Sorenth gathered her into his arms and walked her across the room. Her mind was still heavy, her eyes closed shut—her body felt weightless in his hands. The sound of a door swinging open was accompanied by a draft of cold air, causing her to snuggle closer to his heated skin.
Curled up on his chest, he didn’t speak another word as the sound of rushing water filled her ears, and the aroma of citrus and herbal oils wafted around them. Soraya briefly wondered if a bath had been running.
A moment later, she had her answer as she felt him descend until her skin came into contact with steaming water. A moan slipped from her mouth.
Chuckling, Sorenth sat down, and warmth surrounded her as the water rose to her chest.
Still securely in his arms, she felt his fingers comb her hair back from her face with a tender touch. Finding the strength, she managed to crack her heavy eyes open to peer up at him. The lighting in the room was dimmed and gentle on her eyes—almost as gentle as the way Sorenth was watching her.
Gazing at one another, Soraya liked the quiet wonder on his face as the feel of his fingers ran through her hair. She wondered what he was thinking about.
“Are you alright, Sweetness?” he whispered.
She hummed softly, losing the battle to keep her eyes open, they slowly drifted close from his soothing fingertips. Soraya stretched her legs and enjoyed the warm water as it relaxed her body further. “Let me wash you,” he coaxed. His fingers left her hair and a delightful, clean smell mingled with the citrus and oils.
Something soft glided up and down her skin, and before she knew it, he parted her legs to clean between them. As she floated further into sleep, she almost expected it to turn sexual, but he didn’t…he just cleaned her. She wondered if this was a normal thing to do with a one-night stand.
No.
She knew the answer was no as she slipped further and further into a deep sleep.
~
Hushed voices pulled Soraya from her dreams.
“What do you mean there’s been an incident?”
Sorenth. He was speaking to someone…and he sounded on edge.
As her foggy brain started coming back online, she became aware of the fact that she had been placed in a very soft bed. Then she became aware of the fact that she was naked and pressed to the front of an equally naked man. Judging from the proximity of Sorenth’s voice, she knew it was him in bed with her.
His arm was draped across her midsection, his palm flat against her stomach, where a warm fuzzy sensation seeped into her skin.
What concerned her the most, however, was the sound of a second man in the room as he responded. Thankfully, she felt a sheet covering her body, shielding her from any wandering eyes.
“I know you wished not to be disturbed, Sorenth. But Sir Tariq and Sir Caelestis request your presence immediately. They believe someone has let in a slaugh. One human dead already,” the man whispered urgently.
Sorenth’s hand tensed against her stomach. “A slaugh? Are they sure?” he asked sharply.
“That’s why they require your assistance. It needs to be identified and dealt with before it draws attention to us.”
“If what they say is true, we’ve already been found,” Sorenth growled, low and dangerous. “I bet it was thatbastard.”
The air in the room crackled with energy. Soraya didn’t understand what they were talking about, and she didn’t particularly care. Not as sleep beckoned to her.
“Wait for me outside, I’ll be out in a minute,” Sorenth commanded.
“Sorenth…the female—”
“Out.”
She heard the sound of a door opening and closing. Then his hand dragged off her stomach, and she felt the bed dip as he slipped out of it. There was the sound of clothes rustling before the bed dipped once more.
“Sweetness,” Sorenth whispered into her ear, “I have somewhere I need to be. I won’t be long. You’re safe here.”
She felt his lips press against her cheek, which would have alarmed her if not for a dark wave sweeping her under.
~
With a groan, Soraya stretched her legs, soft sheets gliding against her skin. She rolled over and buried her face in the pillow, the scent of coconut and cedarwood lingered on the silken case.
She blinked her eyes open.
Where was she?
Leaning up, she peered bleary-eyed into the dark.
She was in a hotel room… a gorgeous hotel room.
It had a high ceiling, with a glass chandelier twinkling in the moonlight pouring in from a sliver of what appeared to be, at a glance, floor-to-ceiling windows hidden behind thick curtains. Bolts of fabric surrounded the light fixture and dipped toward the edges of the ceiling before flowing down the walls opposite the windows.
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The room itself was circular; the windows took up more than half the space, but thick white curtains blocked her from seeing the outside completely. There was a sitting area placed in front of the windows, opposite the bed. The sliver of moonlight slashed across the pristine, white furniture. The room was too dark to discern much else.
Where am I? The thought came and went. It wasn’t an important question that needed to be answered.
Flinging the sheet off herself, she sighed when she remembered she was stark naked. She walked over to what she assumed was a dresser. Patting the surface, she noticed something gold glimmering and felt a surge of excitement as she picked up her top…and remembered.
Fingering the broken strings, she knew it was done for. Setting it back on the dresser, she opened up the top drawer, figuring that she could borrow one of Sorenth’s shirts. However, when she opened it, there was nothing inside. The same was true for the other drawers.
Sighing, she gave up on her search when she noticed something at the foot of the bed. Getting closer, she saw it was a dress. When she picked up the gold material, a note fluttered off it, and she managed to snag it before it fell to the floor. Although she couldn’t read it in the dark, she knew Sorenth had left it for her.
It was only fair after what he did to her clothes.
Pulling the dress over her head, it sluiced down her body until it swished around her ankles. Running her hands over the material, she could feel the heat of her palms penetrating the fabric. The material felt lighter than silk, and she could tell it was beautifully made. She wished she could see it fully.
Thwack!
Jumping, Soraya spun around to face the curtain-covered windows. At that precise moment, the room was plunged further into darkness as the sliver of light dimmed.
Squinting to see better, Soraya took a step toward the door when the room brightened again, and the unmistakable sound of wind blowing through the building filled her ears over her pounding heart.
Shaking herself off, she chided herself for being a scaredy-cat. A cloud had just passed over the moon. Nothing more.
Making up her mind, she walked toward the opening of the curtains; she couldn’t see anything but darkness, but what else could she expect to see at night? She rounded the sitting area and stopped in the middle, right in front of the curtains opening. Moonlight splashed across her face. Reaching out her hands, she barely nudged the thick white material when both sides of the curtains flung themselves away from her with a whoosh.
Moonlight flooded into the room, flinging the shadows far into the corners as the outside peered in.
Heart thundering in her chest, she marveled at the new technology people had come up with. Self-opening curtains—those are certainly useful.
But the curtains were soon forgotten as Soraya stared and stared out into the open panoramic view before her. She didn’t understand what she was seeing at first. There was the thick, waning moon hanging above the horizon, its silvery light outlining the big thunderhead clouds drifting over inky darkness miles away.
It took her a moment, but she soon realized that the inky darkness was…moving. It was beneath her, too.
Her eyes widened as she recognized that she was looking out into a roiling sea. The black void, with flashes of white cresting waves, disappeared at the floor of her window.
Soraya furrowed her brows. How did she end up by the ocean? She had been in downtown Los Angeles…Santa Monica and the ocean were miles away.
As soon as the thought crossed her mind, it floated away with the wind that blew through the surrounding trees on the cliff’s edge. Soraya thought she could hear their boughs groaning as a strong gust whipped through them.
A storm was coming.
Stepping closer to the glass, she realized that they were very high up—very high up. She couldn’t see the bottom from where she stood but assumed the ocean met the face of the cliff below. To the left, she could see a piece of a rounded, yellow-stoned building jutting over a lamplit walkway that seemed to float over the cliff’s edge.
She blinked. For a moment, she thought she could see figures walking along the path, but it was just her imagination.
Her eyes followed the cliff’s edge to her right, where shaking, shuddering trees were whipped back and forth from the coming tempest.
A flash of light drew her gaze back to the building clouds far out to sea. Arcs of blue lighting webbed through the silver giants, contouring the dark clouds with sharp blooms of white.
Soraya jumped when the ping of a text message broke the silence of the room. Clutching her chest, she rushed around the couch and followed the sound of her phone receiving a text beneath the bed.
Picking up the black fabric, she didn’t remember Sorenth taking it off her…or ripping it off her as it was clear the fabric had a tear cleanly down the back of it.
Biting her lip, she reached into the only pocket and pulled out her phone. On the illuminated screen, she saw Jesmine’s name. Unlocking her phone, she quickly read the two texts.
Jesmine: Meet me at the fountain.
Jesmine: Please
Alarmed, Soraya quickly sent out a text telling her she would meet her there soon. Jesmine never said please. Once she figured out where she was, she planned to take a Lyft back to campus.
Scouting the floor for her pair of boots, she found them flung across the floor and quickly retrieved them, slipping them on. They didn’t match the dress, but she didn’t care about that right now.
Then, she remembered Sorenth’s note and glanced at the pad of paper and pencil on the nightstand by the bed. After writing out a quick note, she jotted down her phone number for him to text her. To Soraya, it felt like this could be more than a one-night stand, and she didn’t want to walk out with any regrets.
She was just about to head to the door when another flash of lightning caught her eye. Curious, she made her way back to the window.
The wind was picking up, and the trees looked as if they were taking a lashing. She wondered how they were able to cling to the cliff’s edge in the windstorm without falling off into the sea below.
Another streak of lightning illuminated the sky.
Soraya squinted her eyes. Unsure of what she saw. She didn’t have to wait long as another lighting strike coursed through the thunderheads.
Her lips parted in disbelief. It wasn’t possible.
She was sure of what she saw then.
Something was moving…something was moving in the clouds.
Something big.
Another lighting strike revealed the silhouette of a long, serpent-like creature before the storm front went dark, concealing it completely.
And before Soraya could convince herself that she was wrong, that she was just seeing things, a series of electric bolts flickered across the tempest. She watched as the serpent-like creature’s body coiled across the sky, deep in the lighting storm, as it traveled over the horizon.
She was frozen in place as a deep, rumbling roar built to a crescendo, reverberating across the ocean and throughout the room. The glass shuddered and cracked at the edges as a gale slammed into the windows.
The lights from the lamps illuminating the pathway to her left snuffed out, and the darkness crept closer.
The last light of the moon was swallowed by a thick cloud as Soraya turned and fled the room. It was time for her to leave.