by Macy Farmer
“Natalia, honey, the forest is not safe. I’m glad you waited for us. Good idea putting up the shield.” Bradley took my hand and guided me down a trail.
“Did you hear me?” I asked eagerly hoping to find out if we could communicate with each other from a distance.
“No, only Seager did. He mentioned you were going out, and then I heard the doorbell. A few seconds later, my chest ached as if you were in danger. I knew we had to hurry, that it was only a matter of seconds until you’d be lost,” he teased. Placing his finger under my chin, he lifted my face allowing my eyes to meet his. “I apologize we were gone longer than expected.”
Smiling, I took his hand and pulled him deeper into the trees.
“No need to apologize. Once I got outside, I felt a bad vibe. I knew it wouldn’t be safe if I took a walk on my own. It is so beautiful out here I couldn’t bear to be inside so I put up a shield to protect me until you arrived. Maybe you felt my fear?” I shrugged my shoulders trying to figure out why he felt as if I was in danger. I was hoping he could hear me like Seager could. “If Seager heard me, why didn’t you?”
“I was preoccupied. Had I not been feeding maybe I would have heard you. As for the aching in my chest, I think it was because I hadn’t realized that you could wander off and get lost. I should’ve known better. It would be harder than you think to track you down out here.”
“Makes sense I guess. I wonder why I didn’t hear Seager?”
Annoyed Seager responded sarcastically, “Probably because you’re a witch and we’re not. I may be gifted but I’m not magic. Your voice came to me with the wind. You’re just lucky we can both run fast because look what’s heading in our direction. That must be what Brad was feeling, the upcoming danger. Had you have gone any further without us, you’d be his next meal.”
Not far from us stood a cougar with its tail whipping in the air, it was pretty big and looking right at us. Seager started growling angrily.
“Seager, please take Natalia back to the house.”
Bradley pulled away. Avoiding eye contact, he politely asked me to go inside with Seager. Without hesitating, I did as he asked. As we walked away, I heard a lot of snarling. Once we were in the cave I asked Seager what was going on. Apparently, I interrupted Bradley’s hunt earlier and hunger had gotten the better of him, and he didn’t want me to see him that way.
“So he’s killing the cougar?”
“Yes, Nat, he’s killing the cougar. Why don’t you tell him to finish hunting, promise to stay in until he returns and that I won’t leave your side until he does? Go on, tell him.”
“What if he doesn’t hear me? Never mind I’ll ring the doorbell so that he knows we made it safely into the house.” Concentrating, I told Bradley to come back when he was finished. I also sent him an image of what would be waiting when he returned. I laughed aloud while ringing the doorbell.
“What’s so funny, Nat?”
“Just something I showed Bradley. Trust me you don’t want to know.” I giggled.
Seager took a nap while I went back upstairs to look at the pictures of Bradley’s childhood. This time I took a flashlight. The room was comfortable and felt safe, secure. After admiring the portraits and photography, I laid down on the couch. The last thing I remembered before dozing off was staring at another one of Bradley’s baby pictures. I held it tightly against my chest.
***
My dreams were of Bradley and me in a previous life. Although unable to determine when or where we were, I could tell we were clearly happy and in love. The clothing seemed to be from the eighteen hundreds, but I’m no expert. Bradley looked the same, just an inch or two shorter than he is today. My hair was long, curly and red; otherwise I looked the same, too. It quickly turned into a nightmare when a man came out of nowhere and stabbed Bradley in the back. Dropping to his knees then to the ground, I screamed out his name and woke with a start. Sitting upright on the couch, all the lights were out again. Tears poured from my eyes remembering the horrible ending to my beautiful dream.
“Oh, Bradley!” I sobbed.
Suddenly the lights flickered on; the door opened and in walked my Bradley. I jumped up and wrapped my arms around him. With my face buried in the hollow of his neck, crying uncontrollably, I told him what I dreamt about. It took me a few seconds to realize that he did not wrap his arms around me. When I did, I backed away to look into his eyes.
“Wh-what’s the matter?”
“Are you bleeding again?” A frustrating sigh followed his question.
Touching my lip and seeing the blood on my fingertips, I stomped my foot saying, “Darn it! It keeps ripping open. It’s never going to heal.”
Pulling me against his hard body, he caressed the cut on my lip with his tongue, and released out a low growl. “It’s time for you to heal it!” After throwing me over his shoulder and smacking my ass, he took off down the stairs.
At first, by the way he tossed me over this shoulder, I thought he was going to take me into the bedroom and we were going to make love. Instead, he plopped me into a chair at the kitchen table.
“Time to heal your lip, Natalia. Before we left for our honeymoon I asked Dave to pick up a list of healing herbs and put them in the cabinet. Just precautionary.”
Intrigued, I went over, opened the cabinet and started reading the labels. “How did you know these were healing herbs?” Healing spells were some of the first spells I read about in my parents’ book of spells.
“Ok, your aunt told me. Actually, she created the list and wrote down the instructions on how to create the poultice and this healing spell,” he said, tossing a folded piece of paper onto the table. “She was worried you might get hurt or forget the spell so she wanted us to be prepared.
Bradley grabbed a towel from the drawer and sat down at the table. Following my aunt’s directions made it easy to whip up the poultice. Once finished, I joined him by straddling his lap, and snuggling in close to him.
“Natalia, my love,” whispering in my ear, “We have a lifetime to fulfill our desires.” The fingers on his right hand fisted the hair at the nape of my neck. Pulling me in, he crushed his mouth on mine. Our tongues danced momentarily before his traced my bottom lip. Sucking it into his mouth, a loud wanton moan escaped me. Abruptly, he pulled away. For several minutes we sat there staring at each other. A look of disbelief fixed on my confused stare.
Spreading the poultice on my lip with the tip of his fingers, “Please cast the healing spell so that we can seal up that wound.” Guilty eyes turned away from mine.
The healing spell healed my wound instantly.
“Bradley, why are you so sad?”
“I’ve taken advantage of you. Please accept my apology and my promise to never do that again. Your blood tastes so sweet I was unable to stop myself. Just the smell of it…” He shuddered.
“I could’ve stopped you but I liked it…”
Cutting me off he warned, “Natalia, if I went into frenzy, you would have never been able to stop me. We must be more careful in the future. I have been doing that for a few days, it’s not good for either of us.”
“I gave myself the wound. You would never hurt me intentionally. I know you would stop before you hurt me.”
Disappointed, I got up and ran into the bathroom, locking the door behind me. The situation was frustrating and even though Bradley was right, I couldn’t figure out why it upset me so much. Standing in front of the mirror, touching my lip, there was no more pain, no more sensitivity. The cut gone, vanished by magic. Having to always be so cautious upsets me. What’s the point in my being a witch if I can’t come up with a spell that can protect Bradley from hurting me? If I were like him, a vampire, then Bradley wouldn’t have to worry about sucking me dry.
“Natalia, please let me in or come out here.” Regret and sorrow were heavy in his tone.
“I’m getting in the shower. I’ll be out in a few minutes.” Needing more time to figure out what had bothered me so much, I stalled, not r
eady to face him yet.
For the second time that day, I jumped into the shower, letting the water run over my face washing away my tears, and clearing my mind. After a few minutes, I realized why it had upset me so much. So many times I’d tasted his blood and feared that he would soon put a stop to that as well. For months I’d been doing this, and it made me feel closer to him.
After figuring out why it upset me, I got out of the shower, put on my housecoat and went to face him. I found him sitting on the edge of the bed, so I sat down beside him and apologized for running out on him. Also adding that he was right. Once again, he straddled me on his lap. I love it here.
“I believe you showed me something that I was going to get when I got home…”
“You heard me this time?” I asked thrilled but surprised. Thinking he would want to discuss my lip or reaction to his request to heal it, I was quite relieved when he didn’t.
“Yes, last time I was lost in the hunt. This time I kept some of my wits about me. I had the upper hand until you sent me the image of your naked body. The cougar almost got a hold of my throat. It took me a moment to regroup and get my head back in the hunt. That’s why I was so upset when I first returned.” Kissing me tenderly, he cupped his hands over my face. “Do me a favor, in the future when I’m hunting, please do not send me any images. You can talk to me but keep it clean, okay?”
Blushing, I replied, “Okay. Sorry about that. I wasn’t thinking.” Smiling, I looked up at him and asked flirtatiously, “Did you like what you saw?”
“Mrs. Jenkins, you have no idea. I believe that you promised me something when I got home…” he repeated.
Opening my housecoat, I took hold of both his hands and placed them on my bare breasts, “Well, what are you waiting for?” I giggled.
That evening Bradley reminded how much he loved me, and how much he cherished and adored my body, by making mad passionate love to me.
***
Taking advantage of our seclusion we spent most of our time inside exploring each other physically, not outside enjoying our surroundings. Losing track of time, it went by quickly and the days soon turned into weeks.
One morning, Bradley woke me up bright and early. “Since I promised you a honeymoon that included a waterfall and other scenic views, I thought we’d take a ride. It’s a little chilly out, but it’s a beautiful sight to see.”
“I’d love to. When do we leave?” After jumping out of bed, I raced over to the dresser and put on my favorite blue jeans and a blue t-shirt.
“Right after breakfast. There’s bacon and a stack of pancakes waiting for you in the kitchen.”
“Why not in bed?” I teased.
“Because we’d end up spending another day in it.” Smiling, he wrapped his arm around my waist and led me to the kitchen. “Not that I don’t enjoy spending the day in bed with you. We’ve been here a few weeks so it’s about time that I showed you some of the scenery.”
After breakfast, but before we left, he led me upstairs to the second floor. The first door on the right had three deadlocks. It was the one of the two rooms in the house that I hadn’t been in yet. The other room, sat across the hall, the door locked tight by the same number of deadbolts. I’ve been waiting to see if he was ever going to show me what lay behind the doors. And, today, it looked like I was finally going to see what was behind door number one, or in this case, the door on the right.
Pulling a key from his pocket, Bradley started unlocking each lock. My excitement grew with every turn of the key. Eager to see what was behind the mystery door I stepped up on my tippy toes, trying to get a peek over his shoulder.
When he finally opened the door and stepped to the side, I gave him a puzzled look. A spiral staircase was all that was hidden behind the mystery door.
With every step I took up the seemingly endless staircase, my curiosity grew. I tried to bite my tongue to prevent myself from asking what waited for us at the top of the stairs, but it didn’t work. Curiosity got the better of me.
“What’s at the top?”
Laughing loudly he said, “I knew it wouldn’t take you long to ask. This is the quickest way to the top of the mountain. It took Dave and me several years to build this. You’ll love the view.”
About forty steps later, we finally made it to the top. After opening a steel door with a fifteen-digit combination, Bradley walked through into what looked like another cave. Seager and I waited behind while Bradley went ahead to make sure there were no bears lurking in the cave that led to the outside. When he returned, he led us through a small and narrow tunnel. We walked in darkness for a few minutes. My nerves on edge, I clung to his shirt. Once I saw daylight my grip relaxed and my fingers uncurled from the material of his shirt. The closer we got to the outside, the greater the cave expanded, opening up all around, allowing us to walk freely, side by side.
A canopy of trees filled the mountainsides and valleys with the vivid colors of red, orange, yellow and green. From the tippy top of the mountain the view could be seen for miles. Bradley pointed in the direction of the waterfall, it was so far away, and could barely be seen from up here. Next, he pointed out where our house was, as well as where Black Forest was located, neither could be seen through all the forestry. There were only two ways down from this glorious view: the long narrow spiral stairway or down the side of the mountain. The landscape appeared to be too rugged for a human to attempt, especially someone like myself.
“Thank you for sharing this with me, Bradley. It’s unbelievably beautiful. I’ve never seen anything like it. Can we stay and enjoy the view for awhile?”
“You know, Natalia, the day we got married all of this became half yours.” He smiled and kissed me gently. “Of course we can stay and enjoy the scenery. There’s a boulder on the other side of the mountaintop that we can sit on. If you think this view is beautiful wait until you see the other side, it will take your breath away.”
Bradley and Seager made it look easy to get to the other side. To me, it looked tricky. Seen through my eyes there were a few slippery jagged boulders that could cause me to slide my way down the side of this endless steep mountain. It doesn’t look like it would be a fun sleigh ride. After Bradley saw my hesitation, he flitted back to my side.
Wrapping his arms around my waist, his hands slid down over my butt cheeks, “Would you like some assistance, ma’am?” Lifting me up before I got to answer his question, I wrapped my legs around his waist and nodded.
Holding my hips firmly, Bradley gyrated his hips against mine flirtatiously while kissing my neck. A few pats on my ass and he was sporting that wicked sexy smile I’ve come to adore. Preoccupied momentarily, my heart skipped a beat when he leapt into the air to the other side of the mountaintop. With my legs still around his waist, Bradley sat down on a rather large rock. Moving his arm through the air, he said, “Check out the view.”
Without turning around, I checked out the view and from where I sat on Bradley’s lap. It was amazing indeed. Not wanting to leave the security of his lap, I tried leaning my head back, hoping to see the scenery behind me. Once again sensing my inability to move freely, Bradley stood up and turned around, facing me in the opposite direction.
Appreciative of his caring devotion, I smiled and stared adoringly into his eyes.
“Check out the view, not me, Natalia. It really will take your breath away.”
“I’m already breathless.” Boy I sounded like a corny schoolgirl. Prying my eyes from his, I could feel my cheeks growing warm, and suddenly I felt shy. It made me giggle inwardly.
The view, picture perfect, had the tranquility of a Thomas Kinkade canvas oil painting. Few words could describe it. It’s definitely beautiful, but breathtaking… No. Staring into Bradley’s smoldering blue green eyes… That took my breath away. They’re stunning doorways leading to his soul. We stood quietly on the mountaintop, enjoying each other’s company and the rural, vibrantly colored landscape in the forests below.
After a short while, he
said it was time for us to leave. When we walked toward the cave entrance I noticed Seager was no longer with us. Bradley said he took the long way down and would meet us at the front door. Deep in thought, thinking about Bradley’s eyes and soul, I missed their conversation. I hadn’t even realized Bradley had put me down. Had I been paying attention, Seager would be with us, not going down the side of a mountainside alone. Seager is my child, if anything ever happened to him it would all but kill me. And, even though Bradley assured me that he would be fine, my anxiety ran rampant. The sooner we got downstairs the sooner my anxiety would go away.
“Well it’s going to take us forever to get down those steps so we better get started.”
“There’s a quicker way for us to go. Are you up for a quick ride?” His mischievous eyes gave him away. Wanting to get downstairs as quickly as possible, I ignored the fact that Bradley was up to something and agreed.
Bradley lifted me up again and told me to wrap my legs tightly around his waist, then added a warning, “Keep your knees close and snug to my body.” I was more than happy to oblige until he jumped down the center of the spiral staircase. The steps were flying past forcing me to close my eyes. I thought for sure we were going to hit the railing. Suddenly the air whipping past my ears fell silent and still, like we were no longer falling.
“Okay, Natalia. We’re at the bottom, you can open your eyes and let go now.” He chuckled and began to pry my frozen arms from around his neck. “Open your eyes, love. It’s okay.”
Finally, I opened my eyes and we were in the upstairs hallway. Not letting him go completely, I asked him what was behind the other locked door. He immediately changed the subject never answering my question. Since we had plenty of time to learn everything about each other, I didn’t push the issue.
When I saw Seager outside the front door waiting for us, relief washed through me. After getting a quick bite to eat, we jumped onto the quad and took a long ride. Bradley whipped along the path, ignoring my yelps and pleas for him to slow down. His fast and crazy driving over the rugged trail made it difficult for me to hang on. Wrapping my arms around his waist, I intertwined my fingers, locking my hands together, holding on tight.
