“I do trust you.” She slid her body up until her mouth reached his. Her kissing him lightly while running her hands through only confirmed they needed to go, now. He only hoped after they'd done what they needed to do he could come back here and spend time inside of her before he was called away.
“Does that mean you believe me now, too?” he dared ask of her.
“I guess it does. I don’t have much choice. Even though everything in me still sees it as fiction, I can’t deny what is right in front of me any longer either.”
“Then, we must go. As much as I would love to just stay here and make love to you forever, we have a job to do. Let’s get it done, so we can come back here and spend our time left together, literally. We won’t know when the next sign will come for us to each return to our lives.”
He felt her tense, and he concentrated hard on the beauty before him in order to keep the fears and the pain at bay for now. He kissed her lightly giving her a gentle shove and a nod of his head to get her moving off of his body, which was already physically aching for her. Then, he sat back and watched her naked form cross the room. Only when she had disappeared into the bathroom did he fight the tears, the worry, and the heartache trying again to accost him like a live demon bent on devouring him from then inside out.
They both hurried through dressing and eating, anxious to get their job over with.
Before they left her home, he gave her hand a less-than-gentle squeeze while he tried to let go of the feelings he was having and transform the air itself with the power inside him.
***
Walking from the car, Kamillia grabbed his hand tightly as she looked up at the steeple of the church. Before she could react, an invisible cloud so adverse in its constitution overwhelmed her. Despite the beauty of the church, there were shadows of a primal energy so pure in its evil she quickly became disoriented to time and place. It bore down on her heavier and heavier.
With each tentative step around the building, feeling led to the woods in the back first, as she took one step into that tree line she saw flames leap out at her. She flinched, alarmed and amazed at the realistic vision. Yet, when she felt the scintillating heat, a sudden dread resulted in her utter confusion and dismay.
“Kamillia, what is it?”
“Fire, all I can see is…”
She lost her voice as more flames shimmered around her. They seemed to lap at her body until she could see nothing else. The contours created by the colors within the blaze complimented the inky blue of the unclouded sky. She tried, at first, in between flashes to remind herself the fire was fake. This reality was taken from her by the arid smell of smoke. It billowed around her like clouds full of the restlessness of long ago murdered desires.
As it continued to burn, it enticed her. Feeling she’d lost her frail grip on control, she squeezed at Luca’s hand. She made it her lifeline. Nothing was going to hurt her as long as she focused on his hand holding hers. She tried to literally ground her feet into the earth as he had said to. She tried to ignore the agony her soul remembered.
Even as she tried to find the reserve of joy inside of her to fight it, it overpowered her. Her steps continued with the slight push of his hands on her waist. An insane, indescribable urge to flee overwhelmed her and she turned to look at the church. She cocked her head to the side as she looked at it through the flames of the past. It was beautiful, and until yesterday had held only good memories for her, but she felt a deep stirring of hate for it despite it all.
Confusing to feel this way, she guessed Alessandrina would have seen it as sinister after what happened to her at the hands of its most holy of men.
Suddenly, the flames got too strong and too close. The intensity of the heat made her feel faint. The next thing she knew, she was huddled into Luca’s arms in the grass close to the church. He held her and talked to her. All she knew for sure was the sound of his voice and his body against hers. For the moment, it was enough.
“The pain, the anger and the suffering, is so strong, Kamillia. I don’t know if we can fight it. I have been to places where horrible things like this have happened many times, but it has never affected me so strongly before. I guess it is because part of the pain here is mine. I can’t stand away from it in order to find my own peace and love inside myself here. I have got to come up with a way for us to do this. Failure is not an option. Stay strong with me my love.”
She listened to him, but she looked at the church. Misery came from there, too, but it came with a different kind of suffering. The restlessness she now felt was maddening, but she no longer felt vulnerable either. Oddly enough, this place began to anger her, so much so she wanted to attack it.
“What is it?”
“The church, it makes me feel such anger I almost can’t think straight. I hate everything about it, like I have never hated anything in my life. It is an awful feeling, more of a sickness than an ache. Only, this time, I don’t want to run from it. This time I want to go in and fight it.”
“Remember revenge and anger are very base emotions. They will not cleanse the place. You need to let these feeling go, too.”
“I know,” she said through clenched teeth. She felt so determined, like she was on a mission of vengeance. It was all so strange. She moved from Luca’s arms, only briefly aware it was the first time she had left his embrace without giving heed to the pang of emptiness that usually overwhelmed her when she was without him. She marched into the building, only to find the large room empty again today. No surprise, really, as no cars had been in the driveway. Someone still could have been dropped off, but there didn’t seem to be anyone anywhere
“Do they not use it now?” she asked never stopping or looking at him.
“I don’t know. It is a weekday. It would make sense there would be no church related activities now. Hello, is anyone here?” he called out, but no one answered them.
They walked through to the back rooms, which looked like they were perhaps once used for meetings or classrooms. Boxes and some scattered old books filled them both. They all amounted to nothing more than storage, from the looks of things.
They finally came to stairs, and she practically ran down them as if after someone. She felt powerless against the ire directing her actions. When they reached a dim hallway, the smell of candles and herbs struck her. She pushed open the heavy door with the force of her bitterness, hurting her hand as the heavy door resisted her efforts with little regard to the brunt of her mood. With all of the rage building within her, she moved it inch by inch until Luca joined her efforts.
Her first glimpse of the corner stopped her cold. Luca’s ghost hung from shackles on the wall with his face full of fury and his arms dripping with his own blood.
She ran at the image, and hit the stone of the wall since there was no one there for her to actually strike at. Odd sensations of pain rippled through her body. No vision currently explained when the stings would come or what means they were inflicted by. All she could see was Luca’s counterpart struggling against his chains. Blood streamed from his bindings while tears ran down his enraged face. The look was similar to the one she had seen on her Poppie’s face just days ago when he told her of the night of her parent’s deaths. She understood him better now, and felt a sudden pang of remorse for the way she had ignored his pain for her own that night.
“Kamillia, are you alright. I am trying to fight it, but your anger and your pain is getting worse.”
“I am sorry. I don’t know if I can do this.” Sobs took her, finally, even as the image of Luca faded. “There is so much pain here, and I am so angry. I don’t know how to change it.”
“Look at me.” She felt his warm, large hands on her face, as he turned her so she would look at him. “I love you. All you need to do is concentrate on that. I am here now, and I am fine. I love you. Let the past go, please.”
He kissed her then, fully and passionately, in hopes everything else but his lips would fade from her mind. She let him scoop her body
up against his until her feet dangled above the ground. She ran her hands through his gorgeous waves of hair, which appeared coal black with the lack of light. When he released her, his eyes bore into hers and she could feel his love penetrating through the affliction that had overcome her.
“Maybe we can do this after all, if you keep doing that.”
“That is part of what Ahti told us. Only if we stay in the moment, in the now, will we be able to do this. If you get caught up in the emotions of the past…” He took a deep breath. “I am not saying it is easy. It is much harder for you because you are actually seeing it, too. My experience of it is much diminished from yours.”
When she looked beyond him again, all she could see was the high basement ceiling and the plain floor. The walls were covered in shelves filled with books, bottles, and other things that her grandparents, maybe even her parents, had used in secret magical rituals. The thought no sooner hit her then another flash came, hiding the brownish rendering of the walls. She buried her face in his shirt to avoid the sharp image of a long length of black leather cutting into Luca’s flesh. She shook and more pain rippled through her. It burned her skin and pierced with a sting beyond what she thought she could endure.
Then, it was gone just as quickly. Her mind had only remembered it, what it felt like to be whipped the same way.
“You are going to have to distract me. Every time I look anywhere I see what was, and I feel it like it is happening now. The actual pain is fleeting; it is the rage which lingers after.” She hoped he understood her tumble of words, forced out with a shaky voice.
“In order to stay in the present, and feel the energy we create when we are together, you are going to have to ignore the flashes. We will just look at each other and let the feelings come to us. The longer we can do that, the better it will get.”
She looked into his eyes, which also looked more black than brown in this light.
Her mind flashed to the Luca of the past, and how she had just seen his eyes. In response, she turned head to the corner of the room again toward his presence. He was hanging there unconscious, and two men were taking him down. They let him lay on the stone cold floor in a pool of red.
“Look at me, Kamillia.” She felt Luca's hands move her face again.
“When I do, I just see him anyway. The bastards must have had him half dead before they even burned him.”
Chapter Eleven
“That life is over for both of us. I am here. I am fine.” He kissed her. He found his strength to do this in his fierce need to protect her this time. This time he could save her, and that was all he was going to allow himself to focus on. “A little better?”
“Yes. Keep me in the now, Luca. I can’t take any more of the past. I feel like I am literally choking on my building fury.” When she reached up and claimed his mouth, he pushed his tongue in to tangle with hers. He didn’t care if it was inappropriate or not. Determined to distract her by any means necessary, it made it easier for her to bear.
They continued kissing for some time. He had her body pressed up against his. Even with the depraved energy invading him, with her, his body still responded. He finally released her and let her feet hit the floor again.
“Now, Kamillia, try to retain those positive feelings for me. Focus on us. Don’t let anything else in.”
“I am trying.” He watched her as she closed her eyes, pushing his own powers onto her to help her heal. Feeling stronger now, he let his own eyes close. With her stomach pressed against his hardness, he grew more powerful still.
Some minutes passed, and he remained hopeful they were making a difference, until her body jerked in his arms and she screamed out. When he opened his eyes, she looked so frail. His powers were not strong enough to fight the baneful affliction here. What she could see and feel of the past attacked her from every angle, mentally and physically. It was even invading her senses. It was an evil so pervasive that it made one want to…
Then, he saw her go deathly pale.
“Kamillia, tell me you love me.” It cannot kill her again. It is not possible, is it?
“I do,” she said in a voice frail and weak.
“Say the words, Kamillia. Say them out loud.” He shouted at her, and his voice echoed.
He watched her trying to focus in on the words. Tears had formed in her eyes.
Finally, she managed in a breathless whisper over the echo of her first sob, “I love you.”
He felt her every breath coming hard and fast, taking from her the opportunity for air.
“Say it again,” he begged.
The sobs continued and she went almost completely limp in his arms.
“Say it again, Kamillia. Say you love me!” He shook her with more force than he meant to. Her eyes flickered open, so filled with the agony of the horror tormenting her.
“Focus on my face. I love you, Kamillia. Hold on. Say you love me.”
“I love you, Luca.” Her voice sounded a touch fuller this time as she said the words with a raised eyebrow.
He grabbed her, pulling her up against his body as he moved toward the wall. “Wrap your legs around me.” She obeyed slowly, wrinkling her forehead just before her eyes blinked closed. He felt her concentration move toward the sensations between her legs, and instantly the negativity around her faltered some. It was all the incentive he needed to continue on, knowing he was doing the right thing. Sexual energy was a potent force. If one could harness this unique state, then it could be used as an experiential conduit. Only then would they be able to use this raw power to transcend this nominal reality.
Once she had her legs around him, he pushed her back gently against the wall.
He inched her skirt up over her hips, and her eyes fluttered open.
“What are you doing?”
“Do you trust me?”
“What?”
“Do you trust me?”
“Yes, but…”
“Then, follow my lead. It is the only way I know to both distract you and build enough productive energy to override what is so depraved here.”
Pushing her just above his hips, he managed to undo his own pants and move them so they would drop to his ankles. He felt an excitement building within him, like that of a sexual fantasy building in one’s head. Perplexed, he realized it came from the room. It dawned on him that possibly sex magic rituals had already been performed in this room.
His freed cock grew until it hit up against her ass. The brush of her silk underwear elongated his already obvious need. Pulling the thin lace-edged strip of material to the side, he placed the tip of his erection at her entrance. He kissed her quickly but with all of the passion in him, which was now the source of his strongest powers.
“Luca, why are you doing this here in this awful place?” Her words came out ragged, even though her voice lacked tone. Her breath still caught, even though he had shocked her enough to bring her sobbing to an end. He brought his fingers fondle her lips open to let his hardness slide in between them.
“I am distracting you by righting a wrong. Think about it, maybe this was all Alessandrina and Luca wanted when they were here, to be together on last time. Ultimately, all they wanted was to be left alone to love each other, but the possibility had already been denied them. As they were tortured here, what do you think they would have given for one last moment to join together? So we will do this for them now. We will live the fantasy that never was for them. The energy we create should be powerful enough to override the negative energy here, a result of what really happened to them.”
He felt her body go a little slack, and she became wet where his fingers touched her. With a few thrusts he was in her as far as he could go. She gasped and threw her head back. He drew energy up from the earth through his feet, letting it mesh with the first ripples of their contractions. Realigning his hands on her bottom, he moved her up and down his shaft at a faster pace. He took the friction he needed from where he was sheathed within her and let it build to an undeni
able force before sending it through their bodies into the heavens.
A wash of heat and white light bathed them as their dual orgasms shook them both. When she opened her eyes, he smiled at her, knowing they had won.
Chapter Twelve
Her thoughts continued to circle in strange directions, as he stood there before her back in her room. His hands held hers down at her sides while their bodies connected at every possible point they could. She could feel nothing but his breath washing over her face as she tried to calm her mind. Blinking back the threatening tears in order to still see him clearly, she gave his fingers a squeeze. With his job over, she wondered if he would just poof into the air like Ahti had.
“I will never be able to fully explain how I felt like her and me, how it felt like it was him and you inside us, when were together in that place today.”
“You don’t have to. It is just like never asking why.”
“But, I must ask one question. Why did you, or how did you come up with the idea for us to be together like that there?”
“First, it was only because I needed to distract you. Then I felt something, like maybe sex magic rituals had been performed there. At one point, I felt their passion for each other, too. Then, it just all started falling into place, doing it to fulfill them, doing it to build energy…”
“Have you used sex to clear portals before?”
A Cursed All Hallows' Eve Page 162