The Beckoning of Broken Things (The Beckoning Series)

by Calinda B

  “I’ll just imagine you naked.”

  “As you wish.” I pour some of the warm oil into my palm. Rub it between my hands. Apply it to Daniel’s feet, caressing the arches, wrapping around the top of the feet. I work my way up the inside of his legs. Sweep my hands down along the outside. Knead and caress. Massage away cares and worry.

  Daniel sighs.

  I scoot higher. Bend my body so the feathers in my hair tickle his erection.

  Daniel hisses.

  I pour a trickle of warm oil over his cock and balls. Lovingly massage them.

  Daniel’s mouth falls open. He pants, softly.

  I squeeze and caress. Work my fingers gently between his scrotum and his thighs. Dip my nose down to inhale his earthy scent. Poise my mouth over the head of his cock. Lower it and suck, softly at first, then with more vigor. Rake my fingernails softly down either side of him.

  Daniel groans and moves his hips, thrusting into my mouth.

  I use my mouth to stimulate him and stop. Scoot back just a little on the bed. Sit very quietly, contemplating my next move. The only sound in the room is Daniel’s and my breath, which sounds like a huge wind in the stillness of the moment.

  I slide off the bed and wander to the drawer in my bed stand. Grab the handle and pull. The wood makes a soft swishing as it opens. I stir my hand around the contents of the drawer, making it jostle and rattle. Retrieve two large metal balls held together by a silken cord.

  Daniel waits, listening.

  I hold the metal balls next to his ears and tap them together. Tap, tap, tap. Tap, tap, tap. Move them around to his other ear and repeat the process. Tap them together in a circle over his head, making the sound land on one side and then the other. Click them together with varying intensity and frequency.

  I place one of the balls in the hollow of his neck. Rest my fingertips on it and fill it with electricity until it hums and glows. Hold the other ball, allowing the electrical impulses to pulse down the line to the one resting at the base of his neck.

  Daniel inhales sharply.

  His mouth is so goddamned beautiful, I pause for a moment. His lips are succulent, full and made for kissing. I lean down and connect, mouth to mouth, savoring the connection. I gently break apart and lick my lips.

  Reaching under the bed once more, I slide a tray along the stone and wood floor. It swishes as it moves. I retrieve a glass bowl filled with dark chocolate mousse, made from super dark chocolate, loads of heavy cream, and just enough sugar. I scoop some into my fingers and paint my lips with the spectacular dessert. Bring my lips back down to Daniel’s.

  “Mmm,” he intones, tasting the chocolate. He nibbles my mouth. Sucks the chocolate from my lips. Licks the creamy concoction. “Mmm.”

  I lean back and admire his chocolate, red lipstick-stained mouth. Grab a soft washcloth from under the bed and lovingly wipe him clean. I draw the glowing metal ball down the middle of his chest. Bring it down to his belly.

  He shivers as it rolls down his abdomen.

  I guide the shimmering metal between his legs, and bring it back up to dance long his erection.

  “Oh, Jesus,” he says as the subtle electrical impulses play along the length of him.

  When I finish with that play, I rest the glowing orbs on his belly. I dip down for more mousse. Take a taste. “Mmm.” Reach down to his throbbing cock and paint it with the dark mixture. I proceed to eat, slurp, lick, and enjoy my warm, chocolate popsicle.

  “Ah, fuck, Marissa. You’re going to make me come, you know.”

  “Not so fast,” I whisper. I reach for a basin underneath the bed. Placing my hand in the bowl, I warm the temp to perfection. Pick up a silky cloth. Proceed to lovingly wash my lover. I dab him with a thick, plush towel until he is dry.

  Positioning myself over his erection, I part my costume and reach down to guide him inside of me. “Mmm,” I moan. I erase his blindfold so he can witness my pleasure in the dim light of the room. It’s dusk so I visualize a few soft candles into existence.

  He gives me the most searing look of love and desire. It melts me. It touches me in places I never knew existed. I sink down, connecting us together.

  “Come here.”

  I lean toward him, and we kiss. And we kiss. And we kiss. I’m so immersed in the kiss and the feeling of him inside of me that it takes me by surprise to notice that his hands are stroking up and down my back. I pull back and twist my head. His legs are unbound now, too.

  “How did you do that?”

  “The same way you bound me in the first place. Trade secret. I wanted to yield to you. I wanted to surrender to you and have you be in charge. I didn’t want to spoil the fun. And fun it was. Still is,” he added, thrusting inside of me. “Thank you, goddess, for the exquisite journey. You are so beautiful, Light Rebel,” he says to me with eyes full of misty tears. “I will do whatever I can to make myself worthy of you. I will let you decide what to do. If you want to allow the dissolution of the soul binding, so be it.”

  “Shhh,” I said. “Let’s let that decision come on its own. No need to force it. I just wanted you to feel my love and desire for you tonight. Let that be its own decision.”

  We continued to rock against one another until we reached a stirring climax. It was one of the best of our communions to date. I howled when I came. He groaned and called my name over and over and over. And we both pulsed with the shared love of our still soul bound heart. The future would take care of itself.

  Chapter 39

  I awaken in the middle of the night. The geckos and night birds are calling. Stars wink at me from between the dense foliage outside my bedroom.

  “Marissa…”

  A strange, echoey woman’s voice is calling to me. Daniel is nowhere to be found. “Who’s there? Who’s calling me?”

  “It’s me, Gabriela. I can’t enter your bedroom. I can only call you from where I am.”

  “Uh, okay. What’s up?” I sit up and pull a robe around my shoulders.

  “There’s a problem. I need you to come with me.”

  “Okay,” I say dubiously. “What kind of problem?”

  “It’s Rafe.”

  Hearing Rafe’s name, I am instantly alerted, instantly ready. “Oh, no! What’s wrong?”

  “He’s gone berserk. His employer had him caged in preparation for his job, and he’s gone berserk. You have to come. Quickly!”

  “Where do I go?” I leap out of bed and tug on jeans and a t-shirt.

  “See the blurry spot in the forest?”

  “Uh.” My eyes scan the darkness. “Yeah. There it is.”

  “Enter there.”

  “Enter how?”

  “Run and leap. Quickly! I can’t contain him much longer.”

  “He’s in there with you?”

  “Yes, dear. Come. Now!”

  I pull on my sandals and prepare to run and leap. Daniel saunters in the room.

  “Going somewhere?”

  “Yes. I have to go. Rafe has gone berserk.”

  Daniel stiffens. “He does that from time to time. It’s part of his job. What’s the big deal? Is he calling you?”

  “No. It’s your mom. I have to do this. I owe it to him.”

  He gives me an icy stare.

  “Daniel, please, we’ll sort everything out. I promise.”

  A high-pitched, warped groan echoes through the room.

  “Daniel, please! Let me go help your mother, and when I return, I’ll give you my answer about the soul binding. I promise!”

  He sighs. “Alright. I’d hoped to linger in the love I felt from you last night.”

  “Hold on to it. It was real. I’ll be back!”

  “Come here.”

  Now it’s my turn to sigh. Gabriela is clearly in a struggle, and my moody, possessive soul bound lover wants my attention. He also seems rather nonplused about his mom. “Daniel, for Pete’s sake.”

  “I just want to kiss you goodbye.”

  “You can only kiss me ‘see you later
.’”

  “That’s what I meant.”

  I race over to him to give him a quick kiss. Instead, he pulls me close and kisses me deeply.

  “This,” he says, touching his lips, “Is what is waiting for you when you return. Don’t forget that.” He touches his chest with his palm. “And this will be yours no matter what your decision.”

  “Thank you.” I take a moment to connect, eyes to eyes, heart to heart. My eyes grow a little misty as I gaze at him and savor the love between us. “Thank you.”

  Another heart wrenching scream tears the air. “Marissa, please!” Gabriela pleads with me.

  “Go!” Daniel waves his hand impatiently at me. “This is your fight, not mine.”

  I roll my eyes at him and race toward the blur and leap. In seconds, I am in Warplandia. I can barely comprehend what I see.

  Gabriela seems to have Rafe lashed with some strange magical filaments. She’s leaning back as if she’s gentling a wild horse. And oh, what a wild horse! I can’t make out the edges of Rafe’s body. All I see is a shimmering blur, banging and bashing against trees, against rocks, against everything solid. Words are sounding, but I can’t make them out.

  “What’s he saying?” I yell.

  “He’s saying he doesn’t want to hurt you. You, Marissa. You’re all he’s talked about for the last two hours, ever since he went berserk. I was able to contain him for a while but now…” She grunts and tugs against the bindings.

  “What? That doesn’t make any sense. I haven’t seen him for over a week. How could he get to me to hurt me?”

  Rafe’s blurry form crashes against a rubbery tree, pulling Gabriela.

  “Help me, dear, he’s way too strong for me. There will be time to discuss this later.”

  “I just mastered some binding techniques of my own,” I say, thinking of last night with a blush. “Let me see if they’ll work.” I swiftly manifest the bindings of light that held Daniel to the bed. I add extra layers, knowing that Daniel broke them when he was good and ready to break them. In seconds, Rafe is lashed to the tree.

  He’s still agitated, as evidenced by the trembling tree. He’s also still a blur.

  “Easy, Rafe. Easy. I’m here.”

  His form instantly stills.

  “Oh, honey, you don’t look so good,” I say, approaching cautiously.

  Every square inch of him is bruised, battered, and bloodied. He’s trussed to the tree trunk good and tight. He turns his mutilated face toward me and gives me a wild blue-eyed, tortured look. His head turns right and left, right and left. “No, no, no, no, no,” he says over and over. “Stay away from me.”

  “Honey, honey, honey.” Tears fill my eyes as I approach him. “Easy. I’m not going to hurt you.”

  He emits a weird, barbarian growl like a beast from Daniel’s wicked world of darkness.

  I step back, suddenly, taken aback. “Rafe? Are you with me, honey?”

  Another growl erupts from Rafe’s throat. This one sounds sinister. This one sounds deadly.

  “Keep going, dear. I’m going to summon some help.” Gabriela starts to sing. It’s a strange, humming sort of vocalization that makes the hair on my head and neck stand out straight.

  “Rafe? You’re going to be alight, honey.”

  He growls at me.

  “Is this part of the berserker rage?” I whisper. “Does he actually turn into a beast?”

  “I’m not sure. I’ve never seen him do this. I’ve been in hiding, you remember. Just keep doing what you’re doing.” She resumes her harmonic, other-worldly vocalization.

  I step closer to Rafe. His face looks rather vicious. He’s snarling at me and straining against his restraints.

  “Don’t come any closer,” he snaps at me. “I’ll tear you limb from limb.”

  My eyebrows rise and my arms pepper with goose flesh. Whoa! “You don’t want to do that, honey. You only want to love me, remember?”

  His head starts shaking side to side again. “Can’t love you, can’t love you, no, no, no, no, no!”

  “Can love me,” I say encouragingly. “Can. And do.” I smile reassuringly.

  Another snarl leaves his lips. His hands ball into fists. He twists violently against the silvery filaments.

  “All you need is a little touch, Rafe. That will calm you right down.”

  Gabriela continues with her sing song vocalizations. They’re so odd they’re starting to make me feel loopy inside.

  “Come on, honey, just a little touch.” I extend my hand toward his face. Rafe snarls and snaps at me with his teeth, causing me to jerk back my arm. “That wasn’t very nice.” I look over at Gabriela. “I’m not very good at this soothing stuff, you know.”

  She’s in some sort of trance and doesn’t answer. Shimmering forms appear above her head. They circle Rafe.

  He blinks and pulls his head back like they’re hurting him somehow. His face contorts in confusion. He’s torqueing his head side to side, trying to avoid whatever it is that these figures are doing.

  I seize the moment and move next to him, wrapping my arms around him. He pulls and resists, struggling against the soothing touch. Then his head slumps on my shoulder. I’m now holding him and holding the tree. “See how easy that was, Rafe?” I say sweetly. “Nothing to it.” I release the bindings. Rafe is so heavy that we both fall, him on top of me, like a sack of wet cement. “Oof!” The air flies from my lungs. “Is he dead?” I squeak at Gabriela, still trying to catch my breath. She’s still doing her thing with the formless see-through shapes. “Rafe? Rafe?”

  He’s really heavy. I can barely breathe. His breath is shallow, puffing against my cheek. I roll him off of me. Now he’s pinning my left arm. He’s unconscious, Gabriela is in a trance, the formless forms are still circling, only now they’re circling both of us. I pull my arm free. “Now what?”

  Rafe’s eyes open. When he sees me, he quickly sits up and scoots away from me. “Where did you come from? What happened?”

  “You went berserk. Gabriela called me. I came. We calmed you.”

  He glances up at the wraith-like forms still surrounding him. “Call off the dogs, Gabriela. I’ve got this.”

  “They don’t look like dogs to me.”

  “They’re not. That’s just what I call them. They’re Restrainers. They’re from the other side. They restrain without force. They’ve only been used on me once before, but they’re not pleasant to deal with. It’s like being pinned in place by invisible slime. I can feel it, but I can’t see it.”

  Gabriela stops chanting. The Restrainers dissipate like rolling fog. Gabriela looks exhausted. She makes her way over to us and slumps to the ground next to Rafe. “Are you okay, son?” She brushes a weary hand over his bloody forehead. “You’ll need some care. I’ll do it in a moment when I catch my breath.”

  Rafe nods. He seems taken aback by her use of the word “son.” “I’ll be okay.”

  “No, you won’t. You’re a bloody, battered mess, Stealth Numen or no Stealth Numen. Let me do my job.”

  “Alright, Gabriela. I won’t resist.” He blows his breath out of his mouth forcefully. “This is just the shit.” He looks at me and shakes his head. “Do you know why Stealth Numens guard their heart from love? And why they resist having sex if they find themselves in love?”

  “Haven’t a clue.” I smile at him.

  “It’s because of what just happened. It’s because you’re food to me, and I want to destroy you if I can’t have you.”

  I gasp. “Are you kidding me?” I’m starting to reconsider ever having sex again what with all the craziness that seems to happen to me afterwards.

  “I’m afraid not. I’d always been told that, but do I ever listen? Noooo. Not the Stealth Numen. He keeps to himself and doesn’t believe what is told to him. What an ass I am. I had to go and fall in love with you. You! You’re soul bound to another, but you’re the one I picked.” His words fly out of his mouth in an angry torrent.

  “The heart lives by its o
wn rules, dear,” Gabriela says gently. “There’s no why or who or how.”

  “I’ll say. It’s just fucked up.”

  I bring my hand to his arm to soothe him, but he angrily brushes it away. He gets to his feet and starts pacing. “Don’t you get it? The Numina - we’re different. Love affects us differently. I warred against opening to you. Fought against it. Don’t you see? I can’t not love you, Marissa. Can’t. Now that I’ve let you in, I can’t undo it. You can say you’ll never see me again. Fine. I hope you do that. But I can’t undo this thing. Just as Daniel is soul bound to you, I’m…I’m…I don’t know what I am. I’m nothing but a mess. A fucking mess who can no longer do his job!”

  “And why is that?”

  “Because,” he shouts at me. “Because when the energy is released in me, when I’m berserk enough to do my fucking job, all I want to do is find you and kill you!” His hands fly to his face and he groans. “And that can never happen! I’ll die before that happens.”

  “Is he right?” I ask Gabriela. I’m shocked.

  “I’m afraid so, dear. We’ve all heard the mythology. He’s living proof.”

  “Is there anything we can do? Anything to prevent this from occurring?”

  Rafe scoffs and look skyward out of the corner of his eyes. “Oh, sure. You can be my constant companion. I’ll bring you on every job so I can get my fix when I need to.”

  “Hmmm.”

  “Don’t even consider it. What I do is dangerous, love. It’s fucked up. It’s the kind of stuff that nightmares are made of. I’m very, very good at what I do.”

  An involuntary shiver launches up my spine. “I see.” My track record with men is getting better and better.

  He sighs. “I think it would be best if I went far, far away from you. I need to be so far away from you that I can’t harm you when I release my rage.”

  Tears spill from my eyes. “No! There has to be another way! I love you, too, Rafe. What about me? Don’t I get a say in all this?”

  He shakes his head slowly side to side. “I don’t think so.”

  Now I leap to my feet. I run over to where Rafe stands and shove him angrily. “That’s not fair. You can’t do that to me.”