Out of the World

25. Glowing Art

Zorion

Lifting my face, my gaze met Nina’s startled eyes. How could that happen? People could only communicate with their mates through telepathy after the mate bond was consolidated through mating and marking, which wasn’t the case.Besides that, things were supposed to be slower rather than faster with her.

“How did you do it? Is that a spell?” she asked, covering her forehead with a hand.

“No. I don’t know, Nina. It wasn’t supposed to happen. Is your head hurting?”

“Not anymore. It did for half a second, but now it’s alright. I just don’t get what’s happening,” she sighed.

“I don’t know. We can ask my father,” I suggested, and Nina’s expression of shock morphed into a frown. It was a bad idea: my father and I hadn’t talked about Nina, but I knew he didn’t like the fact that I was mated to a human. His frowns said more than words ever could, and Nina could feel his disapproval as well.

Another idea came up; there was someone else we could ask.

“I know someone else who can help us, tell us more about our bond. She is an ancient shaman and probably the most knowledgeable person in the Six Realms.”

Mama Shawn would know what to do. Besides being older than Hell, she could communicate with the Gods, so she would be able to give us the information I needed.

Nina nodded, snuggling into my chest and sighing deeply.

“Honey, you don’t have to worry about it. It can’t be anything bad, just the fact that our connection is even stronger than we imagined,” I reassured her, attracting her beautiful honey gaze to mine.

The beams of the moon lit up her face, making each one of her cute freckles shine a little. All I wanted to do was to kiss them, comfort her, and make her know that whatever happened, I would be there to protect her, love her.

“I hope so. I am the only human in this magic place, so… many things could go wrong, many things no one else could foresee,” she sighed.

“Mama Shawn will help us, she will tell us everything, and if there is any issue, we will solve it. I know something that can help you to relax, Honey,” I told her, scooping her small frame up in my arms and taking her to one of the ateliers I had prepared. There, a canvas and everything she needed to paint waited for her.

Even before I put her down properly, she jumped to her feet and strode to the bottles of colours.

“Are those watercolours?” she asked, looking intently at the basket containing dozens of them.

“I think Teema mentioned they were made of seaweed and flower extracts,” I told her, scratching the back of my head.

“They are so beautiful.” She was so focused on the colours that she didn’t even look at me and that couldn’t make me happier. She really enjoyed the surprise.

“I am looking forward to seeing people using them and how beautiful they look when they come to life, becoming forms, shadows and light.”

“People? No, Honey. It’s for you, for you to paint now, if you want, or take them home,” I told her.

Swallowing hard, she turned to look at me, “I think they are too good for me. Besides, I’ve never painted with anyone looking, except for a few assignments at art school… but I always did my best to avoid them and took more theoretical assignments. I am not good, Zorion,” she sighed.

“It doesn’t matter, Honey. You don’t need to be good, just need to love doing it and have fun. You have nothing to prove, especially not to me, when I love you just the way you are. Beautifully imperfect.” I told her and she only nodded. I was ready to leave and give her time to paint by herself if she wished me to. I knew she missed painting, and I wanted her to both relax and enjoy herself.

To my surprise, she didn’t ask me to leave. She only took a seat on the wooden stool in front of the canvas while her hesitant hand took a brush, and she tried its material on the back of her hand. After taking her time, looking at the colours with a fascinated smile, she started painting.

Gasping as if she had surprised herself, she turned to look at me, her forehead creasing with fine lines of worry, “I can’t make you wait while I am painting. Shouldn’t we go home?”

“No. We should stay right here. Don’t worry about me, Honey. I will sit down and read something.”

Nina nodded, a small but sweet smile on her face. I was glad she trusted me enough to paint in front of me without letting her insecurities pull her down.

Reaching for a small book inside my pocket, I took a seat and started reading until my eyes were pulled from the book by a sudden but soft beam of light. It wasn’t the moonbeams coming out of the window. It was my mate, my Nina. She had a divine smile on her face and was literally glowing with a delicate white light as her brush glided down the canvas.

“Don’t be a creep! You are looking at me so hard that I can feel it!” Nina chuckled as she turned to look at me, and in doing so, she caught a glimpse of the glowing skin of her arm. She let the brush fall off her hand and gasped, “What the hell? I am all lit up like a Christmas tree!” Jumping off her stool, she took a few steps back, and her back was about to meet a statue, but I ran towards her, taking her in my embrace.

“Zorion, what the hell is it? Is it the magic of this Realm? Why everything is and feels so different tonight?”

“It’s not the Realm. I think it’s something about you, maybe our bond, maybe yourself. I think you are absorbing or syphoning part of the magic around you. I don’t know how. Do you feel something different?”

“I feel better than before, though I don’t know how to describe it. I feel somewhat more like myself, more complete. Can that be the soulmate thing? A soulmate is meant to complete you, no?”

“Somehow. My mum says that we all must be complete in ourselves, and a mate — or mates — will make you overflow, radiating. Be more than complete,” I told her.

“Got it! She is right. No one should be only a half of something, right? Thank you for tonight, but I - let’s go home and visit this Mama Shawn person as soon as possible.”

Nodding, I tightened my hold around her and flashed us back home. We had to go to see Mama Shawn as soon as possible, find answers and also find a way for me and my Nina to be able to mate soon. My whole body and soul yearned to claim, love, and possess her.

~ * ~

Nina

Zorion held my slightly freaking-out-self in his arms, and to my surprise, I had another peaceful night of sleep.

The next morning was good, too, as we chilled in the living room with the girls and Amora. I never knew a piglet could be that cute!

“I am sorry to hear about your… incident yesterday. Here is your cup of hot chocolate. That’s something we girls do in this family, drink hot chocolate together and talk about our lives,” Lola told me as she handed Lena and me a mug of hot cocoa each.

“How about Zorion?” I asked, c.ocking an eyebrow at the girls.

“He is not a girl, so he doesn’t get it. He is actually lucky we let him be part of this conversation and spend some time with our new sister— that is you, by the way,” Lena said, sipping her hot chocolate and letting out a moan at it.

Zorion shook his head and wrapped me in his possessive arms, “I couldn’t be anywhere else but close to my Honey,” he exclaimed in a mockingly-annoyed tone, but I could see the smile on his face, “What can I do if you both love my beautiful mate maybe even an ounce of what I do? She has this effect on people.”

Wow-whoa?! Did he say love? I swallowed back a gasp and rolled with it simply because I think I kind of loved him too. Tingles exploded across my skin and I felt a breeze of his summer day smell enter my nose. Was this the effect of his words or of my feelings? I hid myself behind the mug of hot chocolate as I took a very long sip of the delicious and moaning-worthy drink.

“Nina, do you remember my cousin Alexander? The purple-eyed, tall, half-vampire, pale but hot?” Lena asked, earning a chuckle from Lola. “What, Lola? He is hot! Even though he is like a brother to me, I still have eyes!” Lena exclaimed, changing the subject and preventing my cheeks from becoming red. Thank goodness, the pink cheeks didn’t suit me. I’ve never been the blushing type, but well, no one had said they loved me before.

“The point is, Alexander said that ever since Aunt Lea mentioned to his dad that you are an artist, he’s been wanting to meet you. And he is home now,” Lena told me as she poured some Fairy wine into her hot chocolate.

“Now? Artist? Lena, I think you didn’t get it right. I am not an artist; I just studied fine arts. It’s really not the same,” I tried to explain. Her vampire uncle must be very good, given he had centuries to perfect his art. No, I couldn't show my doodles to someone like that.

“You paint, right?” she asked and I nodded.

“Well, that’s enough. Go to see him; he has an amazing collection of paintings and sculptures! Even I, who don’t understand nuts about art, loved it. Some of them are so haunting, no eyes, but big boobies!” Lena told me.

“I think it’s a good idea, Honey. You don’t have to paint with him if you don’t want to, just talk and see his art collection.

A sigh parted my lips. “Yes, I won’t risk that glowing thing happening again.” Weirdly, last night I was more inspired than ever, and painting next to Zorion made me feel free, complete and lost in some kind of dream state. I think I haven’t felt that free and good in years, if ever. It felt so good that it was scary, unfamiliar, wrong.

“We can visit uncle Alexus before going to see Mama Shawn, Honey.”

“Mama Shawn is the best. And she has lots of animals in her little house next to the clifflands. She was the one who gave Amora to Lola, some kind of support animal to calm Lola down when she was a teenager and she was having fire issues. By fire issues, I mean that every time she had intense feelings, she caught fire!” Lena’s words made me gasp, and Lola shook her head. Zorion gave Lena a dirty look and she shrugged, “Nina is family! We can tell her stuff. It’s not like she is a spy of the jer.ky pigeon that calls himself archangel.”

Was Lola’s jerk-angel mate spying on her? I thought he didn’t want anything to do with her, which was insane. Maybe he was the stalker type. Yuck!

“True, and Amora helped me a lot. Now I can control myself better and avoid having strong emotions — catching fire can be dangerous,” Lola sighed, running her fingers through Amora’s pink skin. The piglet, looking completely relaxed, moved her mouth in a way that looked like a pig-smile. So cute!

She was the daughter of the King of Hell and yesterday, in the lake, she pretty much summoned fire with her bare hands. Why was catching fire dangerous for her? There was surely something else there. However, if she didn’t tell me, I wouldn’t ask. One day she would tell me more about her story.

“I’ve just mind-linked Alexander, Nina. We can go to their house now; Uncle Alexus is waiting for you,” Zorion told me.

I would go there and see his art stuff only. Yes, no risks, no weird glowing for me. “Let’s go! I am quite curious to see his collection.”