A/N:  Just a couple things before we get into the story.  First of all, I want to apologize regarding the last chapter.  I hated having Everleigh slap him like that, but it made so much sense with the actions he took just to prove something.  So, I hope I am forgiven for that.  

Secondly, as of right now this story has 211 votes.  I don't know if it will happen over the weekend or not, but just know that I am ready to post the next chapter in celebration whenever I hit 250 votes.  

2759 words

Posted 9/17/21

I clench my teeth tightly together as I rush upstairs and away from the shitshow I left downstairs behind me. Damn him! Damn him for cornering me like that with such a selfish stunt! What if I hadn't been able to heal it!?!?!

He would have healed it himself. I answer myself, and then the anger starts to retreat from my body. Was I wrong for reacting the way I did? Should I have just meekly did as he asked and thanked him for the lesson?

Fuck no! That's not me. I don't like seeing the people I care about get hurt!

"Fuck." I let myself crumble to the floor, beside my bed, as I realize what that means. I care about him. Despite his fucked emotions that have me experiencing my own sense of emotional whiplash. One minute he doesn't seem to want to have anything to do with me, and the next he is flirting with me just as strongly as he was the night we met in the club.

I know we have only been together for a few days now, but it feels like I have known each of them forever. Not in the sense that I know everything that makes them tick, their hobbies, or what makes them simply unable to do anything but smile. No, somehow it's as if I almost know each of them on a deeper level; in a way that isn't based on logic, but on something more primal. Before I can get lost in my own head evaluating what that actually means, defining it further, a knock on the door interrupts my thoughts.

"Come in." I call without really thinking through my options first. I don't know if I am surprised it's Namjoon that walks in or not. Hell, I hadn't even considered who it might be on the opposite side of the door until he was already opening it and coming in.

"I'm sorry about Hoseok's actions down there. If it's any consolation I chewed him out for it." He offers me a somewhat sheepish smile, which doesn't seem to completely suit the leader's face.

I feel like he is giving me that softer expression because he has more news to deliver me, and he isn't sure how well I am going to receive it. "I don't know what I am more mad about. The fact that he did it, or the fact that it upset me like it did." I let out a long sigh before I admit the part of it that has me truly perplexed. "I really don't know why it upset me so much."

Namjoon sighed. "I admit I have a working theory about that also, but I am not really ready to share it." He paces closer to me, and I arch an eyebrow up at him from my prone spot on the floor. He twines his tawny hand in mine, and I let myself compare the two skin tones against one another for a moment. His tawny golden skin against my creamy ivory. Somehow I find that the two shades are harmonious and contrast against each other at the same time. He uses his grip on my hand to pull me from my seated position on the floor, and he closes the gap between our bodies so there is only a scant inch or two between us. "I want you to close your eyes and take a deep breath through your nose. Tell me what you smell."

I find it a peculiar request, yet for some reason I still do as he asks. I don't know if his alpha mentality is rubbing off on me as well, or if I have some innate need to please him. That would sort of connect with my sudden teacher/student fetish I have going on with him specifically. Not that I think it's truly my kink, but something about him pulls it out of me. A sudden breeze shifting through the room has me remembering the fact that I am still wearing that skirt when it flutters around my things. I shake my head and concentrate on his request. Would he have punished me had I not complied? Would I have liked it? I mentally groan at myself. Get a grip already!

I take a deep breath and let the scents that are primarily him envelop my being. "Spices, maybe cardamom and saffron. A smell I can only attribute to sun dried laundry. Also a subtle layer of cedarwood that is predominated by a masculine musk that is more than likely purely you." I bite my lip after I say the last sentence. It sounded as if I sacrificed too much information for my own sanity; like I openly admitted my attraction to him without saying those exact words. I suddenly felt awkward and unsure, and I wasn't even sure of the last time I felt this way around anyone. High School maybe?

If my awkwardness was evident he doesn't comment on it. "What season first comes to mind when you think of those scents?"

"Summer." I answer with little to no hesitancy.

I opened my eyes and while we were still the same distance from each other, somehow he felt even closer than before. He nods his head in approval. "I was born in the Summer Court." He hesitates for a moment as if trying to decide if he wants to share more, or weighs how I will take the next information he is about to deliver. "I'm a Shifter. A Gryphon Shifter."

I find myself closing my eyes again and constructing what I think he may look like. His golden skin, hair, eyes. In my mind, his fur and feathers are shades of golden to reflect his humanoid physiology. His bird of prey face somehow also holds feline traits, and in my mind I conjure some closer to a hawk than an eagle, although I am not sure why my mind took that route for certain. His hindquarters are feline and just as golden as the rest of him. His forelegs are born from his bird of prey side, and tipped with sharp talons. I blink my eyes open. "I've got this picture in my mind, and I'm curious if I imagined your gryphon properly. Could you show me?"

He shakes his head. "Not now. Perhaps sometime soon though. We have more pressing matters to attend to."

I frown up at him. "Like?"

"Jimin barely noticed it, but he could tell that you are once again starting to grow hungry."

I take a deep breath and focus on my own physiology. I had grown so used to constantly being hungry, that I wasn't sure I would immediately recognize the slight sensation again to provide validity to Jimin's assumption. But, no. There was indeed a sense of hunger there, buried within me. I'm not surprised that Jimin was barely able to notice it, since it really wasn't that pronounced.

Suddenly my fear of hurting anyone starts to overtake my senses, and I take a step back away from Namjoon. Unfortunately, I had forgotten my location. When I took a step back from Namjoon, the back of my leg hit the mattress behind me. My trajectory had me falling to the mattress on my ass, and my face was perfectly lined up with the lower half of his body. I turned my head away so I wouldn't start to conjure up new ways to tame my hunger that involved parts of the anatomy aside from our lips. Then I sucked in my lower lip and bit down as I began to imagine how his lips would feel on my own. How our lips would feel pressed together. Would his lips somehow seem to fit against mine just as perfectly as Jimin's did? I don't know why I expected something like it, but I did. However they would have their own sense of perfection.

I find myself turning toward him as he sits down beside me. "I want to see if I can teach you how to kiss without feeding."

I gulp back my immediate nervousness. "And if I can't?"

I'm surprised to find his warm hand cupping my chin and turning my face up to look into his. "You aren't very hungry. I want to see if you can restrain yourself from feeding once my lips touch yours. The worst thing that can happen is you could have difficulty controlling your need to feed right away, and that's okay. It's something we can work up to. But, you won't drain me. You aren't that hungry. Hell, I imagine that I will only come out of this a little lightheaded. You were starving when you fed off of Jimin." He cringes slightly after mentioning Jimin's name. Then I hear his lingering thoughts. I want her to think of only me as my lips take hers.

He leans in closer. "Remember. Only a kiss."

Then his warm lips are lightly touching my own. I was shocked for a brief moment, because somehow I didn't expect something so tender from the leader. Is he normally like this when he kisses? Reserved? Composed? Or do his kisses change depending on his mood? Is he simply staying composed for my sake?

Before I know it my own lips are mimicking his own, and we both sigh at the sweet soft touch. When he traces his tongue against the seam of my lips I don't even hesitate to let him in to explore. Before I know it, his hands find their way underneath my thighs, and he pulls my body over his own so I am now straddling him. I didn't need the proof of his rapidly growing lust, because I could already sense it, but when my clothed core lined up perfectly against his growing erection we both involuntarily released needy noises from our mouths.

Now. Feed now, Everleigh.

It doesn't occur to me that his mouth is otherwise occupied, and he can't physically say the words. My hunger drowns out the ability to think of that. I twine my tongue around his own and slowly start to take my sustenance. It doesn't take long for me to feel fully satiated, and I release his lips from mine as he falls back to the bed. His hands toy with either side of my hips, otherwise I would think he had fallen asleep.

"Are you okay, Namjoon?"

"Mmm. Yes. As I guessed I am a little lightheaded though. Would you mind if I rested here for a bit?"

I get up from my position and almost giggle at his frown. I help assist him to rearrange himself so he is properly laying down on the bed. I climb in beside him. "Honestly, I think I would prefer that you stayed. Not just for a few moments, but the night. Perhaps, we could continue our talk from earlier today. About magic I mean."

He sighed for only a moment before turning on his side so we were looking directly at each other. "Fae magic is based on will power. If the magic you are trying to power is in your range of abilities you only have to 'will it', or wish for it to work."

I winced as I thought about how I imagined Hoseok's hand as perfect as it was before he sliced the knife down his palm, and wished it would be that way again. "Is utilizing your imagination a key component as well?" I ask before explaining what I meant by my question.

"Before I answer that for the record I am still really angry he chose that course of action to try to teach you. You could have very well been a fae incapable of healing anyone other than yourself. He would have ended up healing himself had that been the case, but that reason alone doesn't make his decision even remotely okay." He pauses for a second to allow myself to process that tidbit of information.

"As for your question, I am sure it works a bit differently for everyone. Because you grew up in the human world, not knowing what you were, it makes sense that your imagination would assist in your magic. I don't want that to leave you thinking that your magic is only limited by your imagination. Imagination itself can be limitless, but magic doesn't operate on the same rules."

"One of those limitations being the amount of mana your spells take."

He nods. "True. That's the one minus about trying to work magic here. With the leyline convergence it is hard to determine your limit. Perhaps we should also train outside in the field."

"In the field? Wouldn't it still be close enough to the ley line convergence to tap into it?"

"You know how the candles outside work as a forcefield to protect us should any abyssal fiends find their way in this circle?" I nod my head in lieu of a verbal answer. "Well we also have something that works somewhat similarly built into the foundation of the house. Because should we ever encounter enemies outside the house we wouldn't want them to be able to tap into the mana of the ley line. We wouldn't want the fight to continue endlessly, with no clear victor in sight."

"That's kind of scary to think about. The possibility of it I mean." It's also scary to consider the fact that the candles outside aren't exactly full proof.

Our conversation continues on, I learn about eight general magic facts and abilities. The first of course I knew about, mystical healing, but fae also tend to have other varied possible abilities including: ability to enchant weapons with a magical element or ability, a similar ability that instead infuses magic into an object (often times this one however is temporary, one time use), magical seals (like the one used in the dynamic dungeon), ability to levitate (which according to Namjoon it was exceptionally rare), an ability that allows the user to absorb energy and convert that energy into mana (although he didn't explain to me what kind of energy), of course everyone had the ability to sense magic and a person's magical signature, and he also shared with me that those who have an elemental specialty tended to also have a magical resistance to magic of the same speciality. Then he veers the conversation in a different direction and explains to me how Jimin was having trouble tapping into my emotions. We worked on a different way for me to obscure the full extent of my magical signature. Well, it's essentially the same, only instead of one imaginary blanket around myself there are two. The second one is strictly to veil my emotions should I need to.

I don't know when our conversation ends. I just know that sometime in the middle of the night I wake up to complete darkness and his arms are still wrapped around my body. His chest became my pillow, and while the muscles had no give to provide a soft resting place for my head, I still found myself lingering there for a moment. It's the sound of activity in the house that has me pulling out of his arms and sitting up in bed.

"Ever? What is it?" He too hears the ruckus going on around us, but instead of jumping out of bed to investigate he freezes in his spot. His facial expression tells me that he is telepathically communicating with the others. "Everleigh, whatever you do. You need to stay here. I'll open up the telepathic chat circle so you can have a sense of what is going on, but please do not try to telepathically communicate with us. We need to remain fully focused."

I can only nod to him that I understand before the door is shutting behind him and he is heading downstairs.

Only after I hear Namjoon explain the preliminaries and a door close behind them do I go to the window seat and look out at the field. Somehow I know something is wrong before I actually see anything, but I don't work it out until I realize how dark the field outside is. It shouldn't be dark. I look at the lampposts that house the candles. How are every single one of them out? Then I look back to the field, and that's when I notice the black and gray shadowy figures that could have composed my childhood nightmares.