"Would you straighten your stance for ?" so softly he’d asked.
When she did as told, Silas’ hands neared her neck first before taking a hold of her hair, gathering it with care then bringing it to the side.
At many instances, his fingers grazed her skin, birthing tingles of a new nature. They waited for no permission to run throughout her body, wreaking havoc and sabotaging her senses.
The vampire’s next action did not quell her screaming heart as his breath fondled the back of her neck while his hands buckled the chain carrying the vial around it.
The new pendant landed lower than her mother’s, closer to her cleavage, its red perfectly complenting the green that hung above it.
"If you ever do get injured when I am not around, then use it to heal," he said, still seated behind her.
Due to the proximity, their warmth collided, mingled and perhaps even colluded on ways to tug harder at each other, to bridge that vile gap keeping them apart.
For a good mont, Arabella only looked down, patting the vial at the heart of the pendant.
"Thank you," she muttered.
"Use them well,"
That seed to snap her out of whatever daze had her ensnared, "I must insist on repeating that I... Don’t know how to use a dagger. I believe that for soone like , stabbing a living body takes more strength than a mont of negligence on my foe’s part can provide,"
"I suspect it’ll take more will than physical power,"
With every exhale, his warm breaths landed right on her bare neck, each spawning a new wave of sparks that rippled all the way down to her already weakened heart.
"That is very likely," she whispered.
"We can always dedicate so ti to training you," he too murmured.
"Then I pity whoever is unlucky enough to be tasked with my training," the lightest of chuckles escaped her.
Both spoke as though the space around them only handled gentle tones and soft voices
The comfortable mont of quietude that followed after that shattered, though not by words, but by none other than her heart which fluttered, drumming her ears and deafening the rest of the world to them.
Silas crept even closer, until her back connected with his chest, very similarly to the way they sat together on Chance’s saddle.
"I always wanted to know, but never managed to ask," he said, "Earlier, you spoke of the savagery you witnessed, was it what plagued your dreams the past few days?"
In response, she gave him a re nod.
"What else do you see?" he paused before adding, "In those dreams, I an,"
"The first thing I always see upon closing my eyes is the face of Ammund. He was one of them human n that took , but as strong as the mory of him is, it’s never as persistent as Vali’s, the man Alpha Cynric murdered in cold blood,"
Silas was unable to see it, but knew very well of the distant stare Arabella always had when adopting that tone, "Why do you make the distinction?"
"Because despite taking part in the abduction, Vali... Vali was kind to ," the last words of her sentence were asly mutters.
The vampire kept his thoughts on the matter but doubted Vali’s character as she claid. He believed her own kind nature interfered with her judgent.
"I keep thinking he must’ve had a family back ho, waiting for his return," she continued in that sa detached timbre.
It truly was incredible... After everything those n dragged her through, she was willing to go as far as to imagine scenarios of their innocent families that would never get to see them return by fault of hers.
Was she doing it to torture herself? Or did the guilt eat so much of her that she was unable to see reason?
All of the sudden, his breath no longer fell on her neck but right on her head instead as Silas placed his chin atop it, but he did not stop there.
He wrapped both arms around her middle and pulled her further against himself.
The vampire failed to determine whether the flinch from her coinciding with his action was of his doing or if thunder caused that jolt.
Sweet fruit and lavender mixed in with mineral tones wafted off her, but as he shut his eyes to bask in her essence, the stiffness in her muscles called him back to reality.
"Do you still fear ?"
To her, that question ca out of the blue, prompting her body to solidify further, but from his perspective, every word was carefully curated.
"I...," the trembling started in her voice then trickled to the rest of her body.
In reply, Silas tightened his hold around her, pressing himself against her back, hoping it’d muffle the quivering she’d succumbed to.
"You may tell ," he encouraged her.
"I thought I’d seen it all, but the scariest thing you’ve said to was only a few days ago," she lowered her head, "When I watched Katherine being carried away and then you told her condition wasn’t of my concern. You said it so... Formally, I couldn’t grasp what to make of it or why you’d say such a thing to ," she shook her head slowly, once again for her hair to rub against his chin.
"The reason was similar to the one that made ask if you wanted to speak with Edgar. I only wanted to relieve you of any heavy weight you might have been carrying and nothing else,"
"Was it truly all?"
It was Arabella’s turn to ask questions that left him pensive for a short mont.
"Do you suspect I am lying?"
Much to his relief, the young woman did not freak out as per her anxious usual and instead, responded calmly, "No. Not voluntarily, at least,"
Both her words and the brittle tone they had been communicated in left him perplexed.
He said what he ant and always ant what he said, but sothing kept Arabella on the fence.
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