A Cup of Blood

by Troy A Hill

  Once the second dress was clean, she waded back to shore and hung next to the other to dry. I took a few steps into the shallower part near the bank so I could lather my skin with the soap. Gwen helped me reach my back below my shoulders. I sighed and relaxed back into her. She held me in her arms, then kissed me on the cheek. I smelled the floral of the soap and opened my eyes to find the jar held in front of me.

  “My turn,” she said.

  I took the soap from her and enjoyed the sensation of touch as I ran my hands across her skin, and under her breasts. Even if the attraction I had for her was because of the blood she had given me. I continued to touch her body with my soapy hands.

  She tried to turn toward me, and wrap her arms around my neck. But I moved and stayed behind her. I had to pull some of my undead energy and go faster than a human. She tried again as I rubbed my soapy hands across her chest. Again, I used my heightened reflexes and speed to turn with her. She stamped her foot in mock agitation.

  “You ARE a tease.”

  I kissed her on the neck. “Let’s do our hair. Dunk and I will soap yours up.” She obliged and dropped her head under the chilly water.

  We lounged near the small pool for the rest of the afternoon. Gwen sat in the sun to warm up. My blanket was next to it, but still in the shade. I sat and wove a small basket from reeds to carry the berries and fruit we gathered for Gwen's meals. That didn't take long. Our bodies, and then our laundered clothing dried. On our way back to our spot by the lake we filled the basket with more berries.

  A few hours later, we watched the sun slide behind the trees as we sat on the bank of The Lady’s special lake in the hills.

  “Time for food,” I suggested.

  “You are thirsty?”

  "No. These," I held the basket of berries for her, "are for you." I selected one of her favourite berries and held it before her mouth. She smiled and leaned back. Once comfortable, she opened her mouth and let me drop the berry into it. I plucked out another berry. Gwen saw me pull it out of the basket and opened her mouth again. I obliged her and followed with a kiss to get a taste of the berries from her lips.

  My affection surprised her, but she returned it.

  "Mmmm… That's how I can share your meal," I said. "You eat and then share a kiss. I get to taste both you and the berries." She giggled and held her mouth open for another berry. A dozen kisses later, I had tasted every variety in the basket several times over. Gwen giggled as she held up her hand.

  “Enough berries, dearest.”

  I moved to get her clay water jug and a small cup for her. I sat next to her on our blanket and snuggled in close as she sipped the water. She finished and lay across my lap, and looked into my eyes. She raised her hand and ran a delicate finger across my lips.

  “I would like to offer you a meal now,” she said.

  “But I do not thirst now.”

  "That does not mean you can't feed." Again her finger traced across my lips. "This is what I can share with you," she said, "Share as you shared with your master and your siblings."

  I understood at last. Gwen wanted to experience the role of partner like I had before I crossed over. To be not just a donor, but to share in the emotional peaks as I fed my thirst.

  “Remember, that I cannot have just one donor, one lover in my life..” I whispered. “And… I need to discover my heart beyond the connection of the blood. If we share tonight that will only strengthen the emotions I am feeling. ”

  “What does your heart say now?” she asked.

  She was correct. I wanted the intimacy again. I hadn’t had a willing and aware partner for many years.

  "Tonight is for you," I whispered as I leaned down and kissed her. I moved her to where she could lie on the blankets. I tugged at and undid the ties on my dress and pulled it over my head. She followed along, and squirmed out of her dress, then leaned against me. The fire before us warmed our flesh.

  I ran my fingers along her body. As my master had done so often with me, I would take my time tonight, and build her anticipation. Not to tease. At first, she kept her eyes locked on mine, but they fluttered closed as my hands drifted across her skin. She stroked her hand along my body, whenever she could, but I concentrated on her. I found new areas to touch and explore. I saved her breasts and the soft mound between her legs for later.

  Finally I let my mouth wander. Her breath hissed in anticipation and eagerly awaited my lips as I moved to kiss her.

  My right hand moved between her legs and caressed the spot I knew she wanted to be touched. I repeated my strokes and drifted up and down her body many times. Not to tease, but to build the anticipation. She trembled every time the rhythm of my movements brought my hand back to her sex.

  "Open your eyes," I breathed. Tonight, Gwen's eyes were back to their aqua-blue colour. Her happiest tone. I loved how they changed hue based on her mood.

  I concentrated on her mind. The touch and intimacy had excited her and relaxed her mind enough for her to let me brush my thoughts along her mental awareness. I could sense that her mind was strong, and I'd never be able to exert control or plant memories the way I did with my regular donors.

  She was different. What had I called her? A being of power? That she was, and she opened the door to her mind for me.

  We fell into each other’s eyes.

  "Are you ready?" I asked. Her only answer was to raise enough to kiss me, her eyes closing on the way. She lay back down, and rotated her head to the side, and exposed her neck. Her blood rushed through her body. I lowered my lips to her neck as my fingers continued to rub below. My teeth expanded to points, and I nicked her neck then reached out to her mind again. I closed my lips around the tiny wounds in her throat. Her blood trickled into my waiting mouth.

  As her blood touched me, it warmed me and sent a sense of joy and happiness through my mind. I shared the sensations through our mental link. Her excitement flowed back into my mind. This wasn't just about touch. We shared our feelings and arousal. Each of us fed the other our emotions, and our pleasures multiplied. Our experience was no longer about taste nor touch. Our minds intertwined, our passions overlapped as they swirled together. We climbed the emotional peaks together.

  I sensed not only her body, her blood and her mind but also her contact with the Otherworld. Golden strands of light wound from her, deep into the mists of the Otherworld and I felt the love of a goddess caress us both.

  Gwen, too, seemed to experience new sensations. She shared, for that moment, my connection to the dead. Our thoughts were primal with the taste of blood and sexual joy combined. Together, as we moved toward the peak of those emotions, we united our natures and reached through the surrounding land. We sensed every worm in the soil, every insect, every creature in the area. We skimmed across an ancient graveyard, Roman from the residual feel of the souls once attached to those skeletons.

  I don't believe either of us had control of our thoughts as we wound toward our shared climax. Gwen's voice cried out in a long moan of passion, as I pulled my mouth from her neck. My voice followed hers as we drifted down from the peak together.

  My eyes opened first. I gazed down at Gwen. She was smiling, content. The small wound I had made in her pale flesh healed rapidly. Two small drops of blood slid down her neck from the two small scars. I leaned down and licked the drops off of her, and relished her unique, powerful taste.

  “Not yet, dearest,” she whispered. “I cannot… again… so soon.” She lay in my arms, content for another minute. Her eyes fluttered open. “Did you feel all of that?”

  “The goddess, the land, the Otherworld?”

  "That, but also the graves? I never knew they were there." She pushed herself up. "Sit with me. I need to be sure…." Small tremors in her hand betrayed that she still felt the high of our intimacy. Gwen took a deep breath and closed her eyes to calm herself. She crossed her legs and held her hands out. I copied her pose and laid my hands on hers.

  “Open your mind, and go with me,” I realis
ed she hadn't spoken out loud. I closed my eyes and kept our mental link open. I found her presence powerful, yet comforting.

  Together our minds drifted through a misty world similar to when we travelled in her magical tree-walks. Behind us, away from where we had begun, the light was brighter. It diminished and faded to a pale grey in the far distance before us. Gwen directed our flight across a shadowy landscape until we were at the old graveyard I had detected during our passion. She sent her thoughts out toward and probed the area. I sensed graves and long dead bones within. Once Gwen was satisfied with her find, we moved back toward our bodies. But I detected her mental shiver as she pulled our minds back from the graves.

  As we slowed our return, not yet withdrawn from the dream world into our bodies by the fire, I again noticed the golden line that stretched from Gwen's abstract form back into the mists. Bright waves of energy pulsed along its length in as it twisted back toward the white light. I sensed it was a divine connection between the Goddess and Gwen. She had said she was a disciple of The Lady. Was this how she could tap into the magic of this goddess of hers?

  Gwen must have sensed my thoughts. She pointed back to where the golden cord ended.

  “Go past the sight of my cord, and look for another,” her thoughts came into my mind.

  I concentrated and saw another. A tangle of black cords, intertwined with gold stretched forth from the Otherworld. They ran parallel to and twisted along Gwen's golden one. I realised the cord connected me to the Otherworld. The cords tied both of us to the goddess.

  As we descended and brought our minds back into our bodies, I felt love wash over us. Not just any love, but the love of a Goddess for her chosen. Till then I had never understood that feeling. The closest I had ever experienced was the love of my master, but he had been flesh, not divine.

  I opened my eyes and saw Gwen.

  “We both experienced the other’s world tonight.” She still touched my hands, and I heard her thoughts in my mind. She pointed off in the direction of the ancient graveyard. "I had to be certain we had not activated your magic and raised those souls." She shivered at that thought.

  We were on the edge of something both great and dangerous. Was this new connection to Gwen's goddess… the ability to speak between our minds… was this because of our different natures? Gwen's powers and my undead nature together… was it because of us, or did this goddess of hers push us?

  "And, as you felt," Gwen said out loud and squeezed my hands in hers. "We have both been blessed by The Lady."

  "That will take some getting used to. I haven't been around too many goddesses…" I said and almost giggled until a gate unlocked in my mind. Memories flooded back.

  "Gwen," I said, my voice quiet, even timid, in the night. "I did not remember till just now… but, I have met the Lady before."

  Her eyes narrowed.

  “One usually does not forget such an incident,” she said. “How did you arrange this meeting, and then lose, the memory of it?”

  "She told me to forget," I said and recalled the meal I had given to the old woman the first night I stepped off the boat onto British soil. The memories of the old hag at the guest house flooded back. I kept my eyes closed as I pulled every detail from my mind. Gwen was silent as I finished my tale.

  "The woman I met was an old woman, not pretty by any standard," I said. "And in my dream of the game board…"

  “Gwyddbwyll board,” she added.

  “The Lady was the player in the dragon gown. Although she was hooded, I could see enough to know she wasn’t old, nor loathly.”

  "The Lady has three aspects," Gwen said. "She can appear as a young bride, some say the flower bride. Her second aspect is the one you saw in your dream at the Gwyddbwyll board. The wise, sovereign queen. Her third aspect you saw in the alehouse: the loathly old woman."

  “Gods and goddesses seem to like the number three,” I said and chuckled.

  "She sometimes appears as a warrior mistress. She teaches the heroes of Bard's stories the ways of the weapons. In those stories, she's often the lover of the fighters. Although, the last time she had a fighter trained, she sent him to another master to learn." Gwen said, her gaze was distant. She sighed.

  “For the training, if she’s still in her old woman guise, she may ask for a kiss.”

  "She asked me for a kiss," I said, "that night at the alehouse. So, I've encountered two of her aspects so far?"

  "The Lady blesses you," she said as she ran her hand along my leg. "You have a connection to her now." I knew she meant the magical cord.

  “Why would she want to have me?” I mused aloud.

  "You saw why in the Gwyddbwyll game." Gwen's eyes had shifted to a dark blue. That must be her shade for when she was serious. "Someone or something is challenging The Lady's sovereignty. You're here to help us stop that challenge."

  “There are only two of us,” I said. “Shouldn’t there be three? And I’m not a dryad, druidess, or whatever you are.”

  “Disciple,” Gwen said. “Chosen of the goddess. I remember a conversation I had with her many years ago.” Gwen turned and leaned back into me. I wrapped my arms around her, happy with the contact. Gwen had turned her attention to other matters.

  “The Lady told me we would be three,” she said, her voice quiet. “Sisters in service to her when Britain faced her greatest challenge.”

  “When the third disciple shows up, let’s ignore her so we can avoid this greatest challenge.”

  "Dearest!" Gwen said and turned back toward me. I laughed at her stern look.

  "I have no idea who the third disciple is," she added and settled back against me.

  “Is that what I’m supposed to be,” I asked, “a disciple? I don’t feel like one.”

  "Perhaps not yet," Gwen said. "My ascension to the title wasn't formal. One of your kind, a banshee was trying to kill me.”

  “Some of us are funny that way,” I said. “Good thing I’m nicer.”

  "Oh, you!" Gwen sighed, then looked at me with her teal blue eyes. “I accepted The Lady as my Mistress when I realised she was helping me, giving me the power to defend myself from the banshee. You may get formally asked, or not. But you’ll know when you’ve accepted your role with her.”

  I sensed a warm sensation drift across us again. Gwen’s golden hair… no, her entire being shone under the moonlight. I giggled again.

  Getting noticed by a goddess can make a girl feel special. Even to an undead girl like me. And this was at least the third time it had happened in only a few nights.

  28

  A visitor

  The next morning, I rose from where I had sat with her while she slept. I tucked the blanket around her naked body and moved to stir the fire again. Gwen must have heard me. She sat up and pulled the blanket up with her.

  "We'll have company later today, dearest," she said. "I thought I felt someone approaching yesterday. This morning I am certain." She sighed but did not seem worried. I must have appeared puzzled.

  “Only a few people know of this lake. This area is sacred to The Lady, and I can sense when a person enters its boundaries.”

  Once we dressed, Gwen brought out the rest of the berries from her meal the day before.

  “I should visit The Lady’s realm in the Otherworld one more time before our visitor arrives.” She said. Her eyes were a dark blue this morning. “You don’t feel a need to nap today?”

  I shook my head. I still felt the energy from our intimacy the night before. Why I didn’t know. Perhaps an effect from that metaphysical cord between me and this goddess of Gwen’s.

  “If you would stay here to greet our visitor in case, my trip takes longer than I expect,” Gwen suggested. I gave her a nod. What else would I do while she was gone?

  “I would like to see if The Lady can provide any further idea of what we’ll be facing.” She said as she stood. “Not that she will grant me an audience without an invitation, but I believe I should at least try to see her. There may be other in
dications I can discern with a visit to The Lady’s part the Otherworld.”

  “Should our visitor arrive before you return,” I asked, “do you have any instructions?”

  She turned to walk toward the grove and called back as she reached the tree line, “Offer hospitality if I do not return promptly. Charm them as you’ve charmed me, and all will be well.”

  I understood her meaning. Although I thought of how charmed she was last night. I had no desire to disrobe in front of another person nor offer to feed from them. With more of Gwen's powerful blood in my veins, my infatuation with her was as intense now as it had been when I first awoke.

  Faint red light from the shadows let me know she had stepped between worlds. I busied myself in the morning fog. Today would be a grey day.

  I hung our woollen blankets over tree branches and beat them with a long stout stick to clean them. It was then I sensed the approach of our visitor. Gwen seemed sure they would be a someone she knew, so I tried to appear unconcerned about their approach. Whoever it was, they took their time watching me.

  I sensed where they hid in the scrub growth by the path down to the valley below. I gave the blankets a few extra whacks with the stick, then pulled the blankets off and folded them. Once I draped them over the logs, I fetched Gwen's water pitcher and cup. She had the foresight to get another cup out of her magical storage. I sat on one log, opposite where I sensed our visitor and let them get a good look at me.

  “You are welcome to join me,” I said loud enough for them to hear. “Lady Gwen is off on an errand, and will return shortly.”

  A deep chuckle rumbled from off the pathway, still in the shadows of the underbrush. A large man stood and walked toward me. He was a tall man, deep-chested with thick legs. His red hair and bushy beard were curly and tousled. His plain grey tunic struggled to reach his thick knees due to an extra few inches of height.

  "Aye, lass. If you be a friend of the good Lady Gwen, I shall beg your pardon," he said. He lowered his bulk onto the opposite log. The mass I assumed was weight from lack of exercise and too much diet, was all muscle. He kept himself alert and didn't sink back or appear to relax.