Eleven
Saben closed her eyes as her lips brushed the rough bulb of the mic for just an instant, her hot breath moistened the sponge beneath the mesh, her breath amplified and enveloped the room. It hypnotized the creatures wallowing in the outer darkness.
Sweat dripped down her neck, running between her breasts, soaking into her shirt. "I want to tell you a secret." She spoke in a bare whisper but the audience was riveted.
Dozens of eyes stared up at her, mouths open, waiting. Just waiting. They all hung on her words, her breathy voice, her emotions strained through her throat. "But they'd kill me if I tried."
A bass string vibrated through the amp she closed her eyes to savour the ripples through her bowel. "My mouth is filled with poison."
She grasped the mic stand, white knuckled grasp as if it were the last solid thing on earth. "My heart is filled with…"
She crouched over the mic, cradled it, the growl emanated deep from inside, rolling out of her mouth, clashing against the down tuned cadence of the seven string guitar that joined her in unholy chorus.
*
Saben's back pushed against a rough brick wall, cool hands reaching beneath her shirt, her mouth covered by the vacuum of His. "Say it." He whispered into her mouth. "Say it."
"I belong to you." She whispered and felt His delight, His mouth moving to her throat, the hardness of teeth, the sharpness of it. His touch like the tip of a thousand blades scoring her flesh from the tip of her head to the tip of her toes.
"Say you remember." He grunts.
She couldn't tell a lie.
*
"How did it feel?"
Saben forced herself to look into Celeste Morgan's pretty face, illuminated by the sunshine that invaded through slits in the blind. "Like I was myself again."
"Good." Though the crease in Celeste's brow made Saben believe she thought otherwise.
And why not? Saben had lied about most things. Everything but this.
Celeste forced a smile to her lips.
*
She ripped the mic from the stand, she screamed and the crowd rippled on the whim of her voice. Some screaming with her, others with their heads thrown back as if riding the note as she stretched it to its limit.
Violence. She sought this through her music. To decimate every trace of the lost and confused. When she strode up and down before the bright eyes of spectators she was a goddess. A leviathan. Fierce and commanding.
More than human.
She threw herself around the stage. Grunting into Charlie, the bass player's face. His eyes weren't quite right, his teeth sharper than was natural. Hunger rolled off of his skin in sickening waves. She hated him for it as much as he terrified her.
He snarled back joining her in a furious chorus. "Destroy! Devour! Defile! Control!"
*
"Here?" Tobias asked brows coming together in distress. "Now?"
She looked around at the deserted store, sunlight filtering through the dirty windows, casting kaleidoscopes across the floor, red, green and blue…
"Yes." She said grasping his wrist pulling her toward him. "Now."
*
"You're doing tremendously well."
"That your professional opinion?" She asked twirling a strand of pink hair about her finger.
Celeste's lip quirked in a half smile as she scribbled something down in her yellow legal pad. "You and Tobias doing okay?" She asked without looking up.
Saben nodded but her eyes had already slipped to the window.
Her and Tobias. Behind closed doors, stolen moments, rarely in the public eye. They had been doing okay for a while now.
Tobias was a gentle with her, he was a tender and passionate lover. Always conscious of her fragile mind he never pushed her too far. She knew he liked to take care of her, he like to be around her even when she went crazy.
He did things that drove her insane; but he never came rolling into her room in the dead of night, drunk, sweaty, and demanding. But then again he never grasped her with intensity or set his mouth against hers as if he were sucking up her soul through her throat. Like…like…
*
A mouth searing hot at her throat, hard sharp bitter-sweet pain drawing on her veins, her life and it was okay because it belong to him. It had always been his. Say it.
Her lips trembled. "I…"
*
She held a finger to her lips. "Shhh" She dropped the mic to the stage with a thud. She strode off stage but the musicians continued to play, their frantic pace only beginning to slow, to change to turn into a grimy groove that left the audience twisting, grinding, wanting more.
She could hear the cheers rise.
She staggered down the short stairs, into the slim, dark passage where she double over and gagged.
Chanting rose from the hall.
She collapsed against the wall, head leaning back against the hard brick. She closed her eyes and her sight was filled with electric blue vision. The colour so vivid and mesmerising she fought to open her eyes again.
Charlie was crouched beside her then, he thrust his face in her damp hair, licking sweat off her skin. Saben was repulsed but could not deny the dark desires that grew with his hot breath against her collarbone. A low growl from his throat vibrated through her groin and she pushed him away.
She let out a breath that almost formed the syllables of a name…
The crowd was screaming her name.
*
"May I?" Celeste lifted a hand.
Saben shrugged.
Celeste moved forward and place a naked hand to her cheek. The witch closed her eyes, her lips parted as she relaxed into a concentrated state and suddenly she gasped, her body rocked and she fell back from Saben.
It took her a few moments to recover, she smoothed her hair back with her hands and all the while Saben stared, her cheek burning from Celeste's touch.
"What did you see?" Saben's voice was cold, curious.
Celeste pursed her lips. "You're making good progress, Saben."
"What did you see?" She persisted.
Saben wondered if she saw the same thing. Blue. Electric bright bursts of blue. Infinite heavens and oceans of blue. Blue so deep you could drown. Blue so deep it grew as dark as the pit. It was the colour of death.
Celeste refused to answer her.