The Kiss That Killed Me (The Tidal Kiss Trilogy Book 1)

by Kristy Nicolle

  “Worth it. Seeing you like this, I’d do it all again. You are so perfect.” he says and he traces my lips with his smiling. I move my hand down onto his perfect chest and feel his heartbeat, it’s faster than I imagined, could it be that I’m making him excited? His fingers are running through my curly hair and his face is getting closer to mine. My heart starts to pound and I swallow, licking my lips, trying to satiate the dryness of my mouth. Orion is breathing heavily in my ear and his scent, like that of salted caramel is intoxicating, seeping over my skin like heady opium. He leans in to kiss me again and I obey, cupping his chin with my fingers and tilting his mouth to meet mine. His tongue laps lavishly over mine, making me tremble.

  “Your kiss …” I pant and he smiles.

  “I know.” He leans in again, gliding a finger up the inside of my arm and gripping me tightly, kissing me in a way so scorching that I fear I may burn in the heat of my own longing. My back arches as I start to shiver in terrified delight, fearing my own need for him, fearing my need to feel him giving all of himself to me.

  “Are you okay?” Orion asks, leaning back as he feels the goose pimples rising on my skin.

  “I’m … not very good at this kind of thing.” I flush scarlet, my body chill under the white cotton of his stolen shirt.

  “You’re perfect, Callie.” He says this earnestly and I flush again, but this time with pleasure.

  “There’s that word again.” I comment, trying to get over my excited awkwardness at being in bed with him.

  “But you are.” Orion looks me up and down and I feel my stomach flip.

  “Not next to you I’m not.” I say the only thing that comes into my head, but I know I think it’s true the second it passes my lips.

  “Yes. You are.” Orion says it again in a whisper and places his palm on my waist gently. His fingers proceed to unbutton the top button of his shirt, keeping eye contact with me as he does so.

  “Tell me when to stop and I will.” He promises and kisses my collarbone where the shirt has opened under his dexterous fingers.

  “Okay.” I murmur, but I can’t help but lose the rest of my response as his lips caress the shell of my ear before fluttering down the delicate skin of my neck.

  “You smell perfect.” He breathes me in at the collarbone and I feel my eyelids shut as my head rolls back, surrendering to him. He unbuttons the next button down as he shifts his weight so he is lingering above me, laying me onto my back. “And …” He moves the shirt open exposing my cleavage in a V, moving his thumb over my bare wanton skin. “You feel perfect.” He bends down, encasing me in his shadow, dipping his tongue into my mouth and gently sucking. “You taste perfect too.” I giggle as he winks at me, but I can’t ignore my blood pounding around every inch of my virginally untouched skin. I have never felt this way before and it’s driving me crazy, like hummingbirds fluttering over me. He leans back onto one elbow and smiles down at me looking at my breasts, swollen and straining against the cotton.

  “Not a bad sight either.” He comments slyly and I slap his arm playfully.

  “Hey!” I protest in mock horror. He looks slightly withdrawn and sighs.

  “I’m sorry. This is too much. It’s our first night together … I just want it to be …”

  “Perfect?” I finish for him and he looks down in dismay. I feel my stomach sinking, wondering how I can want something that terrifies me so much.

  “Yes. It’s the least you deserve.” Orion places a hand on my cheek and I look back at him, questioning my resolve as the candlelight plays shadow-maker on his face.

  “I want …” I start and he looks up slightly, readying himself to grant all my wishes.

  “Yes?” He is sitting erect in the bed, staring at me with a burning desire, I can’t tell if it’s for my body or my happiness.

  “More.” I say looking at his surprised expression.

  “Callie … I thought you said …” He stutters, looking like he’s fighting within himself.

  “I know what I said.”

  “But, I don’t want to rush things either.”

  “I’ve been crazy about you since I first laid eyes on you.” I admit, my cheeks flushing. I continue, not wanting to lose my nerve. “Don’t you think we’ve waited long enough?” I press him rhetorically and his eyes close like he’s saying a prayer.

  “But what if …”

  “What if what?” I ask him, scared he doesn’t want me.

  “What if you’re not ready?” Orion says the words I’m thinking.

  “I am ready. I’ve been waiting …”

  “For?” he looks at me, confused but still sexy as any man I’ve ever seen.

  “Perfect.” I say simply, and just like that, there are no more questions. He leans in slowly, sliding his shirt over my head and exposing me to him. He lays me back down, cradling me and climbs on top of me. I feel his heat pushing me into the mattress and his burning, glacial eyes bear down into mine. He kisses me fully, groaning and taking everything I can give him. He pushes his forehead down towards mine and whispers my name, a plea upon his lips.

  “Callie …” I place my fingers in his hair and raise his eyes to mine as the next words slip from him desperately. “I’m going to make love to you now, okay beautiful?” I nod, and without warning, he loses himself in me under flickering candlelight, taking all of me with him in a wave of emotion, desire, and longing that has built over centuries to the height of a strange and alien ecstasy. And it is perfect.

  We lay together, just mortal bodies, intertwined at every limb we can manage, hot and intoxicated with the scent of each other’s skin. Nothing exists outside the edge of the bed. The cream silk sheets cling to our limbs, the only thing other than the pull we feel to each other to remind us we do not exist in a gravity-evading vacuum, floating away from reality and into a world of peaceful dreams.

  “Callie?” Orion says my name out into the cold air that exists outside our cocoon.

  “Mmm.” I murmur, not wanting to speak, just wanting to exist in this quiet perfect serenity forever.

  “It’s never been like this before.” He confesses and I pick my heavy head up off his chest and look up at his face. His head is lying sideways on the pillow above mine, and he looks down to meet my gaze.

  He rolls his hand down my back and starts tracing an intricate pattern across the skin at the base of my spine. I remember something that was bothering me earlier.

  “Hey … I have a tattoo now! I didn’t before!” Orion looks at me surprised at my outburst and laughs.

  “Yes … I was examining that earlier.” He confesses.

  “I bet you were.” I purr lazily.

  “It’s from the Goddess. As is mine. You’re marked.”

  “I wish the goddess would ask before she went around branding people.” I joke with a half-hearted pout.

  “I personally love the tattoo.” He nuzzles the shell of my ear, burying beneath my curls.

  “I’m glad; it’s not like its temporary.” I laugh and his gaze falls to my lower back again. Silence falls and I want to speak but he chases my lips into another kiss. His lips taste so sweet upon my own, like salted caramel, and I cannot imagine ever getting tired of kissing him. His arms curl around me and his hands begin to move downward stroking my spine as they go, tracing where the Goddess marked me. It’s like his mark on me in a way, permanent and unexpected but beautiful all the same. I deepen the kiss and roll on top of his chest, he smells so good, of the sea, sweet and salty all at once. I will never tire of this scent, I think as his hands reach my buttocks. He strokes, his fingers trailing round in circles and my throat releases a groan. I can no longer contain my hungry hands. They run down his sides and he lets out a gasp. He pulls my hands up off his sides and wraps them around his shoulders. Deepening the kiss ever still, losing our way and then finding it again in each other’s fingers, lips and skin. It is like a map of our love, tracing its way over our entwined bodies. I cannot help but smile down at him as his fingers bur
y in my hair once again. It is then that he moves his smiling lips to my neck and our hips begin to move together once again, unaware of the moon that is beginning its descent to the horizon.

  Afterwards I am not tired, satisfied yes, ecstatic yes, but not tired. I sit up, freeing myself from Orion’s warm embrace and turn to him, no longer shy or self-conscious about my nakedness. He makes me feel beautiful, like a real woman.

  “You should know I have never done this with anyone else.” I confirm nervously in a whisper and he props himself up against the pillow with a small smile.

  “Is it okay that I’m happy I’m the only one who has had all of you?” He asks, deadly serious. I ponder this for a moment, feeling robbed of the same experience with him. I wish I was his first. I sigh to myself, chasing the thought away by admiring his taut physique.

  “Yes, I just hope I was … good?” I ask, wondering how he will respond.

  “Please don’t ask that question. If you couldn’t tell from my amorous reaction, which I find hard to believe, I think you are … exquisite.” He pulls me down onto the bed again and kisses me on the head, letting me rest on his chest, which is by far comfier and better smelling than any pillow I’ve ever rested upon.

  “Exquisite?” I ask laughing to myself, we come from such different worlds, how could it be we fit together so completely?

  “Yes, you gave me such pleasure Callie, if that wasn’t obvious.” He whispers in a low, purring confession.

  “I have never felt this way before.” I confess next in a breathless whisper. I lean back onto the silk sheets in which we have made love for the very first time, and I place one hand up to his cheek, studying his face. I squint trying to ingrain this image in my mind forever. I will never want to forget this, have it turn to grey; I want to preserve it like a photograph.

  “What are you staring at?” He begs, looking a little self-conscious himself. How can anyone as beautiful as he feel worried about his looks?

  “You. You are the most beautiful man I have ever seen and I never want to forget your face, or your smile, or eyes. Even if I wake up and this has all been some crazy dream, I never want you to fade away.” I look deeply into his icy blue gaze and I think he is touched by my boldness.

  “Listen to me, I am not a dream and I will always be here. But there is one very special thing I have to tell you, that I want you to remember every day, no matter where you are, no matter where I am.”

  “Oh?” I reply intrigued, my heart pounding as I wait for him to impart some great seed of knowledge. He smiles and leans forward onto his stomach and his face drops so it is level with my own, leaning up on his elbows, eyes locked with mine, he gestures for me to come forward so he can whisper in my ear. I lean in, inhaling his heavenly scent and nuzzling my lips against the nape of his neck.

  “I love you.” He whispers, his breath tickling my ear and my lips spread over my teeth in a grin I cannot hold back.

  “I know.” I reply simply and he leans back.

  “Oh? How is that?” He asks with a sly smile, playfully intrigued as he brushes my nose with his own.

  “Because Orion, nobody has ever made me feel so alive before.” I enlighten him and he looks a little disappointed.

  “That isn’t me; it’s the transformation occurring in you Callie.” He explains, and it seems banal to me now.

  “Then you explain to me how I’ve felt this way since the day we met.” I smile and he returns my silent joy with a deep passionate kiss that possesses my mouth. Slowly but surely we once again become consumed with a passionate heat that could set alight even the darkest night. The only words finding their way into the light being four, uttered from my breathless lips:

  “I love you Orion.”

  AZURE

  The journey from the Californian coast passes slowly despite the speed at which I’m slashing through the water, urging myself forward. This is probably due to the fact that Caedes is riding on my last nerve and causing time to drag out like it has been placed on a stretching rack, just like the one Titus keeps for torture when his power is not enough to break the silence of his victims. Not only have I been subjected to lurking in the shallow depths of the coast for the past month, waiting for my brother’s return to signal our opportunity to catch the girl exposed, but I have had to endure Caedes’ infernal ramblings. If I wasn’t already dead, I’d wish I was, listening to that nut job. I find myself back where I belong, in the darkened shadows of the oceans depths far from the sunlight, which threatened to end me as I murdered my brothers other half. I condemn myself to his ramblings as my punishment for failing to turn the girl as intended. Never mind that, I think to myself, not wanting to feel guilty for too long, at least she’s no longer wandering beaches stuck in a mortal coil she cannot shed. We can still turn her to the darkness; it’ll just have to be done more carefully now that she is in the persuasion of my brother and father. I remember the day the darkness took hold of me reluctantly, feeling the horror of knowing I had not been gifted with a soul mate unknown to me. That my soul mate was to be my sister, the sister who had continued to live as I perished, taking my beautiful Arabella with me. I remember watching my hair turn to black, my pupils dilating with rage, and my skin crawling with power beyond what I could have ever dreamed to achieve as a mer. The visions were the only thing left to connect me to what I once was. To my sister. I feel the place where my own blade hit me square between my shoulder blades twinge as it heals at the usual accelerated rate and I sigh. I probably deserved it. I remember Orion’s eyes, mad and angry, alight with a rage I had never seen within him before. As the ocean passes beneath me, I start wondering if I should perhaps feel guilty for a different reason, taking the life of one so young, but then kick myself, reasoning that I gave her immortality and saved her years of looking for the other half of her soul. She should be throwing me a damned party.

  I look out from the window of the Necrocazar, the dark palace formed in the remains of ancient undersea vents that once spewed sulphur out into the ocean above. Small crustaceans crawl around the window frame and settle in the cracks of the rock from which it is hollowed. Below is the glowing, teeming Cryptopolis that silently ticks away, invisible and forgotten but very much alive. The city is held in a crater, and each individual home is carved into the side cliffs of the settlement. Our army teems in the centre of the crater, our armour masters forging weapons in the working vents that line the bottom of the basin. Eels captured in jars spark lights into the streets intermittently, which are paved with a gravel made from crushed animal bones and a million lost souls slink silently from street to street, planning how to capture their next victim from the world above. I can see Caedes from here, beating a dead shark carcass with his fists, turning it into a bloody mess of entrails and guts. I place my chin in my hand and wonder what my sister is doing right now. The dim speck of light from above is visible to me now. Dim, but still there. I turn and head back into the Necrocazar, slashing through the water to the basement where Titus is getting high and communing with the Necrimad once again. In the corner of my sight, I catch a note of movement and swizzle within the water, cutting it like butter to gain traction on my position with my long, knife like tail.

  “Azure, you have returned, my beauty.” Titus booms, his voice reverberating against the white calcium covered walls of the cavernous anti-chamber. His lips part over a mouth full of pointed, razor sharp, white teeth with a pleased smile and he looks at me with his bottomless black eyes with expectation. My insides furl at his compliment and I feel my chest inflate with pride. To hold a man with such power as my own was proof in itself that I had grown to be more powerful than anyone could have expected.

  “I have indeed returned.” I reply, repeating his sentiment and trying to buy more time before I have to explain the events that have passed.

  “And where is the girl? You can’t have left her with Caedes surely!” He asks, cocking his head to one side maliciously, as he moves towards me jerkily, slashing his dragon lik
e tail through the waves. He circles me, running his fingers down from the dolphin tattoo on my left shoulder, past my shoulder blade and in to the centre of my spine, the sight of the tattoo makes me think of my sister, I dismiss the thought as quickly as it appeared, focusing on the moment.

  “We didn’t manage to capture her. Orion was waiting for us.” I explain waiting for him to flip. I feel his tail bristle against my own and it sends small shivers upward as fear begins to build within my stomach at the prospect of what he will do next. I see Solustus and Regus in the corner, sensing an impending explosion of anger and they retreat, still talking. Solustus watches us intently, his silver rimmed, black eyes following Titus’s every move. I feel the water move around me, and the tension builds until I hear a mighty roar followed by a loud crack. I turn around only to see Titus has slammed his tail down into the blackened, ashen floor of the anti-chamber, causing the floor to crack into two, an ugly jagged line parting the two halves.

  “How could you let this happen? Don’t you know we need her out of the way! Don’t you know what her turning means?” He is all of sudden a few inches away from my face; his long pointed black fingernail is scratching a line down one of my cheeks. I feel the blood let from the opening and then see it pool, immersed in the water before the particles diffuse out of sight. Tingles run down my spine as something primal surges, just beneath the surface of my skin.

  “Yes, I know! But Orion was with her, he threw us back to the sea, you know he has power over certain elements.” I try to explain, feeling less inadequate and more pissed off.