Heaven, Hell & the Love In Between

by Downey, A. J.

  “Thank you Gracelyn that was really, wow, that was really powerful. Not sure exactly what it meant but it meant something to you.” There was a smattering of nervous laughter. I didn’t care, I knew my poetry wasn’t great, didn’t fit what was popular. I just hoped that wherever he was, Alaric had heard it. Somehow I was pretty sure he had.

  Chapter 50

  We listened to the rest of the people signed up to read, Alec had remained standing, pulling my back to his front. His long fingers laced with mine, palms against the back of my hands. He held me against himself, remaining silent, not letting my hands go, not even to applaud as was polite. I took refuge against him, wrapped in his warmth and let myself hope.

  The last poem was read, people began mingling; complimenting and critiquing each other’s work. This was usually when I would slip away, go find some dinner or go home, whichever I felt like doing. This time, I just stayed where I was, wrapped in Alec, in a contemplative, almost meditative state. I was calm, the usual raging tempest of sadness, pain and loss quiet. That more than anything told me what I needed to know. The waif like girl that had gone first drifted over to us.

  “I’m sorry for your loss, your poem was really beautiful. Royce was kind of an ass taking a shot at you like that. I don’t think he’s comfortable when something actually makes him feel.” I smiled a little.

  “Thank you…”

  “Kyrah.” She supplied and smiled, she pronounced it Kigh-ruh, and it was a beautiful and unique name. I told her so and she smiled even bigger. She was very short, maybe five foot three and built very small, she could easily be mistaken for a child. Her hair was the redder side of strawberry blonde and was back in a French twist, a fringe of bangs falling into her eyes, longer on the sides. She had intelligent green eyes and her smile lit her up from the inside out.

  “Do you think we could meet for a lunch or a coffee some time?” she asked softly, “I just moved here from the Midwest and could use a new friend. You seem nice.”

  Alec let my hands go and I rummaged through my purse and pulled out one of my cards. I wrote my cell number on the back using the pen from my journal. I didn’t even hesitate. I missed having a female friend. She smiled again.

  “Call me tomorrow. Do you know where the Museum of History is?” I asked.

  “The one with the upcoming Viking exhibit that’s all over the news?” she asked. I smiled. I needed to watch more TV apparently. I looked at Alec and he was grinning.

  “Uh yeah, I guess my project has been on the news.” I mumbled.

  “You work on that?” her green eyes widened, she looked at my card and really read it this time.

  “Yeah.” I grinned.

  “I will definitely call you.” She said enthusiastically, bouncing in place.

  “I look forward to it.” I said. Someone called her name and she excused herself, disappearing into the small, but crowded space.

  I looked up at Alec.

  “Hungry?” I asked and the predatory look he gave me made me shiver with desire. His arms tightened and butterflies took flight in my stomach.

  “Famished.” He said and that one word said so many things. We left the coffee house and ran into a familiar face at the top of the stairs.

  “Gracelyn.” Roxanne said and looked a little guilty.

  “Roxanne.” I looked her over, she hadn’t changed a bit, which really was no surprise. I expected to feel hurt, or angry, something but honestly I was surprised I felt nothing.

  “How’ve you been?” she tried and I realized that even though I felt no anger or sadness anymore, neither did I feel the need to give her another shot at hurting me again.

  “Fine, I’m sorry but we really must be going.” I went to brush past her and head down the stairs but she caught my arm. I felt Alec’s hand stiffen in mine and I craned my neck up and back to look at him. His eyes, not only the gray of a mountain spring, now they were just as cold. I looked back at Roxanne.

  “Could you maybe call me sometime?” she asked and I felt a little thrill of anger.

  “How could I possibly do that?” I asked. “I did what you asked and lost your number.” She visibly cringed and I was surprised that I didn’t feel one iota of guilt. I pulled my arm from her grasp and continued down the stairs. Alec, was smiling and I wondered when he was going to stop pretending, because I wasn’t about to a moment longer than I needed to.

  Chapter 51

  I unlocked my apartment door, the enticing smell of the Thai food we’d picked up on the way here causing my stomach to rumble. I pushed my way in the door and stood aside so Alec could come in. I turned on the lights and ushered him into my small kitchen. He set the bags down on the counter while I locked up. I quietly made us plates and poured us some white wine from the fridge. He leaned against the counter and watched me. An amused smirk on his face. Finally I stopped, handing him a glass of wine. He’d gone very, very still.

  I raised the glass to my lips, gaze locked on his and took a generous mouthful. The sharp click his glass made as he set it on the counter was all the confirmation I needed. I set my own glass on the stove and he was on me. Mouth crushing down over mine. The sweet, crisp, wine flooded from my mouth into his and he drank deeply of both it and me. His hands kneaded my ass and I all but climbed his body to get closer to him. He broke the kiss and bent.

  “Alaric.” I gasped.

  He lifted me and I twined my legs around his hips, our lips found each other again and we kissed as if this were all some sort of beautiful dream and we would wake any moment. He carried me to the bedroom and we tumbled onto the bed. His body covered mine, hips grinding into me and I could feel how much he wanted to be there. His hands fumbled at my waist, pulling my peach colored blouse from the waistband of my gray slacks so that his hands could delve beneath it, flattening in a caress along my ribs, over the lace cups of my bra. My hands were beneath the Henley, smoothing over the strong planes of his back.

  I pulled the Henley off over his head and he brought his hands out from beneath my blouse to let me. He gripped the two sides of my blouse and pulled, buttons flying in every direction and I didn’t care. He flattened himself against me, skin against skin. He was so warm, so hard and he was so mine. He kissed along my jaw and nipped the side of my neck. I cried out and he growled possessively. We stripped the rest of the way in frenzied, barely controlled movements. He kissed every inch of me from head to toe and knelt between my thighs, looking down at me, drinking me in with his eyes as much as he had with his mouth.

  “God I love you Gracelyn.” He said, voice husky with need.

  “Alaric.” I whispered.

  “Yes?” he looked slightly afraid.

  “Is it really you?” I asked.

  “Yes. Yes my love, my heart.” He laid his ear between my breasts, over my heart eyes closed, listening. I pulled the elastic with its strange pewter crest from his hair, letting it spill over my ribs in a heated silken wash. I combed my fingers through it gently, hands shaking as I kept it from his face.

  “Would that I could tear my beating heart from my own breast and lay it in your hands Gracelyn, I would… Oh God I would.” I tugged gently on his hair and he sat up, looking down on me with his new eyes, the overhead bathing him in bright white light.

  “I like your heart right where it is.” I said and dragged his mouth to mine, he broke the kiss, both of us gasping and I wrapped my legs around his hips, pulling him closer.

  “I love you, now please, love me back.” I whispered and he place himself at my entrance and pressed into me.

  I arched from the bed and moaned his name. God I loved the way he filled me. He seated himself completely, deep inside me and slowly rolled his hips forward, rocking into me. He held himself off of me, arms straining, so he could look at me and I looked back. He withdrew and then rocked forward again. I cried out and his voice echoed mine. He made love to me. Slowly, deliberately. He would not be rushed, no matter how much I begged and pleaded with him. He brought me to the brink
, slowly, tenderly and I quivered beneath him, held on the very brink for what felt like eternity.

  “God, the Angels, the Devil himself and legions of the demonic,” he grunted, “None of them could keep me from you.” I gripped his shoulders, and brought my hips up to meet his.

  “Alaric,” I gasped, there was no keeping the begging from my voice, as he lowered his body more fully against mine. His gentle thrusts changed angle and he began to brush over that place inside me. I wrapped my legs tightly around his hips and devoured his mouth in the strongest, most passionate kiss I had ever given anyone in my life. I tightened around his thrusting cock as the sensations deepened. He changed his depth and angle just a little bit more and I cried out. So close, I was so close.

  “Please Alaric, please…” I begged and he slipped a hand between us, placing the pad of his thumb against my clit, he brushed his thumb over the sensitive nub in a sensual circle and my cup runneth over. I came screaming his name, back bowing off the bed, nails biting into his shoulders. He made a triumphant noise and drove into me, hard and harder until he cried out, thrust one more time and collapsed, folding me under him and against his chest, spilling himself inside me.

  We lay for a long time on top of the covers. The dew of sweat gently cooling our skins. He placed a languid kiss over my thundering heart and looked up at me from between my breasts, easing out from inside my body and laying out beside me, pulling me against his chest in that old familiar way. Tears dampened the hair at my temples, I hadn’t even realized I’d been crying.

  “Tell me this is real.” I said, voice near breaking.

  “My love, my heart, this is very real.” He said and kissed my forehead and I wept tears of pure unadulterated joy. I sat up abruptly and straddled his hips, scooting down to lay my head on his chest, listening to the even tick of his heart, the blood rush through his veins.

  “Tell me how.” I said, “I want to understand, Neil, said you’d been Judged. How are you here?” I asked.

  “Shhhhhh, there is time. I am not going anywhere.” His hands smoothed over my skin.

  “You’re damn right you aren’t going anywhere. I am never letting you out of my sight ever again!” I exclaimed. He laughed, an abrupt and oh so decadent sound.

  “I want a bath. With you. Like before.” He said.

  “Explain first or I won’t let you up.” I said stubbornly then let out a short shriek as he got up anyways, holding me as if I weighed near nothing.

  “That is so not fair!” I cried, clinging to him like a spider monkey. He laughed, that rich deep rumble like rolling thunder and I wanted him inside of me all over again.

  He carried us into the bathroom and started the water. I leaned against the sink and turned, picking up the lighter from the back of the toilet I lit the candles in the bathroom and went and turned out the lights in the rest of the apartment. I returned to the bathroom and switched out the overhead light and there he was, my Alaric. He looked different under the electric lights, the softer candle light hid some details but now, all that was missing was the red cast to his eyes. He pulled me tight against him and kissed me fiercely. He groaned into my mouth and broke the kiss reluctantly.

  He climbed into the bath and pulled me down after him. I settled against him and he let his hands roam, warm and wet, over every inch of me that he could reach. I relaxed against him and waited.

  “I was Judged, and it was found the good I had done had outweighed the bad.” He said, deep voice rumbling against my back.

  “I was to go to heaven.” He fell silent.

  “Then how are you here?” I asked when it became too much.

  “I was asked by the Host if there was anything I had to say before my soul was to be taken and I asked them why they would sentence me to Hell. Obviously there was some confusion. I would go to Heaven, and so I told them… ‘Gracelyn is my Heaven. To send me anywhere else. That would be Hell. Your Heaven, though pleasant, would still be a beautiful torment without her there to share it with.’ They were understandably puzzled by this.” He chuckled. I could barely breathe, so moved was I by his words.

  “How are you here with me now?” I asked.

  “Miracles happen every day.” He kissed the top of my head.

  “Alaric…” I breathed, frustration lacing my voice.

  “The Archangels made it so,” he said. “Do not ask me how, suffice to say it was very painful and it took weeks of your time… months of ours.” He held me close and I thought for a long while.

  “You were judged before I ever left weren’t you?” I asked, Raphael’s words suddenly making a whole lot of sense.

  “Yes.” He said simply. We stayed silent as the water grew tepid. Finally he pulled the drain with his toes and stood us up, starting the shower. We kissed as the falling water gently steamed around us.

  “When I left Hell, I asked if I would ever see you again. Raphael said he couldn’t say…”

  “We did not know if what was proposed would work.” Alaric said, massaging shampoo into my hair.

  “He told me to be patient right before I stepped through the mirror, told me to wait. It makes sense now.” I said.

  “It was agreed by all of us, the Host, Neil, Karael and Rizoel. You were inconsolable, we did not wish to make promises we may not have been able to keep. It was feared that if we told you anything, that if we failed, that you would break completely and none of us wanted to see you fall to the dark.” His expression was at once sorrowful and apologetic.

  “You’re really here.” I murmured in awe. He smiled.

  “I am really here.” He kissed me lightly.

  “Forever and ever?” I asked.

  “Until the day I die.” He said gravely, adding, “And I intend to live a very long and happy life with my wife by my side.” I frowned.

  “Are you asking me to marry you?” I asked.

  “Yes.” He said simply.

  “Alaric, I have been married to you in every way that counts for months.” I whispered and he crushed me to him.

  “Anything else is just window dressing.” I murmured and he laughed softly.

  “I know of what you speak.” He said. “To become Alaric Wermund I required quite the education.” He smiled against my wet hair.

  “What does Wermund mean?” I asked suddenly.

  “It means protector of man.” He said.

  We ran the hot water tank out and got out of the shower. We reheated our food in the microwave and ate and talked until late. As we lay in bed together I made him promise he would be there in the morning. He swore to me he would be.

  He was.

  Thank you God.

  Epilogue

  I called in to work the next morning citing a myriad of personal things to do. Jared let me, before I hung up he said it was good to hear a smile back in my voice. I thanked him, and promised explanations soon. It took us a while to come up with a good story but that wasn’t my focus. Alaric and I didn’t stay in bed as much as we’d wanted to. We went to Gunnar’s hotel. I had to pour him a scotch at nine o’clock in the morning. It was pretty funny.

  He got to ask Alaric everything he wanted to and then some. Alaric was patient, answering all of his questions one at a time with me tucked against him. I listened to them talk for hours until my phone rang. It was Kyrah. I reluctantly left the boys to talk and met her for lunch as I’d promised. She was full of questions about the upcoming exhibit that I sadly didn’t have all the answers to so involved with my personal life as I’d been.

  I promised to find out all the details and share. We talked about poetry and shopping and her schooling. She was smart. Going to NYU on full scholarship. She ended up being my maid of honor at our wedding. Alaric insisted, I won on hyphenating my name. I went back to school and achieved my PhD, Dr. Adams-Wermund had a nice ring to it.

  Alaric and I were inseparable, he went where I went and I went where he went. Never did we spend twenty-four hours apart. He ran his business from where ever we were located. The Vi
king exhibit took the world by storm. The story of Alrekr Hakon Frithjof became legendary in its own right. A lesson in greed, wrath and the general folly of unchecked power. Alaric was proud of what I accomplished with Jared and the many others on the project. Documentaries were made by and for the History channel as well as a dramatic mini-series. Alaric was a bit horrified by the ugly brute of a man they used to portray him. He watched it with me though, scoffing that he wasn’t half so ugly. His vanity made me giggle.

  We lived long and well, but alas, children weren’t written in our stars. We never used protection, or birth control of any kind. I simply didn’t conceive. We didn’t visit any doctors or scientists. We decided that it was God’s will. If we got pregnant, then yay! If not, we had each other and that was enough for us.

  We grew old together. We lived, we laughed, we loved and when it was our time we went together. Passing within minutes of each other. Those we left behind said it was amazing, but when we passed into the light, and into the waiting arms of Hamneil, Rizoel and Karael, the angels who were our friends, we could tell you it was because we would never be parted. Ever. Because soul mates are forever. Through Heaven, Hell and every place in between.

  Author’s Notes

  Alaric and Gracelyn’s story started almost fifteen years ago when I had a dream. I was in high school, and yeah. It was one of those kinds of dreams. When I started writing their story, I wasn’t sure how I was going to go from the narrow focus and premise of what my dream had been to a full length story. The pieces just sort of fell together in the right ways though, and after three weeks of writing almost daily, here you have it. I guess sometimes you just have to sit down and write it.