"The car is parked just out front, running and ready to go." Nik responded to Nemia and inclined his head. Dorian just stared at her, unblinking and visibly tense.
Nemia nodded her head, "Sure am, Julia won't be joining however as I'm sure you have gathered." Her eyes never moved from Dorian as she spoke, nearly as unblinking as his were. They were locked on one another, the tension thickening the air between them.
Mentally, Nemia shook herself and looked away from him. She glanced up at Nik and gave him a small smile before moving around him on the opposite side of Dorian so Nik would be the barrier between them.
He cocked an eyebrow at her, but said nothing on the matter. Instead, he just shook his head and glanced over to Dorian. Who seemed to be coming back to his own senses as he rolled his shoulders then spun around to face the other direction the precise moment Nik done the same.
The three of them set off to the blacked out luxury styled townscar with a large-ish trunk. A driver stood beside the back passenger door, opening it the moment they stepped off the last stair with a warm, friendly smile. "Good morning, King Dorian. Nikolaus." He greeted with a short bow of his head to each of them with their corresponding names. Then, "And Ms.?"
Nemia hesitated for a moment, "Nemia. You?" She gave the man a smile.
"Good morning to you as well, Ms. Nemia. I'm Sebastian, I'll be your driver for the day." He responded with another respectful bow of his head along with a smile of his own.
Sebastian was tall and relatively slender with shoulder length coarse black hair. He had yellow eyes and a deeply tanned skin. His voice was soft, warm with his youth showing. With a quick, subtle intake to catch his scent, she confirmed her thoughts. He was definitely a were-cat, more than likely that of the panther subrace.
Nemia smiled at him again, "Good morning to you as well, Sebastian."
With a nod, he thanked her and urged them into the car. The back extended a bit to place two seats facing each other with enough leg room for both sides. The guys stepping to the side allowing Nemia to enter first, choosing the seat in the back facing towards the driver. Nik clambered in next, sitting directly across from Nemia, his back facing the driver.
Dorian leaned in, looking between the two seats. His two options. His eyes resting on Nemia, he points next to her and cleared his throat a touch. "Do you mind?" Asking for permission.
Nemia stared back at him, her mouth opening then closing again. Much like a mockery of a fish out of water. Her initial reaction was to tell him she did mind, not wanting him that close. 'Just give him a chance.' Julia's words echoed in her mind.
"Nev-" Dorian started before Nemia interjected. "Yes, sit." Her lips twitching into a shy smile as she motioned to the open spot next to her. Dorian returned her smile with one of his own and Nemia's heart sputtered for a moment.
Once the three of them was settled, Sebastian shut their door and quickly moved around to get in the driver's seat. A moment later and they were off, she assumed he already knew their destination with how Sebastian had never asked.
She looked between Nik and Dorian, "So I'm assuming everyone knows where we are going except me?" She pursed her lips at the question.
"Sorry, yes. Donovan is near Botosani." Dorian replied hastily.
"In a old shack, no less." Nik added with a laugh.
"In an attempt to throw us off his trail, he decided to actually run, which made him get not as far away as he would've liked I'm sure. He was trying to make it to the city to have its luxuries but the sun best him there and he hid away inside a shack that was the home of an old hermit till he became Donovan's meal, that is." Dorian continued on with giving Nemia the information they had but she looked between them confused still.
"How do you know all this?" Nemia asked with the same confused look.
"Location tracker with a powerful witch " Dorian responded, starting to rub his wrists absentmindedly. She glanced down at Dorian's hands and wrists when he started the motion, which was when she noticed the dried blood on his wrists.
Instinctively, without her realizing what she was doing, she reached over and grabbed his left hand as it was the closer of the two. Pulling it over and inspecting the marks that were almost completely healed now. Her lips pursed again while she thought of how it had happened. Then, what he said clicked on her mind but her brows still pinched together again and looked back up at him. "Blood magic? I thought that was banned."
Dorian smiled, "Not quite blood magic, but at the same time it may still be considered blood magic. The witch can use my blood and aura to magnify her spells and get better, more accurate readings with location spells."
Nemia's brows pulled even closer together, looking back down at his wrist with his hand still clasped in her hand palm side up. She was curious how the witch did it, but didn't press as her thoughts were being to become muddled. Her thumb brushing across his palm and toward his wrist. His hand felt nice in hers, the warmth of it soothing. As her thumb trailed closer to his wrist, she noticed he tensed and the veins and tendons in his wrist became overly prominent. Then she heard a low rumble of a growl much similar to the one she had heard and felt just a few hours ago.
Her eyes darted up and locked on his, the rest of the car melting from her vision as she lost herself in the depths of his darkening eyes.
"Nemia.." He breathed out her name, almost inaudible but loud enough for a rush of heat to wash over Nemia.
'Gods.' She thought to herself, licking her lips. She never thought she would ever crave her name, but she did. She craved the way he said her name just then and wanted to hear it again and again.
Then, something. No, someone, was breaking their hands apart and the heady fog she was in slipped away. She looked down at the arm that had just severed hers and dorian's connected hands and followed the length of it up to Nik's face. Heat seared her cheeks and she shifted and pressed herself against the door to her left. Glancing over at Dorian who was sitting completely still, arm still somewhat outstretched from where she had been holding it. She noted the daggers his eyes seemed to be stabbing into him.
Nik rose his hands, palms out in a innocent display. "I'm all for it, don't get me wrong bro. I'm just not going to be trapped in a car and have to watch." Nik smirked and glanced over at Nemia and then back to Dorian. "Plus I don't think you'd be to happy if I watched either." He added with a wink.
The pesterment seemed to bring Dorian back to his own senses and he nodded firmly. "Thank you." He replied forcefully through gritted teeth.
Nemia glanced between the two then nodded at Nik. "Yes, thank you..." Slipping into her thoughts, Nemia stared out of the window on her left side. The car ride was relatively silent after that. Her looking out of the window while she felt Dorian's eyes boring into her nearly the whole way. Nik scrolled through his phone for the remainder of the trip once he realized neither one of them was up for conversation now.
About two hours later, they pulled into what looked like and empty clearing just off the road they were on. After closer inspection however, she noticed a shack tucked off at the edge of the tree line. Her ears pricked to hear any movements but was met with silence aside from the low hum of the cars engine and the heartbeats of those in the car.
They waited until the car was turned around with the trunk facing to the entrance of the shed and parked about ten feet away. Looking at each other with a silent understanding before stepping out of the vehicle and walked over to the door of the shack.
Nemia didn't waste a moment of time, her first reaching up to bang loudly on the door. A clatter came from inside as, what she assumed, was stuff falling over as Donovan moved about from inside the shack. She knew that he knew who was on the other side of the door and was more than likely finding a corner to cower in.
"No sudden movements." Dorian barked out the order to Nemia's left.
"Or you're dead." Nik followed up in a cool, even yet dominant tone.
Nemia's skin prickled at the strength of the aura's both of them exuded in the moment. A small smile flickered across her face at the thought that Donovan was probably shitting himself in the moment. "And I'll be the one to end you, happily." She added in a singsong, light tone.
Nik reach around Nemia coming from her right side and pushed the door wide, revealing a broken table on the inside and a lifeless body crumpled into a heap next to/on it. A quick scan and their eyes landed on a cowering Donovan in the back corner. Nik slipped through and entered first, heading straight to the lifeless corpse on the old hermit. Dorian and Nemia followed shortly after, making their way to the corner where Donovan cowered. His hands up over his head that was turned down and buried into his knees, starting to mumble incoherently.
"Stand up Donovan!" Dorian ordered, but Donovan didn't move.
Nemia shook her head and tsked. "Such shame, Donovan. You really should obey your king." She reached down and grabbed his ash blonde hair and yanked him up onto his feet, letting him go only to place her hand on his neck now. "Now listen."
Donovan's eyes grew wide in fear and he was visibly shaking, looking between Dorian and Nemia and then to Nik as he walked over. Opening and closing his mouth, trying to speak but unable to make much of a sound other than a garbled squeak from Nemia's hand squeezing down on his windpipe and voice box. She pushed him harder against the wooden wall, causing it to splinter and crack above his head. Thin streams of sunlight started peaking through and one ran right across the edge of his pointed nose, immediately his flesh started sizzling under the rays of the sun. He grunted and tried to scream but his voice was still garbled under Nemia's hand.
As the tip of this nose turned blackened and burnt, she released her grip and he slid out of the rays. His eyes wide as he stared at Nemia in horror as she just smiled at him with an emotionless stare. She had always wanted to put him in his place, wanted to show him she was not the one. But for a while, he was her source of information and she had to play along with it. No matter what it costed her at the time.
Her hands flexed as memories flashed through her mind of what he had made her do just to get the smallest scraps of information on Malcolm. Though throughout the entire time he was working with him. She growled and started to reach for him again but Nik stopped her, pulling her away and giving distance. She let him pull her away instead of fighting him, but would easily escape if she couldn't contain herself and lunged for Donovan again.
Donovan relaxed a bit, though he still wasn't in the clear, and gave Dorian a nervous smile. "K-King Dorian. W-what a pleasant s-suprise." He stuttered out and bowed his head low.
"Lower." Dorian growled, commanding Donovan's submission and he bowed even lower, bending his waist to a near ninety degree angle. "Lower."Dorian demanded again.
Nemia felt a tug in the pit of her stomach, watching as Dorian displayed himself. So commanding, dominating. Powerful. These feelings weren't coming from the pull of her mated bond with him this time though, this was just pure and utterer attraction to watch her king demanding submission. "I submit.' She thought to herself.
"On your hands and knees, you should kiss my show for not killing you already." Doeian growled out lowly.
Nemia watches as Donovan looked between Dorian and the dirty floor of the shack just as a mouse ran between their feet and through a hole in the floorboards. "But.. but sir.." Donovan started.
"ON THE FLOOR!" Dorian roared, the walls of the shack rattling from the loud bellowing boom of his voice. Donovan nearly jumped to the ground then, no longer caring if it was dirty or not. He hesitated though, on lowering his face to Dorian's boot. Dorian shoved his booted foot up to his face in a flurry and slammed the toe of his boot into Donovan's chin, sending his head flying up and back into the wall behind him. His back bending as it followed along with the motion of his head. Knocking him completely unconscious.
Dorian turned on his heel, spinning around to face Nik and Nemia, who was still in Nik's clutches at the moment but he quickly released her after Dorian locked eyes with him and gave a silent command.
Nemia stepped away from Nik and towards Dorian. She was mesmerized with him in the moment. She took another step forward and dorian's gaze locked onto hers. His dominating arua was started to slip away, she felt the air lightening up from the disappearance of it. Frowning, she glanced down. His power was drawing her in but now that his mood was shifting, that enticing aura was fading. She felt disappointed, though as she looked back up into his darkening eyes, that flame inside her burned hotter.
"Are we going to stare at each other now or are we gonna load that fool into the trunk and get him back for questioning?" Nik's voice cut through and shook Nemia to her senses as well as Dorian, both of them sighing in unison. Nik was right though, they needed to get Donovan back. That being said, she nodded her head in agreement and Dorian made his own agreement shortly after.
They then started binding Donovan's arms and legs together with sanctified titanium chains. They were very thin links pulled together but damn near impossible for any creature to break. Once bound, Nemia done the honors of throwing him in the trunk. He was just waking up as he was slammed down into the trunk, his exposed skin sizzling under the sun. Nemia paused as his eyes flew open and he let out a screech of pain as more bits of his skin blackened. Satisfied at causing more discomfort, Nemia slammed the trunk shut.
The three of them clambered back into the townscar in the same spots they had ridden down on. This time however, Nemia slid a bit closer to Dorian. Reaching her hand over to grab his and hold it silently. She absolutely refused to look at him the entire drive back to the castle, but held onto his hand for the whole duration. The only other movement she made was an occasional small circling of her thumb over the back of his hand and thumb.
She was feeling him out, giving him a chance. And deep down, she wanted to see how dominating he could really be where she was involved. That thought alone causing flutters in her stomach and a heat to rise in her cheeks for most of the way back.