The Revenge

Shadows lengthened in the alleyways as she crept from the city's glaring flames. Torches lit passageways, but only in heavily traveled places, places she dared not go at the hour the bell tower chimed. Smells drifted through the air, reminding her how far away from home she was and making it seem ever more distant behind her. These smells never made it to her side of the city and she refused to consider what caused the tear-wrenching stench to filter into the night air.

She moved quietly, almost soundlessly in an effort to remain hidden from view. Being caught here would only lead to disaster and even that would only be if she managed to make it home. Scanning the street at the end of the alley, she hurried across the dimly lit street and into another alley. More fumes assailed her nose causing her to pick up her skirts as she stepped. He would be waiting around the next corner and she could not afford the evidence of her journey to remain when this night had passed.

Arms snaked out from the shadows as she passed a doorway, pulling her inside and muffling her scream. A hiss in her ear and a tightening around her middle cut the scream off as she was pulled roughly from the alley. Fearing the worst, she unsheathed a dagger from her belt and flicked it sharply across her assailant's wrist. Wanting only to shock and not to actually hurt, she was stunned when a deep-throated chuckle rumbled against her back.

Stepping back, the arms released her and in the darkness she heard the scrape of flint as a match was lit, the tiny flame lighting up a face she'd longed to see for months. Almost immediately, she threw herself at him, pushing him to the wall and fastening her lips to his. Everything she'd felt, everything she'd hidden came out at once, causing a rush of blood leaving her lightheaded. She'd dreamed of him, lived for each short note. She'd risked everything to be near him and finally, at long last, here he was.

Pushing her back softly, he placed a finger to her lips and jerked a thumb to a sleeping companion sitting under the window nearby. Smiling, he pushed his hands through her hair. Tingles rushed over her scalp, causing a fission of identical tingles down her spine. With a small gasp, she pulled away from his loving fingers, knowing she would give them away if she stayed within his grasp much longer.

As if knowing her mind, he pulled her back to the door, lifting the hood of her darkest cloak over her head to cover her face. Hand-in-hand they moved into the gathering storm that covered the moon and sporadically flashed bright bolts of lightening overhead.

The going was slow and arduous. Quite a few times they stopped, so pleased to finally be with each other that stopping and petting seemed impossible to resist. Temperatures raised, they finally left the dregs of the city behind and escaped into the countryside.

The air grew heavy and she could only guess whether from the storm or their rushed feelings as they hurried to their hideaway. Rain began to slice down to earth, pushed toward them by the howling wind. They reached their former meeting place, both gasping for breath and reaching for the other. Clothes seemed to melt away, hastened by fingers hungry to feel flesh. Just out of the storm's reach they met. Lightening flashed and the rain grew dangerously insistent, pushing through the small opening that served as the door to their souls. Furious need set in quickly and the two could not part. His hands brought her body to life. Her breasts tingled, her nipples hardened and her breath grew ragged as a fiery pit of heat settled between her legs. Soon his hands were there, too, teasing her clit and easing into her, pressing first his fingers and then his thick shaft within her. Her body arched, receiving him deep inside her welcoming heat, her lips begging him for the completion her body craved. His thrusts became harder, more insistent, his control slipping as the thunder rocked the walls around them.

Cries of pleasure were lost as the raging beast roared outside. Their bodies tensed in that moment that existed only when the body received more sensation than it could handle and they were both pitched over the edge. Their climaxes met as lightening speared the ground, trees cracked and splintered as the maelstrom echoed in her heart.

As morning broke, they entered the city dregs. The sobs and tears she suppressed, though she wasn't sure how. She fed it all into the hole growing inside her chest where her heart used to be. Leaving him was always more difficult each time they passed, but knowing this was the last made the parting even more painful. Her steps seemed heavy and her shoulders wouldn't lift. With each step her resolve increased and by the time they reached the end of the alleyway she'd entered last night, her shoulders were straight and her eyes were clear. Inside, she felt numb; as if the strong thrash of emotions over the past few hours had robbed her of any other feeling.

He stopped finally, turning to face her in the golden rays of dawn. His eyes held every emotion she suppressed; longing, love, desperation, anger, heartache and disgust. She saw them all and pressed her fingers to his lips quickly before he asked her to go with him. She knew he would, just to keep her from the fate that awaited her on the other end of the city. She couldn't do that to him, for her fate would preserve his and she would give anything to see that through. Wrapping her arms around him one last time, she turned and ran into the alleyway. Blinded by the tears she finally let fall unchecked and deaf to her racking sobs, she traversed the streets back to where she belonged. No matter what her heart wanted, duty waited, and it was duty she would curse for eternity.

Hours later, held up by her father, more silent tears streaking her cheeks, her hand was given to man she did not love. Forced to wed and not to wait on her beloved, as she'd chosen, she was determined to have the last laugh. While her left hand felt the chill of gold metal as a ring slid over her knuckle, her right hand rested on her revenge. Thoughts of the years to come filled her head and her heart with dread, but the day would come when she would have what she desired.

Head held high, she waited patiently on the day her prayers were answered and her husband was called to his grave. Bearing a son had been easy and the knowledge she imparted on her departing husband sent him gasping to his grave. The child he'd fostered and raised as his own was not his and never could be. The child of a pirate, a pirate he'd pledged to hang and had only given up finding after his marriage, would inherit his title. He would live forever under this roof, a living testimony to the undying will of true love.

Revenge is often doled out to those who prove worthy. Love that was parted, found it's way back together after that which drove them apart disappeared.