Rui did not open his eyes as he heard the door. He was cat napping at the desk and after the last five distributors he had very little ambition to deal with the last of them.
"Sir?" He heard her voice, soft but uplifting like the sound of water over rocks. He smelled her as the door shut, something like cinnamon and honey clung to her. Finally he cracked an eye open to peer at her.
"Just sit." He said gruffly.
"Sit and set up your samples. I've heard enough pandering today." He closed his eyes once more and leaned more fully back in his chair.
He listened while the woman quietly and wordlessly set up her board. He smelled the earthy musky salts as she poured samples out and heard the soft clink of the spoon letting him know she was done.
At this he opened his eyes and sat up. For just a second he felt a hot blush creep up his face and he bit down on the inside of his lip.
Wrong one to be rude to, huh? He mused to himself as he took her in.
She was so slight, her arms as thin as wing bones and her face so delicate it looked more like a sculpture than a face. He admired her golden hair pinned up away from her features, her tiny up turned nose, and her soft lips which turned down just enough to cast a slight pout.
"Well I have to say, erm…" He looked down at the folder on his desk.
"Enora?… you are the most conservatively dressed woman who has been sent in to assure your company's distributor status today."
She smiled and his pulse raised as her rose colored lips turned upward playfully.
"Well Mr. DeMarc, we at Blanchard Company always strive to let our products speak for themselves. Greatness should never need to be supported by great breasts, but by its own merit, sir."
He was floored. Caught off guard just momentarily, but never the less unbalanced by her bold humor.
Rui let out a laugh that surprised them both and nodded. But I wouldn't mind anything being supported by those breasts. He grinned inwardly to himself.
"Alright, alright. Ms. Enora please, you have my full attention now. You may proceed with the sampling."
He watched her. Her quiet confidence. The vaguely seductive way in which she leaned toward him across the desk. He noticed the small red gem then, hung from a rough cord around her neck that contrasted poorly against her modest but well tailored suit. His eyes lingered there for a second, taking in the peaks of her collar bones and her perfectly pale skin before moving up to her eyes.
Her eyes. His breath caught in his throat as he stared into most entrancing eyes he had ever seen. They were like mercury, a softly swirling silver. Rui felt himself drowning. Suffocating even, as he stared into their glowing depths.
~
Enora let out a laugh as she stood, walking around the desk towards the transfixed man and turning his chair so he could face her. He sat unmoving as if he might be a statue, and her eyes never left his.
"Well, at least your line has gotten more handsome as your blood has been diluted out, Enoch." She practically purred as she reached out and ran her fingers along the shadow of a beard that played over the man's strong jaw line.
She furrowed her brows momentarily as she relaxed her mind and gave the mortal back some sense. A grin, cruel and malicious spread out over her face as he seemed to wake before her, his eyes coming back into focus.
"Now, now we can have some fun, can't we?" The man struggled to move but to no avail, his mouth formed words but no sound escaped. Enora pressed a finger to his lips and perched on the edge of his desk.
"Be still, child. I have a story to tell. Then you will have a choice to make. Be easy." Her voice dropped low and he ceased to struggle at her command. She settled herself on his desk and slipped her black pumps between his knees so that her toes rested on the edge of the chair.
"Once upon a time there was a powerful queen. She had never asked to be queen, but because of her power, her fairness and her intelligence she was coerced into the role. The entire Elder Council decreed it must be so. The veiled world cried out for her to take her place. To lead them, tend to then, to care for those whom the night calls her own. So she took the heavy mantle of queen, and wore their desperation as her crown. She brought peace to the shifters, order to the fae. She encouraged moderation in those who fed upon another's essence and fairness even in the greediest of goblinoids.
But one day the Elder Council realized their mistake. For suddenly they had a queen and that queen, instead of being their puppet had become their master. So they began to scheme. Let her take a husband! King Consort! They began a cry that redoubled among the people. They wanted assurance. A strong arm behind their fair and lovely queen. As the pressure mounted for her to take a king, it was revealed that not only should she marry, but that there were a select few choices deemed "appropriate" for this marriage. Not just any common ghoul would do obviously. She did what she thought she must. She chose from those presented as most suitable. She chose a man who she thought strong, wise, and practical. She chose a man she thought would be loyal if nothing more.
But he was little more than a puppet to the Elder Council, and they were so steeped in fear for their loss of power that they knew no boundaries. They encouraged him, and he obliged. He wooed her, courted her, lavished her with admiration and support. She began to trust him even as unbeknownst to her he spun the web that would ensnare her." Her monolog changed tone as she spoke, sounding far away in the memory.
"Finally Enoch sprung his trap. When I was weak with trust. When I felt secure in his commitment. He asked to be named king in truth and how could I deny him? How could I deny the man with the same strong hands and carefree attitude which I see in you?
It was not long after his crowning. Not long after I gifted him a part of myself that I realized my error. I had caught him with the Elder Council, discussing the genocide of the very few and precious remaining mortals at the time. Did you know that their mere existence acts like a filter on all of the moons children? They keep our power strong, pure, and available. Their hopes and fears feed us. Their energy is recycled into the very same wellspring which has birthed and recycled our own. I admit I reacted...in a volatile way." She shrugged.
"I killed as many of the council as I could before they discovered me. I took from Enoch his immortality." She touched the red gem at her throat.
"I took from him his might. His future progeny would be the frail mortals he hated so very much. I blinded him. Scarred the pretty face he spent so much time gazing into.
I made my second mistake by releasing him to a life of anger instead of killing him as I should have. I did not regret it then. I did not know just how false he was in his ways and words.
Years later I was lured out into the wilds. I chased a phantom who had ravaged one of the tribal outposts of the humans. Or so I thought until I found myself surrounded by the Elder Council. Trapped inside of their circle and face to face with Enoch" She spat his name like a curse, "Gloating before me. They bound me, buried me, burned me. They encased me in raw and angry magic, and then they left me. They abandoned their QUEEN to an eternity of pain and madness. Not even my most loyal servant dared to attempt to free me from my agony…"
She took a deep breath.
"But that is the past. Now, thanks to the prolific humans digging up every inch of dirt which they can...I am free. I am free and you." She lifted his chin to gaze into his lovely spring green eyes.
"You are the dull but I believe reliable tool which will undermine the very foundation of everything that Enoch and the Elder Council held dear." She let her head fall back as she laughed, digging her nails into the soft skin under his jaw until a line of crimson trickled down.