Night had fallen over the compound, but sleep didn't come easily. Not when my mind was tangled in thoughts of her.
Natasha Romanoff.
The name alone felt electric, dangerous. In my old life, she had been a fantasy. A muse in fanfictions, a goddess in cosplay, the ultimate crush that never left my imagination. But now, she wasn't a character on a screen. She was real. Living. Breathing. And down the hall from me.
I rolled onto my side, staring at the ceiling as crimson light danced across my fingertips. Seduction. The word curled in my mind like smoke. I had never been bold in my old life, too awkward and buried in research to even dream of such a thing. But now? I was Wanda Maximoff—the Scarlet Witch. With this beauty, this power, this body, I could have anyone I wanted.
But Natasha wasn't anyone.
Would I tempt her into a passionate affair, a tangle of sheets and whispered nights? That thought made heat rise in me, sharp and consuming. I could imagine it so easily—her voice low in my ear, her body against mine. A thousand fanfics had given me the scenes, but none of them could prepare me for the real thing.
Or… did I want more?
I pressed my palm flat against my chest, feeling the steady thrum of my heart beneath it. The truth was, I wasn't just living for the moment anymore. I was living for eternity. The Scarlet Witch wasn't bound by mortal limits. If I truly mastered this power, if I reached the potential I knew lay within me, then I would live far beyond the span of normal humans. Perhaps centuries. Perhaps forever.
That thought should have been terrifying. Instead, it made me hungry.
Immortality meant choosing carefully. It meant not wasting myself on someone fleeting. And Natasha… Natasha was mortal, yes, but she wasn't ordinary. She carried herself like a woman who had already lived a dozen lives. She was fierce, brilliant, broken in ways that matched the cracks in my own soul.
Could she be the one to share eternity with me? Or would she simply be my first indulgence in this new life?
I smiled in the darkness, tracing patterns of scarlet light above my head. Either way, I would have her. Whether as a lover to steal fire from or as a partner to stand beside me for as long as time allowed, Natasha Romanoff was going to be mine.
And the thought of it thrilled me.