The Tangled Tree

by S. K Munt

  ‘Look at her! Look at her, and tell me that I don’t have heaven in the palm of my hand!’

  Kohén peeked between his fingers, roared and sent an arc of blue light streaming across the room. At first my heart leapt to believe that he was going to fight for what was right, but the energy hit the water of the pool behind us and sizzled as Kohén dropped to his knees at my feet and plunged his face into my thighs, tickling me with his hair and repelling me with his surrender.

  ‘She’s heaven!’ He glanced up, but not at me- at Kohl who was leering down at him over my shoulder. ‘She’s heaven and now that I’ve been to Heaven, I can’t exist outside of it.’ He swallowed hard and squeezed my rump, kissing the inside of my thigh as I closed my eyes and expelled all of my hopes and dreams in one breath. And as the oxygen left me I imagined that my soul was leaving me too- that my life was leaving me. They could do what they wanted to what was left behind but I would not be there, I swore it. ‘I agree to your proposal,’ he rasped haggardly, and their dual body temperatures became a conflation that immediately began to smother me. ‘Tell me what I have to do to make it happen!’

  Kohl sighed in relief. ‘Go take mother’s body to Larkin’s room, lock it away and then hurry back here.’

  ‘Me?’ Kohén paled. ‘Why?’

  ‘Because I’m not letting Larkin out of my grasp until I know you’re not going to try to shock me, that’s why! And because if you’re in this, you’re all in; as culpable as I for her murder.’ He nodded towards the corridor. ‘Try not to leave a trail of blood, and stuff her in Larkin’s closet if you can. If our little swan plays along, we’ll find a way to get mother’s body out her window and onto the lawn. But if Larkin tries something smart- we’ll tell them that she did it, and let the ungrateful bitch hang!’

  I’m not here! I’m not here, I’m not in this. I am somewhere else, floating away…. no, not floating, sinking. I don’t want to go to Heaven if it is filled with people like this that god has forgiven- I want to go to Hell, so I never expect kindness from anybody ever again! I can bear the cruelty, but not the shock of it.

  ‘Then what?’ Kohén breathed as he nuzzled my thighs, and the fact that he had not baulked against the suggestion of disposing his mother’s body made something slither around inside my stomach. Like a switch, he’d turned off his humanity and now I followed suit, closing my eyes against his face. I’d die for killing Constance- gladly. Especially if that meant I’d get the chance to raise hell first but ripping off one Barachiel’s cock with my perfectly manicured fingernails and forcing it down the throat of the other!

  ‘Come back here, and then we’ll seal the deal- inside of her,’ Kohl removed his hand from my mouth but I let my head fall forward as he pushed me to my knees in front of Kohén, holding me there by my shoulders. My head was spinning so I bowed it and allowed my heavy curls to drape forward, veiling me.

  No! Now? Right now? Please God NO!

  ‘What?’ Kohén’s breath was on my face and hair and so I turned away from it, sickened by his proximity. ‘Now? We haven’t time!’

  ‘We’ll make it. You think I’d trust you to keep your word so easily? No, I’ll believe that you’ll share her only once you have. Do as I have asked and we’ll have her now- together- and then we’ll join the party. And according to that clock over there, it’s only just begun.’

  ‘But-’

  ‘Deal with the cold body, while I warm up the hot one further. We’re two halves of a whole, remember?’

  ‘Fine!’ Kohén snapped, rising to his feet and taking my hand in his. ‘But let’s take her into the dungeon room first, okay? That way we can tie her up and won’t have to worry about her hurting us or herself until we’ve… you know...’

  ‘Not a bad idea,’ Kohl said. ‘Isn’t there a way to tie a woman so that we can both have her at once?’

  ‘There is, but you’d better be gentle about it,’ Kohén squeezed my hand and knelt before me while I stared at his hand, horrified to know that he was doing exactly as Satan had predicted he would. ‘Larkin, I-’

  I spat at him, inured beyond repair. My mouth was too dry to work up much moisture, but the gesture had the desired effect anyway and he recoiled.

  ‘I’m doing this for you!’ the lusty moiety that I had once held up onto a pedestal cried, reaching down and hoisting my chin up so that I would have to look up at him. ‘It’s us, or Yael!’

  ‘I choose Yael!’ I croaked, struggling against Kohl while glowering at Kohén, but Kohl secured my hands behind my back with one hand, pulling on them tightly enough to set my arm on fire once more. My head spun from the pain and I lowered it again, willing a loss of consciousness as I whispered: ‘I choose Yael…’

  But I’d never meant my hateful words towards Kohén, and so I could not blame him for not believing them now. ‘You love me!’ He cupped my face and began to kiss me passionately while behind me, Kohl laughed and pushed me forward, encouraging the contact. I tried to turn my face away from him but he only kissed the skin he was presented with instead before drifting down to my breasts, moaning before Kohl began to knead them from behind. ‘And I love you…’ Kohén’s hand slid up my thigh, ‘I told you I’d do anything to keep you Larkin-anything! The fact that you’ve never understood how much I meant that is your mistake, not mine!’

  It was and I sobbed because he was right. If I’d ever understood the depth of his obsession with me and where it would lead me, I would killed myself years ago.

  ‘That’s it…’ a second set of lips began to slide across my back, and then fingers were slipping against the crotch of my panties from beneath- fingers that knew exactly how to manipulate my body. I couldn’t believe that Kohén was initiating this! How could he been so jealous of me for so long only to stoop to this in the end? It made no sense!

  ‘Kohén, stop!’ I gasped and tried to move my hips away from them, but Kohl’s slipped from my breast and caressed me somewhere even more private and I shrieked, only to have Kohén muffle it with his mouth once more. ‘Ow!’

  ‘One of us is going to have you here…’ Kohl whispered into my ear, ‘you decide which- and take your time- I could explore both options for hours.’

  ‘Don’t,’ I felt Kohén smack Kohl’s hand away as he pulled back from the kiss he’d been a sole participant in. ‘As eager as I am now, I can tell she’s not ready.’

  ‘What?’

  Kohén relaxed back onto his heels. ‘I just investigated and there’s no way we can do this yet without hurting her- trust me, I know what I’m talking about. It’s no fun when they’re not into it, and we won’t be winning her anything if we try to force matters, let alone her heart.’

  ‘Fine,’ Kohl’s hands went back to my hips. ‘You need to go deal with the body first anyway-and maybe bring the rest of that champagne back? Got her in love with you again- might work for me too.’

  ‘It won’t!’ I protested, hanging my head as I shook it. ‘Both of you please- don’t do this! I know I’ll never want this! You’re not devising a way to keep me forever, but to lose me faster!’

  ‘You’ll change your mind,’ Kohén whispered, sounding hurt and a million miles away to my unravelling mind. ‘I’ll earn those lilac eyes again, Larkin- no matter what it takes.’ And then he turned and walked away, lifting his mother’s body from the floor and staggering off through the mist with it, taking my will to live in this world a second longer with him

  26.

  ‘We have to be quick, brother!’ Kohén called over his shoulder. ‘If we don’t see to our burns soon, they may not get the chance to be healed as completely as we would both like. And I really don’t want to see Larkin in pain for a second longer, so take her down to the dungeon and then take your dress off so we can get this over with!’

  Ha!

  ‘Oh, I’ll be quick,’ still holding my hands behind my back, Kohl reached around me and began to pull my skirts back over both hips now, clearing a wider path. ‘And from what I saw, you will be too- despite havi
ng apparently had a lot of experience!’

  ‘Fuck you Wind-In-His-Skirt…’ was Kohén’s fading, laboured response.

  ‘Nah… I have someone prettier in mind…’ Kohl’s hand slipped under my chin and twisted my head back so I had to face him, and his eyes were blazing. ‘Thank God he’s gone at last…I needed us to be alone, darling, don’t you see?!’

  ‘What?!’ My heart lifted and my hopes spiked. Had this all been a ruse? I sat up taller, wondering if the duchess was playing dead or if my brand was fake, but before I could realise what a reckless, pitiful hope that was, or ask if he’d had this planned all along, Kohl guided my face closer to his and nipped at my lower lip.

  ‘Well, our first kiss ought to be in private, don’t you think?’ His eyes were still dilated- black as original sin. ‘And this is what this is- our first, true kiss.’

  ‘Mmmm-’ But all too suddenly he was kissing me hungrily, scraping his lips and teeth and tongue against mine and I was yelling but his mouth muffled my distress. Growling he tugged back on my hair when I tried to close him out and raped my lips a second time while his hand slipped down to rip the slit in my skirt all the way to my hip.

  I’m not in this! I’m not here! I am far, far away! I thought as the dizziness increased and the sounds that Kohl was making began to lose clarity. He palmed and then mashed my breast once he’d found it again and the metal boning poking out the top of the garment dug into the soft undersides of it, making me whimper.

  Ow, ow, ow, ow, OW! I’m gonna get his balls into a vice with teeth and crank it for this!

  ‘So beautiful… heavy… soft…’ he moaned as I made a hideous face and tried to deflect his kisses. ‘God, I don’t know if I’ll make it down to the dungeon!’ He tried to keep my lips under his but he was much more interested in what my breasts were doing and so I ended up getting licked all around my mouth which was awful and kind of shocking. I’d already known that I’d get no pleasure from his touches, but Kohén was an intuitive lover, like his eldest brother and father were rumoured to be, so I’d always just assumed that Kohl would have inherited some of the skills that kept the women in the Barachiel harem grinning year-round.

  But evidently that was not the case. Kohl poked and pinched at me with the hands of someone that was used to handling rocks not flesh, so not only was the experience horrifying and mortifying- but painful and almost funny. He was so into it that he didn’t even seem to notice that I was taking the attack the way someone would tolerate being licked by an over-zealous dog: straining away and bubbling my lips to get rid of his excess saliva.

  Down boy! I thought. Ugh, someone get this pup a fucking chew toy already!

  ‘Oh Larkin…’ he dropped my breasts and reached between my thighs again. ‘Look at you! Twenty-four hours ago I believed that this would never happen but just look at you- spread open for me, ripe for the taking… and perfect!’ he breathed, spiking a finger inside my bunched panties, making me gasp and twist away from it. ‘Mine!’

  ‘Ow!’ I yelped, trying to rise up so that I could clench my thighs together, but he smacked my rump and pulled down on my arms so that I sank onto my haunches more heavily, my thighs widening by default. Two fingers jabbed at me now and I hissed, straining upwards again and arching my back, trying to free my hands from his and escape the blunt impalement at the same time.

  But there was nowhere to go. I went limp and cried instead, shaking my head and wishing that I could turn back time, because if I could, I’d go back to the night that Kohl and I had pleasured one another with a flower- and sodomise him with a broken tree branch!

  ‘You’re so tight! My brother must have a pin dick!’ Kohl remarked as he had a go at pinching my labia together, blessedly retreating from inside me for a moment.

  ‘No… you’re not that identical!’ I spluttered. ‘I’ve just withered up since you started touching me!’

  Kohl sucked at his teeth and tugged on my arms again, biting my earlobe hard enough to draw blood. It should have hurt and yet that other pain was still too all-encompassing for me to feel much else, and when I looked at my shoulder I actually chuckled, understanding why at last.

  Understanding that I wouldn’t have to commit suicide this night- because I was already dying. And thankfully, I was apparently the only one that knew that.

  ‘I think mother’s been a bad influence on you!’ he snarled, grinding himself against my tailbone. ‘Or maybe you’ve just been reading the sort of books that a young lady oughtn’t read, hmm? They’ve given you a smart mouth! Perhaps I was the bad influence all along.’

  I cackled, deciding that if I truly was going to go out, I’d go out with a bang. ‘You haven’t the self-possession to influence a mosquito, Kohl Barachiel!’ I panted through clenched teeth as the pain in my arm hissed and bubbled up my shoulder and into my head. ‘Isn’t that why we’re here? No matter how many leg-ups you’ve had to escape your caste, the only reason why you’ve got anything going for you at all is because you had a friend pull some diamond strings for you, and a big brother that took sympathy on you!’ I snorted. ‘Wait, that wasn’t even sympathy. Karol only released you to impress me!’

  ‘Diamond strings?’ He wrestled my arms roughly, making me gasp. ‘What the fuck is that supposed to mean?’

  ‘You didn’t earn Atticus’s respect- I did. He wouldn’t have trusted you and your wet blanket Nephilim tendencies enough to run a quilting bee, let alone a community if I hadn’t asked him to as part of my conditions to move to Pacifica one day!’

  Kohl released my arms and pulled back on my hair, practically bending me in half at the spine so that he could glared down into my face. ‘What?’

  I narrowed my eyes at him. ‘I even had to beg him, you know that?’ I folded over my lower lip. ‘Please Atticus... you’re the closest thing to a father he has, act like one, and give him a chance, please? For me?’ I wriggled my eyebrows, dropping the pout. ‘Hardest sell of my life, seeing as how he’s gay. You really need to get your impulse control under control, you know that? If Yael hadn’t been trying to outbid him, Atticus might have given up on attaining me if it meant binding himself to the useless twin!’

  It was the cruellest thing I’d ever said to anybody, and I saw the hurt hit hard. ‘You’re lying!’ Kohl was turning white and his erection was deflating beneath me. ‘You’re just trying to emasculate me so I won’t be able to perform!’

  I shrugged and even that burned. ‘What do I care if you screw me or not now that you’ve screwed up my life? Kohén’s twice the man you are, itty bitty Kahuna.’ I lowered my eyes and smirked at his attempted erection, and saw it wither further under my disdain. ‘So long as he still gets a go, I’ll find a way to climax. And for a whore like me- that’s all that really matters! In fact- you take the other virginity, okay? That way, I won’t have to worry about it hurting.’

  His balled fist hit me hard in the solar plexus and I grunted as the wind was knocked out of me. ‘Bitch!’ Kohl slapped me hard a beat later, and I twisted away from the ringing in my ears and nose-dived headfirst into the darkness that was rushing up to me. ‘I’ll make you regret every hateful word you’ve just said to me!’

  ‘Not as much as I already regret every kind one I ever said…’ I slurred, pressing my roasting cheek to the floor as the fog closed over us- over me. ‘And I never should have said them- you never loved me anyway. Neither of you did...’

  ‘Because we can’t let you go?’ he croaked, shaking me. ‘That’s what you’re basing your diagnosis on? That for want of you, I’d give up my soul? That’s not fair! I cannot love you or have you in the regular way and neither can he, but we’ve done the best we can, so don’t throw your very predicament at us as proof that we don’t love you! The fact that you ended up here was proof that your parents didn’t!’’

  That stung, but it was an old wound so I let it go. ‘There’s more solid proof that your love is a lie than that...and I’m boiling alive in it!’ I swallowed hard, trying not to scream as more
flames liked a path through my shoulder, across my heart and to the other side, making my fingers twitch. ‘And I want it to…’ I bit my lip and spasmed as another flash-fire rushed through me. ‘Oh god…I can’t breathe…! Thank Satan, I can’t breathe!’

  ‘Larkin?’ Kohl sat up straighter. ‘What’s going on with you? I didn’t hit you that hard! Are you sick again?’

  ‘Please let this be the end of it!’ I whimpered, and my vision began to blur. ‘Please! I don’t want to have to feel my heart so take it, Satan! And damn God for… for… forsaking…’

  ‘No!’ Kohl gasped. ‘Lark, stop saying such things! Kohén! Kohén she’s becoming delusional!’

  ‘Kohl?’ I heard rapid footsteps. ‘What’s going on? You were supposed to take her down the back-’

  ‘Something’s wrong with her! I think her fever has returned!’

  ‘What? Oh, Hell!’

  ‘She’s breaking into a sweat, and she’s babbling… renouncing God, and thanking Satan for the pain she’s in! Saying she can’t breathe and doesn’t want to!’

  ‘That damned fever’s back? Shit! That almost killed her last night!’

  ‘Almost doesn’t count!’ I sobbed, struggling in Kohl’s arms- agitating my wound as best as I could, knowing I needed to finish this before they could get a healer in there! ‘You almost loved me… but not enough, so it doesn’t COUNT!’

  ‘Why does you getting sick mean we don’t love you?!’ A hand was pressed my forehead and then jerked away. ‘Ow! She’s-’

  ‘It doesn’t!’ I panted, gasping. My heart was racing, but I allowed it to gallop off without me, because I didn’t want it any more- just its power for as long as I could stand it, to pump my poisoned blood through my veins until my entire being was flooded with liquid fire, like kerosene had been mixed with water and then set alight. ‘But this time you made me sick, and thank god- THANK GOD- this time, there’ll be no reversing it!’

  ‘What? What are you-’ Kohén sobbed and knelt beside me and when his hand closed around mine, it was too much body heat for me to bear. ‘What’s wrong?’