by Aja James
Within no time, he was poised above the Amazon stronghold, camouflaged by dark, looming clouds of his own creation.
A massacre was unfolding below.
Amazon warriors engaged in battle, most of the women not wearing armored protection, for they’d been caught unawares in the deepest slumber. Some of them fought their attackers bare handed; some of them grappled successfully for the weapons. Others were carried off on stampeding horses, some trampled beneath the hooves.
There was killing, burning, fighting and raping. Right there in the open for the heavens to see and judge.
The women were massively outnumbered. Ten to one at least. Their enemies showed no mercy.
This wasn’t a battle fought to be won. This was a savage pillaging meant to teach the Amazons a lesson. If there were any survivors, it would be by accident.
Cloud searched the chaos for the one person he cared about most, even as he felt his temper broil at the sight of senseless brutality.
This was not war. This was not divine justice. There was no honor in it.
He found her on a black stallion, charging through the stronghold to bring down as many enemy cavalry as she could. Atalanta was seated at her back, shooting arrows with stunning speed and accuracy as she rode backwards on the horse.
Aella let out a ferocious war-cry as she cleaved through another enemy with an axe she’d snatched from the previous man she’d mowed down. Then, she quickly followed that up by throwing her chakrams like discuses, slicing through the enemies caught in their arcing path.
She was wounded, Cloud saw, her blood flowing down her arms and legs, down the sides of the horse’s stomach. She wouldn’t last much longer.
All this, he took in within a split moment.
And then his eyes blazed bluer and brighter, shooting lightning through the clouds. Thunder gathered and boomed around him, harkening the flood that descended from the heavens.
Almost immediately, the fires were doused in the torrential downpour that appeared out of nowhere.
Next, Cloud churned through the skies in a rolling wave, creating swirling gusts of tornado winds. The conical maelstroms touched ground only where he intended, snatching up horses and men, while they screamed and shouted with shock and incomprehension. Once ensnared in the mini tornadoes, they were crushed by the unforgiving winds in time with the clenching of Cloud’s claws.
One by one, and sometimes in masses, Cloud lay waste to the Sarmatian army, drowning them with rain, hurling them against the mountain side and jagged rocks with wind, and burning them to a crisp with bolts of lightning.
Until only the Amazons were left, huddled together in small clusters by the lone yurts that remained standing.
Aella was still astride the black horse, a single, proud figure amidst the devastation and carnage.
The Amazons looked up toward the skies, but Cloud knew that all they saw was the remnants of a violent storm. Mortals could not see heavenly beings such as he.
But Aella seemed to stare right at him, penetrating intensely into his eyes.
A word formed silently on her lips.
He thought it might have been “Yun.”
And then, in a flash, Aella, the Amazons, the Altai mountains—they all disappeared.
*** *** *** ***
“Master! I must go back! Send me back!”
Cloud rammed against his invisible cage as hard as he could, but to no avail. He’d been pounding at his prison with every part of his body for the past untold hours.
At least, it felt like hours.
Or days. Or weeks.
Time in the Celestial Palace had no meaning. What seemed like minutes in heaven could be years down on earth.
He didn’t have much space to move. The prison grew smaller the harder he hurled himself against it. Until finally, he was contorted into a tight, compressed ball, and the only part of his body that could still move were his eyeballs.
His heavenly Master appeared before him, standing still with his hands clasped behind his back.
Cloud knew this particular pose well. It meant that the Master had made a decision, and nothing could move him from it.
Still, Cloud tried.
The Amazons, they need me! So many were killed! Please, send me back! Cloud communicated with his mind, because he no longer had room to move his jaw to speak.
“What about the warring states in Han China?” the Master asked placidly. “What about the unrest on the Mongolian border? You were not sent to earth to look after the Amazons. That was not your role. You should not have been able to take true form when you did. The human body that housed your soul was not built for that transformation. You destroyed it. We had to break many rules to right your wrongs and reset the Balance.”
You wanted me to care for humans, Cloud argued, I do! I have learned my lesson well.
“Then there is no need for your presence down below, anymore,” the Master said. “You are a creature of heaven, a warrior of the gods. Your trial is done. Zhao Yun has been given new memories, his body fixed, and returned to his own destiny. He will play a pivotal role in the wars to come. Surely, you are not suggesting that I insert you into his Destiny? He does not have a golden-haired Amazon in his future. It is only you who love her.”
I do! Cloud roared. I love her! I need to go back! She is—
“She is what?” the Master interjected thoughtfully and somewhat remorsefully, as if he hated being the bearer of bad news.
“Is she waiting for you? Does she know what you are? What form will you take to go to her? As I said, Zhao Yun is fulfilling his own human destiny. That body is no longer available to you. It was on temporary loan only so that you could learn to be human. Do you think she will still want you if you were able to find a different body to house your soul? If I am not mistaken, she did not want you even after you declared your love for her.”
At that, Cloud went still. So still, he barely breathed.
The Master came closer until he was directly before Cloud’s face. His eyes were kind. And a bit disappointed and sad.
“You wanted to save the Amazons. You did it to save this human girl. Did you consider that your powers were never meant to be used that day, for those people? You can only unleash your true form once in the mortal realm before you must return to heaven. And you were never supposed to do so as Zhao Yun. You wasted your one chance that day. Elsewhere, many more people died. Because you were with the Amazon, you were not where you were supposed to be, and war ensued.”
The Master sighed.
“The Jade Emperor is not pleased. Your role was to provide Balance to the earthly realm, and to learn how to be human. Instead, you added to the imbalance and made matters worse. I suppose you learned too well all of the human excesses and unruly passions. You are too volatile to send back to earth. You will not visit the mortal realm again until you regain your equilibrium. And you will stay in this prison until you do so. This is your punishment.”
Please, Master, Cloud beseeched, tell me how the Amazons fare. Will Aella have a long and happy life? Will she—
“You can see for yourself,” the Master answered.
Strangely, his gaze grew sadder.
“This is part of your punishment too.”
Cloud wanted to ask what he meant, but the Master disappeared.
Cloud was trapped in darkness, stillness and silence for an untold length of time. But he could never close his eyes. He could never rest or sleep. He didn’t eat or drink, and no one ever visited, not even the Master.
In time, Cloud’s muscles, bones, skin and scales ossified into blocks of ice. Still, his eyes remained open, though there was nothing to see.
Until suddenly there was.
An image of the Amazons appeared before him. Except, they were no longer Amazons. They’d been absorbed into Scythian and Sarmatian tribes led by men.
They were still warriors and horse masters, but they were also mothers and wives. He did not recognize any of the faces, but he thoug
ht one looked like Dali and one looked like Atalanta. It dawned on him that these were the descendants of the Amazons he knew, though there was no indication of how much time had passed.
Other images began to flash up as well. These were focused on Zhao Yun. He became a renowned leader of men, one of the most important warriors in the War of the Three Kingdoms. He was a diplomat as well, and never set a foot wrong, though politics were brutal and often fatal. He lived a long, full life, undefeated in battle. He never married, however, and left no children to his name.
Finally, the images Cloud most wanted to see appeared.
Aella!
Alive and well. Carefree and eternally youthful.
Somehow, she’d lived beyond her human lifespan. But because she was not much older than when he saw her last, she must have died shortly after that last battle. As to the time of her rebirth as a Pure One, Cloud could only guess. She could have been resurrected immediately after death like some, or she could have been sent to another time and place altogether.
No matter. She was alive!
His exhausted eyes blazed fiery blue, melting the ice around his face. It was as if her image lit the spark of life within him again. Everything began to thaw.
She was laughing in one image, her sunny waves cascading down her back.
In another, she was smiling that familiar come hither smile, teasing and sultry.
More and more images stacked on top of one another, all of them showing her in various moods, conveying her passionate nature so clearly, he could practically feel her pulse, a beat to which his heart automatically aligned itself in synchronization.
And then, all of her images turned to look directly at him.
Happy. Angry. Teasing. Sad. Passionate. Moody. Delighted. Chagrined.
Cloud’s heart pounded fast and hard in his chest.
She saw him, his Aella. She was looking right at him!
There was so much he wanted to tell her. The first and foremost was that, no matter what, he’d find her. He’d never give up.
He loved her so, so much! He missed her forever! Everything he’d suffered, his isolation and imprisonment, it was all worth it to know that she was alive and well.
But then the images shifted.
All of the Aellas, hundreds of them, thousands of them, changed their expressions to one of desire and lust, still looking in his direction, but not quite at him. They all looked somewhere beyond him…
All of the Aellas were looking at someone else.
And then, the objects of her desire came into view. An endless parade of men. Hugging her, kissing her, undressing her—
Fucking her.
Someone moaned low and guttural, and Cloud realized it was him. He was the hapless creature writhing in undiluted agony.
He tried to shut his eyes, block out the images, but as always, they remained open and alert. He couldn’t even un-focus them. He saw in excruciating detail how she flirted and rutted with one male after another.
The same smiles she’d given him. The same intimate sounds she’d made.
It was all the same to her. All shapes and sizes of men.
Stop. Make it stop! He shouted in his mind.
No more! Please!
The isolation, starvation and torturous confinement he’d endured thus far was nothing compared to the way the images eviscerated him from the inside out. He didn’t understand. He couldn’t understand!
Why did she do those things? How could she do those things?!
The heavens shook with Cloud’s anguish and rage. The very foundations of the Celestial Palace began to crumble.
But the images kept playing. No one heeded him. The pain kept growing and growing until he could no longer bear it.
Finally, after an untold length of time, Cloud subsided. Every last ounce of strength and feeling had bled out of him.
“Have you learned your lesson, Xiao Yun?” the Master’s voice finally sounded amidst the clamoring chaos in Cloud’s mind.
“Do you see the folly and capriciousness of selfish love? Trust only in the Balance. Rely only on logic and duty…”
The Master said more, but Cloud didn’t hear the words. He didn’t care what they were, he would agree to anything, everything, if these images went away forever. He never wanted to feel this level of pain again.
“Are you ready to fulfill your role, Xiao Yun?” the Master asked, allowing Cloud to finally close his eyes, releasing him from the paralyzing confines of his invisible prison.
Cloud remained frozen, however. Eyes closed and unmoving.
And then, he made one last request—
I want no memory of her. I want her to have no memory of me, he stated clearly in his mind. Only then, will I become the heavenly warrior you have trained me to be.
“So be it,” the Master granted.
And so it was.
Two thousand years later on earth, two thousand years of silent, still imprisonment, Cloud was finally sent into his second humanoid form, a Pure One who was a mix of almost all of the necessary ingredients to transform into the heavenly warrior that would only appear when the time was right.
No more distractions.
No more attachment.
No more heart-breaking, soul-wrecking, treacherous love.
*** *** *** ***
Their plan had worked.
Ishtar lay wrapped around her Mate’s naked body, his undying erection still inside her core, throbbing deliciously, massaging her inside.
She’d been purring for hours, days even. Because they hadn’t left their chambers in the Shield for that long.
They barely ate, only feasting on each other’s bodies. For Ishtar, the feast was both metaphorical and literal, taking Tal’s blood from every vein, gorging on the Nourishment from his sex.
She’d been starved, after all. They’d both been wasting away without this intimate connection. The physical expression of their love for each other.
Unlike Ishtar, however, Tal needed real food. His soul recharged from the energy she gave him, but his belly still needed to be filled. If it weren’t for Rain thoughtfully and surreptitiously sending in rolling carts of gourmet meals into the adjoining outer chamber, poor Tal might have perished from the lustful exertions of the past few days.
Ishtar giggled like a greedy little girl in between renewed bouts of purring.
She’d never been so happy, so fulfilled! Her beautiful Tal was hers again, presently dozing lightly in her arms.
There were times when she’d been close to giving up hope. She always came back from the edge, just like he did whenever he “left” her, but every time the Darkness came, it was more and more difficult to fight it.
When Jade had funneled her Gift into Ishtar through Rain’s zhen, Ishtar thought at first that she’d made a huge mistake. Suddenly, she’d been filled to overflowing with uncontainable sexual energy; the insane lust practically singed her eyebrows off. If she couldn’t convince Tal to give in to her like this, she’d self-combust for certain!
When he came to their chambers after a grueling training session with Valerius and Tristan, he’d noticed the change in her, the alteration in the very air around them, right away. Between the explosive desire and need she sent his way, and his own everlasting love for her, his demons didn’t stand a chance.
They’d fucked hard and fast standing, sitting, on the floor, on every piece of furniture they could find, scattering decorations and knickknacks everywhere, uncaring what they broke or tore.
Then, they made love slowly and deeply, but no less passionately and urgently, on the bed, in the shower, endlessly devouring each other, touching and kissing everywhere, as if learning one another all over again, for the very first time.
There had been no words. They didn’t need to voice them. With their physical connection, their mental and emotional bonding restored as well.
She could feel his love with every kiss, every gesture, and every brush of his fingertips against her skin.
; I miss you, his actions said.
I love you.
I need you.
You are my everything.
She said it back in much the same way, though she was quite vocal about it too. She’d always been the louder between the two of them, especially about her love for him.
She told him how delicious he tasted. How wonderful he felt. How she couldn’t get enough of his beautiful body.
That scrumptious ass she’d sank her claws into countless times.
Those tantalizing internal iliac veins that ran from his lower abdomen to his sex.
And his tremendous, gorgeous, satiny cock. Always hard and ready to fill her.
His cream, his blood. Everything she wanted.
She’d spent endless hours gorging upon his Nourishment. And even after she knew he was sore and exhausted, his slumberous eyes filled with both satisfaction and pleasurable pain as he gazed down at her, she kept taking more. She’d never get enough.
And he let her have him. He gave her everything.
Tal twitched slightly in his sleep, his brows furrowing.
Ishtar’s purring decreased in volume immediately, her body completely in tune with his.
Something was wrong.
His breathing started to shorten, his eyes squeezed shut. His jaw clenched tight as his whole body turned to steel.
He didn’t make any sounds, but she knew that he was suffering extreme pain. She could feel it in the infinitesimal quivers in his body.
He was reliving a nightmare. He felt the torture in his subconscious as if it was real.
And because they were still connected both physically and spiritually, for the first time, she felt it too.
Oh Dark Goddess! How she felt it!
Someone was jabbing a hot poker into his body, all over him. Gouging holes into his back, his shoulders, his sides and stomach. Then his thighs, his calves, until endless rivulets of blood poured from his wounds.
She heard laughter, loud and shrill, as Tal’s body jerked with each stab, as his mouth filled with blood when he almost bit his tongue off to keep from screaming in agony.
My sister’s little blood whore, Medusa’s voice snarled in Ishtar’s ear, as if she were right there beside her.