by Con Template
With sleek animal grace, he disappeared into the bathroom, leaving me clinging onto the doorway in need when he finished the already intense statement by adding, “Get ready. I’m claiming you this weekend, baby.”
“To rise from my pit of despair . . .”
23: On the Rocks
Huff! Huff! Huff!
“Where the bloody hell are you going in the middle of the night?!” Eclipse screamed out, chasing after me as I bounced away from him.
“Get away from me, you pervert!” I shrieked, holding OinkOink close as I scurried off into the shadowy night.
Holding a flashlight, I ducked underneath a tree branch before stomping over a pile of dead leaves. The cold wind whipped at my wet hair, sending shivers down my body. I had just finished showering when I snuck into my clothes, kidnapped OinkOink, slung my backpack over my shoulders, and ran out of the cottage while Eclipse was in the backyard, admiring the gardens. Needless to say, in the state I was in, I was freezing my butt off.
I suspected that Eclipse must’ve realized I was missing after my shower because after a five minute head start, I heard his screams just before his quickening footsteps came closer and closer to me. Just like prey, I continued to run for my life as my hunter sought me out. Every step I took, Eclipse came five steps closer. It got so intense that within seconds, I could hear him running closely behind me. Before I knew it, he was in front of me, stopping me in my tracks.
“Wait – wait, stop!” he panted, nearly tumbling to the ground when he stopped in front of me.
He held up a gesturing hand for me to wait for him before he placed both hands on his knees and gasped for air. Shirtless with only black pajama pants on, the backpack he was wearing drummed up and down along with his heavy breathing. Even the light from his flashlight was shaking from his exhaustion. For a considerable stretch of time, all I could see was the back of his head. I was positive his inner fat boy was having an asthma attack.
While he attempted to keep from going into cardiac arrest, I stepped behind a big tree to put some distance between us. Body still hunched forward in exhaustion, he looked up at me when he was finally able to catch his breath.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he questioned firmly. His dark eyes met my troubled ones. “Why did you run away?”
“I’m running for my life!”
His eyes grew alert. He stood up straight and looked around protectively. “Why? Did some murderous Demon appear without me knowing?”
“Yeah,” I replied, staring straight at him. “I’m running away from you.”
He gawked at me like I was crazy. “Why?”
“Because you’re planning on killing me this weekend,” I deadpanned, the seriousness etched in my voice.
He gaped at me for an awkward second, allowing my words to gradually sink in. When he reconciled with the fact that I did say something so outlandish, he shook his head in utter amazement. A dry laugh streamed from him.
“You’re lucky you’re the prettiest thing in creation because your cute personality aside, you are the single most paranoid looney tune I’ve ever met.” His judgmental gaze dissected me. “What would possess you to think I would kill you this weekend?” His outraged eyes scanned over our mountainous surroundings. “I mean, I climbed a bloody mountain for you! Why would I voluntarily make myself miserable if I could’ve thrown you off a cliff when I had the chance?”
“You threatened me,” I said flatly, the vigilance never leaving my face.
He remained baffled. “How?”
“‘Get ready. I’m claiming you this weekend, baby,’” I uttered, repeating what he said in a deep, sexy voice. My imitated Eclipse voice was anything but sexy compared to the original, but it got the point across.
“You’re running away like a maniac because I was flirting with you?” he echoed incredulously.
The way he phrased that made me sound more unreasonable than I was.
I pointed the flashlight at his face, insulted that he was trying to lessen the severity of my legitimate concerns. “You know what you meant when you said those words to me. How dare you take advantage of my kindness by making death threats like that?”
He pointed his flashlight back at me, nearly blinding me with its glare. He was just as bitter. “I was showing you my appreciation for your surprise.”
“Well, good going,” I fired back. “You can stay in the cottage all by yourself because I’m not going to sleep there and risk you seducing me to death.”
A self-satisfied curve materialized on his tempting lips. “You know, flirting with me is only life-threatening when you give into temptation. If you’re talking about your nosebleeds, then I always stop when you get them. I don’t see why you’re so worried.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I snapped, dismissing memories of him teasing me until I got a nosebleed. I couldn’t tempt myself. What he said in the cottage was right. I screwed myself over when I rented a place away from civilization. If I were him, then I would’ve thought I was inviting him to seduce the hell out of me too. “My Source instincts tell me that you’re a threat. If you lose control, then I’ll die. Since I still want my entire soul back, I’m not ready to die yet, buddy.”
“Let me get this straight,” he summed up, pointing his flashlight into the shadowy woods around us. “You’d rather take your chances in the dark woods than in a romantic cottage with me?”
He made himself sound so innocent when he was actually the most dangerous creature in existence.
“Don’t try to make it seem like I’m overreacting. You’re the most dangerous thing out here.” I jutted a finger at the forest. “If I get attacked by whatever animal is out there, I would have a remote chance of surviving. With you, one simple slip and I’m done for.”
“Okay, okay,” he mollified, acknowledging that I had a valid point. He raised his hands in defeat. “I admit that I was fantasizing about”—he paused to find the right way to phrase it tastefully “—intimately fooling around with you, but I’m not going to tease you like that if you’re really afraid of it.”
I relaxed marginally.
“Do you mean it?” I breathed, coming out from behind the tree and lowering my flashlight.
He nodded earnestly. “Yeah. I’ll just flirt. No sexual advances whatsoever unless you can handle them.” When he noted my hesitation, he heaved another sigh. “Come on, Teacup. My whole body is dying from the hike. I can’t handle chasing you around the goddamn mountain anymore.”
With my backpack weighing down on my shoulders, I took a cautionary step out of the shadows. I warily ambled over to him with OinkOink blinking quietly in my arms. My body was in agony too. I didn’t think I could make it any further in the wilderness.
“You have to keep your word,” I told him with soft desperation.
I drew closer to him, my big brown eyes imploring him to give me confirmation that he understood my terms.
This time, he nodded tiredly before raking his fingers through his hair. After taking a second to consider his current state of affairs, he suddenly burst out laughing.
“Holy—” His laughter became louder. “Holy shit, I can’t believe this.”
“What?” I asked, eyeing him as though he had lost his mind.
Even OinkOink, who had been quiet this entire time, was barking in confusion.
“I am the Demon of Lust,” he started after his laughter subsided. He assessed me like I was the strangest creature in the world. “I am the embodiment of everything that is sex, fantasies, and extravagance, and here I am, chasing after a paranoid human girl who made me promise her that I won’t fulfill her sexual fantasies.” He shook his head self-deprecatingly. “If I had known my life would get this pitiful, then I probably would’ve thought twice before purposely becoming a Fallen Demon.”
My eyes narrowed. “You think me fearing for my life is funny?”
He merely smiled, delicately cupping my chin with his hand. His eyes intently examined the features
of my face.
“You know . . . every day I tell myself that it won’t be long before I get bored of you. And every single day, the more I get to know you, the more I find myself hooked.” His features grew warmer, so much warmer that it caused butterflies to come alive in my stomach. “You’re lucky I like you, Teacup, because I wouldn’t put up with this shit for anyone else.” My heart went pitter-patter at how he stared at me. He lightly tilted his head towards the direction of the cottage. “Now let’s go. No sexual advances unless you can handle it. I promise.”
Trusting his words—and dizzied by the butterfly-inducing moment I had—I shadowed after him obediently. I didn’t realize how far I ran until we walked back. The cottage appeared to be a world away. While walking along the fast moving stream, I could feel my legs cramp up. I fought past the throbbing pain, but after a good fifteen minutes, I couldn’t prolong the battle anymore.
“Wait. Wait. Wait, time out,” I announced breathlessly, sitting on a rock beside the stream when my muscles tightened even further. “I-I can’t hike anymore. My whole body hurts.”
Eclipse shifted his eyes from the direction of the cottage to me. “The cottage is still a bit far off from here. If you can’t go on, I guess we’ll have to sleep out here for the night.”
I gawked at him, floored by his answer.
“Really?” I fidgeted uncomfortably, not liking the suggestion. There was a reason why I rented a cottage this weekend as opposed to pitching tents. I may have been a hiker, but I wasn’t a camper. I cast him a wary glance. “You can’t carry me home or something?”
“Not unless you allow me to break my promise and carry you to my bed,” he negotiated with a crafty grin. “Let me know if you’ve changed your mind and I’ll be happy to carry you back home.”
“You don’t want to help me out of the kindness of your heart?”
“I don’t have a heart,” he replied, amusement lurking in his delivery. “I have a girl who is putting me through the wringer.”
I bitterly wrinkled my nose. Of course he would use this moment to his advantage. Well, I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.
Sleeping outside it is then.
“Have you made your decision?”
“Yeah,” I said, kneeling on the ground while taking my backpack off. “We’re sleeping out here.”
He smirked as if he anticipated this answer.
“Out here it is then,” he mused before stalking away.
“Hey, where are you going?” I watched Eclipse climb onto several rocks beside the stream. There was a rock with a flat top that looked big enough to rest on. I frowned from the ground. “Are you sleeping on the rock tonight?”
His lips curled slightly. He chucked his backpack onto the floor before sitting on the rock. “I don’t sleep on the ground if I can help it.” He patted the space beside him. “There’s room for you here too.”
I bit my lips, unsure of what to do. It didn’t escape me that the rock was smaller than a bed and it definitely didn’t escape me that I was playing with fire. Fortunately for me, my dilemma ended when Eclipse said something that solidified my decision.
“If you sleep on the ground by yourself, who knows what’s going to bother you tonight . . .”
I knew he was trying to scare me. To his credit, he succeeded. I wasn’t afraid of creepy crawlers, but who knew what other type of animal roamed around this place? If something attacked us, then I could push Eclipse into the fire before I could get hurt. The way I saw it, Eclipse was my shield. Since we were camping outside, I wasn’t going to let my weapon of choice sleep far from me.
Without another bout of hesitation, I approached him and dumped my backpack beside his. I unzipped it and withdrew my “blanket” for the night. I layered my pink bathrobe over my black workout tank and khaki shorts. Bless my taste for the finer luxury items in life because as soon as that fluffy bathrobe came over me, it chased all the wilderness chills away.
After tucking myself into something warm, I made sure to bundle OinkOink in my white sweater to keep him warm as well. The little ball of fluff yawned lazily, his eyes fluttering shut as the lyrical flow of the stream filled his senses. He looked so peaceful that the sadistic part of me wanted to plunge him into the cold water for fun. However, my adoration for him overrode such yearning. Instead, I gave him a gentle peck on the head before I gingerly burrowed him into my backpack as his shelter for the night. I made sure he was tucked far enough into the backpack so that he wouldn’t get cold, but I also made sure a sizeable gap was given to allow air to trickle through.
When I was done tucking my oversized rat in, I went to sit with Eclipse on the rock while the big stream continued to gush past us. Under the direct radiance of the moonlight, the coursing water looked like it was glistening with diamonds.
“How’s OinkOink?” he asked, handing me a protein bar once I settled beside him. He had already taken out two water bottles and handed me one to drink.
“Sleeping,” I replied, taking the protein bar and water bottle. I placed the water bottle on the rock close to me and began to unwrap the snack.
Eclipse chuckled. “The little pup must be exhausted.”
“Yeah,” I concurred with a laugh.
I took my first bite of my dinner for the night and I nearly whimpered in elation. You know you’re hungry and exhausted when a protein bar tastes like Heaven. With a groan, I continued to munch on my food, the sudden inactivity in my body making me realize how stiff and exhausted my joints were.
“I am pooped out too,” I confessed to Eclipse, taking the final bite of my protein bar.
Eclipse laughed again, sticking our wrappers into the outer pocket of his backpack before gulping down an entire water bottle.
“Me too,” he admitted. He discarded the empty bottle beside our backpacks and stretched, groaning out loud when he tested out his muscles and realized how sore they were.
We shared miserable glances with one another. Heaving exhausted breaths (and having no more energy to pretend we weren’t in pain) we collapsed onto the rock and allowed the muscles of our bodies to rest. I was calmed by the coolness of the rock on my back. It helped soothe the aches rummaging through my body.
Wind coursed over us, surrounding the bout of contemplative silence we fell into. I reflected upon the day we had and felt a tinge of guilt settle upon me.
“I’m sorry for such a screw-up of a day,” I apologized sadly, noting how worn out he looked. This birthday surprise wasn’t going as seamlessly as I thought it would. Actually, if I had to be honest, I would say that it pretty much sucked. “Phix and Coco told me it was a bad idea to do all this, but I didn’t listen. You must be so miserable.”
A ghost of a smile spread across Eclipse’s lips. His eyes skimmed over the fast moving stream. “I am freezing, I am hungry, the muscles of my body are aching like no other, and I am exhausted as hell, but the last thing I am is miserable.” His smile grew into one of irony. He drew his gaze upwards to the majestic canvas in the Heavens. Countless stars illumed the world above us, keeping us company in the cold night. “One would think that I’d be miserable, trekking around the mountain like an animal and resting out here like one, but the truth is . . . I’m fine.”
My eyes brightened with a ray of hope. “Really?”
“Well, I’m not saying that I’m the happiest Demon in the world, but I feel at peace right now. I can’t complain too much.” He laughed. “I mean, what is it you humans always say?” He paused briefly to recall the right term. “‘It’s the thought that counts,’ right?” I was about to nod when he looked at me with a reflective thought on his face. “Especially considering how upset you were with me.”
I lapsed into a brief silence. I didn’t expect him to bring up our dramatic episode from last night. It felt surreal that a little over twenty-four hours ago, I was determined to kick him out of my life. The mood between us had shifted to a more lighthearted one, but in the fortress of my mind, I could never forget how angry and upse
t I was. I thought it was just me because I was the human (and the one with all the emotions), so it came as a surprise that Eclipse was bringing this up.
I regarded him curiously. “How upset did you think I was?” I asked, going along with the conversation.
“I know that you still have reservations about me,” he answered, gazing into my eyes, “but we’ll overcome this.”
I laughed incredulously. “And why are you so sure?”
“Because we’re friends,” he replied, as if it was the simplest answer in the world. “Because that’s what friends are supposed to do.”
“I will be very careful with you from now on, Eclipse,” I declared with quiet firmness. I didn’t want him to think that we were starting on a new slate. “I will treat you like a friend, but I won’t trust you like one. The only reason why you’re still here is because I need you to help me. Once we’re done, I’ll more than likely be done with you as well. But for now, I’m careful with you. Everything you say will be taken with a grain of salt.”
He nodded, his expression unreadable. “That’s a good way to deal with me, Gracie.”
My lips twisted with curiosity. “You’re not going to try and convince me otherwise?”
He shook his head, staring at me with smiling eyes. “They say that actions speak louder than words; I will let my actions speak louder than my words. You’re a smart girl, Teacup. Through my actions in the long run, I’m sure you will be able to determine whether or not you should trust me.”
I lightly smiled at the statement. It warmed all the crevices of my heart. It wasn’t poetic, it wasn’t a pretty lie, and it wasn’t meant to be a promise—it was just a statement that held unwavering certainty. For this, I truly respected what he said because I hated promises. It was better for the human heart to live with an optimistic statement rather than a broken promise.
With an unspoken silence of agreement, one where I wordlessly took him up on his offer to judge him based on his actions, Eclipse returned my smile before redirecting his attention back to the skies.