by Ember Hollis
“You look so beautiful,” he whispers, reaching up to touch my hair. “May I?”
I nod, allowing him to undo the braids. My hair falls in waves about my shoulders, and I tilt my head back as he runs his hands through the strands. Noah kisses down my neck, taking his time to lavish attention on each spot. I shift restlessly, not quite knowing what to do in return. When he lingers at the base of my throat, I take the opportunity to kiss the top of his head, then when I feel his member, hot and heavy against my thigh, I reach for it.
Only for Noah to immediately withdraw.
“Sorry, did I hurt you?” I ask, worried.
“No, it’s just…” he shakes his head, his face tense. “Let’s just take it slow, shall we? I want to make sure you enjoy this.”
But I can’t wait, I want to say. I don’t need the grand tour for sex, I just want to reach the finish line. I’ve been wanting to do more, go further, feel all there is to feel for way too long. Except that Noah doesn’t know any of that. To him, I’m completely innocent and this is my first time, so everything needs to be just right.
“Don’t worry, I will,” I say, sliding my leg up against his. He just needs a little convincing. I give him my sexiest come hither smile and lean forward so he glimpses my cleavage, then press a kiss to the corner of his lips. From my experience, a good look down my top usually sends men’s hands down to adjust their crotch. Noah is no different, I’m glad to observe, as his member jerks in approval.
I push him down and lean over him.
“Let’s just get on with it, shall we?” I smile encouragingly, then start to slip my cargo pants off.
“Hang on, Heaven,” Noah says again. “This isn’t like you… you’re not rushing into this because you’re… afraid, are you?”
“No, Noah,” I tell him. “I just want to be with you.” I kiss him as passionately as I can while fumbling with my underwear, needing him to understand that I want this, and that I need him to hurry up and just fuck me.
After several long seconds, Noah finally seems to get the message. His hands cover mine and gently push them away as his fingers hook into the crotch of my panties to draw them down my legs. The feel of his fingers against my heated flesh feels so good. I moan and arch my back to show him how much I like it, just in case he has any more doubts. But the slickness of my folds against his fingers done the trick, and Noah’s back in a jiffy, settling between my legs just where I want him.
“You’re sure,” he whispers, looking me deep in the eyes.
“Yes,” I gasp. I’m so sure, I’m dying for it.
He gazes dreamily at me for a second longer, then leans down to kiss me deeply. “All right.”
Finally.
I gasp as I feel Noah’s weight come fully on top of me and glimpse a flicker of black as I close my eyes. I expect some pain as he enters me, or a familiar feeling of fullness. But nothing further happens and Noah remains slumps down against me… so I open my eyes, only to see a huge, black spider with its front red claws buried into the skin of his neck.
Chapter 25: Heaven
“FUCK!” I shriek, shoving Noah’s body off of me. The spider tumbles off of him, then scuttles towards me like hell on wheels. Acting on pure instinct, I grab my pants and sling it down in a hard thwack, squashing it flat. Just to be extra sure, I throw a huge rock on it, then kick a tea light candle onto the fabric which immediately starts to burn.
The sound of gagging reaches my ears and I turn around in horror to find Noah with froth dripping from his mouth. He’s jerking slightly, and a yellow glow is starting to envelop his body.
“What the hell!” I shriek, running to him. “Noah! Noah!”
But I can’t even touch him. The moment I get close enough to the glow, my fingers start to feel like they’re pushing through invisible, rubbery jelly, and no matter how I lean in, I can’t make them penetrate far enough to get to him. After another moment of this, Noah freezes and stops moving, and three glyphs appears over him, ones that are simple enough for even me to recognize.
“’Poisoned’…. ‘Paralyzed’… ‘Help coming,’” I read out loud, relief flooding into me. This must be some sort of spell that Pandora had set up to make sure nobody gets too seriously hurt. In fact, I sort of remember Sybil telling me that magic would be triggered in case of grievous injury when someone got challenged to fight, but I hadn’t known what it would look like.
I turn to get dressed and get the hell out of the cave before more insects can attack me, when I realize that my underwear and pants are entirely burned to ashes. That, and that there’s a whole lot of spiderwebs on the floor close to me. They’re so well woven, that I can actually see tiny words spelled within them.
“’That’s for… cutting… my hair… bitch,’” I read, going from one web to the other. “’And this… is for the… wasps… enjoy!’”
“Shit,” I whisper.
It was Briley and Vivette.
It was so damn typical of them to sneakily come after me, without even challenging me first.
A loud, skittering sound from the depths of the cave alerts me that I don’t have any time to waste. I glance back at Noah, wondering if I should try to move him, but when a rat twice the size of my fist scurries over the yellow cocoon enveloping him without even contacting him, I know I’m in far more trouble than he is at the moment.
I turn and run like the wind while hundreds of red eyes peer out of the darkness and thousands of little claws scrape over the sand as a carpet of rats emerges. The thought of what Briley and Vivette had intended to do to me freezes the blood in my veins.
“Poisoned, paralyzed, then eaten alive, huh?” I pant as I run. “Too bad Noah got in the way.” I wasn’t sure I’d have survived if he hadn’t. After all, since I haven’t yet been formally challenged, I don’t have the protection spell, and there’s no telling if the Dome’s magic would have been enough to keep me alive until someone came to help.
“Fucking harpies, I’m going to get you!” I scream as I emerge from the cave into the darkness of the forest. The sudden transition from candlelight to almost complete darkness blinds me, and in my state, I don’t see the low hanging branches of a nearby tree until I’ve run into it.
The leaves and twigs tangle in my hair, holding me fast and slowing me down. With a shriek, I yank myself away, tearing hair and skin. Pain explodes at my feet and ankles too, as furry bodies pile against me, their sharp teeth digging into my skin. Every time I put my feet down, I feel the rush of round bodies and rough fur, and almost fall. It’s just a matter of time till I trip and they devour me alive.
The horrifying familiarity of being chased like this sends my blood boiling. I have no doubt that Briley thought of this because she’d remembered what Bane did to me. The last time this had happened, I’d ended up getting and then losing my wings in a truly traumatizing accident. The memory of what I had suffered through makes me so furious that my wings start to emerge again, inch by painful inch, until they’re all out and dagger sharp.
With an immense sense of satisfaction, I leap into the air, turn around, and send a flurry of dagger sharp feathers shooting at the rats chasing me. Not all the feathers are pointed, and some of them still haven’t healed from being burned, but soon, the ground is studded with ashy white feathers buried deep in motionless bodies.
“Take that, harpies,” I shout, hoping they’re close enough that they’ll hear me. I circle the area a little while longer, hoping for a glimpse of pink and blue feathers or yellow bird-like legs. But it seems that like the cowards they are, the two harpies are only capable of fighting in a group or via proxy.
“I’ll still get you… later,” I swear.
* * *
I’d prefer to keep airborne, but as soon as I realize that Briley and Vivette are nowhere to be found, my wings start to retract as exhaustion returns. I tumble to the ground, groaning at the impact.
I’ve never felt this weak before, not in my whole life. It’s as if I’ve got the flu, c
hicken pox and a hangover combined.
Maybe I’m not strong enough to use any angelic powers for longer than it takes to do a party trick.
The thought is incredibly disheartening, and it’s all I can do to drag myself into a nearby hollow in the ground where I won’t be easily seen.
I drift in and out of sleep as I try to regain my strength, too nervous to fully allow myself to relax, and yet too drained to keep going.
Sometime during my half-sleep, I start to dream. Of hands touching me. Lips kissing me. Fingers inside me. At first I think it’s because I’m still thinking of Noah. Then it occurs to me that no matter how much I wish we’d done it, my imagination must be totally screwed if I’m dreaming of Noah with three hands and tentacles to boot.
“I told you, look, she’s a complete whore. She’s not even wearing undies.”
Something curls around my ankles and pulls them apart, allowing cold air to rush against my nether regions. I groan and try to turn, but find I can’t. When I open my eyes, I see faces in front of me, dimly lit by a blue wil-o’-the-wisp light on the ground nearby.
Three boys. One shucking his pants off to the side, one standing between my legs with something I vaguely recognize as a dick except that it’s split in two, and one with tentacles sprouting out of him, some of which are trailing over my body to fondle my breasts, and… and pushing inside of me already.
“No,” I gasp, trying to sit up. Not again. I’d wanted sex, but not like this.
“What do you mean, no,” the male with the two dicks says. He strokes them vigorously and they come slowly apart like the blades of a scissors. “You danced with all of us. You have to.”
“Yeah, you want this,” the boy with the tentacles says. He pushes them deeper into me in a pulsing motion that feels incredibly good, despite the fact that they’re freaking tentacles!
I moan, half in pleasure and half in horror. Is this how I’m going to lose my virginity? Gang raped by supernaturals I hardly know? Or have I already lost it, since his tentacles are already inside me? Have I really had my first time with what is essentially a human octopus? Or are those just really long fingers?
Despite the gravity of the situation, a laugh burbles out of me, spilling from my lips.
The three boys pause in surprise, and the sight of them, especially the double dick one, standing over me with a quizzical frown on his face, just sends me over the edge.
Hysterical laughter bursts out of me and tears run down my cheeks. The first boy, who I now recognize to be a vampire, frowns at the other two. Even the tentacle boy hesitates, withdrawing his tentacles slightly.
That’s all I need. That, and the memory of that night on the altar, with unwanted hands touching me and undesirable lips against mine.
I lift my back and flick a newly grown wing, sending razor sharp feathers flying at them. I’m getting pretty good at this now. The feathers streak like ninja stars through the air, until they embed themselves in arms, bellies and throats. The vampire speeds away before he’s too hurt to move, but Tentacle Guy looks like a misshapen hedgehog when I’m done with him and Double Dick gets hit so precisely, he almost loses his title.
I fall back against the ground, at almost the same time that the two of them fall over, encased in the same yellow cocoon that had appeared over Noah.
“Don’t look so surprised,” I say to Tentacle Guy, whose eyes are wide open in shock but unseeing. “You wanted it.”
Chapter 26: Heaven
I lie on the grass, uncaring that I’m naked from the waist down and surrounded by dead and paralyzed bodies. The laughter that had spilled out of me has drained away along with any strength I had, leaving only tears that stream quietly down my cheeks.
Why does this keep happening to me?
The thought wheels round and round in my mind. No matter what I do, no matter how I try, most girls seem to hate me and too many men try to rape me. It’s as if I have something within me that attracts trouble like a magnet. Nothing I do or say does any good. What’s the point of having powers and beauty when all it does is bring me trouble and pain?
Maybe Mom had the right idea all along.
We’d never stayed in one place for long, not unless she found a man who was rich enough or powerful enough to take care of us. And even then, she’d usually move on long before he managed to grow tired of us. I’d never understood why she’d done it, but now… perhaps she’d figured it was her best way to survive.
A twig cracks, jerking me out of my self-pity. I peer through the darkness lit by the light of the wil-o’-the-wisp until I spot Bane, peering at me like a ghostly apparition.
Bane.
I try to curl my wings around my body, but instead of cradling me, they melt away, leaving me entirely exposed. It hardly matters anyway. If Bane starts to attack me, I doubt my feathers would be all that effective against him.
Bane doesn’t take any notice, and instead just surveys the site with a curious air. He’s dressed all in black, his silvery hair hardly ruffled, and his purple eyes appearing gray in the flickering blue light illuminating us.
“I thought I felt a wave of death,” he says finally, gesturing at the rats. With a rippling movement, the earth swallows them up, until there’s no trace of them left. “Did you do all that?”
I nod quietly, then stiffen as his eyes settle on the two boys encased in yellow beside me, both of whom are exposed with their trousers around their ankles.
“Just say it,” I blurt out. “You think I’m a whore. A slut. We’re not having a lesson now, so don’t bother to hold back. It’s not like you’ll believe me when I tell you I didn’t want it.”
Bane’s eyes shift to me. I wait for the words, feeling numb already.
What does it matter what he thinks of me anyway.
“I believe you,” he says finally. “Those are your feathers, aren’t they?”
“You believe me?” I ask, stunned. “Really?”
“It’s obvious,” he says. “This time.”
That’s not much of a concession that he might have been wrong all along, but… I’ll take it.
“You can’t stay here,” he says, coming closer to offer a hand to me.
I want to stand, except that I’m not wearing anything below my waist, and if I straighten my legs, he’ll see. After a moment, Bane seems to understand. With a sigh, he takes off his black jacket and drops it into my lap, then turns away.
Well. This is something new. And unexpectedly nice. It doesn’t really protect me, but the jacket is long enough to cover up the fact that I’m not wearing any pants.
When I’m done, Bane offers me his hand again, and this time I take it.
* * *
“—so that’s where I was thinking of heading to,” I tell Bane, holding out Malek’s golden tear drop necklace.
“It’s a good idea,” he replies after a moment.
“It is?” I ask tentatively.
“Yes. I’ll take you.”
I can’t help but stare when Bane turns and starts to walk into the forest.
“Really? Why?” He’s being so accommodating, I can’t help but suspect a trap. “You’re not doing this so you can lead me some place where the Dome’s magic is thin so both of you can kill me, are you?”
I spring it out on him, hoping to get a telling reaction that might warn me I’m right. But I’m completely flabbergasted when Bane just smiles slightly, as if I’ve said the most amusing thing he’s heard all night.
“As interesting an idea as that is,” he says, “Malek will know the minute I attack you. He only gives that pendant of his to creatures he truly wants to protect. Plus, I can hide your body deep enough in the ground that the Dome won’t get to you, even right here.”
“Now I’m sure you’re lying,” I choke out, completely floored. Sibyl had told me what Malek had said, but… was it possible it really was true?
“Actually—” Bane’s purplish gaze slides to me and I hurriedly shake my head.
“Not
about burying me alive, and thank you for that terrifying fact by the way. I meant… do both of you, really not want to kill me anymore?” I try to catch his eyes, but Bane looks away. “Why? What’s changed?”
I know Bane’s always wanted me… but maybe… have the two of them also started to… accept me?
The idea causes an unexpected rush of warmth to flood my chest, and I stare at Bane’s back as he quickens his pace without answering.
I’m right, aren’t I?
We walk for a while in silence, until a flurry of footsteps and snarling comes right at us.
I move to break into a run, but Bane grabs my arm and stops me, an orb of glowing purple light manifesting in his other palm. The light is just bright enough for me to make out figures running impossibly fast through the trees around us, as they jump up or down into the branches and weave around their trunks. Some look humanoid in form, and others are four-footed, but all are savage as they tear into each other with weapons, teeth, and claws.
I gasp as a wolf rips off someone’s head, causing them to immediately freeze into a yellow cocoon. The wolf spins to attack someone else, but before it takes more than three steps, someone punches it hard, sending it flying into a tree with a wet crack. When it slides to the ground, it too is encased in yellow.
“Vampires and werewolves,” I whisper in horrified awe. “It never gets old.”
“Truer words have never been spoken, poppet.”
I jump as Knox appears out of the gloom on my other side, as if he’d just materialized through thin air. Bane doesn’t even twitch, and the two Horsemen exchange long glances over me.
“Having fun?” Bane says eventually.
“Hopefully more than you,” Knox says, looping an arm around my waist. “Now that I’ve found the poppet. Why don’t you take over my little troupe, Bane? Someone’s bound to die for real at some point.”
