Fangs and Fur- Beta Read Along
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Hadrian’s blunt question hung for a moment between them. Green eyes as dark as the deepest shadows in the forest bored into Dili’s, tight with restraint.
“Well, we go to different memories in search of a way out,” she said.
The tension straining through Hadrian’s neck eased as the corners of his lips turned down. His eyes narrowed.
“Just following your… needs?” he asked.
“For lack of other options, yes,” she said, a little primly.
The vampire’s frown deepened. He shifted his grip around the crowbar. Dili crossed her arms over her chest and arched one eyebrow, and though Hadrian finally sighed, his expression grew more sour.
“I mean no offense. It’s just… You may not control the pocket as you wish, but the knowledge you remember gives us an advantage. Like how you figured out to find Naddahdat in your memories so I could feed.” He turned away from her. “You must have some idea of what memories the pocket might take us to.”
“If I had previously learned how to control Creation magic, then we wouldn’t be having this conversation at all,” she said dryly.
“No, that’s not…” Hadrian’s shoulders slumped forward. He shook his head. “Do you know much about tracking? Or hunting?”
Dili suddenly recalled how he’d bragged about finding Gaia’s sanctum. No mere hunter could have passed the divine trials to get to it. Very few, regardless of skill or power, could. Gaia’s standard for those she allowed to pass through the golden arches had not changed since the ancient times when divines and mortals alike had prayed to her.
“No. My magic means I have no need for such skills,” she answered.
“I do, and I’m very good at both,” Hadrian said. “I don’t think it makes sense to jump blindly through your memories in search of a way out. You said it took time to find me. What was the first memory you landed in when you came after me?”
Gut-wrenching fear squeezed the words out, “Won’t help.” She cleared her throat. “I don’t think we’ll find a way out in the chaos of war.”
Hadrian paused, hefting the crowbar again. “Which war? Was it a specific battle?”
Despite his pragmatic tone, excitement rushed the vampire’s words. No mere hunter indeed, though she supposed there was no harm in answering him. Her history had not been written after the fall.
“I do not know what year the humans decided it was,” she said. “My people started a small clan on a large river, and with centuries of care and cultivation, my people grew and grew until we were many, and we took the name Sag-giga.”
Hadrian’s eyes brightened, and he sucked in a breath like he was holding back.
“We kept growing and spreading, and naturally, changing.” Dili paused, determined to keep the horror from the memories playing back in her mind from seeping into her voice. “By the time our northern kin turned on us, they called themselves Sargon, though they did not know the champion they followed was but another one of Ishtar’s pawns.”
“The fall of Sumer,” Hadrian murmured.
Dili forced a shrug. “If you say so.”
“I wonder why you fell there first,” Hadrian mused, intrigue clear in his intense gaze.
“I don’t. That way lies endless heartache,” she said honestly, if vaguely. “Though I recognize your point,” she added, hoping to divert further questions.
Hadrian’s eyes gleamed with an eerily familiar single-mindedness, and his focus was entirely on her.
“Excellent. Did you go to any other memories before you found me in the ocean?” he asked.
At least he hadn’t pressed about the battle. She wet her lips and made a humming sound in the back of her throat, stalling. His eyes darted down at the movement.
“Yes, but I don’t know how helpful they’d be either. The second memory was from the Triassic period.”
A boyish grin spread across Hadrian’s face. “Dinosaurs?”
Dili found herself smiling back. “Yes, but I was old and dying, and I got out of there before anything came back to finish me off.”
Hadrian’s pink lips parted with a hint of a smile and a tinge of shock, and not a single word came out. He cocked his head, staring at her with the strangest look on his face.
“I used to spend eons immersed in the mortal experience,” she explained. “I lived and died as often as I could so I could study—”
“You lived and died?” Hadrian interrupted.
“Just so I could learn,” Dili assured him. “The point is, I don’t see how that memory will help.”
It took a couple of seconds for Hadrian to shake off the air of morbid bewilderment, but when his eyes found hers again, they still shone with a keen glint.
“Next?” he asked.
“I came here for the first time,” Dili said. “And I think we’ve both been here long enough that if there were a way out, we would have noticed it by now.”
Hadrian sucked his tongue and glanced out over the horizon, taking in the vast expanse of land stretching out on either side of the river. Thankfully, he nodded with a grimace before she had to talk him out of running as far as he could into the distance. She had a gut feeling getting out of the pocket wouldn’t be so simple as stretching the limits of her memories, though she supposed Hadrian could still try it once they ran out of less strenuous options.
“And then?” Hadrian pressed.
“Then I found you in the ocean,” she lied.
Hadrian’s nostrils flared, and his pupils dilated.
“That was a time of deep healing for me,” she continued, keeping her tone even and restraining the urge to gulp as his attentive gaze darted all over her. “Unfortunately for you, I was at the bottom of the sea.”
Hadrian appraised every detail she presented and took a deep breath. He held it in, closing his eyes for a moment, and when he let out a sigh long and low, his expression settled into confident gloating. He opened green eyes as arrogant as they were dark over a knowing smirk—and he fixated on her with a singular drive that reminded her of Toad when he was tempted by an especially plump chicken.
“I can smell your deception,” he whispered, his voice a silken softness in her ears.
Fear stiffened her spine, rooting her to the spot in silence. She watched with growing dread as the vampire lifted a single finger. He traced the line of her jugular along her neck. Her heart raced at the icy touch.
“You temper your reactions well, but you can’t stop the cortisol leaking into your bloodstream.” Then, Hadrian brushed a cold knuckle along her cheek. “Or the tiny contractions of your pupils, among…” His daring gaze dropped to her chest where her heart pounded louder and louder. “…. Other physiological responses.”
Dili gulped, then leaned closer. She imagined reaching up and guiding his hand down to feel her rising pulse, but Hadrian shook his head with an annoyed chuckle before she acted like a blithering fool swept up in fleeting summer love. He pulled back, dropping his hand to his side, and she ignored how she mourned the fading chill on her skin.
“Trying to kiss me to keep your secrets?” Hadrian asked, a harsh edge to his voice.
She seethed. Indignation rubbed her raw, forcing through any embarrassment.
“To keep my secrets?” she fumed.
Hadrian scoffed. “You lied, and you tried to seduce your way out of it.”
“I lied, and then you flirted with me!” Dili almost shouted.
Suddenly, Hadrian loomed over her so close their noses nearly touched. The draw of his green eyes was irresistible. The cold aura surrounding him tempted her to lean in, but she held firm, refusing to yield.
“Even though you lied, I couldn’t stop myself from that small indulgence. Not when I can hear it every time your heart skips a beat when you look into my eyes.” His gaze dipped low, tracing her jugular again, then lingering on her lips, before dragging yearning eyes back to hers. “But Dili, I really wasn’t flirting with you just then.”
A wave of blood magic caressed all her senses, promising pleasure like she had never imagined before. She shivered, melting into him. Hadrian smiled as he caught her up in his ready arms and pulled her tight against his hips. She moaned, her sense of reason surrendering to physical impulse. His fangs came out over his bottom lip at the wanton sound, but instead of dropping his lips to her neck the way she wanted more than anything she’d ever wanted before, he spoke in a velvet voice composed of deep desire and daydreams.
“I far prefer foreplay.”
The vortex ripped open beneath Dili’s feet before she could act on the primitive urges the vampire stirred in her, but the way Hadrian protectively squeezed her closer cut through any care as to where they went. She relished the ridges and curves of his body against hers.
And then haunting screams pierced her ears, and a horrible realization doused her passion as she knew all too well where they’d landed.
Next chapter on Friday, February 27.