Bridget's Days Ch. 06

She was every bit as sweet as I had hoped. My head moved slightly, up and down, back and forth, helping my tongue and lips explore her. My fingers danced across the curves of her ass, slipping between the cheeks and fleetingly touching her rose.

Ling ran her fingers through my hair. Low, soft moans drifted down to my ears. Then she suddenly caught my shoulders and lifted me up until her mouth could seize mine again.

"Oh no Bridget," she moaned as she pulled me tight against her. "You don't get to have all the fun yourself." She all but carried me to the couch, falling with me until we were locked in tangle of arms and legs and questing fingers and lips. She rolled me onto my back and kissed down my body. I feebly protested as her lips swept over my breasts and my quaking stomach.

"Ling, oh my, ohhh, Ling, please, you said, please let me." My stammerings were cut short as she flipped her lithe form around and settled herself down on me, effectively shutting my mouth so it could reopen for something more delightful than talk.

Her breath was cool on my thighs as she parted them. She giggled suddenly. "Bridget! All this hair. You better hope I can find you amidst this jungle.

She could. As my head tipped back and my tongue reentered her she wormed her way through my "forest" and found my already throbbing, unhooded clit. It only took a few gentle strokes from my Chinese lover and I was falling over the edge. A firm grasp on her ass, a deep thrust of my tongue inside her and she was falling with me.

We made love through the rest of the night until even we lay helpless in exhaustion. We slept the day around wrapped in each others' arms. I didn't want to ever leave hers.

The next night I moved my belongings into Ling's apartment. We trained even harder as she pushed me along as fast as she could. Hours of sparring were followed by hours of passion. Occasionally we slipped from the Palace to feed. Ling was as careful and as concerned to cause no lasting harm to anyone as I was. I knew she would be like that. Every night I fell deeper and deeper in love with this wise and erotic woman.

I was in my favorite position, nestled against Ling's body, the night that the assassins struck. Only vampire ears could have detected the sound of their entrance in time for us to both spring from our couch. Ling's sword leaped into her hands while I hurled the table beside the bed through the doorway and the window beyond, letting the torchlight from the hallway and the garden into our chambers.

There were 6 of them. They were clad in loose fitting clothing and felt slippers, with masking cloths wound around their heads. Only their eyes could be seen. I dodged the blows that two of them aimed at me. In doing so I lost my balance and sprawled on the floor. I tried to crawl to my sword as Ling attacked, driving all but the last man before her.

The last nin-sha sprang for me. I abandoned my attempt to reach my sword, instead rolling under the thrust of his blade. My hand and arm made a straight line from my shoulder as I came up on my knees. Nin-sha or not, when my fist slammed into his balls, the assassin screamed.

He doubled over as I rolled again to come to my feet. A snap kick to his jaw stretched him out. Three frantic steps brought me to my katana and I tore it from the sheath. Then I stood there for an moment in complete awe of my lover.

Unbelievably Ling was facing the five masked fighters and driving them all before her. The incredibly graceful form that I adored bent, twisted and slipped from one foe to another without pause. Her sword was a blur of lightning that even my eye couldn't follow. The assassins might have had a lifetime each of training, but Ling had decades of experience for every year of theirs.

Then I was beside her. As a human I would have been no match for any of them, but my greater strength and speed made me almost their equal. And with Ling it was no contest. One by one the attackers fell. I killed one and Ling handled the others. She reached down and tore the hood from the head of the one who had appeared to be the leader and grunted in satisfaction.

"This is the one, Bridget. His name was Loung Sho and he was the ringleader. With his death this threat is ended. The plotters who arranged this will not dare to move again."

Our arms went around each other and we kissed. We smiled in each others' eyes and this time I was the one who touched her cheek in happiness. The Emperor was safe and so were we.

Suddenly Ling's eyes opened wide in shock as something seemed to burst from her breast. The impact threw me from her arms and I staggered back, staring at the point of the stake protruding from her body. Then she exploded into ashes. Behind where she had been stood the last man, the one I had knocked down, and failed to finish.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" I screamed and leaped forward. My sword whistled through the air driven by every ounce of my inhuman strength and the killer torso fell one way and his legs another. Then my katana dropped from my hands and I collapsed to my knees, weeping so hard I couldn't see.

The noise of the fight had finally aroused the palace and the room was flooded with guards and servants. I allowed them to take the bodies of the attackers away but fended off every attempt to touch me or disturb where I knelt.

Had we been human I could have held Ling's body. God, I could have gone to the grave with her. But I had nothing, just a scattering of dust that was all that remained of my beloved. Wildly I managed to gather up what I could. Casting my eyes about the room, I snatched a delicate vase and deposited in it what of Ling's remains I could grasp. Then I rocked back and forth, keening as I remembered from my homeland.

Nights passed while I remained prostrate with grief. Finally I rose and sought out certain court advisors. They gave me the names of those disgruntled nobles who were believed to be behind the plot.

I left Beijing two nights later, after a final night that I will not speak about even today. Let it be remembered as a night of blood and rage that left the city quaking, and me shaken as I was once again reminded of the demon that lurked deep inside me. I took nothing with me except for a certain silk gown and Ling's sword.

(The Present)

I closed my book with a heavy sigh. From my chair I could not see the Ming Vase that rested on a stand in my bedroom. I had buried it and Ling on a hilltop overlooking the city. Centuries later I had recovered it and given Ling's ashes to the wind of her beloved country.

I almost gave up after that. I had never been in love like that before. What I had imagined I had felt for Dominic was a pale shade of what Ling had made me feel. For so long after that, I couldn't give my heart. Even when I found other lovers I always held a piece of me back. If even two immortals were doomed to be parted, what was love but an illusion that would not, could not last?

Oh Mike. Thank you for that too. Thank you for freeing my soul to love again without condition, without regard for the possible consequences. I had always known better. I had seen lovers meet and cling to each other through everything. I just hadn't been able to make myself follow them.

I suddenly slapped the book's ornate cover. "Enough, Bridget," I scolded myself. You would think I had never laughed again or had fun. Ling's memory had become something to cherish, not avoid. I had been able to enjoy life again and had for many, many years. Why it wasn't long before I embarked on the quest for Thorfinn that ended with my gift of life that I had... well ... perhaps I should write that down.

(To Be Continued)