He pulled back, and the haze surrounding his face cleared. Shawn’s ice cold blue eyes stared back at her, twinkling under his veil of lashes. The night’s stars behind him matched, twinkling in time.
She struggled to push away from him but he had a tight hold. He laughed. His laugh blew through her hair, out amongst the trees and back again. It brought with it vines from the trees that wrapped themselves around her ankles. Dozens of velvety, red rose petals followed, stopping at their feet, creating a soft, thick pad on top of the ground. The elements were working with him; she was out of her league. She resorted to a trick she learned as a child when nightmares plagued her. She closed her eyes and allowed herself to fall back, summoning a sense of panicked descent that would jolt her out of the dream and back into Micah’s arms.
Shawn fell with her, refusing to release his mental hold. They struggled, back and forth between worlds. His hold was tight, and mind numbingly painful. She finally gave in and let him pull her back to the rock. Back in the same dream again, a sense of dreaded déjà vu washed through her. He was on top of her, fully aroused and pressing into her. As before, there was no waiting until she was ready. He was ready and that was all that mattered. Her wrists were restrained by the very cord Cato used in the handfasting ceremony, tied to a root protruding from the ground. She jerked at it. It was planted too strongly in the earth. It wouldn’t budge.
“Welcome back,” he said gruffly. “We aren’t finished yet.”
“Finished with what?” Her thighs fought off his knees trying to snake their way in between to give him access.
“With consummating our marriage.”
“I didn’t marry you!” she screamed at him, exasperated.
“You didn’t?” He reached up to bring an end of the marriage cord that bound her hands in front of her face. “Look at the blood stains, how many do you see?”
She looked closely, until the darker streaks of blood, now brown with age, revealed themselves in the red threads of the cord. Three very distinct stains intertwined together.
Temporarily distracted, he managed to open her legs wide and thrust himself inside. She threw back her head, crying out in pain.
“Why are you so tight, bitch?” he asked, annoyed. “Did Micah not officially bind the marriage tonight? With so sweet a pot, I’d of thought it would have been done several times over.”
She tried to ignore his derogatory remarks, and the pain, but he was ripping her open from the inside out. She felt warm liquid seeping out from between her legs and was sure it was blood. His teeth punctured her neck and chest, drawing out even more. He’d bleed her dry soon.
His grinding was getting faster and fiercer, and she only prayed he would be quick about it. He grunted with effort, talking in between breaths, “I would have preferred you came to me on your own accord, but this is just as much fun. I’ll have you to myself, Princess, no matter what it takes.”
His mouth slid down her chest and clamped over one of her nipples. He began to suck ferociously while squeezing her other breast, bruising the soft, white tissue. She felt an odd sensation and looked down. Her milk had come in, and he was taking it all for himself, saving nothing for the baby. He broke the suction just long enough to mumble something about the taste of royal milk and switched to the other nipple. His pounding was harder and faster, synchronizing with the gulps of nourishing cream he stole from her body.
Tears streaked her face, but she was more determined to fight him back now that she was fighting for two. She managed to wriggle one of her wrists free of the cord, and immediately covered her lower abdomen, protecting the baby as best she could from the thrusts of his body. Once she managed to squeeze her arm in between them, she realized her stomach was flat, void of the life that was hers to carry.
“My baby!” she cried, “Where is my baby?”
Shawn laughed again, sitting upright over her. “What this little thing?” He held the tiny, pink baby in his arms.
She reached for it but he managed to hold it far enough away while still burying himself deep inside of her. The baby cried out. Shawn reveled in it, coming quickly to his peak. He was messy about it, spilling his seed both deep inside of her and down her thigh. The sticky liquid mingled with her blood and dripped through the bed of roses beneath them.
She no longer reached out for her baby. Depleted of energy and in pain, the old wounds had ripped open. She lay very still while she watched her worst enemy coddle her precious baby. Suddenly, Shawn looked down at her and smiled, “She has blue eyes.”
* * *
“Kaitlyn, Kaitlyn! Wake up!” Micah sat over me in the same position Shawn held in my dream, minus the intimate connection.
“Get off!” I yelled.
He obliged quickly, nearly falling off the bed. “You were having a nightmare, screaming about blue eyes.” He looked closer. “You’re covered in bruises. I didn’t do that, did I?”
My hand, shaking with fear that it wasn’t just a dream, followed his gaze and up to my neck. I felt the indents of a familiar bite mark. My eyes locked with Micah’s, filling with dread. My hand immediately shot down to my belly and I let out a small sigh of relief to find a large round hump. I let my hand slide down even further, until it landed in something sticky on my inner thigh. I threw back the covers and found a pool of almost-dry blood and semen.
“Oh my God.”
“What? What’s wrong?” Micah’s voice was becoming just as panicked. “Should I call the doctor?”
“No. But something terrible has happened.”
“What?” He looked as though he were about to shake the truth out of me.
“Where is the cord, the cord from our vows?”
He looked around half-heartedly. “I don’t know, why?”
“Because, Micah. I fell asleep tied to it. Where is it now?!” I didn’t wait for his answer. Instead, I jumped out of bed and ran out of the room, hastily throwing a robe around me, barely bothering to tie it. Micah followed, slowed down by the pants he stumbled into and was still trying to pull up and buckle while he followed my flight out to the gardens.
Our commotion attracted more attention than I would have liked, as most of the household was already awake, but only Vayu, Alex and Susan followed; some out of genuine concern and some just out for their daily dose of drama, I’m sure.
Micah caught up easily, but didn’t stop me. He stayed by my side, exuding a sense of calm and confidence, letting me know he was there for me. I made my way down the path toward the rock and nearly collapsed when I entered the clearing. There, in front of the rock, was a spot where the soil was compressed and indented with a shape similar to a body. Half a dozen rose petals fluttered around the clearing with the morning breeze and drew attention to the most damning evidence of all; the red cord tied to a root protruding from the ground.
Micah knelt down beside me and untied the cord. “I don’t get it – were you here last night?” As if to answer his own question, he stood and reached inside my nest of matted hair to pull out a rose petal that was buried deep within.
I nodded. “I think so. In person, or…otherwise.” How could I explain it to him?
His hands felt the outline of the body in the soil, then moved down to two much deeper knee marks, “And who else?” His voice suddenly grew tight, weary of my answer.
“Shawn.”
His took up a handful of soil and squeezed until I thought minerals would come out. He stood up in anger. “How? Why?”
Still bent over, with my eyes cast downward, I barely whispered, “Look at the cord, Micah. How many blood streaks do you see?” I stayed quiet for a moment, letting realization hit him.
I heard the hesitant footsteps of our three followers enter the clearing. They each looked over Micah’s shoulder at the cord. Susan let out a gasp muffled by her hand over her mouth. Alex gave a very audible, “No way.”
“It is done, then.” Vayu said softly to Micah. “They are bound just as you and she are bound.”
Everyone grew silent but I felt all eyes turn to me. I stood up with my back still to them, not bothering to brush the tainted soil from my knees.
“The hell we are. Give me that cord.” I held out my hand and Micah passed it over. “Now stand back.”
I heard them take a few steps back and knew it wasn’t enough.
No matter, they’ll scatter as soon as they see.
I drew energy that came willingly up through the ground. Almost immediately the wind picked up and clouds blew in at my insistence. I called upon all the elements, infusing moisture into the atmosphere and charging the clouds with electrical energy. Next, I used opposite-charged energy to create a conductive path. The first lightning strike hit the cord dead-on, filling the area with a sudden light and a loud crack. My ears rang in protest, but I ignored them. Before the effects of the first bolt wore off, I had another racing to the ground. Those behind me half-jumped, half-stumbled back. I turned my head slightly and smiled; had they not been scared shitless, they would have been proud of me.
My robe came undone. Combined with my cackle and hair rising from the static electricity, I must have seemed an insane witch. I have to admit, I was quite insane in those moments. The cord disintegrated in a matter of seconds, and I set my targets to the impression of my body in the ground. Soil exploded up around me with each lighting strike, then rained down again – offering more and more energy to my cause. The lightening was coming dangerously close to me, but I didn’t particularly care. It fueled my excitement.
“Do something!” Micah shouted over the noise at Vayu and Susan.
Before they could, I delved deep into their centers and retracted their energy. I had no idea I could do that until it was done. Susan actually fainted at the sudden loss of energy. Vayu fell to the ground, paralyzed. Alex moved toward me. I stopped him with a bolt of lightning at his feet. He flew back into the brush. Before Micah could try disarming me with one of his famous kisses, I did the same to him.
Clear of distractions, I concentrated on the annoying little rose petals that still had the nerve to grace the clearing with their presence. The smell of ashes floated through the air. I felt the incredible deposit of energy I had built up draining, and decided to go out with a bang. With just enough to create a very large, very powerful final strike, I focused. The lightning paused for a moment while I fueled the force-to-be.
Just as I finished carving a path of energy and released the charge from the clouds overhead, Micah took me from behind. We went tumbling across the clearing and the strike skewed off to the side in my confusion. It hit the boulder, hard. Pieces of rock shot at us through the air like shrapnel. Micah shielded me with his own body and from the corner of my eye I saw Alex do the same for Susan. Vayu was left to his own devices. When the last pieces of boulder finally rained down, bouncing several times on the ground then settling, Micah rolled off of me. Sanity took hold as I looked around, surveying the damage and my closest friends, wrought with injuries from my doing. Micah picked himself up from the ground, moving gingerly at best, careful not to press on the shards of rock buried in his skin. I heaved myself to my knees and crawled over to the others.
Alex had recovered quickly, lifting the still unconscious Susan to his shoulders. “I have to get her to medical.”
I nodded my head, at a loss of what to say in my guilt. I watched him leave then crawled over to Vayu. The wind whipped all around us and rain began to pound down. Natural rain, I felt, amplified by the distress of the atmosphere. Vayu lay on the ground, his back to me. I saw his side rise and fall, a steady but slow breathing pattern. The rock pieces had torn his shirt to shreds. He had taken the brunt of the scattering debris. I ran my hand lightly over his back, surveying the damage. The wind easily ripped away the remaining rag of his shirt and his bare back was revealed. On his right shoulder, he bore the same scarred pattern mine did. Shawn’s mark.