Chapter 6
Elain
I tucked myself into my room and shut the door, sliding to the floor and crying into my knees.
It was a long while before I felt like I could stand. I washed my face in the adjoined washroom and changed quickly into the nightgown I had left on the foot of my bed that morning.
A rustling noise echoed in from the balcony, and I rushed to open the double doors in hopes that I would find Azriel there. Instead I was met with a gray membranous figure. It's head was bulbous and pale, and it had a long break like nose. It looked vaguely human but it's sharp smile invoked a vision of my own death that stifled a of my other senses.
I toppled over backwards and its lanky body unfolded and crept in over me.
"Pretty. Pretty." It's voice was a deep rough squawk that skittered down my spine. It's breath was cold and smelled of death.
It moved as if to caress my chin, but it's claws sliced through the skin upon contact leaving four deep trenches from the corner of my mouth to the top of throat.
My jaw dropped in horror as I willed myself to scream. No sound came.
The beast's own mouth yawned open above me, as if was going to absorb any other sound I might create.
I could see into it's throat as if I were perched on the edge of a dusty pit. Its breath rattled in and out with a sound like paint flaking away on its insides.
My entire body tensed as it moved closer.
I couldn't fight. I couldn't make a sound. I reached for Lucien across the great chasm between our minds. I begged and pleaded and screamed and cried out for him.
Tears begun to sting my face. My face burned from the salt water as it flowed into those wounds.
The monster cocked its head with sick pleasure as it focused on the source of that pain.
Lucien bellowed for Tamlin and the door to my room splintered and fell from it's hinges with a crash.
He moved in quickly, a knife in each hand. His chest was bare. He had already gone to bed, I assumed.
He collided with the creature and I squeezed my eyes shut. I could hear it's gargled pleas and something wet dripping on the floor.
Lucien growled as he took some sort of hit, and the sound of Tamlin's boots thudded into the room, pushing the fatal sounds closer to the direction of the balcony.
"Elain."
My muscles relaxed enough that my body trembled violently. I let my eyes snap open, and immediately regretted it. The papered walls of my room were marred with blood and grime.
"Lucien." I cried as I scrambled for him.
He pulled me into his arms with a single motion and carried me to his room.
"What was that?" I asked as he sat me on the foot of his bed and began to address the marks on my face with the utmost gentleness.
"Crepsen." He shivered. "They've never gotten in before."
"I let it in." I choked out as his eyes snapped to mine in surprise. "Why-"
"I thought it was Azriel."
His face fell
"I'm sorry that it wasn't."
Tamlin appeared in the doorway. "I took care of it. I'll check the house for weak points."
"It came through the door." I said miserably. "I opened it."
Tamlin leaned against the door frame. "That's a pretty backwards revenge plot. If it had taken your voice, you would have been done for."
I chanced a glance at Lucien.
"If you don't need anything else, I'll be going to bed."
"I'll take care of her." Lucien said evenly, and satisfied, Tamlin left us.
"Please don't make me go back in there." I begged Lucien, but he appeared torn. Finally he nodded. He retreated to his washroom for a moment and tended to my scrapes and cuts. His skin barely brushed mine, a whisper on my skin I had to concentrate to feel.
"I've always thought you handsome." I whispered as he tended me. The look he gave me told me he didn't believe it.
"What you said before...about your eye...It doesn't make you any less of a man. And certainly no less of a man than Grayson. " My throat bobbed as I considered. This little piece of truth was a gift for him. A repayment for my life. An apology for the berries. And Azriel.
I had been caught up in my own pain that I hadn't considered his. But perhaps I could ease it.
"My father gave Grayson his blessing. The cauldron picked you, but my father...my father picked a mortal for my bridegroom. It was the last thing he ever gave me. A special chosen dowry for my life with him. He was going to walk me down the isle. He was going to give me away."
"I knew him, briefly." Lucien reminded me.
"I didn't want to give that up. Not with so much of it already gone."
"Well, Azriel never asked him for your hand either."
"Azriel is my first real friend." I elaborated. "It's easy for my feelings to confused. He believed in me. Even when you thought I was crazy."
"You let him in." Lucien argued. "I didn't know what had happened to you. That's why I left. I figured I could be of use in the war. You shut me out."
His voice rattled with the ghost of that pain.
"Lucien, I could love you. I've seen it." As my thumb brushed his cheek, his breath hitched. I opened my mouth to speak again but he silenced me as his lips crashed into mine. He was molten fire and it melted that icy wall I built between us.
Still poised on his knees before me where I sat on the edge of his bed, his hands slid up the lines of my thighs and hooked around the lowest point of my back. I gave myself over to this moment. Lucien. Lucien. Lucien.
My heart thudded heavily against my chest and his echoed it. My hands cradled his face and drug him forward, His senses crept back to him and he parted from me slowly.
If we didn't stop now...
As if in silent agreement we disentangled from one another. I turned and crawled up the length of the bed as Lucien stood and pulled the cover back. We tucked ourselves in on each side of the bed in silence. His sheets were cool and soft but warmed quickly thanks to the heat that was radiating from him. He dimmed the lights and it took longer than normal to get to sleep from where I lay trying to calm my heartbeat and breaths.
