Disclaimer: Twilight is the property of Stephenie Meyer
Description: This is the third part in the tale of Essie Black, the vampire-wolf child, daughter of Jake and Nessie. Many things tried to drag her down, to turn her dark and forget her human nature, but it was the death of her children that did it in the end. Unable to face the pain for eternity she sheathed herself in ice and became the lapdog that Aro longed her to be, much to her husband, Tobias' dismay.
It seems that she is truly lost and there is nothing that Tobias can think of to bring his Essie back. But he keeps a small flicker of hope alive, because there must be a light at the end of the tunnel….
This opening chapter is dedicated to Noble and Fadewind for their continued reviews. Thanks to the both of you :)
Tobias
The memory had been lost for a long while after the Battle of Volterra, but it is so clear to me now. On the long nights when Essie banishes me from her dreams I often view this memory to retain the hope that my dearest will make it through the mire she now traversed and emerge the other side.
To have my vibrant Essie returned to me whole is the thing I most desire, but until that time I always have the memory…
The world was darkness, and yet I wasn't as fearful as perhaps the situation called for. Perhaps I had gone blind, but I was sure this wasn't the case. I knew that I was deep under the earth; I could feel the cool echoing depth around me. I knew this, and yet I had no idea who I was.
I could hear a thudding rhythm, a heartbeat perhaps?
A voice called from the darkness, but it seemed garbled, some language I had no understanding of.
"Is anybody there?" The same voice called.
It had not changed the words it spoke, but now I seemed to understand them when I hadn't before. The voice seemed familiar to me too, but I had no idea why. The voice was as much a mystery to me as my own identity. I only knew the voice was important and I had to respond.
"Hello." I called, my voice echoing slightly. "Hello." I called at a slightly softer pitch.
"There's somebody else here?" The voice asked, sounding relieved. "Where are you?"
It seemed with ease that I moved through the darkness, tracking the woman by the sound of her voice and that ever present thudding. There was also a scent that seemed to draw me to her and as I got closer, delightful heat. I reached out and thankfully it was her hand that I grasped. Her hand was hot and I marvelled at the heat in this world of cold.
Her hand tightened on mine and I could feel the pulse in her strong fingers beating against my own.
"Have you any idea where we are?" I asked in a whisper since I stood so close to her now.
"I don't know." She whispered back. "But I think I might be blind."
"No." I object since I felt this was one thing I was clear on. "I think we're deep underground and that's why we cannot see."
"Underground? Have we been buried alive?" She gasped, and she threw her arms around me and she smothered me with her bosom, but the thought of suffocation didn't cause me fright.
Rather than feeling fright I felt enthralled as I listened to her heart up close, feeling its beat against my cheek and ear. I recognised this heartbeat and it was causing my body to stir in a way that would be embarrassing in a moment since she clung to me so tightly.
"Underground yes, buried no." I answered, my voice muffled in her cleavage.
"Then we can get out?" She suggested hopefully.
"If we can find the egress than yes." I agreed.
"Is it wrong of me to feel scared?" She whispered, dipping her head so her mouth was level with my ear.
I turned my head to where I thought her ear to be before I whispered, "Only if it's wrong for me to feel scared too."
I felt her shiver against me and I knew it was with pleasure she did so. My body knew this to be true. My body knew her; that was another thing of which I was certain.
"Why does it feel like my body knows you when I have no idea who I am myself?" She asked, still in that husky whisper.
"Our bodies know each other." I murmured as I began to trail my fingers down her arm, it seemed like the thing they wished to do.
"They do." She gasped before I felt her fingers lightly trace my body and finally moving in a line up over my stomach and chest, to my chin and alighting on my lips. She seemed to hold her place with her thumb before she placed her lips on my own.
"What are you doing?" I gasped, pulling back slightly as my body began to truly respond to her now.
"Doesn't this feel right to you?" She asked.
"Yes, but I don't know your name." I said feebly as I tried to imagine something to douse the flame of desire.
"I don't know your name." She pointed out and I could feel her grin.
"My name is… It is…" I stammered, trying to search for it.
"Can't remember?" She asked a little smugly.
"No." I admitted.
"Me either. I don't know one thing about me except my body seems to want you rather badly and I don't know how long I can keep fighting against it." She whispered. "Do you?" She asked seductively.
I could bear it no longer. The desire within me was growing to an unbearable point and it seemed as if it had had a long time to build.
"I want you now." I growled, wrapping my arms around her waist and pulling her to me.
"Oh yes." She gasped as her fingers began to work at my clothes.
I pulled back enough to allow her fingers room to work. First to pull aside the robes I wore and then work quickly to unbutton the shirt I wore beneath. Her hot hands pushed my shirt aside and I shivered with pleasure as she ran her hands over my bare chest and up over my shoulders to push off my robes and shirt.
I pulled her to me once more and began to nuzzle at her neck, revelling in her scent. I let out a purr as she ran her hands over my bare back and then tangled them in my hair.
"You're so hot." I whispered. "How I crave your warmth."
She gasped, her words lost in a sigh as I sensed the changes within and the minute differences in scent that allowed me to know that she was also aroused. I wished to explore more of this strange girl who held me close in this uncertain darkness. I followed the line of her neck with my hand and trailed gently down her cleavage until I slipped my hand beneath the robe she wore to discover naked flesh. As she gasped and shivered against me I moved my hand to cup her breast before caressing softly with my thumb.
"You are naked beneath this robe." I observed as I pulled it aside.
Once her upper half was revealed to me I began to kiss her flesh softly. I began at her throat and kissed downwards in a line until I could replace my thumb with my lips and began to caress her with my tongue. She gasped and sighed, her hands drawing my head closer to her. I moved my hand lower to explore, and trailing up under the robe.
"Not even underwear." I added as casual exploration turned to intimate caress.
"Guess it's my thing." She whispered in an unsteady voice tempered by her hitched breathing as I continued to gently tease her in the place that she desired most.
"I like it." I observed.
I knew that she nodded her head; I felt her long hair brush against my shoulder with her movement before I felt her lips against my throat. Her soft, warm breath rustled my hair, caressing my skin before she closed her lips about my earlobe and began to suck on it. It was something I truly enjoyed and I was now sure of where these actions would lead.
She did a little exploring of her own and the hunger within me was ravenous now, I wanted her in every way possible, but for reasons beyond my knowing my body pulled away. It was not out of disgust but for some other unfathomable reason that held me flummoxed as she drew me back by the waistband of my trousers.
"Suddenly shy?" She teased as her fingers worked to unbutton and unzip my trousers.
"No." I said, before I gasped as she pulled my trousers down. "It was a reflex. An automatic reaction. My body did it of it's own accord as if it is used to pulling away at this point?"
"Why?" She asked, sounding slightly affronted.
"I have no idea, but I hold you with no revulsion, in fact I want you desperately in every way possible, but I feel there is something we should do first." I explained, frowning at my own words.
"Like what?" She asked in a husky, sexy voice as she rested her hand on my shoulder.
I tried to think of a reason, but none came to mind.
"I have absolutely no idea." I growled, scooping her into my arms in wild abandon and I walked in Elysium as I felt so much of her warm naked body against mine. "But I know I want you, and to have my wicked way with you before I burst." I added before moving once more with ease through the darkness toward a destination that suddenly seemed a beacon to our needs.
"Where are you taking me?" She whispered in my ear as her heart began to beat faster, its rhythm pounding against me delightfully from every pulse of her body.
"Over in this direction I can smell a mix of synthetic fibres, metal and silk. In my head this adds up to a bed." I explained.
"A bed in a cave?" She questioned.
"Perhaps it is an air-raid bunker." I suggested.
"What would we be doing in one of them?" She questioned, and I could feel her frown against my shoulder.
"Waiting out an air-raid?" I answered reasonably.
"I don't think there's a war on." She stated. "Not one with aeroplanes anyways."
"Does it matter if you are comfortable?" I asked, kneeling down now we had reached our destination.
"I guess not. Unless you were the one who took my memory." She said a little suspiciously as I found the edge of the mattress with my hand.
"How do I know you didn't take mine?" I asked solemnly before placing her where I judged the centre of the bed to be.
"I didn't take your memory, but it is as screwed up as mine seems to be. Hey! I can read your mind." She declared, awe dominant in her tone.
"You can?" I asked.
"Yeah. I must be a telepath." She reasoned.
"But that's impossible." I stated, although I doubted this statement entirely.
"Says the vampire." She said in a slightly uncertain tone.
"Vampire?" I asked in shock.
"Cold skin. No heartbeat. Vampire. Plus it's written all over your mind." She stated and I had to analyse myself.
I did have no heart beat, and the reason I felt the cold so was because my skin was indeed cold to her touch. That had been a flash from her mind, but I knew I wasn't a telepath, but she was. She was a telepath and I was a vampire.
"If I am a vampire, what would a good little girl like you be doing down in the dark with me?" I demanded, although it was in a slightly joking fashion.
"What would a good little girl be doing down in the dark with any guy?" She countered, humour in her voice. "Besides, I don't think I'm all that good and I'm at least a head taller than you."
"But you are a girl." I stated.
"No. I am a woman." She declared.
"Is that so?" I asked, climbing up beside her on the bed.
"I know I'm not a virgin, my body has known sex and I think it's known it with you lots of times. I feel it all through my being. Don't you?"
"Yes. I feel it." I replied since I realised this was a truth I'd known for a while now.
"Then why are we not acting upon it?" She demanded.
"If that is your wish." I said, before lying down beside her warm body on the bed.
We faced each other at first and I trailed my hand down her side, following the smooth lines of her body. Our mouths met in a moment of pure passion before probing fingers and tangling limbs took us to the beyond. Somewhere amongst our pleasure was a thought that we had forgotten something of the utmost important, but the wave of desire washed it away.
Through the darkness we worked to reach the pinnacle of our desire before falling breathless and then beginning again. I felt as if I were experiencing these pleasures for the first time while knowing that I had experienced them many a time with this woman who worked such sweet magic with me…
It had been a wondrous night, the last time Essie and I had made love, but on these nights of re-evaluating that magic time in the darkness I have no choice but to accept the fact that this is where our present predicament began. If only my memory had retained the one tiny, yet important detail then my Essie would never have had to descend into deep despair.
I know not what to do to help my beloved, I am at a complete loss and to worry her family would be pointless. Besides, they have been absent in their correspondence of late and whenever I broach the subject Essie declares in that flat monotone that it is not our place to bother them. I dare not go behind her back for the fear of the damage it will cause her in her current state of mind.
I worry for my darling and I would be grateful for some counsel, but none is forthcoming from those who, beside myself, should worry the most about Essie's well being. Whatever reason they have for keeping such limited contact had best be of vital importance or so help me when we are freed from this prison I will, to borrow the term from my beloved, totally kick their asses…
Ok, so there's the prologue and you got to read what did happen in the cave. As if I would have kept that from you forever ;)
Chapter one is going up immediately but if you want to review this chapter feel free
Thank you for reading and continuing with Essie's story despite another dire ending. I promise you the pay off is good if you stick with it.
Gemma x