by Nancy Glynn
She lay back against the bed and pushed her shorts off, rubbing her stomach the whole time.
“My God,” he whispered. He got her nightgown and sat her up, pulling it over her head.
“Thank you, Christian. I’m sure this is killing you,” she managed a smirk, her head wobbling to her arm.
He cleared his throat. “Not at all. Here, get under the covers and rest, beautiful. I’ll see if Lucinda can make one of her special potions.”
She turned the other way and groaned.
***
After speaking to Lucinda, Christian went in his room to look in his closet. He searched the shelf and found the black book he wanted. In it were spells he hoped would help Daisy. He was given this when he was a young boy. Lucinda used to sit with him and teach him the chants, but he never felt good reading it.
If he needed to do black magic, it was now. He didn’t know if some spell had been cast on her to make her feel sick. He had to try.
He blew the dust off it and opened to the spells part. Lucinda knocked on his door with a tray. “Thanks, Lucy. Just put it in Daisy’s room and I’ll feed her.”
“Mr. Christian, those spells are no good for Miss Daisy." She stood at the door, observing him.
“What? Why not?”
“It’s not the darkness that makes her ill, but the light.”
“The light?”
She nodded her head. “There’s a battle for her soul going on inside her. She’s trying to fight the good to be with you, and it’s making her ill.”
“How do you know this?”
But she was gone.
He threw the book down and ran to her room, but Lucinda already left the tray and disappeared.
“Honey, you up to drinking something for me?" He sat next to her and pushed her hair back. “Here, just take a sip." He put the cup to her mouth, and she drank some then lay back down.
“What is that?” she asked, puckering her face.
“It’ll help you feel better." Although, he wondered if he was supposed to be butting in on something bigger than him. Maybe he should let this bug take over her and do its work. It might bring the old Daisy back to him.
But he didn’t want her to feel sick. Creasing his brows together, he held her hand, not knowing what to do.
A voice spoke behind him, a woman’s voice. He turned but no one was there. “What?" Who’s there?”
“She’ll be fine, Christian. Just keep being good to her and she’ll be fine. Don’t ever change. Just remember I’m here.”
“Mom? Is that you?" He focused on a soft apparition near the window. He wasn’t sure if it was the afternoon sunlight shining through the blinds or really his mother.
Daisy moaned, tossing her head back and forth on her pillow. He wet a washcloth and laid it on her hot forehead.
He decided to go against Lucinda and get the book anyway. He couldn’t lose her.
After coming back with it, he sat on the bed and flipped through some pages. A certain spell stood out to him on how to reverse a spell. That seemed to be what she needed. Tracing the words in the thin warn out page, he read aloud the spell in the way he had been taught in their church.
His voice deep and booming in the air, he read. He held his palm over her head and repeated it until he saw her eyes flutter. Something was happening inside her, he could tell. “Daisy, you okay? Can you hear me?”
The lights flickered a few times.
She thrashed her head and moaned. “No!” she said as if fighting something.
“I’m here, baby. Come back to me." He put the book down and hugged her to him. “I love you so much." He rocked her back and forth.
“I love you, too,” she murmured and closed her eyes again.
He checked her pulse and found one, although faint. He laid her back down to rest. “Get well, Daisy. You’re not alone in this. I’ll fight this with you. I’ll take the whole damn town down if I have to for you!”
After rewetting the rag in her bathroom, he caught sight of the purple velvet pouch. He opened it and peered inside, seeing the gold cross cast a glint.
He carried the pouch over to her, sat her up, and wrapped in a Kleenex without touching it, he clasped it around her neck, her head wobbling against his arm. “There. That should help.”
The cross shone on her throat in a brilliant sparkle.
Kissing her forehead through the wet cloth and wishing her a good night, he slipped out of the room with hopes of a new day.
What he didn’t notice was the black book falling off the table.
***
After dinner, Christian decided to go out in the garden and sit near his mother’s fountain statue. He always seemed to pull strength from her even if it was only stone.
In his memory, he held Daisy on the bench. He leaned his elbows on his knees and cradled his head in his hands.
The sun rode low in the tree branches, warning of its departure. Corals, pinks, and purples imbued the sky.
Something touched his shoulder and he turned, but nothing. He sat back against the iron bench and closed his eyes.
“Christian?”
His head snapped in the direction of the patio door. It couldn’t be. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped. “Daisy?”
She walked out in her robe with the biggest smile. He ran to her and swung her around, his eyes feasting on her.
“You feel better?” he asked, grinning, feeling her forehead to feel the coolness.
“I do. I really do. I feel back to my old self.”
“Oh, honey. Come sit just in case." He guided her to the bench.
“Really, I feel fine, like it never happened. I want to thank you for all you’ve done. Lucinda told me how you tended to me like a mama bear. That means so much to me, Christian.”
She kissed him, creating stirrings in him he tried to ignore.
“I took a nice bath and washed everything away except your touch. I never want to wash your touch away,” she said, giving him a deeper kiss to cement her meaning.
The sun disappeared to the other side of the world, leaving them in total darkness except for the lights built into the fountain and the sounds of crickets.
She stood before him and dropped her robe revealing only her sheer nightgown cascading down her body, the moonlight exposing her every curve.
He wondered where her cross was.
“We’re safe here, right?” she whispered in a husky tone, tracing her finger along his jaw and then his full lips.
He nodded, unable to speak or even breathe. His breaths grew shallow. “Are you sure, Daisy? You’re sure you feel better?”
“Yes, my love." She pushed her nightgown up to her collarbone and drew his face in, allowing him to nuzzle her breasts at first and then devour them. He felt like a newborn getting his first suckle. A hunger grew like wildfire in his body. Seeing her head arched back, knowing he did that to her, drove him to a place he never knew existed.
“Here or on the grass over there?” he panted.
“Here and there,” she moaned.
He undid his zipper and freed himself. She let her gown fall back down, but then held it around her hips, wrapping her legs around him, cupping him, and bringing him inside her. “Oh, God,” she groaned.
“Should I stop?" He didn’t know if she was in pain or pleasure.
She shook her head. Her body instinctively rocked against him.
He thrust against her in agony, their bodies meeting in a dance, wanting more than her body could possibly give.
She ground her hips in a steady motion, feeling the silky material of her gown, forcing himself to think of anything but her. There was no way this was ending that fast.
The look of ecstasy on her face did it for him. Waves built up. He couldn’t control himself anymore. “Daisy...my Daisy." His damp hair lay against her breasts, sweat trickling down her stomach.
He knew it was too soon and picked her up, placing her on the grass.
The soft grass tickled them. He thrust inside her, lif
ting her legs around his back. Her moans and soft screams startled him.
He bent down and probed her mouth with his tongue, sucking on her lower lip, needing to taste her inside out.
He rubbed against her pelvic bone in a rhythm that finally met her needs.
Her head arched into the grass, clawing his back to pull him in deeper. “Christian,” she moaned. She tensed and shivered, her body still quivering in his arms, her breathing labored.
“I love you, Daisy." He closed his eyes and allowed himself to meet her.
His head fell on her chest, hearing her heart thunder. Feeling crusty skin underneath his cheek, he lifted his head to find a burn mark on her skin. He sat straight up, now understanding the need to keep her gown on.
She was hiding this from him.
Another thought struck him. He felt her nails dig in his back, something she didn’t usually have.
He grabbed her hands and looked at her nails. They were longer and unchewed in just a day.
Chapter Fifteen
Daisy snatched her hand back. “I’m growing them out for the ball. Don’t they look better that way?”
“I actually like your stubby nails more.”
She pulled him down to her and caressed his back. “They’re really not that long. I just haven’t bitten them. Also, I’ve been sick." Her skin felt itchy from the grass now.
“Can you feel those scratches on my back?”
“Oh, just a few. I thought you’d like that,” she pouted.
“I do, especially from you, but...I don’t know. Let me get your robe." He walked to the bench, pulled his jeans on, and retrieved her robe.
She sat up, looking at her nails and shrugging. “I feel like you’re mad at me, Christian. I would die if you were." She tugged her robe on.
He cupped her face. “I could never be mad at you. But I am worried,” he glanced at her chest. “Why is there a burn mark on your skin from the cross?”
She looked down and shrugged. “I’m not sure. So what if there is. Maybe I’m the same as you. I want us to be the same. Don’t you?”
“No, not in that way. I would rather send you away from here, even it means letting you go. This place is bad for you, Daisy.”
He took her hand and sat her on the bench, still holding it. “I love you, you must know that. Something inside you was fighting this...place. I’m part of this place, Daisy. Maybe we’re not meant to be together.”
She sucked in her breath and pulled her hand away. “What? Are you kidding me? I love you with all my heart, Christian. How could you say that? I just gave myself to you. Are you one of those typical guys who gets what they want and then that’s it?" She stood, her hands balled into fists to her side. Tears threatened to fall.
“No, honey. You know how I feel. It kills me to even think this much less say it. I don’t know what else to do,” he admitted, trying to hold her hand.
“So what will you do, go live your life with someone else? Maybe Charlotte would be a good choice.”
“Don’t talk like that. I just feel that no matter where we are, your soul will always battle the darkness that lives in me. I won’t have that.”
“So what do I do? Leave here without you? Go on to be a kindergarten teacher in Chicago and pretend I never met you? I can’t. I won’t,” she shook her head. “My soul is already dark, Christian. It belongs to Jack and you.”
“How does it belong to Jack?”
She tried to walk away, but he grabbed her arm. “Tell me.”
“He comes to me at night. It’s the only way I could be with you tonight. That was the deal I made with him.”
“Oh, my God. What happened in that school, Daisy? Tell me!”
She shook her head. “All I know is this is my town now. I’m not good anymore, Christian. I’m not that sweet Daisy you met a month ago. Let her go and love me!”
He grabbed her to him and sobbed, rubbing his tears against her face and hair. “No.”
“I can’t leave here, Christian. It’s too late.”
“No, it’s not. Just leave. It’s that simple,” he cried.
A jackal howled in sync with their cries. The summer night wind blew through the trees, bending them in unison with the jackal’s song like an invisible hand on a violin.
“You asked what happened at the school. Jack came there. He made a deal with me that he would allow me to only belong to you the day of your birthday and from then on if I were to let him come to my room at night leading up to then.”
Christian’s eyes widened. “Go on.”
She sighed. “I wanted you, Christian. I wanted our life together without carrying Jack’s baby. I just wanted you. So I said yes and signed a contract with my blood.”
“No.”
She nodded. “That’s why the old Daisy is slipping away. My soul is turning black." She wrapped her arms around his neck. “My love is still strong for you. That’s what keeps the good alive in me. That’s why I got sick. I will never let go of that love.”
He pulled away and pushed her arms down. “I can’t be with you anymore, Daisy. Knowing I’ve caused this. I just can’t. Every time I look in your eyes, I’ll know I did this to you. I now wish you never loved me!”
He ran in the house and left her alone with her choice.
Tears blurred her vision and allowed them to fall. Standing alone, she crossed her arms around herself. She glanced at the grassy spot where they had made love. The stars had seemed to disappear, just black space. Or maybe it was how she viewed the world now.
She stood straight as steel and wiped away her tears. Taking a deep breath, she knew what she had to do and headed for the house.
***
Christian went to his room and blasted rock music to drone out the noise in his head. He lay on his bed with his hands folded behind his head, trying not to think of her.
He pulled the pillow over his face and screamed into it. Anger built up in him. He couldn’t understand why she would do that. But he knew.
After taking a fast shower, he turned the music lower and got under the sheets. Maybe tomorrow he would talk to her again. He didn’t want to hurt her. His mind reminded him of their night together or should he say his body. Their bodies melted together as if born for this moment.
God help him but he wanted her again. He would always want her. Want her lips, her hair, her breasts, her belly, her legs...her heart.
He would find a way. If she asked to stay, he would find a way.
The next morning he got dressed and practically skipped to her room.
It was empty of her.
He ran to the closet. No clothes.
He ran to the bathroom. No brushes or makeup.
He called out to her. Nothing.
Christian ran down the stairs to the kitchen. “Lucinda, where’s Daisy?”
Lucinda stood at the stove, cooking bacon and turned to him. “Miss Daisy? She leave last night, Mr. Christian. Had bags with her. Something about going home. I was in my room and she come in to say thank you, even kissed my cheek. What did you do?” she asked, waving a spatula at him.
“Nothing. I’ll see you later and thanks!” he yelled out as he ran through the front door past James.
He drove to Jack’s Den like a madman. His father would be there. If Daisy wanted to go home, then he would let her. But he needed to get through to his father and Jack to let that happen.
The restaurant was filled with its usual morning patrons. It was their busiest time of the day. He knocked on the conference door in the back and opened it before his father could answer.
“Son, may I help you?” his father asked, irritated at the intrusion.
“Call off any dogs set on Daisy now!”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Dad, if I know Jack, he’s already on her tail. He’ll never let her leave and you know it." He gritted his teeth, standing before his father.
William Stone stood and jutted his jaw to the door for the men to leave. Af
ter they closed the door, he responded. “First of all, you don’t use that tone with me, especially in front of the men. And second of all, I don’t control what Jack Red does, you hear me?”
“But you do know she left then?” he asked in a calmer tone.
“I know you messed up. I know you told her you didn’t want to be around her anymore. Jack knows it as well.”
“How does he know? We were out in the...”
“Garden? I know about your mother’s statue protecting you out there, but no. He came to her in her room. She told him you didn’t love her anymore and she wanted out.”
“What did he say?”
“He reminded her they had a deal. So, he made a proposition.”
“What proposition?”
“He wants his birthday ball with or without you, Christian. So he offered for her to stay with him and...”
“What, Father?”
William chuckled, shaking his head. “For her to be Eric’s date in November. He knows how she cares for Eric, and it was easy to keep her.”
Christian stood there, not able to say a word. His heart pounded against his chest. His mouth dried up.
His father continued. “Shocked? Yeah, I was too, but that’s the thing about Jack. He doesn’t give a shit. Now you’ll have to go with Charlotte after all. Her dream come true." He sat back down and folded his hands on the table.
“No.”
“Oh, you have no choice now. You threw her away, son.”
“I did it because I loved her. I couldn’t let her become...”
“What? Like us. It’s too late. So you gave her up for no reason. She hates you now, wants nothing to do with you. Good job, son." He turned his attention to the paperwork in front of him.
Christian clenched his fists to his side, gritting his teeth. “Sometimes I...”
His father looked up. “What?” he asked.
The glare in his father’s eye stopped him. “I’m going to Jack’s and getting her. I’m not letting this happen." He strode to the door.
“Good luck with that. Send the men back in, please.”
Christian ran out to his truck and gunned it to Jack’s house, or should he say palace. It was built on a hill away from the town. A place to oversee everything.
