While Azreal busy was trying and failing to think of a way to start a fire.
Olivia's mind was floating somewhere between sleep and instinct, wrapped in fog as Something primal stirred beneath her skin.
Hunger
A deep, primal, hunger
When a familiar scent cut through the haze her mind was stuck in.
Warm, delicious, inviting.
Azrael
Her fingers curled before her eyes even opened, but eventually they did.
Her eyelids parted quickly once she smelled him near, revealing beautiful pink eyes that glowed with a quiet, hypnotic brilliance, but the pink drained from her eyes just as quickly as they opened, replaced with a dark blood-red color.
That while just as beautiful as the previous pink, they were far more disturbing
The cold cave faded from her senses, the snow, the walls.
All of it vanished beneath the overpowering warmth coming from him.
Her body moved before her thoughts caught up, slow at first, then with a sudden, frightening precision.
Her fingers twitched. Her lips parted. Her breath hitched in her throat like a predator scenting prey.
Behind her, Azreal was still muttering to himself, unaware.
"Fire, fire… how the hell do I start a fire without you, Liv…? Man, I guess I really do depend on you a lot. Without you, I probably wouldn't have even made it this far, to be honest."
He didn't notice the way her head lifted and didn't hear the quiet inhale she took, sharp and hungry.
He didn't feel the air shift behind him as she pushed herself up onto her elbows, movements smooth but unnatural, almost dreamlike.
But he did feel the sudden warmth of her breath at the back of his neck.
He froze.
"… Liv, you're up? Why didn't you say anything? If you're up for it, can you help me with this fire, please, Your Majesty?" His voice was calm and playful.
Her breathing was not. It was slow, heavy, and hungry, shaking with restraint she didn't fully understand.
He turned his head slightly, just enough to glimpse her from the corner of his eye.
Her pupils were razor-thin
Her red irises glowed like smoldering coals.
And she was staring straight at his throat.
"Liv…?" he tried again, softer now.
She didn't answer.
She only leaned closer.
Olivia moved in a blur.
One moment she was behind him, trembling with that strange, feverish hunger-filled stare
Next, her teeth were already inches from his neck, like he was her next meal and a delicious one at that.
Azreal jerked forward.
"Liv! This isn't fucking funny."
Her teeth snapped shut where his throat had been a half-second earlier.
A low, frustrated growl slipped from her lips.
Azreal twisted, stumbling back, keeping her teeth away from vital places, but she was fast, unnaturally fast, and her movements were more precise in ways she'd never shown awake.
And then
She got him, not on his neck but she got him nonetheless
Her teeth sank right into the side of his thigh.
Azrael's breath punched out of him in a sharp hiss.
"Fuck!"
Pain flashed… then heat… then something else. A strange pull, like the world tilting under him for a second.
He grabbed her shoulders and yanked his leg out of her mouth, stumbling back as blood poured through his new wound.
She crouched on all fours, breath heaving, pupils blown wide, watching him like he was prey.
"Liv… that's enough. what the hell is wrong with you?"
But she didn't hear him.
She lunged again.
He dodged.
Barely.
Again.
He sidestepped, but slower this time.
Again, her claws scraped his arm, her breath hot against his skin.
"Olivia… stop… I'm not…"
His vision wavered.
A wave of weakness rolled through his body suddenly and brutally, stealing the strength from his muscles like water draining from a cracked cup.
"What… the hell…?"
His knees buckled.
He hit the cave's snowy floor hard.
The world spun, blurry around the edges.
He tried to lift an arm.
Tried to push himself up.
Tried to move at all.
Nothing responded.
His limbs felt heavy and distant, like they were no longer his.
"Liv…" he breathed, voice fading, "I can't… move…"
Olivia slowly rose to her feet.
Her head tilted.
Her red eyes locked onto him.
And she stepped toward him, silent, hungry.
Each movement was deliberate and predatory.
Her fingers curled against the cold stone, leaving faint scratches.
Her breath came out in slow, trembling exhales.
Azreal couldn't move. He could only watch as she approached him, no, as she approached her next meal Mouthwatering, like he was the most delectable sight she had ever laid her eyes on.
"…Liv…" His voice was barely a rasp.
If she heard him, she didn't show it.
She crawled closer, inch by inch, her face lowering toward the ground like a wolf stalking wounded prey. Her hair dragged behind her in pale waves, brushing across the cave floor.
Her mouth parted.
A line of saliva slipped down her lip, thick, shimmering, and wrong.
Azrael blinked, vision doubling.
Inside her saliva, tiny motes of black swirled like living ink.
Cold fear lanced through his chest.
That was the same black poison, her venom, that coated her sword when she fought.
"Olivia…" he whispered, throat tight. she had poisoned him; that was why he couldn't move
Her tongue brushed across her fang, catching another strand of dark, shimmering saliva. She swallowed with a soft, hungry sound that made Azrael's pulse spike.
Then she lifted her head.
Her red eyes glowed like fresh blood.
Her mouth watered, literally dripping, as she stared at him like a starving animal who had just found the only meal in a frozen wasteland.
She whispered one broken word, voice thick with need and instinct
"…hungry…"
Azrael's breath caught.
He tried to push himself back, even an inch.
Nothing.
His limbs were dead weight.
Olivia crawled forward again, closing the final distance.
Her fingers pressed into the stone beside his ribs.
Her hot breath washed across his neck.
Her lips hovered just above his skin.
A strand of that black-tainted saliva dripped onto his collarbone and sizzled faintly.
Azrael's heart hammered helplessly.
She opened her mouth wider.
And moved with sudden precision, her fangs glinting briefly before she sank them into the side of his neck.
The sharp points broke through his warm, chocolate-colored skin with a clean, quick puncture. A thin line of crimson welled up around her bite, dark against his deep complexion as she drew in his blood with a slow, deliberate pull.
The moment her fangs pierced him, the world seemed to tilt. A sharp breath tore from his chest, not from pain, but from the sudden wave of pleasure that surged through him.
The pull of her lips at his skin sent warmth rushing through his veins, a deep, rolling pleasure that made every nerve feel awake.
Each slow draw of blood felt like liquid heat flooding his body, rising from his neck and spiraling outward in pulses that made his muscles loosen and his breath stutter.
Her mouth stayed at his neck, and every gentle pull sent another ripple of bliss through him, powerful, dizzying, and almost overwhelming.
His heartbeat pounded against her lips, and the pleasure washed over him again and again until something flushed in the corner of his eye. And that same familiar sound flashed in his ear.
DING!!!