Page 46 of Cursed Lifeline (Eternal Love)

Forty Five

Felix

song: rule #34 | fish in a birdcage

Watching Esme leave the gym after her last training session, I follow her through the dark back alley, and mentally make a note to talk to Alfred about her apparent disregard for her safety. That is, once he’s feeling better and more coherent from his blood loss.

Esme looks over her shoulder, sensing me like she has for the past several weeks that I have been trailing her. She never calls me out, and I am careful to keep out of sight, but she knows I’m here. Watching over her. Protecting her. Sheltering her as best I can for the time being.

She turns a sharp corner, and I quicken my pace. Crossing the street once I round the same turn, I shove my hands in my pockets and hang my head low, keeping to the shadows. A raven flies overhead. It’s call rings through the night as Esme once again glances over her shoulder in my direction. A light rain begins to fall and she stops walking. Looking up, anyone would think she’s wondering how the light shower could have started since there seems to be no cloud in the sky. But I know she’s sensed what I have as well, and I follow her gaze until I make out a dark figure atop one of the tallest buildings a few yards away.

The predator hungrily admires what he hopes to make his next kill until he senses she’s not alone and looks my way. Defeat washes over his deathly features before he backs away from the ledge and retreats into the night. Esme shakes her head, and glances back at me. Quickly stepping out of view, my heart warms when she gives me a small smile before continuing on her way.

A few minutes later, we arrive at her apartment. I hang back and watch as she climbs the steps to her building. Misting to a ledge on the structure next door, I keep to the dark, shadowy abyss of night as the rain subsides and she enters her apartment. I watch her through her living room window, she sets down her keys, then picks up the bouquet of rosemary I left earlier and brings it to her nose.

Inhaling slowly, sadness fills her eyes as a sorrowful smile slowly pulls across her lips.

Pray you love, remember - her mind softly runs over the memory.

Taking the flowers with her, she walks somberly down the hall. Following her path, I walk across a ledge, and study her every move as she enters her bedroom. Her dark silhouette against the curtains comes into view as she turns on a bedside lamp. The breeze from the open window blows the curtains aside for a brief moment, and her scent wafts towards me on a chilling breeze. Raising her shirt over her head, she tosses it to the floor, and I quickly look from side to side to make sure no one else is enjoying this view. My eyes trail back to her bedroom window as she removes her pants next. Her hands bend behind her back, and she unclasps her bra.

Normally, she doesn’t put on such a show. Reserving her undressing and dressing to the bathroom, I wonder for a moment why she’s changed her routine until…

Felix - her mind purrs as she lays back against her sheets. Arching her back, a hungry moan escapes her lips. Thoughts of what she wants me to do to her fill my mind as she starts to pleasure herself. A feral growl slips past my lips as she spreads her legs, slowly lowers one hand to her center, and cups her bare breast with the other.

After a rousing moment, she reaches to her right, and turns out the light.

Although I am thankful she’s now not under a spotlight for everyone to see, it makes it harder to suppress the urge to go to her room as her depraved thoughts continue to fill my head.

Her thoughts drift to me, and her mind purrs, the scruff of your beard rubbing against my inner thighs, your tongue pressing slowly into my core - I remember more than you think, Felix .

A light gasp escapes her lips and echoes through the night. The slickness of her fingers pleasuring herself becomes breathtaking music to my ears as the scent of her desire drugs my senses when it wafts closer on a sensual breeze.

Her thoughts invade once again as the night’s warm wind blows the curtains aside and I take in the sight of her spread out on her bed.

If I’m a good girl, will you do like before, and make a mess of my porcelain skin.

A deep groan escapes my lips as I remember the sight of her on her knees.

You never did let me play. Across the distance, I hear her suck down a shaky breath . I’m desperate to wrap my lips around your cock, suck you, and take you all the way down the back of my tight, little throat.

Fuck. Me.

Will you let me - her thoughts beg as her pleasure builds - please, I’m desperate to taste you like you’ve always savored me.

For a brief moment, I swear we lock eyes. Her hips buck and the curtains drift back closed.

I almost mist to her. I almost go back on my promise to stay away when my name suddenly falls from her lips and rings erotically through the night. The curtains part, her back arches, her thighs shake, her head falls back and her center pools beneath her on the sheets as she crashes over the edge.

It’s the most breathtaking sight I have ever seen.

When the last of her orgasm subsides, she looks directly at where I’m standing, brings her fingers to her lips and sucks them dry.

More , her thoughts call to mine as a needy moan falls from her lips. I need more.

Her hand falls back between her thighs and she greedily searches for another release. Quickly, I turn my back and walk away. If I watch her chase another orgasm in my name it’ll break what little restraint I have left. I’ll not only go to her, I won’t be able to restrain myself from fucking her senseless.

She’s home safe. I’ve done my duty for tonight. But to ensure no one else hears or sees how many times she plans on pleasuring herself to the thought of me, I evoke the shadows of night to slam her window shut, lock it, and keep the curtains pulled tight.

A giggle drifts from her mind to mine before she continues riding out her next high.

Blocking out her thoughts, I stride down the street from her apartment and am about to turn the corner to take me back to my club when a dark figure emerges from a back alley. Defenses up, I come to a halt as Viktor steps forward and says, “You have more restraint than most men.”

“I’ve had over two centuries to perfect it,” I respond, eyeing him curiously as he comes further into the light. “As a gentleman, I’ll ask you to forget what you heard.”

“I’m no gentleman,” he grins mischievously. I eye him angrily, and he smugly adds, “Does that also include what I saw?”

I take a heated step forward and he puts his hands up in surrender.

“Already forgotten,” he chuckles. Tossing him an angry glare, I continue to stride down the sidewalk. He matches my strides and says, “Tell me though, do you think you can control yourself if she keeps this up night after night? Or will your tedious stalking finally come to an end when you inevitably take what she’s been offering you for two damn centuries? As desperate as over two hundred years of edging have made both of you, you’d be smart to claim her virginity soon, before she falls into the hands of someone else that won’t be so kind when coveting such a desired treasure.”

“ Virtue, as it never will be moved, though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven ,” I grumble under my breath. When my brother says nothing, I hiss, “I intend to follow Esme for however long I need to. Especially with brutes like you lurking in the shadows. Evangeline may think you’re safe, but I’m not convinced.”

If Viktor did in fact take a blood oath as a means to finding the cure to the curse, he’d know why I’ve never followed through on giving into my needs. Doing so could take me one step closer to repeating the sins of our parents.And even if he’s foolish enough not to believe the curse, I’m not.

“My blood oath to Ember is as good as broken,” my brother shrugs. “Evangeline holds control now.”

Shaking my head, I say, “I’m not too sure you’ll ever get the chance to swear that oath if Alfred has anything to say about it.”

“Alfred has no authority over me or Evangeline.”

“But he does have authority over Esme as her watcher, and if what the princess says this time is true, she’s here with one mission in mind. To break the curse. Which means whoever holds jurisdiction over the slayer, also rules over Evangeline.”

“Well,” my brother laughs. “We’ll see how the council feels about his authority now that he’s been bitten by one of us.”

Over taken with the sudden need to set boundaries, I demand, “Stay away from Esme.”

“Or what?”

“Or I’ll make good on the threat to run a stake through your heart.”

Picking up my pace, I’m several heated strides down the street when he says, “Evangeline was right, you know. There is only one way to break the curse. You’ve had over a century to accept it, and…”

Turning back around, I snap, “Why would I trust anything that pixie or you say. Especially since you were close to the enemy for the last two hundred years.”

“That’s exactly why you should trust me,” my brother seethes. “I know the enemy better than anything you could try to learn if you spent five hundred more years chasing for the cure.”

A tense moment passes between us. Eventually, Viktor shoves his hands in his pockets and shrugs, “She’s destined to die anyways, Felix. Why not have it be by your hand. Especially if it works and stops all this damn madness.”

“And if it fails?”

“Then she’ll be one of us.”

“I will never chance turning her into one of us.”

Shaking his head, he takes a step forward and says, “Look at it this way: regardless of the outcome of her mortality, you’d finally have what you both always wanted.”

“What I want is to give her a life no one else can.”

“Exactly,” my brother exclaims. “You’d be doing the girl a favor. She’s miserable going round and round the same damn hamster wheel in each of her cursed lives.”

“What do you know about misery?” I scoff.

Darkness fills my brother’s stare. “Enough to understand it doesn’t pray for company, only for a savior.”

Shaking my head, I chuckle in disbelief: “Brevity is the soul of wit.” My brother eyes me curiously. “Being a savior takes becoming a living sacrifice.”

“I can help with that,” my brother grins.

“I bet you can.”

He shakes his head.

“Not the way you’re thinking.” Brushing past me, he gestures for me to follow and says, “I have a plan.”