Nemia dropped her raised fists, a smile playing dancing across her lips. She looked between Dorian and Julia, noticing a hint of.. something, she wasn't sure what but she had a inkling. "But first.. what were you two talking about before we barged in?" She rose a single brow, looking between the two of them though honing in on Julia.
A tedious smile broke out across Julia's face. "Oh nothing, he was distracting me with conversation." Julia replied vaguely.
Nemia's arms folded. "What did the conversation pertain to?" She pressed.
"Just some... Recently passed history." Again, vague answer.
Nemia looked over at Dorian again, who was sitting absolutely still in the moment. Was he even breathing? He wouldn't even look directly at her in the moment. Her lips twitched, "Was you asking questions about me Dorian?" She directed her questioning to him now.
"Don't be silly." Julia responded all too quickly but Nemia ignored her and just stared at Dorian.
He shifted his eyes to glance up at Nemia and they told on him before he could even respond.
She unfolded one arm and pointed at him. "You was." Her lips twitched again as Dorian shifted and gave her a sheepish smile.
"Yes." He sighed.
"Did you get the answers you wanted, slash, expected?" She asked him, though she wasn't actually curious. She knew the gist of what answers Julia could have given him, and it honestly wasn't that much. She keeps more to herself and hasn't always been in the best headspace to let even Julia know everything there is to know about her.
Dorian sighed again and shook his head slowly. "No where near enough." He relaxed and chuckled likely. "The most I got was you can draw. Oh and 'She likes coffee?' Julia's exact words." He barked out another laugh. "And yes, it sounded like a question because that's exactly how Julia told me."
Nemia laughed then, glancing over at Julia who had crossed her arms in a huff. "Well if she'd stay at home more, maybe I'd have been able to give you more information." She said in a haughty tone though broke character with a generous laugh of her own.
"Yeah, yeah. I know." Nemia threw her hands up over her head, her fingers splayed slightly. "I'm never home." She jaunted in a funny, higher pitched voice in a fake mockery of Julia's actual voice. A bigger smile stretching across her features. All things considering, in this exact moment, Nemia felt a rare wave of happiness .
She ruined it herself though, never able to fully lean into any joyess feelings. Instead, her mind went back to what was now a new contract in her mind. The smile started to fall as she cleared her throat, looking between the two of them and back over her shoulder to Nik who had moved to stand guard at the doorway. Watching them.
"We do need to discuss what we are doing about Malcolm and Kyth. What the best coarse of action is going to be. But also on the side, and probably before I make it to those two.. we should find Donovan. I don't know what he knows, but he obviously knows something." Nemia scowled at the thought of Donovan. She knew he shouldn't be trusted, she just needed to find out what his game was. Which field he was playing in.
Dorian reverted back to a rigid, tense posture and rose out of his chair stiffly. Julia had stiffened a bit herself as well, the joyous moment gone for everyone now. Nik shuffled his feet side to side, restless.
"Yes, all three of them are important for several reasons. But Donovan should be first, I'm sure of that." Dorian shook his head stiffly. "Not because he's the more immediate threat, but because he's going to be easier to find. All we have to do is wait for daylight."
"Why daylight?" Nemia questioned, not understanding the need to wait. Considering the longer they wait, the farther Donovan can get.
"Donovan is obviously leaving town. Though he will be limited in his transportation. God's know he won't physically run for long, he's too lazy for that and excepts an overly sumptuous treatment. He'll stick to the high end. Him leaving town though, he loses his ability to be a day walker..."
Nemia looked at him with confused skepticism. "What do you mean, I though he was a day walker?"
Dorian shook his head and gave a toothy grin. "Nope, he's a basic nightstalker. There is a magical dome over the city that blocks out the harmful rays of the sun and let's nightstalkers walk freely in the day here to help blend more into society. Considering this is my residential location and the castle has held nightstalkers for several millenniums. That being said, the minute he leaves the boundaries of that dome, he will lose his ability to day walk and be forced to hide during the day. He'll leave a paper trail behind, to be the head of the C.J.L.S. he's not the smartest. He's just old."
Dorian laughed at the end and Nemia rolled back onto the heels of her feet for a moment. "Huh... I had no clue about the, respectfully, 'Day Walker Shield' or of Donovan being a nightstalker. Though I guess that makes his personality a bit more understandable. Though still most definitely not okay." She raised her eyebrows while emphasizing her last sentence.
"Yeah, he's definitely creepy enough for the nightstalker label." Julia retorted with a scrunched nose.
Dorian's brows furrowed. "What do you mean?"
Nemia waved her hand and shook her head. "He's just a creepy pervert that is overly slimy in personality when it comes to females." She shrugged. Though it was disgusting, it's not the worst thing she has dealt with so she has continued dealing with it time and time again.
Dorian was very unhappy by appearance and let out a low, deep snarl. "More reasons to put him in his place."
Nemia chewed on the inside corner of her mouth for a moment, that snarl sent a jolt through her system and her heart rate spiked slightly but she ignored it. "Okay, so daylight for Donovan then." She glanced around the room a moment. It was late winter so the sun wouldn't be up high enough to may the nightstalkers go into hiding until, at the latest, eight in the morning. It was currently, just barely midnight now.
Nemia walked over to Julia, "We should get home so we can get a bit of rest before tomorrow, though honestly Jules, it may be better for you to stay behind for all this. I don't want you getting hurt." She put her hand gently on Julia's shoulder and started to urge her to stand.
"I think it's be better for the both of you to stay here for now... You'll be better protected here, if Malcolm..." Dorian started.
"No, we couldn-"
"I think that's a great idea Dorian." Julia piped up over Nemia's rejection of the invitation to stay. "I'd feel much safer here." Julia quickly added as Nemia opened her mouth in an attempt to once again refuse.
"Fine, we'll stay here tonight." Nemia gritted out with a gentle glare directed at Julia.
Dorian sighed with relief. "Great, it's settled. You both will stay here." As Nemia looked back to him, she caught the hopeful gleam in his eyes.
'This should be fun.' She thought to herself before giving a firm nod of the head.
"Nik, show them to the set of guest rooms on the..." He paused for a moment, thinking. "Fourth floor." He looked at Nik pointedly then, as if in a silent conversation.
Nemia looked between the two with knitted brows before Nik nodded his head. "Fourth floor guest rooms, got it." He said curtly before motioning Julia and Nemia to follow him. "Let's get going, shall we?" A cheeky grin resting on his face.
**********
It was three A.M. on the dot. Nemia bolted up in the bed, sweat dripping down her face and had soaked up some into the mattress. "Gods when will this nightmare end." She mumbled gruffly to herself. Curling into a ball, her knees bent up and tucked under her chin as her arms curled around her legs. Silent tears ran down. Over and over again, every night she sleeps. She watches her home burn. The nightmare so real, she could still feel the burn in her throat and chest as if she has truly been breathing in the smoke.
For about thirty minutes she sobbed in silence, Adira comforting her as best she could from within the depths of her mind and soul. Until finally, the welcoming emptiness washed over her. She uncurled herself then and stood from the bed. She straightened up the bed, knowing she wouldn't be returning to it. After that, she started walking around the room Nik had showed her to. When she first got here, exhaustion has hit its max and she just collapsed on the bed. Now, she scanned the room.
It was relatively plain. A simple white bed in the center of the room with a deep walnut colored wooden frame holding it up. A dresser and vanity in the same wooden color was strategically placed in the room for the best view placements. She walked over to the dresser, opening it's drawers. Surprised to find the dresser full of clothes, neatly folded and put away.
She glanced down at herself, still strapped into her ball gown. No thought needed, she rummaged through the clothes trying to find anything better then a ball gown. After a moment and all the drawers pulled out, she had found some suitable enough clothes. Which was a plain dark, navy blue T-shirt and a pair of blue jeans. Clothes in tow, she moved through the rest of the room. A desk was nestled under the only window in the room, peaking out of said window she smiled. "It sure is a beautiful view of the city from up here." She muses to herself, staring out at the glittering city lights with a near full moon hanging low in the distance.
After taking in the view, she made her way to the door that held the bathroom that Nik has pointed out to her on arrival. Still a very simple, yet elegant design in the bathroom with a relatively large standing shower.
Twenty minutes later, she emerged from the shower. The dirt, soot and blood finally washed down the drain and no longer clinging in her hair. She dressed in the shirt and jeans that was pilfered from the dresser and brushed her hair, leaving it down for the time being while it dries. Looking at the time on her phone, '4:13'.
She could stay out in the room and felt like the castle was large enough, if she took a stroll through the castle it wouldn't bother any one sleeping still. That being the case, she exited her room and looked both ways. She had no clue where she was going, after a moment, she took a left and just started walking.
She meanered on for several minutes. Her curiousity piqued. There was lots of oil based artwork that littered the halls, some of the paintings she recognized and some she didn't. All was beautiful in their own way though. Several more minutes later, she found herself in a room.
The door had been left open and curious as she was, she stopped and pokes her head in. Immediately she was mesmerized. The ceiling of the room reached up about three floors, domed in shape with the four corners reaching up with a gold inlay. The entirety of the roof was glass, the moonlight shining through, illuminating the they story high shelves. On the shelves, books. This was the library and it was absolutely magnificent.
She entered deeper into the library, her eyes scanning the rows of books on the shelves more at eye level. She noted the sliding ladder attached to each section of shelves, but chose to just sticking to the base levels for now. Her fingers lightly slid across the spines of a handful of books before stopping on a soft covered version of "The Gift of Death." The biography of Julian Degarish. A famous wraith among the supernatural world.
Plucking it from the shelf she turned to go sit in one of the lounge chairs but stopped dead in her tracks. Dorian's large frame was filling the space of the door frame. His arms crossed and leaning against one side of the frame. A quizzical look in his eyes but a smile resting on his lips. 'gods those lips.' The thought wisped though her mind and instinctually she licked her lips in response.
He pushed off the frame and started walking over to her. She couldn't move. She wanted to, she thought. Wanted to back away with every step but she couldn't, she felt. Before she knew it, he was standing maybe a foot in front of her. Though, he wasn't looking directly at her but instead, at the book clutched in her hands.
He points towards it. "Deciding to do a bit of light reading before we head out after Donovan instead of sleeping?" He mused with a soft laugh.
She half laughed, wiggling the book slightly to emphasize it's presence. "Yeah, couldn't sleep. What are you doing though, following me?"
His eyes snapped to hers at the question and his lips curved in the most subtlest of ways. Her heart picked up it's pace ever so slightly. "What makes you think that I am?" He asked, raising his left brow just a bit.
"Uhm..." She paused, chewing on the inside corner of her mouth nervously. "Because you were just staring at me in the doorframe?" She answered back in more of a question than a statement, unsure.
He tilted his head to the side slightly and gave a small nod. "I can see that was probably strange. So.." he paused, taking a small step forward as his piercing blue eyes darkened a tad. "What if I was?" The sly smile curves his lips again.
Nemia's throat went dry, taking a step back as he stepped forward. Only, there was a wall of books directly behind her so all she did was plaster herself against the bookshelves instead of actually creating distance. She trapped herself. "I would ask you kin- kindly not to do t- that." She couldn't control the stuttering of her words in the moment.
Her brain was foggy from the intoxicating scent he gave off, mouthwatering. Not to mention the closeness of him. 'Gods.' She hated out our of control her senses got in his presence. 'It's not even been a whole 24 hours since I met him for crying out loud.' She thought.
He chuckled lowly at her response and she cast her head down to look away from him as heat crept into her cheeks. Her doing so caused him to close the last remaining inches of distance, his hand gently grabbing her chin and lifting it to have her eyes meet his again.
'Gods.' His eyes were even darker now, filled with the same need she felt deep withing her core.
"Why?" He asked in a low, husky voice.
She gently bit her lip, chewing on it nervously. Gently shaking her head that he still gently held at the chin. In which his thumb then slid gently up to the bottom lip stuck between her teeth, tugging down to pop it free.
Her heartbeat was pounding in her ears and she couldn't think straight, couldn't see straight if she looked anywhere but at Dorian in the moment. He was the only thing her brain could register and every touch he made sent jolts of heat straight to her core. His head was slowly inching closer to hers, his thumb stroked her bottom lip.
She gasped softly, her lips parting only just. Another stoke of his thumb, her body hummed. The hairs on her arms and nape of her neck prickled in excitement, anticipation.
Her tongue darted out, eyes locked on his. His eyes followed the quick movement of her tongue and his mimicked. His lips maybe just a couple inches from hers, his warm breath reaching her skin.
"I'm going to kiss you now." He warned in a low, gravely tone. She didn't have time to think about what he said, if she even could, much less respond before his lips were pressed against hers.
Her whole body went rigid with shock in the first few seconds before she just melted. Her knees buckled but thanks to dorian's closeness and the bookshelves she was against, she was at no risk of falling. All her senses were firing off, rapid and unrelenting.
Her lips began to move across his, her head pressing upwards to him. Her lips parted as his tongue swept across the entrance and darting in. Tasting her, she heard and felt the low, rumbling growl coming from his chest and throat. Another wave of heat washed over her at the sound and a soft moan escaped his lips.
'Mate.' Adira whispered in the back of Nemia's mind and in that moment, she was didn't feel any form of repulsion from the idea.
As if he sensed her approval, and probably could honestly, he deepened the kiss. Their lips inviting one another's as their tongues danced together in a sinful battle.
Suddenly, someone clears their throat and knocks on the open door of the library. "Hate to interrupt Dorian, be we still have things to discuss before we head out and we only have a little over an hour now till that happens soo...." Nik was obviously biting back a laugh in the moment, but there was the smallest ounce of fear in his eyes. Knowing he may have chosen the wrong time to intrude.
The distraction is what Nemia needed however to come back to her senses. She could feel the color drain from her. "What the hell Nik?" Dorian growled out.
She looked between Dorian and Nik for a moment. Then, she was gone. Back in the room she was showed to a few hours ago. She slammed the door shut and pressed her back against it as she done so. Her heart was beating wildly in her chest and her fingers rose to touch her lips, plump and warm still from her first ever kiss.