NIGHTS OF HALLOW

The rushing wind and cold grazing her fair skin was all she could hear coupled with the wild beating of her heart that thumped loudly in her ribcage.

”S... Sthena!” Perdita shrieked, feeling out of breath at the impending death waiting for both of them as they continued to transcend down the cliff with speed.

Sthena held a passive look on his face as if he didn’t know what was going to become of them. In fear, Perdita closed her eyes while in silent prayer as she awaited her death.

However, instead of crashing into the forest that was below the cliff where they could have received multiple scratches before hitting their death, Perdita felt herself land on a soft and cold place with Sthena hovering above her.

Perdita’s chest rose and fell as she took deep breaths to calm her nerves which had turned jittery. It took a while for her brain to register that she didn’t fall to her death as she had anticipated, but was now lying in a soft and cold place.

She slowly opened her green eyes which stared directly into the glacial red eyes of Sthena who had a small smile on his face.

He asked, ”Did I scare you?” His question earned him a glare from Perdita. He added with a small chuckle, ”I told you if you fall, we fall together. What do you think I was implying?”

Perdita’s heart didn’t stop beating wildly in her chest as she tried to stay calm but Sthena’s words proved it futile.

”I—We could have died,” She sharply retorted.

”But here we are,” Sthena calmly replied, making Perdita aware of their compromising position. She raised her hand to push Sthena away from her but Sthena was quick to grab both her hands, pinning them above her head with ease.

Perdita frowned and struggled to free her trapped hands. She questioned with a glare, ”What are you doing?”

”Are you not forgetting something? Hmm?” Sthena reminded with a hum.

”I told you I’m not going to say it,” Perdita countered back.

”Why?” Came the next question of Sthena.

”Because it is not something I should tell you!”

”Mm,” Sthena tilted his head to the side with a hum. He remarked, ”That makes me much more curious about what happened.”

”We can do this all day,” He added and slowly let go of Perdita’s hand, letting her know that she was going nowhere until she had narrated her dream.

Perdita kept mute, refusing to utter a word as they stared unblinking at each other. She saw Sthena give her an innocent questioning gaze that looked nothing like innocent in her eyes.

”The ground is cold,” She tried using another approach to get Sthena away from her, but even this didn’t change the mind of the red-haired vampire King.

He replied to her, ”It will help you cool off the heat in your body and also clear your mind so you can start speaking. The earlier you start, the faster we are to go back home.”

Perdita’s face seemed to be set ablaze by the unfiltered words of Sthena. His words added to the embarrassment of telling him about her dream. Some flakes of the falling snow landed on her cheeks, the coldness immediately cooling her cheeks and also letting her know how hot her face was.

”I have already told you everything and there’s nothing more to what you heard me tell the witch.”

”Lies,” Sthena clicked his tongue in disapproval with a narrowed look on his face. He brought his hand towards Perdita, and her eyes stared at it in question of what he wanted to do.

Without speaking, Sthena placed his palm on the side of Perdita’s neck, while his thumb rubbed on it in a slow movement. This was the same place Sthena had bitten Perdita in her dream.

Perdita’s eyes widened together with her mouth as the sensation she felt earlier in her dream coupled with Sthena’s actions and words and now the movement of his hand made her brain momentarily numb.

”Was it here I bit and sucked your neck?” Sthena calmly questioned as his cold fingers ignited the already burning flame in Perdita.

When Perdita did not answer, he pressed his hand harder on her skin and she mumbled a low yes.

”What else did I do?” Sthena continued to ask in his calm voice as if he was not aware of what he was doing to Perdita. His red eyes darkened more than they were already in the darkness of the evening as the snow continued to fall on them making Perdita shiver from time to time.

”I—I can’t tell you more,” Perdita breathed, trying hard not to fall for the sensation Sthena was making her involuntarily experience. She knew the approach he was using. Seducing her to the answers from her.

”I see,” Sthena replied with a hum. He left her neck and then brought his hand to her lips and questioned in a low deep voice, ”Did I kiss you?”

Perdita’s widened in response and she hastily spoke, ”No!”

”No? Then—” He drawled, his expression now calm but the predator looks still in his eyes. He went on to speak, ”—Did I touch you?”

If it were possible, Perdita’s heart would have leaped out of her chest at the way it skipped a beat so loud that even without answering, Sthena knew what the answer was.

”So it seems,” Sthena answered his own question and a smile threatened to stretch on his lips but he concealed it as he still wanted to know everything with his own method. Since Perdita refused to speak, he would get her to speak.

”Where did I touch you?” Came the next question from him. Perdita by now, could no longer hold back the mortified expression mixed with the redness on her face. She rapidly blinked to get her senses Sthena was bent on turning disorganized in order but ended up as mushed tomatoes, shining all red.

”Seems I did you touch you given the look on your face,” Sthena muttered with a knowing look and he finally sat on his side without hovering above her anymore.

Perdita’s face turned beet red more than they were already and she quickly sat up having understood what was Sthena implying. He now knew what he had done and how and where he had touched her in her dream.

”It was only a dream and you weren’t exactly the man in my dream anyway,” Perdita retorted as she heated to see how Sthena was able to get information from her even without her speaking. He used his tricks to his advantage.

”It was not only a dream, Perdita,” Sthena calmly replied. He continued to speak when he saw the questioning look on her face. ”When supernaturals dream, even though yours was a dream induced by Serena, it is eighty percent sure that the dream will happen in real life. And not to add, you are a vampire and a witch altogether.”

”What do you mean?” Perdita asked, now confused and curious at the same. She added with a skeptical look on her face, ”But the You in my dream changed to another person. Don’t tell me Dae... Daemon is going to—”

”He is not going to,” Sthena cut her short with a frown on his face at what Perdita was going to say. He cleared her doubts, ”Rest assured that Daemon isn’t going to do that to you.”

”Then?” Perdita quizzed, her brows now furrowed in thought.

”Then, you should know that I am going to be the one to fulfill your dream,” Sthena suddenly deadpanned. He didn’t want to think or imagine the possibility of another man touching Perdita.

It took a while for Sthena’s words to sink in and simultaneously Perdita’s mouth fell open. She pointed her index finger at Sthena and let out a low shriek, ”Y–you, what?”

Gone was the smile on Sthena’s face as he stared unwaveringly at Perdita. He took her finger pointed at him and brought it down as he spoke, ”What you saw in your dream I wish to do to you and even more.”

Perdita swallowed a lump in her throat as her heartbeat picked race to drum against her chest. The funny feeling she had earlier experienced in her stomach now erupted tremors of butterflies flapping their tiny wings inside her stomach.

”B—But we are not together,” She voiced and saw Sthena nod his head in understanding.

He replied, ”That can change at any time,”

”Are you joking with me?” Perdita quizzed with a narrowed look.

”Which part of my words made you think I am joking?” Sthena answered with his own question.

Perdita felt lost for words as she tried to comprehend everything Sthena had uttered. After a few minutes in silence, she said, ”I—I don’t know what to say.”

”You don’t have to say anything,” Sthena spoke, his gaze still fixed on her face as he wanted to capture every look on Perdita’s face.

Perdita tried to decipher any trace of a lie in Sthena’s words as she stared back at him but found none. What she saw was the intensity with which Sthena stared at her and the undeniable emotions that swirled in his eyes he didn’t hide from her.

Unable to hold the smouldering gaze that caused her heart not to seize skipping a beat one after the other, she looked away from him and muttered, ”That was unexpected and so sudden,”

”I know,” Sthena acknowledged her words and the feeling that had been slowly brewing in his heart towards her. Who knew that since the day he set his eyes on the green eyes of this woman, she was not only going to be someone he went from provoking to protecting to someone he now harbored feelings for?

Sthena closed his eyes for a brief moment. When he opened them, he took a deep breath before speaking again, ”My confession tonight is sudden but the feelings of my heart weren’t unexpected, Perdita.” As he spoke, he gently took her cold hand in his cold ones to provide warmth for both of them.

Sthena drew Perdita in with his intense gaze that refused and never stayed out of her way since the day he stepped into her life in the market of Woodbridge. He continued to speak, ”Since the day I walked into your life, Perdita, you have always been on my mind, and today’s event made me realize how much you mean to me. I realized how much I could have been disoriented had Serena taken you with them.”

”Rather than prolong the timing when I know how I feel, I’ve decided to let in into the sweet warmth you have enveloped me with. Perdita.”

”I won’t deny it, I am into you, Perdita Kartar,” Sthena confessed, squeezing Perdita’s hand to create a similar warmth that enveloped his heart.