Forbidden Fables, page 24
I never did, though.
I crash my mouth to hers, tangling my hands in her hair and drawing her closer to me as I allow her to roll her hips over me. Her tight cunt pulses around my cock, and I groan into her mouth, the pleasure rocketing from the base, rushing toward the tip.
Our bodies splash together in the water as I pump into her harder, biting her lips and claiming her body with mine.
I want our bodies to melt together like this with her moans of pleasure playing on a loop inside of my ear over and over as we climax.
Just as the thought ripples through my mind, we both explode. She is biting my ears, and my face is buried inside her neck.
If I ever withheld happiness from myself, and this is how it felt…I will never deny myself again.
I will wear the necklace now with the haunting memory of the night I took Charity’s virginity and made her a woman.
I will take her exactly as she was…stubborn, strong…and possibly in love with a witch.
Chapter 32
Freyja
When they return, they both wear smiles so broad I almost feel a little jealous.
They are wearing the brightly colored clothes I gave them before with the silver necklaces resting happily against their chests.
A warmth spreads through my body, and I feel a bubble of hope rise inside me.
Two long tables are stretched in front of the fireplace in the library, and the chairs come to life as the shadows from the fire dance on their backs.
Loaves of bread, and baskets of vegetable with herbs litter the top, and I hear Charity gasp as she sees the display of food.
“Amazing! Is this all for us?” she asks, running her fingers over the white tablecloth and silver cutlery. “I’ve never seen silver like this!”
Lilitu is beside me, looking up at me like she knows something.
“I’m so glad you like it…I have some surprises planned.”
I fantasize about the look on Charity’s face once she sees Thomas. I think I will let her dictate what she will like me to do to him. I have sedated him with belladonna, and if she will want me to start sawing away at his body parts…yes, that sounds very fitting.
I will have to let Garm have him after we are finished, hopefully still alive enough so the beast may have the pleasure of hearing his screams and pleads for his life.
All sadism and revenge aside, Garm will have his turn, and Charity will have her freedom.
But first, we eat.
**
A black top hat and coat hang on the back of each chair, a placeholder for the souls I have claimed over the years.
The men who thought they will take matters into their own hands—hands claiming to do a Gods bidding; a false God that I have never seen.
When man thinks he is better than a woman and takes lives that are not his to take, a debt is owed. And I, I am the collector of such debts.
They belong to me now, and the women who are burned in an attempt for control and power, are free. All sent back to The Dark Mother of witches, Lilith.
I have thought about tasting Charles, but I must show him I can be trusted first. Trust is something Garm does not seem to understand, and it is what I want to give to him to ensure I can keep them both with me forever.
“Are there others attending?” Charles asks, placing a hand on one of the hats, crooking one eyebrow, looking downright cheerful.
I fill the three glasses I have set for us with wine and shake my head, the silver beads in my braids clinking together.
Tonight, I have painted my face with lines and sigils of protection from my father’s clan. I wear the cloak of my mother’s—white and grey wool adorned with the fur of a wolf.
“You look beautiful, Freyja,” Charity says, ever so politely, as she sips at her wine.
She is already seated directly in front of the covered mound of our main course. It is nothing but a white sheet, but what lies beneath it is unseen…
“Thank you, sweet pet. I will love if you let me draw these sigils on your face someday soon. I can teach you about my father and his Viking heritage.”
“Vikings? Oh, that sounds so interesting!” she chirps and takes another long sip of her wine.
I raise my glass to them both, seated in the library I created just for them, and say, “I raise my glass to the both of you…stumbling into my woods so scared, so unsure. Fated. I have watched you two blossom…” I look to Charity, suppressing a smile behind her cup, “from a withdrawn bud, entering spring, into a flower…reaching for the sun in the summer.”
Garm enters the library from the back, commanding the room with his tall and bulky form, shadowed eyes cast to the floor in fury. I know he is upset with me…my show…my dramatics. What he does not seem to understand is these two are much more than just pets to me now.
He sits at the end of the table, and both Charles and Charity stare at him uneasy, but from their peripherals, as if they do not want to call attention to themselves.
“This is for you. A symbol of my protection and my promise to take care of you. You came to me in a time of great need and despair, and I saved you.”
Charles sits back in his chair roughly, taking a small drink of his wine, eyeing me. Although he shared a moment of vulnerability with me, he still does not trust me.
“Tonight, you and I, Cher, take your power back…”
I snatch the sheet from the tabletop, revealing Thomas’ oiled, naked body. His mouth is stuffed with an apple, his eyes sewn shut. A decorative wreath of rosemary, thyme, and parsley surrounds him.
Charity gasps and Charles reaches over to grip her hand as his eyes look over Thomas’ body.
I stand beside the table with a tincture of peppermint and rosemary in my left hand, and I drip the liquid onto a white cloth. Placing it beneath his nose, he jerks awake, coughing and wheezing, grappling the table with his hands and feet. “Please! Please! I don’t want to die!”
I laugh as I watch him squirm above the table, his naked hairy body jiggling and struggling.
Charity suddenly stands, eyes wide and fists clenched, knocking over her chair. Charles rises beside her, watching her face intently.
Thomas sits up violently, knocking plates and glasses to the floor. Garm shoulders are rounded, both hands braced on the table, a low growl forming from deep in his throat. I can see his claws pinching the tablecloth, his knuckles sprouting hair.
I grab Thomas by the back of his head, by his hair. I bring my face close to his. “What do you have to say for yourself, Man of God, who claims to take women’s lives simply because they aren’t like the others. Let us hear your pleas.”
“I…I…He spoke to me! How am I to ignore the word of our Lord!? Please…let me go…p-p-please!” He sobs, and I have to hold back a laugh at his terror.
The terror at the hands of a witch.
“And what if it wasn’t God who was speaking to you? What if you simply despised a particular woman. I don’t believe any of your words, and I don’t think your life should be spared after all the lives—souls—of innocent women you have stolen.” I run my tongue up the side of his face. “Tastes like weakness and fear. It’s judgement day, Thomas, and this Witch has taken your fate into her hands. You reap what you sow.”
I lunge, his throat stretched wide, and as I sink my fangs easily beneath his sticky skin, I hear Charity say,“Make him suffer, Freyja.”
I suck deeply while he screams, blood running down the sides of my mouth in sticky rivulets. I have pleased my Charity.
The table crashes to the floor, and Thomas is ripped from my mouth by the jaws of Garm’s hulking wolf form. Thomas’ screams vibrate through me, and I fall back, watching Garm shake him back and forth by his neck like a limp ragdoll.
My gift of revenge is snuffed out by the hysterical screams that come from Charity, Charles pulling her into his arms.
I should have known the smell of Thomas’ blood will be too much for Garm to bear, the sight forcing his change with his rage boiling over until he can no longer resist the urge to decimate the man that burned his beloved alive.
Chapter 33
Charles
After Charity’s screams subside, I pull her head into my chest and cover her eyes with my hand, watching in horror as the beast flings skin and blood all over the once-pristine library. Books are splashed with skin, and I watch what can only be an artery or vein fly through the air.
The only thought that can form a rational action is to get Charity out of here as fast as our feet can take us.
I pull on her hand, and as I look back over her tear-soaked face, my heart breaks for her.
I always knew this was a façade. Nothing about this felt real, and although I did feel something akin to thankfulness for Freyja—for taking Charity out of her misery and into a world that existed only inside her mind’s bliss-filled eye. What we have witnessed was straight from a blood-soaked nightmare.
Once we are outside, the cold air bites my skin, and I realize we have nothing but the clothes Freyja have given us.
My feet are running faster than my eyes can comprehend, and when we pass the garden and make it to the tree line, Charity is tugging on my arm, digging her heels into the ground and forcing me to a complete stop.
“What are you doing? Come on! I warned you so many times! Did you see that thing? It’s time to GO!”
The moon’s glow make her tears look bigger, her eyes round and innocent. She uses the backs of her hands to wipe them away, and she shouts at me, “I don’t want to go back to Bethlehem!”
I take two furious strides towards her, placing my hands on both sides of her face, “What is WRONG with you!?”
She begins to sob again and hides her face in her hands.
I feel a sob rise in my throat, half because I know I am callous and half because every alarm bell in my brain is telling me to get far away from here.
“You are just like him.”
As she bites out the words, something inside of me snaps, and I realize she is talking about Thomas.
And all I can think is…you have no idea how much I am nothing like him.
“I’m not, Cher….I…I’m so sorry…I didn’t mean to yell at y—”
“But you did! Your sorry’s mean nothing! I have never felt afraid of her…I want to stay here with her!”
“Please, just come with me, I will protect you and make sure no one will ever take you away from me.” I am trying to cradle her to my chest, but her fists are fighting against it and shoving me away.
“I want him to die. I don’t care if he’s your father—he’s ruined my life!”
I sigh, but I release her, leading her behind a tree, watching the door from where we stand. “He’s not my father.”
I barely know the man that has been ripped to shreds back there. All I want now is to return to London—to Domenico and his wealth. Charity will learn to love it there.
Her eyes grow wide, and she reels back to punch me square in the chest.
“Liars! All of you…”
Something rustles in the trees to our right, and I hear a deep, low growl just as I see a set of yellow eyes glowing in the depths of the trees.
“Call me all the names you want, but if you don’t want to die, you’ll come with me NOW!”
Charity is already running, and I follow behind her, catching up quickly as trees whip by us. The cold air beats my face, and I try to catch her hand in mine, needing to feel her touch, to prove to myself that she’s still safe.
We lock hands as Charity’s hair flies behind her, and my lungs burn as we run toward blackness.
I can hear the heavy thuds of something on our heels, but I’m too scared to look. I think for a moment I can hear the beast’s snorts and grunts, but I cannot look back because I am too afraid.
I search for the stream I know is up here somewhere, listening for running water, but it never comes.
“I’m scared!” She yells beside me but doesn’t release my hands as we hop over roots and rocks.
Just as I begin to lose all hope, a clearing in the distance appears. I smile, and my breath is coming in rapid pants…only a few more feet.
We run faster as a light and a cabin appear. The moonlight shows through, and I steal a glance at Charity’s smile as well.
Just as we breach the clearing, my boot catches on a rock, and I am flung face-first into the dirt, pulling Charity down with me.
And right after my face contacts the cold dirt, I look up and right into the garden that belongs to Freyja.
A low growl at my feet raises the hairs all over my body. A smell that can only be described as dog hits my nostrils, and I roll onto my back to meet the creature with my eyes.
It is the largest animal I have ever seen, its size rivaling that of a bear. His fur is a deep grey, with a mouth full of sharp canines and a tongue dripping with blood and flesh. One ear is sliced down the center, and my mouth drops open as he growls so close to my face that I can smell death on his breath.
“Ch…Charles…” Charity sniffs, slowly backing away on her hands and feet.
“Afi!”
The wolf juts its head up and towards Freyja’s voice, squinting his yellow eyes at her. His tongue lolls out of his mouth and his massive paw grazes my ear as he slinks away from me.
Charity jumps up, flinging her arms around Freyja’s neck, kissing her cheeks over and over, ushering words of thanks inside her ear.
“Witch!” I bellow, and I charge her, knocking her over and Charity out of her arms.
I wrap my hands around her neck, and she only stares up at me, unfazed. She smiles, and for the first time since we have arrived, I see the small fangs that hide behind her full lips.
In a split second, I am on my back, a force of nature that’s not tangible, and the last thing I see is her slanted, green eyes and her mouth agape and lunging towards my neck.
Chapter 34
Freyja
Ihave frightened my pets and perhaps mistook Charity’s miseries as something more serious than she intended.
Charles is unconscious, undoubtedly from the shock of witnessing Garm’s wolf form. I only bit him a little, just so he will sleep and stop this silly resisting he is always doing.
With one arm slung over Charity’s shoulders and the other over mine, we carry him inside the house and onto the furs beside the fire.
“Thank you…for rescuing us…again.” Charity says, small and quiet, like a kitten.
I stroke her hair and kiss her forehead. “I will never hurt you my pet. I care for you.”
My own words startle me, but I allow them to wash over me; to really feel what they mean.
I have never cared for another the way I care for you. I will not let anyone hurt you again.
She nods, and I assess the room, making sure Garm is safely secure inside the garden’s gates with his bone—Thomas.
I go to the kitchen and fill a glass with water; Charles will need it when he came to.
Charity is kneeling beside him, stroking the spot of his neck where I bit him.
I kneel next to her, feeling slightly betrayed she will try to escape.
“Why did you run from me? I thought you hated that man?”
She stares down over Charles’ pale face and strokes back the blond hair from his forehead. “That beast! The wolf-man…he was terrifying!”
“Shh, shh. So, you left because of him?”
“Of course!”
I should have known a mortal will be unable to fathom a man turn into beast. He is quite large…
“Do you love him?”
“Who?”
“Charles.”
There is a long pause, and she stares at his face a little longer, then looks at me. “I think so.”
I grab her by the chin, the hungry animal inside of me rearing its head. I’m jealous, protective, but mostly, I want to hear her say those words to me.
“And me?”
Her eyes fall to my lips, and she wets them with that deft tongue of hers. I want to bite it and make her squeal.
“I…I think I love you, too. Is that wrong?”
Her words are like a burst of wind through my bones, and I gasp, taking her mouth into mine. The force of it knocks her back, and I am like a predator on my kill, my hands eagerly exploring her body.
Kissing down her jaw and her neck. I plump her perfect breasts, twirling her rigid nipple through the fabric of the silk robe.
“Stay with me, and never leave me,” I say breathlessly.
She moans inside my mouth, and our tongues tangle together, hers tasting like honey and berries from the wine we shared earlier.
She breaks our kiss, her lips swollen and bruised. “Only if Charles stays, too.”
I sit back on my heels, my core throbbing to be touched, to be filled. One person has never felt satisfying enough, and the thought of having two sends shivers of pleasure down to my thighs.
When I glance over, Charles’ blue eyes are watching us both, and he seems content and undeterred. Pushing himself up on his elbow, he pulls me to him by my hair, and instinctively, I pull back my lips, showing my fangs.
“Bite me again, if you wish. I will happily endure it again, to see Charity’s happiness return.”
Leaning down, I kiss him gently, licking his bottom lip and grazing the top with my teeth. Charity’s face appears beside mine, and she closely watches our mouths move together.
She nips Charles’ ear, placing soft kisses down his neck as we share our own intimate kiss. Charles ends the kiss, pulling back, and pushes our heads together. I kiss Charity, but this time, I take her hand and place it on Charles’ lap.
“I want to watch, but then I’m going to punish you both for running away from me like that.”
Charity’s eyes grow wide in that sweet, innocent way I love so much. She nods, and Charles looks up at her, a need in his eyes so strong, I can feel it too.
