by Quinn Loftis
Cassie felt Elora lean close behind her. “You were doing great ‘til that last part.”
“Too much?” Cassie whispered.
“A teensie bit,” Elora told her, holding her hand up to indicate with her fingers the small amount.
Cassie folded her arms across her chest as she glared at a very pissed off dark elf assassin.
“I think you need to leave,” Cassie motioned toward the door.
“I’m leaving,” he started to walk past her, but then grabbed her hand at the last minute, “but not without you.” He didn’t break stride as he pulled her behind him and right through the living room window. Cassie heard Elora’s voice behind her and then silence.
They emerged on the other side in a dark, lush bedroom. Candles lit the room and bathed it in a soft glow. She jerked her arm from his grasp and ignored his glare as she looked around at her surroundings.
“Where are we?” She asked as she looked at the large, ornate wood bed with a black comforter and a ridiculous amount of pillows strewn across it. Her eyes continued to roam the room. There was a large fireplace along one wall. A fire suddenly flickered to life in it. Her eyes widened but she refused to be impressed. Along another wall was a large desk and built in above and around the desk was a bookshelf that lined the entire wall and around the rest of the room. The floor was hardwood and a white, fluffy rug lay in front of the large bed. Finally, having no other place to look she met his eyes.
“What do you want Trik?” She asked trying hard not to slur her words.
“You. And you want me.” He told her in his usual confidence unbothered by her anger.
“No I don’t. Did you not just see that I was on a date, and it wasn’t with you?”
He took a menacing step towards her but Cassie knew that he would never hurt her.
“It would be wise, if you wish for Todd to live, to not bring him up again.”
Cassie rolled her eyes. “Fine, whatever. Can I go now?”
“We are far from done, Cassie. You called for me.”
She laughed. “In your dreams.”
Trik smiled. She could tell that he knew something that she didn’t. Something about his smile told her that she wasn’t going to like it.
“Your soul did not like you touching another. It called to me. It called so loudly and with so much pain that it brought me to my knees.” Trik didn’t gloat, he simply stated the facts . Somehow that made Cassie even angrier.
“Well my soul is a dumbass who loves to be tortured.” Cassie decided to chalk that off as the alcohol talking but went ahead and went with it.
Trik moved slowly towards her and Cassie began to back away. She was being stalked by a predator, a very patient predator that was used to catching his prey.
Her butt hit something and she turned, only to realize that he had backed her against his bed. She closed her eyes and chanted to herself, stupid, stupid, stupid. When she opened her eyes , Trik stood mere inches from her. She felt his warm breath on her face. When he took another step closer, their bodies were touching. She could feel his heart beating against hers. He raised a hand and stroked her cheek gently. Though she tried not to , she leaned into his touch and nearly whimpered when his lips touched her ear.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. The warm breath brought goose bumps to her skin. She shivered.
“I’m so, so sorry,” he whispered again. The sincerity in his voice pounded against the floodgates she had so carefully barricaded inside. Like a damn bursting open , a sob wrenched from her chest and the tears began to flow freely. She hit his chest over and over. She knew that the alcohol was probably making her even more emotional but she was beyond caring.
“Why? Why would you do that to me? How could you touch her? How could you let her kiss you?”
“Because I’m an idiot, A'maelamin . Please , I beg of you. Forgive me.” Trik pulled back so that he could look into her tear stained face. The pain and betrayal that he saw there tore a hole inside him. He fell to his knees in front of her.
“Please Cassie. Please forgive me.”
“How do I ever trust you again?” She wiped tears from her face, smearing her black mascara while trying to regain her composure. She stared down into his silver eyes and gave in to the urge to touch him. She traced a finger across his forehead and down his cheek. Trik closed his eyes and let out a desperate breath.
“Arwenamin, I’ve missed you,” he told her but she only understood the last part.
“You hurt me Trik.”
“I know, baby. I know I did.” He wrapped his arms around her and pressed his face to her stomach. He breathed in her scent and pulled her closer. He had tried to do what he thought was right. He had tried to let her go, but he knew now that it was impossible. Neither could live without the other. Their souls would slowly begin to die until they were empty shells, like the leftover skin of a locust.
“I thought I was doing what you needed,” he told her, his voice muffled in her clothes.
She pulled his face back and looked at him. “You don’t make my decisions for me. It’s my choice if I want to be with you.”
Trik nodded once. “And do you? Want to be with me?”
Another tear escaped as he stood and looked down at her. He took her face in his large hands. As he looked into the face of her broken heart , he felt the first tear he’d shed in over a millennia slide down his own face.
“Yes,” she whispered. That simple word made Trik’s soul sing.
He pulled her to him and took her lips in a kiss that was nearly violent. He swept his tongue against her lips and she whimpered as she opened her mouth. Their tongues met and Trik slowed the kiss, enjoying the way she tasted. He walked her back and continued pressing until she lay on his bed. Cassie felt her fake wings crushed beneath her, but quickly pushed them from her mind as he climbed over her and slowly laid his body on top of hers. He felt her tremble underneath him and he smiled when his soul answered her own. The connection that drew them became so powerful that Trik wasn’t sure where one began and the other ended.
Cassie felt Trik wrap an arm around her, pulling her body closer to his. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held on with everything she had, afraid that at any moment she would wake up and discover this had all been a dream. She gasped as his other hand slid down her hip to the back of her thigh and he pulled her leg up, bending it at the knee as he wrapped it around him. Cassie tilted her head back when he pulled away from her lips and began to kiss her jaw and then her neck. She moaned without shame as his tongue traced her collarbone. He nipped it with his teeth and she jumped beneath him drawing a chuckle from Trik. She leaned forward and bit his shoulder in retaliation and smiled to herself when he groaned. He pulled back and looked down at her. His hair falling over his shoulder created a dark curtain around them, closing them into their own private world.
“I don’t deserve a second chance,” he told her as he traced her brow.
“No, you don’t,” she agreed. “But I’m giving you one. Don’t screw it up.”
Trik grinned and Cassie’s heart jumped at the innocence that she saw there, an innocence she’d not seen in Trik before.
When he spoke again his words were in his own tongue and the beauty of it took her breath away.
“What did you just say?”
Trik blushed. He actually blushed. “You are my everything, the very breath I breathe, the water I drink, the food I eat; you are all that I need, all that I want and all that I am is yours.”
Cassie’s heart constricted in her chest and she felt something deep inside her burst forward and she knew what it was—her soul.
“I feel like I want to crawl inside of you, Trik, like I can’t get close enough,” she confessed.
Trik stroked her face, unable to keep from touching her. “I know the feeling,” he murmured.
“Will it always be like this, so intense?”
Trik's eyes continued to roam over her face as his fingers ran through her hair. He lea
ned down and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips and whispered against them. “Hmmm, some of that might be the liquor.” Cassie slapped his arm and he chuckled but then sobered and added. “From what I understand it grows deeper and stronger.”
Cassie groaned. “I can’t imagine feeling any stronger than I do now.”
Trik smiled. “I can.”
Cassie saw a wicked gleam in his silver eyes. “Do I want to know?”
He chuckled. “Well I imagine it’s something that we are going to have to talk about at some point.”
Cassie’s brow furrowed, “What are you talking about?”
He leaned forward until his lips were against her ear. He let out a slow breath and the warmth caressed her skin. She trembled and Trik pulled her closer to him.
“A bed is not made only for sleeping, Cassandra,” he whispered and then she felt his tongue dart out and flick across her ear.
She was dazed for a moment and the meaning behind his words hit her. She couldn’t breathe as she considered what he was saying.
Trik pulled back so that he could look at her face. He had to admit he was enjoying the fact that he had shocked her, probably a little more than he should be enjoying it.
“Breathe Cassie,” he told her gently. “We don’t have to go there until you are ready and sober.”
“I um, well that is that, you see it’s like,” she stumbled over her words, as she tried not to be embarrassed by the topic.
“I never intended to go there until I was married,” she finally told him with only a moderate amount of blushing.
The smile that spread across his lips was dazzling and made her momentarily lose her train of thought.
“So you’ve never lain with another male?”
“If by lain you are speaking in the Biblical sense, then no, I have not.”
Trik watched her carefully. Relief he hadn’t realized he would feel at the information bloomed in his chest.
“Just to be clear,” he began again. “You’ve never…”.
Cassie groaned. “Good grief Trik, do I need to spell it out?”
He nodded.
“I’ve never had sex. Are you happy now?”
“Unbelievably so,” he told her as he nuzzled her neck.
She pushed at his shoulder. “What about you?” She asked as his eyes met hers. She saw them darken and was surprised to see shame in them. Her heart fell, though she didn’t know why she had been expecting a different answer. The guy was possibly so old that he had a dinosaur for a pet.
She looked away and tried not to be hurt.
“I’m sorry, baby.” Trik gently took her chin and turned her face back towards him. “I never even considered that I would ever have a Chosen.”
“It’s fine, really. I don’t know why I expected any other answer.”
“They meant nothing,” Trik told her desperately imploring her to understand. He didn’t want to hurt her but he could see that he had.
Cassie wondered as she looked up at him, the worry in his eyes, if maybe she was rushing into something that she would later regret. Maybe she should date more before she committed to something so permanent. Maybe she needed to have other experiences with other guys. Trik’s fingers brushed her skin and when his face darkened , she knew he had seen what she had been thinking.
“I will give you any experience you are curious about.” His words were harsh but his hands continued to be gentle. His voice softened as he continued. “Besides, I assure you that any experience with another would never hold a candle to what I can give you.”
Cassie blushed again knowing what he was talking about—pleasure.
“Awe my sweet lótë , you are correct. I will one day, when we are, what did you say? Married? Yes, when we are married I will give you such pleasure that you will never want to leave our bed.”
Cassie gasped as she slapped his shoulder. “You can’t say things like that.”
“Why, I speak only truth,” he told her matter of fact like. He rolled over quickly, pulling her with him so that she was on top of him. “So when do we get married? Soon I hope.”
Cassie laughed. “Hold on there, tiger. I haven’t even graduated from high school.”
“What does that have to do with us getting married?” He asked genuinely confused.
“Well, most girls don’t get married in high school unless they get knocked up, and to get knocked up you have to do the deed, which we are not.”
“Knocked up?” Trik trailed his fingertips across her back causing her to arch into them. “What does that mean?”
Cassie had closed her eyes as she enjoyed the sensation of his touch.
“Cassie.”
“Hmm,” she answered as she continued to relish his fingers. Her eyes flew open when his hands pulled the back of her shirt up and began to trail his fingers over her again, only this time they were against her flesh.
“What does knocked up mean?” He asked again. Trik grinned as he watched his Chosen respond to his touch; a response that only he could pull from her.
“You have to stop touching me if you want me to be able to talk like a semi-intelligent person.”
“Then I suppose you will just have to be unintelligent because I can never stop touching you.”
Cassie groaned, but finally gathered her thoughts into a coherent sentence. “It means to get pregnant.”
The idea of Cassie pregnant with his child flashed through his mind and he was surprised to find that it was a very welcome idea.
Cassie’s eye’s met his and widened.
“You caught that?” He asked her.
She nodded. “Trik, I’m not going to be ready for children for a while.”
Trik took one of his hands from her back and pushed her hair way from her face and then rested his hand on the nape of her neck. “That is fine, we have plenty of time for that. Besides we will need lots of practice.”
Cassie laughed. “You are such a guy.” She rolled off of him, needing to put some space between their bodies.
“What does that mean?” He asked her as he moved to his side and propped himself up on his hand.
“It means you are like all guys,” she told him as heat rose on her skin.
Trik cocked his head to the side. “Meaning?”
Cassie groaned as she looked up at his ceiling. “Meaning you like sex, a lot.”
Trik laughed. “What male doesn’t and if he doesn’t it’s because he’s doing it wrong.”
Cassie grabbed a pillow and hit him in the head with it. “Not a smart thing to say to your, your…” Cassie wasn’t sure what to call herself.
“My Chosen Cassandra, you are my Chosen.”
“Fine, Chosen. You should not admit to enjoying sex when it isn’t with me.”
“We need to get off of this bed and out of this room if you are going to start talking about us making love.” Trik jumped up and grabbed Cassie’s hand pulling her with him.
“Where are we going?”
“Don’t you need to be home soon?” He asked her.
Cassie pulled her phone from her back pocket and looked at the time.
“Crap,” she muttered. “I’m ten minutes late.”
He began to pull her towards the mirror but she stopped.
“We can’t just show up in my room.”
Trik rolled his eyes. “I’m not an amateur at sneaking around, Cassie. We will go into your room and then I will get us down to your front door.”
“Oh, right. I knew that.” He began to pull her again and this time she allowed him to.
~
Elora stood in the kitchen with her mom. She had left the party as soon as Trik and Cassie had disappeared through Todd’s window. She had called Cassie’s phone twenty times trying to make sure that she was alright and still she had heard nothing from her best friend.
“What the hell, Lisa, why isn’t she answering her phone?”
Her mom replied. “He won’t hurt her.”
“You did not see how
angry he was. He nearly killed Todd.” Elora slammed her hand down on the counter. “You need to call the Queen Bee and tell her to do something.”
Lisa laughed. “Yeah, like she would just do something because I told her so.”
“Do you have a way to get in touch with her?” Elora asked.
“Yes, she has a cell phone, believe it or not.”
“So what are you waiting for, the elf apocalypse caused by the ass himself?”
“Elora, please quit being so dramatic. It’s so unlike you.” Lisa shook her head at her daughter.
“Dramatic? Seriously mother,” Lisa’s head snapped around, she knew Elora was upset because she only called her that when she was livid, “my best friend was abducted by a crazy ass, quiver carrying, too good looking for the health of women everywhere, dark elf assassin and you think I’m being dramatic.”
Lisa’s brow rose as her eyes widened. “He carries a quiver?”
“UGH!” Elora groaned. “That’s all you have to say?”
“Well you have to admit that is an interesting tidbit.”
“Why are you so calm about this?”
“Because I know that he won’t hurt her,” Lisa said again for the hundredth time.
“Okay, I hear that you are saying that you do not think he will hurt her. However, the evidence against his ability to stay in control is quite damning. So I would like to just lay out there, just as a suggestion, that maybe we should not trust the dark elf assassin who nearly killed my friend’s date.”
Lisa stared at her daughter as she picked up her cell phone and dialed a number.
“Syndra, I’m sorry to bother you but I have a little problem.” Lisa held up her hand when Elora started to speak.
“Would I be correct in assuming that this problem has to do with a certain dark elf and your daughter’s best friend?” Syndra asked.
“You would be correct,” Lisa agreed. “Elora has told me that Trik showed up at a party where she, Cassie, and their dates were.”