By moonlight's shadow

Chapter 19

Snow looked at Raphael whose eyes were still closed and he was holding her neck and their foreheads were touching each other’s. This was a feeling which she never had in her entire life. She had respected him as her teacher, her protector and also the only one who had considered himself as her family but this? Was this the thing that had been missing for so long?

Snow could feel anything more except the smell of his hair and the slight essence of blueberries and cinnamon which only she could ever smell on him. She closed her eyes once more and leaned in to touch his lips with hers again. Everything else faded away and melted away into nothingness. This was her home and this was all that she could ever want and ever need. Raphael gave into the kiss and caught hold of her hair softly as the strands locked themselves around his wrist in pleasure. Her entire body was quaking with the pleasure that she felt from the kiss. It was ephemeral, and nothing short of magical.

Snow moaned in his mouth and Raphael growled and pulled her closer to his body and picked her up catching hold of her waist as easily, as if he was carrying a teddy and then he looked at her. Her hair had turned absolutely white. There was no sign of red in her entire head and Raphael panicked. This was not supposed to be happening. This was absolutely not natural. Snow did not see the change in his reaction since her eyes were still closed from the ecstasy of being near him, and rubbing over his entire body.

“Snow,” Raphael called out softly, hoping that his fear was not exposed in his voice.

Snow opened her eyes and Raphael found that her eyes had changed colour as well. They had gone purple. Her lips curved up into a beautiful smile and her canines had elongated and her fangs were out. Raphael had never seen anything more beautiful than her in his entire existence of more than a thousand years.

“If I don’t let you go now I am not sure I am going to be able to control myself any longer,” said Raphael hoarsely. His ecstatic pleasure had given way to his fear to be subsided in the depths of his heart.

“Do you need to?” asked Snow softly as she licked his lips with her tongue making him groan even more and he clutched her hips harder than he was doing earlier.

“Well you do understand that I cannot Snow even though I want you to be in my bed not only for tonight but for eternity. But if I allow you to stay then I am going to turn to dust tomorrow morning, partly because your Grandmother will definitely kill me and partly because you are still three weeks away from your sixteenth birthday and I shall be cursed if I take advantage of you,” said Raphael, as Snow kept on kissing him in his throat and cheeks and then she looked at him.

“Are you scared?” asked Snow, looking in his eyes.

“I am never scared when I know that you are here with me in front of my eyes for I know I can protect you but yes, today I was scared. I was extremely scared because I cannot see all that would be happening in the future and Snow, you do not know, or might not realize this that you are too precious to lose, for me,” said Raphael, as he gradually walked to the bed carrying her in his arms and the settled down on the edge of the bed.

“Thanks for being honest with me,” said Snow, as she inhaled him deeply and licked the corner of his neck where his vein was throbbing painfully urging her to bite down on it and then mate with him. It was like this strange instinct that she needed to take what was his and he was hers for taking. She needed to make him hers, claim him but Raphael put a hand on her heart and slowly turned her head towards him.

“So you would rather see me dead than wait for a few more days?” and this time his eyes were dancing with laughter.

“Never even utter that sound that something might happen to you. If I have to claim you back from the depths of Hell and fight the angels to claim you back from Heaven I will do that. I will fight everything to keep you safe, to have you here, with me, in my arms forever,” said Snow with a ferocity in her eyes which could burn down castles just with the fire dancing behind her eyes.

“I did not know that you were so protective about me!!” said Raphael in a soft voice. His heart filled up with love at her declaration for he knew that he would probably do the same if it were for her. It was not necessary to say that they both loved each other. Neither was it the time, nor was it the place and definitely not the way how Raphael had envisioned of making her his Queen.

“I care about what is mine and I have learnt from the best. Trust me, I am not going to squander what I have!!” said Snow as she did not wait for him to say anything more and captured his lips in a brutal kiss and then clutched his long hair and did not let him go as she pushed him down on the bed..

“Snow, we should stop, really, I can’t….you don’t understand the implications of what we are doing?” said Raphael as he caught hold of her hand and when she let his lips go.

“I am well aware of what I am doing. It seems that you are scared of a fifteen year old girl even when you are more than thousand years of age. Although it is not good to be talking of age for couples I mean in the beginning but trust me, you don’t have anything to be afraid of. I am not going to do anything at all to you, and you are too decent to take advantage of me. And after all I am just a girl!!” said Snow, as she winked at Raphael and the entire room echoed with his booming laughter.

“You are anything but just a girl Snow…You are special and don’t ever forget that. And there are a lot of unspoken things between us which we are both aware of but not even for a moment think that I am going to ignore them. When I don’t address them means it is not time yet!!” said Raphael, as he kissed her forehead and then flipped her on her back on the bed and his body loomed over his.

“We are different, aren’t we?” asked Snow, as she threaded her fingers in his.

“Why do you say that?” asked Raphael as he looked at their hands entwined together and smiled at the warmth that was emanating from her body.

“Because I hurt her. I hurt her without even doing anything. I just threw her towards the wall, Serena, she was saying such nonsense about my family, I could not tolerate anymore. I did not understand that I would hurt her so much that she would end up having multiple fractures and so many broken bones,” said Snow, as she looked contrite and scared. Raphael knew that this was something he needed to handle with great care. Even though she was his mate and she had powers which he could only dream of she was still a young child and she had a lot to learn before she could grow up.

“You did not hurt her intentionally, did you? It was just an accident,” said Raphael but before he could finish Snow looked up and him and her eyes were watering up.

“But you see, I wanted to hurt her. I wanted to hurt so damn bad. I wanted her gone. I want all of them to leave me alone. But they don’t do that. They always keep on poking me and even though I did not mean to but I hurt her and I wished her to die,” said Snow, and then she broke into sobs. Raphael was dumb-founded at her behavior.

Earlier he had seen her sad and alone but he had never seen her breaking down like this. He had no idea what he was supposed to do so he did the only thing that his instincts told him to do. He caught hold of her shoulders and then pulled her close to his chest and let her cry. He let her sob like anything. Raphael knew very well that this had been pent up for too long to subside so easily. It was not only her guilt of hurting Serena Patrick that was causing her catharsis, but it was the cumulative bad behavior and apathy from all the students at the Academy all these years long. So he let her cry and it drenched his shirt but he did not for once let go of her until it finished in sniffles.

“Do you want to sleep Snow? You must be tired,” said Raphael softly. Snow looked up at him with wet cheeks and wide eyes which were still purple and her hair was still white as the first snow flakes of winter.

“Can I sleep here tonight? With you? I promise to be good, just hold me,” said Snow, in a broken voice and Raphael did not have the heart to say no even though he knew that he was making a huge gaffe.

“Promise to be good?” asked Raphael with a soft smile and Snow nodded at him and he gave her a long t-shirt from his night-stand which covered Snow up to her knees and was comfortable. She looked so damn gorgeous in his clothes that he could barely keep his hands to himself.

“Do you want me to braid your hair while you sleep?” asked Raphael as Snow got inside the covers after changing her clothes but she nodded saying no.

“Sonata has done something with my hair today afternoon to make them softer and more manageable and straight and I don’t want to ruin that,” said Snow, as she self-consciously touched her hair. She looked at Raphael just in time to see that he was trying to suppress his laughter and she scowled at him.

“What is it? What happened?” asked Snow, and the threatening was clear in her voice.

“Snow, no magical potion, or fairy dust is going to be able to make your hair come under your control. You have to stop thinking about them as a problem and think of them as a part of yourself. They are never like you want them to be not because they are unruly but because you consider them to be unruly. Just try thinking that your hair is good and soft and beautiful and sleep on this thought tonight. I think you will see a change tomorrow morning,” said Raphael as he softly stroked her hair and she purred in pleasure like a Siamese cat.

She yawned out this big which was wide enough to make Raphael fluff the pillows for her. She dropped on them like dead weight and caught hold of Raphael’s hand in hers and kept it close to her heart near her breasts.

“Sleep well, my Princess. It is not long now for you to be my Queen,” said Raphael as he kissed her hair and slept beside her on the pillows.