House Party

[Oriena]

Once both their appetites were satisfied, there was no heat left between them, and Ori paid Nox no real mind. She stepped into the stream of hot water while he lingered in the doorway. She didn’t ask any questions about where he’d been, or how he’d ended up in the mansion, and she only half listened to his explanation for the party in his house. Any conversation that started along the lines of I’m not getting sentimental, but was hardly likely to endear her patience. Predictably, Oriena ignored that part entirely.

When she emerged she’d already dried off but for damp hair. She brushed the remnants of broken glass from her clothes before pulling them back on. Nox in the centre of the room, still in his towel, and she glanced at the projection he was focused on. Ori was aware that if he hadn’t already succumbed to sating his hunger, it was because of the things playing on his mind. But she had no interest in comfort. “Just listen to yourself, sweetheart. He’ll trust me more if he can control my mind?” She scoffed. The amusement was cruel, but it was also just the blunt truth. “He’s too good for you. Why would he ever trust you at all if you can’t even trust yourself?”

She came to stand near him. “The best thing people like you and I can do for the ones we love is to stay the fuck away,” she told him. The words were dripping with honey and venom, and she knew they would cut precisely because Nox believed them. Though that didn’t mean she wouldn’t give him the weapon he asked for.

“It works better when the desire already exists in someone. Far harder to convince people against the grain. Just sink it here.” She reached up to tap against his skull, then indicated the projection. “Show me how this shit works, and I’ll show you.”