Pray for the Wicked | ATEEZ

48.

I was reborn a sinner as well.

Mere hours after a long night of drunken games, laughter bubbling from the very depths of several souls, and whispers and secrets echoing the amber-bathed corner of the pub, I awoke to a world of cool darkness, letting my eyes flutter open to reveal a familiar room obscured by shadows. A sigh parted my lips as I reveled in the feeling of silk sheets against my skin.

Hongjoong's arm was slung across my waist, keeping me grounded. As I turned to face the demon beside me, painfully slow as to not wake him, I felt my heart soar with a sense of reverence once I was able to fully admire how the darkness shaped his sleeping features, turning them sharp and violent in a way that was nothing short of marvelous.

Cerulean locks lay swept across the pillow like an unruly ocean, and although I usually found myself fixated on the feature, one of my favourites, it was his eyelashes that caught my attention then, studying the way they would brush across the flushed skin beneath them as he frowned ever so slightly.

A twitch of his hand sent a shockwave down the small of my back as cold rings grazed the skin, tender in a way that was almost painful.

"You're staring," he mumbled, his voice coarse with the sleep that refused to relieve him of the iron grip it held on his tired body.

I hummed, silently watching him groan and run a hand down his face, at last opening his eyes to meet mine. Their midnight depths never ceased to amaze me, to leave me breathless. A flicker of regret settled in my heart as I remembered Lilith's words and predictions, realizing that, one day, they would be replaced by the same grey that clouded mine.

"Do you like what you see?"

Humming again, I let my worries melt away into curious yearning as I reached out to trail a hand along the cut of his jaw. No likeness to those of the angels, my treacherous people and nature, would change the fact that he was mine, utterly mine. I daringly moved it further down, caressing his throat as my fingers ran across that rounded apple, feeling my mouth go dry.

No amount of light would change the shadows he had left in my heart nor the relief I felt when they allowed me to dive into their gracious darkness. I stared at the trail of goosebumps that emerged in the wake of my touch, moving my hand further down as my fingers dove into the dip between his collar bones before reemerging, at last reaching his chest.

I was torn from my thoughts as a cold hand gripped my wrist and forced me to stop, my eyes finding his again as he gathered himself and said, "You forget that you're playing with the devil, Dahlia. You're playing with fire, and carelessly, at that."

"I'm not careless," I breathed, the lie feeling wonderful as it left my lips.

"Just like you weren't careless last night?" he countered, disarming me.

I could tell that he was bothered, reasonably so, yet I still found myself enjoying the smile brazenly pulling at the corners of my lips as I laid my head back onto the pillow and watched him quietly, feigning innocence as his eyes darkened. He brought the worst out in me and I in him. And it felt wonderful in the worst of ways.

The son of Lilith's grip on my wrist tightened, not to hurt me, but to feel that treacherous song my heart was pouring into the veins beneath my skin.

"You were trying to provoke me," he stated. I swallowed thickly. It hadn't been a question. "It was evident in your every move, your intention to inflame feelings you already knew were there," he continued, propping himself up on his elbow, not once letting go of my wrist or the iron grip he held upon my focus, my eyes.

Hongjoong lowered his voice as he said, "No matter what those hellions whisper in your ears, no matter how they make you smile, you and I both know that I conquered your lips long ago, and that mine were the very reason for your fall. Every smirk last night was for me, every grin meant to set my soul on fire. You and I both know that you only allow them their sins to gain my attention, and that makes you not only clever but cruel."