Divine Descent

Chapter Three

We move in opposite directions, pacing around the covered furniture, the only two people here who can survive without warmth. I nearly froze to death more than once last time I was in Oymyakon. I am not so breakable now.

"One year ago, you showed up here," he whispers as if he'd be disturbing the entire world to speak any louder. My fingers graze the counters, the uncomfortable sofa I complained about regularly, the stalk-like oven in the middle of the house, still stuffed with ashes of wood burnt when we fled.

"I nearly froze to death in the doorway, I remember."

"Because you're damn stubborn."

"Actually, it's because you were a vampire trying to undress me."

He smiles wider. "I'm a doctor."

"Yeah well, I didn't buy that then. And I don't buy it now."

"Is that so?"

"After seventy-three years, I probably shouldn't have been surprised you were peeling them off of me the first chance you got."

"Quite," he agrees as he rounds the other side of the room, both of us gradually inching closer to a meeting point. "I think I watched you that entire night... I couldn't take my eyes off of you."

"That's quite creepy."

"You like creepy."

I smile, biting down on my lip. He knows me, it's undeniable. "I do. I'll give you that."

My fingers begin to undo the belt rested against my hip, weighed down by my weapons. He hears the leather squeak as I gather it all in my hand, placing it onto the nearest surface to me, a deco table. I also slip out of Damien's coat, holding his gaze daringly as he backs up. He leans into the wall casually, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Are you going to watch me?" I ask incredulously, hesitating on the hem of my tank top.

My stomach flips, fluttering when he doesn't answer me, content to stare.

Six months in retrospect aren't that long. It isn't seventy-three years. It isn't a millennium that I've lived without him... but it may as well been. I've had to watch him die. I've had to struggle through each day without him. In terms of who we are to each other, a literal lifeline, six months was an eternity.

I pull the tank top over my head, discarding it onto the filthy floor, staring back just as intensely while I reach to unclasp my bra, shocked by how little the lack of warmth affects me. My flesh is warm, almost feverishly warm as if I'd spent an entire day burning under the sun. I slip out of the bra and drop it onto the place my shirt fell.

My thick waves of raven-hair dangle over my shoulder as my fingers dig into the waistband of my pants, preparing to remove them as well until my observer speaks.

"Wait."

I glance up, brows raised in question. Standing on the other side of the room in the dark, towering to an intimidating height, he looks every bit like a dangerous predator, a beautiful monster stalking his prey.

"Don't move. Stay like that."

I freeze exactly as I am, but I can't help my widening smile as his eyes drift over my face, my wild hair, my exposed midriff. "You're making me self-conscious."

"You don't get self-conscious."

He's right. I press down on my lips, deeply pleased to have his attention. "I never thought I'd be taking off my clothes for someone like this ever again."

He smiles softly. "There would have been others, my love."

Appalled, my mouth drops. "No, there wouldn't have been."