A/N: Thank you for your reviews! Hola,Corina. Everyone grab a cookie and sit down.
Chapter 6
The Demon
I glance at Therese. She has seen my face. She stares at me a moment, no doubt taking in my dead eyes.
Victor calls me a monster, and here I stand proving it. I let him down from my grasp to sputter and rub his throat. "I told him a wife for a wife," I explain to Therese. "But I couldn't kill Elisabeth now. None of this is her doing. It is only between Victor and me." Victor attempts to get away from me, but I reach out causally and haul him back by his coat.
"I told you he was a monster, Therese." Victor's voice is raspy, "Light the lamp and take a look at your husband."
Therese
I fumble along the table for the flint, and strike a light to the lamp Victor brought with him.
My first reaction is fear. I have to admit that as I stand looking at the buttery colored eyes that regard me intently my first thought is of the stained glass in the church where devils with yellow eyes writhe beneath the sword of the archangel. I try to keep my hands steady on the edge of the table. Although his appearance is startling, we have met, and he has been kind to me.
He is the tallest man I have ever seen. Although not extremely muscular there is an air of power in his stance and the easy way he picks up Victor. His face is crossed by the scar I remember touching, a part of it lifts one corner of his lip. Dark hair falls past the strong column of his neck to brush powerful shoulders. His forearms are uncovered, and ringed by more scars. His shirt is open around his throat, and I can see the beginning of a scar at the base of his neck.
"That's right, my dear. This is the creature who wants to take you from here to live in some hovel like an animal and bed you."
The demon's lips twist in anger, and he gives Victor another shake. "Shut up, Victor, or I'll tear out your tongue." He looks back to me, his voice gentles, "You will be more than that to me, Therese. I came to Victor for a companion, a wife. No human woman would look at me."
I look at him. I remember his voice that first day, his hands lifting my head gently to give me water, his kiss in the dark when we first met. Is that why it was dark, because he doesn't want to see the rejection in my eyes that he must see from others?
"Look at her, fiend, she isn't like you," Victor sneers. "She has a chance to be human." With those words I see doubt cross the Demon's face.
The Demon
She is still looking at me, she has not turned away. With Victor's words, I see her brows lower. She could pass for human. She could leave here to rejoin the world, even find another husband. Do I do her a great injury to want to take her away from the world of men?
"Is that what you want," I ask. I wait for the stinging rejection she will deal me. I want her; I could take her away now. But for all the power I have in my body, my heart tells me that I must let her choose. She knows she is different, a thing that was dead to the world. Do I have the right to play God as Victor has?
Victor is going to speak again, no doubt to play us one against the other so I cuff him to shut him up. He falls to the floor like a dropped doll. In the silence I stand wanting to say things to her. There is a strange lump in my throat I cannot speak around.
"I have to think," she says almost dreamily.
"Wait," I tell her stepping forward with my hand stretched out, "Therese, I will love you. I will build a home for us somewhere away from men, and I will take care of you." She does not move away, only looks at me.
Victor is pulling himself up by the leg of the table. He has a stupid grin on his face; he is enjoying my pain, my wife's confusion. I long to rip his face apart, to erase that grin of satisfaction. That's probably what he wants, for her to see my grotesque rage played out. He coughs, and looks at us. "She doesn't want you."
Therese does something amazing. She looks at both of us and says, "I don't have a husband, yet. I decide." She looks at Victor, "There will be a peace for a while. I need time to think this through."
She turns her back on both of us.
Therese
My short second life is proving to be overwhelming to me. Victor's revelations, his self pride, only sicken me. My husband, if that is what he is, is quite a revelation as well. I also think of Thomas, he is my only friend, and possibly my only tenuous line to making sense of my future.
As I step towards the door, I feel my husband move forward swiftly; he holds the door closed with a hand. A man is stronger than a woman; I know I could not force the door open against his strength. "Will you give me a chance," he asks in a soft voice. For all Victor's descriptions of him, this gentle man is not what I would have expected.
I turn to look upward into his face; his eyes are golden in the reflection of the lamp. It is hard to make out his expression because his eyes are so alien. "Yes," I reply. "We will talk." I look past him to Victor, "You will call off the dogs, Victor. You will do nothing to break the peace, or as I stand now and vow before God, Astrid and I will pay a visit to Elisabeth." I look up at my husband, "The same goes for you. You come near him or his family, and I will never speak to you again."
His mouth sets in a hard line, his body is suddenly rigid, the surge of his anger is almost tangible in the air between us. His anger makes him seem to grow larger and more frightening. This change raises goose bumps on my skin, but I reach out and rest a hand on his chest. His face changes to one of such hope it is almost painful to see. "Tomorrow, be here and we can talk."
He lets the door open and I walk out. Whether he and Victor have more words is not my concern. Deciding what to do with my life is.
Victor
The arrogant little bitch walks away like some queen. How dare she talk to me like that? For the first time in my life I want to hit a woman, but looking at the back of the Demon, I reconsider. He could easily lift me into the air and twist my spine in half if I were to touch her.
I have to change my plans. I can still hope to control her through Thomas. She cares for him; perhaps she will listen to him.
This 'peace' she forces upon us has one grace-it grants me time. She and the Demon will be checking for the dogs and the guards. I may have to use a more subtle type of force on her when the time comes.
I get up, and dust off my coat. The Demon turns to speak to me, "I meant what I said Victor. This is between you and I. Your family is safe."
"Forgive me if I fail to believe you," I reply dryly.
"Victor," he says tiredly, "this may be a shock to you, but not all of us give a damn whether you do or not." He moves out into the moonlight and is gone.
Therese
I go back to my room, and lying down, stare at the ceiling.
Victor is right; I could say the scar was superficial. I run my hand over it. Would I be able to leave, to find a man and marry? Would I feel like a hypocrite pledging my 'life' to someone when I do not know anything of how this new life will be. Would I give birth to children?
He said I could pass as human. What does that make me now? Am I something less or more than the people who live around me?
And worse, I remember the pleading look from the Demon. I can only imagine the depth of his loneliness. But again, I would have to hide away from the world as he does. I could move about villages, but eventually someone will want to know about my husband. He cannot be seen.
I prop up my pillow and regard my body. Why am I, who used to be a girl on a farm, now the object of so much male fighting? I can understand the Demon wanting me, he has no one. But what use do I have for Victor? He already has Astrid to pump his lust into, and Elisabeth to return to for love and family.
I give up trying to get to sleep. Throwing on a blouse and a skirt, I slip on my shoes and a shawl for my shoulders. I go to the stable and saddle one of the horses. We make our way out onto the road to the village. I stop to tie the horse to the gate at the church.
Walking through the moonlight I pass the headstones of the locals who rest here. Rest. I had very little of it, and since my rebirth I will have little more. I go to the church door and swing it open. Covering my hair with my shawl I pause to genuflect at the door, and make the sign of the cross. I wonder for a moment if God will be happy to see me in his house.
I go to the front, sitting in a seat along the wall and look at the still burning candles in the front before the altar. Someone lit them for a loved one. Were there candles somewhere for me? Does my Father still say prayers for my soul? I realize with a start that standing across the church from me is my husband. He stands as still as a statue, only looking at me.
"I couldn't sleep." I make a motion with my hand, and he comes to me. He stops and sits down near me; the pew makes a noise under his weight. He crosses his arms over his chest and looks at the candles, "I couldn't either," he replies.
We sit in companionable silence for a while. He looks away from me, and I have a chance to look him over. He has broad shoulders and powerful looking thighs. I wonder if his body belonged to a man who did hard work for a living. His chest muscles look like a wood cutter's, a man who is used to long hours of swinging an axe. Without seeing his eyes, he looks to be any other man. I wonder how old he was when death took him, and if he remembers any of his life before. He glances at me and asks, "Did I interrupt your prayers?"
I ask, "Do you think God listens to us?"
He nods, "Yes, I think so. Maybe not in the way he listens to the others, but he does have a plan for us or the storms that brought us to life would not have happened as they did. Astrid should have survived in tact, but didn't. There was another female, Bette. The storm that brought her back did not abate. I took her away from Victor that night, and the constant rain helped make her sick. She died quickly of a fever."
"You mean I'm your third wife?"
"You are my only wife, Therese. I could not look upon Astrid as a woman; she will always be a child. I nursed Bette, but never told her of her purpose. You are my only wife."
"And if something happens to me," I let the question hang in the air. I could sicken, or I could leave.
He looks at me in silence. "There will not be another."
"Will you leave Victor?"
"I came back to Victor at first in a vain attempt to alleviate my loneliness. I thought he could bring me a woman of my circumstances. Being other than human, we would live apart from men. I did threaten him at first with Elisabeth. Victor for all his intelligence is a self centered ass, he doesn't see that what I meant was for him to understand how lonely I was, not that I would go kill Elisabeth. I'll leave them. Victor will spend his whole life seeing shadows everywhere. If it keeps him from creating more of us, it will be enough."
The quiet descends upon us again. I think about what Victor said; that this man is to be my husband and take me away from here. What am I to do? I look up to the crucifix above the alter, then move to rest my head in my hands, my elbows on the back of the pew in front of me.
Am I truly alive to be given to this man? I have been with a man before, and I wonder at whether this is what I should do with this second life I have been granted. I could go with Thomas, he offers me a home and friendship. I would stay at the sanitarium, but fear what Victor has in store for me. What happens to me if I leave with the Demon?
He sits quietly with me lost in his own thoughts no doubt. I pray and ask God to help me find a life for myself.
I get up, "We should leave." I step around the pew and go to the front by the candles. He joins me, looking down at them. For a moment, I can see the outline of his pupils under the haze in his eyes. I wonder what color they were. I glance past him at the stained glass window. The moonlight behind it has highlighted the scene of the angel Michael carrying a great sword. His dark hair floats around his powerful body.
I look at my husband, "Your name is Michael." He turns stunned eyes to me, and I point behind him. Turning back he sees the archangel with the sword. He has a rather bemused look on his face when he turns back.
"I tire of calling you Demon," I explain.
"Oh," he says lightly, "I though it was the resemblance to the huge sword."
I stare at him for a moment before I realize he has made a joke, "Good God!"
"I can't vouch for God, but Victor did make sure I was a man."
There is such self assured male pride in his face I almost ask how much of a man Victor made him, but refrain. I don't know how many more revelations I could stand in one night.
We go outside and he offers me a hand up onto the horse. He takes the reigns and walks me back to the sanitarium. When we reach the stables I slide off the horse into his waiting arms. He holds me aloft for a moment, our faces close. "You are my only wife," he says and sets me down.
He turns away and unsaddles the horse, leading it back to its stall. I watch him as he moves, doing mundane things with his strong hands. He is gentle with the animal as he removes the bridle and the saddle. He catches me watching him and looks at me. He slings the saddle in his hands aside as if it was weightless and walks over. Lifting me, he sets me on the edge of something flat behind me, pushes up my skirt and steps between my legs. His hands run up my hips to pull me close to him, and his mouth descends on mine.
I open my lips, and his tongue slides into my mouth. His hands knead my hips and I can feel him hard already through his pants. His mouth moves on mine. As I break away to gasp for breath, his hands come up to cup my breasts. His teeth find my neck. I am immersed in the feeling of his hands on me, he tugs and my nipples harden, he nuzzles at my neck.
He breaks away and returns his mouth to mine. For a long time we kiss. He stops, his lips close to my mouth. "Therese."
I can hardly draw in enough breath to speak, "Yes."
"I will make you mine, wife. Every night, I will do this and more." He kisses me again gently, and steps away from me. His strange eyes are filled with emotion as he brings a hand to my neck. We look at each other, and then he lifts me again, and sets me down. "Get out of here, now, while I have the mind to let you go." He says roughly. The fierce look in those mysterious eyes tells me to leave or he will have me flat on my back, and finish what our bodies want.
I step back. Turning to the sanitarium, I walk quickly to my room. I do not think either one of us will get very much sleep tonight.
