Stepping Out of the Shadows (Part 3).

He appeared a few steps from her, enveloped in flames. Ice patterns under his feet hissed in a collision with fiery sparks. The skin on his hands melted and reappeared, as in the endless cycle of life and death, pain and relief.

The eyes were black abysses, absorbing any light. The skin of the face was covered with blue paths of blood vessels.

He was terrifying and alluring at the same time.

Marcus stood opposite the girl and looked into her eyes with an impenetrable gaze.

"Looks terrible, doesn't it?" he asked softly, Amelia looked back, not saying a word. "Or do you prefer my mask?" His appearance became usual, "After all, you looked at this face so diligently secretly for eight years."

Amelia turned away and lowered her eyes. She had never experienced such deep embarrassment.

Marcus squeezed her chin and turned the girl's head back, forcing her to look at him. "You did not look embarrassed when you watched me. Why are you looking away now? Or is it not so interesting to look in the open? Do you like peeking more? I didn't think that voyeurism is on your list of interests. Such a bad girl."

Amelia's cheeks flushed with indignation. Did he call her a pervert now? No, if you look at the situation from his perspective, Marcus may be right, but she didn't go that far! Or did she? The girl's head was spinning, she had already forgotten what she was doing and when.

"Did you... Did you see me? But how? I was asleep... I thought this... this..."

"I saw you just as clearly as I see you now, my dear," he leaned his hand on the wall behind Amelia and hovered above the girl in a formidable cloud, "So in your dreams you watched me, examined and touched my face while I was sleeping," the man bent down and left several weightless kisses on her cheek, "You were sleeping next to me, cuddling like a lost kitten," he whispered in her ear, rubbed his nose against the temple.

His every touch was sweet torture.

Marcus leaned on the wall with his second hand, Amelia was in the cage of his hands and body, pressed against her, without the chance to even lift a finger. Strange sensations poured inside her, in her lower abdomen and caused interrupting breathing. His warmth was so close, it was drawning her to him.

"Eight years. For eight years you were near me, and I could not even touch you. And what are you doing? At the meeting, you are suggesting to pretend that we don't know each other? Looking at me with your indifferent eyes as if I am a stranger for you? Refusing my only request, but easily doping the head of another man? I never thought that my little princess could be so cruel."

"Marcus, I'm not-"

He pressed a finger to her lips, "Enough. I gave you a chance, my nobility also has limits. Now I would like to receive compensation."

His palm gripped the back of the head of a girl, the man's fingers dug into her hair, Marcus clenched them into a fist, threw her head back and covered her mouth with his lips.

A split second - and everything that raised doubts before that became simple and understandable. If Marcus knew what it was like to kiss her, he would not have touched any woman. They all faded in comparison with what he felt, enjoying these soft and inexperienced lips. And he was sure that Amelia felt the same way.

The girl froze for a moment, not knowing how to react, but with every confident movement of the man, she joined in the unison of his passionate dance, as if it were as natural as breathing.

The heat of his breath spread through her body, filling her with warmth. The fingertips flinched, Amelia timidly raised her hand and laid it on the man's back.

A light touch - and his groan, like a greedy roar of an animal, responded to her gesture along with his tongue penetrating inside. Marcus dug deeper into her lips, biting and exploring every corner of her mouth, enjoying the moment he seemed to have been waiting for his whole life.

Amelia ran her fingers through his hair and wondered how soft they felt. The man grabbed her waist and hugged her so tightly that he deprived her of the last air. He pulled away from her lips for a couple of moments, giving the girl the opportunity to take a breath, and again covered her mouth as if she were his air.

This time he was in no hurry, savoring every inch of her lips, catching her insecure movements, which were enough to completely captivate the man's mind.

Her hands on his back and in his hair filled Marcus's body with indescribable pleasure, she was responding to him - sincerely and eagerly - and this awareness aroused a long-forgotten feeling of happiness inside the man, the feeling that he thought he would never experience again.

The man reluctantly stopped his movements and pulled his aways from the girl who seemed to be short of breath, and looked fondly at her lips swollen from the kiss. Perhaps for the first time he overdid it a bit. Although if this time was the first and only, it's not scary.

"Thank you. I will remember this," he whispered and clasped his hands around the girl's face.

Amelia was still dizzy, either from the lack of oxygen, or from an excess of endorphins, but she realized that something was wrong when the man's hands on her temples were noticeably heavier.

"Marcus?" she looked up at him, frightened, and her heart tightened from the anguish and sadness that she saw in his eyes, "What are you doing?"

"I'm doing what I had to do from the very beginning. Sorry, that will hurt a little."

Amelia cried out, invisible sharp knitting needles glared at her temples, striving towards one another like magnets.

"I did not want to use force, but you left me no choice. Do not worry, a little more, and you will forget about everything that happened. "

"No! Do not look!" the girl tried to push his palms from herself, scratched and kicked him, but Marcus was motionless, like a stone.

"I beg you, don't!"

"Shhh, everything will be fine. Do not resist, let go of consciousness, otherwise it will be more painful," the man whispered, trying to break through her mental block. He assumed that it would be difficult, but did not expect that it would hurt him. "Everything will be fine, you will forget everything. I will see what is needed and let you go, you will live on, as you desired. Without me in your life and memory."

"You... You want to erase my m-memory?" His intention, like a hammer, hit her in the chest and knocked her soul out. She was ready to live without him, but to live without memory of him...

Two poles of pain in her temples were striving for each other, and she understood that should they connect, and she would not be able to resist his will. The only thing remained was to use the ability, which was tantamount to suicide.

Amelia let go of Marcus's hands, stopped resisting and closed her eyes. The man looked at the girl in disbelief, something in her aura had changed.

"Amelia?"

One, two, exhale - she opened her eyes and laid her palm on Marcus's chest,

"By the force given to me by the first guardian of time, I command: Complete merging of two souls into one!"