Rionan gently smoothed conditioner through her hair, massaging her scalp, moving down to her shoulders as the hot water ran across them both. As the conditioner was rinsed off, he kneaded the muscles of her back with his thumbs, and it wasn’t long before they found themselves tangled within each other’s arms again. The room had filled with steam as he brought her to her climax with his fingers, massaging every inch of her most sensitive areas, allowing her to feel every slow, sensual movement. She shuddered against him as he kissed her tenderly before getting out of the shower and providing her with the largest, fluffiest towel he could find.
Curling up on the bed with Alianna in his arms, Rionan sighed, a tugging in his chest growing stronger with every inhale he took of her luscious, satisfied scent.
“I wish we could stay like this,” he muttered, the traitorous words causing him to feel a pang of shame.
“Can’t we?” Alianna asked, looking up at him, a twinkle in her eye that could have had him agreeing to foolish things if she had only asked.
“Not forever.”
“Right. Business trip and all that.” Alianna’s voice was quiet, and she steered her gaze away. Rionan felt that tugging in his chest seize tightly, and his heart seemed to ache in time with her obvious sadness.
“Hey,” he said, his tone meant to be reassuring. He tilted her chin up so she would meet his gaze, and he kissed her again. “I’m here right now. We have some time.”
“Yeah,” Alianna replied, resting her head on his chest. “We do.”
19
The Truth
Alianna
Alianna awoke with a start, a strange sensation prickling across her body. She realised she was in Max’s hotel suite, in his bed next to him.
Something was wrong.
Max was writhing around in his sleep, cries of what sounded like pain escaping him.
“Max,” Alianna whispered into the dark, but he didn’t wake. “Max!”
Alianna reached for his hand beside her, and he was gripping the bedsheets so tightly in his fist that she wasn’t sure if he might rip them.
“Max, wake up,” she whispered, turning on her side and reaching for him to shake him gently. Max was twisting and turning on the bed, his head moving side to side as he cried out. Alianna could have sworn she felt a crackling across her skin and swept her hand down her arm, shooing away what she assumed was an insect in the dark.
“Max. Max, it’s alright. It’s Ali, Max. I’m here. Wake up.” Alianna offered soothing words to him in the dark, shaking him gently, but nothing could pull him out of the nightmare he was having.
Suddenly, she heard glass shatter on the other side of the room.
Leaping out of bed, she ran to the light switch, flicking it on. The room was illuminated.
Alianna gasped in disbelief.
The flowers which had been on the table on the far side of the room were now lying on their side, with traces of the vase they had been in littered on the floor around them. Tiny fragments of glass were now glinting in the light.
The flowers withered and bloomed before her eyes, over and over, as if stuck in a time loop of showing their life cycle so rapidly before her eyes.Withered. Dead. Alive. Vibrant. Withered. Dead. Alive. Vibrant.
The sound of wood splitting along one of the bedposts caught her eye, and she twisted towards Max, who had still not awoken from his vivid dreams.
Alianna’s breath caught in her throat, a look of horror on her face.
She watched Max, writhing on the bed, face pained, fists clenching the sheets, small cries escaping his mouth like he was desperate for help, like he was being tortured, tormented…
Except it was not Max at all.
The creature on the bed looked like Max. It had the same floppy black hair, the same chiselled jaw line, the same perfect, straight nose.
Yet his usual golden-olive skin was a strange silvery-grey.
His ears ended in points that poked through his hair.
