Revelations: Book One of the Lalassu

by Lewis, Jennifer Carole

  “Ouch,” Michael chuckled, picking at the remnants hanging at his sides. “You are impatient with shirts.”

  Dani contented herself with a satisfied smile and quirked eyebrow.

  “Not complaining,” he added. “But I believe that makes it my turn again.”

  He slid his hands along her breasts, his fingers brushing against the tight buds of her nipples. Each touch tightened her further, making patience difficult. At least now she could explore his chest with greedy eyes and fingers. His clothes disguised the lithe muscles underneath, hiding his beautiful physique from the rest of the world. Dani couldn’t help being torn by equally selfish desires to keep him to herself and to show him off to the world so other women could eat their own tongues with envy.

  He lowered her onto the bed, leaning over her to run his lips along her belly, inching tortuously lower toward the shimmering, sole scrap of fabric she wore. Dani clenched her fists in the quilt, squirming under and savoring every touch. He tongued the top of the sequined thong briefly before glancing back up at her. “Is this your idea of casual, everyday wear?”

  “A girl has to have some standards,” she purred. “Think of it as the toy surprise inside the box.”

  “Only one?”

  “I’m sure we can find more.” She reached for his belt, but he stepped back.

  “It’s still my turn. Remember?” His hands trembled against her skin, betraying his own inner conflict.

  Dani grinned, delighted he wasn’t as immune to her charms as he pretended.

  “Don’t doubt that I want you. You’re not the only one skating on the edge.” His voice was ragged as he climbed up the bed, pressing his forehead to hers to align their bodies along every point of possible contact. The thick seams of his jeans bit roughly into her bare legs.

  “Then stop hanging on the edge and take the plunge.” She pressed her hips against him, loving the thick length of his erection pressed against the fiery magma burning at her core. Even shielded by his jeans, his touch drove her wild. She captured his hand and pressed his fingers against the liquid heat between her legs.

  His fingers slipped over the bare skin beneath her thong, and she caught a faint hint of surprise before it vanished back into masculine enjoyment. She kept herself meticulously waxed for performing. From his smile and aroused scent, he appreciated her efforts.

  Every warrior knew a good offence was the best defense, and Dani hastened to press her advantage. She lured him with hungry kisses and knew she’d succeeded when his hands tightened against her shoulders and his hips ground against hers.

  No more banter. No more teasing. She exulted in the passionate fury she’d ignited in her lover.

  His mouth clamped over her breast, no longer lightly teasing but demanding. Deep, pulling suction flung any lingering awareness of caution out the window as they sped toward mutual satisfaction. The hot, hard length of him pressed against her and she eagerly rubbed against him. She wanted to feel him inside her so badly that she’d scream if it didn’t happen soon.

  “Patience,” he whispered.

  “I don’t wait well.” She ripped away the soaked thong and locked her fingers onto his jeans. So close…

  “Then we’ll have to take care of that.” He pulled away, and she could have killed him if frustrated desire hadn’t left her locked and shivering. He shoved his jeans down and pushed them aside.

  Dani drank in the sight of him with eager eyes. Long and lithe, her professor was all sculpted muscle and sinew. His heavy erection defied gravity, straining toward her in undeniable evidence of his desire. He spread her legs wide and spent a long moment looking at her slick, swollen folds.

  Her inner walls pulsed in anticipation. “Please,” she whispered, lifting her hips in invitation.

  He ran a single finger across her cleft, tugging it lightly over her clit. Ecstasy bloomed and she screamed her release.

  Hand gripping her bucking hips, he used gentle pressure and flicking caresses to transform her orgasm into a world-shattering cascade. Exultant pressure burned through her quivering muscles again and again. She lost touch with anything resembling reality, shattering and rebuilding only to shatter anew on peaks of pleasure.

  She held tight to the walls containing the Huntress despite being out of her mind with ecstasy. But the predator within might as well have been dead. Only a faint hint of awareness buzzed on the outskirts of her consciousness as she bucked and thrashed in a continuous orgasm.

  But she needed more. She needed to feel the length of him inside while her body clamped and quaked. She reached for him.

  Her newly awakened greed must have slipped through to him since he immediately lifted his head and met her eyes. Her pulsing flesh demanded more. “Inside. Now,” she gasped.

  To his credit, he didn’t wait for a more coherent explanation. He bent, grabbing something off the floor. Dani couldn’t help but grin as she saw the condom. Of course her Professor came prepared. Then thought took a definite back seat to feeling.

  Wet and eager, there was no need to take things slow. She moaned as he slid inside her, sheathing himself in her. The stretching of her hot core taking him deeper and deeper had to be the most delicious sensation she’d ever experienced.

  Until he started to move. She felt his control shatter as surely as if she’d possessed his psychometric gift. His hips began to pump, thrusting deeper and deeper into her. He curved his spine, stroking and coaxing her swollen flesh with the skill of a master violinist coaxing throbbing notes from his instrument. She clutched his firm buttocks as he rode her, matching him stroke for stroke, panting and gasping. He took her open mouth with his own, mimicking each pelvic thrust with his tongue. She abandoned any sense of self-control right along with him, letting her wild instincts rise to the fore. Primal, animalistic, she surrendered to the ancient satisfaction of feeling her man ride her hard and wet, wringing fresh orgasms from her spasming body.

  She clamped down hard on him, milking and sucking on his buried shaft. He shuddered and cried out as she tipped over into le petit mort.

  And released her hold on the Huntress.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Michael sensed the loss of containment immediately. Even as his mind and body exploded in an earth-shattering orgasm, the alien Huntress opened like a great maw beneath him. Fangs caught at his psyche, scraping along the outer edges for purchase. He felt Dani’s soundless wail of denial and fury as her hands tightened hard enough to leave bruises on his waist.

  Beneath the burning rings, Dani’s dark eyes softened in dismay, then hardened in determination. She began to pull away from him, wrestling with the Huntress to keep it from him. But he clung to her, shielding her from the primal whirlwind clawing at them. He refused to let the Huntress have her. He mentally pushed at the mystic predator. You’ve hurt her enough! You’re not welcome here anymore. He could sense it struggling to come closer, but Dani joined her mental support to his and together they held it at bay.

  He could see it overlaid on top of reality, a coiling snake with black, glittering scales with gleaming red eyes. It snarled at them, coiling around them, searching for a point to attack. Michael started to feel a sense of triumph. They could do this.

  Until it swallowed them whole. Crushing pressure slammed into them from all sides, trying to force them apart. He held tight to Dani, her fear and determination matching his own. But no regret—never regret.

  Let her go. Let her go, and this will all be over. The words echoed sibilantly in his head. It was the Huntress. He recognized it immediately and clung even tighter to Dani.

  He became painfully aware of the cosmos stretching out in every direction. Stars roared silently in the void, massive furnaces of primal energy consuming themselves in their fury. Planets hung in darkness, unwitting prisoners of gravity. Galaxies spun in place, plowing through the emptiness with massive inertial power. For the first time, he truly understood how mind-bogglingly huge the universe truly was and how infinitesimally small he t
ruly was.

  His mind rebelled. He might be small on a cosmic scale, but he refused to accept insignificance. Size alone did not determine importance. Dani, Bernie, Gwen, Walter, Virginia, Celina, George, Kaitlin, Brianna, the Stirgises, all of them were specks compared to the cosmos, but they mattered. Every last person mattered.

  The Huntress hissed; a slithering vibration wrapped around him. He sensed he had somehow passed a challenge. Dani lay rigidly in his arms, but no trace of her emotions filtered through to him. If he hadn’t been in the middle of a bizarre mystical experience, he might have worried something had happened to her. But he held firm to his faith in the two of them and continued to hold her tightly.

  Love conquers all? Is that it? The Huntress slammed into his mind, showing him all the horrors committed in the name of love. All the dark secrets he’d been a reluctant witness to over the years. Predators who stalked the objects of their obsession, minds full of deluded fantasies. When the recipients of their imaginary relationships refused to play along, disappointment became violence. He experienced their terror with unfiltered keenness, like a sharp blade slicing into his mind.

  He saw men and women worn down by the relentless demands of mates more interested in perfection than companionship. He staggered under invisible wounds to heart and soul, fought against accumulated scar tissue burying him in a callous shell.

  He fell to his knees under blows of brutality, powered by the impotent fury of those who saw others as possessions. He wept for the powerless, betrayed by those who promised to love and cherish them above all others. He bent his head over the unmarked graves of possessions who became too inconvenient to their tormentors. The Huntress chuckled, pleased to have broken him.

  “This is not love,” Michael insisted, irritated and offended. Did it think to hurt him with old memories? “It is possession, jealousy, and obsession. It isn’t love.”

  The Huntress snarled at his defiance, but he wasn’t interested in the predator’s response. He spoke to Dani, hoping she would hear his words. “I’ve seen the world for what it is since I was a child. I already know all the dark secrets you’re trying to shock me with. But I’ve seen the other side, too. Real love, filled with laughter and joy. Love that elevates and delights in their beloved’s flight as much as their own.” He shouted the words.

  And do you think you are worthy of such love? You, whose own father cringed from your touch? His memories fell under brutal fangs, ripping them apart to pick out the most painful morsels. All the shameful and painful events from his past, brought front and center in surround sound and Technicolor.

  The first time he innocently told his parents how another adult didn’t like him, only to be told he was lying. His innocent bewilderment changed to crushing fear and shame.

  His mother teaching him how to pretend he didn’t feel emotions or receive impressions through touch. They would practice suppressing their expressions in a mirror for hours on end. She warned him that no one would ever believe him or want to be around him if they knew. The weight of secrets pressed down on him, choking away his breath.

  When his girlfriend, Reagan, told him that his ability to read her mind only “creeped her out” instead of bringing them closer, her lips curled in disgust and her fingers recoiling from touching him. He could still see her walking away from him without a backward glance. Isolation froze his heart and soul, doubt beat down his self-confidence.

  Being forced to see everyone’s most horrible and shameful secrets. Knowing the cashier at the coffee bar was having an affair. Seeing how the man beside him on the bus imagined luring young women home. Learning the random stranger brushing past on the street beat her children. Every nasty and sordid detail came flinging out of his memory.

  Enough. “Is that all you’ve got?” Michael demanded, tired of being the one attacked. “Come on, where’s the mind-altering revelation that will make me into a vegetable?”

  He saw all the times he’d been selfish, turning away from people in need because he was too tired and worn out to deal with their problems. He saw all the times he’d been wrong, from accidentally short-changing a waitress to not realizing Bernie was a medium. He saw all the bad results of carelessness, indifference, and ignorance.

  And he still stood firm, unbowed by the Huntress’s best efforts. He still held Dani in his arms. Still refused to allow this alien parasite to drive him away from her even as it tightened around him.

  “You claim to show the truth! This isn’t the truth. This is fear! All you can see are shadows!” he shouted. “I’m not afraid of you!”

  The constricting pressure vanished. They tumbled into disorienting darkness. There was no up, no down, nothing but their mutual death grip on each other.

  Well done, Michael. A woman’s voice greeted them. Strange and hollow, it echoed slightly, though there was nothing for the sound to bounce off.

  Light began to glow diffusely as they floated in the strange darkness, enough for him to see Dani struggling to talk to him. He ran his thumb over her cheek, brushing away the tears. They were still naked and clasped in each other’s arms.

  “I saw it all. Everything you went through.” Dani’s fingers skimmed over his cheeks and forehead, searching for injury, and he felt her desperate anxiety, the remnants of her blind terror. “I thought I would lose you.”

  ”It wanted me to let go,” Michael said slowly, piecing it together. “I wouldn’t.”

  “It hurt you because of me.” Dani bit her lip and looked away. He sensed her fear that he would reject her.

  “Hey, look at me.” He tilted her head back. “I just went through a mystical personality test and I held on to you every step of the way because I am never letting you go. I waited my whole life to find you, and I am not going anywhere.” He claimed her sweet lips, and his body roared in enthusiastic response. “You’re beautiful and strong and anyone who tries to tell you different is a damn idiot.”

  Her laugh, though weak, still managed to ring in the void. “It’s still wrong when you curse. Where are we?”

  Large blocks of tightly fitted black granite materialized under their feet. Honey-colored sandstone pillars stood at rampant attention along the edges. Exotic, colorful flowers perfumed the air, twining around the pillars as living adornment. Smoky torches blinded him to the world beyond the pillars. He couldn’t help but think it looked like something out of an Indiana Jones movie. “Is this real?” he asked.

  Of course it’s real, the same woman’s voice answered him. There were hints of movement beyond the pillars, but no matter how he strained, he couldn’t see them clearly, only wispy and ghost-like flashes of paleness. Michael’s fingers tightened around Dani, moving to stand between her and it.

  There is nothing to see. And nothing to fear. Gauzy smoke congealed, creating a translucent figure of a woman. Long dark hair, intricately curled and braided, surrounded a beautiful face with kohl-lined eyes. Linen drapes barely concealed her long legs and heavy breasts. She walked toward them, taking on strength and color with each step. Her skin was olive-dark and her hair even darker. Welcome.

  Soft cloth fell over their shoulders, wrapping them in thick linen robes. Michael was relieved not to be naked, but disturbed at more evidence of not being in the real world anymore.

  It is most pleasant to finally meet you. The woman came closer, her feet drifting through the granite floor.

  “Who are you?” Dani demanded, her voice cracking with fear as she moved to put herself between Michael and the woman. He stayed by her side.

  Names are tedious and limiting. I’ve had so many. I’ve always preferred something descriptive: Queen of the Night.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Dani blanched as belated awareness finally twigged. “You’re the Goddess.” Behind her, she smelled a sudden burst of curiosity from Michael. No fear, only interest. Of course he wasn’t afraid of being in some mystical alternate reality. Every story should have one.

  It’s been a long time since my Chosen Prie
stess raged with such defiance. The Goddess smiled in amusement.

  “I’m not the first, then.” Dani was surprised at her disappointment.

  It was the Middle Ages, then. She grew up believing sex to be a sin, poor thing. It took ages to set her straight. But you are a different bowl of fruit. Afraid for so long. The Goddess toyed with Dani’s hair, leaving a spine-tingling trail of electric energy behind.

  This wasn’t at all how Dani pictured meeting with a deity. Shouldn’t there be more flaming swords and booming voices from the sky?

  “She had reason to be afraid,” Michael’s politeness kept his words from being an accusation, but only barely. “Your Huntress violated her.”

  The Huntress is a representation of the conduit between you and I. It is shaped by you as much as by me. A divine frown rippled across her features like a wave on water. You were angry and frightened, transforming the Huntress into the very monster you feared.

  “So it’s my fault? Blame the victim? How evolved.” Dani tensed further, waiting to get blasted by a lightning bolt. Her family wasn’t big on church but mouthing off to a god was probably one of those instant-death-worthy prohibitions.

  Your anger is great. You hold onto it like a shield even though it drags you down into the depths where you cannot breathe. If you continue to clench it to you, it will cost you everything. The Goddess glanced at Michael, her slanted eyes making her meaning clear.

  “Leave him out of it,” Dani growled.

  Your love for him opened my connection to you, letting us move beyond monsters in the dark. I am not your enemy, Danielle. I want to help you. Ask me what you want to know.

  “How can we rescue Bernie and my brothers?” she asked. Everyone had been so sure the Goddess would help them; this was her chance to find out.

  There are many possibilities. But the strongest chance of success lies after the next sunset. But if you go alone, you will be the first to fall to the darkness. Those you love will follow you.