Darkly Divine: A Paranormal Enemies to Lovers Romance

by C L Walker

What if he looks young when I’m a granny!

  “You age, right?” I asked with urgency.

  “Uhm, yeah.”

  I didn’t like the way he said it as if it weren’t the whole story, so I gave him a look of disbelief.

  He licked his lips nervously. “I do, I’m not lying.”

  “But?”

  “Shit.” He sighed as he gave me a sheepish look. “But it happens incredibly slower than humans.”

  “How much slower?”

  “Well once we hit adulthood at the same rate as a human it slows down, so I will look like this, or like I am in my twenties until I am about three hundred and then the three hundred’s will be similar to how the thirties are for humans and it goes on like that. Basically, a century is similar to what a decade is for humans.”

  “Ha, of course!” I put my arm around his shoulder and pulled his head towards me so I could pat it obnoxiously.

  “Hey,” he said, “you’re messing up my hair.”

  I ran my hand around his head crazily to further mess it up. “You didn’t think it was important to let me know this?”

  “We haven’t exactly had a lot of downtime to discuss things since we decided to do this, and I had no reason to tell you before.”

  “No excuses from you!”

  “I draw the line here, woman!” He grabbed my hands and held them above my head with one hand while he ran his other through his hair and tried to fix it. “You don’t get to touch my luscious locks unless we are doing something sexual, got it?”

  “You are terrible!” Of course, when he leaned over and kissed me, I stopped trying to pull my hands out of his grip, my submission was always instant.

  He let them go so I could wrap them around his shoulders and pull him closer. But just when things were heating up, he hit the horn with his elbow, and we jumped apart and started laughing.

  When our laughs faded and all that was left were our heated stares I sighed as I realized that our time together would be short. I couldn’t reasonably be with him when I was an older lady when he would look like he was in his twenties for my entire life.

  “How is this supposed to work?” I asked as I barely managed not to choke on my emotions.

  He brushed the hair that fell in front of my face behind my ear before he tipped my chin up. “You’re the sweetest little thing.”

  “Why?”

  “You’re already worried about how long we will be together, but you don’t need to be because there is actually a way around this problem.”

  “Wow, you’re right.” I moved my head away from his hand. “We haven’t even been together for a week, so I don’t know why I’m even thinking about it. We probably won’t make it far enough for your slow aging to matter anyway.”

  “Sky, I didn’t mean it like it was a bad thing that you are considering the future, and did you not hear the second part?”

  “It doesn’t matter, I don’t know what I was thinking or why I felt so overwhelmed, but it’s embarrassing. I’m going inside now.” I felt so embarrassed I couldn’t bring myself to hear anything he had to say about it.

  I would be the clingy type.

  He followed me outside, caught up quickly and wrapped his arms around my waist from behind and put his head on my shoulder.

  “It’s fine you don’t have to–”

  “Stop,” he cut in. “Nothing about how you feel is wrong, there is a reason we are falling so hard for each other, and it’s because we are perfect for one another in a spiritual sense.”

  “That’s a thing? Being spiritually compatible?”

  “Yeah, something like that. So, don’t apologize for how you feel, or feel embarrassed about it because I feel the same way. Besides, even if it weren’t a spiritual connection, no one should be told how quickly and how deeply they can love another. Every love is unique, no one gets to decide what love looks like.”

  Love?

  “Don’t worry I’m not throwing that word at you right now. I’m just saying fall for me and make no apologies about it. Live your life exactly how you want, but let people love you and keep those who would hurt you at a distance and do so fiercely and without apology.”

  I turned around with tears briming in my eyes and I pulled his face down to mine. I agreed in the only way I could manage, I put my heart in that kiss and gave it to him hoping that he’d treasure it always.

  It never went any further as we kissed, his hands remained on my face and mine on his hips as his body pressed against mine. It was tender and sweet.

  But despite the calm, desire still raged through me and I knew then that I wanted to take it further. I didn’t care how long we had been together. His words had given me the confidence that I needed to give him all of me without worry for the future.

  “Oh, don’t tease me, baby,” he said in between kisses.

  I’m not teasing, you can have all of me…just not tonight.

  He pulled away to laugh. “You are a brat.”

  “So, you said there is a way around this?”

  His hands dropped from my face and he ran them down his own. “I know I keep saying this but when I tell you what can be done it’s going to blow your mind, so let’s put this one off until tomorrow. This is a big night for you and tomorrow is an even bigger day and I don’t want to distract you.”

  I sighed. “I’m just supposed to hang on when it sounds like you are proposing something that my human brain is going to have a hard time processing?”

  “That’s exactly why, you will need time to process everything that I tell you about us.”

  “Us? What do you mean by us?”

  “I told you we are perfect for each other… well it’s that, but bigger.” His eyes grew wide, and he stretched his arms out. “A lot bigger.”

  “That big?” I laughed nervously.

  “Yep.” He nodded his head awkwardly.

  “Why do I feel like this is going to make me want to hurt you?”

  “Well, to be fair most of what I have done has made you want to hurt me so why not add one more to the fire,” he said as I deadpanned. “Am I right?”

  “I didn’t sign up for this, all I have ever wanted was normal and now I’m dating a vampire who is going to explain to me how we can get around the issue of aging, something man has been trying to get around since the dawn of time.”

  “It happens.” He smiled.

  “I hate you.”

  “No, you don’t.” He held a hand to his chest and feigned a wound. “But words still hurt.”

  “Not when you can read my thoughts and know for certain that my words aren’t true.”

  He cracked another smile. “I do have an unfair advantage.”

  “Slightly. I still can’t wrap my mind around all of this.”

  “You will, I promise,” he said. “Time will go by and before you know it all of this will be normal to you.”

  “I sure hope so.” I looked behind me through the trees at my mother’s trailer. “I need to pack my things.”

  “Are you sure you need to stay here tonight?” he asked.

  “I want to leave in the morning, because she’s probably passed out already and I want her to see me go.”

  “Okay,” he said, “do you need any help?”

  “No, I want to do it alone.”

  “Okay.”

  After he gave me one last kiss, he walked me to the entrance of the trailer park and watched me until I was inside the trailer.

  I closed and locked the door behind me before I listened to the sound of his car start up. Then I took a deep breath and tried to summon my courage.

  You can do this.

  You’ve been waiting for this moment for almost your whole life.

  The tv was on beside me, there was an empty bottle on the coffee table, and I was surprised to see a lit cigarette in the ashtray.

  I considered calling Micah back, because if she was awake then I could very well throw my things in a box and leave right away.

  Why
wait? I’ll be an adult in four hours…

  I figured she was in her bedroom, so I tried to slip by quietly and tip toe down the hallway. But when I pushed my cracked door all the way open, I found that she sat on my mattress with a blank stare on her face.

  “Mother?”

  Twenty-seven

  Skylar

  Black smoke cleared and gave way to a campfire that blazed red in an otherwise dark empty space.

  Shivers ran the length of my body, so I pushed myself towards the fire. As I reached to touch it, I fell through the ground.

  Wind whirled around me as if I were in the middle of a tornado, and I couldn’t see past its white whisps as I continued to slowly fall towards the unknown.

  Am I dead?

  I noticed belatedly that my head felt cold and wet, so I reached to touch it, and afterwards when I looked down at my fingertips, they were painted red. But I didn’t feel any pain so it didn’t concern me like it should have.

  I reached my hand out and tried to stick it through the moving wall but the force of it kicked my arm back violently. I cradled it in my other arm as I turned and looked all around me.

  Beyond the vortex there was nothing but darkness, it made me feel more alone than I ever had before.

  “Hello?” I asked but no one answered.

  I began to weep into my hands because I couldn’t handle the nothingness that surrounded me.

  While I cried, I hadn’t noticed that I had stopped falling or that the wind had calmed to that of a gentle breeze.

  When I opened my eyes, I found a Native woman before me with wrinkled skin, soft brows and eyes that remained closed.

  Her hand was wrapped around what looked to be a staff, it had the skull of a bird at the top, with brown and red feathers that waved in the air around it, and red ribbon was wrapped around the entire stick.

  “Where are we?” I asked.

  “The in between.”

  I considered her words, but I had trouble believing them to be true. “This is a dream, right?”

  “We don’t have time for questions, it is dangerous for you here.” I looked around once more and wondered what could be so dangerous about an empty space. “Child, do you want to live?”

  “I think so.”

  She pulled a wooden bowl out of her bag and began to crush up something black into a fine powder. “You think so?” she asked, and her thin lips turned down. “He begs now for your life, and he is even willing to give up his own.”

  “Micah?”

  She held her arm out and a wooden pitcher appeared out of thin air, she tipped it over the bowl and a crimson substance slid out slowly.

  She let go of the pitcher and it disappeared as she began to mix the contents inside her bowl.

  “Do you want to live, yes or no?” she asked.

  Living was painful but giving up would hurt even worse. “Yes, I want to live.”

  I really hope this is just a dream.

  She dipped one finger into the mixture before she ran it along my skin from my forehead straight down to my chin and then she shoved the bowl into my hands. “Drink.” She sunk to her knees and she began to chant a single word over and over that I could not understand.

  I brought the bowl to my face and tipped it just enough so the liquid would spill into my mouth. It tasted icky and metallic, but I drank all of it.

  I felt it fill me with something strange as it seemed to make its way to every part of my body and light it on fire. It didn’t hurt but it was uncomfortable, and it reminded me of how my stomach felt when it was too full. I felt that everywhere, too full, like my insides were too much for my skin. I felt trapped.

  “You shall live again, darkness embraces you.” Her eyes finally opened, and they were pure white. “Until next time, child.”

  I gasped and fell back on my hands, but they never hit a solid surface. I fell right through what had been an invisible floor again and kept spinning down a wind funnel that seemed as if it would never end.

  I kept seeing flashes of my life, flashes of my mother, my dad, and Brian and it made me feel an overwhelming sadness.

  I curled up into a ball as I continued to fall, nothing but the sound of rushing air accompanied me, and the images of my life. Children’s laughter began to echo around me, and I wondered if it belonged to Brian and me.

  I watched my mother hit me for the first time as if it were a movie and then a still image of my own eyes appeared. Violet eyes that she had looked at every time she had hurt me and felt nothing. I could see my own heartache reflected there, and I felt it all over again, my heart breaking into a million pieces. So fine were those pieces that they blew away in the wind along with the images.

  Just when I couldn’t take anymore, and the pain became unbearable I slowed suddenly, hit the bottom and the wind faded away.

  I peeled my eyes open and decided I was dreaming again, and that the scene had simply changed.

  Micah was there and he was as I had seen him before in my dreams, with vibrant feathers in his hair and the tattoos on his skin faintly glowed in some places.

  Dark and ethereal.

  He danced around a fire as he sang a beautiful yet sad song. I didn’t know the words, but I felt it’s meaning, and I heard the desperation in his voice as he cried out.

  Seeing his pain made me forget about my own, all I wanted to do was wrap my arms around him and tell him that it was going to be okay.

  I looked around at the trees that surrounded us and then the patch of starless sky where the smoke from the fire disappeared to.

  There was something off that I couldn’t quite place, but I felt it in everything, the way the wind blew across my skin, the way the blood pumped through my veins, I felt it all, too much.

  I sat up and clutched the silky sapphire fabric that was laid across my body and wrapped it around my torso once I was standing. It covered me about as good as a towel would.

  Micah must have heard me because he stopped suddenly, spun around, and took large strides through the dirt until he stood before me. “Sky, you made it!”

  I felt a fire burn inside me as I took him in, and this fire was hotter than it had ever been, and I itched to reach for him with possessive fingers.

  He looked wildly seductive as I took in his figure with unchecked lust. His abs carved the way to v-lines and a flimsy piece of cloth that left little to the imagination.

  Since it was a dream, I didn’t bother to act like it didn’t appeal to me.

  The wind picked up as my eyes returned to his and I realized for the first time that they were solid black, and I remembered what it meant. I started to walk backwards but he matched me step for step until I hit a tree that had been a few feet behind me.

  “Please, don’t rip out my heart, you already did it in another dream anyway.”

  “This isn’t a dream, my love.”

  I shook my head in denial, because if it wasn’t a dream then something happened without my realizing it, something that was not right.

  He stood in front of me like a Native God come to collect my soul and finally I had the good sense to be afraid.

  He put his hands against the tree on either side of my head before he leaned in and closed his eyes as he inhaled the space between us. “You smell even sweeter than before.”

  “What’s happening? Are you going to hurt me?”

  His eyes opened and he smiled. “No. I’m not but you’re going to want to hurt me.”

  “I called it didn’t I?” I asked with nervous laughter.

  “I’ll explain it to you later.”

  “It’s always later with you, and now it seems something is happening that would be a lot less confusing if you had simply explained more to me. I’m freaking out right now.”

  “I know, I screwed up.” He ran a finger down my neck as his lids lowered. “But right now, we have to finish the ritual in order for you to live.”

  “Ritual? Live?” I tried to slip underneath his arm, but he shoved me back and none
too gently.

  “What the hell? You could have hurt me.”

  “We don’t have time for this.” He grabbed my wrists and pinned them above my head as I fought against him. “You can’t fight me right now, Sky.”

  “But I’m scared.”

  “You don’t need to be scared anymore.” He bent down into the crook of my neck and when his teeth grazed my skin my breath got caught in my throat. I felt terrified of what was happening, but I also couldn’t push away the lust I felt as I yearned for him to…

  No! It’s Just like in my dreams!

  When his teeth sunk below the surface and I felt him draw blood from my body something came over me in one swoop, a sense of belonging like I had never felt.

  When he raised his head, I saw a vulnerability in his eyes that wasn’t there before, and something akin to regret.

  “I’m so sorry it had to happen like this,” he said.

  “What?”

  He didn’t wipe away my blood as he leaned in, but I didn’t mind it even though a dying voice in the back of my mind told me that I should.

  When his lips found mine, I forgot all my questions, and when his hands pulled away the fabric that covered my body, I pulled him to me without hesitation.

  His body molded to mine with silky perfection.

  “I told you there was a way and I had wanted it to be your choice, but we didn’t have time or a choice any longer,” he whispered below my ear, before he kissed my skin.

  I nodded even though I still didn’t understand.

  I tilted my head back to give him greater access to my body, and he accepted my offer with enthusiasm by peppering my skin with kisses.

  “This is the only way I could save you. I had to make you mine.”

  “Yours?” I asked on a breathy sigh as he trailed kisses down my chest. “I thought I already was?”

  When he came back up, he grabbed a handful of my hair and tipped my head back at the same time he found a spot between my thighs. He kissed my lips softly as he pushed himself inside of me and I nearly wept from the emotions that got caught in my chest.

  “You were…but…this is different.”

  I opened my eyes to stare into his and wrapped my legs around his waist as he slowly slid in and out of me. Each stroke felt like something cosmic, dark, and light all at once. It was unnatural, the heights I was reaching as he touched some part of me that no one else was ever going to.