The Forgotten Bride Ch. 02

The new blood within her veiled the cold... It was just an illusion of life, and she knew it wouldn't last. Tonight, however, it was a time for her to try to remember what it was to live.

The night was still young as she left the building and headed out into the streets. She wondered where she should go, the club perhaps, or maybe a bar? No, those were places for those trying to forget life.

Her footsteps struck the pavement without any sound and she moved through the crowds of tourists. She knew that what she was looking for wouldn't be found among the hordes of human insects.

She headed onto a quiet street far from the tourist traps and bright lights that seemed to enthrall the masses so. All the buildings were dark and silent, lit up only by the dull orange of the streetlights. All that is, except one. She saw a coffee house. It was one of those with a large library of books and comfortable chairs. The kind of place where the coffee is ridiculously overpriced and people throw words around like "Kafkaesque" without any real idea of the meaning.

She saw one lone figure inside curled up in a chair with a large book. It was a young woman with shoulder length sand colored hair and glasses. The roundness of her face and voluptuousness of her breasts suggested that she was one who didn't subscribe to many athletic pursuits. The hours posted on the door said the shop should have closed down about an hour and a half ago.

She walked into the building and a tiny little bell over the door jingled. The girl in the chair never looked up from her book, "Hold on, I'll be with you in a minute."

Dania stood at the counter regarded the young girl with a mild amusement. She followed the soft brown eyes behind the glasses as they moved back and forth across line after line until she marked her place with a piece of black ribbon and set the book down. She got up and went behind the counter. "Hi, sorry about that. I just got so caught up in the book that I didn't want to put it down. What can I get for you?"

"A small cappuccino." Dania said. The girl nodded and went back to fill her order. Dania said, "What book where you reading?'

"Excuse me?" said the girl, look over her shoulder as she filled up the cup.

"What book had you so entranced that it kept you reading an hour and a half after this store was to have closed?"

"Hour and a half?" The girl looked down at her watch "Oh wow! I guess I lost track of time!" She snapped a lid on the drink and handed it to Dania. "I have to close up shop." She gave Dania an embarrassed grin. "Sorry, but I have to kick you out."

A tired look fell over Dania's face, "I was hoping that I could stay until I finished my drink."

The girl had gone to the window and put the 'closed' sign up. She said, "Well... O.K. I guess I can let you stay for a few minutes."

Dania gave her thanks and sat down in a large red leather chair across from where the girl was sitting. "You never told me what you were reading." She said.

The girl blushed, "Oh, um, it was just collection of stories." She started to empty and clean off some of the machines.

Dania leaned forward and looked at the title of the book. She smiled as she saw the title. "The Works of Anais Nin." She looked over at the mousy girl behind the counter. "She does have a way with words doesn't she?"

The girl stopped cleaning and said, "You've read Anais Nin?"

"Oh yes, I've read all of her work. It is much better in French."

She came out from behind the counter. "Oh, I love her work! I've tried to read it in French, but my French is so weak... "

Dania closed her eyes and spoke. "Her elongated eyes did not close as other women's eyes did, but like the eyes of tigers, pumas and leopards, the two lids meeting lazily and slowly; and they seemed slightly sewn together towards the nose, making them narrow, with a lascivious, oblique glance falling from them like the glance of a woman who does not want to see what is being done to her body."

"Is that from one of her stories?"

"Yes it is. Delta of Venus. I'm surprised you haven't read that yet."

The girl sighed. "I've just discovered her work. It can be so sensual... " She sighed again and started to move back to her work. Dania touched the girl on her arm. "What is your name?"

"Katie."

"It's nice to meet you Katie. My name is Dania."

They kept talking about poetry while Katie finished cleaning the store. She hurriedly swept up and turned down most of the lights. The remaining lights from behind the counter cast long strange shadows over everything. Katie and Dania were engrossed in conversation and soon Katie found herself sitting across from Dania on the couch.

"You don't have a boyfriend do you?" asked Dania suddenly.

Katie shook her head.

"A girlfriend?"

Katie blushed and shook her head again, "Uh, no, I don't, I mean, I'm not attracted to women."

Dania gave her a piercing gaze. "Are you sure?"

Katie swallowed and couldn't tear her eyes away from Dania's stare. She began to feel a little uncomfortable. She tried to shift the focus back to Dania. "Do you have... a special someone?"

Dania's eyes softened. "Once, I was attached to a very powerful man. He was lost to me a long time ago."

"You were married?"

"I was one of his brides."

"One of? You don't look old enough to have been married a while ago. Uh, are you Mormon or something?"

Dania laughed. It was a strangely hollow sound, more like a memory of humor than any actual feeling. "No, I can assure you, I am not a Mormon." She regarded Katie for a second and then said, "He was intelligent, strong, and beautiful... he was so beautiful... I knew I wanted him the moment I saw him. He was from a different class of people though, and I didn't dare to dream of ever getting close to him."

Katie asked, "How did you meet?"

"I was a servant at a sort of party that was being held. He saw me and took me aside. He said that he had rarely seen such beauty. He spoke with my... employer and he took me away."

Katie's eyes went wide, "He just took you?"

"Yes. Where I came from such things were not entirely uncommon."

She said, "Oh... OH! Wait, are you from Hungary or Russia or something? I saw this thing on the news once about how there are brothels out there... sexual slavery... Oh God, is that were you were? Is that what happened?"

"Not exactly, but it is one way of looking at things I suppose." Dania continued, " He brought me back to his home and had his way with me. I told you that I was attracted to him, I let him do whatever he wanted to me without fighting him. In fact, I enjoyed it terribly. We did thing together that I didn't even realize were possible. He ravished me from sunset to sunrise and still I wanted more. He told me he was impressed by insatiable appetite. He offered to make me his bride. I accepted wholeheartedly, the thought of always being with him was too much to refuse."

Katie's mouth hung open and her eyes were wide. "What happened then?"

"He did what he offered to do." She said simply. "I became the latest of his playthings, another trophy for him to display. He would put on shows for visitors. He would gather several of us, his 'pets', and he would have us perform obscenities for the amusement of others like him."

Katie said, "Oh my God... How do you escape?"

"Escape? My dear, I never escaped. I belonged there. It was the only place left for someone like me."

"What? I don't understand. Why? And then why are you here? Why aren't you still living with him then?"

"Living with... ha." Dania shook her head and replied, "As for why, being with him changed me. I knew I couldn't go back to my life, so I stayed with him. But he had many such as me and I was never one of his favorites. I was something he did on whim and he soon grew tired with me. I continued to perform for his pleasure, but he never laid a finger on me again."

"You said you lost him, how?"

"As I said, he was powerful, and people who come to power such as he did make many, many enemies. One day a pack of them gathered together and decided that it was time to do away with him. They attacked and took his head and the heads of everyone who was with him. They even tore the heads off paintings and smashed the heads of statues. I was only spared because I was sleeping, tucked away in a forgotten corner. I send most of my time asleep in those days. Awaking only to feed or perform for some decadent fool's amusement. It was quite a thing to see when I awoke... headless corpses and blood everywhere. I went outside to find that they had burned all the heads and placed the blackened skulls on pikes in front of his manor. I grabbed whatever wealth I could and fled lest somebody come back to make sure none were left."

"You must have been horrified... "

"No, the last time I was ever frightened was the night I met him. Since then, nothing has scared me." She regarded Katie with a thoughtful look. "You believe everything I have told you tonight, don't you?"

"Well, yeah. Shouldn't I? I mean why make up a story like that?"

"Perhaps I am deranged, or I made it up to scare you." Dania said. She moved out of her chair and sat next to Katie on the couch. Katie was unaware that she had even moved until she was sitting beside her.

Dania saw Katie's eyes go wide behind her glasses. Her generous bosom was rising and falling rapidly. Dania said, "I feel your heartbeat from here Katie. I can tell you are afraid... but there is something else, isn't there?"

Katie wanted to stand up and get some distance in-between her and this strange woman, but she couldn't. While her gaze was fixed on Dania's stare, her legs were fixed to the couch. She leaned her body back as Dania began to move in closer.

"Katie... you sit here a read these books, trying to find a phrase or a passage that will somehow make you feel something... I know what that's like... " She put her hands on Katie's shoulders and pushed her back.

Katie was on her back on the couch. She half-heartedly tried to push Dania away. "Please, I, I, don't want to do... " She trailed off as Dania pushed a hand under her shirt and traced lines with her fingers over the subtle rise of Katie's belly.

Dania whispered in her ear. "That's why you sit here alone and read these books, isn't it? You hope to get a glimmer of what it means to be alive through the words of those long dead, don't you?"

Katie was shaking with a mixture of fear and pleasure. She whimpered back, barely audible, "Yes... "

"We have so much in common then." Her hand went into Katie's pants and slid down through her unshaven forest to her little nub. She slowly and softly rubbed up and down over it. Katie's legs spread open automatically. She let out a slight moan, almost a whimper as the warmth began to spread throughout her body. She licked at Katie's neck. She could feel the blood running just underneath the surface, warm and filled with life.

"You've been with a man before, haven't you Katie?"

She moaned with pleasure as Dania's fingers continued their dance over her most sensitive of places. "Ohhh, yesss. I have... back in high school... my senior year... "

"He didn't satisfy you though, did he?"

"No... all he cared about was himself... "

"Never a woman though."

Katie shook her head slowly.

"I'm going to show you how a woman is supposed to feel Katie."

She slowly pulled Katie's pants and soft cotton underwear off of her body. Her fingers continued to work her clit, gradually getting bolder and faster. She licked a line right down the center of her womanhood. Katie gasped and quivered. "Oh god!"

Using her lips, she started in the center of Katie's valley and pushed sideways against the folds and hills, coxing them open. Then she took the tip of her tongue and thrust in to the hole that was exposed. Katie stifled a low scream and her thighs closed over Dania's head.

Dania forced her legs open wide. She worked over every inch of Katie's womanhood with her tongue and lips. Her fingers continued their gentle dance over the sensitive nub of flesh. She could taste the pleasure building within the young girl. She looked up for a second and saw Katie's head thrown back with her eyes closed. Her hands were under her shirt and she was rubbing and caressing her own breasts. Dania pushed one of Katie's thighs down to give herself some more room and then slid her tongue as deep into the tunnel as she could. She then took the thumb on her free hand and rubbed around Katie's sensitive anus. Katie seemed to freeze for a second at the new feeling but quickly all the sensation overwhelmed her and she began to pump up with her hips.

Hours seemed to pass before Dania could feel the subtle muscle contractions that signaled an oncoming orgasm. Katie moaned loudly and her entire body clenched as the pleasure washed over her. Her mouth was wide open with soundless screams as Dania's tongue lapped at the juices that flowed from her body.

Katie was panting heavily. Her eyes were glazed over almost as if she were drunk. Dania kissed up her body and whispered in her ear, "Katie, you know what I am, don't you?"

She nodded wordlessly.

"I have been alone for so long... I can see that you have too... I want you to come with me... We can hold each other through the long black days and comfort each other during the cold nights... will you?

A moan escaped Katie's lips. She rolled her head from side to side. She seemed to be in agony over the question. Her body began to quiver and shake. Dania embraced her tightly, not saying anything. Tears began to flow down Katie's face. Dania kissed and drank up each salty drop. Finally, Katie threw her head back and whispered, "Yes! Please God, forgive me! Yes!"

Katie closed her eyes and felt Dania's mouth fall upon her. There was a sudden pain in her neck, but it quickly passed as Dania's lips and tongue washed over her like a mother's touch. She felt Dania's wrist up against her lips. "Drink Katie... drink." A foul copper taste filled her mouth, but she drank greedily at it, fighting the urge to vomit. She wept as she choked down the vile liquid. Dania's free hand stroked her hair. "It will all be over soon... don't worry... "

A violent pain tore through Katie's body and she tried to scream but couldn't. Her eyes went wide and she gasped twice before going completely still. Dania picked her up in her arms and walked out the door. She held her close as she walked the streets to her building. Inside she set her down on a bed. Katie would awaken come tomorrow night... perhaps together they could find a way to feel alive.