Shadow of Nevermore

by Lilly Black

  "You are fucking incredible," he growled, his hand gripping the back of my neck as he pulled me forward into a kiss. He was ravenous, attacking me with a heightened intensity that made me want to throw everything I had into pleasing him.

  "Don't move," I purred as I eased him inside of me, and with my feet turned inward across his legs, I held him immobile as I began a slow rise and fall upon his deliciously rigid dick. He started to thrust his hips, but I froze.

  "Uh-uh," I warned him. I was in charge, and I wanted to bind him. I looked around for something to use, noticing the purple silk fabric he had procured for me on the dresser. I reached out, sending part of my hand in a swirl to touch it, and I returned with three strips of silk, two of which I used to secure Jax's wrists to the headboard. He was right. We didn't need the bondage equipment. I could bend anything in this room that wasn't metal to my will...except maybe Jax himself, but I was about to do that with my own body.

  When he was secured, I used the third silk strip to blindfold him. I didn't plan to keep it on long, but for what I was about to do next, I wanted him to focus on the sensations rather than be distracted by what he was seeing as I allowed myself to fall loosely apart, particles of my body pouring over him until he could feel me on nearly every square inch of his body. I focused on his every erogenous zone at the same time - his neck, his nipples, his perineum and balls - everywhere but his dick with a portion of the soft molecules of my tongue in all places at once, swirling and wet as my eyes focused only on watching him grow harder and harder until the skin was stretched so tightly, the light coming through the window reflected off of it as if it were still wet from being inside me. But it wasn't. It was only filled to capacity with desire for me, and I couldn't wait any longer to feel that massive, throbbing head in the back of my throat. I began to pull myself back together until I crouched between his legs, salivating as I began to suck him inside.

  "Oh, my holy fucking God, Dani," he breathed as I swallowed him. With one hand I kneaded his balls, and with the other, I reached up and pulled off his blindfold so I could stare into his eyes as I nearly released him entirely before taking him all the way in again. His eyes were wild as he clutched his bonds in both fists, yanking, desperate to get to me, unable to slip out of the silk ties as easily as the belts.

  "Set me free," he begged, but I shook my head. "Then at least bring that pussy up here where I can taste it."

  When he said that, I felt myself suddenly dripping wet, and regardless of my original intentions, I had to give in. I didn't want to stop what I was doing, but I wanted to indulge him. I also knew it would feel better if I was straddling his mouth rather than hovering over it and facing away. I had an idea.

  "I'm going to try something," I told him, "and if it works, I don't want you to think about anything other than the pleasure you're feeling and giving, ok?"

  "Ok," he said, willing to agree with anything at this point.

  "And the blindfold goes back on."

  "Anything you want, baby girl," he said, and I let go of his dick, turned around and positioned myself with my knees on the sides of his head. Immediately, I felt his tongue on my clit, and I paused as I began to slip the blindfold over his eyes, shuddering at the raw, intense pleasure.

  "Mmmm," Jax hummed, and I pushed the silk strip into position. Then next thing out of his mouth was another sound of pleasure mixed with confusion when he suddenly felt my lips around his dick again.

  "Don't think about it," I reminded him because I didn't want this image in his mind as I had twisted my waist around backward so I could ride his face and suck his dick at the same time, and either he listened to my command or had become perfectly comfortable with the weirdness of my gifts because from that moment on, all I heard from him was groaning in response to my work and all I felt from him was his incredible oral skills as he made love to my clit like no other man ever could, building it up until he was flickering over it with his slick, gifted tongue.

  "Oh, Jax," I moaned before taking his dick deep into my throat over and over, using my gift to open my throat and breathe when I shouldn't have been able to as I struggled not to allow what he was doing to reduce me to nothing but a swarm of bewildered and electrified atoms, and I concentrated my efforts until I could feel that he was about to reach his end. Then I held him there, letting myself spend a moment lost in his talents as his tongue darted rapidly over me. I could feel my orgasm on the horizon, growing like a fire inside me that was soon raging out of control. Everything felt hot. Sweat began to drop from my brow onto his thighs, and Jax hummed, bearing into me with a final burst of energy that set me off. I felt myself explode, and the heat inside me came shooting out in flames.

  I had to release his dick lest I burn him, and as I screamed in ecstasy, I grabbed the sheets and felt them catch fire in my grip. Filled with orgasmic bliss yet confused and afraid of what was happening, I knew I had to do something to stop it before I burned the man I love. The only thing I could think of was to shift, and as I let myself fly apart for only a second, the fire disappeared. Quickly, I pulled myself together, suddenly facing him, my legs straddled over his as I slid myself onto his dick to finish what I had started.

  "Oh, God, you're so fucking warm," he murmured as I began to fuck him, building on the foundation I'd already laid, taking him back to the edge as I held onto his wrists, still bound to the bed. I felt myself going with him, and though I feared what would happen if I came again, I couldn't stop it. I'd found a new gateway inside, and Jax's hard dick was the key. It was unavoidable, and when I began to swelter as the heat within me sparked again, I felt his hands, suddenly free, grabbing my hips. He thrust one final time, and as he erupted inside me, I came again, my body writhing, the flames beginning to take me.

  Jax threw his arms around me, rolling on top of me, but these were flames only I could extinguish. I shifted once again, and reformed myself beneath him before the last pleasures of the orgasm left him, his dick lightly grinding into me with a will of its own as Jax looked at me wide-eyed. I didn't know what happened, but I did know that I was soaked with sweat even after shifting, the bedclothes were scorched, and the silk I'd used to bind him was ash. And I was embarrassed but only for a second.

  "I don't know what that was," Jax said, "but I don't care if I get third degree burns. All I want to do is make love to you, Dani. It's all I fucking ever want to do."

  I smiled. Jax has a way of assuaging all of my fears, and even though I was absolutely bathed in sweat, he took me in his strong, tattooed arms and held me tight, letting me forget, at least for the moment, that I now had something dangerous I needed to learn to control.

  Day 68

  "Can I talk to you?" Reid asked as he slipped inside Olivia's office where Alek sat at the desk working. It was first thing in the morning, and Olivia was in the shower. Reid had waited outside, listening for the water to come on because he didn't want her to overhear this conversation.

  "Sure," Alek said, setting down his pen, and Reid took the seat opposite his.

  "I hear you have a cache of jewelry hidden somewhere," Reid began, and Alek sighed.

  "Look, Reid," he said. "It's not what you think. Jax dragged me along to get a ring for Dani, and I brought back everything in the store so we'd have it if anyone needed it. That's all. I would never give Olivia an engagement ring without talking to you first."

  "If you want to give Olivia a ring, it's none of my business. I'm not going to like it, but I'd be a real asshole if tried to stop you. I want to give one to Amina, and Aiden said to check with you before going out scavenging."

  "Oh. Sorry, man. I didn't mean to jump to conclusions," Alek said. He wasn't really sorry. He was just doing everything in his power not to act on the extreme jealousy he felt whenever he saw Reid, but the idea of Reid giving Amina a ring made him feel better. He had wanted to give one to Olivia for a long time.

  "It's no problem," Reid said.

  "Okay. Let me show you what I've got," he said as he stood u
p and walked to the corner of the room where he lifted a couple of boxes off of a larger box on the bottom that hid the safe he kept the jewelry in. It wasn't the best place to hide it, but he didn't really have a space of his own. Besides, Olivia was too busy to worry about the boxes of books in her office that had been pulled to use the shelves for supplies.

  "What exactly are you looking for?" Alek asked Reid as he entered the combination.

  "Something stunning. Amina has this feeling that she's somehow less important than Olivia, and I want to show her how much she means to me."

  "Makes sense," Alek said because it did. When he was with Amina, he felt the same thing, only she didn't really care if he considered Olivia more important. Reid was the one she loved. Alek was the man who took her mind off the fact that Reid was fucking his wife four out of every eight days. "Do you know what she likes?"

  "Yellow gold and diamonds," Reid said, and immediately a particular set of rings came to mind. He sorted through the clear plastic bags quickly until he found what he was looking for.

  "Here," he said as he handed the ring set to Reid. "There's an engagement ring, a wedding ring, and an anniversary ring."

  "And you're sure you don't want them?" Reid asked as he looked them over. They were perfect.

  "Who would I give them to? Amina?" he asked with a grin.

  "Point taken," Reid said, knowing his wife considered yellow gold gaudy. He slipped the engagement ring in his pocket then handed the other two back to Alek.

  "Would you mind hanging onto these until I need them?" he asked.

  "No problem," he said, and he sealed them back in the plastic bag, closed the safe, and began stacking the boxes back in place as Reid headed toward the door. Then he stopped and looked back at Alek.

  "I really do appreciate this," he said.

  "You're going to make Amina very happy," Alek said, wishing Reid would just marry Amina and leave Olivia for him, but he knew that would never happen. He forced a smile, and Reid nodded and left, heading out toward the gate for his shift.

  Along the way, he was already contemplating what he would say to Amina when he gave her the ring tonight. He wasn't sure what he would say because he'd never really had to propose properly. When he and Olivia decided to get married, it was because she was pregnant with Savannah. They barely knew each other, but it didn't matter because he had felt drawn to Olivia from the moment they met.

  They got drunk at a frat party and slept together that first night, a rarity for both, and they had only been on a few dates thereafter when Olivia came over to his apartment to tell him about the pregnancy. It was lunchtime, and they were making sandwiches together when she shared the news, and he knew what his solution was before she even finished the sentence. As he handed her a slice of cheese, he had said, "You know I'm going to marry you, right?" And that had been the proposal.

  Thinking back on that moment with a smile, he made a mental note to tell Alek that if he ever decided to put a ring on Olivia's finger, she deserved a spectacular proposal, and as he wondered if he should do something special for her since he was going to be giving Amina an engagement ring, he was suddenly struck in the head with something that knocked him to the ground.

  "What the fuck?" he shouted, startled, and as he looked around for what had hit him, he saw zombie heads bouncing on the ground around him. More were coming over the gate and walls, and then he heard a scream. He ran toward the direction, and he found Amina on the ground by the scaffolding outside a guard tower. Her leg was broken.

  "What happened?" he asked as he knelt by her side, but when another barrage of heads came sailing over the wall and landed in close proximity, their dead, hungry jaws snapping even with no stomach to receive the food they craved, he realized he needed to get her out of there.

  "I was bringing coffee to the guards in the towers," she explained as he scooped her into his arms and rushed her up the hill toward the lodge. "And these things just came flying out of nowhere. One hit me and knocked me off the scaffold."

  "You're going to be okay," he assured her. "Do you have your phone? Call Dr. Gorely to meet us in the main hall."

  Amina called, and as they entered, others were running down the hill toward the gate to see what was going on, and after Reid laid her down on the couch in front of the fire place, he kissed her and went immediately back out to join them. The doctor was on the way, and while he wanted to stay with her, he was more use making sure whoever was bombarding them with zombie heads didn't manage to get inside the Deadfall.

  Meanwhile, Olivia watched the onslaught of the attack from the security station. She had been writing in her journal when Aiden called her from the front gate, and she immediately rounded up Savannah, Bella, Sally, Rey, and Evil ordering them into the secret bunker through the concealed entrance in Savannah's closet. Then she called June with a warning to hide her children in her cabin since they were too far away to make it to the lodge before the threat on the outside might get in. With no more time to personally usher anyone into the bunker, she stopped the first person she saw, ordering him to hide any other children who were nearby in the open space of the platform beneath the thrones. Porter, always trying to insinuate himself into any position of power, received her command.

  "What good's that going to do?" he asked. "If they get in here, there's nowhere for the kids to run."

  "Do you see what I see on this screen?" she demanded, pulling him into the security room. "My guess is that there's about to be a firefight, and this is the safest place for them."

  "Let me lead them out through the back gate," he argued, and she pointed to the camera aimed at the back gate where a small contingent stood armed.

  "There is no escape. We're surrounded," she said. "Get these children hidden, then spread the word for the rest to find someplace to hide that is secure and low to the ground."

  "Yes, ma'am," he said grudgingly, and as he left to look for any children in the vicinity of the lodge, she armed herself and headed out to meet the invaders.

  When Olivia reached the front of the compound, everyone inside had formed a line just outside the range of the heads that continued to fall, and Alek was on the phone with Aiden, who had been in the gatehouse when the attack began. As the unseen trebuchet had launched the heads into the compound, a group of heavily armored vehicles had come up the main road to the gate, and about two dozen armed men and women got out, one carrying a megaphone. He was a large man, tall, muscular, and imposing, and he had a smirk on his face that was terrifying to the guards who could see him from the gatehouse and the towers. Then just as the last head hit the ground inside the Deadfall, he began to speak.

  "Ladies and Gentlemen!" he announced into the megaphone, and the tone of his voice came off more like a master of ceremonies than the invader he appeared to be. "Sorry for the trebuchet action, but I felt like it was appropriate to give you all a little heads up announcing my arrival."

  As he paused for laughter, his group obliging, the people of the Deadfall stood in shock.

  "Now," he continued, "all joking aside, we're just here for what's ours. We don't want your sad, little, walled kingdom. We just want recompense for what you took from us. You see, I am pretty sure you're the assholes who killed all my men at the solar farm and at the prison down in Beaver. Then you ran off with our medicine and our workers. We just want you to give us back what you took, then we'll be on our way."

  "So," Aiden began, stepping out of the guardhouse. "Are you the Sinner?" As Liana stood in the guard tower to the left, she gasped to see the man she loved facing a small army.

  "The picker and grinner in the flesh," he said. "Used to be a toker, too, before some group of self-righteous motherfuckers took off with all my doobage! You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

  "Look, if you're just here looking for some pot, I'm sure our queen would be happy..."

  "Your queen?" he shouted. "Do you hear that, Sinners? We are in the presence of royalty!" As his army laughed, t
he queen tried to make her way to the gatehouse so she could confront him, but Alek and Reid caught her on either side.

  "If you think we're letting you go out there, you're out of your fucking mind," Reid hissed, and she scowled at him.

  "Seriously, Liv," Alek added. "You don't know what that man is capable of."

  It was true. She didn't, but as she opted for climbing up to the tower instead, she and everyone at the Deadfall were about to find out because the Sinner had lost his patience. He whispered something into a walkie talkie, and through the dead trees of winter, Olivia watched a flatbed vehicle winding its way up the gravel road. As it got closer, its cargo came into view. It was a missile.

  "As you can see, I have you outgunned," the Sinner shouted into his bullhorn. "That little metal rocket over there is more powerful than the one I used at the prison, and you saw what that one did. It set solid stone on fire, and this one is big enough to blow a small crater right in the middle of your castle once I launch it through the wall. It may not kill everyone, but it'll take out enough of you that the rest will be easy pickings. So, here are your options, assholes. You can keep those gates closed, I bomb you, and take everything that's left, including any slaves that aren't blown to fucking bits, or you let me in. You have one minute to decide."

  "Do you have any idea what sort of bomb that is?" Alek asked Liana as they peered down from the guard tower.

  "I don't recognize it," Liana said while Olivia stood by her, carefully scrutinizing the missile. "It looks like something old, like from the cold war era."

  "That's no bomb," Olivia hissed, rolling her eyes as she realized where she'd seen it before its new coat of paint, but as she took a deep breath to respond to the Sinner, Austin came running out of the gate house toward him. Those closest to him raised their weapons until he held his hand up to tell them to stand down.

  "Uncle Steve! Please don't do this!" Austin cried as he fell to his knees before the man. "These are good people. They saved me!"