Dark Hunger

Sun had risen, breaking the darkness of the night, and the darkness surrendered every color changed from charcoal to vibrancy mixed with white. The road ahead of them was clear. The snow from last night had settled over the pines and the firs and at several places on the sides. As the car sped ahead the forest passed as white blur on the sides. 

Elize settled in the warmth of Caleb's lap and against his body. She placed head on his chest and opened the first two buttons without thinking. She took her fingers over there and started playing with his hair. Gods, she loved the way his muscles jumped at her touch. Such hard muscles. She trailed every line fondly. Suddenly a memory flashed across her mind in which she had sunk her teeth in his chest and lapped up blood from there. Little did she know that his eyes became heavily lidded under her guileless ministrations. "Where is Edyrm now?" she asked absent-mindedly, resisting an urge to kiss him over there. 

Caleb took a deep breath, happy that she had brought them back on the topic otherwise he was about to take her in the car, audience, no audience! "I don't know, but the demon reduced to his feral form after his magic seeped out of him." His eyes went to her puckered nipples over her sweater. Inadvertently, his hand slipped inside her sweater. 

"What is his feral form like? I feel as though we are talking about a ghost," she said, feeling his hand over there. 

He brushed his finger on her navel. "An eagle. He has become an eagle after his powers were reduced. But what is more concerning is that he has his loyal followers, demons, who he must have cultivated over a long time and they are spread everywhere." 

Elize tilted her head and then tapped her chin. "I don't know but there have been attacks on me for about three months now. But somehow, I managed to escape them. Do you think they were the demons? Do you think it was connected?" 

"I know, Lizzy," he said exasperatedly as a shudder passed through his body. "Why do you think I was watching you all the time?" He was so anxious all the time when he wasn't with her but now his nervousness had settled because she was close to him. Yesterday night was a reminder of the nightmare he lived in constantly. 

She whipped her head in his direction. So, all the time she would scent him near her—it wasn't a hallucination? This man was watching her from a distance and protecting her? Her heart skipped a beat. She was so entangled in her thoughts to hate him earlier that she didn't look at other aspects. She recalled how ferocious the demons were and then she remembered that every time she was attacked, she was saved. It was he who saved her and not that she managed to escape. The demons were too ferocious to be escaped from. "Caleb…" she whispered, as if speaking his name with reverence, with gratefulness. The weight of what he did to her crashed like a bulldozer. Hiding her face in the crook of his neck, she closed her eyes as tears stung her in the eyes.

He pressed his chin on her head and inhaled her smell. "Edyrm wanted me to join him earlier to work against Ileus, but I refused. It was just twenty days back when Ileus came to me for help. I knew that Edyrm's followers would attack you and that's why I had asked Arawn to hide you in Fulshire forests. But—" 

"But I wanted to break free," she said, feeling guilty all the more. Her heart squeezed. He was only protecting her and she was planning to escape. And then go back to her despicable family. Her mind went to Nessa who had stabbed her at her father's funeral. 

"Don't tell me you are feeling guilty, Lizzy." He brought her out of her memories. 

"I am not," she lied when in reality she was feeling as if a thousand-ton boulder was tied with a rope around her neck and sinking her into the deep sea. She had misjudged him for a long time. Her own people despised her and he waited patiently in the shadows to be with her and not even once did he force himself upon her. 

"Uh-huh?" He leaned in front of her, curled his fingers beneath her chin to see her face and found that her eyes were moist. "What you need to know is that none of it was your fault. You have come out of it and I am glad about it. None of this is on you. You have to understand that." 

Elize's lips quivered. How could he say that? She had been the source of his misery all the while and ever since he had met her. At first, she was terminally ill, and then she just wanted to run away from him. And still he said that it wasn't her fault? 

"It was my fault. I should have been more cautious about Edyrm's plans. I had no idea that he was keeping an eye on you. He wanted to abduct you so that he could use me, but things didn't work his way." He pressed his lips into a thin line. "And now he is after both of us. I have embroiled you in this situation." 

She nodded. "I didn't know I was such a disruptive presence in your life, Caldy." 

He placed a finger on her lips. "Never say that. You are the most stable presence in my life. One that has tethered me. You are my anchor, love." 

Gods, he was too good to be true. She now suffered with a different kind of guilt—of wasting three months in hating him. "I am sorry…" she said. A sigh escaped her lips and a red smoky tendril of magic with it. 

Every conversation about Edyrm or past forgotten, Caleb's eyes flew wide open. He stared at her as she too stared at the red tendril.. "What was that?" he asked, his body on high alert.