Open World

by Casey Moss

  “Let me see if I can translate it.” After a few silent moments passed, he spoke, “Beloved. Beautiful. Mine. Remember this through all. They will create the future. Through them will be the many. Beloved. Beautiful. Mine. I beg of you remember these words. No matter what happens in the coming days do not despair. O’ do not despair. Beloved. Beautiful. Mine. The Messiah will come. All will be healed. Beloved. Beautiful. Mine. Brother will love brother, cousin embrace cousin. Beloved. Beautiful. Mine. All will be as it once was.”

  ****

  All will be as it once was, her voice chimed.

  She tilted her head and gazed at him. His beautiful green eyes gazed back. Her soul burst with love. She had known him once and neither the place nor the time mattered in this moment. She slipped her arms around him, stretched slightly and lightly brushed his lips with hers. When she pulled back, he brushed a stray strand of hair away from her face and placed it behind her ear, then cupped her cheek.

  Each leaned toward the other in harmony. She savored the feel of his lips, the way they caressed, the way they glided smoothly against hers. Again in perfect accord, each parted their mouths and deepened the kiss. He embraced her, fit her snugly to him. She was aware of each place his body touched. Contentment eased her muscles. His lips pulled from hers again. Only a feather’s touch of connection remained. She sighed happily.

  In an easy move, he had her in his arms and stood. As he carried her to a wing back settee, she claimed his mouth again. When they sat upon the red piece of furniture, her tush on his lap, she felt the extent of his arousal. She slipped her tongue into his mouth, tasting the dark berries, oak and spice of the wine he had drunk. She shifted on his lap.

  He pushed her away. His shoulders heaved several times, then steadied as he appeared to catch his breath. She tried not to be disappointed that he ended their kiss and held her away at half an arm’s length.

  “Could you try something for me? Could you try to picture that beach you spoke of earlier?”

  Again she closed her eyes and attempted to bring an image of another place to her mind. Gradually a vision of a beautiful sea and beach appeared. Her mental eye glanced behind her. Steep cliffs rose from the edge of the sand with green plateaus here and there.

  “Open your eyes, love.”

  A cool breeze with a subdued, tangy scent of salt graced her. She opened her eyes and found the two of them sitting on the beach.

  “The palace?”

  Dolon smiled. “We are no longer there. You have successfully controlled a change. Mabuz no longer holds power over you.”

  “Oh, thank God!” She threw her arms around Dolon, pushing him onto the sand near the edge of the water.

  She held his face in her hands and resumed the kiss, which he had interrupted before they found themselves in the new location. As her tongue played with his, a warming cloak of wild abandon enveloped her body. She wanted to be naked on the sand with him, the sun’s rays covering them like a blanket, the cool, tantalizing breeze whisking away the by-products of their heat of passion, as his large hands played with her breasts and explored her crotch.

  Moving the folds of his toga away, she slid her hand into the shorts he wore underneath. His cock was full and heavy on her palm. She rimmed the shaft with her fingers. He moaned into her mouth. Enjoying his reaction, her body responded in kind with the hardening of her nipples and beads of moisture dampening the cleft between her legs.

  She broke off the kiss and moved down his body, grabbing the shorts and pulling them down his taut, toned legs as she went. She tossed the piece of clothing to the side. His erect penis swayed in the air. She gazed upon his face. He moved his hands behind his head to prop it up and smiled at her.

  Focusing again on his long, thick shaft, her nerves fluttered with excitement. She bent down and took his cock into her mouth. She ringed his cock with her hand and, as she sucked on the upper portion, her hand followed her bobbing motion on the lower portion. She let the dick slide from her mouth, her tongue snaking out, licking the underside and rimming the ridge of the mushroom head. An innate need to pleasure him took hold of her. She massaged and caressed the shaft with her mouth, then moaned around his dick. The cock pulsated. She drew harder on it.

  With an extended groan, Dolon forced her off, and pulled away from her.

  A moment later he had her on her back and rolled up the length of her dress. Sand flew everywhere. She expected the rocky particles to be coarse against her skin, but they weren’t. The grains were smooth, almost soothing, beneath her legs and ass. She gazed upon the man who knelt between her thighs and watched as he bent forward and made himself comfortable near her crotch.

  The touch of his tongue within the fissure of her labia sent her mind whirring with ecstasy. And the kiss of his lips on her clit made her hips buck toward the bright blue sky. As he lapped and suckled her vulva, she grabbed his hair, entwining her fingers in the long, shaggy strands. The waves nipping at the edge of the shore tickled the tips of her toes, adding to the pleasurable sensations whizzing through her body.

  She gazed up at the sky again and gasped at the dazzling amber color swirling above her and pulsating in time with her breath. She let go of Dolon’s hair and rose slightly to look at him. He was encased in a brilliant, deep turquoise.

  Glancing up at her, he gave her a wink and the stream of colors joined together in beautiful ribbons, swirling and pulsing like auroras. Going back to his task at hand, he nipped the hair of her crotch and slid a couple of fingers into her canal. In and out they moved, alternating, tongue, then finger, finger, then tongue. She moaned and writhed under his arousing assault, never knowing that such pleasure existed. She clutched the dry sand, digging into the grains more and more with each stroke his fingers took.

  The sand was wet. She was wet. She wanted more.

  “Dolon, I want you inside of me. I want you to make love to me like there’s no tomorrow.”

  He stopped his ministrations and adjusted himself to lie beside her in the sand. “Not here.” He kissed her temple.

  “What do you mean not here?” She sat upright. “I can’t think of a better place to bond than a beautiful deserted beach.”

  “No, not here.” He waved his arm as he sat up. “Here.” He tapped the side of his head.

  “What the hell does that mean?”

  He didn’t get a chance to answer. A deafening roar, which seemed to cut through time and space, swallowed the peaceful, tranquil lapping of waves and coos of birds.

  Dolon slowly started to fade and lose substance in front of her eyes. His lips moved as if speaking to her, but his voice was a whisper in the breeze. Not believing she registered what he said, she asked him to repeat himself, but he disappeared altogether before the words made it to her again.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Faith woke to the noise of a throat clearing from her doorway. With a start, she sat up and turned toward the sound. Big T leaned against the jamb. “How long have you been standing there?” She ran her fingers through her bed hair to tame the flyaway strands she knew were there.

  “Not long at all.” He strolled in and sat on the edge of the bed. “Did you sleep well?”

  She shrugged, cuddled one of her large pillows to her midsection and took a couple of moments to consider her answer to his question. Had she slept well? She supposed so, considering she hadn’t been subjected to that man in her last dream and what she had come to think of as his vampiric tendencies. Instead, there was the other man, her sexy savior who helped her gain back control of her dream. And what a dream it was.

  Faith looked into Big T’s brown eyes, which peered out of the eyeholes of the ski mask, and smiled. “Yes. I did sleep well. I had some interesting dreams, but for the most part, I feel rested and energized if that makes sense. I haven’t felt this good upon waking in weeks.”

  “That’s great. So, do you want to go downstairs and make, umm,” he peeked at his watch, “lunch with me?”

  “Sure. I’ll be down in
a sec.” She shooed him from her room, changed from her plain blue shirt and pant pajamas, thanking heaven she hadn’t worn the ones with the bunnies and chicks on them, to a black tank top and a pair of khaki shorts. Downstairs, she found Big T at the counter cutting up vegetables for a salad.

  “Wouldn’t it be nice to live on the coast and look out to see the sand and the waves?” He rinsed off a cucumber.

  When he glanced at her, she raised an eyebrow. “Cassandra’s told you about my daydream, the one with the ocean, hasn’t she?”

  “Yes.” He pulled out a knife from the holder and chopped the vegetable.

  “Do you know about my nightmares?” She grabbed his upper arm to get his attention again.

  “Yes,” he stated with all seriousness, looking her straight in the eye. He put the knife down and turned toward her. “It all ties into who you are, and where you’re from.”

  “What the hell does that mean? Who I am and where I’m from? I’m Faith Collins, a born and raised Nevada girl.”

  He scrunched his face and shrugged a shoulder. “It’s a bit hard to explain.”

  “Well, try.” She put her hands on her slender hips.

  “Okay. Hmm…” He paused for a moment. “We’re going to do a bit of an energy exercise. Follow my lead. Do as I say. Hopefully this will help to make you receptive to what I need to tell you.”

  She regarded him like he was crazy.

  “Don’t look at me that way. If you want to know, you have to play along with me. Close your eyes, clap, then vigorously rub your hands together, and when they’re heated, cup them, but don’t pull them apart. You should feel the air become a cushiony mass, like a soft, yielding ball, within the center of your closed hands.”

  Reluctantly Faith did as he said, all the while wondering how foolish this task made her appear, but to her amazement the air had changed. As she formed her hands securely around the ball, she remarked, “Wow. This is so weird. It feels like it’s pulsating.”

  “Good. Now, keep your eyes closed and slowly move your hands apart,” his voice spoke quietly, hypnotic. “Let the ball grow and expand. And if you want, you can even envision the ball being a certain color.”

  As her hands drifted apart, she imagined the pulsing mass the same color she had seen floating above herself in her dream. A beautiful amber with its gold, brownish yellow and fire orange colors shining in polished brilliance.

  “You’re doing very well, Faith. Your orb is almost the size of a soccer ball. Now see if you can split it into two parts.”

  With an innate ease she complied, and in her hands, two tennis size balls materialized. Slowly, so as not to disturb her process, she opened her eyes. The small amber globes rolled on her palms. Imagining a third, it appeared. She maneuvered the balls up and down her arms and on the backs of her hand. A giggle escaped. In her amusement, she juggled them, tossing the orbs into the air and catching them two handed, then repeating the process one handed. She threw them in the air, spun and caught them behind her back in one hand.

  Big T watched her with a huge grin on his face. Happier than she’d been in ages, she returned the expression. Again she closed her eyes, continued to juggle the shining spheres and hummed the tune from the dream she had the night before.

  “Zya,” Tavis whispered proudly.

  She popped her eye open and stared at him, astonished. The orbs came to rest in her hands. She stepped toward him, the tops of her fingertips barely touching his chest with the spheres stilled in her palms, and opened her mouth to speak.

  “Nice set of balls you have there in your hands, Faith,” Cassandra commented from the entrance to the kitchen before her cousin could get a word out.

  Faith and Big T dropped their balls like they were two kids in trouble for having something they shouldn’t. As the orbs hit the floor, they dissipated into the air.

  Cassandra shook her head. “I don’t know about you two. Every time I come in here, I catch you guys up to something. Well, have at it. Alden is off fetching Hope. I’m heading out to Morrigan’s property. Then we’re off to the temple. Since I’ll be with my friend, you won’t have to babysit me, Big T.” She gave each one a cursory glance again, then left.

  Once the front door closed, Faith gathered her wits and focused back on Big T. She gasped. “You’re glowing!”

  “Describe it for me.”

  The rich, deep timbre of his voice reverberated through her core, reminding her of the passion she’d shared with her new dream man. She took a deep, steadying breath. “It’s like a fog edging your body. Not a thick fog because I can still make out some detail behind you, but enough of a haze to be defining. It’s a gorgeous turquoise. It ebbs and flows with your breaths.”

  “Well, my dear, you’re glowing, too. Your hue is a beautiful amber, like that of your energy globes.” He took her hand in his.

  “This is too weird,” she commented as the colors swirled and blended together. “It’s like what happened in my dream. Maybe I need some more sleep.”

  “No, Faith, you don’t need more sleep. You need to find your eyes, look with your soul, then you’ll see the truth and the path which is already before you.” He stepped in toward her and pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. “Your salvation from Mabuz’s world and the ties that bind you there lie in choosing the right course of action, deciding between good and evil.”

  She quivered under his touch, her body aching for more, aching to be caressed, stroked. “But I have chosen the path of good,” she said shakily. “I mean I go to church. I follow the commandments.”

  “That’s all well and good, but haven’t you ever felt there was something else?” he asked and inched closer, his face mere centimeters from hers. “More to the church’s teachings? More to life? More to yourself?”

  His breath made the hairs near her forehead caress her skin. She sighed at the brief contact. His sharp and spicy cologne, with hints of citrus and lavender, set her blood churning with a wanton pulse of desire. “Yes, of course I’ve wondered if there was more to life,” she whispered in response. “But doesn’t everyone go through a period of questioning?”

  “No, not everyone.” He kissed the tip of her nose, then backed away to sit in a chair at the table. “I wish I could open your mind…make you see who you really are.”

  There was that phrase again, who I really am. Who was she? She wasn’t normal Faith any more, that’s for sure. She wiggled her fingers. The glow of her amber color stream ran down her arm and consumed her hand.

  In her hand appeared another small ball. The amber sphere rolled in counter clockwise circles on her palm, then weaved in and out of her fingers. The little globe traveled over and under her hand. “How can this be?” she asked in amazement as she conjured another and let it roll around with the first. “How am I doing this?”

  “It’s because you’ve started the process.”

  “The process?” She tossed him a ball. He caught it, then tossed it right back.

  “The process of becoming enlightened, of understanding there is something greater about you, of knowing everything is connected. You come from a great clan. But you’ve closed your inner eye and have repressed your gifts and have been too immersed in your human nature.”

  “But why now? Why am I able to do this?” She held up her hands with the orbs floating above them. “Why now?”

  “Maybe because I’m here. Maybe because you’re ready for your truth to shine.” He cocked his head to one side as if studying her like a work of art.

  “You know what I think? I think you’re here to do more than be my friend and protect me and Cassandra.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Because I just figured out what the guy in my dream was trying to tell me. The hunk told me when I woke I’d be with the one who was truly meant for me.” The balls in her hand brightened. She caught Big T restraining a chuckle, only his shoulders pitching. There was a twinkle in his eye.

  “Hunk, eh?”

  “Yeah, a se
xy one at that.” She ripped out the words in irritation over his not taking her dream situation seriously and was about to comment more when a stabbing pain tore through her midsection.

  She dropped to her knees as images of the beach flashed in her mind, of her performing in front of cheering crowds, of her sitting on a council. The orbs floated in the air in front of her face, reflecting her image, reminding her of the life she had in the Statiochapel clan as a mystic and minstrel. She and Dolon were to have a life together. He was her protector.

  A profound revelation sprouted and flourished in her mind and soul. She gazed up at Big T, warm tears streaming down her face, salty on her lips. “Please, take off your mask.” She knelt forward and clutched the outer portions of his thighs. “I need to see you. I need to see who you are to complete my…” Her inner voice whispered a word in the back of her mind. “My Satori, my enlightenment.”

  As she stared at him through tear-smudged lashes, she witnessed him yank off the mask. The scale skinned face of Tavis gazed down upon her. “Tavis,” her voice scratched out in alarm. She tumbled backward, hastily crab-crawling away from the man, her mouth opening and closing like a goldfish hungry for its meager flakes. “Oh my God, no.”

  Tavis scrambled to the floor, reaching out to her. “Faith, it’s me. It’s Tavis. We had to put me in disguise to throw Buzz and his cronies off track. Also to hide my deformed skin. I’m sorry for the deception. Honey, please calm down.”

  Calming her agitated breath and racing heart, she scrutinized the dark haired, dark eyed version of Tavis. The man appeared clearly worried and then it hit her. Dolon. His long tresses were mussed up and not the right color, but the concern, the crinkles around the eyes, the love emanating from him, was all Dolon. Tavis was Dolon. Dolon Tavis.

  “Something’s wrong,” she mentioned and cupped his cheek in her hand. “You…you’re Dolon, but different.”

  He turned his head to the side, plucked the pieces of colored plastic from his eyes and when he turned back, he held the lenses out to her in the palm of his hand.