Penitent 25
Edward addresses the others. I stand in the circle of his long, scarred arm. How I have tended him, each wound, each nick. How I have examined each bruise, each mark and laid my hands upon them and mastered them with love.
We stand on the rock where he'd battled so valiantly. The first and second circles are scattered, listening. Rose holds Zane. Alice rocks Amuel.
"We shall go forth in the morning," Edward says, his voice confident, but gentle. "Back to the city, to the place called St. James. Bella is drawn there. She desires a settled life so our sons can grow strong. We will take that place and bring newness. From there we shall establish ourselves, and build a place where we can rest, and reign. There we will start to heal. And others shall find shelter in our company."
The others move, separate as a stranger has entered their ranks. They part to allow her to pass as she makes her way to us. She is familiar, her dark hair cut blunt as though sawed off at the ends with a knife. She is a traveler, dressed for mobility, the wear of miles on her clothes. She is Kate.
She walks close. At twenty paces she stops and rolls the knapsack from her back, settling it by her booted feet. "I have returned from grieving him," she says.
Edward calls Tanya forward. She moves beside Kate and eyes her warily. "I grieve him still," Tanya says.
"It is my crime. No one else's." Edward. "I punished him in arrogance, as if…."
"It was Caius who took his head," Kate says.
"Yes," Edward says. "I examined him myself. I was tempted there, and if Bella had not disturbed me…."
"We have killed Caius. It's time to move from this," Tanya says.
"I have been alone," Kate.
"My crime again." Edward.
"I've heard the songs about the children. And long nights I have walked the perimeters with you," she addressed Edward, "even though we stayed apart." Kate.
"I knew you walked with me. An outcast and a monster."
"And which am I?" Kate.
"The outcast." Edward.
"She may come in. If you see the monster in yourself we can all have hope." Tanya.
Edward's arm grew tighter around me. I knew his hope was in this love he would not grow deaf to again.
Kate and Tanya turned and placed a hand on one another's shoulders. "We are sisters," Kate said.
"We are sisters," Tanya concurred.
We would head out for the city in the morning. Edward and I were eager to be alone. It would be a time before we could be together again. And so we retired as soon as our children were safe with their guards. We undressed and made a nest of our bed, settling in, skin on skin. "My Bella," he spoke to me, dragging his lips over my flesh as I hissed and writhed beneath him.
"Feel me," I whispered, "feel everything." I bowed my body from the bed, my chest rising toward him as he suckled my breasts, tasting the milk that his sons thrived on. Warm kisses on my stomach, the place where his children had grown, the entrance to this sacred place, his fingers finding all of the secrets of my body, my aching flesh, my hungry heart, the warmth of my wet satin folds. "Take me," I pled.
He hovered over me, taking himself in his hand. "There is nothing like this," he told me. "Here, I am home." He pushed into me then.
"As far as you can," I say.
"I'm all the way in. All the way," he pants.
I dig my heels into the bed and lift my hips. It's all I can do not to scream as he squeezes into my tight passage. I have a song for him, and the words are in my head, but I can not utter them aloud, they are the chant of my heart, the secret inner litany that drives my excitement even when I can't see him, can't feast my hands with the feel of him. So long I was denied as he hovered on my periphery, his monster self, his howling self, afraid, unable to face our love.
But now, in this moment, I feel him dragging in and out of me, in and out, long strokes, delirium and joy, warm and strong, beauty in my hands, a feast of love and desire and lust and lust as I cry to him—my lover—my yes.