Chapter Six

"Your eyes changed color."

I said nothing as Yiuwa and I walked behind Tsukuyomi, making our way down the street, heading out of town so we could go to Tsukuyomi's house in the mountains. We continued to walk, our wooden sandals clacking on the stone path. All around us, people were chatting away in soft voices, laughing, making jokes, eating and enjoying the excitement.

Yiuwa was walking beside me, his eyes locked on the path ahead, but his brow was furrowed, his eyes dark with concern.

"Rowan. You're not a shadow anymore," he said, stating the obvious. I didn't answer, again. Because what the hell was I supposed to say? Agree with him and reveal something that bothered me to the extreme and was probably something for him to celebrate? Disagree and blatantly lie to him? That would only anger him. So I decided to safely avoid answering, not that that was any better, because I could see his jaw flexing with irritation.

"I know shadows can be cured, but I assumed it was a complicated process," he said, keeping his voice low. We had no idea how much Theo had told Tsukuyomi, if I was a shadow or not. Perhaps Tsukuyomi assumed and was feigning ignorance about the whole thing. There was no way he hadn't noticed my eyes weren't black anymore. As for the kitsune, they hadn't known. They'd thought my eyes were green right off the bat, it was why they chose the colors that they had. Because it made my green eyes even more obvious. And even worse... the glow was back.

"They're glowing," Yiuwa said, as if I had no idea what my eyes did.

"Yes."

"Rowan..."

"I don't want to discuss it right now. We'll talk about it when we have privacy."

"Fine." He was definitely annoyed now. We walked in silence, following Tsukuyomi as he led us out of town and we ended up walking through another portal that transported us deep into the mountains. The trees were tall and narrow with roots that went everywhere like spiderwebs on the ground, though a steady path had been carved through from centuries of people walking along the same place. It smelled fresh and crisp, piny, and there was a very light fog in the air.

It was also darker here. Or, at least, it was to everyone else. While Tsukuyomi appeared to be lighting small pathway lights as we walked so we could see where we were going, I had no problem walking along the trail. I could see the creatures that lurked in the trees. A few yokai were moving around, watching us with fascination and curiously. A couple of oni paused to investigate us from a distance before moving on. Foxes, squirrels, other rodents and even a few deer here and there. The forest was quiet, but very much alive.

Up ahead, a three story pagoda style home came into view. Hip-gabled roofs, classic wood paneling, with gorgeous well-kempt gardens. The house was already lit up and ready for occupiers. Tsukuyomi led the way into the main entryway where we removed our shoes and entered the rest of the home. Tsukuyomi took us around a corner and led us up some stairs to the second floor.

"Your room will be in here," Tsukuyomi said, opening a sliding door and gesturing inside, "I should hope you find it most comfortable. If you need anything, please do not hesitate to ask. It is getting late, so I must leave to perform my duties. I shall return once the sun rises at five or six." We nodded, stepping inside and letting him close the door behind us. A small closet opened up to reveal the futons, pillows, and blankets. A small table was set up in the corner, a low set desk, a bookshelf, a flat screen television. It was comfortable enough.

I immediately went to take a futon out, because I was fucking exhausted from last night and the fact that something was wrong with my shadow abilities. In fact, I felt even more drained now than I had earlier. The walk here had done nothing to help. I shook out the futon and laid it out on the floor, grabbing blankets and pillows to set up.

"Are you not going to talk to me?" Yiuwa demanded as I picked up my bag to fish out my sleepwear. I sighed wearily, placing my bag on the floor by the closet as I folded my clothes into my arms.

"What do you want me to say? Something is wrong with my abilities, that's it."

"Such as?"

"Such as the fact that they are not working."

"And that is why your eyes are green and not black."

"Yes."

"Are they naturally green?"

"Yes."

"And... do they glow like that, naturally?"

"Yes."

"They glow like Hades--"

"Yes, they do," I interrupted sharply, "Now, if you're done asking me foolish questions, I want to bathe and sleep. I am thoroughly exhausted from this entire ordeal and wish to rest." Yiuwa frowned, but said nothing as he stepped aside and let me go to the bathroom. It was a luxurious bathroom to say the least with the toilet and sink in a separate room from the actual shower and bathtub area.

Relieved that the tub was huge, I stripped and showered off before climbing in the tub to soak, letting the water come up to my nose. I closed my eyes, enjoying the heat from the water and the steam, the scent of the shampoos and soaps lingering in the air.

Shit, I thought with a grimace. I reached up to rub at my eyes, at the ache behind them. While I'd always had the ability to see in the dark, it felt stronger now that my eyes were glowing physically. I could feel the hum of power behind them stirring once more.

I looked down at my hands, tried to fade into the shadows in the tub, but it only sent a sharp pain in my head. I rubbed my temples, then sank my head back against the small headrest on the edge of the tub.

It had to be from Simon draining me. He must have nearly drank up every last drop inside me. How long had he been holding out to do such a thing? Even last time hadn't been this bad. I just hoped to fuck he finally told Aasimah the truth; otherwise, I was going to have to look forward to another drain when I got back.

My eyes slid closed and I took a deep breath to calm down the mild panic growing in my chest.

They glow like Hades's.

I grimaced at that reminder. And again as I remembered the day Petros had also discovered them. It had been shortly after he and Theora had gotten married and she was pregnant with their first child. He'd known my eyes glowed from the day we met, but he'd never particularly asked until one night we were returning from a hunt.

"You can see in the dark, can't you?" Petros asked as we tramped through the trees. I frowned at that, ducking low to avoid getting hit by a branch. Petros ended up getting whipped in the face by another branch, a smirk threatening to come onto my lips... and I let it, because Petros couldn't see it.

"Indeed," I answered.

"I don't know any other gods that can see in the dark," Petros admitted, avoiding another branch and waving his hand around so he didn't smack into anything else, "I know gods that can sense things in the dark, but see? That's new. And your eyes glow brighter in the dark."

"They do."

"Why?"

"Because... I am a night deity."

"Nyx's eyes don't glow like that. Nor do Selene's."

"I'm a freak," I deadpanned, making Petros laugh, then hiss when a branch snatched at his hair, "Also, move to the right before you get smacked in the face with that thorn bush."

"You could've told me that before I got whipped in the face by the other tree."

"Just figured you could use the wake up call," I said, making Petros grunt, "How are you feeling about Theora being pregnant?"

"Nervous, frankly," Petros admitted grimly, "Rowan, my curse... What if one of my children ends up with it? What if one of them ends up with the Beast inside them?"

"Then we shall handle it as you handle yours," I answered. Petros swallowed hard.

"Rowan, it's getting harder and harder to hold onto... What if--"

"No," I said, swinging around and grabbing him by the front of his tunic, making him gasp in surprise as I twisted my fist in the material, "Stop. Listen to me, Petros. You have come so far and you will not surrender to this fear, do you understand me? You have a wife. You have a child on the way. And the Beast will not hurt them, do you hear me? He has yet to harm any of us and there is no chance he will emerge to do so now. The Beast is part of you. He loves Theora as much as you love her. I assure you." Petros swallowed for a moment, then surprised me when he wrapped his arms around me, hauling me against him.

He said nothing, but his embrace said everything... but not what I want it to say most, and my heart splintered in that moment. I wanted to step away, but I couldn't bring my feet to move. In fact, my arms lifted of their own volition and wrapped around him in turn. He squeezed me for a moment before we broke apart, and immediately I want to get back into his arms, feel his chest against mine, his face against mine. I swallowed compulsively as Petros smiled at me.

"Rowan. You are more than just my friend. You are my brother. When my world was shutting down and I was fully prepared to let the Source take me, you appeared," he said, reaching up to touch my face, and I struggled to maintain my control, "You and that damned fishing pole." I felt my lips twitch in a smile, but a sorrow so extreme clogged my throat. All I could do was shrug and pull away, heading back toward the house with Petros in tow. The memory faded, and the sound of a bloodcurdling scream chilled me to the bones.

No.

"Noooo!" The scream broke through the memory and my skin crawled, prickled with goosebumps. I stood frozen outside the house Petros and I had worked to build for and with Theora and her father. It was barely more than a pile of ash, flames still licking at the sky. Kneeling in a pool of blood, Petros clung to the remains of his wife, and their daughter, Rasi, who lay with her eyes staring up at the sky, unseeing. Petros was covered in their blood, his eyes wild with agony.

"No! No! No! Theo! Rasi! Please, no! Rowan, do something! Rowan, please! Rowan!"

I couldn't move. All I could do was stand there, watching Petros wail and sob over their broken bodies. Their blood caked his hands, ran down from his mouth, matted his hair to his head. Theora's throat was ravaged, blood gushing like a busted fountain and pooling around them, her dress torn, the space between her legs barely existent anymore. Poor sweet Rasi lay in the dirt, her throat torn open as well, her clothing disheveled and thick with blood, her chest opened to expose all the shredded inner workings.

Their blood seemed to glint in the moonlight. Their eyes reflected the silver glow from the moon, and the red from the flames.

Petros's screams tore into the night. He screamed until his throat was raw. He wept until he could no longer hold himself up and slumped in the mud created from blood and dirt. He clung to his wife and daughter with a helplessness I had never seen before.

It wasn't until the sun was coming up that I found it in me to move again. I walked over numbly, feeling as if my body was on autopilot as I touched his shoulder. He still trembled, but didn't make a move to leave. Rasi was now laying across his lap, Petros's hand stroking her dark hair, his other hand on Theora's cheek, his thumb stroking her bottom lip.

"Petros, we need to leave," I said monotonously. Petros blinked at that, then tilted his head back to stare up at me emptily.

"I cannot. They need me," he managed, then looked back down at them, his hands trembling violently now, "T-They need me. I can't leave them. I need to protect them--"

"They are gone, brother," I whispered and Petros choked on a sob, "You can do nothing more for them."

"B-But--"

"We must needs bury them and send them on their way, else they will forever be trapped here. You cannot put them through that," I pointed out. Petros whimpered and slumped back down, refusing to get up from their bodies as he clutched to them desperately. It took hours to drag Petros off them, to collect the coin for their travel to the underworld. We placed them in a cave not far from the home, using leftover pieces from the house to build a shrine about their burial grounds.

After that, Petros did not speak. He barely ate. He drank and he bled and he bled others. He was sinking faster and faster.

Another flash of flames burned the backs of my eyelids and I shuddered.

You lied to him!

No, no, I didn't lie, I didn't--

You lied! You told him he was safe, that his family was safe!

They were-- The Beast didn't mean to hurt them. It wasn't his fault, it wasn't Petros's fault.

It was your fault! You knew about your curse! You knew and you stayed and you killed them! It was your fault!

"Rowan! Damn it, Rowan, come on, breath!"

I blinked rapidly, choking as water rushed up my throat and spilled out of my mouth. I coughed and choked, catching sight of Yiuwa as he hovered over me, soaking wet, his long hair sticking to his face and his shoulders. He grabbed me by the shoulders, giving me a shake and when I managed a wet okay he gasped in relief. One second I was laying on the tiled floor in the bathroom and the next, Yiuwa lifted me like I weighed nothing, carrying me into the room and laying me out on the futon.

My eyes still burned from the fire. I could still smell the smoke in the air, still feel blood on my hands, still hear Petros's tortured wail echoing in my ears. My vision blurred and my throat clogged, but I blinked rapidly. I struggled to latch onto some kind of calm, some kind of distraction, as Yiuwa laid me out on the futon, his hands slipping away from me, and the idea of his touch leaving me was suddenly terrifying.

I grabbed his hands and he froze as I stared up at him. He stared back.

And I grabbed his face, jerking him down to meet my lips. He gasped as our lips touched. Immediately the fire died in my eyes, the memories were sucked out and replaced with a sudden electrical spark. I felt a moan slip past my lips. Yiuwa didn't kiss me back, not right away, like he was unsure of what was happening, but when I slid my arm around his neck, drawing him closer, he eased into it. He kissed me back, his lips firm, yet soft against mine.

He smelled like pine and masculine spices. His facial hair was a rough scrub on my cheeks, but I loved the feel of it, loved feeling the little hairs catching under my fingernails as I ran my hands down the sharp planes of his face. He moaned against me, the deep guttural sound rocking my world.

It was like kissing a tiger, I thought. He was so big, so muscular, so hard. Yet, there was a softness to him, a protectiveness that I craved helplessly. I needed to feel this, I needed to forget everything for just one fucking second in my life. I just wanted to pretend that everything was okay. I just wanted everything to be okay.

And gods, Yiuwa was so good at it.

As he caught onto the kiss, his tongue delving between my lips to take control, his hands moved down my body, skimming over my wet muscles, my chest, my abdomen, finding my hips. He ran his hands up and down my hips, like he couldn't wait to get between my legs. And I didn't make him wonder, drawing my legs up and clamping them on his waist.

He growled, and fuck, that sound was sexy and beautiful and wonderful all at the same time. The sound came from a deep predatorial place that sent my adrenaline into overdrive. It was like doing something dangerous and exciting at the same time. Standing in the middle of the highway with cars flying by, some just grazing your clothing. Or-Or--

Standing in a cage with a tiger while it stalked you.

My skin burned wherever he touched me, a delicious hot sensation that seeped into my skin and spread through my veins, lighting me up from the inside out. For once, I wasn't cold inside. It felt like someone was thawing me out.

Yiuwa's lips migrated down to my throat, suckling here and there. I felt his fangs graze my skin and arched into the touch, cradling his head to me, encouraging him to bite, but damn him, he teased me. His fangs scraped, nicked, but didn't sink in. He moved further down now, his fangs drawing circles around my nipples, making them harden. I moaned, entangling my fingers in his hair, loving the way his thick hair wrapped around my fingers and held them prisoner.

His tongue dipped into my navel, giving me goosebumps, and he traveled lower and lower until his mouth reached my cock. And damn him, he teased me further, his tongue rolling around the tender slit and I whimpered, arching my back, encouraging him to take me in, to take me now, but he was playing with me and it was a delicious combination of totally fucking annoyed and goddamn erotic.

His lips came down around me, slow and steady, like he was taking his time to measure me with his mouth. He took me to the root, his nose nuzzling my skin and the hair there, his fingers sinking into the muscles of my thighs, massaging me.

I moaned, tilting my head back against the pillow, rolling my hips, and damn him, he grabbed them and held them still firmly, a silent don't fucking move, and I tried to fight it, but he wouldn't let me and it only brought me closer to the edge. Until his mouth lifted away and he gave me one last lick. I felt a growl in my throat, frustrated that he didn't finish when I was so close.

He climbed back up my body, kissing me on the lips, then pulled back to stare down at me, those yellow eyes heated.

"Are you alright?" He asked, his voice low and husky. The words barely registered. I stared at him.

"Never better," I replied, then grabbed him and yanked him to me, kissing him and hiking my leg up to his waist again, wrapping my foot against the small of his back to pull him against me hard. He grunted, then grabbed onto me for a moment before he nodded. He conjured some jar of salve, stroking himself, and gods, it was erotic, watching him dig his cock out from the folds of his yukata, dragging his hand up and down to thoroughly coat himself with that oozing liquid.

I reached out, wrapped my hand around his. He looked startled by that, lifting his eyes to meet mine. I stared back at him, and guided his hand up and down. He stared at me intently now, his breath coming in rough pants. He lowered his head to touch his forehead to mine, and I didn't dare break eye contact with him as I led his hand.

When I teased the tip of him, something in him snapped. His fangs elongated and he growled at me, his eyes flashing from yellow to red, then back again. He shoved me down on the futon and got on top of me, between my legs, holding his cock ready. I gripped my legs beneath my knees, holding myself open to him and he growled again, a deep animalistic sound.

"You're mine," his voice was warped with hunger, and all I could found myself doing was nodding in consent.

And he lunged forward.

I shouted, immediately shoving my fist in my mouth and biting down. The asshole didn't take his time going in, but he did immediately stop when he was inside me. I blinked rapidly, feeling the sting of muscles tearing, but gods, the feeling of being so full felt so good. It'd been so long, and while yes; I'd done it with Simon the night before, and it had been mildly pleasant, knowing that Simon wasn't actually enjoying himself was a bit of a downer.

But this, Yiuwa was enjoying himself. He wanted more. He was fighting the urge to start pistoning his hips like a wild animal. He was propped up on his hands above me, sweat running down his face as his long black hair fell in a curtain down around us, shutting out everything else in the world, from haunting memories to the fact that we were in someone else's home.

"Have I hurt you?" Yiuwa asked, his voice rough. I lifted my fist from my mouth, reaching up to touch his stubbled cheek.

"No," I said, then sucked in a deep breath, "Go ahead. Do it." Yiuwa appeared hesitant for a moment, clearly wanting to talk more, but I dragged his lips down to meet mine. I shifted my hips and he groaned against me. He finally started to move, and the hot drag of his heavy cock inside me, his lips against mine, those intense yellow eyes like a tiger stalking its prey. Gods, it drove me wild.

Everything disappeared in those moments. The Shifter disappeared. Viviana disappeared. The past was gone and the future was foreseen as nothing more than fireworks of ecstasy. I sank into it, sank into the pleasure, into the thrill. It rushed through me like a heady drug and I latched onto it desperately, wanting so much to stay in this feeling forever.

Here, I could pretend everything was okay.

Here, I could actually feel something worth feeling.

And it only got more intense when Yiuwa growled against my ear. I had no idea what he was saying, the words made no sense to me, and yet, somehow, I knew what he was asking. I buried my face against his throat, wrapped my arms around him, and bared my fangs. I sank my teeth down into his throat and he roared against me, and a second later, his teeth found my throat and bit down hard.

And my world blew apart into a thousand pieces.

I screamed as pleasure unlike any other I'd ever felt rocketed through my system, making me jack up off the futon, desperate to meet each thrust of Yiuwa's hips. It was like his fangs were hot brands searing my skin, but the sensation wasn't painful, not bad painful anyway, but so utterly hot and beautiful and otherworldly.

And it seemed to go on forever. It was an endless stream of pleasure. Every time I felt like I was starting to drift down from the high, another orgasm rode fast on its heels. It felt like I was being milked for everything I was worth. Tears blurred my vision, my fingernails sank into Yiuwa's back and he growled, arching his back into the feeling, as if he could think of nothing better.

It was like being swept up in a storm.

And finally, fucking finally, we began to sink down into the futon. My muscles felt rubbery and weak, my bones aching, but that delicious kind of ache you got after a satisfying workout. I was sucked dry of energy, yet it was a pleasant puddle feeling. I melted against the futon, breathing deeply as Yiuwa kept himself propped up above me. He stared at me, looking equally exhausted, but thoroughly sated with a tired smile spreading across his lips. He reached out to my face, brushing a lock of hair back and tucking it behind my ear.

"I knew it," he murmured, making me raise an eyebrow, "I knew you were special." I almost laughed at that. What a silly thing to say. I reached up and brushed his hand aside. My hand felt so heavy, though, that it fell back to the bed and I sighed, closing my eyes, suddenly finding it incredibly hard to open them again. All I could manage was a mumble before I passed out.

"Yeah... You too."