‘You have the most beautiful breasts I’ve ever seen,’ Father Luc breathed, and when he cupped them and cradled their weight, I let out a languid sigh. His thumbs rubbed my nipples, which swelled into sharp, aching buds. So effortlessly he aroused me, caressing my chest and then enfolding my breasts in a seductive squeeze that made me see swirls of fuchsia and blue.
When he pressed his lips to my skin, my legs instinctively hugged his hips.
‘Ah, so eager,’ he teased, bracing his weight on his elbows. ‘But you’ll have to wait, my Mary. Lovemaking requires patience and finesse, and a fine sense of timing.’
Father Luc kissed my breasts more insistently then. The scrape of his beard and the slickness of his heated lips filled me with with a desperate desire. I dug my fingers into his hair, marvelling at its silkiness. Whimpering, I urged him to suck each of my breasts into his mouth while I writhed with the ecstasy this ignited.
‘Kiss me…kiss me,’ I breathed. The colours in my mind’s eye twirled more tightly now, the hot pink throbbing resembling a pussy, with a deep azure hole begging to be filled.
The abbot pressed himself into a fiery kiss, his body lying fully upon mine. Our mouths moved fiercely, seeking release. Every tendon in my body, every level of my being, pulsed to the beat set by this maniacal piper and I danced as I’d never done before. The tip of his huge cock rested against my cunt, spreading his wetness to blend with mine, yet holding back — withdrawing to torment me when I thrust up to engulf it.
‘Ah, my Mary, I knew it would be this way,’ he whispered near my ear. ‘So passionate you are, so perfectly fashioned to satisfy me. I’ve brought you to the brink and I won’t disappoint you. Let me take you higher, to a place you’ve never been.’
His hand slipped between our bodies so he could circle my clitoris. I yelped with my need, curling against the finger that inflamed me. It was scarlet I saw now, leaping and dancing flames, searing my soul beyond redemption as I felt the spasms begin. I slipped into a state akin to unconsciousness, yet I’d never flown so high nor felt so vibrantly alive as I arched and shuddered against him.
‘Fuck me! Fuck me now!’ I thrashed against him, searching for the shaft that would fill me with its power.
But Father Luc held us at the edge. ‘Open your eyes, my love. I want you to be looking at me when we come together.’
I obeyed, and then cried out: he had positioned my head so it was Hyde I saw. The pain on Fortune’s face sent me into a fit of sobbing, yet I couldn’t stop thrusting against the man who held me captive on the table.
My greed for release consumed me, intensified by a blinding rage. ‘Take me, you bastard.’ I rasped. ‘You know I can’t stand this any longer. You know how I hate you, yet I have to have you.’
Father Luc’s eyes glowed amber as he positioned his cock against my open, hungry hole. ‘Congratulations, Mary Grace,’ he said in a sibilant whisper. ‘You’ve played our game with honour and commendable virtue. But it’s time for me to win. I always win, you see.’
‘Your game?’ I demanded. ‘You can’t tell me —’
His chuckle paralysed me. ‘It’s true, sweet Mary. I saw you enslaved to your despotic father, and knew even then I had to have you. It was easy to send him over that edge — a victim to his own greed and our brandied cakes — and easier yet to make Hyde co-operate. He already believed in the higher purpose of Heaven’s Gate; he’s dedicated himself to noble causes all along. So you see, this moment is the culmination of all our hopes and highest aspirations. The reason for our being.’
Father Luc lunged, filling me with his fearsome cock. The force and size of it threw me back against the table, yet even in my dazed state I squeezed its throbbing girth to suck it deeper inside me. The colours in my head were spinning so fast I had the sensation of being levitated, weightless — or was it further evidence of the abbot’s unearthly spell over me? A magic so black it swallowed me whole while catapulting me beyond all comprehension.
Like a sawdust doll I flailed as the abbot pumped me, yet I begged him like one possessed to fuck me harder. My head thumped the table, punctuating his grunts until he shot into me with such volcanic force I fell senseless. A final crack of my skull made stars explode behind my eyes, and a mind-shattering climax sent me into black oblivion.
Chapter Twenty
Fate, or Fortune?
‘The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures…He leadeth me beside the still waters…He restoreth my soul.’
I drifted into awareness, vaguely wondering if I were a spirit attending my own funeral. My body felt cushioned in warmth, and I would’ve been content to float in that semi-conscious state forever if my head hadn’t been racked by a sharp pain. I moaned and my eyes flew open.
The soothing voice stopped. The candlelight dimmed as figures stepped in around me.
‘Mary Grace? Welcome back, sweetheart. How are you feeling?’
My eyes took their time about focusing upon a man who seemed familiar, and then upon two other faces. One was distinctly female, her pale ochre skin set off by an elaborate topknot of ebony hair. The other, ruddy and defined by a close-cropped black beard, made my heart skitter. I shrank away, wishing I could escape into that deep, numbing sleep again.
‘Easy now, love. Surely you remember Sebastian?’ came the voice I’d heard earlier. ‘You’re not fully awake, Mary Grace. It’ll all come back to you eventually.’
That’s what frightened me most: that it would all come back, and the nightmarish images in my head would mean I hadn’t escaped Heaven’s Gate after all. My mind had vibrated, even in sleep, with the raucous calls of a crowd while I paraded naked, allowing dozens of men to fondle and lick my body. I smelled incense and my skin felt sticky. Most ominous, however, were visions of a dark demon wielding his power while I succumbed, without resistance, to unthinkable acts of humiliation and shame.
‘Can you hear me, Mary Grace? Do you know who I am?’
The timbre of that low voice convinced me to concentrate on the face that was lowering towards mine. A wedge of sandy hair fell over his brow, accentuating eyes that shone with compassion. He radiated a love I longed for, and I wondered if it were the Saviour Himself bending over me. I whimpered, feeling inadequate, unworthy of his concern.
When he frowned, it all came back with horrible clarity: the same pain I’d seen on the face I loved most, as the abbot entered me.
‘Hyde,’ I murmured, turning my face from him.
‘Yes. Oh, thank God!’ he said, caressing my cheek. ‘She’s going to be fine. It was just a nasty whack on the head.’
This would explain the continuous throbbing that filled my skull. I hovered on the edge of sleep, to escape this pain as well as my betrayal of the man I recognised as Mr Fortune. If I could drift off again, I wouldn’t have to face my degradation or the sense of failure filling my heart.
‘I fetch missy some tea,’ the woman said. ‘You come, too, Sebastian. Mister Hyde need time alone with her. She been to hell and back, by the sound of things.’
As they walked away, the exotically accented words rang true. I had indeed been to hell. I’d survived the trip, and now had to own up to my actions.
The mattress dipped with Hyde’s weight. ‘You’re home now, Mary Grace. Here among those who love you,’ he murmured. ‘I’d give twenty years of my life to turn back the calendar, to before I took you to Heaven’s Gate. My God, if I’d had any idea —!’
He rose to pace beside the bed, his anguish resounding even more deeply than mine. I watched him, so magnificently handsome and consumed by a remorse I didn’t understand.
‘Can you ever forgive me, Mary Grace? Please say you will.’
I frowned, which intensified the aching in my head. ‘As I recall, it was I who willingly went into that ceremony, wearing only honey and cocoa and…and strings of grapes and cherries. It’s a wonder you brought me back, after the way I…let Father Luc…’
Hyde sat beside me a
gain, scowling. ‘He befuddled us both, sweetheart! I could tell by your eyes that he’d cast a spell — and then he nailed me in place! I’ve never felt so utterly useless. When I should’ve been snatching you away from him, I watched that bastard mock your honour before shoving his cock into you!’
My slit twitched. And although my mind recoiled at what I’d allowed to take place — begging Father Luc to fuck me, like some shameless hussy — my body came vibrantly awake. ‘I’m sorry you drove all that way, only to watch my decadent display. It must’ve been awful.’
Hyde cleared his throat. ‘Actually,’ he began, ‘you were a glorious sight, Mary Grace. While I detested the abbot for making us pawns in some insidious game, I found myself wishing it were I who made you scream with ecstasy on that table. I hope you’ll give me the chance again some day.’
I wanted to smile and say yes, everything would be fine, as though I’d never gone to the monastery. But when I untangled the hair at my ear, and my fingers found a hoop — jewellery like Mary Grace Michaels had never owned — I snapped out of my wishful thinking.
It was all true. There really was a Sybil, and she’d disguised us as cocoa-covered twins to keep me safe from the abbot, and to return me to Hyde. Her earrings would forever remind me of the orgy gone awry in a sanctuary which was more like a brothel than a house of God.
Yet I cherished her friendship. She’d taught me some surprising things about myself.
It was Hyde’s story I needed to concentrate on, however. Perhaps, now that I was fully awake, he could answer some nagging questions. With his assistance, I sat against the pillows he propped behind my back.
‘Tell me about this game,’ I murmured. ‘While Brother Christy confessed he wasn’t really a monk — and you wouldn’t believe what he showed me, in the catacombs — I couldn’t grasp what Father Luc was saying. Something about driving Papa over the cliff, and bringing you into the picture, all so he could get me to Heaven’s Gate.’
Hyde again caressed my cheek. ‘I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, either. But I understand it a little better now that I’ve talked with my…there’s someone you need to meet, Mary Grace. I hope you’ll understand why I’ve kept her hidden away.’
He looked towards the corner, where candlelight didn’t penetrate the darkness; this was the bedroom Hyde and I slept in, before I fled Mount Calvary for the freedom I perceived at Heaven’s Gate. The rustling of fabric made me peer around Hyde’s body, and when a wizened figure stepped into the light, I sucked in my breath.
She wore the same translucent gown, and floated towards me with the same wispy hair and slightly wild eyes. Only Hyde’s presence kept me from diving beneath the covers, as I’d done the first time I watched this wraith appear.
‘Mother, I’d like to introduce Mary Grace Michaels,’ he said gently.
My mind protested: I’d walked past Madeleine Fortune’s headstone every time I visited Mama’s grave. Yet Hyde talked as though his mother was part of his everyday life.
‘Didn’t I promise you she’d recover? Your idea about a Scripture vigil brought her around, just as we hoped,’ he continued, as though reassuring a frightened child.
‘Tell Mary Grace what you explained to me, about Father Luc and —’
‘Don’t go,’ the woman wheezed. ‘Those who enter Heaven’s Gate are lost forever!’
Her body crumpled in a fit of coughing, and my fear was replaced by pity. Hyde towered above her stooping shoulders, tenderly guiding her towards the bed. His expression begged my indulgence.
‘I didn’t know, until last night, that Mother spent some time at the monastery as a young woman. Her story answers a lot of questions, if she’s strong enough to repeat it for you.’
I reached for her withered hand, which felt like a little bundle of twigs in tissue paper. Madeleine Fortune looked fragile and dry, an autumn leaf that a breeze might carry away, yet the existence of a robust son meant she’d once been bursting with life. ‘I’m so pleased to meet you,’ I said. ‘I hope you’ll excuse my intrusion in your home — and my childish reaction when I saw you here several weeks ago.’
The hand inside mine squeezed back. ‘I’m so glad you’re here, Mary Grace. My son needs a responsible woman in his life, so that when I expire —’
‘Now, Mother, you’re fine,’ Hyde insisted.
‘— I know he’ll be cared for,’ she finished. Saying this seemed to bolster her courage. Her blue eyes sparkled in a face as pale as a daisy.
I sensed she’d wander unless we kept her on the subject, so I held her hand between both of mine. ‘Hyde tells me you’ve met Father Luc.’
Her nostrils pinched in as she inhaled, but she regained her composure. ‘His full name is Lucifer, you know. He didn’t tell me that outright, but I’m sure a bright girl like yourself has figured it out.’
I tried not to let my head spin with her implication. For now, I wanted to listen rather than think, so I pressed on. ‘And you went to Heaven’s Gate? And it was an ancient monastery, where monks raised grapes and sold brandied sweets?’
‘They were just beginning to make those cakes, as I recall,’ she said in a faraway voice. She squinted then, studying my face. ‘If I weren’t getting a bit feeble, I’d swear you look exactly like the young woman who baked them.’
‘Sybil,’ I whispered.
‘A lovely girl, but so brazen. Of course, everyone looked for an excuse to lose their clothes, so it’s little wonder she behaved the same way.’
Madeleine fretted with the folds of her nightgown as though picking at loose threads, but after a few moments she focused on me again.
‘I’ve never told anyone about these things, until Hyde brought you home last night, unconscious. I suspected trouble when I saw that pudgy blond monk through my window,’ she continued in a hesitant voice. ‘You see, I went to Heaven’s Gate when I was about your age, after my parents died in a horrible fire. I thought it was the answer to my prayers, but as time went by, I realised something unthinkable was amiss. When I announced my intention to return to town, to become a school marm, I was made the celebrant for the celebration of the winter solstice. It was an orgy the likes of which I’ve never seen — and — and —’
‘And Father Luc had his way with her,’ Hyde went on, his lips in a bitter line. ‘He got what he wanted, and he grew bored. Left her to wander down the mountainside, in the dead of winter.’
The waif beside us nodded sadly. ‘I was with child. I imagined the abbot laughing at my predicament, knowing I’d think of him every time I looked into my son’s eyes. I tried to give Hyde a normal childhood, and schooling —’
‘I’ve told you how she sacrificed herself for me,’ he said softly, calling to mind his mother’s lot as a prostitute.
‘— but I feared Luc would come after me and take his revenge for the way I defied him, and raised a good boy in spite of him.’
She shook with her horrible memories, so Hyde pulled her close, signalling the end of the conversation. I bade her a soft good night, and he carried her like a child, to some unknown region in the massive house.
I sat alone on the bed, sorting out this startling new information. My tired mind wasn’t ready to dwell upon who Father Luc really might be, yet it explained the timeless, ongoing nature of Heaven’s Gate, and its perfect climate, and so many other details about the life and the people there.
Hyde returned shortly, hesitating at my bedside. ‘Do you understand why she lives as a recluse, eternally cloistered in this house?’ he asked. ‘As the years went by, her experience with Father Luc ate away at her sanity, until she became obsessed with the notion that he might come after her. The only way I could relieve her fears was to perform a closed-casket funeral, and erect a headstone, and promise her I’d see to all her needs.’
What a lonely, confining life — all because of Father Luc’s intimidation. I had indeed been a game piece, as had Hyde. We’d provided diversions for the black-souled master of that monastic retreat, which res
embled Paradise to the unwitting visitor.
‘How horrible for you, to learn that Luc is your father, after what he made you watch.’
His smile flickered sadly. ‘It was just another way of exerting his power and control. For all we know, he’s left dozens of offspring in far worse circumstances than mine. I’m just grateful to Sybil — she helped me carry your things to the carriage, once the abbot was occupied with the ceremonies — and glad I arrived in time to reclaim you.’
I let out a resentful snort. ‘Father Luc would’ve begun the ceremony whenever you showed up. It was his mission to humiliate you while he did the same to me.’
‘It gave me quite a start, to see myself seated in that chair in the chancel, and to observe the frenzy the others had reached. If I’d had any idea about —’
‘They only show you what they want you to see,’ I offered.
‘But we’re sometimes blinded by our own arrogance. I should’ve realised things weren’t as they seemed,’ he said with a rueful smile. ‘But I liked to think Sybil’s propositions were a way to bend the rules, because she couldn’t resist me.’
I smiled in spite of a tightness in my stomach.
‘And I delighted in the changes I saw in you, Mary Grace, as you discovered new levels of excitement. New ways to attain pleasure. I hope we’ll pursue some of those same…extremely erotic adventures, my love. My wish to marry you has never wavered, you know.’
Had I accepted his proposal last January, I could’ve opened my arms and enjoyed the affections of a handsome, compassionate man. Such comfort and love were the perfect antidotes to my poisonous thoughts, now that I realised the truth about Heaven’s Gate. But I couldn’t change the decision I’d made back then.
‘You don’t know half of what went on there,’ I murmured. ‘When I think back, I wonder if I weren’t caught in some sort of unholy enchantment from the moment I met the abbot.’
‘That’s exactly how Mother put it. So you shouldn’t hold yourself responsible for things beyond your control, dear Mary.’
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