Elias's survival instincts, honed by years of fighting both the tide and the city's dregs, kicked in.
He shoved against Caspian's chest, his muscles bunching as he forced a sliver of space between them. To his surprise, Caspian didn't resist. He let his arms slide away with a fluid, mocking ease, but not before leaning in one last time.
With a predator's precision, Caspian caught Elias's lower lip between his teeth, a sharp, sudden nibble that sent a jolt of electricity straight down Elias's spine.
"I wish to peel you apart with my tongue—inch by aching inch—until your essence stains my lips and my memories."
Elias choked on the around them.
"Don't go dying on me, little spark," Caspian murmured with a chuckle, his yellow eyes flashing with a wicked, internal light. "I still need you."
He stepped back, turning his slender back to Elias to gaze out at the city lights once more, as if he hadn't just shattered the boy's reality.
Elias stumbled back, his face flushing a deep, humiliated red as he actually choked on his own saliva, coughing into his hand while his mind raced to catch up.
"You—what?" Elias wheezed, his heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird. He wiped his mouth, the ghost of the man's touch still burning. "What do you mean you 'need' me? What are you? Why am I here?"
The questions poured out of him like a breached dam. He looked at the way Caspian's hair moved—not like hair at all, but like seaweed caught in an invisible current.
He looked at the glowing side of his own torso, where the wound from Jax's gun was now nothing more than a faint, silver scar.
"How did you find me?" Elias demanded, his voice cracking. "And that dream... the boat... the tongue..." He swallowed hard, the final question sticking in his throat before he forced it out. "Are you... are you the Leviathan?"
Caspian didn't turn around immediately. He watched the reflection of the city in the glass, his silhouette looking like a dark, elegant rip in the fabric of the room. When he finally looked over his shoulder, his smile was slow, dangerous, and devastatingly beautiful.
"What if I'm not?" Caspian asked, his voice a low, melodic vibration that seemed to make the very floorboards hum.
Then, he did it. A long, pink, and impossibly supple tongue darted out, slowly wetting his own lower lip in a gesture that was both terrifying and sensually charged.
"If I were just a man, little spark... would you let me hold you then?"
Elias felt the air leave the room. The question was a trap, a lure bobbing in the dark water. Caspian wasn't just asking for permission; he was mocking the very idea of it.
...