I could read. The idea bored her.
She turned her head to the cabinet above the kitchen. He did ask me to make a new bell.
Quietly, more so that she didn’t get caught right in the act rather than actually waking him, she moved her chair to the kitchen counter and stood on it. She retrieved everything she wanted before returning it to the table so she could start to work on it.
She made it the same, and just when she was done, she heard heavy footsteps making their way down the short hallway.
“Reia?” he asked with a gravelly voice like it was groggy and sleep-filled, emerging while only wearing his trousers as if he’d quickly put something on.
“What’s wrong, Orpheus?”
His eyes are white.
She hadn’t expected to be greeted with anything but a well satisfied and content Duskwalker. Placing the finished bell on the table, she approached him.
“Did you hurt yourself?”
He started lifting her arms as though he wanted to check her. She started checking herself along with him.
“I don’t think so.”
“Then why do you smell of blood?”
She lifted her gaze to him while she frowned deeply.
“Is that what woke you?”
“Yes.”
She’d been making all this noise and he only woke because of the smell of her blood. He still sounds so tired. He’d essentially crumbled into sleep after the last time they’d been intimate.
He started sniffing her hair, her neck, her chest, moving lower as if he was trying to find the source. Her eyes snapped open wide, and she lightly pushed him back.
She ran to the washroom.
Reia squealed in delight when she realised that the annoying, nagging pain in her stomach had been because she was bleeding between her thighs.
“Yes!” She pumped her arm into the air. “Never been so happy to have my freaking period.”
Never in her life would she think she’d have a pregnancy scare with a Duskwalker! She bounced down the hallway, thankful they didn’t have to fret about him eating her at the smell of her blood now.
He twisted his head at her, seeming to be utterly confused. “I don’t understand why you’re happy. Doesn’t this usually cause you pain?”
“Oh, I’m definitely in pain, but I’d rather this than be pregnant!”
His eyes turned dark yellow in curiosity. “But we cannot make a child. Why would you be worried about this?”
Her cheeks heated slightly, as if she was nervous about being in trouble.
“I, uh, kind of had a conversation with the Witch Owl earlier.”
A light growl immediately emitted from his throat.
“I told you not to speak with her.”
She rolled her eyes at him and the fact he never seemed to learn she rarely did as she was told. There were more important things to speak about anyway.
“I know where you came from, Orpheus, and what you actually are. You’re part-spirit, part-human. And when I gave you my soul, you turned me into a Phantom – which is also part spirit.”
“I still don’t understand why this would make you worried when you weren’t before.”
They’d never spoken about this, and Reia had freely let him release inside her because she hadn’t thought it would matter. She didn’t know if having a child with Orpheus was something she wanted, but being able to have the choice was a relief. Her future was uncertain. All she knew was that it would always have him in it.
She laughed as she reached up to cup his snout and drag his head closer so she could rest her own against it.
“You made me like you, and it means we’re compatible now.”
He lowered to a crouch to bring himself to her eye level.
“So, this means we can make a child?”
“Yes.” She gave him a little smile as she said, “But I still don’t want to now.”
Orpheus shrunk away from her, his eyes turning a deep blue. “You don’t want to do this with me?”
Her forehead crinkled when she realised he appeared hurt by what she said.
“I meant not yet. I’m not ready for something like that.”
That seemed to ease him, and his eyes returned to yellow. He crept forward, tapping his snout with a claw in thought before he did it to the lower part of her stomach.
“But I would like to do this. I didn’t know I could place my seed in your womb for you to grow, but I would like you to bear my youngling.” He continued to tap her stomach, as if that would magically make it happen. “I will protect it.”
“I’m sure you would,” she replied, backing up only for Orpheus to follow. “But not now.”