Forbidden Fables, page 32
I knocked on the heavy wooden door, laden with iron bolts and hinges. I knocked twice, then three times, then three more. My secret code, to let him know it was me.
“Come in.”
His voice was stern, low. It sent chills down my lower spine, waking something so deep inside of me that could only be described as primal. My body reacted to him each time he was near, but that was our secret, something only the two of us shared.
“Domenico, thank you for seeing me.”
I felt silly saying this, especially since I had done everything he asked of me without question, submissive as I was. I continued with that notion, my gratitude letting him know I was still submissive to him.
Domenico sat behind his desk, looking as handsome and regal as ever. His hair was closely shaven, and small specks of salt a pepper lazily crept up his temples. His skin looked pale to me now, whereas before I thought perhaps, he just never favored the sun. Clearly, that was why he loved to dwell inside of a dark castle.
His jaw was squared and firm, and the rough texture of his lips brought back memories of them on my neck, my thighs…
“You look downright terrified, Charles. What is it?”
He almost laughed, but I could hear the concern in his voice as well.
I rubbed my hands together in nervousness, but I stepped up closer to the desk that looked older than I was. A plush chaise lounge was set up beside it, and as I looked over the deeply red velvet, memories of those nights with Domenico flooded my mind. I shook them away, remembering why I was here.
“It’s Charity…she is frightened…morose. She wants to know what happened to Freyja.”
I felt as though the last part was blurted out, but he looked thoughtfully at me as he leaned in closer to me on his elbows.
Taking a moment to think about what I’ve said, finally he leaned back with a big sigh.
“I would have liked to have told you why I asked you to bring Freyja to me…but at the time, it didn’t make sense. Now, however, you are home, and we can discuss this—me—at length.”
I was slightly confused as to why he said ‘me’ and not Freyja. What did Freyja have to do with him?
“I was in love once. As silly as that may sound, and the details really don’t matter. The woman that I loved left me, and I guess I never truly got over that…”
I moved to sit on the chaise, and I squirmed a little as I sat.
Domenico’s words echoing in my head.
Don’t be afraid, you can trust me.
“And is that woman Freyja?” I asked, eager to hear his answers so I could escape this sexual tension that slowly formed at the bottom of my belly.
He laughed at this. “Hardly, but Freyja does know her.”
Ah, okay, she had information he needed, it made sense. Now I just needed to know where exactly he kept her, that way I could reassure Charity she was safe and in good health.
Domenico stood from the desk, and his musky smell wafted around me, like a comforting blanket. He leaned against the headrest; his large hands very close to me. I shivered, feeling a pull of possessiveness and protection rolling off of him.
I craved being handled, wanted those instructions of exactly what to do and how to do it. I had become reliant on it, and it became a comfort to me at my lowest times.
“Do you remember the night that I caught you…in the bath…?”
My cheeks reddened at the remark, and I felt my cock move as I recounted the night when I was only seventeen, and I couldn’t keep my hand off myself anymore. My cock had become a separate entity, something foreign, angry. A need for release that I wasn’t even familiar with yet.
Fiona had been changing in the boys’ quarters after a flood had ruined all her things. I remembered her crying, and curious as I was, ran to see who needed comfort. I stopped short, her naked body displayed to me. She had shrieked, and shooed me away, but not before I had a full picture of her round tits and pink tips. Wisps of blonde hair curled just above her swollen pubis, and I had licked my lips like an animal.
I told myself it would only be a few absent-minded strokes—just to take the throb away, but the feeling of my own hand heavy on my cock…stroking myself into a pleasure-laced fog…
“I remember…”
He squeezed my knee, then gently worked his way up my thigh.
I looked down at his hand, then to his face, soft and smiling.
“I was so patient and forgiving with you, and I would like you to give me that same patience and forgiveness with me now.”
I nodded, biting my lip, and I felt my cock grow hard beneath his hand.
“Good boy.”
Chapter 16
Dante
THE PAST: WALES
“Iknow. I already know of the babe.”
He was seething mad, but not with Lilith, with me.
“Then how did you just let her go?”
“And what was I to do, Dante? Tie her up? Cage her? I loved her.”
I stopped pacing in his dark office, and when I faced him, his face had fallen and he looked tired, ancient. Good looks were something that kept our true identities safely hidden, and today he looked every bit his age.
“She wanted freedom, she wanted worship. And that’s exactly what I gave her…and it still wasn’t good enough.”
I scrubbed my face, and now I felt anger at him, anger for letting a walking Goddess leave us all.
“I know you fancied her, you half-wit. You were never good enough for her, don’t you understand?”
I growled, then I pushed him, knocking him into the tapestry that he had commissioned of Lilith, standing beside a large tree with an even larger snake wrapped around it, lingering beside her ear.
Domenico’s fangs sprung free, and he growled back, only he didn’t charge me. I knew he wouldn’t. When it came down to fighting or fucking, he would always choose fucking. I knew that much of my brother.
“I have never tasted blood as sweet.”
“And you think I have? Why do you think I fought so hard for her? It wasn’t just her cunt, her lips. It was everything.”
I sat on the only chair in the room, head in my hands. I wish I didn’t feel this way, I wish I had never found her and taken a small taste that night. She had been drunk and laughing, and one thing led to another…
Lilith knew what we were, and she loved it. She loved the blood, the secrets, the worship. She was a Godsend, she was everything we needed and wanted. It was a damn shame that she fell for Domenico in the first place.
“What else is there to do, Dante? Tell me.”
I don’t have the answers, I never did—that wasn’t my place.
“Aren’t you angry? Do you not feel rejected? Betrayed?”
This garnered a laugh from him, as if he couldn’t be bothered with any of those feelings. After all, we had been dead for centuries, you would think emotions would fail, but they did not—they remained.
“Of course, I feel rejected! Betrayed! I gave her years of my life. Risking being found out. We did every sinful act known to man, I would have been cast aside just as fast as Mary Magdalene.”
“Then we just forget her? A Goddess dropped down to us from Heaven, who’s blood tastes like life itself?”
Domenico stood, shoving his hands in his trouser pockets, thinking, as he gazed out of the tall stained-glass window. “I guess you’re right. I thought perhaps I could just forget, but not without tarnishing her name. I will make a monster out of her, I will tell her story of evil, sexual prowess. The child killer.”
I squeezed my fists together, remembering the way it made me feel when I drank from her. I felt alive again, powerful. If there was ever any way of feeling hope in a vampire’s world, her blood was it. I felt strong enough to walk into the light, strong enough to reveal my true self to anyone who would listen.
“What about the babe? Would it taste just as sweet, do you think?”
Domenico turned to me this time, grey eyes sharp and pointed. “It is possible…but we would have to wait. Wait and watch.”
I nodded, knowing exactly what he meant.
“I will watch, then.”
Little did he know, I had plans of my own for Lilith. She would be mine. Perhaps not of the flesh, but her blood would be mine.
Chapter 17
Lilith
THE PAST
Inamed her Annabel, and then I left her on the doorstep of a doctor and his wife. He was the only doctor within miles, and I thought perhaps that would be the safest place for my only child.
When I had seen the couple out together at markets, the husband doted on the woman, he spoke soft words to her, he was gentle with her. He looked at her like she was a prize.
Annabel’s hair was red, her lips were shaped like a heart. I kissed them gently as I placed her in a basket and on the doorsteps that day. I didn’t deserve to be a mother; I was not made for that job.
I was The Dark Mother, the one who refused to submit to a man, who demanded the same treatment as a king. I was not a tender, nurturing matron, but a bloodthirsty and selfish creature.
And now, I was free again, walking away from a baby that I would only be able to love from a distance.
I promise I will always be near, always watching over you.
I suddenly felt weak, and I craved rest.
My snakes had disappeared, and sadness lanced my chest. I didn’t cry, I wouldn’t allow that.
My magic, my immortality, would always surround her; I could stretch it for miles. I had no doubt in my mind I would always have an eye on her.
Would she inherit my magic? Would my gifts be passed down to her?
All I knew right now was that I would never be a good mother.
England 1678
Each time I came to visit Annabel, she looked more and more morose—devoid of any purpose. I knew the man she was with was not the right one, another man who followed the church, another man who would only disappoint her with all his requirements. He did not love my child—he only loved God.
I visited her more and more, leaving her gifts of enhanced crystals, feathers and skulls of small woodland animals. She became stronger, until one day, she had a baby of her own. Another spritely little red head named Lux.
I couldn’t have been prouder, as I watched her hone her craft—creating magical wards and spells that could never be undone.
Until one day, the men. They came for her.
I watched, from a cluster of faraway trees, their shadows keeping me hidden. The little girl shouted at her father, begging him not to take her, but it was already done.
I knew exactly who was behind this, and I could do nothing to stop it. I never claimed her as my own, so how would I keep her from harm if she didn’t know who I was?
I thought about rushing to Domenico, to Dante, but I knew it would be futile to plead with the men I left behind thirty years ago. This was their revenge, and I should have known Domenico would keep an eye on the baby that I fled from.
He was a man, he craved power, his only gains behind a faceless God that everyone feared.
If you didn’t believe—punished. If you sinned—punished again. And the sting had returned at the reminder of the day I was cast out of Eden as a demon, forgotten and discarded.
Women were disposable to men, and the more we were oppressed, the higher up on the food chain they became.
I wept, naked and with my hair curled around my body, caked in dirt and tears. When I pictured Annabel’s heart shaped face, and large green eyes, I was transported to the stake.
Flames licked her feet, and she begged for a chance to explain herself.
I’d sunk to my knees, finally giving in to the need to cry, to release my anger and sadness that I held inside of me for too long.
I looked at the sky, the endless rows of clouds and grey. And for the first time since the day I fell through the sky, I spoke to God, full of indignation and hopelessness.
Why have you failed me? Forsaken me? I do not deserve this punishment. You were supposed to love me unconditionally!
I wrapped my arms around myself, letting the tears fall. I rocked myself back and forth, remembering that I was the only one who I’d ever been able to rely on. I crack open, I break, and I allow myself to feel every bitter sting of whips I’d been given. I allowed myself to feel the burn and break of bone that threatened to tear me up from the inside out, but I never let it.
Tears stained my hair, my hands, and my face. I watched as her body became nothing but ash and cinders. I cursed God, and I cursed the men. I was weak, and her death was all because I was not brave enough to be a mother. If I was there, if I had kept her, this would have never happened.
I briefly thought of taking my own life, slicing my wrists and bleeding out at the edge of the forest as I watched her turn into smoke.
Instead, I asked for pity, I asked her for forgiveness.
My sweet child, if only you realized this was just your natural way, you have done nothing wrong except acknowledge the power within you. I’m sorry…I’m so sorry…and I hope that you can forgive me.
Her screams burned inside my ears, and only fed my rage that had once laid dormant inside of me while I was in the arms of Domenico.
I would be lying if I said my heart didn’t yearn for him, but I was Lilith and I did not need any man. I was created to walk alone on a path of redemption, a path that led me straight to this very place where I stood, as I watched my child burned alive for her sins.
And who was to say that her sins were not theirs? Perhaps her sins were an effect of men’s sins? She would never had to protect herself with wards if the man she loved caressed her skin instead of striking it. She would not need love spells on others if her heart was content with the man she called a husband.
I gained invisible wings the day she died, and I flew from place to place without memory or direction. I floated above the clouds, until I had no energy left and had to rest. I had no choice, and I would need food inside of my half-human, half-God body.
I cursed under my breath, finding a small clearing in the Welsh woods from where I’d come.
I thought about returning to the Underworld, only it was a damp and dark place where not much light graced its floors. I had become attached to the sunlight, often bathing in it on days where the loneliness consumed me.
Where would I go from here? Should I go back for the young girl they called Lux?
After expertly trapping two rabbits, I spit them over a small fire. I sat, chewing and plotting.
It was then that I decided I would go to Lux, and I would do whatever I could to keep her safe. I would intervene any way I could, and that included taking her away from whoever I must.
Chapter 18
Domenico
THE PAST
“She was burned? Who ordered such a thing?”
My voice was cross, and as I stood in front of my younger brother, I began to tremble. This was not what I intended; I did not want these men to take matters into their own hands. They were supposed to report back to me immediately after they found her.
Dante looked different; he was sad, guilty.
“Who did it?”
He hung his head and remained silent, and I knew he was guilty, I knew of his jealousy. He was in charge over the small villages and their men, only this time he had gone too far.
I roared, gripping the sides of my desk, my knuckles burning, as I lifted it over my head and threw it across the room.
Dante cowered, he knew what I could do, he didn’t want to be on this end of my rage.
He was a coward, and a sorry excuse for the last name Delesepps.
I stalked from the room, intent on walking the hidden corridors, so I would not see anyone while I was filled with such anger. I could not let my guard down; the mask must remain.
I needed to find Melody, her face was the only thing that could soothe me, bring me back down again.
“Dom, what is it?”
Her blonde ringlets bobbed in front of her pale, freckled face. She kissed me on the cheek gently and I smiled.
It was long ago that she was simply a fledgling in my school for children, a young, supple fifteen. But then her family committed the utmost betrayal—killing a vampire. The violence that followed left Melody bloody and mangled, missing fingers and toes. I had no choice but to turn her, and now she was mine forever.
“Just foolish men who do not know how to wield their power. Come with me.”
She followed behind me, down the hidden corridors and to the spot we loved that looked out over the gardens. A large bed overflowing with pillows and blankets piled on top of it. She plopped down on her back, always the bright star in my dark sky.
“You must hide, because there will certainly be repercussions from this act.”
She looked at me, confused, but she nodded her head slowly.
“And just what can hurt me?”
There it was; the cockiness of a newly turned vampire. I had warned her of this cockiness that would be her demise. We may be immortal, but stakes and sunshine were two very real threats to our kind. There were people who rumored other devices that would kill, but most of them were false.
“You must fear Lilith, The Dark Mother, always. She is the killer of children, and you are no exception.”
Her eyes went wide, and I stroked the hair back from her face, gaining a smile from her.
“Is she a vampire as well?”
I sat back, removing the holy collar that I wore around my neck. I was exhausted and planned to take some time away with Melody anyway. I would show her the cliffs of Greece, and the dark hills where we came from.
All would be well, I just needed to make sure we would not be where Lilith last left me.
Would she come back? What would I do if she did? The love of my life who left me when I did not want any such thing.
Memories of our time together washed over me, she was the perfect fit for me, the mate I bonded with in blood. We lived together in the dark, committing sins together, between our naked bodies and her heated breath.
