Pure Rapture

by Aja James

  She’d begged Anunit one night to take her to the Pure Ones’ fort. She’d risked everything to find him. Even if he never felt for her what she felt for him, she knew him to be the sort of male who would unconditionally love his child.

  She had to tell him, and perhaps to feel the warmth of his embrace just one more time to give her strength in the months and years ahead.

  But when she’d gotten close to his tent, hidden in the darkness of night, she’d seen him through a slit in the flap.

  He hadn’t been alone. He’d been naked and entwined with a female with dark hair and dark eyes. She’d heard him tell the female that he loved her. She’d sat back against the tent, numb and shattered, until the female emerged a while later. Someone called her name.

  It was Ninti.

  And after that…something changed within her. Something insidious and wrathful built inside of her, poisoning her thoughts, her emotions.

  But even then, she’d fought against the poisonous feelings inside as hard as she could, at times wanting to incite the Queen to action against the Pure Ones, but always managing to keep her bloodthirstiness in check.

  But just barely.

  Her capture by the humans and what they did to her in the Purge after the war pulled her deeper into the darkness.

  She no longer knew what it meant to love. She only knew hatred and vengeance.

  Until last night.

  Until he broke the spell she’d been under with his own sacrifice.

  “I do know what love means,” she said quietly now.

  “I feel it for Inanna though I’ve never held her. I gave her up though it nearly killed me to do it. But I see that I made the right choice, because look at her now.”

  She stared intensely at Tal’s face, unfrozen now by his feelings for his beloved daughter.

  “She’s so strong and beautiful, Tal. So good and true. She’s found her one true love and together they’re raising a wonderful little boy. You did that—you nurtured her. You loved her enough for both of us. I knew you would.”

  She reached for one of his hands, and he flinched at the touch, his whole body instantly, painfully attuned to hers, his blood sizzling to Serve her.

  “Please talk to me, Tal,” she begged, getting more desperate with each passing minute. The speakers in the train had announced that they would pull into their destination soon.

  “What is it your body is fighting? Who is the female whose blood is trying to destroy yours? What are you planning to do now? Why are you going so far away?”

  He tried to pull his hand out of her grasp but she was stronger and she wouldn’t let go.

  “Tell me how we can help,” she entreated, “please Tal. For Inanna who loves her papa desperately. For your family.”

  For me, she added silently.

  The train slowed and pulled to a stop at its station in Baltimore. It would pause here for ten minutes to let passengers on and off before continuing to Washington D.C.

  While Ishtar was momentarily distracted by the commotion of the announcements and passengers from other sections of the car getting up and moving about, Tal abruptly stood, pushed passed her and shot out of the door just as it opened.

  His blindness and emotional volatility made it difficult to navigate the crowd. He couldn’t focus, couldn’t think.

  “Hey!” the third person he bumped into cried in indignation, a large, burly man who shoved back at him.

  “Watch where you’re going!”

  Strong, slim hands wrapped around Tal’s left arm and pulled him close.

  “Pardon us, sir,” Ishtar said from his side, “I lost my husband in the crowd. I have him now.”

  “Oh,” the man returned, probably just noticing that Tal was blind, “sorry I overreacted. Take care of him.”

  “I will,” Ishtar promised, and steered Tal away from the oncoming crowds.

  “Let go of me,” he ground out, humiliation at his own weakness and disability warring with the acute pain of her careless comment—husband indeed!—rendered him dangerously out of control, out of reason.

  “As you wish,” she said obligingly, and released his arm.

  But he felt her presence doggedly beside him all the while, no matter how fast he walked, no matter where he went.

  It was already night, he knew. This was the last train. He could feel the lack of sunlight in the air around him as he exited the station, balmy with summer heat but mingled with a cooler breeze.

  He stood still for a minute to orient himself.

  Even though he was freed from thousands of years of imprisonment, he still felt trapped because of his blindness, helpless because of his lack of knowledge in this new age.

  A year and a half with the Pure Ones and his family at the Shield was not nearly enough time for him to learn everything he needed to. Cars, trains, bicycles, planes. So many fast moving vehicles that didn’t stop for pedestrians unless they were told to by red lights or signs.

  When he’d started venturing outside in the beginning, Inanna had tried to convince him to use a cane or a trained dog to guide him, but he stubbornly refused. It was probably foolish pride, but he’d felt helpless for so long. So many things had been done to him to break him, enslave him, make him less. He had the scars all over his body to attest to it.

  It was stupid, he knew that, but he wanted some semblance of control back. He wanted to be a whole male, who could still protect the ones he loved, rather than be a burden to them.

  Though he’d lost his Gift along with his vision, he reshaped what ability he had to construct the world around him in his mind using his other senses.

  He “saw” now that there were more buildings to the left than to the right. He could hear more traffic and activity toward the left. He could smell smoke from grills cooking various meats, among other pungent and pleasant odors that permeated the air around large groups of people.

  Hence, he began walking down the left side of the street; he would have higher probability of finding food and shelter in this direction.

  He could hear Ishtar keeping pace behind him, though she kept a few feet of distance. Her footsteps were light, almost silent. Cat-like.

  And then her stomach growled loudly, and Tal’s mouth twitched involuntarily as if it wanted to smile.

  Looked like he better find food and shelter soon, if he was to take proper care of his female.

  He stumbled mid-stride and quickly righted his steps.

  Goddess above, he still couldn’t stop thinking of her as his. He still couldn’t stop trying to take care of her, protect her. Even though she was ten, twenty times stronger than him in her giant leopard form. Even though he was nowhere near the male he used to be—scarred, blind and physically broken.

  He pushed aside the self-pity and focused on his goal. Food and shelter. Then he needed to prepare.

  Anunit was close.

  *** *** *** ***

  The Creature was to meet the Mistress in Baltimore, Maryland, of all places.

  How unexpected and bizarre.

  She had residences all over the world, in all of the largest, most glittering cities—Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Dubai, Seoul, London, Paris, Rome, NYC…but Baltimore?

  What the hell was in Baltimore?

  But when the Creature received its Mistress’s summons, it did not have the luxury of declining. So to the “Charm City” it went.

  The Mistress was flying in from wherever she was coming from (she never let it know her location unless she needed to), likely bringing a large entourage.

  Several personal guards who were both lethal warriors and bedtime sport mates. A Blood Slave or two to ensure her full strength day and night. And in the old days when Lord Wind still followed her around like a love-sick puppy, he would have been an ever-present fixture wherever she went.

  But no longer. Not for several hundred years in fact, since he established his own base in Japan. They rarely crossed paths after that, though he continued to do her bidding—to a certain ex
tent. Now, he’d removed himself from her equation altogether.

  She did have an equation, the Mistress.

  A complex, unsolvable equation, as far as the Creature was concerned, that culminated machinations millennia in the making. Only she knew how all her strings were connected to one another, where all her seeds bore fruit.

  She was the world’s most powerful being, and everyone was oblivious of the fact.

  The Creature often wondered whether she had an end game.

  Sometimes it felt that she liked to stir up trouble just because it amused her, even though her sort of “trouble” led to the downfall of empires, civilizations, mass destruction and chaos.

  Other times she simply sat back and watched as humans devised their own petty wars and political maneuverings under some nationalistic, philosophical or religious aegis. Some made-up God-given right to attack and oppress another group of people and steal their land, their wealth, their ability to rule themselves.

  What was the point of it all, the Creature asked itself when boredom and disenchantment overcame its love of the game.

  Which was happening quite frequently lately. Perhaps it was tired of living.

  Well, as it was too much of a coward to end its own life, it had better continue doing her bidding or risk her displeasure.

  She didn’t share with it what she intended to do in Baltimore, but it had eyes and ears on the ground that told it Tal-Telal was in town.

  Guess she wanted a lavish reunion with her ex-prisoner.

  It was to buy out an entire mansion for the next few days (hmm, she didn’t anticipate staying long?) for this very purpose.

  It was almost interested in what she would do.

  But more than that, it was curious to meet the legendary General in the flesh.

  Finally.

  After millennia of knowing he existed, knowing that she kept him like a gorgeous and terrible Frankenstein, torturing him endlessly and using him for her experiments, the Creature would finally have the opportunity to see what all the hubbub had been about.

  “Upon her choice, the future rests. To welcome the Darkness or create a New Light, only her heart can show the rest.”

  —From the Ecliptic Prophesies, buried and forgotten

  Chapter Twelve

  Ishtar’s wrist buzzed, vibrating ticklishly against her skin.

  She swatted at it absently but it wouldn’t stop. Annoyed, her other hand formed claws to cut it off until she realized that it was the communication device Gabriel had given her.

  Belatedly, she put her wrist against her ear to listen. The buzzing noise continued.

  And then she finally remembered to tap the face of the wristband and pop out the small pearl-like oval to insert into her ear.

  “Ishtar, can you hear me?” Ava’s voice sounded loud and clear in her ear, as if she were walking alongside her.

  “Yes!” Ishtar said loudly enough to startle nearby people, making Tal pause several yards ahead of her as well.

  “You can speak softly, I hear you loud and clear,” Ava said in her ear, and Ishtar got the distinct feeling she’d been wincing.

  “Sorry,” Ishtar immediately apologized.

  She didn’t own any communication devices of her own, though it appeared every human on the planet had something called a cell phone, which they looked at far more than the direction in which they were headed as they walked down the street.

  One good thing about her shop Dark Dreams, was that she had a “no device” policy posted in her front window. And when people came inside to visit, they forgot all about their daily distractions anyway.

  “Have you discovered who the other female is?” Ava got straight to the point.

  “Not yet,” Ishtar answered, getting more anxious as time sped forward.

  “Listen,” Ava said urgently, “it might not matter that much who the other female is.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I spent the last few hours going over Tal’s treatment and convalescence with Rain over the last year and half. I should have done it earlier, but I needed to deal with his immediate condition.”

  “What did you find?” Ishtar slowed her steps, letting the distance between Tal and herself lengthen.

  She knew that Tal had trained his hearing to be magnified several times to compensate for his lack of sight. If Ava had more bad news, she’d rather keep it to herself for now until they figured out what to do about it.

  “We don’t think we’re dealing with the Decline at all,” Rain’s voice came on the line. “We think Tal might be suffering from two separate conditions that are not actually related.”

  “Like two different diseases hitting him at the same time.” Ava added.

  This didn’t sound good. Ava braced herself for the healers’ next comments.

  “One of the conditions is embedded within Tal’s tissues, causing him constant but manageable pain. Like…Fibromyalgia in humans, but many times worse,” Ava said, as if the comparison would make things easier for Ishtar to comprehend. It didn’t.

  “We thought it was related to the unhealed wounds in his body, but that’s separate,” Rain added. “We believe those wounds were created so that the other female’s blood can infiltrate his every cell. The cuts are typically made above veins and deep enough to penetrate them.”

  “In the way that Blood Slaves are made,” Ishtar whispered, recognizing the pattern.

  “Yes, we see a distinct similarity,” Ava said. “Between Inanna and Gabriel’s second-hand knowledge, we were able to get the gist of how the Claiming of Blood Slaves is done.”

  “Seth confirmed it,” Rain added, referring to the Pure Ones’ Consul, “though he didn’t say how he knew.”

  “But the wounds from the Claiming should have healed long ago, all but the two in his lower abdomen,” Ishtar said, “It is a painful, arduous process, but after three nights, he recovered.”

  “Yes, the ones you made healed, but the ones someone else made never did,” Ava said. “We think it might be because the other female tried to forcibly Claim him but his body rebelled because you are his Mistress.”

  “So we kill the bitch,” Ishtar growled, echoing Inanna’s initial assessment, the surge of violence in her mood black enough to scatter the pedestrians around her to give her wide berth.

  “If we knew who she was and how to find her,” Ava agreed. “But we don’t have enough information and we’re running out of time.”

  “What do I do?” Ishtar asked, on the verge of desperation.

  “You must make your bond with Tal stronger,” Rain said, “It’s the only way.”

  “Last night, what happened between you—it must have triggered your blood out of dormancy in his body,” Ava explained. “Just…um…do it some more.”

  Ishtar stopped walking altogether.

  She wished she could sit down but she was in the middle of a pedestrian sidewalk in one of the highest traffic spots given its proximity to the train station.

  Just do it some more, the healer said.

  As if taking Tal-Telal inside her body was no big deal, as if she could just walk up to him and say, “hey Tal, I’ve been a real bitch. Forgive me. Can we forget all the water under our bridge and go at it like mating rabbits for the next…oh…seventy-two hours at least? However long it takes for my blood to dominate yours again? Enslaving you for a second time?”

  That would go over fabulously well.

  “Ishtar? Are you there?” Ava asked, her voice rising. “I don’t mean to be insensitive, but we need to focus on the bigger picture here. It could actually save his life.”

  Ishtar did not need the reminder.

  “He hates me now,” she said in a small voice, deeply ashamed at what she’d done, how she’d treated him.

  If she offered him the choice of being with her or dying an excruciating death, she wasn’t sure he wouldn’t pick death.

  “I-I can’t,” she stuttered. “I can’t Claim him again. I promised I wouldn’t hurt
him anymore—”

  “So you’ll let the other female enslave him instead?” Ava asked sternly, while Rain remained silent. “You’ll let him fight her until he dies trying?”

  “He doesn’t want me now,” Ishtar whispered. “Perhaps he’s never wanted me at all. He’s never been given the choice.”

  “Then give him one,” it was Inanna who said this, her voice strong with emotion.

  “Tell him the truth,” she urged her mother. “Tell him everything. Most of all, tell him what’s in your heart.”

  Ishtar shook her head. “I don’t know—”

  “You do,” Inanna insisted. “You’ve always known.”

  “But hurry,” Ava came back on the line.

  “Time is running out fast. He might be on the verge of another collapse soon like the one he had yesterday. The other female’s blood is getting more aggressive. I’ve also detected a trace amount of venom in it. Similar to the type I found in the sample I took from you, Ishtar.”

  Venom?

  “A vampire’s venom?” she asked directly.

  “Yes,” Ava replied, “it would appear so. But stronger. I took a sample from Inanna and one from Gabriel and compared them. And then I took one from my husband Ryu just to be sure. This venom has chemical additives in it, as if it had been formulated to increase its potency. In other words, this venom doesn’t naturally interact with the subject’s chemistry as vampire venom does. It suppresses the subject’s chemistry altogether.”

  “It’s integrated with her blood to enhance its power,” Rain said. “I’d noticed the anomaly before when he was first brought in, and I tried to use my zhen to focus his inner qi to combat it, but it was no use. Perhaps if I’d still had my Gift I could have drawn the poison out, but…”

  She trailed off, regretting the loss of her healing powers even as she didn’t regret the decision that led to their loss, and Ava jumped back in.

  “Hurry, Ishtar,” Ava urged, “we’ll figure the rest out later, but right now, you’re the only hope for saving Tal.”

  Ishtar couldn’t find her voice to form a response. She cut off communication by pressing on the oval in her ear and putting it back on her wrist device.