Chapter Ten
Alex was dreaming. The thunderous sound of dragon wings beating above her head. The glorious sight of those sable wings as they eclipsed the sun sending shafts of light fleeing to the ends of the earth.
Her knees were pressed to the soil. Rich, dark, fertile soil that darkened her skin like war paint. She bled. Hot, sticky blood fell in rivulets towards the dirt, a matrimony was taking place between her blood and the dirt. Her hands were raised, communing with the draughts of air hurled by the dragon flight above. Acolyte of the ancients, bride of the magic and earth.
A storm was coming. She could taste it in the air, the clouds pregnant with rain and even as she thought her mouth filled with water and she was suffocating. The rains began to fall but it was no ordinary rain, it was red rain, blood rain.
A deluge of rich rain bathed everything, filling her inside and out.
The earth softly disappeared beneath her body and she was being swept away in a powerful current of rich, dark blood. Panic abruptly infused her and screaming she reached out through the current to take hold of a craggy rock surface.
Pressing her face to the cool stone the currents calmed and cooed and she was half floating, half drowning in blood. Those voices slid through her mind, radiated through her being and suddenly deafening like both the beating of great wings and the rush of great waters.
A icy hand descended to enfold her fingers which were struggling to grip into the stone. The flow of the river shows us the current of our lives, Sarima. This voice was different. Take my hand.
Even as she wanted to reach out, the voices seemed to engulf her, infuse her with turmoil and indefinable knowledge of who she was. A woman. A creature of the elements. A queen.
The beating of sable wings, the rock itself began to tremble beneath the savage beat of wings…the dragon…the crow…
She was pinned to the rock, the uneven surface of the stone breaking her skin, the bitter sweetness of a body pressed between her thighs grinding her harder into the rock. Tears and passion overwhelm her until she couldn't catch a breath.
Alex's eyes snapped open and she gasped for air, rubbing her face to remove the sickly feeling of dry blood and dirt and hot hands from her body. Cal towered above her. "It's okay, Alex, it's me." He whispered and gently stroked her bare shoulder. "There's nothing there, it's just a dream."
She shook her head, no. Whispered, "this was different."
He leant forward to smooth wisps of hair away from her eyes and her lips twitched into a small uneasy smile. "You're okay?"
He nodded.
She sat up, wiping the cold sweat from her brow before turning her attention to his chest, prying open the bandage, nose wrinkling against the stench of Madam Loa's herbs. "How does it feel?" She asked. It was too dark to take proper stock of his injuries.
"It stinks something rotten."
He winced as she adjusted the bandage back over his ribs. "It's healing fine, Cal."
He scooted closer toward her on the bed. "What were you dreaming about, darling?"
She rubbed her head as a dull ache eased its way between her eyes, the ache that heralded the coming of the voices. She drew her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms about her knees. "It's crazy."
He didn't respond to that.
"Do you remember what…happened?" She said thrusting her chin toward his chest.
He shook his head, no. He touched his bandage as if to test the solidity of his own chest and winced again.
Alex swallowed.
He stared at her for a long time, it was as if he could sense the lingering last sensations of her dream, as if the path of his eyes were the hands that had gripped her. It was something so real it lingered into the waking hour and she rubbed at her skin as if to rid herself of the feelings.
"Your kind heal tremendously fast." Alex murmured.
"Only iron can truly harm us." He whispered.
She shrugged thinking he shouldn't be telling her that, thinking even a witch can't be able to recover this fast.
He continued to stare.
She felt at once shy and reserved, painfully aware of her own swelling flesh, the rise of heat, the blush working deep in her cheeks and chest. She dragged the sheets further up her body to conceal herself.
"Alex?"
She refused to look up at him.
He leaned forward and pressed his mouth to hers and he was startled to find she did not resist. "Alex." He spoke against her mouth before they shared a kiss. He had waited so long. She had protected herself so far.
"Shut up." She whispered.
It started gently. He touched her gently as if afraid she'd melt away beneath his hands. She didn't. She simmered and burned beneath him. The great beating of wings filled her ears and bled seamless into the mellifluous whispers.
With one hand on the small of his back she felt the sweat gather on his skin.
She dissolved beneath his hot flesh and the sudden roar of voices exploded in her skull.
*
When Cal woke daylight streamed through the window leaving him in a pool of harsh light. Alex was gone leaving only a bloodstain on the wrinkled sheets.