Blazing Hearts (Erotic and Romance One-Shots)

Sunrise At Sunset

A weak smile tugged at her lips as she remembered every moment she'd ever spent with him, the only man she had ever loved. The sun peeked over the horizon, its light crawling steadily closer across the earth, bathing all in its golden glow.

She had met him in the very fields she now looked down upon, a mere pup then yet he had taken her, made her his beast servant. Her life had truly begun that night. She'd become his Sunset, a name that had stuck, and no matter how hard she tried to remember, it was the only name she ever knew.

Her sweating palms smoothed over the elaborate skirts of the golden gown he'd commissioned for her but decades ago while she had played Columbina to his Harlequin for the immortal court, all to save the life of a woman that would soon replace her at his side.

She suppressed a sob, glaring at the moat below, mustering every bit of courage within her as the Sun's rays kissed the water, turning it to the very shade of gold as her dress, the garment she'd worn as his love for her vanished to make room for the love of another.

Her legs moved of their own volition, taking her to the wall's very edge, the wind kicking up, pulling her blonde tresses from the elegant knot atop her head.

"Sunset! What do you think you are doing?" His lyrical voice reached her ears from across the rooftop and a pained laugh left her lips. No one else she knew spoke as he did. He'd told her a long time ago that it was how people in the future spoke and that he was merely practising.

That very day he had told her that his fascination with her had been birthed in the fact that, other than himself, she was the only person whose future he could not see, but she hadn't cared, being in love with him as she was. Now she was glad that he could not see her future and stop what she was about to do.

She turned to face him, spotting his form in the shadows, watching her helplessly, unable to enter the light and the tears she'd fought back sprang forth like a fountain.

"I am making the sunset at sunrise. You have your Aurora, your new light. I am no longer needed. Long forgotten in the shadow of your vampiress."

The clarity of her voice surprised her as it fell on her ears and she memorised her sweet Nikolai's face one last time, saddened that her final memory of him would not be his smiling face.

"What nonsense are you speaking Sunset, I've not..." He paused, realising he truly had forgotten the magnificent girl before him for his new lover and grimaced at his stupidity.

"Forgive me Sunset! Allow me to love you as I always have," he pleaded, his voice ringing with desperation, cursing the sun for keeping him from his beloved werewolf.

His heart sank as she shook her head, her tears glistening in the morning light like drops of silver.  She smiled one last time at him, her arms spread wide as the wind seemingly lifted her off the ledge, suspending her for a moment before allowing her to fall, a part of him dying as he heard the faint splash of water from down below the tall castle tower from which she fell, knowing he could do nothing to save her as her body hit the shallow water, praying futilely that the beasts living in the moat would leave her body till evening that he might recover it.

He descended into the depths of the castle, his heart sinking as her scent enveloped him, like a forest meadow filled with every wildflower known to man, causing the pain of losing her to cut even deeper.

The blessed death that took him daily did not come, and he was glad. He could not imagine sharing his coffin with Aurora after what had just happened, instead pacing the grey stone halls, ripping down every tapestry and painting as they only served to remind him of who had picked them all out, his beautiful Sunset.

The instant night fell he rushed to most, searching for any bit of his beloved, only to find scraps of her gown scattered along the shore, no sign of her surviving to be found and a cry of pure anguish left his lips, no part of which sounded human to his ears but he didn't care as he dove into the water, allowing the very beasts that took his beloved to consume him.

It took her leaving forever to make him see that he could not live without her.

As the pain of being devoured faded, making way for the bliss of death he smiled, the visage of her waiting for him on the other side, the setting sun behind her.

He took her hand and she drew him forward, two lovers reunited, never to part again.

In that moment he knew the truth. She always had been, and would always be, his first and last Golden Sunset.