Lust

by Alyssa Rose Ivy

  “Tell us the story.” The man directly in front of me leaned forward in his chair. “I want to hear it from you.”

  “From me?” I put a hand to my chest. I could barely concentrate let alone tell them anything.

  “Again with the questions.” Arabella rolled her eyes.

  “Yes, you.” The man tapped his foot impatiently. “Tell us the story.”

  “There isn’t all that much more to tell.”

  “I’m sure there is.” He rested his inhumanly muscular arm on the armrest of the chair.

  “I was given a magic paste by a witch that had Allure essence in it.”

  “Start before that. From the beginning.” He wove his hand around.

  “The beginning was taking a road trip to New Orleans with my roommate at the time. She wanted to reconnect with her ex-boyfriend, and I stupidly went along for the ride.” I liked to blame it on being young.

  “And what happened?”

  I decided to skip over the part about getting felt up by Shaun. “I got bored and was wandering around in the French Quarter and found a Voodoo shop.”

  “You simply happened upon it?” The man asked.

  “No. A photographer recommended I check it out.”

  “Who was the photographer?”

  “Harold something. He had a shop on Royal Street, but he’s not there anymore. I met his son though.”

  “Based on the suggestion of a complete stranger you walked into a Voodoo shop.” The elder didn’t hide his disbelief.

  “It was a tourist trap kind of place. It’s not like I went to a witch’s house or anything.”

  “Continue.” He waved me on.

  “The witch said she had just the thing for me, and she put the paste on my forehead. She called it Seduction’s Kiss.”

  “Again, you allowed a woman you didn’t know to put a paste on you?” Instead of disbelief, his expression had become one of disapproval.

  “I was young and stupid. Is that what you want to hear?”

  “No. I don’t want to hear anything but the true story.”

  “Yes, I allowed it. I thought it was just a touristy thing.”

  “What happened next?”

  “I went out on Halloween night with a guy who turned out to be a vampire stripper.”

  The elder raised an eyebrow. “A vampire stripper?”

  Arabella laughed, and the man gave her a stern glare.

  “I apologize, Abe.” She bowed her head. Evidently he was the leader.

  “Yes. And he introduced me to more vampires, and I ended up being dragged back to their nest in a body bag. As did my friends.”

  “And what did they do to you at their nest?” Arabella appeared more interested now. I guess I was entertaining her.

  “The leader tried to drain me, but I was saved by a Pteron.” I smiled thinking of Owen.

  “A Pteron happened to find you?” Abe raised an eyebrow.

  “It turns out he’d noticed me previously, although he hadn’t shown it.”

  “So you’d met the Pteron before?” Arabella asked.

  “Unofficially.” I started to sweat. I felt like I was standing under hot lights.

  “Why didn’t you tell us?” Abe questioned. “I told you we needed the full story.”

  “I didn’t think that mattered.”

  “The whole truth means the whole truth, not the things you think are important.” Abe leaned back in his chair.

  “Well, then I was also felt up by the roommate of my friend’s ex. Is that important?”

  He nodded. “Maybe to your state of mind.”

  “I don’t want to be this.” I gestured to myself. “I want to be human. I want to go back to my normal life.” I’d had enough of the interrogation. I needed to know if I had a chance of convincing them to help.

  “But with Owen.” Roland grunted.

  “Who’s Owen?” Arabella asked.

  “Her Pteron savior. Whom she professes to love.” Roland’s voice dripped with sarcasm.

  “Something else she failed to mention.” Arabella tapped her nails on her armrest.

  “I hadn’t gotten that far.”

  “You had. You were telling us you wanted to go back to your normal life.”

  “Why don’t you want the gift?” Another male elder addressed me. “Doesn’t immortality and power appeal to you?”

  I shook my head. “Love and happiness appeal more.”

  “Love of this Pteron?” Abe questioned.

  “Yes, and my family.”

  “But does this Pteron even love you?” Arabella asked with a hint of a smile. “Maybe he finds you amusing, a fun distraction. Is he worthy of your love?”

  “Yes.” I didn’t hesitate. I knew his feelings were genuine, and he was definitely worthy. “He loves me, and I love him.”

  “How do you know he loves you?” Arabella leaned forward.

  “Because he’s waiting for me in the valley. He came all the way here for me.”

  “Are you sure? Maybe he had other reasons to desire entry to our home.” Arabella caught Abe’s eye.

  “He didn’t. I’m tired of people trying to convince me of everyone else’s ulterior motives. Some people actually do things because they care.”

  “Like Violet?” Roland turned to me. “You still think that’s why she’s here?”

  “That doesn’t really matter. She’s here. She brought me here. In the end that’s what matters.”

  “Is it?” Roland’s eyes were cold as he leaned in close to whisper in my ear. “What if the Elders won’t help you because of her?”’

  I let out a deep breath. I could handle this. “The Elders’ decision to help me or not will have little to do with Violet.”

  “Correct. You do have intelligent things to say when you stop asking questions.” Arabella beamed at me.

  I jumped at the opening. “Can you stop the change? Can you make me human again?”

  “They won’t destroy the essence. They can’t.” Roland turned his back to me.

  “You are both right.” Abe caught my eye. “We can stop the change, but we must not destroy the essence.”

  “Then what will you do?” Violet asked calmly.

  “That depends.” Abe kept his eyes on mine.

  “Depends?”

  “On how much Daisy and what was the Pteron’s name?” He waved his hand again.

  “Owen,” I quickly supplied.

  “Owen. On how much Daisy and Owen value their love.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked nervously.

  “I don’t remember my human life well, but I remember love.” Abe leaned back and broke eye contact. “I will know the real thing when I see it.”

  “It’s real.” I stepped toward the elders. “It’s completely real.”

  “I’m sure you think so, but I’ll have to see you together.”

  “I’ll get him.” Violet nodded.

  “Wait, you’re leaving already?” I wanted her to get Owen for me, but I felt nervous about being left alone.

  “I’m here.” Roland smirked. “Why would it matter if she left?”

  “Because you don’t want me to stop the change. You aren’t on my side.” I stomped my foot.

  “I’m always on your side.” His expression didn’t change.

  “I won’t be long, if permission to bring the Pteron is granted.” Violet bowed slightly.

  “Permission granted.” Abe nodded. “But use haste.”

  “I will.” Violet hurried out of the room.

  “I would like to talk to the girl alone.” Arabella stood up. “Come with me.”

  “Now?” I’d been hoping to wait for Owen. I couldn’t wait to see him and prove we were truly in love. They’d have to see it. It was so strong anyone would be able to.

  “Yes, what other time would I mean? You really should stop asking questions.” She flipped her long blond hair off her shoulder.

  “Okay.”

  I followed the tall woman, she was well over si
x-feet, away from the chairs. She walked outside into a courtyard area.

  “Have you thought things out? Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” She stopped in front of a stone fountain situated between two Japanese maple trees.

  “I don’t want to change.”

  “But why? And do you understand what you’ll be giving up?” She sat on the edge of the fountain. “Although you did not initially consent to become an Allure, you should be fully informed before you decide to forgo your gift.”

  “No offense, but being an Allure doesn’t excite me as much as it seems to excite everyone else.”

  “Sit,” she ordered.

  “Ok.” I sat down next to her, leaving plenty of space.

  She nodded in approval. “Has anyone explained the power?’

  “The manipulation?” It wasn’t a good ability to have. “Yes.”

  “There’s more than that. So much more than that. So many secrets left to share with you.” Her eyes twinkled.

  “I don’t want to know the secrets.”

  “Yes you do.” She leaned toward me. “I can tell. It’s in your eyes, in the way you hold yourself. You’re desperate to know more, to fully change, but you’re scared.”

  I shook my head. “I’m not giving up my humanity.”

  “Why? Because of a Pteron who will forget you? For your family you’ve barely mentioned? What reasons?” She crossed her legs.

  “For those and more. I have my whole life left to live.” I stood up. “My whole life.”

  “And being an Allure will be more than a life. It will be an eternity. You can live any life you want over and over,” she jumped to her feet.

  “It doesn’t count if I’m not human. It doesn’t count at all.” Nothing she could tell me would change my mind.

  “Why not? What is it about being human that makes it different?” She leaned back on her hands.

  “Everything.”

  “Like?” She twirled hair around her perfectly manicured finger.

  “Being able to feel. What’s the point of experiencing anything if you can’t feel it?” I’d never thought about the importance of emotion before I started to change, but now it was everything. I realized I would be nothing but a shell of myself without it. No one would be.

  “You can still feel things. You can still feel the adrenaline rush when you jump out of a plane. You can still feel the heat of the sun when you lie on the beach. You can smell the intoxicating scents of exotic cuisines. You can feel the wind, hear the birds.” She stood and twirled around like a child.

  “But that isn’t emotion. That’s not what I mean.”

  “The surge from manipulating replaces your need for emotions. I promise. Who needs their own joy, when you can use it?” She smiled broadly. “It’s better that way. You can choose what emotions you touch and experience. The power and control is in your hands.”

  “It matters to me. I want to feel joy and love. I even want to feel pain if it’s for the right reasons. That’s what being human means, and that’s who I am.”

  She shifted her weight from one high heeled clad foot to the other. “Sex is still sex when it’s with your maker, or the one you make.” She ran her teeth over her lip. “In case that’s what’s holding you back.”

  Had she been listening to a word I said? Did she really think it was all about sex? Even if it was, which it wasn’t, she was wrong. “Physically, but not emotionally.”

  “With your maker it’s emotional. It’s one of the few exceptions.”

  “I don’t have a maker.” And everyone knew it. That’s what made my situation so strange and made me wonder if they really would ever welcome me into the fold as an Allure.

  “Not technically, but you share the bond with Roland. It will work the same way.” She stepped toward me. “He knows it. Why do you think he’s being so pushy?”

  “That has nothing to do with it, and either way, I don’t want to have sex or be with anyone but Owen.”

  “Why?” She seemed genuinely curious.

  “Because I love him.”

  “Why? And is that love truly stronger than your desire for immortality?” She sat back down in the same spot she’d been in. I hoped she didn’t ask me to sit, because I couldn’t. I had too many nerves coursing through me to sit down.

  “Yes. I have no desire to live forever. None.”

  “Everyone does to some degree.”

  “I don’t. I don’t want to die now. I want to live a long life and grow old. With Owen. I want to have children and grandchildren and watch them grow older.” Having kids wasn’t something I planned to do soon, but it was still something I wanted someday.

  “Why?” She leaned in. “Do you say that because it’s what you think you’re supposed to say?”

  “No, it’s what I know. What I feel.”

  “But your feelings are just that. Feelings. They are fleeting and easily changed.” She glanced behind her into the pool of the fountain. She smiled, and I realized she was checking her reflection.

  “I don’t want to live forever, and I don’t want to live if I can’t feel.”

  She turned back around. “You’re going to change your mind.”

  “I’m not.” I crossed my arms. The action reminded me I was standing in a simple white robe. Why was I wearing this while Arabella was dressed to the nines?

  “If we stop the change, you’ll regret it. You’ll spend the rest of your dismal short life wondering ‘what if’. ‘What if’ you had taken the chance?”

  “No.” I shook my head. “I’d always regret if I did change.”

  She laughed dryly. “Now we both know that’s not true. You won’t feel regret as an Allure.”

  “And that changes everything?”

  “Yes.” She stood.

  “Please stop the change. I’ll do anything.” I wasn’t above groveling at her feet if it would help.

  “Be careful what you offer.”

  “I already told you I’d rather die than lose the ability to feel.” I wasn’t suicidal. I’d never do that to the people in my life, but I wouldn’t be me if I changed. I wasn’t about to spend thousands of years roaming the earth as a paranormal creature that manipulated people, even destroyed their lives, on a whim. It couldn’t happen. That wasn’t me at all.

  “Do you want to see?”

  “See what?”

  “What your life could be?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Do you ever stop asking questions?”

  “Not when my life and future are on the line.”

  “Answer me. Do you want to know?”

  “I don’t understand what you are even asking. What are you offering to show me?”

  “The future.”

  “You can see into the future?”

  “I can show you.”

  “I don’t want to know.” The decision came swiftly, and I stormed back inside. Some things were better left unseen.

  21

  Owen

  I practically ran inside the palace. Violet had to grab my arm to slow me down, and even then I was tempted to brush her off. I needed to get to Daisy. Violet had assured me she was fine, but how would she even know? She’d been gone awhile to come get me.

  I’d accepted the simple white robe without protest. I’d have walked around naked if it meant seeing Daisy. As soon as the doors open I sprinted across the infinite marble floors of the palace.

  “Owen!” Daisy ran toward me with her dark hair falling down her back. I pulled her into my arms and let my lips immediately find hers. I didn’t care about the audience. We were together, and that was all that mattered.

  “Are they always like this?” A male voice asked.

  Daisy broke the kiss, and I reluctantly pulled away. I satisfied myself by slipping her hand in mine before we continued toward the semi-circle of thrones that seated the Elders.

  “Usually. They are rather lovey-dovey.” Violet smiled.

  “We have never had a Pteron inside t
his palace.”

  “I appreciate the grant of an audience. I would do anything to secure Daisy’s human nature.” I kept my voice even and calm even though my heart was racing.

  “You did it too. Promising anything? That’s a dangerous promise to make.” An attractive blonde stood from her throne and walked toward us. “I would have thought your king would have taught you better.”

  “My king taught me to stand up for what I believe in and protect those I love with every ounce of strength I have.” I intended to do both no matter what it cost me.

  “Daisy is agreeing to decline the greatest gift imaginable, immortality and power beyond your wildest dreams.” The apparent leader stepped down and joined the blonde.

  “She knows what she wants.” I squeezed her hand.

  “But would you do the same? Would you give up your greatest gift?” The leader studied my face.

  “Yes.” I didn’t waver.

  “That’s what love is about it, isn’t it? Sacrifice.” He stood completely still in front of us.

  “That’s part of it, but it’s so much more.” I kept eye contact, wanting him to understand there wasn’t a chance I would step down.

  “But sacrifice is always part of it. Whether it’s a small sacrifice of where or how to live, or a big one, like who and what you will be.”

  “We both agree we’d do anything to save her ability to feel.”

  “But do you really mean it?” He leaned in toward me.

  “Yes. I would give my life.” That reality shook me to my core, but it was true. I’d risk anything to protect her.

  “But life isn’t your greatest gift. You weren’t given immortality.”

  “No, and I never asked for it.” Living forever didn’t appeal to me. I’d miss my friends and family too much.

  “But you were given other gifts.”

  “Yes.” I wondered what he was thinking.

  “The biggest gift is hiding under that robe.” The blonde walked behind me and slipped down my robe, running her finger down my back.

  That’s when it hit me. My wings.

  “Would you give your wings up?” The blonde moved back around in front of us. “Would you give up the ability to fly?”