by Megan Perry
I scoop her up in my arms and carry her to her room. I gently drop her on the bed and pull her jeans all the way off. In a second I have undone my belt and let my own pants hit the floor. I crawl onto the bed over her. I lower myself so I am supported with my arms to be sure my upper body is not crushing her. Her lips find my shoulders and chest. Zoe nips and kisses everything she can get at. Every fiber of my being is telling me to take what is mine and make her one with me, but memories from early caution me to be careful. I catch her face with my hand and take her lips with mine. “Slow down baby, unless you want me to be thrown against that wall again. You don’t want that do you? You want me to take you and make you all mine don’t you?” “I can’t, I need you, I need all of you, I don’t want to hurt you.” Zoe thinks frantically. “Stop!” I command. “You will not hurt me and you will let me have you. You are mine and you belong with me alone! Zoe. You will surrender control to me and you will do it now!” I am not sure why I just spoke to her that way but her body stills. She is not scared of me. I did not frighten her. I think I just helped her. My half seems to be taking control. I feel like a new part of me is awakening. Her heart rate speeds up, but the rest of her seems more relaxed, confident, and in control.
I slowly go back to kissing her and running my hands all over her body. We fit perfectly together; we were made for this, for each other. “I love you Zoe.” I tell her. “I love you to Gavin, I always have.” She answers. While she is thinking about that I slowly slide into her all the way to the hilt, this time though her back arches and she gasps and moans against my lips, her body seems to accept me. Zoe’s hands slide down my back and pull me into her. She feels even better than I imagined.
All of a sudden I can see again and so can she. Well, she may not know she can see because her eyes are closed. “Open your eyes Zoe.” Quickly they flash open and the ecstasy in them drives me to thrust harder and her nails dig into my back. The whole room looks like it’s filled with multicolored strobes and all the electronics are flashing. I reach through the connection to her “tell me, what now?” “Don’t stop, just don’t stop.” “You got it.”
Zoe’s muscles are contracting and driving me crazy. I feel her body internally convulse and a warm wetness touches me and covers me, once, twice, on the third I join her and collapse on top of her. “Was I worth the wait?” She asks with a smirk on her face. “Let me think about it.” I respond which earns me a hand to the side of my head. I move off of her and cover us with the blanket. I look over a moment later and she is lightly snoring. I watch her sleep for a while and at some point my eyes close and I join her.
Zoe sleeps in my arms and our consciousness’ mingle and intertwine. We share our dreams and remember the past. At some point we must have moved apart and our connection severed. I woke to Zoe screaming my name at the top of her lungs in combination with the word fire!
Charred Mattresses, Candles, and Liquor
“Fire, Fire! Wake up Gavin you’re on FIRE!” I start beating him with a heavy quilt trying to snuff out the flames. I try to pull him off of the bed but the flames that cover his body are too hot for me to get a grip on him. He is absolutely unaware that he is on fire and that the bed has gone up in flames! Finally he startles awake, his eyes reflecting the flames. At first he does not register my presence then literally in one blink of his eyes his body extinguishes and it’s as though a huge bucket of water pours out of the ceiling and puts out the bed. “What the fuck is going on?” I scream. I can feel myself trembling all over from shear panic.
Gavin is staring straight into my eyes, but he is hollow. He is physically sitting upright, but it’s as if he is completely lost like nothing looks familiar to him. I want to move towards him, to hold him and calm the flames still dancing in his eyes, but I am afraid if I move he will shoot fire from his palms and I’ll end up as black as the wall across from my bed. My entire body is shaking and I can’t focus on his thoughts. I can’t even feel his aura, which has radically changed color to match my own sapphire and silver. Because I have no idea what else to do I slowly raise my hand, and hold it out to him. Did I mention we are both still butt naked from when we fell asleep? Yeah, I’m a bit terrified.
He doesn’t move at first. In a flash he cocks his head to one side and his eye brows pull together in what I guess to be confusion. I swallow hard and blink. “Please Gavin, come here. Let me make sure you are ok.” I barely manage to whisper. He nods and slides to the end of the bed, stands and places his hand in mine. The expression on his face tells me he trusts me, but he is not sure who I am. I walk him out into the living room and gesture for him to sit on the couch. He allows me to wrap a blanket around his shoulders to cover his naked body. I feel his hand touch my arm. “Who are you and what happened to me?” My eyes fill with tears as I turn to face him. “Do you really not know who I am?” I ask as tears roll down my cheeks. “I feel like I should, but I don’t. Why are we naked?
Don’t get me wrong you are absolutely beautiful, but I am very confused.” Gavin asks. I pull my hand out of his. His confusion is giving me a headache and I need to figure out what to do and fast!
I only actually know one person who knows anything about this kind of thing; well at least I hope she does! “Gavin,” I say. He raises his head and meets my gaze. Why won’t he speak, weird? “I am going to put on some clothes and call Natasha. She should be able to help.” I tell him. One eyebrow rises as if to ask who that is. Why me? I think. “Natasha is your close friend.” He shrugs. “Can you put something on? Your clothes are there.” I point to his small chest of drawers. Gavin just nods in response and gets up moving towards the drawers. While I pull on whatever clothes I can find in my room, I reach for my phone and I notice the message light is blinking. I flip it open and see that I have a text message.
*Happy 21st Zoe!* It’s from Natasha. Perfect she is awake. Why she would be up at 6am I have no idea but it will make this easier.
I select her number from my very small phone book; it’s so small it really can’t even be considered one. Ha. The phone starts to ring, once, twice, on the third she picks up. “Happy Birthday, you are calling really early.” “Hey, Natasha, I know we barely know each other and all, but uh, I need your help.” I ask timidly “Sure thing. What you need?” I can hear Gavin moving around the apartment and quickly leave my charred room for fear he might try to leave and that is that last thing I need right now. He is only in some jeans and is digging in the fridge, Relic sitting beside him wagging her tail ecstatically. “Zoe? Hello?
Are you there?” Natasha questions in a mildly panicked tone. “Yeah, sorry, um can you come over? Something happened and I don’t really know how to explain it, but Gavin is acting really strange.” I mumble in to the phone while I watch Gavin still rummaging through the fridge. “Is everything ok? Are either of you hurt?” she questions me. “I don’t think either of us is hurt, but he is I don’t even know. Do you have Dean’s number?” “I’m on my way Zoe. I’ll give Dean a buzz and we will be there in half hour.” She was in her car I could hear the traffic in the background. “Please hurry. Thank you. I’ll try to manage until you get here.” I quickly say as I flip the phone close and drop it on the floor.
Gavin is staring into his hands his eyes wide with fear. Somehow he has lit his hands on fire again and I am afraid he’ll burn the building down if he starts to panic. “Gavin, take a deep breath.” I say calmly. I turn on the faucet and point to the water. He immediately thrusts his hands under the stream of water and the flames sizzle out. Where the flames were, his skin is still slightly red. His eyes flash to mine and the flames still dance in them. Suddenly he pulls me into his chest and hugs me to his body. My entire body overflows with fear, confusion, and agonizing lust. I cannot physically over power him and he is holding me so tight I am not able to get enough air into my lungs. I close my eyes and picture his face. “Let me go now! You’re hurting me!” I force into his mind. His head shakes in my mind refusing to do as I command. “If you kill me
you will only go mad and eventually kill yourself.” He fills my head full of flames. I can feel his skin begin to heat up and his torso ignite. As the flames lick my skin and his arms refuse to grant my lungs air I use my last ounce of air and consciousness to electrocute him. At least that is what I hope happens. I feel him let go and drop me to the floor. I am conscious until my head hits the floor and everything goes dark.
I am pinned in the corner of the kitchen by the large snarling dog. It bares its canines and stands over the body of the unconscious woman. Despite the fact that whatever she did to me left a throbbing pain in my temples I am glad she did so. I didn’t want to hurt her. I only grabbed her because before it had a calming effect. When the flames came it was like I was possessed. I was scared and it only seemed to make it worse. She felt so right in my arms, but who is she and why did I wake up naked in a bed that had been lit on fire? Did she do it or did I? The only person who knows I just burned and dropped on the floor. She said someone was coming over to help explain. I hope they get here soon, her body is lit up like the northern lights with some sort of pulsing blue and silver light and her strange markings are also dimly glowing.
I look down at my chest and arms. I have similar markings in fact they are so much alike it is kind of weird. The only difference between her markings and mine are the two symbols on either shoulder. Hers looks like a two headed hound stemming from one body and mine looks like three of them head to tail in a circle. The growling dog snaps me out of my thoughts. The woman moans and her body twitches on the floor. I realize the burn marks along her arms chest and face have almost entirely healed and her swollen lips are just barely puffy. I hear a thickly accented female voice calling out a name, her name. “Zoe. ZZ. Zoe, are you here? Gavin?”
Her voice is followed by a deep raspy male voice with an accent but one that appears to be more of a style and less of a character of vocal chords. “Gavin?
ZZ? I smell something burnt where are you kid?” Something about the man’s voice is commanding and it pricks something in the back of my mind. He is very familiar. The woman is too, but the connection isn’t as strong. The pair is coming down the hall. “Oh crap,” the male voice exclaims with a tinge of panic around the edges. The footsteps come faster and they round the corner of the breakfast bar.
Both of the strangers quickly flicker their gazes between the almost conscious woman on the floor and myself.
The man’s eyes lock onto mine and I can feel my temperature rise. He takes one step towards me and I can feel the fire just below the surface. The new woman pulls the delicate woman from the floor a few feet back and into her lap. She begins to gently slap her face and call out her name. “Zoe. Zoe wake up. Zoe, are you with me?” Worry fills her thick seductive accent. The snarling dog remains between the man and I. As he takes a step forward I look down and my hands light up in bright flames. The dog barks and I panic. My whole torso flames and my eyes dart between the man and the still running water. I want to stop I just don’t know how, she told me they would help. My eyes dart in her direction. She is awake and starring at me. Her eyes are wide with fear and tears are running down her cheeks. I want to reach out and wipe them away. I want to hold her and comfort her, but I can’t. I dive for the sink hoping the man will not attack me and the dog will not bite me if only because I am literally on fire. The moment my hands hit the stream of water it turns to steam and just like in the bedroom water seems to pour down on top of me like rain.
The one they are calling Zoe leaps from the floor and manages to skirt by both individuals and latches herself to my torso. Instead of fear, this time I feel a calming sensation, safety, compassion, maybe even love. It’s confusing and yet I welcome it.
Something about her touch is soothing and makes me feel whole. I don’t know who this being is, but I must hold onto her. “Are you ok?” She asks looking up into my eyes. I nod slowly and begin to look between her and the pair starring back at me with panicked expressions. “Everyone” she says. “Let’s go sit in the living room and get some things sorted out.” She seems to command us all as we being to move at once.
My entire body aches, no doubt from the two times he has lit me on fire this morning and knocked me unconscious. Relic lays at my feet with a wary eye on Gavin. He keeps his hand in mine and flashes moments from this morning constantly apologizing. “Stop apologizing Gavin. I need to be able to concentrate. I know you didn’t mean it and I forgive you ok!” He just nods. I haven’t heard his voice since last night. It’s almost as if he can’t speak. “I can’t. My throat is on fire. The pain is worse if I make noise.” His eyes brim with tears. He really is scared and has no idea what is going on. My heart aches for him, but I have done all I can by bringing these two here. “Sorry to interrupt, but Zoe, do you mind filling us in?” Dean asks with concern contorting his rough features.
“I woke up because I was hot. I was so hot I was sweating bullets. I couldn’t open my eyes because everything hurt, it burned. I tried to get out of Gavin’s arms, but I couldn’t make him let go. That’s when I smelled it, burning flesh, burning fabric a loud crackling. I panicked enough I was able to electrocute him and he released me.
I rolled out of the bed putting myself out. He was thrashing and screaming and bursts of flames shot out of his palms. I thought he was burning alive! I grabbed a blanket and beat at the flames. The entire time I was screaming at him to wake up there was a fire. I even tried to pull him out of the bed, but I couldn’t force myself to hold on to his body. That is when I realized he was the source of the fire. I began to beat him again and scream for him to wake up. He finally came to and the moment he realized everything was on fire water poured down over everything, but I have no idea where it came from.” Natasha has a bewildered look on her face and Dean’s expression has transformed from concern to concentration and deep thought.
“When he looked at me his eyes had flames dancing in them and his entire body was bright red. His gaze was hollow like he was no longer inside his own body. His aura had changed colors to match mine, but he looked at me like I was a complete stranger. He feels connected to me at this point, but he doesn’t understand why. Anyhow, I got him to go with me and got him to put clothes on. I called Natasha and the reason I hung up so abruptly was because he was in the kitchen with his hands on fire starring at them, terrified of himself. I helped him extinguish them and when he hugged me in fear he held me too tight cutting off my air supply and when he began panicking he lit us both on fire again at least from the waist up. I managed to electrocute him again before I passed out. When I woke up you were here.”
I have been rubbing my thumb over the top of Gavin’s hand keeping him calm and focusing on my memories. When I look up Natasha’s jaw seems to be about to unhinge itself and Dean’s face has turned back to concerned. “Oh, and Gavin said his throat feels like it is on fire and if he tries to talk the pain gets worse. He seems to recognize us all too some degree, but is very confused.” I tell them. Dean runs his callused hands through his dark brown hair and strokes the stubble on his chin. Natasha has picked the leather bound journal style book up and is flipping though it’s pages looking for something she must have remembered seeing at some point.
Gavin’s voice filled my head. “I am so sorry; I want to know who you are. I feel like I know you like you and I are two halves of one whole.” “We are. You and I are two halves of one soul. We are best friends and more. That would be why we were naked.” The flames in his eyes flashed to a regular pupil and silver, blue iris and then immediately back to flickering flames. Maybe he is more aware than either of us knows.
Dean clears his throat and everyone’s eyes turn to him. “Zoe. Since Gavin seems to be unable to speak, I’ll be asking you some questions. If he has some input he can add it through you.” I nod and so does Gavin. “Some of these questions may seem personal. I do not know what all you know about us and yourself. So, I would like to apologize in advance if anything makes you uncomfortable.” Natasha excuses herself an
d goes into the kitchen coming back with four glasses of ice water.
Gavin takes one in his free hand and gulps it down. I hand him mine and he does the same. “Like a numbing agent.” He thinks. “Ok, so Zoe, you know you and Gavin are meant to be together that you share one soul?” I nod. “You know that you have been valed and we are not sure to what degree or how long it will take to wear off completely?” Again I nod. “You know that neither of your biological guardian parents is known?” Gavin and I nod together. “And you know what it means to be fully bonded? Have you been fully bonded?” I sigh. “Yes, and yes this all happened after that occurred. Well I think it did.” I replied.
I sent vivid images through the connection to Gavin and his cheeks reddened and he looked at the floor. If I wasn’t so focused then I probably would have been reacting in a similar manner. “Ok, I have a theory.” Dean says slowly.
“It’s only a theory and I need to chat with some fellow guardians to see if we are on the right track. Do you want to hear it now or later?” “Now please.”
Gavin’s voice rasps and he puts a hand to his throat. We all stare at him briefly. Then Dean clears his throat and settles into his seat on a camping chair.
