Fugitive Fascination

Chapter Five

Cierra awoke to the sound of singing. At first, she thought she was hallucinating as she stared up at a dark ceiling, her hands already grasping for Hunter, who was nowhere to be found. She sat up suddenly, eyes and ears adjusting slowly.

"If you're aiming for the heart, you'll surely miss,

There's nothin' there

but stone cold madness

All we're good for is a stolen kiss."

The words rolled off of the singer's tongue with the silky soprano timbre of a heartbroken angel, enough to almost induce tears in Cierra's eyes. Enthralled, she tossed aside the sheets and winced as her bare feet touched the cold wood floor.

Way back when, a Siren's voice was meant for nothing more than luring lacking men or women to their deaths. It was necessary for survival; just as vampires fed off blood, Siren's fed off of chaos that kept them sane and the very last breath of their victim as they realized how high the price their infatuation would be.

Now, it had taken on a much more... recreational use.

Hunter used to love to sing if only to hear the sound of her own voice, however narcissistic it may have sounded. Even her parents had admitted she had an exceptional voice, one that out ranked any other they had ever heard. But they weren't the only ones who had enjoyed it.

There had been another, one who had stolen that childish merriment from such a simple, human enjoyment.

But she was unwilling to visit that locked away part of her memory, a time before even Rider that was the cause of her ever present mean streak that had the tendency to break through her normal composure.

She had started the shower as a way to clear out the agitation left over from having Noelle force a song out of her. Unbeknownst to her, soft hums and broken melodies had slipped from her lips until she was full on belting out a strings of misplaced lyrics, a long forgotten, easy happiness tugging the corners of her mouth up. A few giggles escaped here and there as the hot water unknotted her muscles, and the foreignness of the display struck her.

Giggling wasn't something she did. She thought hard, and realized it had come with her acceptance of her affection for the woman asleep in the other room.

It was a strange thing, to be in love. It made the notes she sang all the more sweeter. It was something she hadn't realized she was missing.

But her love was twisted. Painful.

Her promise was something she didn't know if she could keep. Killing had been apart of her routine for the longest time, and it was important; it kept her sanity in check, or at least the very little she could claim to have.

"Hunter?"

Speak of the Devil.

Having no shame, Hunter opened the door of the shower instinctively upon hearing that particular voice, a cloud of steam billowing out of the enclosed space. Pushing a hand through her wet curls, she cleared her vision as Cierra stood there in the doorway, her bottom lip caught between her teeth and her eyes downcast.

"Did I wake you?" She asked casually, wrapping a large grey towel casually under her arms as she arched an eyebrow. "I'm sorry, I must've gotten carried away."

Cierra stifled a yawn, shaking her head as she refused to even look at Hunter. "No, I just... um, nevermind."

Hunter took in her appearance. All she wore was an old college sweatshirt of hers and nothing but a pair of underwear underneath. This she was grateful for, though she'd never admit it; she couldn't help the secret contentment she felt when her hands wandered along the smooth skin of Cierra's inner thighs, her fingers tracing invisible patterns that caused her companion to shudder and arch into her.

"Where did you get that, by the way?" She wondered curiously.

The name on the shirt had long since faded from both the shirt and her memory; she hadn't even finished college. There was really no need.

"I found it in the many piles of clothes in your room."

Chuckling, she accepted the answer and strode towards her love confidently. She placed her warm hands on her cheeks, watching the sleep receded from her caramel colored eyes, replaced by something else.

"You're like a teenager with your hormones," Cierra commented as she felt her lips against her jaw. "I don't think I've ever know someone with as much... drive as you."

Hunter pulled back, her smokey eyes glimmering with mirth. "Are you complaining?"

Something twisted and aggressive jerked within Hunter. Something that ached to be released and to damage the woman before her. She wanted to see that familiar spark of pained pleasure in her movements as Hunter took what she wanted from her.

It was a lesser version of what she felt when she needed to feel the tacky sensation of blood between her fingers. She knew it would only grow stronger if she did nothing about it, and she contemplated the possibilities.

Cierra could comprehend nothing but a flash of moments as she ended up back in the king sized bed on her back, Hunter between her legs with a primal smirk on her face that both scared and excited Cierra.

"I'm going to hurt you." It was stated matter-of-factly, almost casually.

Resisting the urge to tremble underneath the weight of her gaze, Cierra responded with a resolute, "I know." The words solidified her acceptance of whatever Hunter had in store for her, for it was the price that she had agreed to pay.

The sweatshirt was stripped away, and Hunter once again admired her for what she was. Cierra at 27 had the body of a well developed woman. She had beautiful curves, ones that fed Hunter's desire accordingly. Ones that she worshiped despite it all.

Laced with an ecstasy that muddled all of her thoughts, blossoms of pain bloomed in Cierra as Hunter bit down hard enough on her nipped to produce a bead if blood, which her sinful tongue quickly lapped up. She kneaded her other breast expertly, producing needy mewls from the woman underneath her.

"Do you love me, Hunter? Really love me?" Cierra asked, out of breath.

Undeterred, Hunter grasped her tighter against her. "Oddly enough, I love you more than my own existence." She whispered raggedly in her ear, the towel loosening.

"Enough to marry me?"

Startled and the moment blown, Hunter pushed Cierra away, sliding to the edge of the bed.

"What? What did you just say?"

Cierra had to take a moment to actually recount her words. In her lustful haze, it had just slipped out, but it had been a thought stuck in the back of her mind since Hunter had found her.

What did the future hold for them besides that? Did she even really want that? But wasn't that the status quo in her community? What was expected?

"Is that your plan? Do you plan to marry me?" She asked surreptitiously, bunching the Egyptian cotton sheets around her chest. The idea seemed foreign to her; not disgusting nor something to beam about. Just... an afterthought.

Hunter turned a pair of now steely eyes on her. "Why?"

Cierra searched for the right words. "Well, there has to be some sort of end goal, right? Is that it? Isn't that what's expected of you anyway?"

Hunter stared at her for a moment, dumbfounded as the cogs and wheels refused to turn in her head.

"I will not marry you because it is expected of me."

Hunter had never fancied marriage. Being linked to one person was never in her plans for herself. Even Rider was a tentative step that had shown her that it just wasn't in her cards. Cierra was wrench that she wasn't expecting, but marriage?

It left a bitter taste in her mouth. She felt it would rob the relationship of the easy fun it not encapsulated.

"If I were to marry you," She snapped, suddenly irritated. "It would be because of my own desire to do so."

As per usual, in response to Hunter's uncalled anger, Cierra's own burned, hot and fiery.

"It was just a goddamned question, Jesus! And why do you make it seem like it would be so horrible to be married to me? I was just wondering where this all is intended to go. You're the one who keeps taking me," She sniffed, offended.

Hunter might've found it humorous had it not been for the tense atmosphere.

Scrubbing a hand over her face, she suddenly felt exhausted. "It wouldn't be.... I didn't mean it like- Look, can we talk about this later? We have to leave out in three or four hours and I'd rather not spend it arguing."

Harrumphing under her breath, Cierra turned away and slipped underneath the sheets again.

After a moment of silence, a childish grin spread across Hunter's face.

"You know, you technically asked me to marry you just now."