Love is Hell Ch. 01

Raiden closed his eyes and lifted his hands up in front of him. His face was sombre.

"Only two of us can take it this far, and Michael is a lot stronger than I am."

He balled his hands into fists and his face became a mask of concentration. When he jerked them open, palms-up in front of his chest, a swirling orb of multicolored energy coalesced above each palm. He opened his eyes and smiled at Cerina as she stepped forward slowly, spellbound by what she had witnessed.

"How is this possible, Ray?"

"I'm an empath, kitten. Only, I can turn the energy of emotion into a tool. Watch..."

He turned his palms to face each other and the orbs moved together and merged into one, after which all the colors faded away... save two; red and purple. Ray looked down and smiled at the two-toned storm that swirled throughout the orb, then grasped it in his hands and offered it to Cerina.

"Here, a light snack in the vein of what you got from me last night, only without all the work."

Cerina was in awe as she reached out with shaking hands to take the gift from Ray.

"How? I mean, I understand what you mean by empath, but how did you learn to do... well, that...," she asked as she gestured to the orb before placing her hands on it to take it from him. The orb visibly pulsed as her skin made contact, and the energy surged into her. Cerina groaned and went slack, her eyelids fluttered and Raiden stepped forward to catch her as she swooned. She quickly found her feet, leapt on Ray, and wrapped her legs around. One angelic smile later, she planted a scorching kiss on his lips. When she showed no signs of stopping after a couple minutes, he carried her into the living room and pried himself loose from her on the sofa. Raiden drew in a deep, gasping breath and shook his head to clear it, then sat back into the couch and sagged against the cushions.

"I'm certainly not going to complain about the thank-you, if that's what that was, but could you warn me next time you plan to show that much appreciation? I'd like to have an oxygen mask on standby. You obviously have lung capacity that Olympic swimmers would kill for."

Cerina giggled and curled into his side.

"I'll take that under advisement. So, now that you've managed to divert my attempt to ravage you again, perhaps you could finish telling me what happened last night since your memory has clearly returned?"

Raiden sighed and slipped an arm around her shoulder.

"That's the problem, I just don't know. I didn't even make the connection until you called it magick. Whatever happened last night, when you hit me with that first whammy just inside the door as we kissed, it set me on autopilot. If I didn't know better, I'd say you caused me to tap into some sort of crazy ancestral memory kinda thing."

She slumped against him and huffed.

"Great, I get bound to a human and he can't even tell me how he did it." Cerina lightly elbowed his side, "At least you're a good man. I can feel that much through the bond, you know? Almost feels like I won the lottery, honestly. You wouldn't believe how twisted those who seek out my kind tend to be. Thank you for that."

Ray stiffened slightly when he heard the word bound, but relaxed after he had given the idea some thought while he listened to her. When she finished, he spoke up.

"I'm... not sure it works the way you think it does, Cerina. The bond doesn't feel like a one-way street. I think we somehow bound each other. If I did it, like you suspect, then you had to have worked your own desires into whatever I did... somehow. I just broke up with my girlfriend of ten years yesterday morning, for Christ's sake. I wasn't even trying to get laid yesterday, much less find an actual companion, yet... I find myself content with this, even happy."

Cerina sat up and looked into his eyes, searching them for any sign of deception in spite of the fact that he could not lie due to their bond.

"You really do mean that..."

"Of course I do. Maybe the bond has something to do with that, maybe it doesn't. I'm not actually inclined to care, either way. You didn't try to kill me last night, you seemed to be feeding on the energy of our act and not my life force. As long as it stays that way, I don't see me ever caring, to be totally honest about it."

Her face held an inscrutable look for a moment, then she shook her head and broke into a smile.

"That's because my kind feeds exclusively on sexual energy. I know where the stories come from, though, and I will share them another time. For now, take me back to bed. I think I want to experience your attentions when you're actually at the wheel."

Raiden grinned, "How could I possibly refuse a request like that?"

He stood and scooped the woman into his arms, and carried her upstairs to bed. For the second night in a row, the block echoed with the sounds of passion and lust, and Cerina once again found herself outmatched by this strange human to whom her fate was now tied.

Winter here,

Jesus! Getting this one ready has been a royal pain in my ass. When I wrote the first incarnation of this story years ago, it was a total clusterfuck and I'm surprised anyone was able to follow it at all. I wrote it completely as a stream-of-consciousness type thing. I feel like this version is off to a much better start. Hope you agree, and see you again soon!

P.S.

This is unedited, any and all mistakes are mine and mine alone.