The Wishing Fallacy (The Vendetta Series: Book One)[COMPLETE]

Chapter Fifteen: Man in the Mirror✔️

Trouble (Stripped) by Halsey

Belle woke with an unfamiliar, yet comforting weight on top of her. She yawned and stretched under the body on top of her, blinking her eyes shut against the sharp morning light leaking through the blinds.

It took a few moments for the gears in her mind to begin working and process her surroundings. Marnie was sprawled on top of her, nestled between her breasts silently with her arms wrapped around Belle's back. Although Belle had definitely been wearing clothes last evening, she and Marnie were completely naked under the sheets, it seemed.

Now that Belle was thinking about it, she had never actually seen Marnie completely naked- save from their shower together from what felt like light years ago, and that was just her backside. Whenever they slept together, Marnie had always been clothed in some way or another. Belle was trying to remember why exactly the demon was naked when she noticed that Marnie wasn't just being quiet.

She was actually asleep.

Belle had yet to see the Djinni sleep in the three months they had been together, and now that she was witnessing waking up with the woman for the first time, she couldn't help but feel a fluttering sensation in her chest. Marnie was beautiful in both her human glamour and her true form, but there was something about the peacefulness of her features as she slept that made the demon look absolutely ethereal now.

Belle had the strongest urge to reach down and touch her, but she feared she might wake Marnie up from the first rest she had gotten in literally months, so she contented herself with twisting the ends of Marnie's long hair. As she lied there, she began remembering what had happened yesterday as her initial sleepiness wore off.

Belle had finally gotten Marnie to move to the bed and Saleem, almost insultingly shocked that Belle was still very much alive, brought her left overs because Marnie became severely agitated and aggressive when Belle even thought about leaving her side. Even so, she'd nearly ripped Saleem's entire arms off when he entered the room, let alone when he had accidentally brushed Belle's hand to give her a plate. Then he had had to bring Belle that-

Oh. That's why they were naked. Her temperature had sky rocketed throughout the night to ridiculous temperatures, and although it didn't bother Marnie, her skin had become so hot that she had actually begun to set her clothes on fire. Belle had thought she was loosing her mind when it seemed as if Marnie was smoldering in front of her- that is, until she began to smell the burning fabric.

Marnie nearly tried to fight her on it, and that would have ended badly for Belle, but Saleem had given her a blanket doused in Erin's tank water, since it was kept at near freezing temperatures. Belle had to coax the unwilling demon into it and she might as well have been trying to get a pig to trot into the slaughter house. Belle had to strip and roll herself in the freezing blanket herself before Marnie would even let her touch her.

Said blanket was now sprawled on the floor, damp and neglected. Marnie must have kicked it off of them in discomfort in the middle of the night. At least her skin had stopped burning and she hadn't set Belle on fire in her sleep.

As Belle played with Marnie's hair, the thick black strands began to turn white between her fingers, her skin taking on that alien like tone to it as her contracts grew darker and more pronounced. Belle stopped what she was doing, transfixed by the transformation until Marnie stirred against her.