Pure Ecstasy

by Aja James

  “Come closer, and I shall show you the depth of my desire.”

  She extended her hand toward him, palm down.

  Varna stayed where he was, knowing full well the effect of her touch. He didn’t think for a moment that he’d be writhing in pleasure if she used her powers on him. He was much more certain of the opposite effect.

  Her smile widened to reveal her teeth. It was as if she smelled his fear, and it only fueled her bloodlust.

  “You said that you have given our words further thought,” Jacob interjected, breaking Jade’s malevolent focus on Varna.

  “Have you come to a conclusion, my queen?”

  She took a deep breath and turned to Jacob.

  “I have.”

  Slowly, she rose from her seat.

  The rest of the nobles started to rise as well, but at a mere gesture from Maximus, they all remained seated.

  Jade walked to center stage, addressing both the semicircle of nobles and the audience below.

  “Point one: This Hive’s alliance with the Pure Ones will stand. All lawbreakers who act against the alliance will be hunted down and executed.”

  She scanned the audience with blazing blue fire.

  “Those who are trafficking Pure slaves against my laws will be exterminated in a particularly gruesome way. I might be tempted to see to their demise personally.”

  No one dared utter a sound at that awful threat, for they knew she was deadly serious.

  “Point two: On your recommendation that I take a Consort, I shall. And I am here to make it official.”

  “Tonight.”

  A shocked gasp swept the hall as one, including the members of the Chosen.

  Jacob was the only one who recovered enough to speak.

  “Have you a candidate in mind, my queen?”

  She turned to him and smiled, extending her hand.

  Jacob visibly shrank back a bit in his seat, swallowing uncomfortably at her gesture.

  Her smile grew beatific.

  But she turned back toward her seat instead, her arm still outstretched, her hand palm up.

  She stepped forward until she was within arm’s length of one of her Chosen.

  “I choose you, Alend Ramses, to be my Consort. Will you accept the role?”

  If the warrior was shocked, he did not show it.

  Instead, he searched her eyes for long minutes, probing relentlessly into their sapphire depths.

  Finally, he took her hand and replied:

  “I accept.”

  She squeezed his hand with something like affection before releasing it.

  With Ramses by her side, she addressed the nobles once more.

  “Let’s not dilly dally, children,” she stated with a real smile. “It’s time to make things official.”

  “A new Dark reign begins tonight.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  When the crowds that gathered in Andor Varna’s ostentatious mansion finally dispersed at the end of the night, the Creature transformed into its oft-used disguise and went for a long, solitary walk after its guards transported it to its chosen destination.

  Well. That did not go precisely as expected.

  The vampire queen had been full of tricks tonight, revealing one surprise bigger than the next.

  Even her own guards had been flummoxed, by the looks on their faces.

  It would indeed be an entirely new Dark reign.

  As things stood, the Mistress had a snowball’s chance in hell at overtaking the throne. All of the Dark nobles had aligned on the new path.

  Even Varna bent a knee.

  The New England vampire hive was stronger than ever.

  “There you are, Binu,” the elderly owner of Dark Dreams called out from her opened shop door.

  “I was wondering when you’d wander my way. It’s been ages since you last came by.”

  The Creature smiled in its young man’s guise.

  “I would have come sooner if I’d known I was expected,” he said in a voice that was both bashful and pleased.

  “Mmm. Something smells delicious. Don’t tell me you’re making chocolate eclairs.”

  She swatted his arm playfully as she ushered him inside her shop.

  “That nose of yours is a thing of wonder,” she declared. “Of course I’m making eclairs. You sit yourself down and just relax. I’ll be right back after putting on a pot of strong coffee just the way you like it.”

  The young man nodded but didn’t immediately sit.

  Instead, he was distracted by some new items that graced the floor-to-ceiling shelves in Mama Bear’s shop.

  Wood carvings, intricate and obviously handmade. No machine could match the level of detail and precision, the artistry of their creator.

  There were a series of leopards on one shelf, in various poses with different lively expressions.

  One was a kitten sleeping with its thick tail covering its eyes. Another was a full-grown feline in mid pounce, full of joy and zest for life. Yet another was sitting serenely with its tail curled around its hind paw, but its purple amethyst eyes gave it away. They were mischievous and naughty, as if it had just eaten something it shouldn’t have but wasn’t the least bit sorry.

  On a higher shelf sat numerous combs of all shapes and sizes. There must have been dozens of them scattered across the shelves.

  The young man picked one up and turned it in his hand.

  The comb seemed eerily familiar, the feel of the smooth wood comforting.

  And then he realized—they had the same artistry as the one tucked inside his breast pocket. The one he carried with him always, since Mama Bear first gave it to him almost a year ago.

  “If you like any of the wares you see, you are free to take one with you,” a roughened deep voice said quietly from behind him.

  The young man turned around and faced the owner of that voice.

  Tal-Telal.

  He knew exactly why the voice was forever roughened. Millennia of imprisonment under the Mistress’s meticulous “care” tended to leave behind permanent reminders.

  “I-I-” the Creature in the young man’s guise stuttered incoherently, faced suddenly with the awe-inspiring, legendary General of the Pure Ones. The very one who’d liberated the entire race from oppressive Dark rule.

  “I’m sorry to have startled you,” Tal said as he took a conscientious step back.

  And the blindness. Let’s not forget the terrible blindness. Even more horrific was the process that had led to this conclusion.

  “Oh, I see you’ve met my honey,” Mama Bear said as she waddled over to join them, a tray piled with freshly baked goods and tantalizing coffee in her ruddy hands.

  “He carved those sculptures himself, you know,” she said proudly. “He also made…”

  She cut herself off, shaking her head, apparently rethinking what she was about to say.

  “Come sit down, Binu, and catch us up on your goings on. I’ve missed seeing your handsome face.”

  The young man collected himself and followed the oddly paired, yet somehow perfectly matched couple to the back booth.

  For many minutes, they simply ate and sipped their tea and coffee in silence, content to simply be in good company.

  “Where did you meet… each other?” the young man ventured. “Your new love really suits you, Mrs. Martin.”

  “Oh pish,” she admonished. “Call me Estelle or Mama Bear. You’re too formal by far.”

  “And I’m Tal. Pleased to meet you, Binu,” her partner said quietly, then added after a pause, “Did you know that Binu means ‘son’ in an ancient language? Your name has a nice ring to it.”

  “I said the same thing when I first met him,” Mama Bear confessed, leaning affectionately into the male at her side, who looked young enough to be her son.

  The happiness on her face when she sighed next to him was in no way motherly, however.

  “It’s just a nickname,” the young man murmured, seemingly embarrassed as he hid his face behind a
sip of coffee.

  “When are you going to tell me your real name?” Mama Bear pressed gently, the teasing in her tone conveying that she wouldn’t hold it against him if he continued to keep it to himself.

  “I don’t really know my name,” the young man answered. “At least, I don’t know if my parents ever chose one for me.”

  He smiled briefly, lest the couple felt sorry for him.

  “And you haven’t answered my question…Mama Bear.”

  She beamed at the way he said her name, like an endearment wrapped in a hug.

  “Oh, you know how it goes. Boy meets girl. Girl falls madly in love with boy. Girl loses boy because their love is star-crossed from the get go. Boy finds girl after slaying a few dragons along the way—”

  “And don’t forget the dragons that the girl slays in turn,” Tal interjected.

  Mama Bear nodded. “Indeed. She slays a few fearsome serpents herself. The lovebirds are reunited at last. And live happily ever after.”

  “Sounds like an epic love story,” the young man remarked.

  “Absolutely,” Mama Bear agreed, hugging her man’s arm fervently and looking up at him with stars fair sparkling in her eyes.

  “And the best part has just begun.”

  “I’m happy for you both,” Binu said softly. “You deserve a happy ending.”

  “You mean, the happiest beginning,” she corrected with a dazzling grin, looking decades younger suddenly.

  “Now tell me all about you, Binu,” she encouraged. “What’s been keeping you so busy?”

  He shrugged, taking a bite of his éclair, chewing slowly to bide his time.

  Finally, he swallowed and answered, “I’ve been trying to arrange a corporate takeover, you might say. But the company for which I made the hostile bid got an unexpected infusion of capital at the last minute, and my plans were thwarted. For now.”

  He shrugged, finishing his pastry and wiping his hands on the pretty paper napkin she’d included beside his plate.

  “There’s always the future to look forward to. The game goes on.”

  “You don’t seem to take your job very seriously,” Mama Bear noted, her eyes a little sad as they regarded him.

  “Taking life too seriously can get you into trouble,” the young man quipped. “It’s better never to form expectations about anything. Hard to be disappointed that way.”

  “And hard to be happy too,” she said quietly.

  The young man’s careless smile waivered and fell.

  “It’s getting late. I should get going. Thank you, as always, for the hospitality, Mama Bear.”

  The young man left in a bit of a rush, and his hostess saw him to the door.

  When she entered her private quarters after locking the shop, she doffed her elderly lady disguise and transformed into her true form.

  Instantly, her lover’s arms came around her as he bent his head into the crook of her neck, inhaling her scent as if it were his personal drug.

  “Come to bed, ana Ishtar,” her warrior commanded in his deep, gravelly voice.

  She sighed luxuriously and tilted her face up for a kiss.

  Hours later, sated and sleepy, they lay naked and entwined in each other’s arms.

  Tal stroked his fingers through Ishtar’s long, dark waves and said, almost to himself, “Why didn’t Binu just say that his name is Ere? Why did he act as if we haven’t met him before?”

  Startled, Ishtar rose up and looked down at him.

  “Whatever can you mean? They are two completely different men. Yes, they are both tall and lean and somewhat scholarly looking, but Ere and Binu are not the same at all.”

  He was silent for many moments, staring sightlessly into her face.

  At last he replied, “My mistake,” and kissed her mouth, tucking her back into his side.

  “My eyesight must be playing tricks on me.”

  But after Ishtar fell asleep, cuddled warmly into his body, Tal remained awake, his turquoise eyes open and unseeing.

  He might be blind, but he had not been mistaken.

  Whatever the disguises the young man wore, Binu and Ere were one and the same.

  *** *** *** ***

  There was no pain now.

  Everything was silence and numbness.

  Seth felt as if he was floating and weightless, though he seemed to be upright and walking on his own two feet.

  The world around him had faded to darkness. He couldn’t tell which way was up and which way was down. But somehow, he was standing. His eyes were open, though he couldn’t see beyond the darkness that surrounded him.

  Faintly, he perceived a pale light pulsing from afar. It beckoned him, and he turned toward it without conscious thought.

  But before he could take a step toward it, his world suddenly began to quake, and he almost lost his footing.

  Distant sounds came to him, muffled and garbled, as if he were suffering the aftershocks of a bomb blast. There was a persistent buzzing in his ears and a high pitched whining, and no matter how he concentrated, he couldn’t make out the sounds bombarding his world.

  He felt like he was stuck in a snow globe filled with nothing but darkness and water, and someone kept turning him upside down and shaking him all about.

  Another jarring crash that shook his snow globe before eerie silence once again descended.

  He waited a while, but there was nothing.

  He felt nothing.

  The faint glow beckoned to him once more, and he began to move toward it.

  Where are you going, Pure One?

  Seth snapped around and would have fallen from shock, but for the strange weightlessness of his body.

  What are you doing here?

  Look at that. He could communicate without speaking, and he understood what was communicated to him in return.

  He was no longer alone in his snow globe.

  Jade gave a delicate shrug and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

  It was a gesture that was almost shy, as if she wasn’t sure about his reception of her.

  I came to see what you were up to, she told him silently.

  Then added hesitantly yet fervently: I missed you.

  You’re not supposed to be here, he panicked. This world is not for you.

  She looked around at the darkness that surrounded them.

  I’ve been here before. Twice, in fact. It’s lonely. Wouldn’t you rather I stayed with you?

  No! He tried to back away from her, but with every step he took, she only came closer, until she was only a hair’s breadth away, their bodies almost touching.

  You have a life to live. You’re not supposed to be here.

  Swiftly, she reached out and grabbed hold of his hand with both of hers.

  He tried to dislodge her, but she held on tight. So tight, their flesh seemed to meld together, and he couldn’t extricate himself no matter how he struggled.

  Life is overrated without you, she communicated.

  I’ve only ever lived since the day I met you, when I’m with you. If you intend to go toward that light, I will go with you. But I’d much rather you stayed with me instead.

  Seth looked toward the ghostly glow, but it was receding even as he watched.

  Stay with me, Pure One. Stay with me forever. Or take me with you into the beyond. I told you that I’d follow you anywhere. Even into death.

  He looked back at the female who stubbornly held onto him with all her strength. She’d wrapped both her arms around his waist, her torso pressed against his.

  Their bodies were no longer distinct from each other, joined seamlessly into one as she pressed her face into his chest and sighed.

  But you know, her sultry voice murmured in his mind. Death is not all it’s cracked up to be. No week-long orgies after you die. At least, not that I can recall. But if we’re together, maybe we can make it happen.

  He felt her smile curl against his chest.

  You’re my pure ecstasy, after all. It’d be such a shame to
let you go to waste.

  He peeled back enough to look down at her impish, smiling face, her iridescent blue eyes glowing brightly at him.

  Jade…

  Seth, she communicated back in the same lingering way he’d worried over her name.

  I was a fool and a coward. I waited too long to claim you. But I’m claiming you now. I’m claiming you forever.

  Her gaze pierced his solemnly, intensely.

  I think I love you. I think I must, if death with you appeals more than life without you. But you have to keep me honest and show me how to love properly. Only you are foolish and brave enough to love me back.

  Seth looked down at the female in his arms.

  He looked at the fading glow.

  And then he closed his eyes and made his choice.

  *** *** *** ***

  With a harsh, indrawn breath, Seth came to.

  His eyes opened slowly and took some time to refocus.

  No more darkness. The faint glow was gone.

  He was lying in his own bed in his own chamber within the Shield.

  Jade was curled in a sitting position next to him, her hand pressed over his heart.

  A heart that was throbbing with a stabbing pain, actually.

  Hmm, Seth wondered whether he could have the numbness back.

  “How—” he croaked and broke off, clearing his throat.

  Goddess above! Everything hurt like blazing hell!

  “Welcome back, Pure One,” she said softly, wearing the same smile she wore when she’d followed him into the darkness.

  “Glad you chose life over death. I’m much more confident in our ability to have week-long orgies on this side versus the other.”

  He simply stared at her, focusing on breathing in and out.

  His stare demanded that she explain herself, because he didn’t have the strength to voice it.

  She settled closer to him, curling in a voluptuous S, and her hand on his heart radiated a soothing pleasure that expanded outward to envelop his entire body, making the agony of coming back to life somewhat more bearable.

  “I Mated my life force to yours, you see,” she gestured to the dagger she’d used to stab his heart with her vampire blood.

  “Then Mated yours to mine. Whatever happened to you after that would happen to me too. So if you were set on dying, I’d die too. But I was hoping you’d live. I have all kinds of plans for you, now that you’re mine forever.”