☼ Chapter XIV ☼

picture; Carson Reux

song; "Crave" by Tove Lo

author's note; I am a disgrace. I know. It took me so long to update and this part was actually already written and just needed to be edited and I procrastinated so hard. But here we have the second part of Sonya and Derik's date.

I am really starting to love the development of their relationship. What do you guys think of Derik? What do you think of him and Sonya together?

Really excited for the next chapter because we get some more information and a bit of a reveal about what happened at the farsa. Hopefully I stay motivated and I can write it up tonight!

Comment + Vote, enjoy!

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Compelled to stay to let him comfort me, I turned my gaze away because I knew that I couldn't keep up with the excuses if I looked him in the eye. I had a lot to consider about what happened tonight, and it would influence whether or not I would see Derik again.

I hated the idea that my Mate could be in a dangerous position if he were with me; I was beginning to want to be with Derik more than I had wanted anything in years, but I also wanted him alive. Darkness could target him because he was important to me, and I didn't want to let that happen.

"Baby..." Was it stupid that I was growing to be very susceptible to that played-out pet name? Tears filled my eyes and I shook my head, still refusing to stay with him a little longer—still refusing to even look at him. "I can't just let you leave upset, Sonya. Please come with me?"

"I don't want to." I snapped at him as I wiped frustratedly at a few runaway tears. "I want to go back to my dorm and go to bed. Tonight was the worst date I've ever been on." The anger that flashed across Derik's face startled me and I leaned away a bit more, realizing I'd really done it now.

This only seemed to make him that much more furious.

"Can you do me a favour and stop being such a fucking brat? Since you don't want to listen to me when I'm trying to be nice, I'm not asking anymore. You're bringing your cute little ass to my place whether you like it or not."

The seriousness in his tone snapped me out of my incessant worrying and commanded me to meet his gaze. His gaze instantly softened once I connected my eyes to his. "Shit, I didn't mean to yell but you can be pretty annoying."

"I mean, I obviously wasn't listening." I sighed and turned my eyes up to the stark-white stars that dazzled against the night sky. "I'll stay, but I don't want to talk about what we saw at the club. Just get me to where I can sleep tonight."

"Oh, that'll be easy." The laid-back smile graced his lips again and I overflowed with relief. It was strange—sexy and foreign, but strange nonetheless—seeing Derik mad since he was so easy-going. I seemed to annoy him pretty often, but his default setting was playful and laid-back.

"I've got the perfect medicine." His knack for being cryptic was something that I was just getting used to and so I didn't ask what it was when he re-opened the car door for me and helped me inside.

A good amount of my fear had melted away since we'd made it back to the Academy because I once again felt safe, but the worry I felt about what allies of Darkness might be planning for me didn't cease.

I wondered what that redhead girl meant when she said they were there for me. Was she saying that I was supposed to be the one with her throat ripped out tonight? Chills skimmed over my body at the thought, and I gritted my teeth as to disguise the shudders that passed through me.

Some wiser piece of me knew that that couldn't the case though since I'd already been attacked once, and I was still relatively okay.

Derik pulled up to his home only minutes later. It was a small house, but that was to be expected since most Protectors who worked at the Academy lived alone. It was a wide, gray house, standing tucked away in a corner with a gravel driveway. There was nothing spectacular about it really.

After he'd rounded the car and opened the door for me, he took hold of my hand again and led me up to the front door. Derik pressed the key into the lock and twisted before pushing the door away. He flicked the light on to the right and a short hall lit up.

I was aware that his eyes were trailing on me as he shrugged out of his jacket and came to help me out of mine before hanging them both up onto a hook by the front door. When he turned back to me, Derik settled his hands onto my shoulders before letting them glide down my arms in a gentle and consoling manner.

"Wanna take a look?" I nodded as our hands interlaced and he led me down the short corridor into a wide living room.

Two gray and plush-looking love seats rested perpendicular to one another across from a long flat screen. The carpet was off-white and there were few family portraits placed in a collage-like manner on the wall farthest from where we stood. Other than the pictures on the wall, there wasn't much more decor.

Derik's Protector's certificate sat on the wall right beside another—one that was addressed to Zara Seilyar.

My feet carried me in direction of all the pictures and I spotted one where Derik looks to be about fourteen or fifteen with another boy who looked to be in his late teen years, maybe nineteen.

The similarities between Derik and the other nineteen-year-old boy are striking and I think that he must be his brother.

They are both laughing, though the portrait doesn't reveal what's so funny. Another is of just Derik and a woman who has her fingers tangled up in his long hair and is making a pouty face at the camera. She is flawless with the same swirling blonde hair and cerulean eyes.

"Is this her?" I point at the beautiful woman and turn back to look at Derik who hasn't moved from where I left him.

"Yeah, that's my mom."

"She's beautiful." I breathed, slightly envious for a moment. She really was what with her perfect creamy skin, plump lips, almond-shaped eyes, and defined nose.

"Yeah," Derik's voice was weird, almost cold really. "She was." I didn't ask or comment on his tone, but instead I just turned away from the pictures to fold myself into his arms.

"What about that medicine?" Derik smiled almost gratefully and kissed my jaw quickly before leaving to retrieve his perfect antidote. To my dismay, he returned a minute later with a bottle of bourbon. "This medicine gives headaches." I told him, shaking my head as I chuckled.

"We're gonna play a game." Derik handed me one of the two glasses he held and moved over to the couch. I pressed my lips together and stole one more glance at the wall of pictures before finding a seat beside him.

"I don't have to take anything off, right?" An eyebrow quirked up as he began to laugh and I worked to keep my face serious.

"Not unless you want to." Derik knocked back half a glass of bourbon before flashing me a wide, toothy grin. "I won't object."

"I bet you wouldn't." His eyes sparkled with amusement and mischief, a look that was pretty becoming of him. I kicked off my boots and sighed in relief, happy to be rid of them finally. "So, what game are we playing?"

Derik had taken down a second gulp of bourbon already—not that it mattered because our tolerance for alcohol was pretty high. "Never Have I Ever. Have you played before?" I shook my head no, leaning back on the couch as I took a swig of my bourbon. "First player starts by saying 'Never have I ever' followed by something you've never done. The rest of the players have to drink if they have done it. Easy?"

I shrugged and smiled, gesturing toward him with my glass. "You start."

"Fine, bossy." Derik's word's were spoken around a laugh. He poured more bourbon into our glasses. "Never have I ever fallen in love."

My mouth dropped open into a tiny "O" of surprise as I stared at him. "Seriously?" I couldn't help but to ask; it was so unbelievable. Honestly, how could someone as gorgeous and charming as Derik never have fallen in love? He probably had loads of girls volunteering to get with him.

And he had been with a girl before me; did he not love her either?

"Seriously." His eyes darted to my glass and he raised his brows expectantly, so I knocked back the brown liquid in the cup and extended it for more.

"That's just weird." I commented simply while switching my sitting position into a crisscross one. "Okay, never have I ever done any drugs." Derik drank, and I had a feeling this game was going to get more and more interesting the longer we went on. "Really? But they don't even affect you."

"True, but I didn't do human drugs. I used to snort valerian."

"You can snort it? I thought it was only injected."

"You can snort it with a little cocaine. If you chop up the valerian and mix it with coke it actually works. Injecting it has long-term effects that I didn't want to deal with." I wanted to ask why he was doing the drug, but he continued on with the game. "Never have I ever skinny-dipped." I drank, causing Derik to smirk. "I think I need a demonstration." He tried, causing me to snicker.

"There's no pool around here."

"There's a shower." I shook my head at his completely serious expression. "You really were different."

"Yeah, I was." I sighed and ran my finger delicately around the rim of the glass as I stared down into the brown liquor. "Never have I ever been arrested."

"Really?" Derik drank again, and I quirked an eyebrow up. "I told you I was a misfit." I nodded in understanding, my own smile widening at his response.

"What did you do?"

"I robbed a liquor store."

"And they let you be a Protector?" It sounded more like I was scolding him than asking him. Derik laughed and poured more bourbon in his glass.

"That's not even considered a crime in the Unknown World. The Authority here couldn't care less about something like that."

I shrugged. "Yeah. I guess that's pretty true, but still. Great role model." I playfully glared at him and he shrugged as well.

"Yeah, that's me: the poster-kid for good behavior." He leant back into the couch, bringing the bottle of alcohol with him and kicked off his shoes too, finally. "Never have I ever liked an opposite-gender friend."

And I drank. "Gavin was my best friend before he was my boyfriend." I explained easily, the thought of him infecting every part of me. I swept the reveries away and refocused. "Never have I ever lost an argument." Derik didn't drink and I scoffed. "Well, this'll be fun."

"You know, I think you already lost one." I narrowed my eyes at him and scowled. "I got you to come with me."

"Well, you didn't really give me a choice."

"You always have a choice, Sonya. I'll never make you do anything you really don't want to, no matter what I think is best."

"I'll keep that in mind." I drank my bourbon just because and let him pour me more as I tried to pretend I didn't notice his heavy eyes watching me.

"Good." Derik stretched out on the couch and laid up against me. I leaned into the arm of the couch and unfolded my legs from underneath me so he was laying between them. "Never have I ever been in a fight and lost."

I drank regretfully. "That had been true for me, too, until I was paired to spar against Carson in combats."

"I mean, I could show you some moves if you want." Derik leant back to waggle his brows at me suggestively and I rolled my eyes.

"He didn't actually hurt me, though; I just had a couple bruises. I was actually upset that he had gone easy on me. I felt insulted, like he thought I was too weak to take a real hit. Carson seems like a nice guy though. I have him in IOS too. He offered to share notes if I needed help since I was excelled a year and skipped the intro version of IOS."

"Carson..." Derik's voice was a slight snarl around his name and I nodded before pouring more bourbon for myself and knocked it back.

"It was weird. Last week, when I went to speak with Head Vierseut about the night I was attacked, I ran into him in the administrations building. He said Head Vierseut was out, and when he touched me, I felt these... sparks."

Derik's relaxed posture tensed immediately and when he opened his eyes to look up at me, they were a deep Navy blue. "You felt sparks? Like Mate pull sparks?"

"Sorta. It wasn't anything like when I met you. When I met you, I had so many crazy thoughts and feelings going through my mind and I just wanted you so bad. But I didn't feel any of that with Carson. Or with Trent." My mouth was spilling all my random musings in my brain with the filter turned off.

Derik's eyes grew ever darker, and I realized this information was upsetting him. Splaying my hands over his chest, I smoothed them down to his stomach, feeling powerful and giddy as my touch forced him to relax.

"I want you to stay away from them, Sonya." Derik finally spoke after a few moments, and I scoffed as I rolled my eyes.

"Please, Derik. Don't be stupid; I literally have classes with Carson and Trent is gonna be around whether I want him to be or not." I tried to keep my voice nonchalant, but it still sounded defensive.

"Why are you acting so defensive?" Derik grew tense again and when I went to repeat my action from earlier, he caught my wrists and halted my movements. "Is there something you're not telling me, Sonya?"

Since his eyes had shifted back into their normal cerulean ocean, I sighed out and shook my head. "No, there isn't. I just feel like you're upset over nothing. I don't know why I felt the sparks with either of them, but I already told you that it isn't like the Mate pull. I didn't feel towards either of them that I felt with you."

"Whatever." Derik closed his eyes and let his body ease up again. "I don't know this bloke Carson, but Trent? I don't like him. And I'd appreciate it if you stayed away from him as much as possible."

"You don't even know him, Derik." I snapped, narrowing my eyes and scowling again. His eyes snapped open at my tone and he scowled back at me. "And I can't really stay away from him because my roommate is his best friend."

"Tell her to keep him out of the dorm then."

"He doesn't like me for one, so that means he's not gonna listen to what I have to say. And why are you acting so childish about it? It's really not that big of a deal."

"You're rooming with a guy?" Derik was angrier now than earlier when he told me to stop being a brat.

"You're dodging the question."

"So are you."

"I thought I already made that clear when I corrected you earlier." I scowled again and we just glared at one another for a while.

"Naturally, I'm a jealous guy." He continued to glare even once I dissolved into giggles. "And the bond makes you ultra-possessive."

"The Mate bond?" My giggles dissipated as he said this. "I don't feel possessive of you." I told him matter-of-factly.

"So, if my ex came through the door right now and tried to kiss me, you wouldn't feel some type of way?"

"Of course I would." I rolled my eyes at his stupid question. "You're my Mate; no one else has a right to touch what belongs to me. But that's situational. I don't just automatically feel possessive anytime I think of a girl being around you."

"Well, imagine if this girl was someone I felt something toward—something similar to the feeling I have around you. Then how would you feel?"

I bit my lip and let my scowl melt away. Now, I see where he was coming from. "Okay, I get it. Sorry, but I don't really know a way around that." I polished off another swig of bourbon and poured more into the glass.

"I do." He smoothed my hands over his chest with his own, interlacing our fingers. "You could just stay here."

"Forward really is your middle name." Derik only chuckled and pressed a kiss to the inside of my wrist. "I don't know." I drawled, connecting my eyes to his.

"Well, we can figure out that out later. But stay for just tonight?"

"I'm not sleeping with you." Derik laughed again, and the sound warmed me. I bit my lip again as I watched him recover from his stupid cackling fit. "I'm not joking."

"Don't speak too soon, baby." My cheeks warmed at his insinuation, but I gritted my teeth and scowled again. "Joking." Derik's laughter abruptly stopped as he caught sight of my expression. "I'm just joking."

"Yeah, nice save." I rolled my eyes and relaxed again into him. "I'll stay..." But I regretted the words as soon as I had them. "I, uh, have nightmares sometimes." My voice was nothing but a mumbled whisper, but he heard me.

Derik watched me for a long time and I felt like he really didn't know what to say. I swallowed and drank my bourbon when I realized my mouth was dry. It did nothing to combat the annoying cotton feeling in my throat though. "Don't worry, baby. I have nightmares too, sometimes." Derik picked up the bottle from the carpet where I'd placed it before. "Drink up. It helps."

I drained the rest of it.

We laughed as we stumbled along down the hall to the bedroom. My feet were on top of his; my hands were hanging onto his shoulders for dear life while his hands were placed on my hips to keep me steady.

My laughter wracked through me and I couldn't ignore the slight swirling I felt in my head. The last of the bourbon had made me buzzed enough to feel ditzy and clumsy, but I didn't know if it was Derik's touch that made me joyful or the general bubbliness that accompanied alcohol.

"This is the only time I'll ever let you be on top." I peeled one of my hands off his shoulder to smack his chest playfully just as he moved to make another step. When I released my hold on him, I swayed back toward the ground and Derik tumbled down with me. I guess the alcohol had caught up to him a little too.

I rolled us over so I was straddling him. "You said I always have a choice."

"You know, I like this position better anyway." My fingers tangled into his hair and Derik's hands grasped at my hips.

"You're such a romantic." I rolled my eyes and moved to stand off of him, but his grip tightened on me. Those cerulean orbs had tinted to that alluring Navy blue again, and I leant closer to him.

My mouth brushed his in the ghost of a kiss, one that teased him relentlessly. Every time Derik leaned closer to claim my lips with his, I'd pull back with a rising snicker.

"Sonya..." He breathed, eyes growing infinitely darker. My name was just a whispered warning and the fire that rocketed through me commanded me to end the torture for the both of us.

My lungs were set ablaze as I lost my air and the torrid heat surrounding us turned nearly suffocating. I fisted my hands into his t-shirt and stared into his eyes a moment longer.

"Don't play with fire."

"It's too late for that." And my mouth found his. The fiery desire and passion I had kindled in the core of my stomach sparked instantly. The kiss was intimately slow, gaining a raw intensity as it picked up.

Derik grasped aggressively at my hips and I ground closer to him, unable to stand any amount of space between us. Derik's fingers left sweltering tracks of fire on the bare skin of my back and I moaned when his fangs slid out and cut my lip.

A moan was born from deep in my throat when his tongue slithered across the trail of blood in an excruciatingly slow manner.

My nails dug into his shoulders, trying to force him closer to me, to feel the heat of his breath and wallow in his addictive scent even more.

It was unbelievable how incredible his touch made me feel. It was like being suspended on a breeze of ecstasy so gentle and pleasurable it was almost unreal—painful even.

In a breathless, husky voice I was barely able to recognize, I rasped, "You're mine."

He squeezed at my waist again before withdrawing away. I moved in again, needing to taste the enslaving sweetness of his lips more but Derik sat up to keep me at bay. I sneered at him, which only caused him to laugh. "If we don't stop we're going to do something you'll regret."

"What makes you think I'll regret it?" I crossed my arms as Derik rubbed circles into my hips with the pads of his thumbs.

"Because not more than an hour ago you said you weren't sleeping with me, which means you obviously aren't ready for us to go there."

"What if I said I was?" Derik stared at me for a long time, probably trying to figure out if I was being serious or not.

"You always have a choice." I stared at him, debating if I really wanted this or not. It was true that I wanted Derik in all the ways I could have him, but was that just lust? Was the bond we shared tainting my mind already?

The only other guy I'd had sex with was Gavin, and I was fully certain that I loved him. I loved him enough to give him the most intimately precious thing I owned—my virginity. Was I ready to let Derik have that part of me too?

"No," I spoke the answer aloud just as I realized it. "You're right." I breathed, looking away from him as a new worry found me. "I'm not ready for that."

Derik smiled a relieved smile. He really didn't want me to get myself into something that I would undoubtedly regret later. He really cared.

"Don't worry, baby. I'm pretty patient." He stood, keeping me pressed flush into his body before tugging me along toward the bedroom. I peeled my jeans off and traded my flowing top for one of Derik's wife beaters while he changed into a pair of plain black basketball shorts.

We clambered onto the soft-as-a-cloud mattress before entangling ourselves with one another. I laid my head on his chest and wrapped my arm around his stomach; the desire to feel his skin against mine was barely satiated.

"Derik?" He hummed sleepily and I smiled before tilting my head back to look at him. His eyes were barely cracked open to look at me, the brilliance of their blue dulled a bit. "I really like you."

His laughter rumbled through his chest and I indulged in the way the vibrations reverberated throughout my entirety. "I like you more."

I think I fell asleep smiling.