The Overture of Fear & Passion (The Daemonica Symphony Series Book 1) Page 20

  “You want a water?” He asked.

  She shook her head, walking over to inspect the boxes. Some contained cranes alone while other contained cranes on wire, neatly and carefully stacked so as not to bend or damage them.

  “This must have taken you weeks.” She said in awe.

  “Something like that.” He took a sip of water and closed the bottle, coming over to stand next to her. His closeness made her instantly nervous and she cursed Fiona’s tea. Clearly, potions were not her strong point.

  “Actually, I will have a water. If you don’t mind.” She said. He smiled and ran his hand through his hair. She couldn’t help but notice his bicep flexing and she wondered if it was intentional. She heard him laugh softly as he turned his back to her, clearly, she was broadcasting again.

  He handed her the bottle of water and then stepped back, pulling a flannel shirt off the back of a couch, and putting it on.

  Juliet wondered over to the bookshelf closest to her and noticed that all of the thick volumes seemed to have been cleared of dust and cobwebs since she was last here.

  “How do you have time to do all of this?” She wondered out loud. When he didn’t answer, she looked at him.

  He moved his hand as if to run it through his hair again, but he caught himself and stopped it at his chin instead.

  “Nights, mostly.” He said, looking away. She remembered his sleep avoidance and decided it would be better to leave that topic alone, for now.

  “How about we set up some ground rules. Maybe that will help us both relax a little.” He offered.

  “O.K.” She said. “Where should we begin?” She took a sip of her water, even though she wasn’t thirsty.

  “Well, I was thinking that maybe we could look at this as just another class. Only, instead of needing to learn about Demon biology, we can focus on how we can control your power.” Juliet was intrigued.

  His proposal tickled her curiosity, immediately making her less anxious and she nodded.

  “I’d like to learn how to control it, so that I don’t hurt anyone again.”

  “Exactly. And maybe once you have it controlled; you should be able to manage the need. You know, like how a diabetic manages their insulin levels.”

  She liked that idea. A problem-solving approach was definitely how she liked to operate.

  “O.K, so I guess we should start?” She asked, looking at him from the side.

  “Woah, what’s the rush? Shouldn’t we spend a little time getting to know each other first? I mean, a guy likes to be made to feel special you know?” Juliet must have blushed because Niko began laughing.

  “Relax, I’m kidding.” He came over to her, with each step nearer, her nerves grew. She could feel her heart racing as he reached out for her hand. She gave it to him and looked at the joined hands, the connection was so innocent, but it felt like her skin was on fire where they touched.

  “Why don’t we just start with a kiss. Then we can get it over and done with and the pressure will be off, O.K?”

  He began pulling on the end of her French braid, she looked up and moved closer. Before she could nod her approval, he leaned forward and gave her a short, closed-mouth kiss.

  Despite its lack of heat, the kiss was like a taste of chocolate and Juliet instantly craved more. Before Niko could completely pull away, she pulled him back again, kissing him with a hunger that should scare her, instead it thrilled her. She knew now what the hunger was, so when it flooded her senses, she was ready for it.

  Niko deepened the kiss and she picked up easily from his thoughts that his earlier attempt had been a deliberate ploy to get her to set the pace. He was figuring her out quickly, she was both flattered and annoyed by it.

  Within seconds she felt a familiar stirring just below the surface of her skin. She let it take the reins, feeling more comfortable now that she didn’t feel any pressure over where any of this was leading.

  As the kiss intensified, their hands became tangled in hair and clothing. Deep breathing and quiet sighs harmonised with the sound of Beethoven and her heartbeat.

  Suddenly, Niko pulled away, causing Juliet to let out a cry of frustration. He was breathing heavily and had to hold her by the arms to stop her from kissing him again.

  “I’ve never even noticed it before.” He said, still trying to catch his breath.

  “The Demon part of me, it’s just below the surface. You can feel it too, can’t you?”

  She nodded, her breath coming out in pants.

  “We should stop now, before we get carried away.”

  The logical part of her mind knew that he was right, but she could tell that his heart wasn’t in it. He wanted to keep going as much as she did. She let her arms relax, while keeping her mind blank and the decoy worked. He let go of his grip enough for her to strike again and she captured his mouth before he could pull away.

  He pressed against her until she was crushed between the hardness of his body and the bookshelf behind her. She lifted her legs to wrap around his waist as he held her face in his hands. His hips pinning her in place. She could feel the bulge of him rubbing against her, setting her on fire. The Demon side of her was enjoying the feast and wanted more, it’s power completely drowning out the rational, logical Juliet that wanted to take things slow.

  Niko took hold of Juliet’s hands which had been trying to find their way underneath the back of his shirt. He pinned them against the shelf, books falling at the force of the disturbance.

  He slowed down the kiss until he eventually pulled his mouth away from hers entirely.

  “We need-” He said, catching his breath, “to stop.”

  Juliet squirmed beneath him, shaking her head and trying to gain control of her mind and body. She could feel the Demon within practically hissing with frustration. It didn’t like being told to stop and the loss of control was beginning to scare Juliet.

  Niko rested his forehead on hers, still breathing heavily. She slowly caught her own breath and eased her legs down from his waist. He let his grip loosen on her hands and lowered them down to their sides, entwining his fingers in hers as he gave her nose a small kiss.

  “That went well.” He said with a breathy laugh.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  For a week Niko had been on cloud nine. His plan with Juliet had gone like clockwork. He’d known he could have gone further with her; God knew he wanted to. His dick was practically raw from working off the pent-up arousal. But he knew that if they didn’t take it slow, she’d turn skittish again.

  He could understand why she was holding back. This entire world was completely new to her, she was only just beginning to come to grips with the fact that she was a Demon and what that meant. To have to deal with that on top of so many other things as well as the everyday uncertainty of a new relationship, it had to be completely overwhelming.

  Every girl he’d ever been with had been practically obsessed with having a relationship with him, he’d always been perfectly clear that he wasn’t the relationship kind of guy and they seemed to think they would be the exception, every single one of them. But they never were. Now he’d found the one who was, and she wasn’t interested. The irony was not lost on him. He’d decided it was destiny’s way of finding balance and it made sense that the woman who would be so right for him, would be someone he’d have to fight for.

  He’d spent the time with her wisely, making an effort to get to know her. He kept things light, treading carefully around the topics that he knew had a tendency to cause her to shut down. She avoided talking about her father but loved to talk about music. He was thrilled to learn they had a love of travel in common and even shared a few favourite destinations. She told him about her life back in Paris, her friend Beatriz and after skirting around the topic, she finally told him about her mother.

  He felt humbled to listen as she gave him what must have been a very simple cliff notes version of the horrible story. For months she’d watched her suffer and waste away, the chemo killing her fas
ter than the cancer before they’d finally stopped treatment at her mother’s insistence. She’d begged her to keep fighting, but in the end, she understood.

  She explained how she didn’t see her mother’s death as losing a battle, but as knowing when the battle was already lost and choosing to die with dignity. He’d called his mother later that night. Something he hadn’t done in a very long time. He just wanted to hear her voice.

  The other advantage to focussing the conversation on her was that it also allowed him to avoid talking about his own sordid history. She wanted to know all about what it was like to grow up fully exposed to the Otherworld, but he was careful to keep his answers brief and return the focus quickly to her. He felt guilty for not reciprocating when Juliet had exposed such a vulnerable side of herself, but he was afraid. He feared that once she found out his family’s secrets, she’d no longer want anything to do with him, regardless of their bond or her need to ‘feed’.

  Taking things slowly had also helped to thaw some of the ice that had kept her acting cold towards him. She was now engaging with him in lessons, sitting next to him a few times and even joining him for meals occasionally.

  The wait until their next session together was a delicious torture. By Friday night’s mental agility class, his skin was buzzing with anticipation. He was disappointed that they were being placed in Demon/Vampire pairs again and found himself matched with the dour Odette.

  Their challenge was a dramatic reversal of what they had been studying previously. Instead of working on blocking mental intrusion, they were supposed to broadcast a thought to their partner. Deliberately sending silent messages between each other but still keeping it private from the rest of the class.

  Niko began as the sender, silently singing the lyrics of a 1980’s song that popped into his head. Odette scrunched up her face; she was apparently not a fan of new wave.

  “So, if you’re such a good mind reader, why can’t you just read everyone’s mind to find out who killed William?” He silently asked her.

  She rolled her eyes, “How many times do you have to be told that it’s an invasion of privacy to read someone’s mind without permission.” She responded quietly.

  “Come on, surely you at least tried.” He insisted, not believing for a minute that someone wouldn’t use that kind of power if they had it.

  Her nostrils flared in annoyance before she rolled her eyes.

  “Of course, I thought about it. But it’s not that easy. The person would have to actually be thinking about something incriminating at the exact moment I was listening in. There are blocking techniques that people could use and a variety of other reasons why it just wouldn’t work.” He nodded, agreeing with her about the impracticalities.

  Their conversation came to an end when his thoughts began to be interrupted by other students who seemed to be having difficulty adjusting their volume and were broadcasting to the whole room.

  The pairs switched as instructed and Odette sent him an Edith Piaf classic that came across so clearly that he could even hear the intricate scratchiness of the record being played on an original phonograph.

  Underneath the rendition of ‘Non, je ne regrette rien,’ he picked up another thought as well. Clearly the Vampires were more experienced with this and most of them were able to send their messages privately. This message came through almost as clearly as Odette’s and it seemed intentional.

  He was about to block it out, not wanting to be bothered by the distraction, but he realised the sender was Clarissa who was currently partnered with Juliet. Her message became louder as Niko focussed on it, tuning out Odette’s signal.

  “It was probably you, wasn’t it? Everyone knows you were fucking that filthy human before he died. I bet it was some kind of Slut-ubus sex ritual and that’s why you’re so powerful. And now you’ve got your sights on Niko he’ll probably be next.”

  The entire room, which had already been quiet, turned deathly silent, as though everyone was holding their collective breath.

  Niko’s first reaction was to go to Juliet and possibly ram his fist down Clarissa’s throat. His upbringing had taught him to never hit a woman, but he would make an exception if it was what Juliet wanted. He watched her, waiting for a reaction and reaching out mentally to see if she would allow him in to offer comfort.

  She remained completely still apart from the fingers of her left hand which were slowly rubbing against the pad of her thumb. She continued to block him mentally, he knew he could get past the barricade, but he didn’t want to push her when she was likely already upset.

  He moved, about to get up and put Clarissa in her place when Odette’s hand reached out and grabbed his.

  “Not yet.” she said silently. Niko looked back again and waited, decided to take Odette’s advice and see how this would play out. He watched as Clarissa grinned.

  “You can’t even hear me, can you? I guess you’re not even that powerful after all. Stupid Sucubit-”

  The thought remained incomplete; Juliet’s right hand shot out so fast that Niko didn’t even see it move. A punch in the face stopped Clarissa’s silent words. The crack of her nose was as loud as a gunshot in the silent room. There was a sudden rush of movement as Clarissa attempted to strike back at Juliet, but Odette got to her first, restraining the rabid Vampire.

  Niko was at Juliet’s side almost as quickly, pulling her behind him even though she seemed to be trying to get in another punch and was in no way fearful of being killed by a creature that had gone completely over the edge.

  Doctor Livingstone, who had been silent throughout this exchange approached them calmly.

  “Miss Walker, you’re excused. Please go and wait for me in my office.” Niko wasn’t sure if Clarissa could hear him over her snarling, she didn’t respond if she did.

  “Odette...” he said, nodding at her. She nodded back and quickly twisted Clarissa’s neck. She slumped in Odette’s arms, appearing unconscious or dead, Niko couldn’t tell which and didn’t actually care.

  Juliet stilled as well, no longer trying to get past Niko to strike again. She kept her hand on his arm and Niko felt Juliet’s concern for the Vampire through their connection. He didn’t understand it, but it was no surprise that Juliet would be worried about her even after what had just happened.

  Elijah instructed Odette to take Clarissa back to his office. She nodded and left wordlessly, carrying the Vampire as if she weighed no more than a pillow. He scanned the room, closing his eyes and breathing out slowly, clearly annoyed.

  “Class dismissed.” He said.

  Everyone took their time getting up to leave, clearly still shocked. As the students began to leave, Niko picked up the odd mental whisper. They were all the same; “How did she do that?”

  Niko wondered the same thing.

  NIKO WAS RUNNING late to meet Juliet in his studio. He’d let Scott talk him into showing him how to play cricket, he thought he’d be an hour or two at most. He’d eventually snuck off after six hours, by which point he was already late.

  Juliet was already there when he arrived, wearing those hot-as-fuck boots again. A loose grey sweater dress came down to the middle of her thighs, which would be considered modest if she were wearing pants underneath it. Instead a few inches of pale cream flesh were exposed. Combined with the messy way her hair was piled into a knot at the top of her head, stopped him dead in his tracks.

  The sight of her standing there so mouth-wateringly sexy made all of the blood in his body rush instantly to his cock and he needed a minute to fight off the dizziness that the effect had on him.

  She didn’t turn around as he approached her, and when he came close enough to look over her shoulder, she appeared to be engrossed in one of his paper cranes.

  “Will you show me how to make one?” She asked, still keeping her back to him.

  “I will if you ask nicely.” He replied softly as he leaned in close enough to breathe in the smell of her perfume.

  She turned around, tilting her
head upwards and whispering; “Please, will you show me?” And just like that her mouth was on his. She’d been eating a pear, the sweet flavour clung to her pillow soft lips and tongue like honey. She didn’t rush him like last time and Niko found himself enjoying the opportunity to savour the taste of her and slowly exploring the curves of her body through the thick dress.

  Juliet pulled away first, slowing down the kiss before pushing herself away from his chest. Her eyes remained closed for a moment as she licked her lips and smiled.

  “It’s getting easier.” She said. She opened her eyes but kept them focussed on where her hands clutched the front of his shirt.

  “What is?”

  “Stopping myself.” She said.

  “It’s as if, the more I get used to it, the easier it is to stop. Like when you go to a banquet, but you’ve already eaten. Since I’m not starving, I can stop without it feeling so bad.”

  He understood what she meant, but for him it was different. Niko felt like an alcoholic who was getting to smell an eighteen-year-old scotch right under his nose but not allowed to taste. And instead of it getting easier to bare, it got harder.

  “I have a question for you.” She said, tilting her head to the side the way she often did when she was puzzling over something.

  “Shoot.”

  “You aren’t sleeping, yet you don’t look tired. You don’t have bags under your eyes, and I’ve never noticed you yawn.”

  He’d noticed that too. At first the lack of sleep had hit him hard. He’d lived on coffee and energy drinks to get through the days. But that had changed after each encounter with her.

  “One of the benefits of our, uh, time together. I asked Ash about it. Apparently, we don’t need as much of the usual things like food and sleep when we’re being sustained by our, uh... element.” He said, trying to be as delicate as possible. Juliet seemed to understand and nodded, her face brightening with a smile.

  “That explains why I’m less hungry than usual and don’t tire out as quickly when I’m running.”