I was an idiot. Four years ago I had brought some black lingerie on a whim, only I hadn’t had the chance to use it. I should have thought about it earlier. I dug around the bottom of the draw until my fingers brushed against the lacy material and I quickly pulled the tags off. It was perfect for hiding all those not so toned bits.
Once it was on, I ran my hands down my body. It didn’t matter that there was no mirror to check, I felt good, so surely I looked like a Goddess.
After pressing the record button, I lay back on the bed, trying to keep my head up so as not to form a double chin.
‘You can come in now,’ I called.
Any worries I could have had would have flown out the window at the look on his face. His eyes sparkled as he took me in with his mouth slightly agape. He took a heavy, uneven breath and slowly took a step towards me. A low rumbling started up in his throat as he ran his bottom lip through his teeth, chewing on it slightly. It was only as he moved closer that I recognised the sound for a growl.
He pounced towards the bed, with his hands reaching out. I didn’t have time to do more than squeal before he had me trapped in his arms.
‘You’re mine now,’ he murmured.
He ran his tongue up my neck causing my whole body to shiver and my insides turn to liquid. Who was I to complain?
Chapter 2
Gabriel brushed his lips against mine before getting out of bed. ‘I’ll get us some bacon from the butchers.’
‘Hurry back,’ I said. ‘I still have a couple of hours before work.’
He smiled at me gently, his electric blue eyes bright with warmth. ‘Nothing can keep me from you for long,’ he said.
I relaxed under the duvet to watch him dress. The muscles of his chest flexed with such rhythm that I wanted to demand he come back to bed at once, to forget breakfast. There would be time for that later though, so I continued to watch him with a smile playing across my lips.
As soon as I heard the thud of the door closing, I slipped out of bed and went straight to the camera. It had stopped at some point during the night, but that was okay, it would have recorded everything needed. Hopefully, I would look good.
The beginning was okay, if not a little strange to watch with an outsiders perspective. My outfit was flattering and seductive, though I was now naked so it must have come off at some point. Gabriel was gorgeous as always.
Ten minutes in I couldn’t decide whether to blush or sigh with boredom. There were things I had never thought I could do, and some positions that I would have bet my house that were impossible. But at the same time, there were also periods that we appeared to move very little, though I was a loud enough it was embarrassing. Back ground music was an appealing option, especially as the heavy breathing and occasional grunt made us sound like a couple of chimps.
It was fifteen minutes in that my mouth dropped open in shock. The blood rushed from my face, leaving it tingling as if I had just been slapped, and my stomach did a little flip. What I was seeing just couldn’t be real. I blinked several times and touched the small screen, sure that my imagination was merely conjuring up my dream, the one I’d had every night Gabriel stayed over.
I quickly pressed rewind and learned in closer to watch the replay. He lay above me, Gabriel, the man who was quickly sweeping me off my feet. Then he shimmered, as if a reflection was passing over his skin, only it became brighter as the seconds passed. His body changed into a wispy brightness that trickled over my skin, only to float above the covers as it spread out over the entire bed.
‘How can that be?’ I whispered. ‘How did I not notice?’
I took the camera down to the lounge to hook up to the television, sure that I was somehow seeing it wrong on the tiny screen. But once bigger, it was even more shocking, somehow more real. So many times I had dreamt about the yellow light. Now I knew why.
It took several times of rewinding it over and over before I was finally able to concentrate on what happened next.
The video showed the conclusion of our love making and Gabriel slowly retaking human form. The next thing it picked up was my dazed voice saying, ‘What?’ Finally I had opened my eyes long enough to see what was happening. It was about time.
In response to my words, Gabriel touched his hand to my forehead and murmured the words, ‘Sleep now’. As there was nothing more than a few heavy sighs from me, it was apparent I had done as told. Gabriel muttered something into my ear that the camera didn’t pick up before taking me in his arms and joining me in sleep.
The front door opened, but still, I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the screen.
‘Ana?’ Gabriel called from the kitchen. ‘I brought some mushrooms, I noticed you were out.’
My tongue was glued to the roof of my mouth and my legs stuck rigid. He came through the doorway, so tall that he only just managed it without dipping his head. My paralysis finally broke. I stumbled backwards and grabbed the mug I’d left on the coffee table the night before.
‘Why are you frightened?’ he asked stepping further into the lounge.
‘Don’t come any closer,’ I hissed, jumping over the back of the sofa that split the large room in two. ‘I will hit you with this, don’t think I won’t.’
He frowned at me and turned to the television which was still playing the video on mute.
His eyes widened in surprise before he sighed loudly. ‘I do wish you hadn’t done that.’
‘I won’t just let you kill me,’ I hissed. ‘I will fight you.’
He frowned with confusion. ‘Why in the world would I do that?’
‘You’re an alien.’
He took a step forward and I waved the mug at him, trying to figure out if I would be able to knock him out with one blow. But he was alien. What if his head was really in his stomach, hidden under a human skin? What if he didn’t have a head? He must have a head somewhere, else where would his brain go?
‘Do you have scales under your skin?’ I demanded. ‘Or two heads tucked in there.’ I gagged a little. ‘Oh my God, I had sex with you.’ I stumbled back further. ‘Is that your plan, to impregnate me? Put some sort of little bug eggs inside of me until they hatch and eat me from the inside.’
He stopped and rolled his eyes. ‘You watch far too many horror movies. And I’m not an alien; I was born to this world.’
‘Don’t you try and tell me you’re human. I know that’s not true.’
‘I’m not human either.’
My arm dropped and I nearly lost my grip on the handle of the mug. To hear it spoken so starkly suddenly made it all real.
‘I knew there was something about you,’ I whispered. ‘Something I couldn’t quite put my finger on, but this, this is insane and trust me, I know insane.’
He took several steps towards me and I threw the cup at his head. Before it reached him, it stopped mid-air and slowly lowered to the ground. I stared at it, resting upright on the beige carpet, before turning back to him.
‘Oh my God,’ I cried. ‘This is freakin’ off the wall, mad as a hatter, crazy, and I know crazy.’
‘Hear me out.’ He moved quickly around the sofa to stand in beside me. He reached his fingers towards my head and I slapped them away.
‘No you don’t,’ I shouted, scrambling back over the sofa towards the kitchen doorway. ‘I saw what you did on the tape before you did the whole whispering in my ear thing.’
He moved quickly and within seconds was before me again. I pushed hard against his chest, but his was unmovable.
‘Get away,’ I screamed. My heart was up in my throat, filling it with a pounding that suffocated me.
He stepped back, creating enough space so that I was able to breath.
‘Please calm down.’
‘Don’t you tell me to be calm,’ I shouted. ‘I just found out my boyfriend isn’t human. How can I possibly calm down?’ I began pacing, no longer concerned that he was there, only able to focus on burning some of the anxiety off and calming the explosions that were scrambling m
y brain. ‘You need to get out,’ I said turning to him. ‘I can’t even look at you.’
His shoulders dropped and he closed his eyes. His deep sense of rejection reached to me, smothering me in a loss filled blanket. Against my better judgement, my anger began to recede. I tried to resist, but it wasn’t just my heart strings his dejected look tugged on, his feelings were overpowering mine.
According to the web sites I was empathic; something quite common though I was supposedly fairly skilled. My father had claimed that I naturally read body language, allowing me to know how everyone felt. Lexi claimed I was an old soul who was in tune with the universe.
Who cared why I sensed people’s emotions? When it came down to it, it was a pain in the backside. I had my own chaotic feelings to deal with without having to cope with others, especially when the angry made me agitated and I had to avoid the mentally disturbed as much as possible. The last one had left my head ringing for hours.
Then there were these situations, in which I couldn’t retain my own anger. I groaned with my fading tension. His feelings affected me so much more than any else.
‘Do not end this,’ he pleaded.
I took a deep breath, pressed my lips together and counted to ten while breathing heavily through my nose.
‘You need to leave,’ I said. ‘At least for now. I need to figure this all out.’ That was the understatement of the year. My brain was having a fully-fledged panic attack that made my hands shake like I was using a jackhammer.
‘Please promise me,’ he said. ‘Phone before you make a decision, allow for me to explain.’
I nodded. ‘I’m not making any promises though,’ I added.
He reached out to me with his fingers before thinking twice and dropping his hand back down. After one last lingering look, he left. The front door closed quietly after him, leaving silence in its place.
I awoke two days later with a murky cloud surrounding me, affecting my every thought as if a disease had invaded my mind. My head echoed with the voice that taunted and berated me, telling me to stay in bed and shun the world, that everyone would be better off without the misfortune of my company. It was a voice I had come across many times, and was the reason I trudged down the stairs and struggled with the daily basics, all the while trying to make sense of everything that had happened. There was just too much for my brain to process, and each piece of information swirled around my head, leaving paranoia and confusion in its wake.
Each time my mind tried to deny what I knew, I watched the video again, proving to myself that I wasn’t going crazy after all. It seemed impossible that he had managed to steal such an image from my memory, even if it had only been for a short time.
I awoke ten days after the depression started, twelve days since I’d last seen Gabriel, to find the sun shining. It had most likely been shining for days, but this was the first time I noticed it. The colour was back in the world and the voice was once more locked in the deep prison of my mind, leaving a tonne of questions in its place.
I sat with a cup of tea on the porch, situated at the back of the house off the lounge, enjoying the sunshine after the darkness. It had been a mental darkness, but still, it felt good.
As I listened to the rustle of the leaves created by the warm gentle breeze, I touched my hand to my face, remembering the feel of his fingers as they caressed my skin, and how when he smiled at me, it was as if I was the most beautiful woman alive. Damn it, I missed him.
My eyes were closed when I sensed a presence moving towards me, the sound of his steps on the wooden surface barely more than a whisper. Conflicting emotions rushed through me.
He fell down onto his knees beside me. ‘I promise I will never hurt you.’
‘Oh my God,’ I blurted. ‘You can read minds too?’ I could never be with someone who could do that as it would cause constant paranoia about my own thoughts. Some things should stay private.
His eyes widened with surprise before he burst into laughter, a gentle pleasing sound that always made me feel relaxed and buoyant, though I sensed that this time was at my expense.
‘I can’t read your thoughts; however, I can sense your emotions.’ He reached to touch my face and I leaned away from him, causing him to falter before he let his hand drop away.
‘Why me?’ I asked, wrapping my arms around my legs.
He stood up and pulled the other chair towards me.
‘You intrigued me,’ he said sitting down. ‘Your emotions are in constant flux, more extreme than anyone I have come across before. I wanted to know more, so I followed you.’
‘You followed me?’ I spluttered. He lowered his gaze and nodded. ‘How long did you follow me?’ It wasn’t something I was sure I wanted to know, but I had to ask.
‘Eight months.’
Oh my God. Was I really that self-absorbed that I hadn’t noticed someone following me for that long? He sat there cautiously while the enormity of it sank in.
‘I apologise,’ he said so quietly the words were barely distinguishable. ‘I have caused you more anger towards me.’
I smirked a little. Maybe he couldn’t read minds after all. Then it occurred to me, ‘If you were content to watch me like an experiment for eight months, why suddenly approach me?’ My eyes narrowed as I glared at him. ‘Did you want to examine the lab rat more closely?’
He recoiled from me, which only made me want to smile once more. God what was wrong with me? The laughter bubbled up in me again, as if a fizzy sweet had been set loose in my chest. All this happened so quickly and he struggled to keep up with the changes.
‘Instead of reading me, answer me,’ I almost shouted at him.
‘Because I fell in love with you.’
As a kid, if I let my mouth hang open my grandmother used to tell me to stop catching flies. My jaw dropped so much and for so long a whole hoard of flies could of wandered in and had a party. I must have been holding my breath because when I did try to speak, a big gush of air flew out my mouth so forcefully, that if there had been flies, they would have thought Armageddon had arrived. ‘Oh,’ I breathed.
There was no way to tell if he knew what I was really feeling, the answer to that eluded even me, but he sat there patiently for about ten minutes whilst I let everything digest. I wanted to laugh, but when I looked up, tears fell down my cheeks and suddenly, I was in his arms.
He kissed my damp face and told me how much he loved me, and I no longer cared about what he was, or what he had done. All I knew was that I wanted him and he wanted me.
He buried his fingers in my hair, pressing his lips against mine and he gently caressed my tongue with his. My whole body swelled in response. Then I was out of my seat, with his hand pressing up against my back, forcing my body against his. The heat of his body reached through our clothes, warning my skin, pushing all lingering thoughts and doubts out. By the time he carried me through the lounge and up the stairs, I was completely his and he mine.
We lay in each other arms, with my head on his chest, and I watched the light as it trailed around his body. It was if the sun radiated from him, trapping dust motes in its light. His skin had no definite edge, as if the particles were not enclosed in the shell of his body, but gently spreading out, as if trying to escape the prison of a solid form.
I held my hand up into the light and the tiny specks rested upon my skin, making it numb and hypersensitive all at the same time. As I watched, the light slowly drew back into him until it was gone and he appeared human once again. I looked up at his face to see him watching me intently and I smiled to reassure him that everything was okay. Now I knew why he had always taken the memories away.
I pulled myself from his embrace and sat up, hugging the duvet to my chest. ‘Please don’t make me forget again.’
His chest rose as he sighed and he slid himself up beside me. ‘That is not an option anymore my love, you have known about me for too great a length of time now, and if I were to bury the memories, there would be too large a gap in your mind. An
yway, you have demonstrated that you are not like most people and that your mind will retrieve even the smallest of memories, even if they only come out in dreams. I doubt it would be possible to hypnotise you either as your mind does not take well to being tampered with.’
‘Good to know I can’t be made to cluck like a chicken,’ I mumbled. ‘Why do you glow like that?’
‘My natural shape is in the form of Shi, an energy which mostly presents as light. I take human form so I can walk among you. I have also taken the form of many other species so that I can experience their life style.’
‘Like what?’
‘Many. From a spider to a cheetah. I do enjoy being a cheetah, the speed you can reach is quite satisfying, but mostly I like to be human, the ability you have to communicate with words makes it much more interesting.’
‘Okay…’ I took a moment to ponder over this. I would have to warn him not to be a spider else I will probably quash him by accident. ‘So why glow again?’
‘I’m not actually glowing. My molecules are reverting to their natural form.’
‘Tomato, tomato,’ I muttered, causing him to chuckle.
‘The reason is, I find it hard to maintain this form when in your company.’
‘Why is that?’
He sighed and rubbed his hand through his hair. ‘Because of how great my love for you is, it is quite a distraction.’
Warmth spread through me, causing even my toes to tingle. He loved me so much he couldn’t maintain his solid form. It was one hell of a compliment. That did it, I couldn’t help myself and I burst into laughter. I straddled him and kissed him deeply to show it wasn’t aimed at him.
Throughout the night we made love many times, and this time I did my best to keep my eyes open.
I lay propped up on my elbow, studying his dark sandy hair that flopped over his forehead and thick lashes that most women would be envious of. The sunlight shone brightly through the thin curtains, indicating that it was time to get up, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from him. A mildly detectable hue of light radiated from his skin and even though it was subtle, no more than a reflection out of the corner of my eye, I wondered how I ever missed it before.
Night of the Fae (Ana Martin series) Page 2