Vigil's Echo

Chapter 6

Note: If you're back here and you're confused, I apologize! The initial post for this chapter was actually meant for another story completely 🥺😬! It took me a full day to realize it 😭but it's fixed now. If that initial post got your attention and you'd like to read the story it actually goes to, check out Hitch'd (you can find it under my profile 😁). Anyway, just wanted to clear up the confusion. I'm so sorry, again! So, let's get back on track, shall we? Enjoy! Don't forget to vote and comment ❤️

-

In the last chapter:

"Fate or not, something wants you bound to me. Even your druid magic can sense it. So tell me, what are you so afraid of?" he asked, lowering his face in front of mine.

"You," I hissed.

"You're not afraid of me, Brenna," he laughed. "You want to fear me, but you can't. You're too intrigued. So what is, really?"

"Maybe I just don't like you," I retorted, weakly.

"I'll take that bet. Let's test it, shall we?" he said, his menacing eyes boring into mine as his hand brushed down my face to cup my neck.

-

"Kai," I called shakily. My heart hammered in my chest as his lips brushed against mine. I tensed, my breath catching in my throat, tightly pressing my eyes shut. 

His lips swept from the corner of my mouth to my ear, slipping his hands around to the small of my back. "Pure, innocent little Brenna," he whispered with a dark chuckle, lowering his face to nuzzle my neck. "I can't wait to corrupt your pretty little soul."

All sense of tension and awkwardness and embarrassment left me and I couldn't fight the giggle that escaped. Kai leaned back to study me, his eyes twinkling with amusement. "I...I'm sorry...I just - that has got to be the corniest line I've ever heard, and I've only been part of society for what? A year?" I said, through giggles that had overtaken me. Kai dropped his hands to his sides and stared at me in silence He bit his bottom lip to stifle a genuine smile and waited for me to regain control. "Kai, I may be inexperienced and a little naive, but there is nothing pure or innocent about me," I said, chuckling again. I shook my head to fight another bout of laughter as his words repeated through my head.

"I can think of at least one thing," he smirked, that devious spark returning to his eyes.

"What? Sex? Losing virginity is the baseline for corruption now?" I scoffed. "Sex is such a human thing," I said with disdain. "Where's the power in it? The feeling of holding someone's life in your hands, having ultimate control? If it doesn't feel like that, then I don't want it," I said, resolutely.

"If it doesn't feel like that, you're not doing it right," he winked. 

I tilted my head and watched him, looking for the tinge of sarcasm he usually charged into his every word, but he seemed completely serious. "Then the world is full of people not 'doing it right,'" I said with air quotes. "After all the horror stories I've heard," I sighed and shook my head, folding my arms across my chest, "I'm better off without it."

He blinked down at me with an expression I couldn't read on his face. And then his lips were on mine, his tongue coaxing my mouth before darting in and wrestling mine for control. He slowly tilted his head, deepening the kiss as his hands gripped my waist in a painfully tight hold, molding my body against his. My thoughts and resolve melted away, reducing me to nothing more than a pair of weak knees, my fingers latching tightly onto Kai's shirt as he bulldozed through a wall within me I didn't know I needed to fortify. 

It wasn't my first kiss, or even my fourth. But I had never been kissed like this. When Kai released me from his intoxicating clutches, I was breathless and full of feelings I couldn't understand. I wanted him to kiss me again, and that angered me. I didn't want to want him to kiss me. I wanted to touch him, but I didn't want to want that. My brain was clearly short-circuiting.