Chapter 15

Afternoons in the Library

Xellos watched as Lina polished off her 11th serving of breakfast. He was surprised by how neatly she was eating... well for her. She still ate at speeds well beyond the reach of most pie eating contest champions, but she wasn't making a mess. It seemed that when she lacked direct competition for her food her energy went into consuming it as completely as possible, instead of grabbing whatever she could and letting food fly everywhere as a result. He never ceased to be amazed by how much she could eat... but her phenomenal energy had to come from somewhere. Lina dug into her next plate, far too engrossed in eating to bother talking, and Xellos carefully went over his schedule in his mind, in this plan timing was everything.

"So," said Lina as she pushed the tower of dishes back from her and motioned for the waiter. "Any helpful information? Or do I get to plunge in blindly like usual?"

Xellos grinned at her, "but you do so well when you plunge in blindly," he said with false saccharine sweetness.

"Well I'd better after the number of times you've let me just fly blind," she scoffed, but her words didn't quite manage to hide the slight upturn at the corners of her mouth.

The waiter approached with a bit of trepidation but managed, "will that be all miss?"

Lina frowned at him, "no!" she said sharply, "I want 3 more omelet specials and 2 more full stacks of pancakes! Hmm and some more bacon and toast." The waiter stood there gaping for a moment before Lina's glare encouraged him to try and take the tower of dirty dishes back to the kitchen with him.

Xellos smiled at her, so commanding his Lina... she blushed when she caught his gaze but without any food on the table she lacked a believable distraction. Her eyes narrowed slightly and she returned his gaze in a challenging matter. It was funny how her reactions to emotional embarrassment had changed, instead of turning red and looking away she refused to drop her gaze. It was as if it was a contest, and perhaps in some ways it was, though on a much larger scale than she probably realized. His smile changed ever so slightly, showing a hint of lust and his eyes glinted open under his bangs. The color of Lina's face went from a light pink she'd been fighting down reasonably well to a deep red, and she appeared to weaken for a moment. But her will was just too strong for her to back down and in spite of her embarrassment she met his gaze with renewed force.

"So Lina-chan," he purred, "what would you like to know."

She swallowed heavily before squaring her shoulders and attempting to look normal. Slowly she began "well... I guess I need to know some things about teleporation magic. Where it draws power from and things like that. Also I could use a lot more information on pocket dimensions and the astral plane, which I don't think I'll find in the library."

Xellos gave her a lazy smile. "Well I do know about the astral plane. I'm afraid since my teleportation is different from the type the humans were developing I'll be of limited help there. From what I understand the type of teleportation they were developing is most closely related to shamanism."

"Related? You mean it's not actually in one of the schools of magic?"

"Not to my understanding, however I may be incorrect."

"I doubt it," snorted Lina, her face now thoughtful instead of scarlet. "The day your information is bad instead of just deliberately misleading is the day I become a shrine maiden."

"Well then I shall try to avoid having incorrect information to prevent that dire fate from befalling you. You're far to lovely to be a shrine maiden Lina-chan."

Lina's regained composure wavered a bit and her blush appeared anew. But she was saved by the return of the waiter and a bus boy with her food. Gratefully she dug in. Xellos just smiled at her, appealing to her competitive nature was working wonders on getting her to accept his advances. It was all a matter of time...

Xellos watched Lina out of the corner of his eye as they entered the vast library. Her expression of delight made him curiously happy and pleased. Finally after her eyes had roamed over everything visible from the entrance she turned to him.

"This is great!" she exclaimed, her eyes roving shelves upon shelves of books once more. Slowly her expression sobered a little, "but where do we start?"

Smiling he took her hand and tucked it in the corner of his arm. She started but followed as he lead her towards the left wing of the building. He allowed himself a moment of triumph over the fact that she was once again allowing him to touch her in public, before turning his attention to the task at hand. After all, Lina-chan had to be won mind, body, and soul.

Xellos had started with several large tomes of a slightly more historical slant. Explaining the basic theories that the magic operated on, before moving onto some of the research tomes left behind by the mages who'd worked on the problem. There were also a couple tomes on the astral plane, which he said were mostly correct, though from time to time he'd jot something down on a sheet of loose paper and add it as an annotation.

"Be sure you take all these loose papers back when you're done Lina-chan."

She looked up from the text she'd been pursuing with a curious glance, "why?"

He paused after placing another short correction slip in between the pages of a book. "Well," he said slowly, "I'm giving you this information because I said I'd help you... but it's really not a great idea to just allow anyone to have it."

She blinked at him, then smiled a shockingly brilliant smile. He was giving her information that he considered a secret... well he considered all information a secret... but he was letting her know a secret he didn't want anyone else to know, and that was good enough. "All right, I'll be sure. Do we have anything else on this magic background? It's really interesting, but I think I'm missing something."

Xellos took a moment to check the titles on the small mountain of books that had amassed at the table. "I think there's one about the differences between different types of magic that was written to include teleportation magic. But it was written before they decided the magic was too dangerous to use, so it's not complete."

She shrugged, "that's ok, anything could have the piece I need."

Xellos nodded and thought a moment. "I think it's called Magical Divisions... but I don't recall seeing it earlier or I would have pulled it. It may be mis-shelved."

"I'll look for it, I'm at a good stopping point. Just keep making those corrections!" she cast an appreciative glance at the small leaves of paper that stood out in various books, before bounding to her feet. Going to the beginning of the section she started quickly skimming book titles, making her way slowly down the aisle.

Lina had been looking for a while when he heard her soft intake of breath. Turning he saw her standing on her toes trying to reach a book that was just barely too high for her. A wicked smile appeared on his face as an idea occurred to him. He silently moved up behind her till they were nearly touching, then reached up and pulled out the book.

"Did you need this?" he purred into her ear. She stiffened before turning around, her body lightly brushing his, eyes wide. He gave her a heated look as he leaned slightly more into her, the book held to the side out of the way. She was blushing, though not as much as he had anticipated. Her eyes darkened slightly in color and she licked her lips lightly.

Her mind had gone blank when she'd felt his breath on her neck, and she'd barely registered his question. When she turned the look he gave her sent tremors down her spine, and she could feel her face grow hot. In fact she was feeling warm all over, in spite of the fact that the library was pleasantly cool for the season. Her mind vaguely wondered how the mood had changed so quickly, just moments ago he'd been being helpful (a miracle she was sure) while she worked on her research... her thoughts scattered once more as she felt him gently press against her. Warm and firm, his body seemed to send little jolts through her wherever they touched.

One of his hands slowly brushed her waist, reaching slowly around her to settle firmly on her lower back, even through his glove and her shirt she could feel the warmth of his hand. Slowly he pulled her up against him, till she could feel her own chest expanding against his with each breath. Her hands came up of their own accord, and she could feel the planes of his chest through his light shirt. His eyes were still locked onto hers, as his other hand braced against the bookshelf and he lowered his head to hers. Still moving with that steady heated slowness his lips touched hers, and pressed little by little as she melted into his kiss.

That melting must sparked the passion in Xellos, and the kiss grew more heated as he moved his lips against hers. The hand that had been braced against the wall moved slightly before coming to Lina's shoulder blade to pull her still more snugly against him. She shifted to put her body at a slightly different angle and bumped the bookcase. With a thump the forgotten book Xellos had shoved onto the shelf behind her fell to the floor. She started slightly, and started to pull back, but Xellos followed her, his lips hard against her own. She moaned slightly and her hands snaked up around his neck.

His lips were once again moving against hers, the sensation new but pleasant. She arched into him and imitated his movement, but was surprised to hear a soft growl from him before finding herself pinned between his body and the bookshelf. Realizing that he was reacting to her gave her a heady feeling of power that superseded her uncertainty about the situation, and she pressed back against him. This time it was a soft moan, more a sigh of breath really, and she felt his lips widen slightly before something velvet brushed her own. Her lips parted slightly in something between a gasp and a moan, and in that moment he tilted his head further and stroked the inside of lips with his tongue. She shivered slightly, but the sensation was still pleasant so she opened her mouth a little wider to allow him better access. His tongue slowly stroked her bottom lip before dipping into her mouth and brushing her own tongue. She started but hesitantly brushed back with her own.

Xellos' intentions, of surprising her with a single heated kiss after fetching the book for her, had gone out the window the instant she'd melted into his kiss so completely. Her moan and the arching of her body against his own had drawn him on, inflaming a primal instinct to ravage his chosen. The hesitant touch of her tongue to his sent his senses soring, and he knew wild elation at the realization that she wanted him to keep going. Just before he lost himself in the haze of pleasure that loomed before him, one final logical thought managed to snake it's way through. If I push her too far, she may never come willingly again... This was perhaps the only thought that could have kept him from ravishing her right then and there, as every fiber of him wanted too. Lina was a passionate person, and if she only did this because she was swept away by her emotions... then the chasm between them when she regained use of her logic could well be irreparable.

Xellos' muscles tightened as he held himself in check. Gently he stroked her tongue with his own again, slowly softening the kiss and forcing himself down from the flash point. With a groan of regret he withdrew his tongue and settled for soothingly moving his lips against hers, which was pleasurable but lacked the fire he longed for. His lips lingered on her own even as they withdrew, and he pressed another soft kiss on her lips before backing away enough to see her eyes.

Heavy eyelids fluttered to reveal heated crimson eyes, glowing like rubies before a fire. She licked her lips and it took all of his self control not to resume ravishing her, consequences be damned. She looked up at him, her desire clear in her gaze, and he gave her one more quick kiss before pulling them both upright and off of the bookshelf. She blinked and shivered slightly, before looking up at him again. Her eyes were questioning, but she didn't back away. He gave her yet another soft peck, forcing playfulness to replace passion for the moment, and then hugged her tightly burying his nose in her hair. For a moment they both stood there, each breathing in the scent of the other, until finally Xellos once more pulled away a little.

Lina looked a bit embarrassed, but to Xellos' delight she didn't jump away. Instead she looked down, cleared her throat once and managed a breathy "we should get back to work..."

"Yes," he agreed in a soft voice, "no matter how much I don't want to we should work while the library is still open." Her face brightened in color, but he was fairly sure she was pleased by his statement.

Lina slowly moved out of his arms, and Xellos' bent to pick up the book for her. She smiled at him, shyly at first, but more brightly when he smiled back. She had felt an undeniable sense of pride when Xellos' had insinuated that he'd rather continue kissing her, than get back to the research. It was a hesitant sort of pride, she was embarrassed and unsure of herself on these new grounds, but Xellos' response gave her a sense of accomplishment... and anticipation. She wondered what would happen later, and felt her face grow hot at the speculation. Forcefully she turned her attention to the work at hand, and eventually the new information before her once again became interesting.