by Ivy Sinclair
“I hope that we will have an opportunity to discuss your obvious reluctance for such a great gift. Someone has filled your head with poison against Eva. She was a just and fair Goddess, and to be selected as her vessel is a great honor.”
“Giving up your body and soul is far from an honor, no matter how you try to dress that one up,” I said. I stood up. “I think I’ve had enough fresh air. I’m sure that I can sleep now.
“I’ll tell the children to head out to the fields,” Abigail said. “You need your rest. I am confident that once you have a decent night’s sleep, you’ll find your head is clear.”
I wasn’t about to be drawn into another discussion about why I needed to open myself to Eva. That wasn’t happening, and Abigail wasn’t going to change my mind. I hated that for a few minutes I had found myself liking the demon. It had been nice to feel a bit of a maternal hand.
Heading back inside, I looked over my shoulder and watched Abigail descend the steps into the front yard. The children seemed to appear from every direction, and the demon was caught up in the middle of their swarm as the group moved away from the house. It was unsettling to see the children’s expressions of adulation as they each tried to get Abigail’s attention.
I climbed the stairs slowly back up to my room. When I stepped inside my room earlier, I kept my ear to the door and heard Abigail direct Riley to the room next door. I found that I wanted to knock on his door just to confirm that he was still there.
Mentally kicking myself for being such a weakling, I made my way back into my room and quietly closed the door. I couldn’t deny that a part of me had wished it was Riley who found me on the porch instead of Abigail. I craved the circle of his arms.
I kicked my shoes onto the floor, and then peeled off my shirt and jeans. Flinging myself onto the bed, I crawled beneath the comforter. I pulled a pillow over my head to block out the light. Then I closed my eyes. After all of that, sleep overtook me moments later.
CHAPTER FIVE – RILEY
I wasn’t sure if it was the excitement of the day or the fact that I hadn’t slept in what felt like weeks, but I was out as soon as my head hit the pillow. When my eyes popped open, and I took in the unfamiliar room around me, I sat straight up with my hands up to deflect a blow that never came.
My heart raced as I tried to orient myself. The room was plain and furniture sparse. It finally came back to me. I was on Abigail’s farm. Klein was on his way. I looked at my watch. It was just after two pm. I had gotten a solid seven hours of sleep. That was more sleep than I got most of the time. The problem was something woke me up. My senses were on high alert.
Skin crawling, I threw the covers off my body. I usually slept commando, but knowing that I might have to move quickly, I kept my briefs on. I stood still and listened. It was the barest quake of the mirror on the far wall that took me across the room. I knew that it was the shared wall with Paige’s room, and I put my hand on it.
This time, I heard a noise that told me something was going on in the room next door. I didn’t even think. I was out the door and into the hallway. I didn’t wait for an invitation to enter her room. I gripped the doorknob, and it turned easily in my hand. It was unlocked; I swung the door open.
“Paige?”
The quilt was askew on the bed, and now her whimpers were evident. A quick scan of the room though told me that she was alone. I knew that Paige suffered from severe nightmares, and it appeared that she was having one now. I shut the door behind me and crossed the room trying not to make any noise that would startle her out of her wrecked sleep.
Now I could see her fully. While I felt a loosening in my chest knowing that she was unharmed, I knew by the way that her body shuddered that she was in a different kind of distress. I slid my body onto the bed as easily as I could trying not to jostle her. As soon as I settled, I reached out and carefully gathered her into my arms. I brushed my lips across the top of her head and stroked her hair.
“It’s okay, baby. Hush,” I whispered in her ear.
Her shoulders relaxed as her fingers splayed across my chest. Her nose nuzzled into the crook of my shoulder, and that’s when I realized that another part of me was just as awake and alert as my mind.
Paige still had her bra and panties on from what I could tell, but that was it. Our bare skin pressed against each other in several glorious places, and I almost groaned as she sighed and pressed even closer to me. I tried to empty my mind and count to ten. But my head was full of images of Paige writhing underneath me in the caves during our earlier encounter on Calamata Island. I wanted her now just as badly as I did then, but she belonged to someone else. The archangel Benjamin claimed her long before we ever met. He branded her with his symbol, and if I dared to try any funny business, I had no doubt that the angel would find me and kill me.
With Paige in my arms, it was a risk I was about ready to take. The only thing that stopped me was if Benjamin killed me then I wouldn’t be able to protect her. And that seemed to be the only thing that mattered to me anymore. There was a part of me that wondered if the intensity of my feelings had anything to do with the myth of Eva and her Protector. I had a tattoo on my back that indicated that I might be the Protector now. That was something that I hadn’t even started to think about or address yet.
10. 9. 8. 7.
“Riley?” Paige’s raspy voice broke into my attempt at emptying my mind. She pulled away from me, and I immediately missed the warmth of her skin. I saw the wariness in her eyes. “What are you doing here?”
“You were having a nightmare,” I said, shifting the quilt so that it kept my lower half covered. Paige’s hair was mussed, and her cheeks flushed. I struggled to keep my eyes off her lips that seemed to be just screaming to be kissed. “I heard you through the wall. I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”
She looked uncertain. “I haven’t had a normal night’s sleep in forever. Everywhere I look in my dreams, I see blood and death. I feel pain. It’s horrible.”
I reached out and touched her shoulder. “It’s okay. We’ll figure it out.”
“It’s Eva,” Paige said. “She’s out there in the ether trying to get inside my head.”
“We’ll figure out a way to make it stop.” I tried my best to sound reassuring even though I had no idea how to make the nightmares go away. “And Eva isn’t going to possess you. Ever.”
Paige’s lower lip trembled. “Sometimes it just seems pointless to keep fighting. I’ve lost everyone. I did horrible things trying to find the thing that was supposed to help me keep her away. I’m trying to fight a Goddess, but I’m just me. It’s hopeless.”
I sat up and put my hands on her shoulders, and then I gripped her chin to bring her eyes back to mine. “You are strong. You’ve survived for a reason. Nothing is predestined. I don’t believe in that shit, and neither should you.”
“I wish I could believe that,” she whispered.
“Do you trust me?” I knew that I was being an ass by enjoying that fact that she had softened toward me again. I wiped away the tear on her cheek.
“Yes,” she said but sounded defeated. “You know I do.”
I hated that she hurt, and I wanted to take all of that away. I inched closer to her, and her eyes widened. I heard her breath hitch, but she didn’t move away. I couldn’t help myself. I had to taste her lips. I was hesitant only to the point where my lips touched hers, and then I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into me.
Her arms wrapped around my neck, and she clung to me even as I ravished her mouth. She moaned as her lips opened, and I chased her tongue into her mouth. My head spun from a mix of desire and anxiety. I wanted her, but I knew that I couldn’t let this go too far. Last time had been amazing but ended on a sour note after Paige realized that I wasn’t going to consummate our relationship. I didn’t because I knew better than to step on an archangel’s territory. Paige had been embarrassed and frustrated with me. I didn’t want her to feel that way again.
I pulle
d away from her. “You know that I want you, but we can’t.”
Her fingers curled in the hair at the nape of my neck. She shook her head. “When I was…gone…Benjamin’s symbol was removed. Look.” She unwound a hand from my neck and pointed at her collarbone. The glowing symbol of a single red rose in a gold circle was nowhere to be seen.
I opened my mouth to ask her how, but then I realized that I didn’t give a shit. That was a conversation that could be had later. I took Paige’s hands in mine, and then pushed her back against the bed with her hands above her head. I slid down so that our bodies pressed in length against each other and hooked my leg over her thighs pulling her into to me.
In the meantime, I moved my lips down the side of her neck and nipped at the area where her neck met her shoulder. I avoided going anywhere near the pendant that hung there though.
“I trust you completely,” Paige breathed out words that made my heart sing. I released her hands and traced my fingers down her chest. Her skin was soft and warm. I felt her shudder against me as I skimmed my fingertips over the lace that covered her breasts from my view.
Her hands found my shoulders, and she gripped them hard as her body arched upward even as I traced her collarbone first with my finger and then with my lips. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to keep my excitement at bay for long. My hardness throbbed for release, and I shifted again trying to ease the sweetly painful throbbing between my legs.
I found her lips again and whispered words that I couldn’t even remember a moment later, but I knew the general theme. No matter what happened, I’d always find her. I’d always be there for her. She wasn’t alone anymore. She was mine, and I was hers.
She seemed to understand my nonsensical language, and her moans were her answers even as I nipped at her nipples through her bra before ripping it off altogether. I had burned the image of Paige’s beautiful body into my brain after our last encounter, never expecting that I would have this opportunity again. I stopped to gaze down at her even as she slipped out of her panties. She didn’t try to hide any part of her body from me.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” I said, not meaning the words to be spoken out loud.
Paige sat up on her elbow and looked up at me. “It’s happening because we want it to happen, Riley. Right?”
There was nothing that I wouldn’t do for her. That was what I wanted to tell her when my body joined hers. And as I slipped between her thighs, I found her watching me intently. I had never been with a woman like this, and now I realized how deficient those previous experiences truly were. I kept my body braced on my elbows because I didn’t want to crush her. I would never deliberately cause her pain.
As our bodies joined together, I never took my eyes off of her. I touched the sides of her face and pulled her lips back to mine even as my thrusts grew more demanding. Her breath sped up, and I tried to catch it even as I pushed her further. I could feel that I was approaching my own climax, but I wouldn’t go there without her.
I felt her muscles clench around me, and then her eyes closed, and a small cry escaped her lips. I thrust hard once more, and then I was gone. I wrapped my arms around her to keep me grounded, but my insides felt as if they were soaring. I showered her lips and face with small kisses.
A slow, lazy smile tugged at the edges of her lips. Then her eyes opened and stared at me. “I know we practically just met, but is it weird to say that I think that was a long time coming?”
I smiled back at her even as I moved off of her to lay against her side. I didn’t let her go, but readjusted her body so that it tucked up against mine. “Not at all. I feel like we’ve known each other a lot longer than we have.”
“Tell me something about you, something from before you became a Necromancer,” Paige said as she played with the hair on my chest. “I want to know you better. Tell me something that nobody knows.”
Her question touched me and made me feel slightly uncomfortable at the same time. It had been years since I let anyone inside my walls, and that was by design. But I couldn’t deny that whatever was happening between me and Paige was different. It was scary and crazy wonderful at the same time.
I thought about the question. “When I was twelve, my sister made me watch Gone with the Wind with her. I told her that I hated it, and I refused to talk to her for days afterward. But I actually loved it. I used money from my newspaper route to buy a battered old copy of the book at a garage sale, and I hid it under my bed. I probably read that book twenty times throughout junior high and high school. It was right there next to my stack of Playboys until I moved out of the house.”
Paige giggled. “So you’re a romantic.” I liked making her laugh. It was definitely a lot better than making her angry.
“I didn’t see a lot of that growing up,” I admitted. “My dad split when I was four and left my mom high and dry with no job and two kids.”
Paige stroked my back. “That’s horrible.”
I shrugged. “It was a long time ago. Besides, no matter what happened, she always had someone to lean on to help her out.” Paige looked confused. “Alice,” I reminded her. “My mom and Alice were best friends when they were kids, and after Alice became a nun, they still stayed in touch. Alice helped my mom find temporary housing until she got a job and got back on her feet. Unfortunately for me, that meant I had to go to church three days a week for about six months.”
“That definitely explains the maternal vibe coming off of her about you,” Paige said. “She was very protective.”
“She feels responsible for me when she shouldn’t. I grew up. I made my own decisions. There are some I regret more than others.” I looked away from her then.
Paige pulled away from me and sat up in the bed. She pulled the quilt up under her armpits. “Riley, you have to listen to me and trust me the way that you always ask me to trust you. I know you think that Bruno was messing with my head, but I saw them. I spoke to your mother. They are alive.”
“I don’t want to talk about that,” I said. “You weren’t there, Paige. You didn’t see what he did to them. I did. He tortured them. Then he killed them.”
“If you are so certain that he can manipulate what I saw, what makes you think that he couldn’t have done that to you?” Paige asked. “I’ve dealt with demons before too. Hell, I’ve dealt with Bruno Proctor before. There is something else going on that had to do with a disease that is infecting demons. What if they didn’t die? What if they were possessed by demons instead, but now they are infected?”
I swung my legs over the edge of the bed. “I don’t want to spoil this moment. Lord knows there have been far too few of them in my life. Whatever is happening between us is important. I think Proctor will do anything he can to distract us, and he knows exactly where to hit me where it hurts. It doesn’t make sense for him to have kept them alive. I think you did see something, and that you believe you saw two people who you think are my mother and sister. But I can’t deal with that right now, especially when I am certain it’s not them. We can talk about it more if you want later. For now, we should probably get dressed. Klein is going to be here soon.”
I walked around the bed. I could see that she wanted to say something else, but I stopped her words with a kiss. I loved the fact that she responded to me right away. Then I kissed her forehead. “I’m going to get cleaned up. You want to join me?”
She shook her head ruefully. “I saw the shower in there. It’s not nearly big enough for both of us.”
I winked at her and smiled as I grabbed my boxers off the floor. “Well, you know where to find me if you change your mind.” “I started to walk toward the door when her voice called out to me to stop. I looked over my shoulder at her.
“That’s a pretty amazing tattoo on your back,” she said. “Does it mean something?”
I had forgotten all about the tattoo in the heat of the moment. She had stumbled onto yet another topic that I wasn’t ready to talk about. I shrugged. “Honestly, getting it is all
a bit of a blur. Let me get cleaned up. I’ll see you soon.” Then I slipped out the door before she could ask me anything else.
CHAPTER SIX –PAIGE
After Riley left the room, I stretched in bed and allowed myself a quiet laugh. My world might be falling apart around me, but I couldn’t deny that what I had just shared with Riley rocked the bits of my world that I had left. Even his insistence on putting up a wall around the topic of his family couldn’t take away from the feeling of happiness and bliss that flowed through me.
It had been so long since I felt this alive. Nothing in my past prepared me for the depth of intimacy that I felt toward this man that I had just met. It was scary as hell, but utterly gratifying at the same time. I craved that closeness, and whether I had recognized it or not, at some level I had been looking for a place to belong. Maybe it wasn’t a place that I needed, but a person to who I belonged to and who belonged to me.
When I was on the run from the demons that chased me all those years ago, the idea of having someone to care about, and a future were the farthest things from my mind. To wish for those kinds of things made me feel like I was opening up a weakness inside of me for others to exploit. But now, I couldn’t help but think that maybe Riley was right. Maybe I could have a future that didn’t involve becoming Eva’s vessel.
I heard a soft knock on my door, and I swung my legs over the edge of the bed. Wrapping the quilt around me, I made my way to the door.
“It’s not like you knocked the first time,” I said as I opened the door expecting to find Riley there. Then my eyes turned downward to find a young girl standing outside. “Oh, sorry. I thought you were someone else.” I cleared my throat.
“Abigail said that you might like some clean clothes,” the girl said pushing up a small bundle that rested in her arms. “If you would like to give me your other ones, we can wash them for you.”
The girl couldn’t have been more than ten years old, and I saw the wide-eyed curiosity in her face. I wondered how often they saw visitors from the outside here on the farm.