who is supposed to do it. Period. End of story." She thought
she had done a pretty good job of taking on his dictatorial
tone.
There was a long pregnant pause between them and
Isabelle could hear Kal's heart beating, she could literally
feel it in her head. Her mouth was dry, she didn't usually
give long assertive speeches. She picked up her water glass
and took a long sip, maintaining eye contact with Kal the
whole time. She decided it wasn't a good time to be reading
his thoughts as he looked the most out of control she had
seen him. It was, after all just two days till the full moon. In
college this would be the time that he would have opted to
leave and not be around people. It was probably not a good
time to bring up to him her theory about all of the vampire,
werewolf, and fae myths have really all stemmed from
humans finding out about the Outsiders. He didn't seem to
be in any kind of philosophical mood.
She wasn't really worried about him hurting her, she
knew without a doubt that Kal would never do that, but she
was worried about him doing something to harm himself.
There was no choice but to let her go back in time and try
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to contact Abraxas and she was going to do it whether he
agreed or not, but she would prefer him to be on board.
"You understand, don't you, that I can't let anything
happen to you. That if something were to actually happen
to you, I might go insane and start committing felonies and
horrendous acts that I wouldn't be able to control?" Kal
stated simply, his eyes hooding and if possible getting even
darker. Isabelle could see in his eyes and hear in his tone
that he meant every word that he said.
"I don't think you would do that, Kal. You have too
much self control, too much discipline. You've earned that
control and discipline. Hell, five minutes with Veli and I
was ready to nominate you for sainthood. But I appreciate
that you care for me and that you want to see me safe."
Isabelle could feel tears starting in her eyes and she tried to
suppress them. It had been a long week, she had lost her
parents and found Kal all at once. So much joy was coupled
with so much agony, even if the awfulness had been
tempered a little bit.
"I don't just care for you, Isabelle. I would die for
you, I would kill for you, and I would find a way to move
the sun, if that was what you desired. I love you with every
ounce of my being and every part of my soul. I love you the
way people are only supposed to love in fairytales. My love
for you is bordering on madness, obsession. I woke up this
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morning and you weren't next to me in bed. I was hard for
you, desperate to be inside you again and when you weren't
there my first thought was not curiosity about where you
had gone but anger about who I had to kill to get you back
with me."
Isabelle could feel her own pulse pounding in her
head. She hated to admit that she found this side of Kal so
sexy. She had never thought herself a person who liked
violence but with the way he radiated energy, she knew he
was capable of brutality and strength the depth of which
she couldn't fathom and yet she knew that he kept himself
in check, all of which really turned her on. He was brutal in
his self-control. He would never think of himself this way
but when he was at his most tense and frightening was
when he was also the most vulnerable—at least to her. He
could kill and destroy anything in the world but not her,
never her. She was safer because he was so capable of
extreme action. She didn't know what it said about her but
somehow thinking about him in that way could make her
start to feel wet inside.
"Does it frighten you?" He crossed over towards
her. "Can you see the beast in me? You can read my mind
and I can't read yours. Do you see things that make your
skin crawl? Do you wish fate had been kinder and attached
you to someone else? Because I won't give you up, I can
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never give you up." He put both hands on the bed around
her, pushing her down on her back so that was on top of her
with one of his knees in between her legs, opening her up.
He pushed up slightly, his knee causing a wave of pleasure
to pass through her body.
"I'm not afraid of you, Kal. Just the opposite. I can
read your mind, I can feel the currents moving through
your body more intently tonight than last night, making you
feel on edge and the things you feel for me, I feel for you
too. I love you with a passion I shouldn't feel after so short
a time. I love you in ways I didn't know were possible. I
ache from loving you and before yesterday I've only known
you in dreams."
She pushed up to claim his mouth with her own.
Kal was always so responsible for everything and
everyone. His family needed him, relied on him, and
resented him at the same time for their need of him, making
him feel like he was frightening and out of control. She
wondered in his current state if he could handle being
bossed around a little bit.
"I want to get on top of you," she whispered
lovingly in his ear. "I want it right now."
"My god." He laughed, flipping her over so that she
could be on top, so that she could control their lovemaking.
"I want your clothes off now, my warrior." She took
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on the authoritative tone she heard him use so frequently
with others. She started pulling on his shirt and his pants;
he helped her by sliding his jeans off his hips.
"You don't know this because you can't read my
mind," she continued, "but when I was in college, I would
lie in my bed at night and dream that I was with a very
strong man. I was on a hill top, waiting for him to come
back from a battle he had been fighting. I knew he would
be hot and bothered and sore from the fight still raging
within him. I had been worried for nights and desperate for
a release of my own. He would come to me then, still
wearing his armor and he would take me hard and fast on
that hill as I begged him for release. I would wake up in my
bed and be wet and hot with no idea what to do about it.
You know that I was somehow dreaming of you, don't you?
I've loved you since before I knew you existed."
She slid down his body towards his hard rod that
was already glistening wet. She loved that she could have
this effect on him and without another thought sank her
mouth onto his hard erection. He let out a hiss from his
mouth.
"Oh god, love, what you are doing to me, I don't
know how long I can hang on and I
want to be deep inside
of you when I come."
He was practically begging and her mouth sank
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lower and lower on top of him, sucking hard. With her right
hand she began squeezing where her mouth couldn't reach
and his hips thrust off the bed. She was getting hotter and
hotter with the anticipation and expectation of what was to
come next. How long could she control him like this, she
wondered. She knew Kal wanted to take the control back
from her, desperately, but she wasn't through having her
fun with him and sank even deeper, letting her teeth gently
scrape him as she came up, her left hand squeezing his
balls.
"Isabelle!" He shouted in a voice that sounded low
and foreign. He pulled her finally on top of him and rolled
them to the other side of the bed, regaining the top position.
"You are the most incredible woman I have ever known."
His mouth took possession of hers as his tongue started a
brutal assault on her mouth.
Isabelle wasn't sure how many times he kissed her
but it was hard and it was hot. She was so stupefied by the
experience that she barely noticed that he had lifted her legs
up and wrapped them around his waist. Quickly he thrust
deeply inside of her, pushing them both towards the
headboard of the bed. His free hand stopped the ascent and
braced them so neither one of them was banging into it as
his hips began their steady hard rhythm to claim her as his
own.
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His lovemaking was different this time. The night
before he had been careful and protective of her needs,
knowing it was her first time but tonight he had started out
edgy and she had provoked him into even more of a daze.
He was taking total possession of her body, roughly, and
she loved every second of it. She could feel the pressure
starting inside of her again and she knew her release would
come soon. It hit her hard and she screamed his name,
scraping his back with her hands. But Kal wasn't finished
with her yet. His member continued to pillage her as his
hand joined in the fun, finding her most sensitive spot and
squeezing it. She screamed in pleasure and her hips came
off the bed harder as she came again and again with him.
Finally, he succumbed, joining her in the ecstatic state that
she was lost in.
* * * *
Isabelle had drifted off into a light sleep. He could
see her lids fluttering slightly over her closed eyes. He had
to keep reminding himself that while she was one of them,
she was new to the powers she possessed and they were
draining to her. He had taken her roughly and savagely
without the tender care she deserved. He should take off
and leave her until the moon was gone. He would leave this
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very second if she didn't have an unthinkable task ahead of
her. There was no way he wasn't going to be anywhere but
right next to her the whole time she travelled, hoping
beyond hope that she came back to him safe and sound.
Isabelle roused slightly and Kal winced. Had she
been reading his thoughts and woken up or had she been
waiting for him in their spot and he hadn't shown up? She
opened her eyes to stare into his and pushed up on one arm
to observe him more closely.
"You don't sleep, even when you should be beyond
exhausted. We're going to work on that." She lovingly
brushed the hair out of his eyes.
"Did I hurt you?" His eyes were slightly moist. The
littlest things that Isabelle did touched his heart so deeply.
Did she know that, he wondered?
"Do I look hurt to you?" she answered, laughing at
him. "I'm a tough girl, my love. Remember, I was made for
you, that means I can take whatever you can dish out."
She was teasing him and he loved the feel of it.
"Don't tempt me, Isabelle. You need your sleep so
you can practice tomorrow. Don't think I don't know what
just occurred here. You totally manipulated me with sex. I
know that's what just happened and for the record, I'm fine
with it." He laughed out loud. "Did you successfully time
travel at all today?" He needed to know what she was about
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to endure.
"Yes. I moved back a couple of times and made
contact with both Veli and Leonardo. It's kind of weird to
see myself when I do it but that's okay. I'm getting used to
it more and more. At first I was so freaked out because I'd
be standing in the room discussing the jump I was about to
do and then I'd see myself suddenly appear. It was tough to
handle but it also, in a strange way, helped me. I realized
that because I'd seen myself do it, I knew I could do it. It
had to work. I had seen myself do it. Does that make
sense?"
"Strangely it does." Kal laughed. "In a kind of
weird, late night television sci-fi kind of way."
"I don't feel quite as hot when I do it now. I don't
feel like I might explode," she replied, lazily stretching her
arms over her head like a cat. "I feel like I could sleep for a
week. Why are you wide awake?"
"And Leonardo thinks he can pick the right time to
speak to Abraxas without Abraxas altering anything to
change the future?" He had ignored her question but he
knew that he wasn't going to get any sleep until he had
quieted his mind from the marathon it was running. Kal
didn't want Abraxas to make anything worse. The former
leader had screwed up enough once and didn't need the
problems that came with foresight to make it worse on all
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of them. What if he decided not to send the children at all?
Veli had been a parental nightmare but even Kal knew that
Veli was preferable to ceasing to exist all together, which
was inevitable if they all got left with their parents who had
obviously died at the ends of the Darkness.
"Leonardo thinks he can control the energy enough
to take me back to the moments when we were doing the
transfer before Abraxas was taken but after the point in
which we were sent. This would mean I could actually
communicate with Abraxas and not screw up too much of
the future."
"It's not a question of my doubting you. I have a
problem with anything that might take you from me
permanently. Heaven help the world if that ever happens.
You are all that separates me from becoming something
truly horrendous."
She started to protest and he raised his hand to stop
her, stroking her cheek. There was no point in arguing. This
had to happen so he had to do something he hadn't done in
a very long time—trust fate to take care of them all.
/> * * * *
They lay together in companionable silence
listening to the sounds out back. A crow called out in the
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distance and further away another one answered. The ocean
was a distant hum and the crickets had come out to warm
the night with their music. It seemed the wrong time of year
for crickets but then again the island was laden with magic,
who knew what was true here that wasn't true elsewhere,
Isabelle thought. She'd have to ask Marina as she was sure
that Kal wouldn't know. She rolled onto her side and started
stroking his chest with her fingers. His eyes were closed
and his breathing was becoming even and she suspected
that he was finally falling asleep.
"You told me you loved me." Kal didn't open his
eyes.
"I did." She sighed. "You told me you loved me."
She laughed into his ear.
"In my whole life, no one has ever said that to me
before. You can't die and take that away from me. I can't
see the light that is you and then walk alone in the world
again. I'm young but my soul feels very old. I think it was
almost dead without you in my life."
Isabelle wasn't sure but she thought she might have
seen tears glistening in his eyes.
"I'm not going anywhere, Kal. Didn't you know that
the good guys are going to win this one?" She paused when
he didn't smile and answer. "I was speaking with Veli today
and he told me that men and women after they were
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married would go away for a while to be together, to join
together and then they would come back months later truly
joined. He said it was a time to reestablish control of their
emotions because everything with your other half feels so
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