by Joshua King
After I had gotten sick of pacing, I flopped down onto the bed. It was surprisingly comfortable, and I considered catching a few winks while I waited. Maybe Malakan was right and some rest would clear my mind and make me stronger for the ritual.
“Stupid rituals,” I muttered as I turned around to rest my head on the pillow.
“Do you have a problem with our way of life?”
The sound of the voice startled me, and I sat up straight. I looked toward the door and saw Aurora standing just inside the room, a smile on her soft pink lips.
25
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
Aurora stepped further into the room and closed the door.
“You didn't seem to have a problem with the first ritual I put you through,” she said.
There was a hint of teasing in her voice, but her eyes still held some of the chill and hardness I had seen earlier.
“I didn't know that was a ritual,” I said. “At the time, I didn't realize there could be anything ritualistic about a quickie with a stranger in the back of a bar.”
She stuck out her plush bottom lip like she was pouting.
“A stranger?” she asked. “Is that really all I am?”
“That night? Pretty much. I think we’ve gone beyond stranger at this point.”
“So what are we?”
She was walking slowly across the room toward me, untying the knot in the ties of her cloak as she moved.
“I don't really know how to define it, exactly,” I said, some of the anger and frustration I had been feeling coming out in my words. “If I interpreted it correctly, we are either about to be bonded for life, or we’re a dead dude and the woman who killed him. It's kind of a grey area right now.”
Aurora laughed.
“At least you can take comfort in knowing, no matter what, it will all be over soon.”
“Forgive me if I don't find that to be a particularly warm and fuzzy thought. Especially considering I have no idea how long it's going to take your friend Malakan to get ready for whatever ritual he's going to put me through. Which brings me back to what are you doing here? Didn't I see you leave with your father? Who is super pleasant, by the way.”
She waved her hand as though she was brushing away my words.
“Don't mind him,” she said. “He's just protective. He wants to make sure I've made the right decision.”
“That's funny, because it seemed more to me like he wanted to make sure you leave me to rot. Did he decide to come back here and discourage Malakan from helping me?”
Aurora shook her head.
“No,” she said. “Father and the guards are heading back to town. I decided I didn't want to go back with them. So I came back here instead.”
I watched her fingers work down the buttons along the front of the dress she was wearing. My mouth was watering at the thought of seeing her body again, but the burn in my thigh was getting almost unbearable.
“Why'd you come back here?” I tried again.
“I wanted to see you,” she said. “I thought maybe you could use a visitor.”
“Where's your friend?” I asked. “The big dude who tried to take me out while I was in your office.”
“You mean Jaxxim? My personal bodyguard who protected me, and stopped you from stealing my blood against my will?”
“I like how you can just turn it around on me like that,” I said.
By now she had undone all of the buttons and was peeling her dress away. It slipped down her body and pooled at her feet.
“He's with everyone else,” she said.
“Not a very good bodyguard,” I commented.
“Oh, he's very good,” she said. “The best. That's why he was assigned to me. But he also has to do what I tell him, and I said I wanted some time alone. I told him I was going to take a walk.”
“Why didn't you just tell him what you were actually doing?”
“I did. I walked all the way here, didn't I?” I narrowed my eyes at her, and Aurora laughed. “Don't look at me like that,” she said. “You're just my little secret. I don't have to answer to anybody. Especially when it comes to getting what I want. And I always get what I want.”
She hooked her thumbs in the waistband of her panties and bent over to slide them off. I felt like my cock was going to burst out of my pants right then. It didn't matter what else she might have to say. I jumped to my feet and tore at my belt, casting my pants aside as fast as I could. Not bothering to take off my shirt, I grabbed Aurora around the waist and drew her up against me. Our mouths crashed together, and she let out a little gasp before wrapping her arms around my neck. I grabbed onto her ass and held it tight so I could grind my cock against her. I felt the heat radiating from between her thighs, and I needed to be inside her. Forgoing all pretense, I walked Aurora over to the side of the bed and turned her around so her back was to me. I leaned down and licked from the base of her spine up her back, then pushed her forward so she landed with her hands flat on the mattress.
She kept her hands where they were but took two steps back and spread her feet. Arching her back slightly, she presented herself to me. I felt a growl rise out of my chest. Grasping her hips, I plunged into her. Aurora threw her head back as I buried my cock deep inside her. Her hot, slick walls felt so good, I almost came right there. I held tight and pounded into her. It felt like I was going even deeper than I had before, I like I was discovering more of her. Only a few strokes would have been enough, but before I could finish, she pulled away and stood up. She faced me and sat down on the bed. Bending one knee, she propped her foot up on the mattress beside her and spread the other knee out to the side. This opened her up and I was able to get a full, beautiful view of her glistening folds. Her fingers played through them for a second, then she beckoned me closer.
“Taste me,” she said.
I dropped to my knees on the floor and tucked my arms under her legs. Yanking her toward me, I buried my face between her thighs and swept my tongue up through her in one long lick. She groaned, digging her fingers into my hair. I swirled the tip of my tongue around her clit, drawing it out from under its hood. The pain coursing through my leg worsened, and an idea ran through my mind. I ran my mouth to the side, then ran my lips over the soft inside of one of her thighs. Kissing it, I moved on to the other thigh and repeated the movement.
How was I supposed to do this? Fighting back the sick feeling rolling through my stomach, I opened my mouth and my teeth grazed her skin. In an instant, Aurora pulled my head back.
“Don't even try it,” she said.
Still holding me by the hair, she pulled me in to kiss me. I pushed her back against the bed, guiding her down so her head rested on the pillows. Spreading her thighs with my knees, I lifted her hips onto my lap and sank into her again. I slammed into her as hard as I could, drawing little cries of pleasure out of her with every thrust of my body against hers. Feeling the pressure build through my body, I pulled her up so she straddled my hips, and kissed her hard as I spilled into her. The feeling of me filling her was enough to push Aurora over her own edge, and she came hard around me. Her fingernails dug into my back and she kissed me back hungrily while her hips rolled and ground against my lap.
When both of us were completely spent, Aurora climbed off of my lap and got dressed again.
“Malakan said something really strange when I first got here,” I said.
“What was that?” she asked.
“Ty is here with me. I think you know him. He said he used to be one of the Shades. He said he had never met him before, but when we got here, Malakan looked at him like he knew exactly who Ty was. Then he told Ty he was glad to see him embracing his failures. Do you have any idea what that means?”
“No,” she said. “But that's not really unusual. I've known Malakan for longer than I can possibly tell you, and he still says things I don't understand all the time.”
“I don't find it reassuring that the arbitrary deciding factor in whether
or not you are going to complete my transformation rests in the hands of somebody you don't understand a significant portion of the time.”
“I didn't say it was a significant portion of the time,” she said. “Just occasionally. Besides, there's nothing arbitrary about it at all.”
She wrapped her cloak around her shoulders again and tied it into place. Leaning down, she gave me one more kiss and walked out of the room. I stretched back out across the bed, but my eyes had barely gotten a chance to close when I heard a knock at my door. I wondered for a minute if it might be Aurora again, but she wouldn’t knock. I stood and crossed the room to open the door. Malakan stood on the other side.
“I'm ready to begin your ritual now,” he said.
“Where's Ty?” I asked.
Malakan started down the steps.
“This ritual is for you, and only you. Don't worry, he's safe where he is.”
“For some reason, ever since I became a part of the Underworld, people reassuring me how safe everybody else is only makes me worry about them more,” I told him.
He didn't answer, just continued silently down the steps. I expected him to lead me back into one of the rooms I had already seen, but instead we turned down another hallway and he opened a large wooden door. I was shocked when I saw sunlight.
“Are we back up at the surface?” I asked.
“In a way,” he said. “The network of rooms inside the cliff is only one part of my home. That's where most people who know of me will come to see me. I'm bringing you to a far more secluded place.”
We walked through the door and out into an open field. Grass several inches high waved in a breeze that fluttered around us. I turned and saw that the door was now embedded in one of several large trees that lined the edge of the field. Malakan had continued on, and I had to jog a few steps to catch up with him. I looked ahead of us and saw a house in the distance. The white paint looked as old and weathered as the warlock himself, and an old-fashioned weathervane twisted lazily back and forth from the peak of the roof. I noticed a swing and several rocking chairs scattered along a wraparound porch.
“What is this?” I asked. “This definitely doesn't look like any part of New York City I've ever visited.”
“That's because it's not,” Malakan said. “I created this place for myself. It's somewhere I went a very long time ago. That door we just went through is the only way to access it, and there are very few in existence that even know it's here.”
“Why did you make it?” I asked. “Why don’t you just stay closer to Final View, since you made the rooms in the cliff there?”
“I was exiled from my people, torn away from everything I've ever known and much of what mattered to me the most. I came to Solan City because I knew I'd find protection here. Darien ensured I was safe, to an extent. But I was an outcast. I still am an outcast. I created this place to be my home, because it's exactly what I need it to be.”
I didn't fully understand the explanation, but he wasn't going to give me any more. He pulled his robes up over his ankles and pressed on through the tall grass toward the house. We went inside, and he led me into a large room. It was nearly empty except for shelves that lined the walls. Each of the shelves held countless books, bottles, and unrecognizable objects with purposes I probably didn't want to know. The only other furniture was in the center of the room. What looked like an elaborate carved wood recliner sat in the center of a dark blue rug. Three glass orbs, one clear, one blue, and one green, sat on a table beside the chair. On the other side was a pedestal holding up a white bowl. I hesitated at the door.
“Go in,” Malakan said. “It's time to begin.”
26
I willed my feet to move and walked the rest of the way into the room. Malakan gestured at the chair.
“Sit down,” he said.
I sat on the chair, leaning my head back against the wood. I had my arms in my lap, but he walked up to me and moved them so they were on the armrests on either side of the chair.
“You know,” I said, wiggling a little to settle further into the chair. “When I first saw this, I didn't think it was going to be very comfortable. But it's actually not that bad.”
Malakan had turned his back to me, and when he turned around to face me again, I noticed a long, curved dagger in his hand.
“Getting less comfortable,” I said.
“I told you the ritual would require you to relinquish some of your blood,” he said.
I nodded.
“I remember. Just not looking forward to it.”
“Hold out your arm,” he said.
I held out one arm, my wrist turned to the ceiling the way Ashe had held hers when she paid the blood price for us to pass through the portal. Malakan walked up beside me and spread a thick substance across the skin of my inner arm. He muttered something as he rubbed it in, then took the dagger and in one swift movement used the tip to slash me open. I gritted my teeth against the pain and turned my head so I wouldn't have to see the blood. Ashe's voice reverberated in my mind, telling me I needed to get over being squeamish about blood. I forced myself to look back. I watched the dark red stream bead up, then drip down along my skin toward my wrist. Malakan let it flow for a moment before gathering it onto the blade of the dagger.
Holding the blade out in front of him, Malakan carried it over to the pedestal. He dipped it down into the bowl and stirred. White steam started billowing up out of the bowl and he gathered some of it into his palms. The steam seemed almost solid as he held it kept in his hands and carried it over to the table with the glass orbs. Malakan draped the steam over the clear orb, then picked the orb up and rolled it back and forth between his hands. He was still muttering, but I couldn't understand any of the words he was saying. Finally, he held the orb out to me.
“Take it,” he said. “Hold it in your hand and look into it.”
He settled the glass orb into my palm and I brought it closer, so I could stare into it. I didn't know what I was supposed to be seeing. It looked like a bigger version of the glass paperweight my football coach used to have on his desk. The longer I stared into it, though, the more I noticed something strange about it. Rather than looking still and solid like crystal, the inside of the orb appeared to bubble and swirl. I leaned slightly closer, and saw an image forming. It was small and unclear, but soon the edges of the figures started to become more definite. I closed my eyes for only a second, nothing more than a blink, but when I opened them, I wasn't looking into the orb anymore. I was standing in a dark room I didn’t recognize, and I felt the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. Something was wrong. An anxious feeling settled over me. I looked around, trying to figure out where I was, and I saw someone approaching. A man rushed toward me, but he didn't see me. His head was down as he hunched over something in his arms.
“Hey!” I called out to him. “Hey, where am I?”
The man didn't respond. He didn't even lift his head as he continued the rest of the way across the room to the far wall. I stepped closer to him.
“Can you hear me?” I asked.
“You're going to be all right,” the man said, but I knew he wasn't talking to me.
He'd lifted his head just enough that I could see his face. It was Ty. There was something different about his face. He shifted what was in his arms, and I looked down at it. It was a baby, a tiny, dark haired baby wrapped in a blue blanket. It was sleeping, but I could see the remnants of tears on its little cheeks.
“Don't worry,” Ty said. “You're going to be fine. I promise.”
He adjusted his hold so he could take one hand out from under the blanket.
“What are you doing?” I asked. “Whose baby is that?”
Again, he didn't respond, and it sunk in that he couldn't hear me. He didn't know I was there. I watched as he ran his fingers along the wall, and a piece of it disappeared beneath his touch. He looked into the baby's face for only a brief moment more before I saw him plunge it through the wall.
&nb
sp; “No!” I shouted. “What are you doing?”
The words weren't even out of my mouth when the whole image in front of me changed. I was no longer in the room with Ty. Instead, I was in another dark, unrecognizable place, and a woman was standing in front of me. She looked around, sharp green eyes seeming to cut into the corners and shadows. Her brown hair was wound onto the back of her head. It exposed her neck in a way that let me see a dark necklace against her pale skin. Curious, I got closer.
“Hello?” I said, wondering if this would be any different.
Her eyes flashed to the side again, but it seemed like they saw right through me. I looked at her chest and saw a pendant hanging from the chain. On it was a silver dragon holding the moon in its claw. Her attention snapped back to the wall in front of her as it trembled slightly. It paused for just a second, then melted away. Hands came through toward her, and I saw the same little baby pass through into her arms. She didn't say anything but clutched the baby to her chest and turned to run from the wall. As it became solid again, I heard the distant sound of a wolf’s howl.
I felt like I was being sucked backwards, and suddenly I was sitting in the chair in Malakan's house again. My breath was hard and jagged, and I realized I was gripping the orb so tightly my fingers ached.
