Chapter 189: Toxic Love: A Possessive Sociopath & a Masochistic Goth

POV Julian

I never really understood what it meant to "grow up in a family."

At home, there was no warmth, no safety, not even affection. Just muffled screams behind closed doors and the persistent smell of alcohol.

My father, Duke Frostvine, was a broken man long before I was born. A son of a bitch every time he drank. Alcohol made him violent, unpredictable. I saw him raise his hand to my mother more times than I could ever count. And me, useless kid that I was, I just stood there, unable to intervene because even I would get my beating afterward.

My mother...

For a long time, I blamed her for her weakness. Her resignation... I resented her for never protecting me, for never taking me in her arms to tell me everything would be okay.

Then I grew up... I understood she was a prisoner, just like me. Prisoner of a marriage she bitterly regretted, prisoner of a man she had learned to fear and not to love.

So our relationship became distant...

A mother and son who understood each other without ever saying it, but who no longer knew how to love each other.

I built myself without parental figures and without affection.

Fortunately I was talented. Very early on, people noticed me. My title, my appearance, my abilities... everything worked in my favor. And very quickly, I realized women could fill that void. Not permanently, but enough to give me the illusion of existing in someone’s eyes.

So I multiplied the conquests.

I was looking for one simple thing: proof that I could be desired and appreciated. With my good looks, my noble status, and my talent, it wasn’t hard.

Then, on the advice of that bastard Kaiser, I pushed open the door of a sorcery lecture hall. That’s where I saw her.

That witch...

I won’t lie and call it love at first sight. But she immediately caught my eye. An ebony elf in all her splendor. Beautiful, dangerous, intelligent. Talented to the point of being intimidating. Direct disciple of the Walpurgis witch. Her status already placed her in another league.

Talking with her, I realized our minds were alike. A pragmatic view of the world and an absence of rigid morality. We became inseparable, then lovers. And for the first time, happiness wasn’t frivolous but grew day by day.

And fuck... how happy I was.

She was incredible in bed. And like that dog Kaiser said: "She had a lot of time to refine those techniques."

Anyway, none of that matters now.

I’m going to tell her what I really feel.

...

I was heading toward the Babylon domain in a small carriage. The journey passed in heavy silence, broken only by the regular rolling of the wheels. When I arrived in front of the manor, I got out a few coins and handed them to the driver.

"Keep the change."

The Babylon manor stood before me and then I knocked on the door. A butler opened it immediately.

"I greet you, young master Frostvine. Lady Norah Walpurgy is in her laboratory."

I nodded and climbed the three flights of stairs without hurrying.

When I reached the laboratory door, I walked past it and continued farther. Her bedroom caught my attention. Without thinking any further, I slipped inside.

The room smelled of... witch. That’s all it could evoke. Shelves filled with books, test tubes scattered everywhere. A brain floated in a viscous liquid next to several preserved eyeballs. Nothing important, probably. Just useless data from her research, recycled as decoration.

I looked around. Her scent was everywhere. Intoxicating. I approached her clothes and inhaled deeply.

*Snif*

"Hmmm..."

*Snif*

"Hmmmm... She makes me so... This bitch..."

I pressed her underwear against my face.

I pressed the fabric against my skin, eyes closed. That was when I heard a voice, calm and slightly amused.

"What are you doing?"

At that moment, the extra-gothic ebony elf entered the room.

Her mid-length black hair framed her face. Piercings adorned her pointed ears. Her dark skin was traced with faint tattoos. Her piercing blue eyes, accentuated by black sclera, pierced through me. She wore a blood-stained lab coat and held a large bloodied pair of tongs.

"I was just reliving the good moments... I needed to talk to you."

"Okay." She set the tongs on a dresser, then removed her lab coat, revealing a fitted black dress. She patted the mattress beside her. "Come sit so we can talk."

I sat down.

"I’ll be direct, Norah. I don’t want you sleeping with other guys."

A slow smile spread across her lips. "Ah... You wanted to talk about that." She moved closer, her perfume stronger.

"I really like you, Julian, and it’s the first time I’ve felt attraction for someone... We’re a lot alike, you and I, which is probably what worked between us."

I sighed.

"That’s why I broke up with all my conquests, Norah... I want to be with you only... You see, and you belong to me only... I don’t want other men touching you."

She tilted her head, her smile freezing. "That’s going to be difficult... I’m not sure I can be satisfied with just one man, you know."

A brutal cold ran through me. The ground seemed to give way beneath my feet...

"I see. Then I think there’s nothing left to say between us."

I stood up; every movement was pain. I walked toward the door, heart pounding wildly. An absurd hope clawed at me. I turned back, just for a moment, to see if she would stop me.

But she was simply leaning over her mirror, applying jet-black lipstick with absolute concentration.

’WHAT???’

"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME, NORAH!?"

"Hm?" She turned, one eyebrow raised.

She had never loved me. I was just a fuck. Just another one of those guys? Jasper’s words echoed in my skull: ’Why not just kill her?’

"It’s true, that’s what this bitch deserves!"

My thoughts became an uncontrollable whirlwind. Before reason could take over, my body had already acted. My hand closed around the handle of the tongs left on the dresser.

In two strides I was on her. I grabbed her by the throat and slammed her against the wall.

"Fuck, Norah! Do you see what you make me do?"

I yelled, feeling her tremble under my grip.

"YOU WANT TO DRIVE ME CRAZY?! YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND WHAT I FEEL FOR YOU?? BITCH?"

She coughed, her hands closing around my wrist, not to push me away, but to pull me closer. "Cough... Julian... you’re choking me... Cough..."

"Yeah, I’m gonna kill you... You never loved me... I’m gonna..."

That was when I saw her eyes. There was no fear in them. On the contrary. Her pupils were dilated, her gaze glassy, and an ecstatic smile distorted her lips. A hoarse moan escaped her throat.

"Harder ~ Julian ~ Squeeze me. Harder..."

"What?"

I loosened my grip a little, stunned. Her eyes rolled back slightly, a violent shiver of pleasure ran through her.

’She’s insane.’

The thought was clearly terrifying. But for some reason or another...

Without really knowing how, my mouth found hers again in a wild, biting kiss that tasted of iron and black lipstick. She moaned into my breath, her hands clutching my hair, pulling me even closer, demanding more pressure, more biting.

"I want you for myself alone, Norah! Do you understand?!" I growled between kisses planted on her cheek, her neck. "If you cheat on me, I’ll kill you."

"Ah ~~ Julian... Yes... I belong to you... Hurt me again... Hmmm... Even more..."

I kissed the base of her neck, feeling her pulse race frantically under my lips. Possessiveness and obsession blended into a pure, devastating feeling. "I love you so much I’m ready to kill you if I have to..."

What followed was not gentle. It was a torrid sex battle between two consenting adults...

Later, lying in the mess of the sheets, still short of breath, she rested her head on my chest. Her voice was low, murmuring.

"If you fuck me like that every time... I might just be satisfied with you alone."

I squeezed her shoulder, my fingers leaving pale marks on her dark skin. "You’d better, Norah. You belong to me. Forever."

"Forever..." she whispered.

A peaceful, strange silence settled in. Then she added, "Darling, I’ll be away for about three days. A mission for the Babylon faction."

I nodded without answering. My fingers played with a lock of her black hair.

As her breathing became regular, she fell asleep in the circle of my arms.

End Of POV

Who would have thought that a couple who understood each other so well, who loved each other to death, would be made up of a possessive sociopath and a masochistic goth?

’Cupid does things right,’ Norah thought as she fell asleep in Julian’s arms.