Chapter 456: Warm and Tender
Sometime after Nyrielle enveloped Ashlynn in her sorcery, offering up her own strength to speed Ashlynn’s recovery from her grievous wounds, Ashlynn found herself drifting somewhere warm and calm. Nyrielle’s sorcery wrapped around her like a thousand hands, softly caressing her body and bringing soothing warmth as they drew out the strength of her healing gifts to soothe her body’s aches and pains.
Time slipped away from her in the warm, floating darkness where the only sound Ashlynn could hear was her own heartbeat and the echo of Nyrielle’s heartbeat alongside hers. Each soft -thump thump- faded into the next, reassuring her that no matter how bad the battle had been or how severe her wounds were, she still lived and Nyrielle did as well. As long as that was true, nothing else mattered.
Eventually, the drifting feeling changed and the sounds of gently splashing water joined the beat of her heart, followed by the soft -lap, lap, lap- of waves reaching the edge of a pool. Next came the sounds of a crackling hearth and the faint scent of cedar woodsmoke and the lavender soap that always reminded her of Nyrielle.
"Hello, my darling," Nyrielle whispered in Ashlynn’s ear. Water splashed and Ashlynn felt Nyrielle’s soft skin sliding over her own as her lover pulled her floating figure closer, enfolding her in a gentle embrace in the middle of a pool of water so perfectly warm on this chilly night that steam rolled just above it’s surface.
"We’re dreaming," Ashlynn whispered, opening her eyes and finding herself in the luxurious marble bath that adjoined Nyrielle’s bedroom, deep underground at her fortress in the Vale of Mists. It had been months since the days that Nyrielle brought her here for a restorative bath after Ashlynn pushed herself to exhaustion training with Thane but tonight was hardly the first time she’d dreamed longingly of sharing a bath with Nyrielle in this place again.
"We’re not so far apart right now," Nyrielle said softly as she pulled Ashlynn over to one of the marble benches that ringed the steaming pool, keeping her injured lover close as she drew Ashlynn into her lap. "The last time we shared a dream, the sun rose even in your dream, pulling us apart."
"This time, we can take our time together," the vampire whispered. Her soft lips brushed across Ashlynn’s ear and she let the point of a fang trace ever so slightly against the soft morsel of flesh at the base of Ashlynn’s ear before pulling herself back. At the same time, Nyrielle’s slender arms tightened around Ashlynn’s trim waist, pulling her tightly against Nyrielle’s body as if she was afraid her lover would be torn away from her.
"Will you hold me like this the whole time?" Ashlynn asked, smiling slightly and wrapping her arms around Nyrielle’s, savoring the feeling or her lover’s protective desires and the security she felt in the vampire’s embrace. "Or can I look at you while you hold me?"
"Stay like this," Nyrielle said, burying her face in Ashlynn’s soft, pale blonde hair and clinging even more tightly. "Just for a little while."