Dark Dreams

His answer was not needed, She could see Her victory in his eyes, loss flavored it and bitter tears joined the raindrops on Her face. Taking this dark one would bring Her strength and life enough. But he would be gone, his essence absorbed, She would never see him lift to Her touch or respond to Her voice again. Her hand fell away from him; again confusion chased the rain from his eyes. He turned into Her, one hand raised, palm offered outward. “Please Goddess, take anything You wish from me.”

She yanked him forward then, Her hand fisting up in the rain slick curls of his hair. “I will devour you, like the aughisky, you might ride for awhile, but in the end, I will have your soul.”

“It is Yours already, Goddess. I give it freely.” She thrust him back from Her then, his body colliding with wooden balustrade of the small porch. Unsure, now of what had made Her angry, he went to his knees, those wonderful tiger-eyes shinning up at Her. She stalked back and forth, Her voice barely audible over the storm; he went still trying to listen. The more She talked the harder the rain fell, until it was almost a sheet of liquid between them. Slick with the falling rain, She wasn’t even very imposing, Her body small and compact; it was the wings and her velvety voice that gave Her the otherwordlyappeal. Standing up, and leaving the temporary safety of the porch roof, he stepped into Her path.

Her head jerked upward in surprise, as if She’d forgotten he was there, and a totally unearthly light was glowing in Her eyes. Her tongue licked along the lower edge of one lip, and those eyes pinned him in place.

Her voice echoed against his ears, and spun chills down his spine. “Run, don’t stop chosen, run now and don’t look back.” It had been his earlier thought, had She read it somehow? He shook his head in denial.

“Only if You come with me.” She staggered then, all the menace that kept Her moving, left Her in a rush.

“You know I can not.” His body wilted at that, he had only one more card left. Moving closer into the circle of her arms, he reached for Her hand, turning it up to the sky. She didn’t stop him, and buoyed by this he brought the rapidly healing wound at Her wrist to his lips.

“Don’t leave, I would be only half alive.” The voice huffed out along Her translucent skin the tendons showing up in sharp relief, as Her fingers curled inward. Still he dared to lay gentle kisses upon the knitted flesh.

“You would be alive.” Her voice growled out the warning and still he kept his head and lips bent to Her.

“Meaningless, without You.” The words rushed out now, afraid She wouldn’t let him finish. “Life is just a state of existence, Goddess.” Should You choose to take this offering I will become a part of You.” He shrugged then, rain-dusted lashes opened to look into Her eyes. “It is worth the price.”

She had never hesitated before, taking the others with ardent satisfaction. Doing so now had long dead emotions bubbling to the surface, which were taking to much effort to fight. She wanted to learn more, explore the whole of who he was, and that had never happened. She was ensnared by the same trap, She had used on countless others, the game reversed. She entwined Her fingers with his, “Come chosen you are shivering.” The breath he wasn’t aware of holding escaped in a sigh of relief and he followed Her through the cabin door.

She appeared so insubstantial, ghostlike in the harsh electrical lighting. He snapped the switch off and darkness descended upon them. Leaning back against the door jam, he watched Her. The darkened rooms were no deterrent to Her curiosity. A small smile played about his lips, as she touched, scented and once even tasted things scattered about. He’d built the log cabin himself, a haven miles away from the smoke and noise filled city. It wasn’t elaborate, but he needed little to be comfortable and the small rooms had given him oft-needed peace.

He stepped away from the door, and moved to a stone table the edges were rough, unfinished but the surface gleamed with care, a dozen fat candles were set out in no particular pattern, He lit these letting the softer light reflect out from the mirrored obsidian, and fill the room. The rasp of the match turned Her attention back to him. Her eyes wandered slowly over his lean frame the candlelight turning his hair and skin to onyx and umber. Shadows furled out with the thin strips of smoke, playing over his chest and abdomen. He was wondrous, this one She’d chosen. He stood perfectly still, calm even serene, watching Her.

It was during this quiet contemplation of him, She realized what had set him apart. The others had been full of desire, even need. But it was always tinted with fear. Oh he had the emotion, but it was not directed to that final embrace. In this one She saw Her own need to be swallowed by oblivion reflected back. She couldn’t do it. Her choices had been made long ago. She could have told him, that humanity with all of its mistakes and foibles was still worth having. That She would give up this never-ending existence, for the chance to turn back the clock. To meet him devoid of shadows, Her hands free of blood. She reached out for him, and said none of these things, only pulled him close melding their damp bodies together with a fervent hold.

“Close your eyes, chosen.” He obediently did so, the sooty lashes covering those glimmering orbs. She guided him past the table, to a small alcove that held a hand carved oak bed, and a matching dresser. A long casement window was nestled above the headboard, and this She threw open to catch the storm-flavored breeze. He could feel the chill air as it swept past, and then Her body. The flesh of his back and shoulders, crackled with electricity, as she skimmed the ends of Her fingers up and then down his lean frame. It was nothing he could ever remember feeling before.

Her presence permeated the small rooms, filling them with Her intensity. That snap under each touch of Her fingertip made him jump and then sway forward. Standing still took all of his concentration, and even that was sloughing off his body with every successive snap. He wanted, no needed to scream, to fall to his knees begging for more attention and he couldn’t. The aura entwining them was nothing he cared to break. This new connection like a cable fused them together and gave him insight into Her desires, and these he wanted stoke into an all-consuming flame.

She dropped Her chin upon his shoulder, and whispered in his ear, “You may open your eyes.” the voice fanned the small curling hairs just at his nape, and raised a line of gooseflesh over his back. Slowly he peeled the lids back up with a small shiver his gaze drawn down to Her hand. He followed her fingertips with his eyes, nothing else moved. He funneled all of his concentration into just watching.

Her pale skin, contrasted sharply against the darker pigment of his flesh. He could see the glassy, transparent nails upon Her long hands. The ovals were smooth and even lighter than her fingers, which were as slender as an artist’s was. He had seen them as claws though, and he knew the strength contained in them. Still he watched, unmoving. She could have ripped him open with those hands had She chosen too, his upper chest clenched in a quick reminder. Instead the hand caressing, was gentle even tender laid into the hollows of his hips and trailing up his side.

He wanted to lean in and stroke himself like a cat against Her. She turned anticipating this, and made the caress rougher, pulling his skin taut dimples appearing in behind Her stroke. The groan was involuntary, riding out of his throat with a harsh exhaled breath. She tucked her free hand; up under the waistline of his useless jeans, and stepping just away, slid the button free, letting the ruined fabric fall to the floor.

She stepped around him and he cinched his teeth down over the lower part of his lips. Her eyes were glowing again, and not the odd color he’d noticed before but with an inner light that altered the reflected candle flames into gold. In one beat of his heart, She emerged from out of the chrysalis of her clothing, and stood upright with only the diaphanous wings and the wind-tossed hair, adorning Her. He reached out for Her without a thought for the consequences. She gathered him close in the same movement allowing the touch and curling Her chilled skin, around his warmth. He didn’t even notice the temperature change, the cold outer shell just another part of Her.

She caught his hands up into Her own, and pressed them against Her lips. Kissing the bare tips, She traveled down the length of his fingers to the inner palm. He sucked in a deep unsteady breath; She used the same intensity displayed earlier, when cleaning Her own hands of blood, no part of his larger one was left untouched. The snake-like darting tongue licked, tasted, suckled with no sense of anything else but the outer covering of his hand. She kissed out along the stronger bones of his wrist, dipping into the hollow where the tendons gathered together.

The begging words fell out of his mouth before he could catch them back. “Take it, I please.” And He had to stop he couldn’t finish the words, his breathing short and shallow, arm still caught against Her lips. His ears, caught a low rumble that he couldn’t decipher, but still She lapped the tongue back and forth over the indentation of veins just at his wrist. He couldn’t hold on, how could anyone be expected to stand motionless under this erotic onslaught. The fine muscle lines corded up into knots, over his shoulders and down the arm, She was still caressing.

Small whimpers left his throat, at the same time savage need raced through his body. He ran his own tongue over dry lips, and tried again. “Drink, Goddess…please.” His words trailed off, when he saw Her turn upward, that golden light in Her eyes, burned away anything else he was going to say. Something inside jumped in primal need at that look. Everything he had felt before was nothing in comparison to the white hot flash of desire. Her hands came up to cup his face, a small gesture, but the world stopped. Time was held fast by a pair of small ashen hands.

“Chosen, listen carefully.” Her voice was harsh. “Do you remember the mark?” He nodded the room darkened, Her aura pulsing again with menace. He flinched feline eyes drawn down to the hand She had been kissing. “Watch.” Her voice dropped low but he could hear a faint chant. A vivid blue radiance spilled from his fingers, the glyph She had carved in their first meeting appeared like ribbons and settled into the skin of his wrist. She pulled Her own hand into a fist, and his arm contorted violently, spasming under the mark as if his own muscles were no longer under his control.

He hissed, falling forward against the solid oak leg of the bed, his palm was still offered out, but his face was a frozen mask of pain. “I could make you hate Me, chosen, you would beg to be released.” She opened her fist, the pain abruptly cut off. He didn’t move laying where he’d fallen his hand still outstretched to Her. Her tone tuned musing, questioning.

“Why do you long for oblivion?” She didn’t let him answer, only settled onto the fluffy cotton comforter on the bed, and reached down to pull and tug him, over the foot rail into Her arms. She laid him at an odd angle across the few pillows, and propped Herself up on one elbow, Her free hand brushed the sable curls from his forehead.

“Why?”

He fumbled a minute for the correct words, choosing to amend the first sentence before answering the second. “You could make me hate what You are doing, Goddess.” “You could not make me hate You.” Why You ask, I’m not sure I could explain the feeling.” “There is always inside of me, a need though truthfully I’ve never examined it very deeply.” “Until You choose me I never spoke of it.” “Perhaps it is just something different in me, I’ve laid awake at night wishing for serenity, for a place to belong, for a reason to exist. It isn’t here.”

She turned her hand over gently stroking one side of his face.

“ You are my life,” his voice trembled on the last word, and She enfolded his body to Her own the velvet whisper drifting against his ear.

“Chosen”, and She placed two fingers across his mouth “No more words, it is enough.”

The next caress was with Her lips; they joined his own in a fierce kiss. Her mouth and tongue reached and found a matching need. He gave back every desire, She asked for and then some. She no longer questioned only enjoyed the moment, his scent, his taste, his feel all were precious. At the height of union, the second that both bodies tensed for the final rapture, She lowered her head to his heart, it’s rapid beating a thing She did not want to forget as their flesh convulsed, entwined and drove forward.

She attacked then, as his body collapsed inward the skin slick with their exertions his neck was covered with damp curls, no deterrent to Her. He spoke only two words, before his voice ran out, leaking from him as his lifeblood poured his soul into Her.

“My, Goddess.” Her eyes remained intent upon him, Her lips still locked to his throat, but Her ears heard this last tribute before the man became just a shell in Her arms. Done, and ending. Her soul screamed in agony, as his own wrapped itself about Her. It’s voice given tongue at last.

Crystal colored tears slid down Her white skin before dropping to his and covering the motionless body with Her pain No other would be chosen. His spirit had given Her strength and courage. It was the last gift and it would be enough to sustain Her. In the ensuing years She never wavered needing only his memory to go on. Her immortal soul had finally found peace.