And more than her emotions responded to him. Her body suddenly burned with a fire she hadn’t experienced before—smoldering heat igniting, rushing through her, tearing at her. Her pussy throbbed, swelling, moistening, while a quickening tightened her womb, responding to his penetrating stare.
She couldn’t breathe, her heart had started racing so hard. Panic and pleasure. Excitement. The moment she’d been waiting for yet she had no idea what that moment was.
Bridget had made it to the end of the parking lot before she could regain control of her own thoughts, confusion being the overwhelming reaction.
What in the hell is going on here?
Turning, she realized the stranger had disappeared. But the man who watched her, bored through her rational thoughts and grabbed a hold of something so deep inside her she hadn’t even known it was there—he wasn’t so easily explained. Looking back toward the street, she searched the length of the block.
Bridget stood alone at the edge of the gravel parking lot, feeling suddenly more than confused, and quite a bit scared.
Chapter Two
Braze knew he had broken more than one rule. But he hadn’t been able to help himself. Standing there, feeling the ground under his feet, the breath pumping through his lungs, blood rushing through his veins, he hadn’t been able to stop at simply taking human form so that she could see him.
No matter what the elders said, he had to come and see for himself. And even now, seeing Brigit, he still wouldn’t accept that this was the end.
Her powers were there. Dormant maybe. Buried too deeply under a thick crust of her human life, possibly. But they were there. With hardly any encouragement she had been able to cast away the demon, prevent it from closing in on her.
For now, he would have to accept that she was safe. He didn’t want to leave her. More than anything he wanted her to see him, remember him, recognize him as her one true mate.
She hadn’t forgotten him. The way she had moved across her land, approached him with confidence, she still loved him. But for now, she didn’t know it.
Who she was, who she had been, the many lives she had lived, had escaped her. Somehow, someone had managed to steal her memories, convince her of her mortality.
Braze had no idea who had managed such a feat, but he would find out. And more so, he would do everything in his power to see that she remembered her true identity. And he had a lot of power.
Turning, fading in with the cold fall wind, he moved away from her. Silent. Invisible. Braze would take a quiet approach, watch her, keep an eye on her, and when the moment was right, she would remember.
Seeing her after all this time, after so many centuries, had affected Braze more than he’d expected. There was a sense of maturity on her face that hadn’t been there before. Her expression wiser, more solemn than the young girl on Hedel. Her long brown hair still fell to her ass, and although her curves were more womanly, more mature, she still made him hard as a rock just watching her. His soul drifted around in the wind, his thoughts stealing his ability to concentrate.
She had been so naïve when he first met her, willing to do anything to please her people, keep them from growing hostile toward her. When she entered the ceremony on Hedel, her thoughts were only to make the elders happy. He wouldn’t let himself pretend her initiation ceremony had been anything other than that. She had wanted him. There was no way Brigit could keep her thoughts, her inner feelings, her cravings from him. But she had offered her body to the elders, knew keeping the coven happy would ultimately make her life a lot easier.
She’d been so young, so incapable of seeing the whole picture. And as much as Braze wanted to tell her, show her the coven should serve her instead of the other way around, he knew she needed to gain that knowledge on her own.
And he’d been young, too. There would be no regrets over his actions. Those elders had no right to enjoy her, sink their ancient cocks into her fresh, untouched cunt. No fucking way! No matter it had sent them into a rage, brought down Hedel before its time. The coven lived on, as he knew it would. They were immortals.
Just as it had been prophesized, the coven cast its seed throughout the galaxy. Braze knew Brigit had come to Earth. Her lives here had gone down in history books. These people had a tendency to rewrite their history, destroy facts, and continually do battle with each other over the same disagreements. That had been to Brigit’s advantage. No one could look over recorded history and see the pattern, recognize an immortal. She had been left alone to live her life among these people, dying and being reborn, only to live the same life over again. If only the other immortals had used their lives to such an advantage.
But Brigit had disappeared. And that had made the elders nervous. Not only that, the growing number of demons mingling among these people had them combing the planet, searching for her.
Braze wasn’t ready to let them know he’d found her. A little more research was needed. From what he’d seen, she was still more powerful than most. Very few could cast out a demon with a mere word. Demons were strong. Their demented perversions flourished among these people, making them stronger.
But for some reason, she didn’t remember her immortality, her incredible strength. It would come back to her, but he wanted to know why she’d forgotten first.
Sleet began plummeting to the ground. The cold caused those around him to bundle up, shelter their frail human shells. For Braze though, his soul floating among the humans walking on the sidewalk, the cold had no bearing. The tiny bits of ice passed through him.
Emotions, however, did affect him. His soul was no different than any other. Passing through the humans on the street, he felt their anger, happiness, boredom, lust. Vivid and alive, he fed on their emotions, learning more and more what it meant to be human.
He would do well here, for as long as it took to re-secure her into his life.
Hovering at the end of the block, he waited, probing the area, searching for any anomalies that might harm Brigit. Until she came to her senses, realized who she was, he would watch, and he would wait.
Time meant nothing to him. Centuries had become minutes, eternity an entity that neither moved forward nor backward. He focused on her car and the closed door to her shop, knowing she was behind it, doing what she’d always loved, metal-smithing.
A steady rain fell in straight lines, the few people out and about hurrying to get out of it. His entire being tightened when Brigit finally left the building, hunching her body over a box while hurrying to her car. For so long he’d searched for her, using the power he should have used to keep her by his side. And now, moving among these people as if she were one of them, he’d found her. Yet she went by Bridget now, so similar to her old name, yet modern. He liked it. It fit her.
He followed her into the heart of the city, watching her move easily in and out of traffic until she parked in front of a stately old brick building. Entering through the tall iron gate, he moved behind her, itching to take form and gather her thick long brown curls in his hands.
Bridget spoke to others inside the building, discussing certain children and staff members.
“Anya reminds me of you when you first arrived.” An older woman had taken Bridget by the hand, walking with her down the hallway.
“I barely remember that time period,” Bridget said, her voice a melodic sound.
Braze hovered behind them, taking in the high ceilings and clean linoleum on the floor. For the most part an equal mixture of happiness and sadness filled the air. But Bridget distracted him from learning too much about the place. The soft sway of her ass while she walked, her long slender legs so nicely accented in the clothing she wore.
Moving in on her, he sank into her body, momentarily one with her thoughts.
You will remember me.
“You were frightened, didn’t even know your name,” the older woman said.
Bridget didn’t answer, but looked around her instead. Confusion mixed with a shrewd look. There was no fear. As he sus
pected, her powers weren’t dormant; she just didn’t use them. But he knew she heard him, knew he’d merged with her.
Bridget reached forward, adjusting the box in her arms before pushing one of two large double doors open. She held it while the woman entered. Glancing behind her again, searching, those sultry green eyes a deep pool of warmth, glowing, alive, captivating.
“And then when we got you a bit comfortable…” the older woman laughed gently at the memory. “Oh, the gibberish that you told us.”
They left the large door open, entering into a room that echoed with their footsteps. Bridget put her box down on a long table and then ran her fingers over several pieces of artwork on display.
“This is all very good,” she mused, stroking the length of a painting.
“None of it is as good as your creations.” The woman crossed her arms over her ample chest, watching Bridget.
Bridget laughed, the sound teasing Braze’s senses.
He could take it no more. Her pleasures were right there, so ripe, untasted for way too long. Shifting into the form of a man, he remained invisible, but moved in behind her, inhaling her fragrance.
“They are just children, Maureen,” Bridget said in a soothing tone. “Give them time to allow their creativity to grow.”
Her soft voice stroked his cock to life. Braze reached out with his hand, wanting more than anything to grab her thick locks of hair, force her to turn and acknowledge him. Her sweet scent, something similar to lavender, intoxicated him, made him wild with the need to drag her away and make her his all over again.
The older woman, Maureen, turned away from Bridget, walking over to the other side of the room where she opened a closet door.
Braze savored the brief moment that Bridget stood there alone, glancing down at the artwork laid out on the table. He needed her to remember, to acknowledge him. Everything inside boiled with a passion that he’d fought to keep at bay for too many centuries.
Think hard, Bridget. Remember and come to me.
He whispered the thought into her mind while he reached out and stroked the side of her neck with his finger. So soft, so warm, so vibrant and alive.
Bridget spun around, her look wild while she searched the room. Her hand went to her neck, her fingers touching the spot he had just touched.
“Go away,” she whispered, her tone fierce and demanding.
Braze slid backward across the floor, almost losing his footing. Grabbing the side of the wall, he braced himself, disbelief coursing through him while he stared at her. Her fingers lingered at her neck while she looked around, wide-eyed. Her panic reached out to him, her confusion and paranoia.
If he hadn’t experienced her powers firsthand, he never would have believed it. They had grown tenfold. Not only were they not dormant, they were incredibly strong.
“Do you remember making this?” Maureen didn’t seem aware that Bridget shook with fright.
Braze saw that her expression had paled, the rosy look that had colored her cheeks a moment before gone. As powerful as she was to move him without his consent, a feat none of the elders would have been able to do, Bridget had no clue that she had these powers.
“Maureen. I can’t believe you kept that.” Bridget managed to compose herself, the fear that had swarmed around her dissipating quickly.
All of her attention was now on the older woman while she graced her with a smile that Braze would kill to have focused on him. He straightened, approaching her slowly. She’d caught him off-guard once, but it wouldn’t happen again.
“Of course I kept it.” Maureen held out a ziplock bag holding an artifact made from straw. “It reminded me of the old cross my grandmother kept over her door. I remember asking you why you wanted to make a cross like that when you were a child, but you just shrugged at the time and told me that was how it wished to be designed.”
Braze moved in closer, looking over Bridget’s shoulder at the artifact preserved as well as possible in the plastic bag. Much of the straw had crumbled, now simply dust in the corners of the bag, but he could see how once they had been woven, carefully put together to make an odd-shaped cross.
The old woman’s thoughts were an open book, her superstitious mind summing up an accurate conclusion. She would never voice her thoughts though, fearing for her job, and not wanting to be deemed a fool.
“I’d just arrived here,” Bridget remembered, her thoughts cloudy while she tried to search back to her childhood.
Braze ached to soothe her, ease her memory, take her in his arms and hold her until the unknown pain that blocked her ability to regain what she’d hidden was gone.
“Yes. They found you in the park—half-starved.” Maureen watched Bridget’s expression, her worry that Bridget wouldn’t enjoy the memory as obvious on her face as it was in the air around her.
Braze reached out to Bridget, gently touching her thoughts, searching for what she refused to show. How had she been deserted in a park? Who had her and treated her like this?
Bridget sincerely didn’t know who she was. Somehow her memory had been erased, her past lives a mystery to her. Yet her power was intact, burning through her passionately. That part of her reached out to him, carefully, cautiously. Again she showed no fear. She knew he searched her thoughts though, and carefully took a look at him to see who he was and why he did it.
Outwardly though, Bridget frowned, focusing on the older woman. “You gave me a good life,” she said finally, giving up internally on finding the lost memories.
Maureen shrugged, reaching for Bridget, her dimpled hand stroking Bridget’s arm the way Braze wanted to.
“I’m glad you are happy, sweetheart.” She smiled, and then turned toward the box. “And the children will love the gifts that you’ve brought them.”
“Well, I need to keep moving.” Bridget shoved him away again.
This time Braze was ready for her, backing out of her thoughts slowly, wanting more than anything to touch her with more than his mind.
“Let me know if you need anything else.” Bridget already hurried toward the door.
He’d made her nervous. She believed leaving the room would rid her of whoever it was had nagged at her. Nagged at her. That is what she thought he was doing. Once she had gloried in his presence; now he annoyed her. He would absolutely destroy the person who had taken his Bridget from him.
And in the meantime, he wouldn’t let her out of his sight. Marching right after her, following her back to her car, he mentally worked to contact a few friends, those he could trust, those who would be able to take the time to search, find out what had happened to her.
He climbed in next to her and watched with patient curiosity while she tried to make her car start.
“Damn it. Start!” she yelled, and the machine rattled to life.
She didn’t question her powers, her mind refusing to see the obvious, but instead drove away from the orphanage. And she was headed toward her home! He couldn’t think of a better place for them to go. Braze doubted he would be able to keep his hands off of her much longer. Just sitting next to her, the full curve of her breasts so nicely accented by the snug-fitting sweater she wore made him ache to be inside her. With every breath, the material stretched, her soft curves enticing, tempting him until his blood boiled. Her tight, flat tummy and long legs made him ache to see her out of those clothes.
Braze itched to reach out and touch her, allow the molecules inside him to form enough so that he could feel the soft warmth of her body against his fingers. Thoughts of making the car break down, of having it turn and take them to some isolated place tempted him. She took too long to reach her home. There wasn’t enough power in the universe to keep him from her, and waiting another moment, after being deprived for so many centuries seemed too much to ask.
“You have always been mine,” he whispered, although in his thoughts.
He knew she heard him. Those soft green eyes widened, searched the car quickly before returning her attention to the road. He
watched her slender fingers wrap around the steering wheel and imagined them gripping his cock as tightly. The fire burning in him intensified, making it hard to control his powers, to keep from forcing himself upon her, force her to remember how once she had screamed his name in pleasure.
His cravings became too much. Just to touch her, to stroke his fingers over her soft, warm skin, to feel her heat flush through him, adding to his own fever, made the drive to her home seem an eternity. She didn’t see him, didn’t know him, refused to accept that he sat next to her. But he could let her experience the gentlest of caresses. Her heart would see what her mind refused to. For now, that would be enough.
Braze almost felt the dash come up against him when Bridget slammed on the brakes.
“Get out!” Those green eyes burned with fury when she turned and glared directly at him. “You will leave me alone! Be gone. You will never bother me again.”
She yelled the words so loudly her voice cracked. But the intensity of her powers succeeded. Braze grabbed a hold of the interior of the car, all of his attention focused on preventing himself from flying out of the car.
“Leave!” She pointed a finger directly at him, the tip of her fingernail almost touching his nose.
“Don’t do this, Bridget.” He barely got the words out before he was propelled from the car.
Chapter Three
Bridget’s hand shook when she tried to get her key into the keyhole.
“Damn it. What’s wrong with you?” She fought her tears, pushing open her apartment door, and then shutting it quickly behind her.
Was she safe here?
Never in her life had she felt so foolish and terrified all at the same time. First at her workshop. The teenage girls were strange, but explainable. But the man who had visited afterwards hadn’t acted human. Then the intense sensation that she was being followed, watched, both at the orphanage and in her car. None of it made any sense.
Fallen Gods: Tainted Purity Page 3
