He pretends that her flinching from his touch, the way her flesh startles and moves beneath his lips, his teeth doesn’t incite a roaring river of pain and rage inside him. Pain for her, for the pain she is feeling, for the pain he wants to inflict. Rage over what had happened, over her brokenness, over Vulgaris’ idiocy. He pretends to not notice it, the way she flinches, pulls from his touch. The way she apologizes like she did something wrong. That lit another fire in his belly, burning low but hot. He is careful, careful to not let her see the anger, to only give her the happy and the content.
“Stop apologizing beautiful for something that you can’t control.” He says, his lips finding her neck again anyways. And he hopes one day, hopes with his entire soul, that she will realize he would never hurt her. He will be damned if he lets Vulgaris ever hurt her again either.
He still needed to find him. He wasn’t exactly sure what he was going to do yet, but he would find him. Perhaps they needed to have a little chat….
“Do you want me to stop touching you?” He says after a long moment, a long look at her face and the shame and guilt that twists her beautiful features. “I will, for you. Not because you don’t think you deserve it but because I know it makes your skin crawl.” His lips hover over her skin again, a subconscious effort to touch her something he would have to work on. “Not because I think you are shameful. But because right now it’s not helping you, is it?”
He pulls his lips away from her shoulder, his breath warm and lingering until it’s not. He turns those dark eyes of his on hers. The day she was afraid of him was the day he would tuck his wings against his sides and smash himself into the ocean.
“Malca.” He tastes the name of her on his lips, adding her to the rest of them. Malca. Adna. Lily. Pieces of his heart that weren’t even really his. But he would protect them. Or do his best. “Well I am partial to the original myself.” He says with a laugh, his eyes falling easily back upon Leliana, before sliding back along to Malca. “But she is beautiful, nonetheless.”
He rests a leg, his tail swiping at his legs. “Tell me how you are? The truth.” He says.