing. Each peck small and soft. But then I brought in a nip which erupted a growl of pleasure and surprise from his, always, parted lips. I sucked, introducing my tongue which ran across his skin, leaving a trail of glistening spit in its wake.

Sounds slipped from him, a chorus of pleasured chirps and deep, thundering growls that only spurred me on further.

Once I pulled away, his neck was as red as his wide, hungry eyes.

I lost myself to the feeling. Marius’s hands finally gave up hiding behind his head and he gripped onto either side of my hips. The harder I bit and sucked, the further his fingers dug into me. The pain encouraged me. It was not the type of discomfort that snatched one’s breath, but told me all I needed to know about Marius.

He was enjoying this, and I was as well.

Down from his neck, I trailed my tongue across his chest. This close I admired the faint hairs that covered his skin, as silver as those atop his head. Around his nipple was a circle of darker hairs, much like the shadow of hairs that crowned his cock. I licked around his nipple until it hardened, moving onto the next as my hands held firm onto his large, tensed upper arms.

He did not speak. Nor did I. This was not a time for conversation or words for they would not add to the act I was about to commit.

I pushed off from my seat and slipped further down the bed. Marius let me do so, his hands flexing as if he was unsure what to do with them now I was out of his grasp.

My kiss found his hip. The V-shaped lines that framed his throbbing cock stood out proudly. As I kissed at the space just north of his penis, I ran a nail down those lines, stopping only when his large cock was gripped in my hand. My fingers did not touch as I held onto it. Not like the others I had seen and held before. He was… monstrous. And I could not deny the throbbing warmth that came off it in waves. Warmth that did not bless the rest of his touch.

Only this, his most sacred and magical appendage.

My entire focus had been on teasing him that when I finally pulled back to look up at him, his hand now gripped the back of my head and held firm onto my hair.

“Ah, ah, ah.” His voice was husky and deep as he commanded, “Do not stop now. Carry on.”

I was suddenly self-conscious, unsure if my lack of skillset would suddenly ruin the mood. But Marius urged my head back down towards his manhood until the tip was pressed against my closed, wet mouth.

I allowed it to part my lips, my self-consciousness melting away to nothingness as Marius released a moan so wild it shook the very room. It was impossible to fit the entire length in my mouth, but I felt the need to try as much as I could. Over and over I moved up and down, my speed intensifying alongside the guiding hand at the back of my head.

Marius suddenly sat up, pulling me away with his grip. I glanced up, eyes wet, as he took his spare hand and brought it to his mouth. Spit covered his fingers, his stare held to mine. It all happened in a breath.

Marius brought his wet fingers to my opened mouth and rubbed it across my lips.

“Keep it wet.”

“You are full of demands,” I told him, licking my tongue across my lower lip, his spittle mixing with my own. “How about you try and keep quiet next time?”

Marius’s low laugh made my stomach jolt. “It is you who deserves to be silenced.” With that my head was guided back down to his throbbing manhood until the tip of it filled my mouth once again.

This was what I needed. A different type of peace that sleep would never been able to gift me with.

My mind could hardly focus on the moment at hand as Marius’s groans of pleasure shook the shadows around the room.

I felt powerful as my touch conjured such a reaction. My mouth worked at his cock, but so did my hand.

It was impossible to fathom time. I knew from the slight ache in my jaw that it had gone on for a while and the changing tones of Marius’s pleasured sounds.

Suddenly it came to a stop, Marius pulling my face from his crotch with both hands around my cheeks.

“Wait…” he breathed, eyes closed as he focused. His demeanour almost… panicked. I stopped my hand movements but could feel him throbbing in my hold. He was close. I was also breathless as I looked up at him, watching him trying to clamber for control of his body as pleasure burned through him. When he finally spoke I could feel pure hunger rolling off him in waves. His eyes were dark, so dark that it made the paleness of his skin stand out. “I am not finished with you yet. It is your turn.”

He moved with such unnatural speed that I was suddenly on my hands and knees, no longer looking at him, but facing the bedding beneath me.

I heard the familiar scratch of wood as he opened the bedside drawer and withdrew the only liquid that made sex with him possible.

I bit down on the sheets in anticipation, waiting for the moment that he would fill me.

Marius had touched me before as I had touched him. And it felt incredible. But there was no feeling in the world that could be replaced by the euphoria when he entered me.

The thought alone saturated my mouth even more than it was already.

His hands grasped harder, fingers digging into my skin as he traced lines up my legs and onto my arse. I peered back to see his wide, unblinking eyes almost entirely obscure.

My breath hitched. “Is something wrong?”

Marius turned his head to the side, clicking his neck and sighing. “I hunger for you, Jak.”

The words sent lightning through my blood. Marius parted his panting mouth and exposed the two gleaming points of his teeth. Even if I wanted to wriggle away from it, I couldn’t. Not as he held me firm in place. But I did not… not want to move away from him. He did not scare me, no. What he wanted from me, it thrilled me beyond words.

“Are you in control?” The question croaked out of me.

Marius grinned, tongue lapping across his lower lip. “I can smell you, Jak. All of you. I can feel your very essence pumping wildly through your veins. It is a song. A symphony that I find hard to ignore.”

He then paused, wandering eyes settling on my stare and holding it. “But to answer your question, yes, I am in control. No matter how I desire to taste you.”

I did not know if it was my own thirst for recklessness or the acceptance that my decision was made, but I invited him.

“Marius, I want you to enjoy me. All of me.”

His lip curled above his teeth. “Be careful what you say to me, Jak.”

“If you want to taste me…” I breathed, pulling my stare away from him and planting my face back down on the sheets of the bed. “Then do it. I trust you.”

Marius’s grip tightened on my arse, sending fire through my skin. “Are you certain, Jak? I fear I will not have the restraint to caution again.”

I closed my eyes, my body calm. “Do it.”

A low rumbling growl emitted from Marius, but I was too nervous to open my eyes to watch. I expected his mouth to find my neck or wrist, a place in which my veins shone blue from my skin. But his kiss found my arse and I melted beneath it.

He left a trail of his wet mouth from cheek to cheek. I gasped, arching my back more as his tongue would lap up against a sensitive spot. Then, as I groaned in pleasure, the cold touch shocked me. Not enough to break the enjoyment. But I felt the change.

The feeling was familiar. Reminiscent to when I would stick my gloveless hands into piles of fresh snow when I was young. Until the tips of my fingers would numb and my palms tingled.

But this sensation spread across my arse, followed by a gentle sucking.

My hand reached back and met hair. I tangled my fingers into it and held him firm.

The feeling of his bite was not painful.

No. But for a brief moment I understood that it would be if he so desired it.

Time, as it did so famously in this castle, fell away from me. I was lost on a wave of pure bliss, eyes slow to open and close as he had his way with me.

I lost my ability to hold a thought as Marius moved from position to position. Kissing, drinking, fucking.

Every time his breathing deepened and became uneven I willed him to calm, wanting this moment to go on for as long as I could muster. I refused to touch myself, even batting his own hand away as he reached for me.

At one point he had turned me on my back so I faced him. His lips were apple red, his teeth stained slightly from my blood. Not a drop ran down his chin. Not a drop wasted. Beads of sweat glistened like crystals across his temple, his chest and stomach flexing with each thrust as he re-entered me from his new position.

“I do not want this to end,” I told him, legs hoisted above his shoulders as he ploughed into me from above.

I meant it in more ways than just this sex session. I did not want this stay to end. For the final day to arrive and bring death with it. If I could will for time to swallow me entirely I would.

I pushed the thoughts into the darkest pits of my soul and dragged Marius down to my neck. As his teeth slipped into my waiting skin, thoughts simply faded.

There was only me and him. Marius lost to the rapture of our sex. Myself lost to the intoxicating kiss as he nipped at my skin and sucked on my blood gently.

The feeling we shared built like the beating of drums. With intensity and speed, it continued until we both cried out in sync as we shared in the climax we had so longingly kept at bay.

When we were done I felt lightheaded. I laid on my back, body tingling, as I stared up at the dark ceiling of the room. Marius lay beside me, fingers grazing my own as we waited in silence.

“It did not hurt,” I finally said, registering the slight tingle that spread across my neck, shoulder and arse. Which makes the thought of what is to come less intimidating.

It was the first thing I had said after Marius had finished within me. I had my hand pressed to my lower stomach, feeling just how slim I had become since leaving home. During the earlier days I ate my fill. But it had seemed that food had become less important now.

“I hate to ruin the illusion, but it will not feel the same. It did not hurt but I hardly took more than a sip from you.” Really? “No matter how I longed for more. You can thank the scraps of control I was able to keep, because as soon as that slips away from me I cannot promise you a painless experience.”

The silent pause between us went on for an eternity, only broken by Marius who rolled on his side to face me. “Have I ruined the mood?”

Not as much as I am about to.

The moment we had stopped, the returning sickness within me took me prisoner. His touch no longer distracted me from my thoughts. It simply stopped holding the door closed within me, allowing them free rein to overwhelm me.

“How long do we have?” I asked, voice cracking.

“Two more nights.”

It was so soon. And he was so certain as he hardly took breath before answering. I had never felt the want to claw back something so ferociously before. Time. With the power I kept imprisoned within, it was the one concept I could not control.

Not that I ever felt the need to. Except now. I would give all my magic up if it meant that this did not have to come to the destined end.

“I suppose all good things have to come to an end.”

Although I had not yet moved to face Marius, I could feel his gaze burning holes into the side of my face.

“The word good will never come close to describing what you are to me. You are far more than a good time. I have had plenty of those. But you, Jak, are something entirely different.”

“I am different,” I murmured, repeating what I had not long ago said to him.

“You are.” His hand brushed across my stomach which tensed beneath his cold touch.

“No, Marius. I am different. Different to what you think I am, and I cannot keep pretending. There is no point for my lie anymore.”

I did not reach for his hand to hold it, no matter how I longed to do it.

Marius chuckled nervously, pushing himself up on his elbows beside me. “What is bothering you, Jak?”

“I know what has happened to Katharine.” Even the very air between us seemed to come to a standstill. I slipped from the bed, leaving him in it as I stood. Nervous energy bubbled through me. “And I wish I could tell you that she will be okay. But I know the people keeping a hold of her, and they would hurt their own if required. Trust me.”

I turned to him and watched him where he sat, eyes glaring and body stiff. It seemed every muscle on his exposed body had tensed as my words settled over him.

“Help me understand, Jak, for I fear your words are only confusing me.”

This was it.

I raised a hand before us. Marius’s eyes settled on it. I reached far within me to the coiling of fire that waited for my call. And it answered. Deep red flames tickled across my fingers, dancing and twisting until the room glowed beneath the flamelight.

Marius was still, all but his mouth that parted slowly and the lines that cut across his forehead as his brows furrowed.

“I am a witch, Marius, and I was sent here to kill you. And those who sent me have Katharine now as leverage.”

It seemed that I was unable to catch a breath as he watched on.

Then the flame across my hand died out. Winked out of existence in a single moment. Just as the room shook beneath the sudden roar that spilled from Marius’s split, teeth-bared mouth.