"What do you want?" she growled, ensuring to put in every ounce of irritation she could muster into the question.
"Why do you always assume that I want something every time I visit you?" Xelloss asked quietly from behind her, his hand never moving from her bare shoulder. Said hand wasn't gloved, she distantly noted, feeling the warmth of his flesh against hers.
"Because you always do. Now what is it?"
"Would I just wanted to say hi suffice?"
His voice was softer, quieter this time and Lina's eyes narrowed slightly. It took all of her self-control not to turn and face the priest, instead sit still where she was, though her muscles were taught, rendering the relaxing effect of the bath rather useless. She felt a weight settle onto the bed behind her and his other hand mimicking the first on the other side of her neck as they slowly began knead her tense shoulders.
"Not really," she replied curtly. She wanted to sound angry but the motions of his hands felt good, she acknowledged guiltily. "What do you want?"
"You really ought to relax, Lina," he murmured against her ear and she suppressed a shiver. A small smile tugged at the edges of his mouth and he dipped his head to press his lips briefly against her neck, pausing his massage for that moment before continuing. "Why are you so tense?"
Because you're here and I'm just in a towel, she wanted to say but she settled on, "Not enough bandits to keep me satisfied."
It wasn't a lie, it was true. Over the past couple of months there had been significantly fewer brigands around for her to wipe the ground with and being that it was her main way of relieving stress, she'd become quite testy of late. But the fact that she was only clad in a towel wasn't helping matters as she felt the heat rising gradually in her cheeks. She was deathly curious as to why Xelloss chose this particular way to visit her after so long.
"Besides," she continued, "I haven't seen a sign of you in nearly two years and then just out of the blue you show up here, of all places."
"A funny thing that," he chuckled, slowly working his hands down a bit lower towards her shoulder blades. "I decided to come here to Cryuun because the scenery always changes. It makes for an interesting time sometimes, trying to figure out where it's taken you."
"How long have you been here?" The sorceress allowed her eyes to close under the relaxing touch of the priest as he worked the knots out of her still sore muscles. His touch was light and quick but it seemed to work magic on the stubborn places that the bath hadn't soothed.
"Oh about a month or so now. It recently moved here from Drydar," he explained conversationally as he worked.
He hadn't been sure if he would be fireballed or beaten for his surprising her like he had and he had a feeling that if she'd seen him before he began the massage, he wouldn't have been allowed to start. He'd been waiting here for her, expecting her a week earlier, in all honesty, but it just added fuel to the thought that she was truly a being of chaos; dependable but at the same time not. When the Beastmaster had let him go on this "vacation", he'd been thrilled and now he smiled again as his plans started to take shape. He knew that it could, and likely would take a while and a few not so subtle hints to finish his mission, but he was patient. After all, he had as long as she lived, but he reasoned that the sooner the better, and one never knew, she may just surprise him.
"Oh. What's it like there?"
"Well as the name says, very dry. Almost desert like. Not the most habitable of places for any creature outside those indigenous to the area."
"I see." Lina curled her hands into her lap, gripping her palm with her nails in order to keep herself focused. The last thing she needed was to succumb to the jelly feeling spreading over her body and wilting beneath his deft hands. "Why are you in here when you could have just as easily found me in the morning?"
"Sore wa himitsu desu," he whispered and a small grin crept over her lips.
Same as always, she thought. "Do you ever answer a question straight when not in cohesion with your plans?"
"On occasion."
"Hn," she snorted softly.
It was becoming harder for her to keep concentrating on anything besides his warm hands or the way that his breath over her ear made shivers run down her spine but she didn't want him to stop. She hadn't had a proper massage for so long that she revelled in the tingling feeling her loosened muscled acquired after his deft fingers moved on to another spot. He was now working the back of her neck and down her spine to the lip of the towel and she tipped her head forward slightly to better accommodate him as he swept her hair over her shoulder with a quick gesture.
"Did you miss me while I was gone?"
"Sure. You had your uses," she told him. She knew that the words would sting but she also rationalized that he deserved it for not keeping in touch. Besides, they had a mutual understanding in their odd relationship which had been established years before.
"And you had yours."
"Ahh, being your little pawns in so many schemes and whatnot," she chuckled.
"Don't forget the meals and the entertainment value," he added lightly, earning a soft laugh from the sorceress.
He smiled and pulled the edge of the towel a bit lower to continue his massage as his thoughts wandered for a moment. He'd actually been bored for the most part when he wasn't around the interesting little group of humans -and one chimera- and he'd found that despite the difference in race and the gullibility of humans, for the lesser race, Lina and her companions were intriguing and often good for a meal and a chuckle. His interest always remained focused on the sorceress now leaning into his hands because of the fire that she exhibited, her chaotic nature, her controlled emotions that raged like a dragon behind her iron will. She held more power than any human should and was nearly as strong as he, another attribute he found as attractive as her beauty and devil-may-care attitude, from behind which a woman of great responsibility controlled. She was knowledgeable and quick, features that had instantly caught his eye while he found the marred innocence of her mind compelling, and the innocence of her body, that she accidentally revealed in a few conversations past, was desirable. She was perfection yet imperfect; sharp but naive; forthright and predictable yet still as much of an enigma as he was to everyone else. She was Chaos. Everything he desired.
His newest task, which he had appointed himself with, was to find the breaking point of the sorceress; to see how much it would take for him to either seduce her or have her flee to another. Either way it would be amusing and if he succeeded, well, it would be a perk and the satisfaction of having completed his self-assigned mission favourably would be his payment as well as possible praise from his superiors. Whereas if he failed and she went to another, say the blonde, it would mean nothing to him, save that he would have another, better, bargaining chip over his toys than he already had.
"What has you thinking so hard?" she asked quietly as she pulled away from him, rising up to stand at the edge of the bed facing him, a blush creeping over her cheeks.
He said nothing but smiled back at her, opening his eyes to look into hers. Dark and glittering like blood over rubies, he thought. He loved those eyes, large and expressive with the power to display her every thought or to hide her desires. Right now they were slowly taking him in before settling back on his face, her gaze locking with his. He had wondered what she would do once she saw his attire, if she saw it at all, his mind added as an afterthought, sending a small smirk to his lips.
He was clad only in a pair of loose fitting black pants that hung low on his hips as he sat there cross-legged before her. The heat rose quicker to her face now and she fought it down with a small smile. She didn't want to appear to be put off by his lack of clothes, revealing that nicely muscled body that he'd always kept hidden, even though she was. She felt her body respond and the urge to climb back onto the bed grew when he leaned back to rest on his elbows, seeming to stretch simply for her. The candlelight, which filled the small room, gave his light skin a creamy complexion while his violet hair shimmered as it swished tantalizingly over his bare shoulders, and his eyes... His eyes were watching her lazily from below the curtain of his bangs and the slit pupils only seemed to darken the amethyst irises further, giving him a decidedly predatorial look as he cocked his head slightly to the side, a smile spreading over his soft pink lips.
"You," he mouthed, his smile widening when she flushed darker. "Cat got your tongue, Lina-chan?"
Lina caught the endearment and hesitated. He'd never called her that before. No one had except her sister a long time ago when they'd been young. To this she didn't know how to respond and the amusement creeping into Xelloss' eyes told that he knew this. She couldn't just tell him to leave; it'd just scream that he had her flustered when he hadn't even done anything!
"Not yet," she answered as coolly as she could, unconsciously tightening her hold on the towel about her. His imploring gaze was making her knees feel like jelly and she prayed they weren't shaking as bad as they felt. "Just wondering if I hadn't mistaken your room as mine," she finished lamely, trying to make a joke to either allow her to leave or get him to go.
To this the priest chuckled. "I was positive this was your room but if your so sure that it's mine, I'm willing to compromise and share," he said smoothly as he sat up and moved forward to swing his legs over the side of the bed. When Lina made a negating gesture and began to speak, he stood and took her into his arms in a fluid motion, making her stutter to a halt again.
"You were saying?" he pressed. This was most amusing, he thought as he dropped his eyes to hers, knowing they seethed desire; a trick he'd learned and a main reason why he never had much trouble finding a partner for a night. No one could resist his eyes, not for long anyway.
Lina swallowed hard and tried to pull her gaze from his, finding herself unable to look away. What she saw portrayed there made her heart race. "I was saying that I should find my own room."
"But what's the fun in that? I mean, do you really want to go to a cold room, a colder bed all by yourself?" he asked, smoothing his hands over the bared flesh of her back and shoulders as he stepped into her.
The warmth emanating from him definitely made a solitary room sound far less appealing than the heat he was willing to share but doubt was quickly filling her mind. The little voice of conscience, which was usually kept buried deep in the back of her mind, made a feeble protest to the idea with a faint cry. A Mazoku, it called in reminder. Do you want a replay of the last time?
Shut up, her body hissed back, so what if he's a Mazoku? He may be a demon but he's not him.
I wouldn't put it past him!
Don't be so damned sceptical. Yeesh. Listen to what your body needs for once!
The sorceress groaned inwardly at the silent battle of wills and finally pulled out of Xelloss' warm embrace with a shy smile. "I need to go to bed now, Xelloss, it's late."
The demon glanced out the window and nodded before turning back to her. "So it is," he agreed, his arms curling back around her.
Lina didn't know how it had happened, but suddenly she was lying on her back on her bed, staring up in shock at Xelloss' smiling face as he leaned over her, supporting himself with his arm on the other side of her. She blinked several times in shock and opened her mouth to protest but nothing came out as he leaned down and covered her lips with his own, and she promptly shut it again. He pressed harder against her, trying to force his way into her mouth and she did the first thing that came to her mind: she bit him. Instead of jumping back or striking her like she'd thought he would, a soft growl rumbled low in his throat and he lifted his head to look at her, his tongue darting out to lick away the blood from the now healed wound.
"Hmm, I never thought of you as the kind to play rough," he told her quietly, his open eyes glinting darkly in the flickering light of the candle next to her bed.
He leaned down again, but this time his mouth was soft against hers, not demanding but more like a light inquiry. She turned away from him, breaking the light kiss, her eyes closing as she said the words that made her sound so weak, so vulnerable. The words she hated to hear coming from herself.
"Please, don't."
The last time she'd said these words, she'd been laughed at and mocked, then... But this time she was rewarded not with a sneering and triumphant laugh but a soft touch against her cheek as Xelloss brushed his thumb over the flushed skin.
"Good night, Lina," he bade so quietly that the sorceress barely caught the words before he vanished, leaving her as she was on her bed, staring in surprise.
Reappearing in the room he'd decided to share with Gourry so that Lina could have her own room, he grinned upon seeing that the blonde was fast asleep. He knew by the look in her eyes as he'd gone that his quick departure had been unpredicted and he smiled more. It was good to keep the sorceress on her toes. But what nagged at him was the darker look, the look of fear deeper in her eyes; a fear that was not directed at him but a recalled memory of the past. He could see the difference; it wasn't the same as he was used to seeing…
Settling himself into his own bed, he drew the covers over himself, and allowed himself to think. He did not need sleep very often but it calmed the lesser race to believe that he did. It gave the appearance that he had a weakness and was not more superior than they, relaxing them somewhat and in turn making them easier to mislead and manipulate.
Lina was pure, was she not? True she was mentally scarred by the life she led and the blood of innocents stained her hands, but her body was pure. In a few conversations past between the girls, Xelloss being there for simply amusement purposes and left out of the talk to simply sit back and listen, she'd absently commented on never having taken a lover and that she didn't understand Sylphiel's or Amelia's passion to enjoy the touch of a man. Her expression had shown true ignorance, no lie. But why was she afraid? It wasn't the fear of a virgin, but something deeper; something else that eluded him.
"Hmmm..."
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