The Heart of Everything
Selene felt a shiver of pleasure run down her spine as a pair of cool lips brushed against her shoulder. Erika wrapped her arms around the Death Dealer from behind, her small fingers splayed and flat against the smooth, pale skin of Selene's stomach. Selene closed her eyes and leaned back into the embrace, inhaling deeply the scent of burning candles and Erika's perfume, the sweetness of both mixing with the more heady smells of sex and blood. The mere memory of the previous evening spent with Erika, the two of them entwined in passion, was enough to make Selene weak in the knees.
Erika tightened her arms around Selene as her lips trailed across the elder vampire's shoulder blades. Selene sighed heavily as she felt the warm embers of desire re-ignite low in her belly at Erika's touch. It took all she had to suppress a moan when Erika nipped playfully at her neck. She straightened a little and opened her eyes to clear the images from her mind.
"Why don't you come back to bed?" Erika asked softly, her lips moving against Selene's cool skin.
Selene stared out the window before her, up at the glistening stars, as she spoke. "I'm not tired."
At hearing that, Erika raised a single eyebrow in disbelief. "Really? Well, then, I guess you'll just have to come back to bed so I can fix that," she said.
Erika's right hand dipped lower, but Selene caught it in her own hand before it went too far. She brought the hand up to her lips and kissed Erika's knuckles.
"What's wrong?" Erika asked.
"Nothing," answered Selene.
"Look at me, please?" The Death Dealer slowly turned in Erika's arms. "That's better. Now, tell me what's wrong. I know there's something, so don't lie to me, okay?"
Selene let out a sigh as she ran a hand through her dark, tousled hair and looked down into Erika's clear, blue eyes. She knew it was beyond pointless to try to lie about what she was feeling when Erika looked at her like that. It was as if the blonde could look right through her and just know what was in her hear and on her mind. "Pointless," she muttered to herself, obviously caught up in her own thoughts.
"What is?" asked Erika.
Selene shook her head to clear the cobwebs, then said, "I don't know if I can do this anymore."
"Do what, love?"
"This--us." Selene gestured between herself and Erika, then to the bed to make her point clear. "I don't know how much more I can take before I--I just feel like I'm drowning in this, and I need air. I need to catch my head before it explodes," she explained.
Erika brought a hand up when Selene was finished speaking and wiped away a few of the tears that had unexpectedly spilled from Selene's dark eyes. She cradled the brunette's face tenderly in her hands. "Why didn't you say anything before?" she asked softly.
Selene shrugged, feeling the pain in her chest swell until it was nearly unbearable. Her breath caught in her throat as her green-gray eyes filled with tears again.
"There's something else, isn't there? Something you're not telling me?"
Selene averted her eyes to the floor to avoid Erika's all-knowing gaze. It was too much. She was going to break soon and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
"Selene, look at me," Erika said again. "Look at me and tell me what's going on with you. I deserve to know. You owe me that much."
Selene moved her eyes upward from the floor, letting them travel the length of Erika's perfect body. The blonde was naked, save for the open black silk robe that she wore. In the glowing light of the candles, Selene could easily make out every freckle, every mark, every scar left by fang and by fingernails. Many of those marks she had put there herself in bouts of passion she shared with Erika, and in turn, there were marks on her own body that only Erika knew existed.
Selene didn't know when or how it happened, but somewhere after loathing and lust, there came love, twisted as it was. It was still love, burning in Selene's veins like bad blood, hindering her will to resist when Erika called upon her. Some point in time marked the turning of Erika's feelings as well, from tease and torture to longing and tenderness. Selene didn't know if it was love, but it was something more, and it slowly began to eat away at Selene's sanity. Not to mention, it scared her nearly to death.
She had gone to great lengths to avoid Erika after that revelation. It worked for a few weeks. Erika seemed to leave her to herself. But when the blonde unexpectedly showed up in her bedroom at sunset the day before, Selene found that she was powerless to stop Erika's advances.
And so she stood, her gaze finally meeting Erika's. She took a long, ragged breath, strengthening her resolve just a little. Erika waited as patiently as ever for her to speak.
Slowly, quietly, Selene finally uttered, "I love you."
Erika's breath stopped halfway up, and Selene watched in silent agony as the expression on her face changed slowly from anger to confusion, then to understanding. Her hand came up again, and she slowly ran the backs of her fingers down Selene's cheek. Without saying so much as a single word, she leaned forward and touched her lips to Selene's in a tender kiss.
Selene didn't know why, but she clung to Erika as if she were dying of thirst and the blonde was the last person on the planet who could give her life's blood. And in a way, she was very much Selene's savior, the one person, however unlikely, that could mend her soul, make it a better place.
The way Erika kissed her made it obvious that she felt what Selene felt, even stronger perhaps. She hadn't the need to speak it aloud, but when she whispered it against the Death Dealer's lips, Selene nearly cried out in relief.
Her heart's intentions affirmed, she kissed Erika with a passion and fervor she hadn't known herself capable of. Slowly, and a bit unsteadily, she backed Erika toward the big four-poster bed.
Heart affirmed, she had no need to resist the fire burning in her veins. She let it race through her, igniting her passion, rekindling the warmth she felt as Erika writhed beneath her.
Passion affirmed, she would lay claim to Erika's love, her mind, her body, and she would leave behind her mark. And as long as Erika would have her, she would remain to Selene, the heart of everything.