Quist raised his head to stare at the black sky beyond his sight, frustrated anew regardless of his rapidly growing attachment to the unmarked girl.I’ll kill you yet, Lusheenn.Something warm and slight poked his chest, bringing his sudden rage at the hidden sun to a halt. He looked down to see the female freely touching his torso.
“Your turn.”
He ignored her strange words and clasped her hand, pressing it against his body. His jaw slackened and if he were standing, his knees would’ve given out from the contact. Never had he been touched by a female before. Never had he thought he ever would. There were no females created from the light and the rest... were incompatible with his kind.
When the valos mixed... Sonhadra wept.
“Yahero. You are mine.”
He didn’t recognize the possessiveness in his voice.
***
YAHIRO
He had taken her hand prisoner again and she relished it. She bit down on her tongue. Some thoughts that lingered on the edges of her consciousness told her she wasn’t thinking straight, that this wasn’t her, but she couldn’t bring herself to care.
His warmth felt right and she wanted more of it. Her body ached, and it warred with her mind. She didn’t even know the man’s name.
Or if he would rather eat her than talk to her.
“Yaheroo, nar muno nis.” Yahiro.You are beholden.Her lips parted in shock. The translator was learning! It was learning a different language.
“More!” She rose up on bruised knees, startling him. “Say more! I can understand you.”
“Er doono arstinbac,” he uttered, rising with her. She felt the caress of his wings against her back, stroking.Er do not know arstinbac.
She licked her lips. It wasn’t enough to understand, but it was progress.He doesn’t know what I’m saying.Yahiro looked around and pulled her hand back, no longer afraid of the night; it was outside the shell of his wings and outside her mind. She looked for something to share between them.I still don’t know his name...Her eyes landed back on the gold decorating his nipples. She poked him again.
“You? You?”Keep it simple, Hiro.She pointed at her chest, “Yahiro,” and then pointed back at him. “You?” She did it again. “Yahiro. You. Yahiro. You?” And waited.
The stone cupped in her other hand grew brighter. Excitement.
He lifted his hand slowly and patted his chest. “Quest.”
“Quest?”
“Quuesst,” he repeated the word like she had with her name. Her smile widened into a grin.
“Quist?”
His lips drew up to match her own.Finally!
Back and forth they reiterated their names, sharing an awkward laugh, over and over again until it made sense and became familiar. They pointed at various objects around them until they shared their words with each other and with each word her translator ticked in her head, cataloging what she knew was right and cataloged his language beyond her abilities.
Minutes passed, possibly hours, even days but they didn’t stop. She lost track of time as the tech in her head processed his language and began relaying its translations for her to use. If she could kiss advanced technology, she would’ve at that moment.
“Yahiro, you are aan uunnusual valos.”
“Quist, I have no idea what that last word means,” she said in his language, using the words her translator fed her. She eyed him, now practically inches from being enveloped by his body.
“You speak the light!”
“I don’t... think... I don’t think that’s right.” His eyes snapped back to her lips. His focus made her shiver. It was almost too much, too heated, and she was teetering on the edge of a true meltdown. Even now, as she sat back with her eyes moving from his face to trail over his wings and back down to his pierced body, she thought she may have truly lost her mind.I didn’t fall...she thought to herself.I have to be in a drug-induced stupor.
Yahiro chewed on the inside of her cheek as her surroundings faded. If she was hallucinating again, it meant she was back in Hell.
If she was seeing phantoms again... that meant she was high, out of her head, truly mad because no one survived William’s drugs, not without consequences. She'd never been the same once she'd been hooked.
