Curse of the Bloodmage

There was heat in her palm now too, and soon she was stroking a rigid pole, soft on the outside but iron at its core.

He no longer felt frozen where their bodies were pressed together and, when Beth moved, she felt her shift had begun to cling to her breasts and stomach with sweat.

Ean shivered and began to stretch, loosening his frozen joints. His body rubbed deliciously against hers, chafing her nipples and awakening her own desire. It felt good at this angle, almost like it was her own penis she was stroking. The tingling within her continued to grown until it became almost unbearable.

She had to be closer to Eanon. She moved to the side and eased him over onto his back. His chest was far cooler than where she had been nestled against his back, but a faint flush of pink was now suffusing the grey skin.

Careful to keep the blankets over him, Beth slid one long leg over Eanon's thighs. She straddled him, but kept her body low, her breasts pressed against his torso. She gave a soft moan as she felt his hard shaft brush her inner thigh. An aching emptiness awoke in her groin and she felt a need to be filled.

Ean muttered something in his sleep, his brow creasing. Beth brushed her fingers through his hair until he was soothed once more.

His hard cock pulsed against her soft thigh and Beth felt a fresh spring of dampness awaken between her legs.

Placing a soft kiss on Ean's cheek, she shifted her body up until she was astride his hips. When she settled down she cooed as she felt a hot, rigid cylinder nestle into her wet cleft. It was like sitting astride a rolling pin.

Very slowly at first, she began to use her body like she had used her hand, stroking it up and down his length. Eanon responded rolling his head back and breathing out a long sigh.

Encouraged by this, and the renewed warmth that now radiated from his body beneath her, Beth began to move faster.

A prickling, crackling energy buzzed between her thighs. As the sensation drew closer to her center it grew more and more concentrated until it burned like a white-hot coal at her core.

Beth was panting now, she hiked her shift up to her waist and shamelessly rode her brother. She was close, and wondered if she could get her brother off if she continued this way.

Still, she felt something was missing, the emptiness within her begged to be filled. She remembered how good it had felt when she climaxed with her fingers inside herself. She wondered at how much better it would feel with Eanon's manhood filling her up.

Beth had a flash of uncertainty. She was unmarried and had her maidenhood still intact. Was she really considering giving it to her unconscious brother? Then again, her destiny not long ago had been to live out her life as a spinster maidservant. Ean felt so good against her body.

While her mind still argued with itself her body raised itself up and her hand took hold of Ean's spike of manhood.

Maybe if she just pushed it in a tiny bit it would be enough to satisfy her craving?

With Ean lying still on the bed she was able to settle herself slowly onto his cock. She gasped as his tip nuzzled her dripping entrance. With some effort, she forced him just barely inside herself. Just the very tip. Already she felt herself nearing completion. She hovered there, just short of him piercing through the thin tissue of her maidenhood and let her fingers dig into her crease to find her swollen clitoris.

It took only a few quick circles before a tickling, stretching sensation trickled down her spine. It felt like it was pushing apart her vertebrae to let in even more sensation into her already overwrought body. It ran down to her rump, over her coccyx, past her tightly clenched little anus and detonated at the point all around where Ean's shaft was just barely inserted inside her.

Beth cried out with the force of the climax, her entire body bucking forward. Her hand desperately fought to keep the equilibrium of keeping Ean's shaft inside her, without letting it go too far. Her thighs quivered and shook, squeezing her brother's sides as her peak receded.

Beth was still recovering, gasping, almost sobbing with the pleasure of it when she opened her eyes once more.

She found herself staring straight into the cold blue eyes of Eanon.

He was awake again, but this time she could tell he was still not himself. His stare was cruel and hungry. Ravenous, even. Beth suddenly felt the need to escape yet still, there was the adrenaline thrill of the prey sensing the predator.

She hesitated and in that moment hands seized her hips. They were strong hands, stronger than they had any right to be and they were pulling her down with inexorable force.

Beth cried out at the sudden flood of sharp agony as Ean drove himself mercilessly inside of her. The pain was far more than she had been expecting and she nearly yelled for him to stop.

But this was what she had wanted, hadn't she? To be completely filled by Eanon. And fill her he had. Beth felt herself sink right down to the root of his shaft. Their pubic hair kissed and intermingled. She hoped the pain would subside but it felt like she was being torn apart as the huge shaft forced open her tight passage for the first time.

"Wait," she squeaked, putting her hand on Ean's chest, "Just let me..."

But something in Ean was truly awake now. His hands held her down, locked tight with him, as he shifted his weight and rolled her over. It hurt to move but Beth did not resist. Tears stung her eyes. She had no idea her first time would hurt so. Would it always be like this?

Then Ean was on top of her, his face hovering above her. She laid sprawled out on the bed, trying not to whimper.

Rough hands seized the top of her shift. Beth looked up fearfully and saw Ean's teeth were bared as he stared at her chest. Frantic, he pawed at her clothing. Scared by his ferocity she meekly helped, shrugging off the shoulder straps so that he could drag down the thin fabric and expose her plump, newly budded breasts

Eanon looked her over from her head down to where he was still buried inside her. Beth heard a low growl issue from somewhere deep in his throat.

Her brother raised himself up, straightening his arms, his hands beside her shoulders. Then he drew himself back. Beth felt mixed relief and disappointment as he vacated her sheath inch by inch until his cock returned to the point it had been, just barely inside her.

Beth looked up at Eanon through liquid eyes, but his expression held no warmth or familiarity.

With rough force, he shoved himself back inside her. Beth did let out a cry this time, and again as he repeated the thrust. She expected the pain to end but it only grew worse, more intense with each violent, puncturing thrust.

Beth wanted him to slow down, to give her time to accommodate, but Eanon was lost in his cold desire.

He pumped himself in and out of his sister, faster and faster, paying no heed to her stifled cries and the tears welling at the corners of her eyes.

Even though his strength had not fully returned he seemed incapable of stopping. His arms soon gave out and he collapsed atop her. Bethel was still too shocked by it all to push back or protest. Eanon, with nearly his full weight pressing down on her, kept moving in a flurry of quick thrusts from his hips.

Bethel gritted her teeth. She had not imagined her first time would be like this. She wanted to cry but willed it away.

Finally, when Bethel felt raw and bruised beyond bearing, Eanon began to lose his rhythm. He grunted once, twice and then, on the third time it continued on into a roar as he reached his climax.

Her chafed insides were suddenly doused in a spray of hot liquid as Eanon spasmed. He poured jet after jet of seed into her. This, despite all the agony of the past few moments, sent a strange vibration of pleasure through her. The heat of his liquid essence was a balm to her tortured insides, and it made it that much more bearable as Ean finally relaxed and fell asleep on top of her, his shaft still buried deep inside her.

She lay under him for a long time, staring up at the rough thatch, almost lost in the gloom of the roof above them. When his breathing slowed and she felt him contract enough that his flaccid cock slipped out of her she finally stirred.

Desperate not to disturb him she carefully slid out from under him and, clutching her falling shift to her naked body, she tiptoed to her room. Even as she cleaned herself up as best she could and dressed in a fresh nightshirt she did not let herself cry.

She had asked for this, had she not? She had dreamed about it. Would it always be like that, or was it just her first time that would feel so painful? And, what had overcome Eanon? All these questions flooded her already confused mind. As she drifted off to a fitful sleep, Bethel hoped, above all else, that Eanon would have no memory of the night, as had been the case with all the others.

But, when she shyly entered his room the next morning, bearing a bowl of hot broth to feed him, she was shocked to see him awake and sitting on the edge of the bed. When he turned his hollow eyes up to her she knew from his grim expression that he remembered what had happened.

At once she felt a stab of fear and, in the same moment, she felt choked with joy. Eanon was awake, his color had returned and he once again moved like himself.

Bethel tipped back and forth on her toes, uncertain if she should run forward to hug him or turn her face away in shame.

She held back and he broke the silence. In a voice that sounded rusty from disuse, he looked down at the bed and asked, "So, it wasn't a dream then?"

She saw where he was looking and she felt her blood run cold.

Eanon was using one hand to stretch out the bedsheet where he had laid last night, one she had only changed the day previous. There on the material was a dark red stain the size of her first. A flash of the stabbing pain from last night came back to her and Beth winced, feeling her tears start to return.

"Ean," She tried to explain.

"Oh, Gods, Bethel," Eanon's voice sounded as broken as hers, "What have I done?"

"Ean," She said and suddenly dashed forward, slopping the broth as she went. She balanced it precariously on the chair beside his bed and touched his shoulder with her fingertips, "Ean, it is okay. Nothing..."

"How can you say that?! Bethel, I raped you!"

"Ean, you didn't."

"I would say that it was this foul sickness, but still I was there, Beth. I remember it all. I remember your face, your tears, and... and I couldn't stop. I didn't want to stop. Gods, Beth, how can I ever ask your forgiveness? I can't look you in the eyes."

"Ean, It is not your fault."

But Eanon seemed not to hear her, lost in his own self-mortification, "I had dreams Bethel, dreams of you, of us. Dreams so vivid I swear... and then last night. Gods, how could I?" He ran his hands through his sweat-soaked hair.

"Ean you are not listening!" Bethel stamped a foot in frustration as she cried out, "This is not your doing, it was me. I thought I was helping you with your sickness and, well... " She felt her face burn hot with shame, "Things got out of hand. What happened last night was not you, it was the sickness."

Bethel did not admit that she had, in some way, been wishing it would happen. "I am fine and you, you are finally getting better. We should be celebrating. You were all but dead Ean. They told me you would die."

"Did I hurt you?" Ean asked coldly.

"What?"

"Did I hurt you when I forced myself upon you?"

"Ean, it wasn't like that," She tried to reply, but she could see that he had read the truth of what had happened in her face. His hands bunched the bedsheets into tight firsts.

When Bethel tried to comfort him, he pushed her away. He turned from her and would not speak or listen to her entreaties or explanations.

When Beth finally left the room she finally did break down in tears and she sobbed uncontrollably. She had finally got Eanon back, had realized her true feelings for him, and now she had lost him again, this time irrevocably.

The house felt cold and dark despite the summer heat. Over the next week Eanon recovered strength quickly. He ate like ten men and quickly put back on his weight and muscle. Beth started to grow worried at the rate which his rapacious appetite was draining their dwindling reserves. His dreams still troubled him but he was, it seemed, miraculously healed.

But Bethel wondered at the price that they had both had to pay. She consoled herself that she would have done anything to save her brother. Given the choice, she would have done it all again knowing that it had, in some way, brought him back. But it still hurt more than she could have imagined given that he was as good as dead to her anyway.

While he recovered, she did her best to work out of the house, now that she felt it was safe to leave Eanon alone for long periods of time. She hated the oppressive feeling she felt when they were in the same room together. What little conversation they had was banal and petered out quickly into interminable silence.

A few times Bethel did catch her brother looking at her. More than once she felt his gaze heating the back of her neck when she was outside working, repairing the fencing around the sheep pen. At her insistence he rested on the porch and, once or twice she looked back in time to catch his expression before he could turn away. It was a mixture of confusion and pain, and something else Bethel could not quite place. She hoped that with time she would convince him to talk to her again. She missed him terribly, even more so than when he was away fighting his brief war. The worst of it though was the unquenchable ache she still felt deep inside her when she looked over his lean, strong body.

It was not long after his recovery, after she had spent a long day in the fields, that she came home and felt the bottom drop out of her world. Eanon was sitting on the porch waiting for her. At his side was a bag. She could see he was packed for a long journey.

"Eanon?" She asked, not trusting herself to say anything more.

"I'm sorry, Beth. I have to go back. I can't stay here any longer."

"You can't!" she said forcefully.

"I have a duty."

"Duty be damned. Your duty was until death and you, Eanon Calfman are, as far as the army is concerned, dead!"

"It's not just that, Bethie. I can't stay here... with you."

That stabbed deep into her heart and Beth felt her eyes welling with tears. She tried to shake them away. She did not want her brother to see her as the weak girl she had once been.

"Why not? Do you so despise to look at me that you want to run away, back to the men who nearly killed you."

"Bethel,"

"No, you listen, Ean. I nearly broke my back nursing you back to life. You should be dead, but I managed to keep you alive and what thanks do I get? You want to go right back and give them your life so they can throw it away again. Well, I don't think so, I saved it so it is no longer your life to give."

"Sister, I cannot stay here. I cannot stop thinking about that night. What I did to you. I cannot bear that I was the one to hurt you, that I might be the one to hurt you again."

"Don't you see," She began to sob openly, "You are hurting me far more now than you ever did before."

"Gods, Beth," Eanon rose from his chair and stood awkwardly before her then, to her surprise he pulled her in for a hug.

Beth's cries nearly turned to laughter as she felt his strong, warm embrace around her. She smelled his clean scent and felt his firm body holding her tight. She did not want him to let her go.

"It won't be good for you if I stay here. Since that night, I can't see you the same way. I don't think I can go back to the way it was before, that is why I have to go away."

"And what if I don't want to go back to how it was before?" Beth demanded, wrapping her arms tighter around him as she felt him release her from the embrace.

"Beth," He sighed, looking up at the darkening sky.

"No, Ean. I can't lie to you anymore. I want you. I need you. I don't care if it is wrong. Please don't leave me again. You will break my heart."

When she looked up she saw there was a wet sheen to his eyes too. He quickly looked away and cleared his throat. Finally, with a deep breath, he took her arms and lifted them forcefully off him.

Deliberately he took a step back and held her at arm's length. Looking into her streaming eyes he said, in a steady voice, "Beth, what you speak of can never happen. We are brother and sister. It is a sin against the Gods. I cannot take advantage of you like that. It is better if I leave. Better if you forget me and move on."

With that, he shoved her back slightly and stepped away.

Beth sobbed piteously and though Eanon wavered, he remained steadfast.

"Will you leave right now? Do you hate my company so much?"

"No, Beth. I have never hated your company. I value it above any other. Perhaps that is why I should leave most of all. But I will leave in the morning, at first light."

And though Beth cried and begged, Eanon had put up his wall and would hear no more. Neither of them slept that night and Eanon was up and dressed before the first fingers of dawn reached up above the horizon.

He waited a long moment at the door, hoping that Bethel might come to see him off, that he might gaze upon her sweet face one last time. Deep down he hoped that she might beg him to stay one last time and this time he would relent.

But no, it could not be. With a heavy heart, he slipped out the door, took up his pack, and strode off towards the sunrise.

Bethel did not get out of her bed until the late morning. She felt achy and feverish from a night of crying.

She did not feel like eating, but she had to fetch water and wood for the fire. She may have lost everything again, but her father had always said the Calfmans were a hard headed lot and they never just rolled over without a fight. With considerable effort, she bathed herself with a damp cloth, dressed, set her jaw and ventured out to face a world she felt had betrayed her too many times.

The water pump was not far from the house. She felt a pang looking at it. She remembered the work it had taken to install. Her father and brother had dug for days.

The two men she loved most, both gone to her now.

She was about the start pumping the handle, a much-dented bucket placed under the spout, when she heard a sound.

Excitement filled her breast. Had Eanon changed his mind?

She turned, unable to repress a smile, words of welcoming on her lips. There they died and she felt heart drop into her worn work boots.

Grimsby stood at the side of the house. He grinned cruelly at her as he picked at one of his drooping mustaches.

"Hello, Girlie." He said as his eyes traveled over her.

Beth stepped back, knocking the empty pail over onto the hard-packed earth. She had no voice to respond, cold fear had taken a grip on her throat.

She caught movement on the other side of the house. Relief flooded her when she saw the cart driver step out around the corner. He would keep a rein on Grimsby, as he had last time. Maybe they had just come to check on the state of Eanon?

"House is empty," the cart driver said, not even looking at Beth.

"What did you do with his body?" Grimsby asked, looking around the back of the house, clearly searching for the turned earth of a newly dug grave.

Bethel shrunk into herself. She refused to look at Grimsby, instead she focused pleading eyes on the grandfatherly cart driver.

"How long did he hold out?" Grimsby prompted. "Did he turn on you before he went? Gods, you should see the way they die at the front after the Bloodmages get their talons in them. The abuse, the screaming. They turn on their best mates." He gave her a slow looking over before adding, "But you look alright, don't you?"