Gothikana

by RuNyx

He smelled of dangerous adventures and coming home, of heartache and nostalgia.

“Steer clear of me, little crow,” he muttered, his eyes piercing, flaying her open. “You might be a luring siren but I’m no ordinary sailor. I’m a mad pirate and I’m trying to resist your call. If I land on your shores, I will plunder and take away everything worth having. Be very careful giving me those eyes.”

“This is lust,” she whispered, trying to validate it, excuse it. “No, Corvina,” the side of his lips twitched. “I’ve known lust. This is something worse. This is a barbaric need to possess, to eliminate, to own. This is madness.” Madness.

“If this is madness,” she whispered almost against his lips, “drown me in it.”

“If this is madness,” he told her, echoing her words against her lips, “I’ve already descended too far.”

“You want to know who I am?” he punched his hips harshly against her. “I,” slam “am” slam “your” slam “madness.” He bit the side of her neck, wild in his passion. “I’m in your head, in your blood, in your very veins. I’ve claimed you before anything else ever could. Your body, your heart, your mind, your fucking soul, it’s all mine. Your hunger is mine to feed, your madness is mine to tame. Do you feel that?”

“It means that while I’m not a good man, not by any stretch of the imagination, I’m not the evil haunting this place. I’m the evil hunting for it.” He gave her another little kiss. “Stay back after class tomorrow. Now, go.”

“You’re my mountain, my Vad. I don’t know how and I don’t understand why, but somehow, I’m building my castle on you.” He leaned forward, his eyes blazing, and kissed her for a long minute before pulling back. “Build your castle, Corvina,” he told her quietly as they both watched the view outside. “I’m not moving anywhere. Build your castle as fucking high as you want.”

“You’re taking all of my firsts, Mr. Deverell,” she whispered quietly as a confession. His arm tightened. “I will take all your lasts too, Miss Clemm. Mark my words.” A clock ticked by somewhere in the silence, sounds of raindrops hitting the glass windows a white noise in the background. And in the dark with her devil behind her, Corvina fell asleep, feeling safe and cherished and not alone, for the first time in her life.

“Understand this, Corvina. I don’t know how this thing between us changed and I don’t care. You’re not alone. Not anymore,” he said patiently, his eyes fierce. “If something like that happens, you tell me. If you need help, you tell me. If you need comfort, you tell me. Whatever it takes. I get to be the only madness inside you, you understand?”

“This will last until the day roses on my grave stop sharing roots with the roses on yours,” he declared. “I will have you even in death, little witch. I am your beast. I am your madness. And you, you’re my afterlife.”