[ slowly, she tips her head to the side. like an offering, baring the vulnerable line of her throat to the same beast that could tear into it until there is nothing left of her to find. it isn't fair — it isn't fair to nikolai, caged by his own bones, barely in control of his bloodlust and the lives he has already stolen with talons and teeth — but she has a point to prove. there is no greater show of trust than his teeth at her jugular, skimming across her pulse. ]
It wouldn't. [ some monsters are destined to turn against their masters. she can't gamble with the chance that it will sniff out her weakness and sink its fangs into her veins. still, something in her declaration shakes, a tremor in her voice that gives away that flicker of fear. through it all, she knows one fact to be indisputably true, a hope she clings to: ] You wouldn't let it.
[ it's a useless debate she doesn't have time to engage him in, she knows. nikolai won't relinquish his hold, and the beast's relentless pacing won't abate, hungering for its chance to rise to the surface. for all that he's spoken of choices, she has no other choice but to honor his.
even if she thinks he's mistaken to think she could offer any cure for its appetites when she is the poison in his system. even if she isn't worth the physical torture nikolai is determined to endure to spare them both. even if she is the very reason he is at war with himself, two sides straining to conquer his mind.
she has done worse than lesser men, and still she loathes herself for the jolt of power that thrums through her when she sinks her fingers into his scalp and forces his head back. it's a mistake to believe in her goodness when she is corrupted by her own greed, drunk off of her own abilities, but this — it's the only strategy he's given her, inflicting the harshness of her touch in a desperate bid to drown out the thing inside of him. but if she's right about her theory, if her grip around his throat had been enough to bleed the darkness from his eyes for even just a moment — ]
Focus on me, Nikolai. Only me. I need you to stay here with me.
[ it's too soft of a plea for what she plans to do. she reaches for one of his hands at her spine, dragging it beneath the hem of her shirt, planted over her sternum. her heart leaps against his palm as if that, too, is a sacrifice — something for him to rend from her chest, if the beat of it fails to anchor him. she bruises her mouth against his, unforgiving and abrupt, sinking her teeth into his lower lip until copper stains her tongue.
it submits to temptation — the kiss she hadn't been given a chance to have before everything had fallen apart, the i missed you she had never voiced — as much as it smothers the sounds she fears she might hear when her fingers find his heartbeat, searing with the light that heats her palm. ]
no subject
It wouldn't. [ some monsters are destined to turn against their masters. she can't gamble with the chance that it will sniff out her weakness and sink its fangs into her veins. still, something in her declaration shakes, a tremor in her voice that gives away that flicker of fear. through it all, she knows one fact to be indisputably true, a hope she clings to: ] You wouldn't let it.
[ it's a useless debate she doesn't have time to engage him in, she knows. nikolai won't relinquish his hold, and the beast's relentless pacing won't abate, hungering for its chance to rise to the surface. for all that he's spoken of choices, she has no other choice but to honor his.
even if she thinks he's mistaken to think she could offer any cure for its appetites when she is the poison in his system. even if she isn't worth the physical torture nikolai is determined to endure to spare them both. even if she is the very reason he is at war with himself, two sides straining to conquer his mind.
she has done worse than lesser men, and still she loathes herself for the jolt of power that thrums through her when she sinks her fingers into his scalp and forces his head back. it's a mistake to believe in her goodness when she is corrupted by her own greed, drunk off of her own abilities, but this — it's the only strategy he's given her, inflicting the harshness of her touch in a desperate bid to drown out the thing inside of him. but if she's right about her theory, if her grip around his throat had been enough to bleed the darkness from his eyes for even just a moment — ]
Focus on me, Nikolai. Only me. I need you to stay here with me.
[ it's too soft of a plea for what she plans to do. she reaches for one of his hands at her spine, dragging it beneath the hem of her shirt, planted over her sternum. her heart leaps against his palm as if that, too, is a sacrifice — something for him to rend from her chest, if the beat of it fails to anchor him. she bruises her mouth against his, unforgiving and abrupt, sinking her teeth into his lower lip until copper stains her tongue.
it submits to temptation — the kiss she hadn't been given a chance to have before everything had fallen apart, the i missed you she had never voiced — as much as it smothers the sounds she fears she might hear when her fingers find his heartbeat, searing with the light that heats her palm. ]