Yes. It is much easier to see her like this. She was too far away before, too hard for him to look at bony face to human face.
He was unable to smell her properly since he’d shoved mud and grass into his nose hole to block as much of the scent of fear as he could. It was uncomfortable, and he despised it, but he needed to do this otherwise he would attack the village in a mindless craze because of their stench of fear.
Her hair was blonde, straight and glossy around the backs of his gloved fingers. Her nose was small, but had a defiant upturn to it, which made it appear more dismissive when she’d turned her chin up at him earlier. Her features were gentle around her jaw and chin, but were sharp around her eyes and brows, making her glare, he realised, more prominent.
Her skin was like snow, as though she hadn’t been in the sun much, which he could tell was true by the transparent-like paleness of her skin. If he took her to the Veil, he doubted her skin would ever ripen into the light golden that should have wrapped the warm meat of her slim body.
Her eyes were a forestry green, which pleased him.
Actually, looking upon her was pleasing, but he felt this way about most humans, for various reasons, some more evil and cruel than others.
As he inspected his sacrifice in detail, Orpheus waited for the tantalizing scent of fear to fill his mouth with saliva. He was so close to her. He would be able to taste just a hint of it that his blocked, clogged nose couldn’t. He could only just smell her with their proximity, but it hid the rest of the humans from him.
It didn’t take long. The scent gently lifted into the air from her pores, inciting the glow of his eyes to want to change from his normal blue to red in hunger.
But that didn’t happen, his eyes remained blue.
He tilted his head when he realised the scent wasn’t strong enough to stir true hunger in him.
This female, this human woman, was afraid, but not nearly as much as she should have been while being held like this by him. She appears rather... angry.
“If-if she is not to your liking, we have prepared other sacrifices to become your bride,” the one named Gilford sputtered in haste.
There are others? He lowered her enough that she was no longer blocking his vision, as two humans in white dresses were ushered through the Priests and Priestesses.
A dark-haired man and a red-headed woman.
“There has never been more than one intended offering,” Orpheus stated, projecting his voice through his skull so it could be heard.
He had to actively produce his voice past his own mind, speaking from it since he didn’t have lips or the kind of mouth to talk. He could make noises if he wished to, but they were often guttural and incoherent to others.
“We wanted to make sure we appeased you, is all.”
What is wrong with this one, then?
Orpheus placed the blonde-haired woman named Reia on the ground and twisted his head at her while examining her once more. She appears to have all her parts. He could see she wasn’t missing any limbs and didn’t have the look of deathly sicknesses that seeped from the skins of humans.
“Are you not willing?”
“She is!” Gilford interjected.
“I did not ask you,” Orpheus said, letting his voice come out as a deep growl.
“I am standing here, aren’t I?” she said up to him, rubbing her neck before frowning at her hand as though she couldn’t fathom why him holding her hadn’t hurt.
That is true.
It was obvious she was willingly standing in front of him to be offered while dressed in their strange custom of dressing all his sacrifices in white. He’d never understood that, why they had to be dressed in a similar style and colour.
“If you do not like her, there is Darren.”
The black-haired man bowed to Orpheus in greeting.
He waved his hand at him dismissively, his claws glinting in the sunlight. He retracted them to keep them hidden from the easily frightened humans.
“I received a male last time. I do not want another.”
They never lasted long with him. Even though they generally held less fear, they often tried to kill him. He would always make short work of sating one of his many hungers on them. He felt the light rumble of his stomach begging for meat.
Darren lowered his head and stepped away, refusing to argue with his easy decision.
“Then Clove, perhaps?”
“Hello,” the red-haired woman said with one of the sweetest voices he’d ever heard from a human. It was gentle, almost like a song. “It is a generous honour to meet you.”
She curtseyed for him and even stepped forward. She looked willing; her eyes wide with a strange emotion as they moved over him now that she was closer. Curiosity? Uncertainty? What is the emotion on her face?
He hated to admit, even to himself, that he wasn’t particularly good with understanding human emotions.
He stared at her before releasing the blonde to step closer to the red-head. Fear, as well as tangles of other emotions, cascaded from her the closer he got.
It was strong enough that it made his eyes glow red and his mouth fill with drool. He quickly swallowed so it didn’t seep between the sharp teeth and fangs of his skull. He stopped breathing to hide from it.
The warmth in her skin paled and one of her feet stepped back when he towered over her. The other emotions she had been producing turned into fright now that he was actually in front of her. Her eyes darted from his glowing eyes to his claws as he reached forward to cup her throat to see how she would react. He retracted his hand before he even touched her, wary of how strong the scent from her was becoming.
This was how all his sacrifices were with him. Afraid. They were willing, but they feared him, feared where he would take them, feared what he would do to them. Delicious, delicious fear.
She is just as appetizing. Perhaps more so. He liked the brightness of the red in her hair.
However, Orpheus turned away from her and began to circle the one named Reia predatorily.
The fear in her scent he’d smelt earlier had gentled without his direct attention, and he was curious about it. She is wary. That was what he could smell. She wasn’t petrified since she wasn’t trembling or shivering in his presence.
I have only met a few like her. Even now, he could tell just from their faces that the humans gaping at him in the sun – who weren’t at risk of being stolen away – were more afraid than this woman in white.
“Little human, why are you offering yourself to me?”
Orpheus had never asked this of a human while still standing in the town they came from.
He would eventually learn from them all why they were willing to be taken. However, he was truly curious about why this one was standing before him. It appeared she was willing. She had said so herself in a very vague way. But she was also... angry.
Is she angry with me or the other humans?
“To help protect my people,” she answered through gritted teeth.
He tilted his head when he was in front of her once more, looking at her clenched jaw and creased brows.