by M J Porter
Chapter Eight
She sat, silhouetted against the pale glowing moon, in the place where he’d met the first time, only now it nighttime and then it had been early morning. She was so still he wondered how she could sit like that. Maybe she had her eyes closed; maybe she was lost in thought. She had her knees drawn up under her chin, and her head rested on them. Her luxurious hair cascaded down her back and in places touched the pure, white sand behind her.
His heart contracted. She was beautiful. Even this view of her back was stunning. He almost felt as though he shouldn't approach her; shouldn't distract her from her reverie. But his need to be with her pushed him on. He’d been waiting for two weeks for her to appear, spending every day and night on the beach, almost doubting the words Rebecca had spoken to him in London. To finally find her was a huge relief.
He strode towards her, not overly quietly; he didn’t want to make her jump when she did become aware of his presence, but it seemed that his consideration wasn’t needed. She already knew he was there.
He meant to sit next to her, to hold her hand. Instead, he found himself sitting behind her, his legs out in front of him, a minuscule gap between them. She didn’t turn or start, just sat there staring at the sea where the waves lapped gently on the slowly sloping beach. How rare he thought. How often the waves raced up the shore, leaving a trail of destruction in their path, leaving behind marooned crabs and pieces of discarded seaweed.
He inhaled deeply of her sweet, spicy smell and slowly closed the gap between them. He’d not fully appreciated how much taller than her he was. He’d always thought it was Rebecca who’d been slight whereas Sapphire had been tall.
He managed to rest his head on her shoulder and gently encircled her with his arms. She simply melted into him, accepting his presence. She didn’t move or turn other than that. She felt warm, but only just, like the stone he held in his hand and which he’d placed on the sand before her.
He kissed her cheek gently and now she moved, imperceptibly, to allow his kisses a little more easily. He worked his way along her cheek, down her neck and along her exposed shoulder. She lifted her hands and clasped his in hers.
He continued to explore her shoulder, her neck and her cheek again. The wind blew gently and rustled her hair into his eyes. He gently extracted one of his hands to clear his eyes and then returned it to her hand. She clasped it tightly, in welcome, and he could feel the temperature of her increasing rapidly. She now felt as though she’d spent the day on a hot beach, her skin pleasant to touch.
He shuffled his position and continued the same exploration on the other side of her body. He kissed her cheek, her ear, her neck and her shoulder occasionally licking as he went, tasting her. She tasted of sea, sun and sand, of the dark night and the expanse of space that sparkled in the completing clear sky that covered their heads.
It was the first clear night for the last two weeks. He cursed himself for a fool now for not realising that it would need to be a clear night when they met again.
He closed his eyes in exultation, inhaling her scent and feeling her solid in his hands, not quite believing that after nearly five years, they were together once more, as though no time had elapsed between their last meeting and this one.
She still hadn’t acknowledged his presence in words, and when she did finally speak, her words were a soft whisper, stolen by the gentle breeze. He wasn’t even sure he was meant to hear them, and he didn’t ask her to repeat them.
He continued to kiss and explore the part of her body he could reach without moving, her cheek, her neck and her shoulders, all the time aware that beneath his kisses and under his touch, she was warming, turning from almost frigid marble to the warmth of a piece of lava.
When he returned to her cheek, this time, he felt something wet under his lips and realised she must be crying. She tensed under his hands. Panic gripped him. Why was she crying? Her hand gripped his harder, and he returned the pressure, hopeful that his presence, his squeeze would make her realise his intentions now, his desire to be with her, his need to be with her. She completed him.
He carried on kissing her, trying not to draw attention to her tears. He hoped his touch was feather soft, and eventually she relaxed into him again and a small gasp burst from her lips.
This time her words were stronger and louder when she spoke. Her tone was bitter.
“I want this. I want this so much. But you have to understand. I’m not like you. I don't know what will happen.”
Her words confused him, and he momentarily stopped his caresses. She tensed again inside his sheltering arms and so he purposefully resumed his kisses. She was honest with him, at last. She was telling him what she knew. It should have scared him, just as the presence of the brightly flashing stone should have done, just as Rebecca’s warning should have. It didn't.
“I’ve seen things you can never understand. I was sent here to find my heart, to find my other half, and I have, with you. When you left me, I had to go away, to take my place as a failure – forever shining in the cold, black night, alone, just as all failed stars before me have. Cold and alone, blue with cold. I gave you my actual heart. My cold, frozen heart and you threw it away. You rejected me twice in one night.”
Here her voice cracked, and he squeezed her shoulders in a pathetic attempt at apology for the distress he’d caused her.
“But for some reason, you took it back years later.”
By now her tone was full of wonder, and he realised that apology wasn’t necessary.
“I don't know why, but that brought me back here. Something you did allowed me to come back.”
Her words faltered, and he tried to understand what she was telling him. He wanted to speak, offer more words of regret. Everything that came to mind sounded tart and insincere. So he stayed silent.
In his arms she moved, shuffling around so that she faced him. She didn’t look at him but used her luxurious hair as a shield to cover her face. His arms felt cold, bereft without her building heat and he desperately wanted to reach out and reclaim her. The tears he glimpsed through her shield of hair stopped him, held him in place. She had things she needed to say. He could tell that.
“If we do this. If we become as one, I fear things will happen to you. I fear you will lose everything you have. I don’t want to be responsible for that. You can leave again. I’ll let you leave again. I think that would be better for you. It's not what I want. Not at all. So I give you a choice, as I did before. Come with me into the unknown or get up and walk away from me. Now.”
Her words were uttered in an urgent tone, tumbling out of her and he knew it must be a terrible wrench for her. Again, he was aware that the words should scare him and that he should walk away from her. Only he couldn't. The years since they’d parted had felt wrong, with hindsight, out of focus and forced. He’d never felt more alive than he did now and more aware of his feelings, needs and desires.
He reached out, tentatively, and brushed the curtain of her hair aside with his hands. Underneath, her eyes blazed an inhuman blue, and he failed to stifle his gasp of astonishment. Tears streaked her face and gently, using his thumb, he brushed them from her face. She smiled at him, a bitter smile of anger and hurt. He brushed his thumb over her lips. They parted at his touch, and he felt her superheated breath on her hands. He realised that he’d always known she was different, not of this Earth, and he didn’t care.
He smiled; a huge, overjoyed smile and she looked at him questioningly. He placed his index finger on her lips and leant towards her, kissing first one eyelid and then the other, her nose, and her chin. As he leant forward to touch his lips to hers, she placed her index finger on his lips, staying him. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that it glowed the same alien blue as her eyes.
He kissed her finger, feeling a ripple of energy touch his being, and he whispered softly,
“I don’t care. I only want you”.
She gasped in joy, a gasp cut short by his lips on he
r. Gentle at first, and then more intense, more needy and desperate. She responded, eagerly, passionately, wrapping her body around his, entwining her being with him. Her heat melded him to her, and still they kissed, barely breathing, unable to tear themselves apart.
He’d never known passion like this. Need as great as this. It felt right. It completed him. He should never have left her. Never.
His mind slowly became overwhelmed only by the sensation of what was happening between them. He tore at her clothing, and she at his, desperate to feel all of her heat against his own, and abruptly they were lying nakedly together, legs and arms and heads intertwined.
He gasped with pleasure, just as she did. Abruptly, they were as one, every part of their bodies that could be entangled was.
Behind his eyes he saw things he could never have imagined; the birth of stars in a profusion of superheated blues, the deaths of suns in a blaze of dull oranges, planets torn apart and forming, their fragments mingling together, the explosion of rock meeting rock, comets flying at incredible speeds, their tails dancing with a blast of brightest whites. He saw the birth of Earth, the formation of the moon, the red haze of Mars, and further, further away, the swirl of the Milky Way, the tantalisingly close view of another Earth-like planet, green and blue and marbled all over with high cloud cover, and suddenly he understood and he knew.
He opened his eyes and met the shimmery blue of Sapphire's. Only with his semi-consciousness was he aware of the black expanse of space all around them, the chill that pervaded his naked flesh while the fire burned between them.
He closed his eyes. He was home.
Blue light exploded between them, but he didn’t see it, for his eyes were gone, his humanity evaporated in the blaze of Sapphire’s light, now joined by his own.
He was home in the vast expanse of space, and he would be there forever, timeless, united in love.
Also by the author
Unknown Part 1 (A four part serial)
She knows only two things about herself; her name is Frey and the boy with the troubled brown eyes, snatched from her arms by the soldiers in full body armour, loves her.
They know everything about her and yet, they’re the one’s asking her the questions.
From an iron-grey prison cell they ask her question after question, and the more they ask, the more she learns about herself.
In piecing together the hastily dropped fragments of knowledge, on the vessel floating through space, the truth becomes clear.
She is the enemy and she is to be feared.
Unknown: Part 1 – the first part in a four-part serial in which Frey begins to unravel the truth about herself and discovers that something is very, very wrong.
