“Not at all.” His eyes were still the same well of blue, like the deepest part of the ocean, and they were still trickling.
She worried she needed to ease his guilt. “You aren’t to blame for what happened. Please don’t feel that way.”
She leaned forward and pressed her lips to the tip of his rounded snout. She did it to the side, then the top, then over his fangs on the other side. Each time he came a little closer while his hand slid up her body.
When she went to kiss his cheek, he placed his large hand at the base of her skull to hold her still and lightly swiped his tongue over her lips. The second time, she met his tongue with her own.
Then he became incessant, licking at her and hoping she’d greet him each time.
She placed her arms around his neck before slipping one over his cheek to rub it, then going back to hold him.
“Reia, I...” His fingers slipped up into her hair to thread them through it with the delicious scrape of his claws. “I need you. I need to feel you.”
Her gaze locked on his, seeing they were still so sad and trickling, like he couldn’t stop from feeling low.
She wanted to give him what he needed, to touch her. But she couldn’t, not with such an expression that was unbearably painful to look at.
She wondered... He would never hurt me.
“What would happen if I were to make you chase me?”
She didn’t care if his eyes were red if he took her, if he was hungry or angry, it would be better than seeing his pain. She knew he’d done enough running in the past day, but she needed to break him out of this.
“I don’t want to chase you.”
When she tried to back out of his arms, and he wouldn’t let her, Reia willed her body to turn incorporeal. She floated past his arms, and he followed her slowly while crouched.
“But I want you to hunt for me, Orpheus.”
“I don’t know what will happen. I might hurt you.” Those trickles seemed to go a little faster as the glowing spot floating around his skull holes became more persistent.
“Why do you want me to do this?”
“I’m yours to catch.” He tilted his head as she smiled. She bent like she was about to kiss him, but instead said, “And when you do, you can have me.”
Purple flashed but dulled back to that sadness instantly.
Then she was gone, fading past the wall.
“Come get me, Orpheus.”
“Reia?” Her heart stung at how panicked it sounded.
She immediately turned back to her physical body so he could at least smell her and have something to track. She was at the back of the house, and within seconds he was sprinting towards her.
His eyes were still blue, still trickling. Right before he could grab her, she turned ghostly again, and he ran
through her.
“Please don’t do this,” he whimpered as he stalked her while she floated backwards.
“Don’t you want me?” she teased, moving to the side.
“Don’t you want to catch your prey?”
She went through the house, finding it odd to only have her shoulders up through the floor. Avoiding the garden completely in case he tore it apart, she moved to the other side of the house.
Materialising solid, Reia waited until she could hear which direction he was coming from before she started running in the opposite direction. She ran up the front of the house, peeking over her shoulder to see his eyes flash red a few times.
Of course, he was faster than her, and he lunged through her when she turned ghostly once more. He spun to her, his eyes holding red a little longer this time.
“Reia,” he warned, lowering himself as stalked forward.
“Your little doe wants you to fuck her.” Purple tried to take over before that damned blue took in once more! But at least the trickling had begun to settle. It was barely present now. “She’s starting to think you don’t want to.”
Before he could even answer, she was floating through the house once more. She squeaked when she came out the other side to find him already heading towards her.
With a giggle, finding his eyes flickering faster between the red and blue, she ducked back inside. She waited a few seconds and then poked her head out exactly where she’d just been to find he was gone.
She turned physical and started running as she headed towards the garden.
She heard him too late, expecting to hear his feet thumping behind her. Reia was tackled to the ground from the front with arms wrapping around her and protecting most of her body as they landed with her beneath him.
“Stay,” he growled, curling around her body to keep her to him – like that would do anything to truly hold her in place.
Orpheus was huffing wildly, and she could feel his heart beating just as frantically. His claws were digging into her shoulder and hip through her clothes.
She’d finally gotten what she wanted; his eyes red and full as if they were no longer broken and leaking. However, it wasn’t enough.
