Deni Perfide
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Deni’s eyelashes fluttered as he drifted into consciousness. A content sigh left him. The temperature was perfect; a warm morning with just a little light, refreshing breeze coming from the window. The first thing he noticed besides the breeze was the comfortable warmth resting across his abdomen.
He opened his watery eyes slowly and stared at the bare thigh resting over his hip. Tilting his head to the side, he found thick flame-coloured curls against his shoulder. As he shuffled, the sleeping woman cuddled further into him, reaching her arm over his chest.
Guess I’m not going anywhere.
Since he couldn’t really move without disturbing her, he took a moment to observe his surroundings. It looked like the ensuite room of a hotel. Pink translucent curtains hung from the four poster bed. He could make out a dressing cabinet and full body mirror opposite him. There was a window to his right. If he could hazard a guess, it was early morning. Very early, judging by the twilight.
The velen’s body jolted as he remembered where he was. His stomach churned as he panicked, but he managed to calm himself after he reminded himself of the nameless daemoness’ hospitality.
Infer-nuwr-nalis!
The pale woman cuddling into him stirred.
“Is something the matter?” she asked softly, groggily.
“No,” Deni said after a pause. “I just forgot where I was.”
She lifted her head and looked at him with sleepy green eyes.
“Nothing can hurt you here,” she reminded him, “or don’t you remember last night?”
Deni pulled the woman through the doorway. Their lips locked together as she slammed the door shut behind her. She threw her arms around his shoulders as he grasped a handful of fiery curls. With eyes closed, they continued to kiss through every heavy, sporadic breath. Inside that moment, the rest of the world might as well have not existed to either of them. The velen broke the kiss and pressed his fingers against the mark on her shoulder. The Arctoan woman looked to her arm.
The black mark seemed seared into her skin, a small collection of circles and random lines that matched the palm of his hand.
“It doesn’t hurt,” she said. Thanks to that mark she could sense his feelings and see everything he saw, just like he could do with her.
Suddenly, she pressed her nails to his shoulder and clawed down his arm. He instinctively yelped, but there was no pain. And she knew. She would have known if he was in pain. It was an odd sensation, feeling the scratch but not the pain that came with it. Deni let loose a deep laugh.
The woman grabbed him by the shoulders and threw him over the end of the four-poster bed. He landed on his back with a bounce and she was quick to follow. His eyebrows raised in surprise, but a mischievous smile remained on his face.
“You’re stronger than you look,” he said. She climbed on top of him, spreading her legs either side of his hips. Mesmerized by every movement, Deni watched as she reached her hands around her back and untied the strap that held her fur chest piece in place. In one motion, she slid it off and threw it away from the bed. His eyes stared at her ample breasts as she leaned over him. A playful smile flourished on her reddening face as her hands pressed down on his shoulders, holding him in place.
“You haven’t seen anything yet.”
Deni’s absent grin took up half of his face.
“Oh, no,” he replied. “No matter how much I drank, I don’t think I could ever forget that.”
“It was a shame about you, though,” she said with a face full of mischief. Deni’s eyes gave her a dangerous stare, though the slither of a grin remained.
“Pick your next words carefully. I pride myself on my performance.”
She laughed and lifted her head off him to look him in the eyes.
“Oh, the performance was fine-”
“Fine?!”
“...but you are nowhere near as strong as you look.”
Deni made a scandalised sound from the back of his throat. A few gurgled velen syllables.
“I never claimed to be a strongman! I’m nimble. Dexterous. I can get in all those… hard to reach places.”
Hlífa blushed furiously. He heard words despite them never reaching her lips.
I never disputed that.
Deni laughed victoriously and climbed out of bed. Abruptly, he realised he wasn’t wearing anything. After everything that had happened the night before, he knew she wouldn’t be bothered. In fact, he knew she wasn’t bothered anyway, thanks to the mark. If anything, she was perhaps a little too focused on something else.
“Still checking me out?” he asked as he approached the dressing cabinet opposite the bed. “Wasn’t last night enough?”
“You did last longer than I thought you would,” she replied. Deni could feel her eyes digging into his back. And something else. A question. It hung on the tip of her tongue. He frowned. When they opened their mouths, they both spoke at the same time.
"Stay."
They both paused. It was Hlífa who broke the silence as the velen turned to face her.
“You’re the most interesting person here. You’ve broken people out of an unbreakable prison, travelled to foreign lands to stop a daemonic invasion. There are many people here, but none of them are like you.”
There was an excited twinkle in her eye that intensified with every word that left her. Deni could feel the craving for adventure emanating from her. That made saying what he needed to even more difficult, but it had to be said.
“Believe me, I know how tempting it is,” he sighed, scratching the back of his head. “It’s scary how close to a perfect utopia this is for me. Your mistress has done very well in accommodating me here, but she needs me on the outside.”
Deni’s webbed fingers grasped the orb on top of the dressing table. His eyes stared at the pink mist endlessly swirling within.
“If I stay here too long, Misericorde will return and I’ve had quite enough of her for one lifetime. I need to leave and take this with me.”
The spurii woman pouted on the bed. Excitement turned to sadness. Disappointment. Longing.
Lachtára.
Deni stared at the orb in his hand. Hlífa must have detected his concern as her eyes also gazed in his direction.
It’s just an artifact, he reminded himself, but I could have sworn… it likes that word.
With a heavy sigh, Deni placed the orb back on the table and glanced at a door on the opposite side of the bed. It led to the bathroom; the corner of a glass shower cubicle was visible from his position.
“You worn me out so much last night that I think I might need your help with something,” he said, making his way around the other side of the bed. He leaned on the mattress and reached to take her hand. Emerald scales from the back of her hand glittered in the darkness. He kissed them gently. Then he gazed into those beautiful green eyes with a mischievous smirk.
“I don’t think I can shower by myself. Yeah, I’m definitely going to need a strong woman like you to help me with that.”
Despite her sullen mood, she couldn’t help but smile. She let him lead her into the bathroom and closed the door behind her with a giggle.