"And I know it's true that visions are seldom what they seem.
But If I know you, I know what you'll do.
You'll love me at once
the way you did once
upon a dream." –Lana Del Ray, Once Upon a Dream
What I Know is True
His feet ghosted over the concrete, making no sound, barely skimming across the gravel roof tops to the edges of metal-bound parapets, toes gripping but only for a second as muscle groups bunched and coiled and sprung as he flew between the buildings. The inky sky above and the charcoal black below, a yawning maw closing around him but for the glittering stars. His breath hitched. A glimmer of silver. A streak of illuminated flesh so out of place in the denim gray and stark white in this kingdom of rooftops, this forgotten realm of slant and slope and tile and towers and smoking pipes, too hot to touch.
His heart stuttered as his feet halted, skidding through the ash-like debris covering the surface. The pounding in his ears and the blurred vision disrupted his earlier sense of her. But not for long. He was not wrong. His instincts had led him through the hunt. His senses directing him to this end. His heart guiding every step. The air shifted around him but slightly; a whisper of sound; silk against brick; lips sweeping across flesh in a stolen kiss. Forbidden and twice as sweet.
He tensed.
A cool fingertip traced a line along his collarbone from out of nothing. Her arm coming up and around his shoulder. Barely touching him. His eyelids fluttered. He felt rather than heard her breath cast across the flesh of his throat, glistening in a light sheen of perspiration from the chase. This like so many other times. The game. Dangerous and lovely. Exhilarating and precise. Blade and fang, muscle and tendon, love and lust.
He steadied his breathing once he remembered to breathe again. He opened his mouth, the speech long prepared and rehearsed but the words died on his lips as she finished circling him. It was no use. She wouldn't have allowed him to find her again if she was ready to listen. To submit. To return to fix the life left broken behind her since her mutation. She was here for one reason: to play the game. And he, the fool that he ever was, wanted this more than anything.
She came to stop directly in front of him. Her eyes huge and luminous in the dark, jade and split down the center by a slash of onyx pupil. Her oval face, pale and as painfully beautiful as ever stood out in the surrounding darkness.
"Shhhh," she shushed him, bringing one finger to his mouth.
He stared into her eyes, reeling and completely mesmerized as her pupils widened out, nearly human-looking now, but too large, large enough for him to stumble forward and plunge into the fathomless depths; to drown forever in her gaze, helpless and more frightening, he knew: blissfully content. But tonight the light in her eyes bore a hungry edge. A glint of something sharp and cold. Blank. His pulse quickened and she took note, eyes flickering to watch; that light glowing deeper, brighter. Her tongue lashed out, once, a taste of his emotions. A sampling.
From the corner of his eye he saw the change, but like the other times, he would not be able to explain later what he'd seen or how exactly it happened. Merely that there was a ripple, an undulation with graceful ease, beautiful in its own mysterious way. Alluring, almost obscene. Where there were legs now a long torso covered in silken scales, shimmering; the color of liquid dreams. Leo bit back a whimper. He trembled.
Her lower body uncoiled and rolled. Powerful muscles pulling to knot and twist until his legs were caught, bound. Her scales cool and brisk enough to make him give a tiny gasp. Her lips split into a soft smirk. Karai's eyes remained detached, though, emptied out. Vague and lost. Staring through him.
Her upper body circled him, tugging him forward until only inches parted them. His mouth opened again, but not to speak, but in anticipation of her mouth on his, like before; kissing him as if she were to devour him. And in some ways she had. Engulfed by her presence, swallowed by her essence, the first time, the last time; it didn't matter. There was nothing but surrendering to her; as he'd yearned to do from the start.
But her mouth did not descend to meet his. Leo frowned. Unease prickled the back of his neck.
"Karai," he whispered and felt her body tighten around him; his own body responding in kind. She pressed him closer. "Kiss me," he said breathlessly, with intent.
She pulled back and regarded him. The alien light gleaming through her dully reflective eyes. They grew flat and disc-like. He could not see his own reflection within them, only a ghostly void. He stayed locked on her eyes as her face changed, dragging out from her nose and mouth, elongating into a mask of pale scales and smooth planes. It was no longer her. Not like this. This was the animal. The beast. Panic speared his galloping heart. She had never changed fully before. Never.
"Karai?" he asked. The tremor in his voice giving away just how frightened he'd become.
Her tongue flicked out, tasting his mounting panic. The end of her tail rattled in excitement as the scent of his horror filled the air between them. The tension built and her face reared back.
"I-I trust you!" he blurted, eyes clenched shut, because he did. He trusted her. He always would. Like the ocean's power turned over to the fickle turns of the moon's attentions, he could not help himself. He could not stop. Once caught in her elliptical path of self-destruction and fury, there was no escape. Not for him. He knew that she was, at the very heart of her, good. That she only needed someone to care for her properly. To love her without question, without doubt, without any further expectation or demands on her; to love her without regret, forever. He knew this. Without a doubt.
And still he believed in her even as her face came down in the strike, opaque fangs bared and extended. They pierced the tender flesh of his throat but did not penetrate through to the jugular. She'd hesitated, as he believed she would. She had stalled, resisted, fought her basic instinct at the last second; but too late.
A drop of pearled venom spilled from the tip of her fang into his punctured flesh. It coursed through his system, immediately paralyzing him. His head tipped back as his body contracted, muscles cramping and seizing.
He choked softly as his throat tightened. Fingers working through the distant feel of her skin, her arms moving over him; the sound of her panicked, pleading voice drifting and then blurring in the sudden rushing sound of his blood coursing through his ears. He pinched his eyes closed, riding out the pain as it crested; opened them again; blinking the stinging tears back; watching the stars twinkle above and suddenly begin to drop. Cascading like a million sparkling tears. The winking blank expanse wept glittering stars as Leo fell back, by inches to the ground, so slowly, down and down and down again until the dust puffed in miniature thunderheads all around him, swirling and dancing along with the cataract of stars; his tears.
And some small part of him knew. Had always known. Karai, daughter of his master, raised by a demon, would bring him to his end.
A/N:I was inspired to write this while listening to that haunting rendition of Once Upon a Dream by Lana Del Ray from the Maleficent soundtrack.
But also because I am super excited about the Stealthystories 2014 Horror Competition! The first annual Horror Competition! Come on by stealthystories and check it out - with Halloween right around the corner we're gearing up for a spooky good time! More details can be found on my Tumblr, as well. Do think about participating. The more the merrier! XD
And thank you for reading, my sweeties!