Choosing to say out of the Alliance, the Cinders are isolated in their own conflicts, and when Helia Cinder reaches to the void for answers, she inadvertently draws a creature out. Expecting to be eaten alive, she is instead left with a man with no...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Sitting on the precipice of life and death, he dropped his legs down the cliffside and stared forward into the rift between the rocks. The divide cut deep enough that it was certain death at the bottom, and wide enough that he could not jump across, but it narrowed as it descended, growing close enough that Wren would bounce off a few walls and bludgeon himself far before he splattered at the bottom. The wind whipping through the juncture was cool from the sinking sun, and he leaned forward to free himself from his stresses. Tipping over the edge of the world, the openness took his mind into the clouds and a soft groan of pleasure escaped him.
"You will die if you fall from this height." Talamayas voice broke Wren's peaceful trance, and he sat solidly back on the rock as he opened his eyes. Talamayas sat cross-legged a few feet from Wren on the cliff with his eyes cast out into the haphazard collision of cliffs and desert.
"Will you die if you fall from this height?" Wren asked as a genuine curiosity.
Crimson eyes flicked in his direction, glowing from the light of the stars, and Talamayas' fangs glinted when he smiled. "Thinking of pushing me?" he asked quietly.
"No," Wren admitted, tired of trying to figure out everything while keeping his distance. If anything was going to jog his memory, it wouldn't be this wall of space and hatred he had built up for Talamayas Sol. Seeing the man act so protectively even when he'd treated him like crap was slowly wearing away his resistance to this reality.
Pushing his hands down on the rock, Wren scooted himself the few feet of space between him and the desert vampire, not stopping until their arms rubbed against one another. That close, Wren raised his eyes to find Talamayas' right above him, his head leaned down to be closer to the man he loved. The one who thought about nothing but putting him in the ground. Wren lifted his hands, sliding one to the back of Talamayas' neck before sinking it into short is pitch hair to pull him closer.
Their lips met, and Wren's eyebrows crinkled as equal warmth caressed the soft skin. Every vampire he'd ever touched had been ice cold, and the pleasant heat sank in as Wren guided Talamayas to the ground with him. Talamayas returned his kiss with such delicate movement and pressure that Wren was losing the preconceptions he'd had of this man.
Riff had made it seem like Talamayas had beat him, marked him with his magic so he couldn't escape, and dragged him around for his own selfish pleasure. Everything Wren had seen and experienced of Talamayas was the opposite, and he didn't know where the lies ended and the truth began. Everything was winding in his mind, and there was no way to sort it out until he gave himself to Talamayas, until they returned to how things had been to see if it would restore his lost memories.
Wren had not entirely thought through pulling Talamayas down with him, and it put Wren in the unfortunate position of having a vampire looming over him in the dark. Not like having more light would help, but Wren wanted to feel how the man had treated him prior to losing his memories without the inherent fear of his people's killer. Unsure how to do that, Wren edged Talamayas back with trembling fingers.
