Looking into her sorrowful eyes, his resolve evaporated. “You do have the power to take away my pain; I’ve just been too stupid to let you do it. I love you, Anjali. I have always loved you and it’s time to prove that to you,” he said in a rush. Unable to stop himself, he captured her lips and eased his aching heart.
Her body immediately melted into his until her soft curves were molded against his chest. He broke the kiss long enough to duck under her arms so that she could loop them over his neck. She braced herself against his shoulders as he lifted her off the ground by the backs of her knees. He needed to feel her wrapped around his numb body. He walked over to the nearest tree and leaned her back against the solid wood so that he could kiss her neck, her ears, her face, anything that his mouth could reach. When she gasped his name, he pressed his painful erection against her heat.
Staring into her eyes, he lost himself. He felt pity for anyone or anything that tried to separate them, for he would kill them to remain by her side.
“I need you more than I have ever needed you. I don’t care what I said before. I can’t leave you. I can never leave you. You are the one person in all the world that I cherish. The world could burn for all I care, as long as I’m holding you in my arms. I told myself that I would remain detached, but I can’t keep you at a distance. It never mattered what you called yourself or what you looked like, I would know you every time we met. My heart would flutter the moment I recognized you. I wanted to hate you this time to spare myself the agony, but I can’t. When you look at me with those innocent eyes, I can only remember the love we shared,” he said passionately.
Her bright smile warmed his heart as nothing else could. She had always been able to lift his burdens, but this time was different. He could finally tell her everything, even if she didn’t have all of her memories. He no longer had to hide his knowledge of her or his knowledge of events from centuries past. He could finally be himself with her.
“I feel like you are a part of me even if I can’t recall all the reasons why. I felt the connection when you stood over me debating whether to kiss me. I understood that I was “vexing” you somehow, as if I knew you would say it while stomping your foot. You’re familiar to me and yet excitingly new,” she smiled as she nipped his chin and ran her teeth along his jaw.
He growled in the back of his throat when she continued her assault on his neck. She definitely remembered how crazy she could make him.
“You are the devil, my love,” he chuckled as he lifted her up. He glanced over his shoulder and found a pleasant patch of blue wild flowers to lay her down in. He gently took her to the ground and watched her wriggle around, trying to get comfortable. He pulled out one of his new knives and did away with her bindings once again freeing the most perfect sight imaginable. Forget about the supposed wonders of the world, he would be content to stay at home and stare at her magnificent body and consider himself a lucky man.
He made short work of her hideous pants, but stopped when he found a delightful surprise hiding under her tan soccer mom trousers. A silky pair of black panties beckoned him closer. He pulled off his shirt and knelt down to run his face over the enticing fabric. He inhaled her scent, the one thing that seemed to never change. He would always know it was his love by her intoxicating sweetness, if he ever doubted who she was.
He ran his tongue across the smooth panties and chuckled when she swore. “We’re just getting started, love. You may want to pace yourself before you are sated with only my tongue. I intend on fully enjoying your body before we’re done here,” he said, eliciting another beautiful moan of delight.
He pulled the panties aside and licked her from her core to her nub. She squirmed under his touch, which made him impossibly hard. He took pride in knowing her secret delights.
“Hurry,” she commanded, wiggling her hips. She tried to pull his shoulders closer to her with her knees, but he nipped her inner thigh.
“As my lady wishes,” he chuckled.
He placed one thumb over her nub as he slowly stroked himself through his pants. Her eyes were enjoying the sight. He stopped to wet his thumb inside his mouth and continued to tease her as he touched himself.
“I need you,” she moaned. She was panting and bucking at his touch.
He smirked and winked at her. “I need you more,” he whispered.
He popped the button on his pants and slowly pushed them down until he freed his hard shaft. He laughed when she whimpered at the sight of him naked and ready for her.
“I like seeing you desperate for me,” he smirked.
She rolled her hips against his thumb, searching for relief. “I’ve never been naked and exposed in the middle of the jungle before. The breeze is tickling my nipples,” she whimpered.
He nodded when he saw her puckered nipples. “Don’t worry, darling. I’ll warm them for you,” he said in a deep voice.
Seeing that she was barely in control, he quickened his motions until he felt her tense up. He grabbed his shaft and pushed it against her slick opening. The moment she came, he pushed himself into her tight body and gritted his teeth.
Her body bucked underneath him, lost to her orgasm as his slid in and out of her. She was squeezing him so tightly, he had to dig his hands into the ground to hold on to his control. She swore and groaned through her teeth has he rode out her orgasm. When she was able to breathe again, she hooked her legs around his ass and pulled him tight against her body.
“YES!” she shouted.
He enjoyed seeing her so uninhibited and free to enjoy herself. It was a liberating experience for him as well. He didn’t have to watch what he said or push their lovemaking beyond the limits of her current personality. Anjali was willing to take everything he gave her and give as much in return.
He leaned over to capture her nipple in his mouth, causing her to grunt wildly. He sucked on her sensitive flesh in time with his thrusts. A second orgasm had her thrashing her head wildly. He quickened his strokes and joined her in pure bliss.
He slowed his hips until he stilled inside of her. Looking at her hooded eyes and tangled hair, he wanted to photograph this moment so that he would never forget it.
Releasing his grip on the soil, he backed away and sat back on his heels. She propped herself up on her elbows and smiled at him.
“I have a feeling that was our best sex ever,” she said as she bit her puffy lip.
He ran his hand through his hair and wiped the sweat from his brow. Between the exertion and the heat, he was completely overheated.
“I don’t know, every time I think that, we somehow manage to outdo ourselves,” he chuckled.
He took one last look at her to memorize the blush across her body and the sleepy, but sated, look in her eyes before he pulled up his pants and searched for a way to bind her shirt. She laughed at him for forgetting where he had dropped his pack. She pulled up her disdainful shorts and waited patiently while he rethreaded her top.
“If you seduce me one more time with these sensuous breasts, we won’t have any more rope to bind you together. The dress is wearing thin as is it. I suppose you will have to walk around naked until we find you help,” he snickered.
“I seduced you. Right. I’m not sure how fighting a jaguar is considered seductive, but I’ll be sure to avoid any jaguars until I’m rescued,” she said, rolling her eyes.
He enjoyed joking with her. The sound of her laughter always made him smile.
When he was done trussing her up, she placed her hand on his arm. “I’m sorry that you’ve had to bear this burden alone,” she said.
“I wasn’t technically alone,” he shrugged. “The centuries that we were apart, I was standing in a place where I encountered no harm, no humor, and no joy. There were nine others with me, cordoned off into one section. In the beginning, I didn’t know who they were or why we were special enough to have our own section. Over the years, I noticed a mark or a glow on the others, one that matched a mark I found on myself. I didn’t see it while alive,
but I certainly noticed it after my death. I could only assume that these men knew you as well. One at a time, they would leave and return before the next would leave. Eventually, it would be my turn, so I knew when I would get to see you again. All these men were different, but they all had the same expression, or rather, look of peace. It was the same expression I had when I thought about you. Whoever these men were, I knew they were taking care of you in my absence. We never spoke, and I doubt that they remembered me, but I found some solace in knowing that these men would love you when I couldn’t be there. They must have felt the same fear of losing you and the same excitement upon seeing you, so I wasn’t really alone,” he explained as he pulled the hair from her face and pushed it behind her ear.
Her mouth fell open and she gaped at him. “You know about the others?” she asked, stunned by the revelation.
He nodded. “I know almost everything, except for the part about the devil and living in Hell,” he frowned. He didn’t like the idea of her living alongside the demon, but he didn’t have much choice in the matter.
“I can’t believe you remember the other nine,” she muttered. Her eyes snapped up and she swallowed harshly. “The ten of you were my first lovers during my first years living as a mortal. Gabriel hid you from my enemies who could see that mark you mentioned. He didn’t want to hide 1000 lovers, so he kept the ten of you in Purgatory and brought you back into my life one by one. When I began what was to be my last life as a mortal, Gabriel released all ten of you from Purgatory. I have to admit that you’re the fourth I’ve come across since learning who I really am,” she said abashedly.
He was surprised to hear that she had found three others. “Do they knew who you are?”
“Yes,” she nodded. “Sadly, they have each been attacked by an enemy who tried to use them to hurt or kill me. One of them was bitten by the Wolf God and is now a werewolf. The other two died, one from a fall, the other while protecting me from a different Celestial Warrior. All three are now in my service. I was forced to make them my servants, or Nachtghuls. The two that lost their lives would not be able to survive if I died and the werewolf would probably revert to the Wolf God’s control. I am responsible for their lives now and in return they help me survive the day,” she said softly.
He smiled at her uneasiness. “I would never blame you for being with them since I understand their plight. If they are anything like me, they can’t stop thinking about you. I’m sorry to hear that they have not fared well, since I fully understand how dangerous and deceptive your enemies are. I assume they live in Hell with you,” he said matter-of-factly, trying not to get his hopes up.
She frowned when she saw through his guise. “Viktor, if given a choice, I would rather they live without me and be safe than stay with me and forever be hunted by someone who would use them against me. You don’t want that life. Besides, you would have to die for me to make you a Nachtghul and I have been forbidden by Heaven to create anymore. There are rules against it because if a Nachtghul dies, their master will feel the loss of them forever and experience pain as fresh as the day they lost them,” she said placing her hand on his cheek.
He nodded and sighed as his hope dwindled. He certainly didn’t want to die or do anything that would cause her pain. “I don’t want you to break the rules, I just wish there was a way to keep you,” he whispered.
She leaned her head on his shoulder and nuzzled his neck. “I…,” she started.
Viktor felt Anjali stop breathing and looked down to see if she was all right. When he saw that she was fine, he turned to locate what she was staring at. Off in the distance, a woman stepped out from behind a tree. He had never seen the woman before, but Anjali acted as if she knew her.
“Maria? What are you doing here? Did someone bring you to the island from the compound? I’m told that you and the other women weren’t there,” Anjali asked as she pulled away from him and got to her feet.
The woman laughed harshly. It was a sound that he’d heard before, but it took him a half-second longer to identify the laugh than it should have.
“I once feared you, Destroyer, and respected your power, yet you didn’t recognize me at the farmhouse. How easily you were fooled by my mortal appearance. It is no wonder why you were so easily captured,” Maria said, motioning to the bonds. “My master will be pleased to see you.”
“Your Master,” Anjali said, confused by her statement.
Viktor tried to pull Anjali away, but it was too late. The woman’s face and body contorted and shifted into the black feathers and beak that he recognized.
“Run!” Viktor shouted. He grabbed Anjali around the waist and tried to pull her in the direction of the caves, but he was too slow. He heard the flapping noise from his nightmares a second before he was hoisted up into the air.
“Let him go!” Anjali shouted from the ground.
Viktor saw the jungle blur past him at such a speed he couldn’t get his bearings. A moment later, he saw Anjali standing below his dangling legs. The Harpy shifted his body so that she could hold him with one wing while still keeping them aloft with her other powerful wing. She took a moment to sniff him before turning to glare at Anjali.
“Pontius may have changed his flesh, but he cannot hide from me. You have caused me untold pain and suffering, so I will return the favor by taking Pontius from you. Come save him, if you dare. Be warned, I will present your corpse to my Master and redeem myself, if you can find us,” she squawked before snatching the back of Viktor’s shirt with her beak and flying higher into the air.
The Harpy disappeared before Anjali’s eyes. She was going to rip every single one of Celaeno’s feathers from her body and make her eat them. Her only means of escape was gone and even if she made it to the boat, she still didn’t know where she was. It was probable that Viktor had maps on his ship, but there was no guarantee that he had marked his course since he already knew where she was located.
She wanted to rage at the world and let out all of her frustrations, so she did. She allowed herself a moment to embrace all her fear, anger and agony so that she could release them. She needed to be clear headed if she were to face the clever Harpy once again.
∞
Simon looked out over the small group of people sitting in the dim church basement and grinned.
“The question is, why are you here? I’m not simply asking why you are sitting in this room, surrounded by your peers. I’m asking why you are living out your lives, day after day, doing the same thing. You run around doing bad things you know you aren’t supposed to do and create lame excuses for why you do these terrible things. You tell yourself that you don’t know how to stop. You say, ‘I have no choice’ or ‘I know no other way to handle the horrible problems in my life’. They sound like plausible excuses, but honestly, no excuses are good. Deep down you all know what you are supposed to be doing. You are supposed to be living good lives, being good examples to others, living life to the fullest, and doing God’s will. You are supposed to see life as a gift and be grateful that you are here day after day with the potential to achieve greatness.
Look at me; I come here week after week to speak to you and encourage you, yet week after week, I see the same beleaguered faces staring back at me. You tell me, ‘Simon, I messed up. I fell down. I caved. I failed.’ Every week I tell you the same things, ‘Try harder, do better, don’t give up, there is a choice, there is hope’, yet most of you don’t listen,” Simon sighed as he looked at the lost souls. Within each of them, he could see the lack of hope and conviction needed to pull themselves out of their rut. It was a sight as old as time. They were people who no longer believed, who no longer cared and he was tired of it.
The wayward souls came to these support meetings in droves, looking for some sort of instructional plan on how to live their lives. They always failed to understand that there were different ways to live and how they lived their lives was entirely up to them. They could literally do whatever they wanted, as long as they didn’t com
mit sins. They could paint or invent or teach others. They could work hard and strive to make their lives meaningful by having productive families. They had all the freedom that God dared to offer and yet they abused it by going home, locking themselves in their rooms, and drowning their problems in unnatural substances or indulging in activities that would dull their senses and pain enough to be able to forget about their responsibilities and their unsolvable problems. They took their existence for granted and he was sick of it. He knew it was time.
He looked at Karen clutching her purse, sitting there waiting for him to stop speaking so that she could escape into the bathroom and indulge herself in her drug of choice. She only came to the meetings because her mother drove her. Bill, who kept looking at his watch, was waiting until his dealer got off work in a few minutes so that he could “help him out”. Anthony who, no matter how many times he told himself that he would deal with his abusive relationship and leave the shrew, would always go back to her because she gave him what he needed, the ability to dull his mind and forget that he should move on with his life. Then of course was his personal favorite, the kid in the corner, Lloyd. He had everything handed to him, a scholarship, the beautiful girlfriend, the adoring parents, the amazing job prospects and the respect of his peers. He was planning to go to his car to shoot up and kill his senses, all to achieve a sense of peace because he failed to see how easy his life truly was.
Simon took a deep breath and gazed into their vacant eyes all the way down into their worthless souls. “Now is the time to decide because each of you has a choice. You may not believe me, but it’s true. You can choose to pick yourself up and shirk off your addictions to make something of your lives, or you can embrace your addictions and never let them go. I challenge all of you to look inside your hearts, inside your souls and choose. Lead a life worthy of God or walk the path of darkness and give in to your depression, your lack of self-confidence and self-worth and your desire to disappear into the abyss to avoid living. Will you listen to the voices in your head telling you that you are not worthy to walk upon this earth, or will you listen to God when he tells you that you are special and worth saving?” Simon’s voice rose above all the confused faces and filled the room with his power. He gripped the wooden podium to stay grounded and focused on his temptation.
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