Elizabeth took pen and paper ready to write, unemotional as ever. Every day her freedom was a little closer. She was sure that she would kill her sister as soon as she saw her. She hated her so much that she could not bear to even think about her. When she finished writing, she got up slowly from the desk as her master continued walking round the room. She moved towards the door, but before doing so she stopped at the small piece of furniture beside the door and looked at herself in the mirror, fair hair, clear complexion, and clear blue eyes. Pure beauty she said to herself. Smiling, she went out to the street; she should give what she had written to the mailman, so that it was take time in arriving to the principal city. There the postman from the kingdom would take it to the address where she was staying.
She imagined for a moment where her sister might be. Immediately, Gabriel came to mind; that tall boy with dark hair and violet eyes that had once conquered her. It was only one night, she thought at times, but she knew that it hadn´t been so. Iain had forced her to follow and spy on him, to find out everything about him. Until one night she decided to carry out her master´s plan, which was to enter and leave the house, convince him of the plan and leave. But it wasn´t like that, her feelings played a nasty trick on her. He was a good boy and she didn´t want to ruin his life. That is why in the next battle when she saw him she would abandon him, though that meant losing a part of her heart or what would remain of him. She couldn´t put him in danger, not for a second time.
The boy was so alarmed the first time he heard the plan that Elizabeth doubted that it would happen.
<
Gabriel entered his room and closed the door after him. He was worn out after a hard days training and he just wanted to read. He flopped onto an armchair beside the bed, close to the door. It was the year 1890, the intense light from bulbs flooded the whole city, but he still preferred the gentle light from his gas lamp. He got up and moved towards the window, as he so often had in the last months, searching for that presence that he tended to feel close to him, but as in all the other occasions he found nothing; just the city immersed in the night and the soft glimmers that came from the windows of the houses, that little by little were turned off after supper.
He turned around to light the small lamp that was on his bedside table and was paralyzed with what he saw on the table. He wasn´t sure if what he had seen a fraction of a second before was real or not, he turned his head slightly until he stood in front of Elizabeth. She was sitting on the border of his bed; the darkness of the room highlighted her blue eyes in an unusual way; the moon was reflected in them. The handsome young man did not know what to say, he looked her in detail without moving a centimeter from where he was. He looked as her fine straight hair met with the smooth color of her close-fitting outfit. Without light he couldn´t distinguish the colors properly, but he could observe how the fine lines of her face were smoothly marked. With her not too large eyes, beautiful lips and a pretty nose, slightly up-turned. <
After a moment of fascination, he realized that she too was examining him, as though she wished to engrave his image on her mind.
“I have spent a long time wanting to look you in the eyes and that you look at me too,” the girl said without warning. Gabriel remained silent. He had the sensation that she knew him but he knew nothing at all about the woman he had before himself.
“How have you come in?” he managed to say.
His black eyelashes rubbed against his cheeks as he half-closed his eyes to think with more clarity.
“Through the window, of course,” he responded to himself “Who are you?” he said intrigued. He thought that his questions were beginning to make more sense.
“I am called Elizabeth and I need you,” she responded directly to the young man.
Elizabeth, aware of Gabriel´s confusion extended her hands to him and sat him down by her side. She lifted her hand smoothly and started to caress his face; passed it through his hair and ended up with it resting over his heart. She closed her eyes to hear how it was beating frenetically. She looked at him with a sweet smile on her face.
Being confused, Gabriel did not know what to do, he simply didn´t move until he at last regained his composure to continue speaking with her.
“What do you need me for? And why?”
“You should listen to me carefully, it is a very important and delicate matter for me,” the girl went on.
She started to look at him deeply; she was going to hypnotize him as Ian had taught her. That way he wouldn´t suffer and he would fulfill the commitment she was about to indicate to him. She couldn´t do that to Gabriel, she had spent so much time with him, knowing him in such a different was comforting to her, so much so that she didn´t even try to convince him as to her evil plan. In the last few weeks, she had considered fleeing from Ian, but she knew that he would find her and the effort didn´t merit the pain.
“What is going on?” Gabriel made her lift her head and look at him; her face was sad. “If I can help you someway tell me, I will do everything that is in my hand”. In that instant he knew that the words that he had pronounced were true, he felt admiration and something else for the girl. He was attracted to her, he knew it the moment he saw her sitting patiently in front of him. He was willing to do anything for her.
Elizabeth didn´t know how to tell him the truth, so in a sudden act she kissed him sweetly on the lips and to protect him, she got up and led him to the window, prepared to jump. She was decided to find someone else for the mission, but not him. Gabriel, faster than her, grabbed her wrist and turned her towards him. He placed himself in front of her and pulled her hand until she came close to his body. He couldn´t let her leave, he wanted to know everything about her, he wanted to love her, it was an uncontrollable sensation that he didn´t understand but liked. He held her strongly around her waist and pulled her even closer, ending up nose to nose. For a moment he closed his eyes and could smell the perfume of the beautiful girl, citrus blossom, he identified. He opened his eyes again intoxicated by the woman he had in his arms, he knew that what he was about to you and what he was doing was not right, but he didn´t care.
He kissed her smoothly on the cheek, making the girl jump in surprise. Gabriel lifted his startled gaze for a moment, but she was already caressing his back with her hands. This astute movement calmed him, allowing him to continue with what he considered to be his new mission in life, kiss every centimeter of her body. He started to do it; first smoothly on her chin, then lowering to her neck, then gently going down to her collar bone, where he caressed the rising breast of the girl with his lips.
Elizabeth wanted to stop him, but at the same time he so desired to be with him, that she couldn´t even be offended by his boldness. Her breathing started to break as she embraced him strongly. His mouth opened
the way to the other side of her neck until arriving to the corners of her lips. He kissed her slowly once and then again, with all the gentleness he was capable of. Elizabeth, desperately, placed her hands on his head, bringing his head to her face, uniting their lips in a sweet kiss. They kissed each other in delight, weaving their tongues together in a slow and sensual pace. They didn´t know how long they stood there, although it didn´t matter to either of them. Gabriel, decidedly, lifted Elizabeth in flight and laid her delicately on the bed, as if she were made of porcelain. He lay by her side and looked at her with eyes burning with love and passion. Then he brushed his hand through her silky hair and turned to be on top of her and see her better. His eyes transmitted adoration.
Elizabeth had dreamt so many times with that scene, she could barely believe that it was really happening. She looked at him and her heart was flooded with joy. She was sure of what she felt for him, he was very strong; it seemed strange to her that he felt the same way, but she couldn’t help feeling happy and fulfilled in that situation. Kissing him again, the intensity increase with every nibble they gave each other. Passion flowed between their bodies and they were not going to stop. Almost impatiently Gabriel got up to be able to take his beloved´s dress off. It was fastened by a row of round buttons that finished at her hips. He started to unbutton them one by one, leaving her breast uncovered little by little. The fine blue cloth laid loose round Elizabeth´s body. The outfit was simple, luckily for both of them; it had fewer pieces of cloth than the usual pompous outfits of the period. When the garment was loose he looked at her with a hint of deception on his face, seeing that she wore a pastel tone corset below. She smiled and helped him to undo the back; while he finished, she removed his jacket and shirt leaving his muscular and defined chest uncovered. Gabriel in a determined outburst threw the clothes to the floor, ending up covered only by the smooth cotton sheets. Now without impediments, they continued loving each other, kissing each other, caressing and embracing each other without exchanging a word. Their breathing was accelerated; and with a deliberately slow rhythm they fused together in the darkness of the night until the light of morning; allowing the passion to flow from every pore of their bodies.
A few hours later, Elizabeth woke up startled, until she looked to her left and saw Gabriel’s face looking at her in adoration as he caressed her hair. She was leaning on his chest; she turned a little to see him better and hug him, rubbing his thighs smoothly with her hand. She found him very sexy, all of him was; she loved to touch every part of his skin. All of a sudden she realized that she shouldn´t be there, with him. If Ian found out, he would kill him and she would never forgive herself. She sat up suddenly on the bed, letting the sheet fall from her body leaving her breast uncovered. Seeing this Gabriel took her by the waist and put her on top of him, noting the heat of her body. He started to kiss her neck, his intention was to make love to her once again, that was his only intention for the rest of his life, to love her; he stopped when he saw the worried look of his beloved.
“What is it? Are you okay?” he asked ashamed. “Do you not like it? If you like I can stop, if you repent, I understand, you can leave if you wish, just I… <> he wanted to say, but his voice failed as he watched her fearfully, he didn´t want her to leave.
The girl smiled, calming him; he looked at him with a decided fixed expression. She would tell him everything.
“I am fine,” she answered with a sweet voice, as if speaking to a terrified child. “I like it, I love it,” she corrected herself. “All of you, what we have done was marvelous. But I am afraid that I cannot leave with my conscious at ease unless I tell you the motive of my arrival. I cannot leave you without saying anything, leaving you in uncertainty.”
“You cannot go, I cannot let you go. You are that first person I care about, I, I…” he didn´t know what to say for an instant and he saw in the eyes of his beloved the answer.
“I love you too,” these words were a gift to his ears. “I fell in love with you at first sight and I have been with you and without you all this time. Seeing you and not being able to hug you, without being able to comfort you when you fell, nor congratulate you when you got up. I comforted myself, watching you read every night from the window. And when you were asleep, at times I dared to enter and see your beautiful face close up, be able to caress it, and leave at dawn in grief.
“Why have you spent all this time following me?” he asked her confused.
“Because I was told to, you are a strong and brave person, more than others. You know lots of people who could help me to find a wizard that will help me in the future.”
She was quiet so that the boy with the ashen face could assimilate what she had said to him.
“I need you, so that in half a century you find a wizard that will rid me of my curse.”
“What curse?”
“I am not a normal daughter of the night, my mother married a wizard and I am a mixture of both of them,” she lied, “as a consequence I am cursed to live in another body when I turn one hundred years old. I will not remember anything or anyone.”
Gabriel´s face filled with anguish.
“That is why I haven´t been with anyone until now,” she said looking towards the sheet. “I couldn’t bear to lose my loved ones, I distanced myself from my family and nevertheless here I find myself with you.”
“I don´t want to lose you. I don´t want you to go. Tell me what I can do.”
“Within fifty-two years you should search for a wizard called Phoenix. He is very powerful and the only one able to undo my spell. But you must not say that my father was a wizard, or he will not help you. Wizards do not trust each other. I asked a fortune-teller a short while ago and she told me to look for a strong and decided man, and that is you. Only you can help me. I don´t mean to make you suffer, I just want your help.”
“But, I love you. How can you leave with such a burden? If you stay with me I will help you better. How will I not suffer if the love of my life escapes through the windows of my heart?”
Listening to such words of love, Elizabeth´s heart skipped a beat. Nobody had ever said anything so beautiful to her. But she couldn´t stay, she knew this all too well.
“I cannot stay, my curse is very clear, if I love someone, that person will suffer, having them beside me will accelerate my change and one day I will wake up and won´t recognize your face,” she smoothly stroked his cheek and allowed her hand to fall on his chest.
“What is more, if I stay with you, tomorrow I might not be me and die.”
She said this with tears about to flow from her eyes. She didn´t want to hurt him anymore and felt that that was the best way. To convince him that he couldn´t be with her.
“Die? No,” he said anxiously. He couldn´t imagine seeing her dead.
“It is my curse;
Gabriel helped her to dress; he put her shoes one by one, with a heavy heart. When he finished, he helped her get up from the bed and he embraced her strongly. He buried his face in her hair and breathed in deeply. He would do it; he would do anything to see her again.
“There won´t be any place where that wizard can hide, I will find him, for you and for me,” he said decidedly. “I will search and we will be together again, even if it is the last think I do.”
He kissed her intensely and helped her out. Without warning, she jumped, falling like a feather to the road below. Elizabeth looked towards the window with her heart heavy and tears flooding her face. She really loved him and yet she had convinced him to find a false remedy, for a false destiny. She was guiding him to a sure death, she thought. She started running without looking back, leaving behind her lover standing in the window full of hope and betrayal.
Gabri
el didn´t see her again, although Elizabeth spied on him every now and again, following the orders of her master when he saw her outfit stained with tears when she arrived home. He did it as a punishment, Elizabeth thought, for having fallen in love with the wrong boy. He made her suffer every time he ordered her to watch him to see if he was carrying out the plan. She couldn´t even have him in her mind to see him in her dreams. She could do nothing.
She felt impotent when she thought of how many years had gone by and how her master convinced her time and time again to go against her will. Sometimes she hated him for that and the irony was that it was Ian who had taught her all that he knew, about her history, her body, her powers and how these blended together. She could not leave.
She shut the door again leaving the mailman with the letter in his hand and his words in his mouth, she hadn´t listened to what he said, she never did. She didn´t even say who he had to give the letter to, nor when. She went with a heavy heart to her room. She could no longer contain her tears.
Kenneth continued waiting for the arrival of the princess. However, as the afternoon progressed he had gathered his belongings and moved them little by little to his other house in the human dimension. He fantasized with parallel words and doubles of people as he went to and fro, dissipating from house to house. Each journey lasted only a second, but for him time was like gold and he always made used of every opportunity to fantasize with his ideas of a different world. He no longer had furniture in his house, only the bath and a room on the second floor. His basement was empty and he had left the sofas to sit on. He spent the day trying not to think about Venice. Although he didn´t like to admit it, he missed her, he missed giving her advice and predicting the future for her. She was his best friend, until the fateful day of the birth of their daughters. He remembered how the midwives of the kingdom helped him, they were experts but she wanted only him to be there. He remembered her face of disbelief when she saw her two precious delicate daughters. She made him swear that he would never tell anyone what had happened, if someone knew that she had had twins, they would separate them and she didn´t want that. However, the warning had no effect. That same night they were taken from her. Nobody knew who it was, although Kenneth suspected that the empress knew very well who had kidnapped them. From that moment she exiled him from her life, after centuries in her service.
Darkness The Diary of Samantha Owen Page 9
