Nocticadia

by Keri Lake

“What separates monsters from good men is only a matter of perspective. In your eyes, I’m a sick fuck for what I’ve done to you. But I, on the other hand, see you as a parasite.”

Ungrateful little pricks who only saw her as a set of toned legs and pussy. They

had no idea the girl was brilliant and witty. Too damn smart for her age.

I pinned him with a hard stare. “She claimed Lippincott put worms in her belly. She was sent to you for autopsy. I find that highly coincidental.” “Allow me to caution you, Miss Vespertine. You are a confused moth dancing

about a wild flame. Blind to the incomprehensible danger of your curiosities.”

“Stay out of trouble, Curious Moth,” he said, as he strode for the door. Curious Moth. A nickname. A fitting one, too, given the fact that I had no intentions of avoiding the flame.

“That is the tragedy of women, isn’t it? We deny ourselves beauty for the sake of misleading men.”

“The wealthy possess an insatiable appetite

for the rare and priceless. They stare because you’re the only thing worth staring at.”

Calling her beautiful was like calling the sun lukewarm. She’d blazed like the hottest part of a flame in that dress. And fuck me, I’d felt the heat.

A true and genuine smile, and holy shit, it was the most beautiful smile I’d ever seen. Straight, white teeth, and a dimple in his cheek. I wished I could’ve captured it, but it faded as quickly as it arrived,

“The dead themselves are harmless. It’s what they leave behind that inspires fear.”

“Do you have any idea how fucking hard it is to lie next to you? It’s killing me.” Another hungry sweep of his eyes and he licked his lips. “I’ve been numb for as long as I can

remember. You’re the first thing I’ve felt in years, Lilia. All I want to do is touch you.”

“You’re a sickness inside of me that begs never to be cured. Infecting me with this unshakable craving for things I shouldn’t want.”

“And because I’m a selfish prick who has to live with the fact that I cannot have you to myself, I’m going to ruin you so that any boy who comes after me will leave you deeply unsatisfied, and you’ll be left fucking your own fingers, desperate to remember the time you had your professor’s face between your legs.”

“Devryck, I’m nervous.” “You should be. Your professor is about to eat your pussy, Lilia. There’s a whole host of reasons why that’s fucked up, but I’m too far gone to stop myself. At this point, there is nothing I want more than to feel that obscenely pink clit of yours against my tongue. And we will never do this again after tonight. Do you understand? This cannot happen again.”

She was the warmth of the sun on a cold and rotting corpse. The first breath after a lifetime of death.

Lilia. Her name was a dirty scalpel plunged deep inside my chest, past crumbling bones and decayed flesh. It pierced the only organ I vowed could never be touched again and infected me with insufferable greed.

“No, I can’t look at you right now because I’m crawling out of my skin wanting to touch you.”

If Heaven existed, I'd found it in those ancient, dark hallways, under cold misty skies with autumn's wet leaves sticking to the soles of my boots, in the scent of coffee and old books. And him. My moody and devilishly handsome professor.

Over her shoulder, she shot me

a smile–one so fucking beautiful, I wanted to frame it. Capture it. Study the alchemy of it. How wonderfully intoxicating one simple expression could be.

The beautiful girl with her autumn hair, and eyes that reminded me of both the sea and the sky. And she was everything. The earth, the sun, the moon. The air I breathed, and the tenacious beat that kept my eroded heart pumping.

“What truth?” I asked, my voice shaky. Nervous. “That I would kill for you without a beat of hesitation, or remorse. And yet, at the same time, I could be reduced to nothing more than a pile of ash without you. I’m weak for you, Lilia.”