The Order Ch. 03

She was up to something. As Andraemalek walked to the window in his unfurnished living room, he wondered what the random human was doing. He'd found himself growing much too curious about her in the few weeks he'd known her. He shouldn't have; he had a job to complete if he expected to make it into The Order. His growing attraction to Nadia would help no one, least of all him.

But he did not stop himself as he walked to the window to look into her apartment. When he told her that he lived across the quad, he neglected to tell her that he could see right into her living room. Andraemalek had spent many nights watching as she studied, read, and dotted over the neighbor's damned cat. She was a simplistic woman, he learned, one that he found to be increasingly complicated because of her simplicity.

She was practically naked. Andraemalek watched as Nadia paraded around her apartment in nothing more than a burgundy tank top and black cotton panties. What was she thinking? The curtains weren't drawn. She lived on the first floor; anyone could have seen her. No one was supposed to see her in such a state of undress.

No one save him.

Andraemalek shook his head. What was he thinking? Nadia was allowed to do whatever she wanted. She was a grown woman. If she wanted to walk around in such a state of undress in the middle of a Wednesday afternoon knowing that there was a possibility of unscrupulous men staring at her mouthwateringly luscious body, then so be it.

He still didn't like it.

Andraemalek watched as she walked to a small radio. She fiddled with the knobs for a minute before she began to move her head along to the music she listened to. The music must have been something she enjoyed immensely because she began to dance. They were small movements at first, little kicks of the feet or waves of the arm, but soon, she lost herself in the music and began to sway her wide hips enticingly. He stood fascinated as she seemingly drew circles with her hips. As she skipped and danced in the room, her breasts jiggled and swayed.

His mouth went dry.

Looking away, Andraemalek saw a pack of cigarettes on the countertop and mentally called one to himself. He also called a lighter. After lighting the cigarette and taking a long drag, he looked at her again. His body was hot, he noticed, and only increased in heat when she pulled her hair free of the confines of its bun. Electricity swept through him as her hair caressed her shoulders as she moved her head from side to side. His body tightened at the thought of being in the room with her, watching and feeling as she danced on him. Her lips were moving, a clear indication that she was singing as she danced. "What the hell is she listening to?" Andraemalek called forth a cordless radio and quickly turned it on. He flipped through stations slowly, watching to see if her lips moved in time with any of the songs he heard. It took several seconds but finally, he found the station she listened to and shook his head in amusement when he heard the words she sang to:

"In touch with the ground/ I'm on the hunt I'm after you/ Scent and a sound, I'm lost and I'm found/ And I'm hungry like the wolf/ Strut on a line, it's discord and rhyme/ I howl and I whine, I'm after you/ Mouth is alive, all running inside/ And I'm hungry like the wolf"

He shook his head slowly as he watched her dance. He should have stopped, should not have been so invested in a simple human dancing to music but could not stop himself. She was mesmerizing. Andraemalek felt something on his face and realized that he was sweating, something he'd never done before. He shook his head. "She's only a human." Why did he react to her? He'd been near humans before, even beautiful human women with bodies that should have made him speechless but not one of them made him sweat.

Andraemalek sighed in relief when Nadia stopped dancing. Then he realized that there was a fine sheen of sweat covering her body. "Shit." He had to step away from the window. Walking to the kitchen sink, he got himself a glass of water and quickly gulped it down. There was an odd feeling in the pit of his stomach and a very distinct one in his groin. "Think of the job, Drae." He took a breath and braced his hands on the edge of the sink. He needed to find a reason to get back into the apartment. Once in, he would learn what she knew about the supernatural and if anyone else knew as well. Then he would kill her and move on to his next mission. He needed to leave Earth; living here was humanizing him.

* * * * *

It was a very foolish idea to go to the twenty-four hour food mart at midnight but Nadia needed comfort. She had no friends, no real ones anyway, and being alone meant that she always got her work done when she planned to. Unfortunately it also meant that there would be nights like this where she would have nothing to keep her mind off the fact that she was alone and would thus make runs to the food mart. After the incident that introduced her to Andrae a month before, she should have learned to stay indoors. But she was a foolish woman, one who always found a way to get herself into some kind of sticky situation.

"You are an obsession/ You're my obsession/ Who do you want me to be/ To make you sleep with me?"

Nadia sang to herself as she walked home. That was the problem with being in the Mp3 generation; having one's favorite music at hand at any given moment meant that one could become lost in the music. For Nadia, becoming lost in the music meant that she had to sing the music. Midnight probably wasn't the best time to start singing to herself, especially considering it meant that any predator would catch her unawares but she could not stop herself; she was too far gone.

The hand on her shoulder caused Nadia to act on instinct. She dropped the bags in her hands and turned sharply to hit. She would not be a victim. Not again.

She stopped when her wrist was held in a tight but gentle grip. Looking up, she sighed in relief when she saw Andrae staring at her quizzically. "Jesus Christ, you scared the crap out of me."

Andraemalek raised a brow at her loud statement. Ignoring the sugary scent of her happiness to see him he said, "Didn't you hear-"

"What?"

He frowned when she shouted at him again. "I said didn't-"

"What?" Nadia shook her head slowly as she held her hand up in a signal for him to remain quiet. She reached up and pulled the tiny earpieces to her Mp3 player out of her ears and smiled to hide her embarrassment.

"That answers my question."

"Sorry. What were you saying?"

Andraemalek shook his head. "Nothing." He watched as Nadia bent to retrieve her things and bent to help her. He looked at the boxes of pound cake, containers of ice cream, chocolate bars, sucking candies, chips, dip and rolls of cookie dough and felt his brows crease in question. "Think you have enough sugar?"

Nadia laughed as she collected her bags. "Shut up." She smiled at Andraemalek in thanks as he took her bags from her. She figured that his statement stemmed from the fact that he was probably a health nut, one of the many advantages to being a fitness trainer. "I'm a little depressed right now."

Andraemalek walked with Nadia in silence for a moment before he spoke. "Why?" What did she have to be depressed about? She was a smart, beautiful, gentle, and interesting woman who was on the verge of a major discovery. There was no reason to be depressed.

Nadia shrugged indifferently. "Just feeling a little lonely. It'll be gone by the morning." As would a good percentage of the items he carried for her. He didn't need to know that. He already knew how much she weighed and that was more than enough for her to feel like a whale when near him. "Until then, it's chocolate, chips, and literally feeling my arteries clog."

Andraemalek laughed at her phrasing and realized that they were in front of her apartment. He waited as she fished for her keys out of her purse and walked in when she stepped back. He placed the bags on the counter before he turned to face her. "What made you feel lonely?"

Nadia shrugged once more as she said, "I don't know. Woke up feeling this way." She walked to the counter to begin separating her purchases and tilted her head when she noticed the concerned looked Andraemalek gave her. "Don't worry. It comes and goes."

Andraemalek nodded slowly as he watched her separate the items and frowned at a very odd item she purchased. He picked up the container. "What is this?"

Nadia looked at the container and smiled. "It's Dirt." At his disgusted look, she took the container from him and opened it. "It's chocolate cake crumbles, gummy worms and some candy flowers." She held the open container to him. "Try it."

Andraemalek had never heard of Dirt and looked at it warily. It did smell like sugar which gave him a small amount of confidence. To appease her, he tried it and became relieved when he did not become disgusted. She smiled at him, a slow, genuine smile that took his breath away. How did she do that? "Is it all right if I stay a while?"

"You don't have to do that because of what I told you."

"I'm not. I'm kind of lonely myself."

Nadia looked at Andraemalek for a moment. He didn't seem lonely. If anything, he looked bored out of his mind. Why did he want to stay? Why was she asking? She was lonely and liked having him around. "Sure." She watched as he stood and walked to the radio. Effortlessly, he turned to her favorite radio station, impressing her. "You like 80's music too? I'm obsessed with it." She poured herself a glass of water.

Andraemalek smiled at her enthusiasm. "No, I'm not much of a fan but this is what you were listening to the day you were dancing."

Nadia spit the water she'd sipped out of her mouth in her embarrassment. She couldn't have heard what she thought she just heard. "Excuse me?"

Her appalled expression forced him to grin in amusement. "I can see your apartment from my window." He kept himself from laughing at her wide-eyed expression. "I saw you dancing in your underwear."

"Oh, my God." If there was a God, a hole in the floor would open up and suck her in.

Andraemalek laughed. Her anxiety had a very unique scent; it wasn't cloying like her nervousness. This scent was light and reminded him of mint. "If it makes you feel any better, I liked it."

In her growing nervousness, Nadia opened one of the boxes of pound cake and cut a couple of slices for them. Her slice was twice as large as his. Walking to the couch, she placed them on the coffee table and sat down on the floor. She watched as he joined her and felt her jaw drop when he reached for the larger piece of cake. She ate her cake quietly, unsure of what to say. It wasn't everyday a sexy man told a woman who looked like her that he saw her dancing in her underwear and liked it. She felt... appealing, like it wasn't insanity for a man with the body of a god to like the way she looked, excess fat and all. "I like you." She was aware that he could have taken her statement any way but decided not to clarify.

"Oh yeah?" There was a light in her eyes that caused that odd feeling in his stomach to return. The sensation intensified when a new scent wafted toward him. It was a tangy, sweet and extremely earthy scent he'd never smelled before. This was one emotion he could not pinpoint. He was determined to find out. Leaning close to her, he did not resist the urge to inhale her smell. The cocoa butter oil was intoxicating, especially mixed with the unfamiliar scent.

Nadia nodded slowly. "Yeah." She should have been uncomfortable but she wasn't. Desire pooled in the pit of her stomach and slowly spread to every inch of her body. Her fingertips tingled. "You make me smile."

Andraemalek leaned closer, sensing her passion. It hummed off her like the gentle patter of rain on a roof. "What else do I make you?" Instantly, he smelled something else, that wonderfully cloying scent that he'd quickly familiarized himself with.

Nadia licked her lips in her nervousness. There was something in the way he looked at her that made her want to push him away and pull him closer at the same time. "You make me nervous." Her words came out in a whisper which surprised her; she didn't think she'd be able to speak at all.

Andraemalek smiled; she was wonderfully innocent. "There is nothing to be nervous about."

Nadia let out a small laugh. "The way you're looking at me makes me nervous." She gasped in surprise when he pulled her impossibly close and nuzzled her neck. Heat spread through her body. The tingling she felt became a raging thrum.

The scent became stronger and it was then that he realized the that particular fragrance was desire. He felt the rapid beat of her heart on his tongue as he laved her soft skin and knew that a taste would never be enough. "What about this?" He nibbled on her earlobe and felt a shock of electricity cut through his body at the sound of her sweet whimper. "Does this make you nervous?"

Nadia gasped as she felt Andraemalek's hands on her back, pulling her on top of him. She didn't know how her heart didn't explode because of its fierce pounding. "Y-yes..."

Andraemalek felt himself smile a predatory, satisfied smile of victory. "Then this is going to give you the shakes." He captured her lips with his and groaned at the sweet taste of her lips. She wrapped her arms around him tightly, pressing them closer than he though possible and he thought that she would suffocate him with her passion. Her scent was strong, heavy and incredibly addicting. He grazed his tongue along her bottom lip and groaned harshly when she pulled it between her lips to suck. He was impossibly aroused and knew that she felt it. She wasn't nervous now. She was actively becoming the aggressor of their kiss.

It was when he realized that the demon in him would take over, that he would not stop until he'd made her his that Andraemalek stood and placed Nadia on the couch. He looked at her and realized he'd made a mistake in doing so; her lips were glistening with moisture and her breasts were hypnotizing as they rose and fell with her heavy, uneven breathing.

He had to leave.

"I have to go." He watched as Nadia only nodded as she stared at him. Taking a deep breath, he left her apartment and quickly shimmered into his own. Something was wrong with him; he'd never been attracted to a human before. He didn't understand his reaction to her, the fact that she'd ignited a blazing fire within him, one that would have unleashed his inner beast had he not been able to control it. Yes, Nadia did something feral to him, something both dangerous and drugging, something he knew no other living being would ever be capable of.

It was a shame she would be dead soon.