by Shelly Pratt
With the room now empty except for her and Eilam, she had time to inspect him fully. He looked terrible; with cuts razored up and down his back. It was like he had just received lashings from a cat-o-nine tails but with a knife on the end instead of leather. Cillian had left him on his side that didn’t have the broken collarbone so that his cuts could air and the arm on that side had already been strapped up near his neck so that it wouldn’t move unnecessarily. She knew she loved this man, this raven creature that could fly in the skies and she didn’t want him to hurt anymore. She wanted to touch him, love him and feel him in every way that a person could be with another.
She leaned forward ever so slowly so as not to disturb him and gently put her soft lips to his. The magic of his touch made her shiver. Not because she was still in wet clothes, but because it made her remember what it was like to be naked next to him. She wanted that and more again, but with her senses fully in check she had the mind to be fearful at the same time, for he would after all be her first.
****
Eilam had been unconscious for days. He ran hot with fever and called out in his sleep and she was right there to bathe his wounds and dress them. She cooled his head with water the ravens brought from the waterfall and tended his every need. She hadn’t cared about her own concussion but had gladly accepted some pain relief medicine that one of the younger girls had flown into the city to get from the pharmacist. Her nausea had soon passed and she could then concentrate fully on helping Eilam recover. She hadn’t returned to her apartment since she had disappeared and she was sure her friend Elijah had probably called her at least a hundred times by now but she didn’t care.
Let them think she was dead anyway, at least then the ravens would assume their attack on them had been successful and the APP might have stopped looking for her as well. She could resurrect her art career once she stepped back into reality. That was the thing about being with Eilam. It was like being in another world, where it was totally normal for a morphing raven to be able to fly.
Her time at the nest had helped her form bonds with the others too. At first they were sceptical and wary, unsure if they should trust this outsider who had invaded in their inner sanctuary and rattled them. But the more she talked and interacted with them the more she felt like they readily accepted her. If she was honest with herself, she kind of thought it would be nice to hide out here in the mountains forever and never have to return to the dismal city that had held her captive for so long.
Here she felt free, not constrained by time frames and telephone calls. Here, she could just be herself and not feel like an outcast in a city of despair.
In the middle of the night on day five of Eilam’s fever induced sleep, he stirred at her side. His movement woke her instantly and she immediately put her hand to his forehead to see if he was still burning. With relief she found him to be cool to the touch, a clear indication his fever had broken and he was on the mend. Cillian had said he was healing fast the day before and had even removed the bandage that kept his arm in place to restrict the movement of his collarbone. His hand now came up to touch hers and he pressed it to the side of his face, eyes still closed as he felt for her.
“You’re here,” he whispered with relief. She hadn’t left his side since he’d been brought back and the rest of the ravens had continued to let their world spin on its axis as much as they could with the other flock still watching over their every move. They had come to accept Aiyana as part of the ‘furniture’ and readily accepted her to stay in their nest with them.
“I’m here,” she whispered back, not wanting the ravens close by to hear they were talking, for surely they would want to see him the minute he woke. It wasn’t her intention to be selfish with him, but her need to have him kiss her once more was burning in the pit of her belly like a fire raging in a summer heat wave. For five days she had looked at those lips and willed him awake so that they could share a kiss that so fulfilled her that she wouldn’t have cared less if she had died the minute it ended.
“Are you okay?” eyes closed still, his deep husky voice asked her. All the while his hand stroking hers, making it very hard for her to concentrate on what he’d even asked her.
“I’m fine,” she said in a breathy voice. What was with her? Why did he have such a hold over her? “How are you feeling now?” she asked him.
“I ache all over and my back stings,” he groaned.
“It’s healing nicely, the cuts have scabbed over and will probably start to itch soon – Cillian said you’ve healed very quickly considering the extent of your injuries.”
It was dark in the room and she could only see the outline of his face, but already felt like she knew every square inch of it after staring intently at him for the last week.
“Cillian has no idea how much this hurts,” he said, trying not to roll on his back as he shifted his weight on his hips.
“Would you like me to put some more ointment on your cuts? Reed left some crushed herb cream that he made up earlier,” she offered, only too keen to run her hands over his muscular back.
“Yes please, if you wouldn’t mind,” he conceded.
She got up from where she lay and moved to the small stand that held the crushed herb ointment. At that precise point in time the clouds must have cleared outside and the moon shone brilliantly down the skylight bathing the entire room in a blue-ish hue that illuminated Eilam’s body in its light. She moved to him now with confidence, being able to see exactly what was in front of her.
His back was so big and strong, the muscles that rippled along his shoulder blades evidence of the hard work put in from flying all the time -now covered with strips of cloth that kept the ointment close to his skin. She removed it carefully; mindful that he flinched every time she did so.
“I’m sorry,” she said quietly and tried to get it over with for him as soon as possible. Once done, she couldn’t help but be entranced by him. She slowly ran her finger along the back of his neck and on towards his shoulders, slowly taking her time to feel his soft skin beneath hers and feeling a little short of breath as she did so. In the moonlight his skin showed signs of goose bumps, like she suddenly found a weak spot.
She stopped now, as though the thought just crossed her mind that what she was doing was inappropriate. She put the ointment back and came back around the bed to the side he was facing.
“Why’d you stop?” he whispered to her, eyes awake now and dancing with blue light from the moon.
“I, ah…” tongue tied. Completely and utterly tongue tied.
“Lay next to me,” he motioned to her with his good arm. She hesitated for only a split second, not needing to be asked twice. She shuffled close; he wanted her closer. He reached behind her to the small of her back and pulled her towards him, wincing as he did so.
“Don’t,” she said, “you’ll hurt yourself”.
“Touch me,” he said, his breath tickling her face as he did so. He smelt earthy and fresh, just like after it had rained.
Aiyana touched his face and ran her hand down the front of his solar plexus, unsure of where to touch him next.
“Aiyana,” he breathed. She liked the way her name rolled off his tongue.
“Yes,” she said.
“You’re beautiful”. He closed the hairs breath between them and placed his soft lips on hers. He was warm, gentle and giving. Giving her exactly what she wanted. She kissed him back hungrily, a lifetime’s worth of built up tension released in that moment. She’d never kissed or been kissed in such a romantic way in all her life. It was like his lips were made for hers and she felt him mimic every move she made. Comfortable within his embrace, she explored his mouth with her tongue, feeling for his and enjoying the sensation all too much.
She needed air, but was enjoying the headiness she was feeling. In the end she had to gently push him back a minute to catch her breath. He breathed hard in her face, thrill and delight clearly lit on his face.
“I feel a lot better now, thank y
ou,” he said.
She giggled quietly, “Ah, you’re welcome?”
“Kiss me again,” he demanded. So she did. Passionately and lustfully; she never wanted this moment to end.
But in the dark recess of her mind though, a little voice said to her but it will end sometime, you know it has to.
Chapter Eleven
The weeks following their heated kisses were a painful recovery for Eilam. He was frustrated that he couldn’t fly and was forced to stay in the nest until his collar bone healed enough to support his massive wings as they flapped to hold him in the air. Each day he would walk out to the cave entrance and half morph in to his raven form so he could stretch his wings out gloriously behind him. He would flap them slowly, exercising the muscles and getting movement back into his body without weight bearing on the bones that still had a little healing to do.
Aiyana finally agreed to make a trip back to her apartment with Reed and Cillian in order to grab clothes and make a few telephone calls to the necessary people. Elijah was going out of his mind with worry when she hadn’t answered any one of his forty seven telephone messages. She assured him she was fine and passed off her absence as a business trip with a quirky client who had wanted a portrait of him and his wife out in the bush where there was no telephone reception. That satisfied him momentarily but he insisted they get together soon as he had someone he wanted her to meet. She insisted she was perfectly happy on her own and had no intention of going on any blind date he had set up for her. He hung up slightly disgruntled but she knew he would get over it quickly enough.
Her other clients were emailed to notify them of an urgent leave of absence from her work and she assured them she would be back on board with her projects soon. The incident with the APP and then the subsequent attack from the ravens left no doubt in any of their minds that Aiyana and Eilam were still in great danger; and her staying in her apartment at the moment would be very foolhardy. At this point they had no idea what the APP thought of all that went down, but they knew from their own spies that lurked in the mountains that Einar was still suspicious about their actual deaths. The moment they had plunged into the water Eilam’s flock had returned and fought them off – Cillian and Reed morphing in to their human forms to dive into the ocean and fish them out. So she readily agreed to being escorted back to collect her things and then return to stay with Eilam and his flock until they could figure things out.
Despite their steamy kisses, her thoughts niggled in the back of her mind, intruding on her reality and rudely and acting like a complete fizzler to her sex drive. One minute she would be all hot and heavy with him and the next they would argue over whether she should bloody kill him or not. She had to laugh at the ludicrous irony of the whole situation and pointed it out to Eilam on a daily basis.
“How can you stand there and ask me to kill you when you’ve just spent all this time getting better,” she said, raising her voice at him with each and every word.
“How can you not see it my way? You could have been killed Aiyana, any one of my flock could have and certainly people in the city are dropping like flies from all the murderous rampages my father’s flock are going on,” he said, his black eyes blazing as his temper simmered near the surface.
“Well I’m fine,” she stressed, making no headway what so ever with trying to get her point across to him. Their fights wouldn’t last long though. Her being the more stubborn of the two she would always hold out longer than he and by the time he was ready to fly again he would always return with a gathering of food for her after such a quarrel. When he left after such a fight she would go to the cave’s entrance and wait there for him. She knew without a doubt that he would return and be hers once more. She had to smother a giggle each time she saw the fruit in his beak, and knew it was a compulsive behaviour of the raven as he was looking for a mate. She pondered her thoughts long and hard and asked herself how she could possibly drive a dagger into the heart of the very being she thought of as her soul mate. She had to admit, Eilam had a valid point in that one life to sacrifice for a whole civilization made lots of sense on paper. But when your heart controlled your desires, there was nothing her head could do to convince her otherwise.
In a solemn discussion one day he had actually had the nerve to present her with a dagger! One look at the thunderous expression on her face had him coming up with all manner of excuses for its purpose. To protect herself from other ravens, to go hunting in the woods, to carve fruit for eating, oooh oooh, and her favourite, just in case the APP happened to come foraging in the woods for her. His excuses were endless.
To prevent steam from coming out of her ears, she sheathed it and left him without saying a word and went back to reading a vintage copy of a book she still held in paperback that she’d brought from home.
All of their trips to the outside world were now done under the cover of darkness, their frames too large and easily spotted by other ravens in the daylight hours. Even though neither flock knew of the others exact nest, it wasn’t too hard to get within the general vicinity and start scoping out the goings on of the rival flock. Eilam barely discussed his father. It was a subject he felt was best left alone. She knew from odd comments here and there that the originals of the curse remained evil – full of hatred and despising the pathetic feebleness of the people they terrorised.
The offspring or fledglings as they were called in their youth weren’t all susceptible to the ways or traits of their deliverer that brought them in to this world.
Instead they had forged off on their own to try and find a way out of the curse. And they had found that way in Aiyana, which just about made her the hottest ticket on the planet right now.
Aiyana was getting so used to life with Eilam that she didn’t think she could go back to her loft and live alone, and it was today of all days that sealed that deal forever.
She was sleeping in the room where she had taken care of Eilam whilst he had been recovering. He had been gone a long while and she had woken because she had started to feel cold without his warmth there next to her. It was just as she got up to get an extra layer of clothing from her backpack that he returned.
He came through the fern screen and almost ran into her.
“Sorry,” he said out of breath, “I didn’t think you would be awake”.
“I got cold,” she said as she bent down to grab her jacket.
“Why don’t you let me warm you instead?” The deep warm voice that always made her melt at the knees. He opened his arms to her and she walked into them leaving the jacket where it was, the warmth of his skin heating her own.
His hand brushed her dark masses of hair behind her back, his hand all the while tracing slow circles down her back as he did so. She felt the familiar pull of desire whenever he touched her and she knew from the look in his eyes that he wanted her. She’d seen enough movies to recognise the signs and it just felt so right. He cupped her face and kissed her with a tenderness that belied his true intentions. With the heat of their kisses getting steamier by the minute, she had to take her mouth off of his so she could catch a breather whist he ran his tongue down her neck and to the centre of her throat where he planted kisses that made her moan quietly.
She was too caught up in the moment to be embarrassed by the sound, although she did wonder if anyone else could hear their goings on. A split second later she had completely forgotten all about the noise factor because his hands had moved to her tank top she was wearing and a whole new wave of worry washed over her.
Wait! She’d never done this before!
“I won’t hurt you, I promise,” he whispered in her ear.
“I know this sounds ridiculous, but I’ve never done this before,” she said, waiting for him to laugh his head off at her.
“Neither have I,” he said back, still inching her top higher over her abdomen. She took in his masculine naked chest then and found it very hard to imagine that no one had ever had the glorious pleasure of making love to such a beautifu
l specimen.
She wondered if it would be like the blind leading the blind, but she needn’t have worried. He undressed her, sensuously and slowly, taking his time to take in every inch of her body with appreciation showing in his eyes. When she was completely naked she started to tremble a bit, partly because she was still cold and partly because she was so damn nervous about what they were about to do.
In one fail swoop he lifted her off the ground, his arms catching behind her knees and shoulders. He lay her gently down on the bed and stood back to take off the black pants he had on around his waist. She had to admit, she had been kind of wondering about his package. Being a raven one minute and man the next made it hard to see which one was the real him.
Right now, he was all man.
Or should she say all donkey. Oh. My. God. Did she really just think that! What the hell was wrong with her? She snorted loudly and clapped a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing. He stood naked in the semi darkness, an amused smile on his lips.
