Page 25 of These Eternal Bones

Snowball

The Night We Met - Lord Huron

Elric

Steam rises off the mug cupped in Molly’s hands, her eyes closing reverently as she leans in to take a tentative sip of the hot chocolate.

My tendrils snap at the snow-covered ground behind me as I struggle to calm them.

My restraint is slipping. That’s no more apparent than right now.

My claws are pricking my palms as her small pink tongue pokes out, cleaning the excess off her lips.

I have long lost interest in the taste of human food or the smell of it cooking, but watching the way her throat works as she takes it down… I find I am quite envious of the drink.

I stifle the growl that works up my throat, turning from her to the creek, my cock straining against my trousers as it always does when she’s around.

Every fiber of my being is calling, screaming for me to act.

Her lilac smell mixing with the pine and snow.

Everything inside me that was made for her demands my supplication.

For me to wrangle her to the ground and sink my teeth into her delicate throat while I shove my cock–

My thoughts halt as an icy blast collides with the back of my head, a savage sounding growl ripping from my throat as I whirl to find the source of the assault.

Molly pulls her lips tight between her teeth, clearly fighting a smile as she shrugs, looking far too sheepish.

Again, that quiet place in my chest kicks to life as my eyes fall to the snowball she’s dutifully shaping in her gloved hands.

The surprise quickly wears off at the sound of her delightful laugh as she throws another.

This one slams into my chest. She doesn’t waste time playing entirely on her own as she skitters away to arm herself again.

Snow falls in lazy waves around her, her long dress making pathways in the snow as she hurls another, this one arcing wide and missing me entirely.

“Awh,” she huffs, placing her hands on the mouthwatering swell of her hips.

I clear my throat, schooling my features. “Give me one reason I should not strike you down, syringa, after such a bold attack.”

Her disappointment falters, her full, reddened lips giving way to a maddening smirk as she circles me, making a show of casually bending to swipe more snow off the ground. I mirror her movements. “I suppose you could try, vampire .”

Vampire, if only you knew sweet Molly.

“Such confidence,” I quip before hurling my own snowball at her, her mouth dropping open as it collides with her hip.

“I can’t believe you hit me,” she gasps, feigning upset, but I can see the devilish smirk in her eyes. She truly has no clue the things I would subject her body to. The ways I would worship each inch of her pliant flesh. “I’m just a girl.”

“Ah, yes, but a girl who has waged war against the Vampire of Port Clyde. I have a fearsome reputation to–” My words are cut off as another ball of snow flies through the night air, slamming me in the face.

Her guffaw of riotous laughter hits me, along with the sound of her feet as I shake my head, freeing myself from the rest of the snow.

It’s then that I decide not to let her win.

For the first time since I last saw her, my laughter flows easily as we hurl snowballs at each other.

Worry lancing me as she runs behind the cottage and out of sight, only for a whisper of snow dusted copper hair to flash around the other side.

My soul feels as light as the flakes gathering on her eyelashes.

My cheeks are aching from years of limited use as I smile.

She throws another ball as I duck, making a show of weaving before pelting her quicker than she can blink.

A squeal leaves her throat as I snag her ankle with a tendril, tripping her only for the others to soften her fall.

Copper strands hang wildly in her face as she huffs, this time lobbing fistfuls of loose unpacked snow at me before turning her assault on the tendrils still holding her.

Our laughter fills the woods, and I couldn't care less about how silly the fearsome vampire might look. I am not him when I am with her. I’m something lighter, a part of me only she can find.

She’s adorably frustrated, her chest heaving by the time she lets her legs give out, spreading her arms wide and falling back into the snow, setting off a puff of white around her.

My chest lets out a dull throb, one so powerful I bring my fist to the spot, rubbing it as I join her.

The emptiness there never gets easier. For a few moments, for the first time in centuries, I didn’t feel the riding dread or the insatiable, constant thirst or agonized longing in my gut, and it’s all thanks to her.

How she consumes me so in every life, I will never tire of .

My little human tugs her gloves off her hands, revealing reddened fingers as she lifts them up above her, waving them around absently in the falling snow.

By the gods, I love her.

I love her so feverishly every moment with my eyes not turned her way is a moment too long.

The words are on the tip of my tongue. My tendrils still and sprawled out around me, but even now, in their relaxed state, they reach for her.

I study her for a long moment, wishing with everything I could suspend us here, in the snow.

That this…as we are right now, as all we’ve ever been.

All we’ll ever be. Even now the desire to bond her is overwhelming, no more a choice but a need . One I have never been able to ignore.

“What is it you want most in the world, Molly?” I ask, needing a distraction so I don’t give in to my baser needs, not yet. Not until she’s ready.

She doesn’t look at me as she lowers her hands, breathing hot air into them. “To be free.”

Guilt swarms me, snuffing out that feeling of lightness from moments before. Because I would give her anything but that. I cannot give her that.

My eyes rip away from her soft features, back to the dark, hazy sky.

Again, I find myself a wretched, malevolent creature, woefully undeserving.

Perhaps in the next life I will let you walk through my woods.

Perhaps in the next, when you pass me in town, I will simply smile and let you.

Perhaps in your next life, things will be different.

Maybe in a few more centuries, I will not be so terribly selfish.

My breath halts as her small, warm hand grips mine, letting them fall back to the snow, intertwined.

I flip our palms so that hers is kept away from the worst of the cold, although I only offer more of it.

Her evergreen eyes are thoughtful, glued to me, and I’d be a liar if I pretended not to savor it.

“I like you in moments like this, when you are lost in your thoughts. You do not hide your feelings so well. Why do you look so horribly sad, Elric?”

“It’s been seven hundred years, and I still have not grown into the man she deserved.”

She huffs. “Then perhaps we should stop worrying about ghosts of our pasts. When there is someone beside you who likes you as you are.”

Her words tunnel through me, making my chest tighten. Our eyes are on the other halves of our souls as she rolls closer to me, her curtain of curls falling over her shoulders as she settles her weight on top of me. My cock throbs, jerking underneath the warm press of her.

What comes next isn’t a slow build; it’s not a crescendo but a supernova that finally gives way.

The final holdout of the universe before it succumbs to the black hole.

It was inevitable, this moment, her finding her way here, this look in her eyes.

It simply cannot be helped when two souls are so tightly intertwined.

I meet her halfway, my lips pressing against hers as a growl rips from my chest. The warmth of the sun collides with the chill of night as my hands find their way to the back of her head, tangling in waves of lilac as I pull her closer.

I have kissed her more times than there are stars in the sky, but each kiss feels like the first.

The breathy sound she makes as my tongue slips past the seam of her lips tips the scale far past my point of self-control as I rush to a stand.

Her tiny gasp is the only time either of us comes up for air as she bands herself around me, her messy, eager kissing driving me to the brink.

The cottage door slams open as I burst through it, my hands caressing and savoring everything they can as my mind blanks .

She comes up, jerking her lips from mine with a ragged gasp before I forget she requires air in her lungs.

I do not hold such tiring limitations. She pants, her dull nails digging into my coat as I rid her of hers, sitting her on the small expanse of counter in her kitchen.

My lips are on her jaw, peppering my adoration there before my tongue trails from her chin back to her lips.

I have waited sixty-two thousand seven hundred and eighty-four days to taste her again; I will not wait a moment more.

“Elric, please, touch me.”

“Syringa, you have no idea what you ask,” I groan, my claws digging into the counter to stop myself.

“I need…” she gasps, because my lips find hers again, soft yet forceful, pushing and pulling, being so careful of my fangs as I savor every inch of her mouth.

“Yes, tell me what you need, my love.”

“It is wrong,” she gasps, her face flush. “I think I am not supposed to want your touch between my thighs, but I ache there. Constantly.”

Fuck.

My only response is a growl as I hand her off to my tendrils, watching in satisfaction as they bind around her middle and upper thighs.

We work in tandem as I rid her of her underskirts and the long wool pants.

She’s panting, breathlessly watching me with rapt attention, her eyes heavy and half lidded with need.

“It is not wrong when the universe has given you to me. It could never be wrong when my sole purpose is to worship your body just as I’m about to. ”

The words tumble from me before I can stop them, but I can’t bring myself to care in the slightest as her arms tug my tendrils with her, dragging her skirts up her smooth thighs, inch by inch.

The red slash is all that remains of the injury from that night.

I don’t hesitate, lowering my head to taste her there, too.

The conflicting texture dancing across my tongue.

Her breath is ragged, her soft lips red and swollen as my tongue dances around her core, the coarse, copper-colored curls there brushing my face.

Another growl leaves me as a whimper falls from her throat. “Oh god.”

Yes, my sweet Molly, call out for me.

Flavor bursts on my tongue, my mind fracturing and reeling the moment I take the first languid lap of her core.

She screams when I flick my tongue along the tiny bundle of nerves at the top, and just like that, she explodes, her body already brimming as her hands fist in my hair, tugging deliciously at my scalp.

Her arousal coats my mouth and chin, reality slamming back to me in the form of that pervasive… hunger.

My fangs extend fully, my mouth gaping to sink into the pulsing vein of her thigh as my tendrils grip my neck, jerking me back away from her.

My growl mixes with her panting as it tears from me.

Her eyes go from heavy masts to wide as my chest heaves.

When I rise to my full height, I’m panting, the smell and the taste of her as all-consuming as my need to bleed her.

My eyes nearly roll back in my skull as I tip my head back, my black inky hair falling from my face as I zero back in on her.

Her knees are together on the counter, hiding her slick cunt.

Irritation flares in me, the desire to wrench her legs apart and breathe her in has a sick smirk filling my face.

“Elric…” she breathes, but it’s not a scared sound. No, of course not. She’s mine, after all. Made for me alone. Her body, even one I have not yet possessed, a cunt I have not yet painted with my seed, recognizes me.

“I shall collect you in the morning, syringa.”

“No-no, you don’t have to, you can stay–”

“I cannot, I am not–”

She jerks her skirts down, trying to hop from the counter when my tendrils hold on her tightens, leaving her there. “I don’t care; I want you.”

I take a step forward, chest heaving as my tendrils go to jerk me back again.

I release them, sending us into a cloud of my very being.

My hand grips her chin lightly, pressing a kiss to her lips, letting her taste herself there.

It’s a binding, shattering kiss, yet one that doesn’t last nearly long enough.

My thumb strokes along her pulse point, pumping out its beautiful torment as it flutters beneath me.

“Once I taste you Molly, there will be no leaving here, no journeying from my sight. I will own and consume you in ways you could not fathom, so tell me, my little human, do you wish for me to go?”

My words have their intended effect, sobering her from her need, even if it adds another wound to my festering soul. “But you’ll come back in the morning?”

“There is nothing that could keep me away.”