Mine...Yours Pt. 08

"You gave yourself to me, and I gave you myself. I am now a part of this world as if I was born here." She told me, her eyes still on the horizon, a small smile on her face.

"There is no chance of me turning to ash and fading away if this body is destroyed." She grew somber for a moment and faced me.

"If this body is destroyed, while I am here this strong...I would die...true death." She told me. Then smiled. "But I am very hard to kill Master, because of our bond I have all of my strength and abilities...so do not worry!" Then turned back to watch as the storm grew larger, and the lightning got closer.

I was gobsmacked! What a thing to lay on me? Lucretia could DIE? I was not comfortable with that idea at all. Did she know this would happen back when we first clasped hands at our joining? Did Mother know? I seriously contemplated asking how to break the bond and send her home! I didn't want her in any danger, sure when we first met I didn't care a fig about her, she tried to kill me! Now though, I enjoyed her company. It was wonderful to wake up to her smiling sharp-toothed face even if it still gave me a moment of near bladder relieving terror before I remembered her. Just because it felt good to have her in my life was it worth the risk to her? Should I release her and let her go? I was staring at my shoes when I saw her long claws appear in my vision, they scratched idly at the wood of my front porch. She crouched down and looked up into my face.

"I forgive you...Greg."

I shook my head and gave her a puzzled look. She gave me a tender smile and her black eyes seemed to soften.

"You sometimes turn into a...what is that word...grab bag? That's the one! You sometimes seem to turn into a grab bag of emotions. I have had time to get used to it, but Mother? She reads thoughts so she probably had a confusing time trying to keep up with you!" She straightened up to look me in the eye since I wasn't slouched and looking down anymore.

She grasped my right hand in hers, our scars touching.

"You were thinking of breaking our bond to protect me?" She asked quietly. I nodded. She gave a small coo of pleasure and ran the back of her fingers gently on my cheek.

"You would set me free to protect me...how could I not forgive you Greg?"

Her grip cinched on my hand, almost painful. Her voice came out tight. "If you did, I would no longer be the way I am now. I would be...I think the word is...not evil...what?" Her voice trailed off as she thought. Her eyes widened and then narrowed as she got the concept she was wanting to impart to me.

"I would then be the hunter and you would be my prey again." She said finally. Her hand squeezed even tighter, and I activated my shield to increase my strength to squeeze back and protect my hand from her pressure. She smiled and stroked the translucent membrane of power that covered me.

"That is one of the reasons I train you so hard Greg..." she told me quietly, but with a slightly impish smile to belie the serious nature of our conversation. "...I fear little, but I am afraid of one day going back to the way I was. I want you to be able to protect yourself from me if that should ever happen!"

"I did pretty good against you the first time!" I said, trying to joke, but the thought of Lucretia in all of her fury coming after me made my belly button want to pucker all the way to my backbone! All she had been doing so far against me were physical attacks, she hadn't used any of her so called magic yet! Well, beside the parlor tricks of replicating clothes and odds and ends, or getting stains out of upholstery and carpet. If her magical ability was anything like her physical fighting ability then my roommate was a thaumaturgic powerhouse!

She chuckled and ducked her head for a moment then looked up at me through her eyelashes. "You may not have a porch railing to use in your next fight!" Then a large raindrop fell on the side of my face. Lucretia looked at it, smiled and then licked it off!

She was six inches away from my face and licked it off! I keep forgetting how long her tongue is.

"It's starting!" She nearly squealed and began to prance around the front yard, glorying in the rain.

Now I like the rain as much as the next person, but the growing nearness of lightning flashes and the shorter space between the flashes of light and growls of thunder were kind of disturbing to me.

"Lucretia!" I called as she spun around the locust tree in the front yard. "Get your grey tail in the house! It's dangerous out here!"

She laughed and said, "I can't Master! It's a storm! I need to be in the storm!" Saying that she pirouetted, spread her wings and lifted her self to the ridge of my roof in a few strong beats that sprayed rain from their surface. I spluttered then ran to the back porch to get a better view of what she was doing. Entering my backyard and looking up I saw the clouds begin to race, moving faster and thickening. I could only imagine how massive the thunderhead was becoming!

I felt suddenly very small and very, very insignificant.

Clouds don't form that fast normally, this seemed...was Lucretia doing this? I watched her as she was standing in the rain, clawed hands held to the sky her head tilted back and from the side view I had it looked like her mouth was open. She looked wild and savage and beautiful up there. She also looked happy, like she was having the time of her life.

Then I felt a tingle, a feeling...just like I had felt in my basement and at a few other times before. That feeling you get of being watched. I scanned around my yard, wondering if someone was finally able to see my succubus in her true form, then it felt as if the eyes shifted from me, and the feeling changed. I felt...pride?

Lighting in twin forks rippled along the belly of the dark clouds overhead and when the thunder crashed through the air Lucretia moved and I saw her dance.

Now I had danced with Lucretia a couple weeks back, and I saw her messing around with Jemima and Gwen when I had first showed up. We had even danced, just the two of us through the construction debris of our living room and in our backyard through the tall grass. So I had an idea of how she moved and how her body shifted.

This was nothing like that.

Her wings extended and those little claw like fingers at the arch of her wing folded over her arms, just like when she made those nasty weapons in my training. She left her wings unfurled though, and began to wave them hypnotically. She then moved her feet in intricate patterns that only someone with the sure grip of a birds claws could do on the ridge of a roof made slippery from rainwater. She moved along the ridge, stepping almost daintily and with precision as if she had done this many times before, a wing going up, then back, around and then over. It was a dance, but it felt more primal, stylized...yet random.

She swept low, both arms and wings coming forward like she was bowing in supplication, even her tail drooping in the wet drops of rain splashing around her, then she sprang up and began it all over again...but faster this time! Then she began to sing, but not in the voice I knew so well. This sounded like an avian call, like that of a murder of crows all calling at the same time! It was strident, fierce and in a weird way sounded kinda cool.

It hurt my ears though! I sighed, and even as strangely beautiful as this whole production was...I figured it was better to get her inside. I was opening my mouth to yell to her to get down when both the song and dance rose in pitch and fervor! She was spinning and twirling like a dervish when it came crashing to a halt! Standing tall with her wings and arms reaching for the clouds she called out in a loud voice that seemed to pierce the sky...

"PAPA"

Lighting flared like roiling snakes, meshing together almost like a net as they passed far into the distance in every direction, one bright bolt slammed down into Lucretia's raised palms and my succubus was illuminated from within and without and I heard her joyous voice shout out again...

"PAPA!"

Then all was still and the clouds dispersed. My roommate was still on the roof and watching as the dark storm that maybe really wasn't a storm, rolled away towards the hills. I stood there as well, staring, trying to make sense out of what I had just seen, then my slow turtle of a brain kicked into high gear and I flashed back to a memory.

I was about 8 or 9 years old at the time and my younger sister was about 4 or 5. Dad was sitting on the couch and had turned off the TV. I was upset since we were watching a movie that I had wanted to see, and my sister was trying to get my dad's attention. She was wearing a long sleeved pink shirt with Rainbow Bright on it, and a ballerina tutu colored yellow and blue that was far too big for her and she had huge oversized movie glasses on. Dad smiled and hugged her and she laughed. Then she carefully got up on the wood coffee table we had and began to sing...off-key...and dance...badly.

Hey, I was a kid...I was no judge of the Modern Arts at the time! Come to think of it I still don't know the difference between a dip and a duck!

Dad was smiling and watching as my sister twirled and sang and he watched her carefully in case she got too near the edge of the table so he would have to catch her. I wanted to get back to the movie, but it appeared that dad didn't care to watch it anymore. I got up to turn on the television set when I saw him give me a glance and a signal with his finger not to. I sighed and picked up a book I had been reading earlier and decided to wait it out.

When my sister was done, my dad praised her and hugged her, telling her how much he loved her and was proud of her. I sighed again, loudly, and rolled my eyes. She ran off to go play, or do her dolls hair, or whatever she wanted to do and dad came over to sit next to me.

"Whats wrong son?" dad asked...he liked to ask questions that he already knew the answer to!

"We missed so much of the movie, and she had to ruin it by singing and doing that dance thing!" I replied in a snit.

I could see dad trying to figure out to explain this to me, and that pissed me off even more. I wasn't a little kid! Sure I was kid, but I knew about more adult stuff like car wax and hammers and snails and stuff!

"Greg...I am the first man that your little sister will ever love..." he began. I shrugged and he noticed, then turned me so I could face him more directly.

"Listen son...this is important. You may not understand what I am telling you now, but you will get it one of these days and it will make sense. So listen up...you hear?" He said seriously.

I knew then that this would be important, because the last time he told me this, I finally understood what death meant when I stepped on a frog.

"I am the first man your sister will love, and that means that she wants to sing and dance for me. She wants to know that I find her beautiful and special and precious. That's why I turned off the movie, and paid attention to her. I wanted her to know that I would stop what I was doing to give her the attention that she deserves both as my daughter and the woman that she is going to one day be."

He paused and his eyes got a faraway and sad look. A little pensive as well.

"I am the example of what she is going to look for in a husband, and I want her to find a husband who will turn off the TV and look at her and pay her attention. To accept what she is giving him..."

He looked back at me.

"When your little sister was singing and dancing...do you know what she was doing, do you know what she was saying and doing through her actions?"

I shook my head, still trying to wrap my mind around the concepts he was sharing with me. It was too big of a thought for a boy like me to understand, but the nature of it felt immense.

My dad smiled and his eyes softened as he looked back at the coffee table where just a few minutes before my sis was singing her off-key little heart out.

"Your sister was saying that she loved and honored me...even though she was too young to fully understand it." His eyes hardened as he caught my young eyes with his stern ones.

"So next time she does that? You keep your loud sighs and grumbles to yourself young man! Do not disrespect what your sister is doing when she is trying to express herself to me!" He said quietly in a no nonsense tone of voice.

Looking up at Lucretia, watching her stare after the clouds, that's what she was doing! I had never heard her speak of her father before...never asked or thought of it myself to be honest. This whole light and sound show though? I had to wonder about who or what he was. All the dancing and singing though made sense now.

Lucretia was honoring her daddy.