Everything was black. Seaweed clung to her arms and silver tail, webbed hands clawed at her body pulling and pushing her as though she were nothing more than a mannequin to be toyed with. It hurt. A few feet behind her she could hear Delmar laughing as though the sight of Cordelia's suffering gave him pleasure. Her gills pulled in fresh seawater but it did nothing to help her, she couldn't breath, couldn't think. Cordelia had feared this all her life.
Sharp teeth grated along the spot where her neck met her shoulder in sinister teasing. He was grinning, whichever Mer Delmar had given her to was enjoying this, enjoying forcing Cordelia into the sharp rock wall, enjoying how her body shivered in fear, taking her against her will. She tried to pull away but the Alpha male was too strong, too determined to have her.
Suddenly sharp teeth sank into her throat and Cordelia screamed.
The raven haired Mermaid sat bolt upright in her bed and kicked the green covers off as quickly as possible, her hands flew to her neck but there was no blood, no bite mark, no pain; it had been a dream. Unshed tears blurred Cordelia's emerald eyes and her terrified lungs sucked in much needed oxygen. Before she knew what she was doing her pillow had been cuddled to her chest, eyes closing in a desperate attempt to calm herself. She'd had nightmares all her life but Fjord had always been there to comfort her, he hadn't ever been like the other Mers in the School; Fjord had always cared about her. He was the only reason she'd ever concider going home.
After a while the tears cleared from her eyes Cordelia looked up out the window at the night, starts littered sky and the moon was up, a tiny sliver of a thing but it lit up the night magically. With a deep breath Cordelia got up and made herself a cup of tea before returning to her bed with a book she'd been meaning to finish, there was no going back to sleep, no point even trying. A quick glance at the clock told her it was three-thirty-si x in the morning, her shift started at nine so she'd got plenty of time to do some serious reading before even thinking about taking a shower and getting dressed.
When Cordelia had learnt English almost five years ago she'd developed a passion for books, everything got explained in books, narratives made sense. It hadn't taken long to figure out she favoured Gothic literature, especially 'Rebecca', the idea of never being good enough had truly resonated with her.
As she read the Mermaid found her mind drifting to the Reverend, he usually had a book with him when she saw him in Home Cookin' at breakfast or lunch. Sometimes he quite obviously had a copy of the Bible with him but other times he had more modern paper backs. Cordelia liked the Rev, he seemed to have an endless well of kindness.
Sure enough the hours of reading and the knowledge that she'd be seeing the Rev's dark chocolate eyes at the breakfast rush soothed her and pushed her nightmare away; something resembling peace found her.
~X~
Emilio had opted to sit in the Midnighter's room instead of out front for a change, he'dbeen doing that more and more since he'd escaped the chapel cellar just after Manfred had arrived in town. Slowly the solitary tiger was learning to socialize. He was watching Cordelia move around out front while he ate his pancakes, she seemed sad, no one else appeared to have noticed but he had. The Rev saw how subdued she was and he saw it again at dinner, saw how her breathing grew panicked when a truck driver slapped her ass as she past. The Were' snapped out of his head when Creek set his dinner down in front of him then to greet Lem and Joe when they came in, but otherwise his continued to watch Cordelia out the corner of his chocolate orbs. She was so beautiful, too beautiful to be sad.
"You can put your cutlery down, Emilio."
Said Lem which caused the Rev's head to snap up, only then did he realise his plate was empty and Joe had gone. How long ago did he leave? Emilio put his knife and fork down at an angle on his empty plate and pushed it away.
"Emilio, please just talk to her."
"Hmm?"
The Rev raised an eyebrow while the vampire just chuckled to himself as he gestured to Cordelia who was stacking a tray with drinks at the bar.
"You've been all but infatuated with Cordelia for weeks now. You like her so go tell her." Lem spoke as though it were simple.
"I don't think that's appropriate." Replied the Rev.
"Why?" Lemuel's voice was deep. "Because you're two different species? You were the one who made me brave enough to be with Olivia, she's human. You told Manfred to be with Creek. Emilio, you give advice to all of us so please let me return it. Cordelia is a sweet young girl-"
"Emphasise on young." Said the Rev gruffly.
"So? She's eighteen, perfectly legal and capable of making her own choices. Don't make things hard, be with her, you clearly want to be and I'm sure she'd be interested. Your notice of her might have started as concern but that clearly isn't what it is now. Without you I probably wouldn't e married to Olivia, Mandfred and Creek would still be dancing around one another." Lem paused for a moment while Emilio just stared at the bald man. "You helped make us happy, let me help you be happy."
The Rev stood ans sighed deeply.
"Thank you, Lemuel, but Weretigers don't make good partners."
With that the Rev sipped on his hat and left the headed to the restaurant door.
"Night, Rev."
Emilio looked over his shoulder to see Cordelia offering him a smile. "Goodnight, Cordelia."
Her emerald eyes seemed to brighten at the sight of him but surly that was just a trick of his mind. Had to have been.
~X~
The Were' had been putting off cleaning up the last of the bull's blood from his chapel cellar but it needed doing and it hadn't taken him very long. Emilio peered down at his watch, one-thirty, maybe it had taken a while. Probably best for him to head home and get some sleep, with a yawn he left the cellar and closed the doors carefully before going into the chapel to drop his tools by the font and check everything was alright before he locked up for the night. Emilio peeked past the inner doors at the heart of the chapel as he fished his keys out of his pocket only to spot long raven hair hanging in loose waves. Cordelia. No one had hair like her.
Slowly the Rev made his way over to the front pew where she sat.
"Cordelia, are you alright?" He asked softly forcing her head to snap up at him; she didn't seem scared this time.
"Yeah." The time of night seemed to dawn on her as she glanced out the window before back up to the man in his black suit. "Sorry, I'll leave so you can lock up."
"No." He said a little quicker than he'd intended. "It's alright, you've clearly got something on your mind." Emilio sat down beside her on the pew, his keys clattered faintly against the wood. "You can always talk to me, anything you say will be kept in the strictest confidence. Please let me help?"
There was a pause.
"I don't know if you can." Her eyes were downcast as though his shoes were more interesting than his face, still he sat quietly and waited patiently for her to open up. "I have nightmares. Have all my life. Fjord used to comfort me but he's back there."
"Fjord?"
"My big brother." She took a breath and finally looked at him with those stunning eyes. "do you remember I told you that I was property to my father?" Emilio nodded. "His name is Delmar, he's the patriarch of our school. Basically the king, so his daughter is seen as a prize. My brother would take over from my father but whoever had me would have great power and influence."
She went quiet for a moment, the Rev found himself shuffling closer subconsciously.
"School?"
"Our social group." She saw his slightly puzzled expression. "Oh, I thought you knew what I am. Lem got it straight away and I wasn't trying to hide it. I'm a Mermaid."
The Rev raised an eyebrow at that, he'd never heard of a Mer living on land before. Things suddenly slotted into place. From what he knew of Mers they were raised to hate any land dwelling creature essentially to the point of racism, they were fiercely territorial and enjoyed killing sailors, swimmers or anyone else that dared enter their waters. It wasn't too much of a stretch for Emilio to believe they were a sexist society as well.
"So your father, this Demlar, had found a husband for you?"
Cordelia snorted loudly.
"Husband? Owner is a better word for it." There was anger in her voice but none of it was directed at the Weretiger. "My mother, Hali, was miserable all her life and so was I. I'm not like the the other Mers, so I swam away. Fjord helped me, he's not like father either."
"Clearly your brother loved you and put your welfare before all else." Emilio told her in that deep, soothing voice of his.
"I miss my brother. When I had my nightmares of being mated Fjord was always there to make me feel better. I haven't seen him since I was fourteen and I never will again."
Without warning Cordelia rested her head against the Rev's shoulder, he was taken back for a moment but soon took the opportunity to snake an arm around her shoulder.
"I understand what it feels like to be alone. I'm a solitary creature by nature but I even more so. My parents died when I was very young so I had to learn how to control my animal side on my own. It's nothing like the horror and fear you suffered as a child but I do understand loneliness."
He felt more than saw Cordelia smile.
"You're a good man, Rev. Where were you when I was fourteen and learning to speak."
"You mean read?"
"No, speak. I'd been in the sea all my life, I didn't just not know English, I couldn't speak. I got put on something called the Foster System, first word I learnt was 'stupid'."
Emilio's heart went out to her. "You're far from that. Four years and you can read, articulate so the point I had no idea you'd not been doing it all your life. I'd say you were a genius."
Cordelia looked up at him, only then realising how close to him she'd gotten. His dark eyes were almost black and hypnotic, before she knew what she was doing Cordelia had leaned up and pressed her lips to his for a chaste kiss. It lasted only a moment before she flung herself back and shot to her feet before him.
"I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have done that. I'm sorry."
Cordelia made to leave but Emilio grabbed hold of her wrist and pulled her down into his lap and crashed his lips to hers. Forced to straddle him she put her hands on his strong shoulders while Emilio clung to her waist. At first she'd been tense but soon melted into his touch, he was warmer than she'd imagined, the warmth of his hands seeped through her clothing tantalisingly. She plucked his hat form his head and placed it on her own so as she could rake her silver painted nails though his coal colored hair. Cordelia seemed to flit between fear and bouts of courage but the Rev was too focused on her large chest pressed against his own to try and figure out where the bravery kept coming from. His body twitched with want and that was where Emilio's mind came back to him.
"No."
Cordelia stopped in an instant, her body deflated, she was heartbroken and a wave of guilt washed over him.
"No, no, it's not you, never. It's just that... that this is the chapel, it's God's house."
The fear of being rejected was clear in her eyes which caused him to say the first thing that came into his head in an attempt to see that beautiful smile of hers.
"You look gorgeous in my hat." It was stupid but there was that stunning smile he'd longed to see, it shone forth with those impossible green orbs; a meadow after a storm. "You are so beautiful."
The Rev couldn't help but kiss her again. She smelt almost addictive, lilac sweet.
"Would... would you like to walk me home?"
Cordelia asked cautiously with her attention more focused on his bolo tie than his face. After what she'd told him of where she'd come from Emilio understood her submissiveness, he slipped a singer finger under her chin and tilted her head up to look him in the eyes.
"I'd like that, Cordelia. Very much."
The Mermaid slipped from his lap to her feet laced inside black military boots, she offered him her hand which he took quickly and let her lead him out the chapel, keys forgotten on the pew. They walked close together the short distance to her home, Emilio even looped his arm with her own. She still wore his hat which she seemed to like. The Rev found the walk peaceful, hardly any wind and not a cloud in the sky, he'd never been able to just forget what he was and just be who he was.
As soon as Cordelia had let them both into her home she slipped off her oversized camo coat and hooked it over the couch revealing a short sleeved black top that hung off one shoulder and the Daisy Dukes he'd seen her in before. The animal in him growled in want. Cordelia was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen, she stared up at him almost timidly which only made him want her all the more.
Emilio almost raced across the small living room and crashed his lips to hers in a harsh kiss, his large hands slid down her flanks to cup her backside and he lifted her up into his arms with all that Weretiger strength.
"Bedroom?" He all but growled.
Cordelia lamely pointed behind her as she clung to him, lips refusing to leave his. The Rev easily carried her back into the bedroom where he lay her down and his hat finally fell from her head. They broke apart to kick off their shoes, Emilio to strip away his black suit jacket and bolo tie as though it offended him before reaching to do the same with Cordelia's top. Green eyes watched him as he slipped her tiny shorts down her smooth legs and gazed at her. To Emilio she was a goddess, so beautiful with hair that hung around her head like a halo.
He kissed down her flat stomach Cordelia's body was so soft and supple, so enticing. Her bra unhooked at the front and Emilio's nimble fingers made quick work of stripping away the scrap of red fabric. She released a spark, quiet gasp when he took a nipple into his mouth, cheeks blushing. So sensitive, Emilio grinned. Cordelia's blush grew more intense, whimpering slightly as the Rev pulled back and began to roll his left nub between his forefinger and thumb. Her nipple stiffened in response to Emilio's careful ministrations, gasps escaping her mouth when the Rev pinched and pulled.
His erection strained against his dark pants, spurred on by her needy gasps. A finger dipped into her red panties ready to pull them from her as he drank her in but she suddenly grabbed his hand keeping it from going any further.
"Wait."
The Rev looked at her with concern in his chocolate orbs.
"Do you need me to stop?"
He wanted her desperately but if she told him to stop he'd stop, he'd put his clothes on and leave.
"No, it's just... just-" The green eyed beauty refused to look at him. "- I've never done this before. I was always too scared."
The Rev nodded slowly to himself.
"We don't have to do this." He assured her, in a gentle voice. The animal in him protested but Emilio ignored it.
"I don't want you to stop, I trust you." That meant the world to Emilio. "Just-" She cut herself off.
"Be gentle?"
"Yes."
"We can go as slow and gentle as you want." He told her truthfully, Cordelia smiled and released his hand.
Kisses were peppered over her neck, down the crevice of her breasts and over her stomach as the red panties were tugged slowly down her body; Emilio wanted to savour the view. He could smell her instantly to growl deeply in his throat. He threw his shirt down on the ground, shuffled down the bed and parted her thighs slowly.
Cordelia didn't know what she'd been expecting but it what she got was better. Emilio kissed her glistening core, then brushed his lips softly against her inner thighs; tender and gentle. He teased her for so long around the area she wanted him the most that she grew desperate and began to gyrate her hips. She might have been a virgin but Cordelia's body knew exactly what it wanted. She gasped, whimpered and moaned as her head fell back against the pillows while her silver painted fingers raked through his magnificent black hair. Emilio's arms wrapped around her thighs pulling them further apart giving him better access to her glistening sex, he breathed against her, then leaned down and stroked her clit with just the tip of his tongue.
Cordelia drew in a sharp breath at the sensation, her chest heaving as the Rev drew tiny circles on her nub. She shuddered in his tight grasp when he shifted to other patterns, things she couldn't discern, but didn't care what they were.
The tiger within him purred as her moans echoed around the room, he was the one doing that to her, the cause of her pleasure. His hips rocked desperately against the mattress as he worked to make her scream. The taste of her was intoxicating, if he died right there and then he'd be a happy man. Cordelia's chest rose and fell with deep pants as she let out little mews when his fingers dipped into her heated core. She was close, he cold feel it, her silver fingernails dug into his scalp with a satisfying pain. The tiger continued to growl, filling Emilio with adrenaline as he continued to work the goddess to euphoria.
Cordelia's climax hit her like a wave, she arched up off the mattress, head thrown back against the pillows and eyes fluttered shut. The dark-haired Rev pushed back off the bed to gaze at her while she rode out her orgasm; he licked the taste of her from his fingers. Emilio hadn't ever seen anything as perfect as Cordelia Firth.
It didn't take long for her to smile up at him, a glint in those emerald eyes of hers, she bit her lip as she reached for his belt and tugged it free. At almost lightning speed the older man shredded himself of his remaining clothing, uncaring as to where the fabric slumped, he pulled Cordelia down the bed to him by the backs of her knees. There was that dominant side he kept hidden away so well, a little spark that revealed just how powerful he truly was.
"Ready?" Emilio enquired, this was her last chance to make him stop, once he was inside her he wasn't sure the tiger would let him stop.
When Cordelia nodded he lined himself up and entered her, filling the raven haired goddess to the hilt in one smooth motion. His thrusts were gentle to begin with, he didn't want to rush or hurt her but soon they grew hard and deep, powerful and quickly. Began to rip away her ability to speak or think in anything other than whimpers and gasps. Her silver painted fingers reached up to grip the wooden frame of her bed when he took one of her rosy nipples back into his mouth.
Their bodies met in a perfect rhythm; delicate but overflowing with heated passion. Cordelia's tongue made its way into the Rev's mouth readily as they became one, mapping out his mouth desperately, raking her tongue across his teeth causing his thrusts to become erratic for a second or two. Cordelia was dangling on the very edge, looking down into the euphoric depths below with her powerful Were' not far behind her, she wiggled her hips in just the right way, teasing, and sent him into a primal rut, thrusting like his life depended on it. It was then that the green eyed beauty grew needier that Emilio flipped them, his long and talented fingers gripped her hips leaving tiny little bruises over her porcelain skin, puling her down onto him, impaling her. Cordelia leaned down to kiss him again, gasping at the new angle and the way her kissed nipples grazed against his chest. Her body knew just what to do and had taken over.
It was then that she could take it no longer and plunged into the smouldering waters of bliss and euphoria her body clamped down around the Rev as she rode her orgasm, pulling him over the edge and into climax with her.
The two collapsed against the cold pillows as the sucked in craved for air. Emilio pulled Cordelia to his sweat shined chest. She let out a small 'wow' as she threw an arm over his chest.
"I'd always been so terrified, I didn't know it could feel so good."
The Rev kissed the top of her head. "What you were telling me before about your father giving you to someone, that isn't sex. That was rape."
There was silence for a moment or two where the Rev tucked an arm behind his head.
"In that case, Rev, I quite like sex." He couldn't help but smirk at that.
"Emilio."
"Hmm?"
"Emilio, it's my name."
"Emilio." She repeated testing the word on her tongue, his name sounded heavenly in her voice. "I like it. It suits you." Suddenly she chuckled to herself. "Maybe people should call you Lio."
"Why?" He enquired softly as he stared up at the ceiling.
"Emilio, Lio. Leo the lion, because you're a big cat." The Rev could feel her smile into his hairless chest.
"More fitting if I were a lion not a tiger."
"What is it like being a tiger?"
He'd never been asked that before, how he controls himself, how he kept everyone else safe from himself, but never what it was actually like for him inside all that fur. The question threw him and for a time he was quiet and Cordelia looked up at him.
"I suppose it's hard to explain. I remember everything I do in the other form but I have no control over the actions at the time."
"I'm sorry."
That caused the Rev's head to snap down to the Mermaid.
"Why are you sorry?" His brow furrowed.
"You look sad now, I didn't mean to make you sad."
Emilio smiled down at Cordelia, so beautiful, so kind and thoughtful. He pulled her closer still to his chest enjoying her warmth.
"How could I possibly be sad when I have the most beautiful woman in creation naked beside me?" Cordelia blushed and his her face in his shoulder. "Go to sleep, Cordelia, it's late – or early maybe I'm not quite sure – and I bet you have to start work early." She nodded.
It didn't take long for Cordelia to drift off into slumber, face expressionless yet strangely peaceful. Eyes flitting slowly back and forth as a dream played out in her mind. Emilio couldn't tear his eyes away from her, not until sleep took him as well.