The Devil's Smile

Chapter 38

Moras stood outside her doorway listening and breathing. He closed his eyes and let the sound pass over him. As sad as it was the music was beautiful. How could something that comes from her be anything but beautiful, he thought. After a few moments he finally knocked loudly on the door. The abrupt stop to the music was almost painful. He knocked again.

Amina wasn't sure he had heard right at first. It had been so long since noise had come from anything other than herself. When the knock came again she set down the whistle and leaned over the edge of her bed to look down her hallway at the main door so far away. Finally she called, "Come in."

Moras didn't know if the uncertainty in her voice was fear of letting him in or confusion for his presence. He opened the door and walked down the hall, not realizing how much the music had softened his features.

Amina stood as Moras approached and watched him coming toward her. He noticed that she looked concerned, but not upset. The bruise their last encounter had left her with was completely gone. His dark blue eyes met her soft brown and he almost looked away. It was still strange and unsettling to him. After all this time and the realization that he was unlikely to break her spirit, even if he tried, her strength still baffled him.

Moras cleared his throat as he realized he was staring at her. "Why don't you play something happy," he asked to break the silence.

"I've tried," she said softly. "Those don't seem to come out right. I need more practice. Is that why you're here? I didn't realize you could hear it outside my rooms," she blushed as she realized he could have been listening all this time. "I'm not very good. I can close more doors and play more quietly," she said quickly.

The blush across her chest was a tempting target for him. Though Moras was sorry he had embarrassed her he took great pleasure in the sweet way she reacted. "No. That's not why I came. And I enjoyed listening. I wouldn't want you to stop. It's a much more pleasant sound than silence. There has been too much of that of late," he sighed.

Even as he spoke he could hear her heartbeat and almost see the pulse of blood running through her warm body. Moras closed his eyes and he could smell the rose scented water of her bath mixed with her own scent on her skin. Amina watched as he opened in eyes and the black of his pupil bled tellingly into the dark blue irises and then out into the white until his eyes were solid black in his sockets, giving his face the demon appearance that sent chills over her skin.

"You're hungry," she said definitely.

Moras watched her hug herself as she said it. The movement was subconscious and spoke volumes of her total lack of desire to experience that again. But neither her gaze nor her voice wavered at the certainty of the statement. She was amazing to him. Smart enough to know that it was not something she wanted to do, but she accepted it and was not afraid of it. She had the appearance of someone facing down an approaching storm and knowing there was nowhere to run to. He nodded.

"Now," she asked in that same certain tone.

"Soon," he said. "But it doesn't have to be now. I've only come to warn you."

Amina's eyes shifted to the walls and then the ceiling. "Last time you said that it would be worse the longer you waited and when I came to you it was still not so bad as it could have been."

Moras nodded at the statement. She was weighing her choices with a logic he had to admire.

"How bad has it gotten now? I mean in comparison to what it was last time," she asked with concern.

He sighed heavily. Moras had yet to admit to her that he had taken it too far the last time and that normally it would never be that bad. "I'm not as far gone as that," he said, trying and failing to sound reassuring.

"Alright," Amina said haltingly. "I guess, if I have any choice in this, then I would prefer that it be done sooner rather than later. I don't mean to be insulting," she added quickly. "It's just that the after effects are not very pleasant."

Moras had to smile at her phrasing and the look of distaste that crossed her face. "I'll be in my rooms. Come to me when you like," he said. "I take no offense at things that are fact." With that he turned away from her and headed for the door.

Once he was outside he stood and waited to see if she would start playing again. After a short time he heard the song start again, low at first and then gaining in volume. For the next few hours he stood against the wall outside her room and listened to the sad sweet music. It was as though she was singing to him in the darkness and knew the exact notes it would take to reach into him.

Getting herself cleaned up and lighting a lantern to take with her down the hall, Amina wondered what time of day or night it may be. She had long ago lost track. There was no way of telling how much time had passed without seeing the sun rise and set.

Amina waited until she was so tired that she was almost falling asleep sitting up. She hoped that if she was tired enough then she wouldn't stay conscious as long as she had the last time. As she walked down the hall she considered asking Moras for something to tell time with.

Moras's door was closed when she reached it and she knocked loudly, setting the lantern down next to the door. Almost instantly he called for her to enter. The cold metal latch clicked open and the door swung heavily as Amina pushed it. A weight sat heavily on her shoulders as she walked slowly down the tunnel toward Moras's bedroom. As she stepped inside her eyes instantly went to the closed door over the shaft that led to the outside.

"It's not yet sunset," Moras said.

Amina flinched when she heard his voice. It wasn't as if she didn't know he was there somewhere. But she hadn't actually noticed him when she entered. He was standing next to his fireplace, staring into the flames. Shadows darkened his features and made him seem more menacing as he stood there.

"When the sun can no longer reach it, I'll open it. But not before."

Amina nodded quickly, but remained silent. She was very tired and was afraid of how he would react to any continued conversation about the shaft. He didn't seem upset at the moment, but she wasn't willing to risk it. "I suppose then I should get ready," she suggested and yawned.

Moras was amazed. Her voice didn't waver a bit. He smiled at the yawn. It was a strange compliment. Generally people who are scared don't find time for yawning. "You look tired," he said gently.

Amina blushed. "I suppose a little." Her heart started racing a bit. Would he be angry if he knew she had planned it that way? She was trying to read his face but the shadows obscured any clue as to his mood. "Why do you always keep it so dark?"

Moras looked around. "I don't need as much light to see as you do. Darkness doesn't bother me."

Amina nodded. She knew that. "Well," she started uncertainly.

"Are you truly in such a hurry," he asked. He wasn't sure how to take this.

"Not a hurry exactly, just… I don't know." Her eyes fell on the door to the shaft again.

Moras watched as she did her best to look everywhere else. You just don't belong down here, beautiful, he thought sadly. "Amina," he said seriously. "Why are you here?"

She looked up at him in confusion. "Because you said-"

"No," he interrupted. "Why did you choose to be a sacrifice? Why did you choose this life?"

Amina stared at the shadowy figure in front of the fireplace. She didn't want to answer that. There were too many sad memories there. "Does it matter?"

"Yes," he said in an authoritative tone that bit into her. "I need to know why you chose this."

There was a long pause while she tried to find a way around it. There was no point in lying. The only reason she didn't want to talk about it was because she didn't like talking about it. She didn't think it'd make a difference. "You killed the man who killed my father."

Moras wasn't sure he wanted to know who or when. But if she felt like she owed him something then that could explain a lot. "I do my assignments. I didn't kill anyone for you Amina."

She shook her head. "I never said that. I didn't have anyone left after he died. I volunteered for this because it gave me a purpose."

"Purpose," he echoed quietly and then turned back toward the fire. He could certainly understand that. "Far be it for me to impede someone in their purpose. Take your clothes off Amina."

He didn't watch, but he listened as soft swishing sounds told him that she was complying with his order. Moras had been longing to take her again since that first night they had been together. It had been a very long time since any woman had responded to him the way that she had. She found him terrifying when he turned. He had no delusions about that. But she forced herself to bottle the fear well enough that she responded to his touch with something other than fear. She'd never know how much that meant to him. When the room went silent except for the crackling noise of the fire Moras finally turned around.

Amina had her eyes closed. She was waiting for him to descend upon her, fangs protruding from a mouth too large for his face and black coal eyes sunk deep into shadowed sockets. The image in her mind started her heart racing and she waited.

Moras stepped up to her. Amina's chest was expanding and contracting with labored breaths and he watched her breasts rise and fall with the effort. He could guess what she was thinking. Leaning in close to her, he breathed in the scent of her hair. His breath on her cheek made her flinch. She hadn't realized that he was so close.

Amina's heart was pounding in her ears. The vision in her mind grew progressively worse. She imagined his thin pale lips curled back from his fangs, his ears set farther back on his head and his skin almost translucent white pulled tight over his sharply angled cheeks and jaw. His voice startled her.

"I know that your racing pulse has nothing to do with wanting me right now," he said gently. He reached up and stroked her cheek. "In truth I'm no better than your teachers. I gave you a foul impression of me." He leaned down and lifted a handful of hair to his face. "I'm sorry. It doesn't have to be like that. I've rarely done this Amina, but I'll give you a choice."

Amina's brow had furrowed and she appeared confused, her eyes still squeezed shut.

"Look at me. I haven't changed."

She opened her eyes and found that he was only inches from her. Moras's dark blue eyes bored into hers. Amina almost forgot that she was naked until his gaze shifted. She blushed a deep red that only worsened as he smiled. "What," she asked as she cleared her throat, desperately wanting something to cool her heated embarrassment.

Moras's eyes met hers again and he reached up to cup one breast in a cold calloused hand. Amina shivered as his frozen digits closed around her soft mound and gently squeezed. He circled her n****e with his thumb and licked his lips, anticipating the feel of the firm nub in his mouth. "In the past," he said and his eyes dropped to the breast he was playing with, "most of the girls who have come here have wanted as little contact with me as possible. So I waited as long as I could and then I went to them. But you seem to be capable of dealing with me better than the others have been. So I give you the choice. I need the same amount of blood no matter when I take it. I can either come to you and drain you near death once and a while or I can come to you and take small amounts more often. You'd not feel the kind of pain and sickness as you did before, but you'd have to lie with me more frequently." As he finished the suggestion his eyes nervously returned to hers. He had never wanted to read anyone's thoughts before. She was so strange to him.

"I don't understand why anyone would choose pain and sickness over time with you." Amina felt his thumb and finger pinch her n****e. This time her racing heartbeat had nothing to do with fear. Amina momentarily lost track of what she had intended to say. "Uh," she looked into his dark blue eyes. "How often would you need to…" Amina's voice trailed off as his other chilled hand began to slide along her hip and he stepped closer, bringing his mouth so near hers that she could feel his breath on her lips.

Moras smiled as a little whimper involuntarily escaped her mouth. He neglected to tell her that he had been too annoyed with most of the other girls to bother with little pleasantries like this. They were all so frightened of him that it made him feel as though he was raping them. With the others, more often than not, he took their blood and left their bodies alone. He couldn't help himself with Amina though. He almost felt alive when his touch was able to cause her such obvious pleasure.