Forbidden Devotion Ch. 02

Jayden slipped out of her and scooted near her head. "Turn over, Ilana!"

She complied and flipped over. She rotated her eyes towards Jayden. He was clutching his manhood and groaned when he splashed jets of his hot, sticky cum into her face. She darted her tongue to catch as much as she could to get a taste of his salty liquid.

Jayden, exhausted of every drop of strength, fell on his face at Ilana's side and the last of her energy was already spent making stretching out a challenge.

Ilana was tingling all over and her emotions were flying in a whirlwind. It was like Jayden had the keys to unlocking the secrets of her body's pleasure. She was feeling their souls join together. It frightened her. Ever since they met, her life hadn't been the same and she was swept away in the thrills of a fairytale unlike anything she'd ever read. It was something she couldn't be without...

After the rushes calmed enough for her to speak, she gave Jayden a lingering ogle. "Hey."

Jayden met her long stare. "Hey, yourself. You're pretty good at this."

"You're nothing like anything I could have ever dreamed of."

Jayden was glowing like he did often when in her presence. For him to share what she felt, if he did, was what any elf could have wanted.

He toyed with her damp tresses like he always loved to do. "I'm just me. Nothing special."

"We know that's a lie," Ilana said with a slap to his back. "I can't wait until we get to Nadine's Forest. My sister, Remi, is going to love you. She's into making clothes if the pants I got for you are not to your liking."

"Are they to anyone's liking?"

"Hey, I did the best I could."

Jayden rubbed her cheek with the rear of his hand. "You did great. So, I'll tell you a secret." Ilana readied herself and nodded at him. "I'm not the only human in Nevin."

Ilana gasped, threw herself into a sit-up position, and oriented herself towards him. "Wha, what? Who else is here?"

Jayden laughed. "Haha, no, it's not another stud like me. It's my sister, Becca. She came here but I don't know where she is exactly. Biology, chemistry, astrology, and physics were like a snap to her but as brilliant as her mind is, she's also attracted to danger and adventure. Not always bad things but she'll do anything for a thrill whether her life is at stake or not."

"Oh..." Ilana said feeling as though she was a mouse compared to a cyclops. That if all human females were like Becca, how could she capture Jayden? Not that Ilana wasn't amazing in her own way but she noticed the grin that came to his face as he spoke about Becca and the uplift in tone he spoke with. Coming from a place of envy, she asked, "Is she like most girls in your world?"

Jayden scratched his head. "No, she's definitely one-of-a-kind. Why do you ask?"

The lack of certainty in his answer did little to suppress her envy. "I was thinking. Do you think it's possible for a human and an elf to, you know, be together?"

Her tummy was cramping while awaiting his next words. It was way too soon for such a heavy talk but if there was a possibility he fancied another woman from his world, she had to make it known what she felt for him.

He said, "Anything is possible when two people are connected in a way that nothing in the world can pull them away from each other. It doesn't really matter who they are. Love is more powerful than anything that ever existed or will exist. Are you asking for a specific reason?"

Ilana's heart sped up. At least she had a chance but it was like pushing against all the resistance in her mind telling her how it couldn't possibly work. If he was willing to try, why not? Maybe anything can happen like he said...

She cleared her throat and took a breath and another and spoke before her vocal cords seized. "Um, so, how do you feel about...us?" Jayden was obviously trying to figure out what to say so she figured to lend some assistance. "Look at this..."

Ilana waved at the ceiling and created an illusion of them walking together with their hands melded under a dark sky with dots of white stars painted on it.

She made sure to capture a glance at Jayden and his "hmms," "oohhs," and "ahhhs" hinted at sounds of approval but a verbal confirmation would have been preferable.

Without a stray from Ilana's mirage, Jayden was lulled into a trance. "I don't know what to say."

Ilana was stuck in an uncomfortable limbo that had her in anxious tizzy. "What do you think?"

Jayden moved his lips to speak but the next sound that came was a banging at the door.

Ilana grumbled. Oh, why now! Just go away!

Instead of going away, the knocking persisted and the muffled voice of the inn owner came with it. "Lady Ilana! Lady Ilana! We need to speak with you! It's an emergency!"

Ilana slapped the sheets. "Okay! I'm coming as fast as I can!" She brushed Jayden's shoulder. "Sigh, it sounds important. We should go. Nadine's Forest isn't far from here anyway."

"Right when things were getting interesting..." Jayden said leaning close enough to almost taste Ilana's lips without touching them.

"I hope we get the chance to make things even more interesting soon..." Ilana said giving him a quick kiss. "What about Becca? We need to find her, don't we?"

Jayden sat on the edge of the bed at Ilana's side. "I do but I made a promise to you." He took her hand and she squeezed like she never wanted to release it. "I made a promise to save your people and I won't deviate from that. Besides, I don't have an idea where she is. I'm hoping we find some clues while we look for the artifacts to fight the dark elves."

Ilana curled her arms around Jayden and he held her with tightness and warmth. "We'll find her together and save Nevin. Maybe we both get happy endings."

"Maybe..."

Ilana kissed him again. She sighed but she worked her top up and over her breasts. Her nipples were still fighting against the fabric. She picked her panties and pants off the wood and pulled them to her waist. After she stepped into her boots, she twisted the door's knob and stepped into the hallway. It was easy to see the owner's heart rate was higher than the sky and dampness had his skin glowing.

"Lady Ilana! We have a problem! All of Nevin could be in danger!" he panicked.

From something other than dark elves? This is just lovely...

"What is it?"

The elf pointed at the front of the inn. "Some elves from Nadine's Forest came by here. Some kind of sickness has infected the forest. A lot of elves have already died they said. If it spreads to the rest of Nevin..."

Now Ilana was on the verge of panic mode. Remi, along with numbers of her people, lived in the forest. "What? Oh, no! Has word reached the capital?"

"No, I don't think so! We had to...stop those that fled in case they were infected..."

Ilana was horrified. "You mean they're dead?"

"We had no choice! If they reached Ellistas and..."

Ilana interrupted but filled with sorrow at what had to be done. "I know. I know. Darn. My sister lives in the forest! Oh, my God! Come on, Ilana. Don't lose it now. Stay in control. Okay, I'll head to the forest. See what I can do, if anything!"

"Whatever you do, hurry, and be careful! We can't lose you!" the elf said as he and his staff also fled.

Ilana slammed through the door to her room. "Jayden! We have to get out of here!"

He was already in his shoes and fastening his pants. "I heard! I'm with you! Come on!"

Ilana made a step to leave but that's as far as she got. Her mind burst open and another vision flooded in.

"Ahhh!" Ilana cried as she squinted and dropped to her knees with her hands trying to rub away the throbbing that consumed her brain.

There was the forest enveloped by something, a yellowish green gas or a cloud possibly. Many elves lay upon the forest floor holding onto their lives as best they could while others had already lost that battle.

Remi was somewhere with numbers of infected in her presence but Ilana couldn't tell what fate had in store for her.

"Help us, Ilana...my power is fading..." an aged female's voice spoke albeit weakly.

With the fading of the vision and voice came the alleviation of the discomfort ravaging her mind.

When she returned to the inn, Jayden was bent over with a hand of care upon her back.

"Ilana! Ilana! Is everything alright? Come on, talk to me!"

His desperate yells came more audible with each second that passed.

"Ah...mmm..." Ilana moaned as she returned to her feet with Jayden's assistance. "I'm okay. Ohhh...Nadine..."

Jayden flipped Ilana to face him. "Talk to me! What's happening?"

"Nadine is trying to tell me something. She's been sending me these images of what's to come—or what's already happening. Come on!"

They rushed outside. The air was crisp from the rains of earlier and the winds brought with them a piercing bite. It shivered their skin but there was no time to worry about that.

Next to the inn's entrance were the two elves the inn's owner put to rest. They were bathed in pools of blood with daggers jammed through their chests.

Ilana mourned them internally but had to refocus to reduce the number of guests they'll have at the cemetery.

They started to move in the direction of the forest but rattling metal halted their steps.

Looking to the east, three knighted elves with helmets from the royal palace carrying a sword, spear, and morning star clanked in their direction.

Ilana's blood ignited. She drew her staff and dashed to cut off their approach.

The elves halted and the sword wielding leader spoke.

"Lady Ilana! We have come on orders of King Zoran! He demands that you return to the royal palace immediately!"

Ilana pointed her staff's end at the trio. "You can tell the king to shove his demands where the sun doesn't shine! There is a disease going around Nadine's Forest and I'm going there to help them!"

The leader knight aimed the end of his sword at Ilana and they started walking in a circle opposite each other.

The leader scoffed. "We've heard no such thing! Are these more lies coming from him?" He directed his glowering at Jayden who rolled his eyes and folded his arms across his torso. "We have orders to bring you back by force if necessary!"

The adrenaline stirred inside Ilana. "We don't have time for this! Leave now or else!"

The leader twirled his sword. "Then 'or else' it is!"

He shouted a war cry and rushed Ilana to clash weapons with her. She deflected his downward chop, cross slash, and a low strike, and went on the offense with jabs of her staff, a sweep at his boots, and a spinning slash but all were blocked with sparks dancing upon their weapons.

Ilana swung her staff across her body and the leader did the same with his blade. They clashed and held each other's weapons against each other in a stalemate.

Both warriors shifted their weight forward and gnashed their teeth as they struggled to press with all their might against their adversary.

"Give it up, Ilana!" the leader said between grunts. "The king is too lenient on you! I would just kill you and be done with it! How dare you defy your ruler?"

Ilana leaned with more force against his sword. "Because he is wrong! He thinks he's so self-righteous and knows it all! And don't think my life will be that easy to take! It won't happen!"

"It doesn't matter if you think His Highness is right or wrong! What he thinks is what you think! His wishes are your wishes!"

"Haha, sorry! I'm not a puppet and he's not pulling my strings!"

"You sound like a fool! I may have orders not to kill you but I can leave you in pretty bad shape!"

"Well, come on. Get some if you think you're good enough!"

They remained in their deadlock. Jayden advanced to assist Ilana but was blocked by the remaining warriors. He growled and put his dukes up in front of his face with his left foot ahead of his right. He added a slight bend in his knees

The knight with the spear was trembling and barely able to hold his weapon but he lunged at Jayden. He stepped out of the path of the stab, held the wood, and snapped it with a chop. He drilled the sharp end into the elf's shoulder. He scooped the injured elf and slammed him into his partner with enough force to send shockwaves through the ground.

Ilana and the elven leader broke apart with battle yells. The leader rushed Ilana and swiped at her. She only heard his sword swooshing through the air but a stinging sensation soon sat in. She followed the discomfort to her arm where it was dripping red.

"Ah!" she cried as her instinct was to rub it but the whites of her eyes reddened and she rushed her opponent again.

She exerted enough power and energy to cause him to stumble backwards despite blocking her lunging cross strike.

She conjured her energies into her hand as a rush zipped through her veins. Jayden move to finish the leader but Ilana shook her head in the negative and he held his ground.

She fired a beam of her energy at the leader but he did the same at her and they were locked in another stalemate.

Both were giving all they had to the point of near exhaustion.

The glow from their attacks flickered off Jayden as he watched but began to summon his intensified life force into his palm, a reddish orange representation of his chi, and added it Ilana's beam. The overwhelming strength of their combined powers launched the leader across the valley and sent him falling into a crater of his creation.

Ilana bent over and rested her hands on her knees. She was gasping and wheezing while making an effort to resist collapsing.

"Are you alright?" Jayden asked with a hand to her back.

Ilana dragged herself across the mud until she was standing over the unconscious body of the knights' leader.

She kneeled and removed his helmet revealing an elf with long, blond locks and a scar running down his cheek.

"I trained him. His name is Alfa. " Ilana said as though she had whooped her best friend. She fell to her knees into a muddy puddle like she deserved to be there. Jayden approached her rear. She spoke with her attention still on her former trainee. "Do you have a word in your culture that describes a horrible, detestable kind of person?"

"Prick, dick, ass, asshole, a piece of shit. Why?"

She looked at Jayden to read his response to her next question. "Do you think I'm a piece of shit? I've betrayed people that put their trust in me. That's not to say anything about what I did to Feris. And maybe worst of all, I've defied my own king..."

Ilana's will to move had all but vanished. She wanted to sink further into the mud until she was drowning in it.

Jayden said, "You did what you did because you felt it in your heart. This threat is very real even if no one else can see it. We might have to go through a little hell now but when you save Nevin, they'll be singing praises in your name. As for Feris, you said you were going to end things with him anyway, right?"

Ilana stared at how dirty she was getting but found it difficult to care. "Sigh...no, not exactly. I made a big deal about Feris' jealousy and all that but I really enjoyed being with him aside from that."

"So, do you want to go back to him?"

"I can't."

"That didn't answer the question."

"Sigh, no that's in the past. I understand that," she said looking at Jayden with a gleam in the eyes. "I hope that I've found someone that is even better for me."

Jayden smiled and offered her a hand. "Maybe, but before we do anything else, you have to get out of that mud!"

"Hehe, yeah," she said trying to cheer herself up as she snatched his offer of assistance and sprang to her feet.

Jayden grabbed her hands and dove into her eyes. "Listen, don't doubt yourself. You're an amazing elf but we can't save your world if you do that. I know all this happened so fast and you're unsure if you're doing the right thing but trust yourself. It got you this far in life hasn't it?"

She pounded her head to knock out the self-pity. "You're right. I don't have time to feel sorry for myself! We have to save a forest! My sister! Let's go!"

Ilana took off in a sprint with Jayden struggling to keep up. "Hey, it's okay to feel weak and confused sometimes but I'm glad you found your way out of it!"

"Thanks for being there for me," she said with her arms and legs speeding through the wind.

"Thanks for saving my life and for a great time last night!"

"Sure, but if...no, when we save Becca, it will be better for you!"

"Like I said, you're amazing, but let's save your people, too. I hope we can stop this illness at the forest!"

"We can only hope..."

After burning their remaining stamina reserves, they arrived near the entrance to Nadine's Forest a couple of hours later. It was at the top of a hill where the muddy path curved along an incline and disappeared into the woods at the peak.

In the distance to the north of the hilltop was the sky's brightest star tamed by a covering of cirrus and cumulus that overlooked a gleaming lake. Its water was clear enough to see its bottom. As picturesque as it may have been, it was in stark contrast to the forest nearby though in normal times, it was a sight to behold in itself.

With a squint through the clouds, one could spot snowcapped mountaintops that appeared to be the size of fingertips given their distance.

"Nevin is beautiful," Jayden commented while running alongside nature's canvas in the background.

"It's as deadly as it is beautiful so admire at your risk, honey!"

"I know. I won't forget!"

They noticed a pair of knights holding halberds barricading the path into the trees and Ilana and Jayden approached them but the knight to her left spoke first.

"Lady Ilana! A plague has infected the forest! No one is allowed to enter or leave until it has been dispatched and the victims have been cured!"

Ilana settled in front of him. "What can you tell us about the outbreak?"

There was a slight pause in time when the knighted elves spotted Jayden but the first knight continued with his response.

"Not much except it's extremely lethal. Inhaling the pollen spewed from the poisonous plants around the forest can lead to infection and from there, the horrors begin. So far, we're looking at a fifty-fifty chance of survival for the infected and the ones that do live probably wish they could be a part of the other fifty."

Ilana slid some hair strands through her fingers. "I wasn't aware there were that many poisonous plants in the forest. If that was the case, the plague would have happened long ago. Is there a cure?"

The knight shrugged. "I'm sorry. I've offered you all I know."

Ilana was being gripped by the hands of fear followed by trembles and a churning tummy. "How's my sister and Nadine? Tell me they're alright!"

The other knight spoke. "Your sister has been helping the infected but hasn't contracted the sickness herself last I heard. As for Nadine, she's not doing so well. I doubt she has much time left."

The elf to her left asked, "Is the king aware of the situation here? We need to do something before we lose the forest or worse, other areas of Nevin become infected."

"No, I was on my way here, anyway. We have reason to believe the dark elves are coming back..."

The second elf tossed his hands up. "Great, as if a plague wasn't enough. The dark elves won't be throwing a party when they return. Not after we did to them. It's the end of days, I tell you."

Jayden thundered, "No, it's not! As long as we're still breathing, we can fight, which means we can win. We can't abandon hope yet!"

The elf scoffed. "Optimists can be the biggest fools. You hope against the reality you already see like that will ever change anything. You'd be better off facing the inevitable and dealing with that!"