When in your life did you know you were not alone?

[birthrightgreen]

Even after everything I'd been told, after Jaenelle's messages, after meeting the High Lord of Hell...even after all of that, a part of me still couldn't believe. I didn't believe travel like that was possible. And despite always being careful to finish the kill lest I run into one of my victims wanting revenge one day, I still didn't really believe in the demon-dead. Not that they were still themselves, still sentient, and living in the way that matters. Dead, but not gone.

Or mayhap I'd just hoped she'd been spared that. I think I thought it was bad, to make the transition to demon-dead instead of sliding into the Darkness. An in between world where they were trapped. Would you want to be consigned to live in Hell? (No offense, Uncle Saetan) At least, as I had heard the tales, the answer was no. No. I didn't care if only the strongest made the transition. The Darkness seemed preferable, and I wished that for her. That final peace instead of continuing agony.

When he told me what she was, that she was not only demon-dead but Queen of the Harpies, I struck out in denial and fury. She couldn't be. Not her. Not something so filled with hatred and rage. But harpies are witches who die violently by a man's hand, and that is what happened to her. To Titian.

The Hall is an odd amalgamation of the living and the demon-dead and a Guardian. Nowhere else does it exist. The dead are supposed to stay in the Dark Realm. They shouldn't keep following the ties of the living. But Saetan's sons, his friends, they still follow him, dead or not. And she was still there.

All those years, just a passage through a gate away. All those years, crying for her when no one could see. Missing her. Alone, save for Sadi and no matter how wonderful a friend he is, he's no substitute for a mother. For my mother.

I stood on the other side of the door, my hand resting there, feeling the pulse of the room, the power of the Black, of the Ebony, that seems to make the Hall breathe. My hands were shaking and I wasn't sure how to make the knob turn. In the end I had to use Craft. And there she sat, looking like I remembered her, only far more nervous. Fear still in her eyes, though perhaps of rejection not the horrors my father visited on her. A moment. Two. We stared at each other.

And then I was in her arms, and she was holding me and humming softly the songs she sang to me as a child. And for once, I wasn't alone.

Comments

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She whimpered a little, trying to arch into his hand and still keep thrusting up at him. Her teeth closed around his earlobe and she sucked at it greedily.

[oldestbeloved.livejournal.com]

Little nip brought a playful growl, and this time he pinched her nipple, just lightly. His breathing started to go ragged, the static, phantom hands playing along her sides again, down over her hips.

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She gasped, wriggling a bit under his hands, then moaned in his ear, trying to find breath. Her leg tightened again, pulling him deeper and rocking against him as her hands scratched deep down his back.

[oldestbeloved.livejournal.com]

Tongue grazing along her collarbone, nipping gently at her neck. Faster, now, more ragged, more urgent, breath robbing him of most sounds, static pouring over him like sweat.

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She matched him, what she could, the rhythm faltering for both of them as it slipped away and she just got close to near sobbing, only she couldn't quite, because she wasn't sure she could breathe enough to do it.

"Samael..." The world seemed to explode behind her eyelids in colors and light as she came.

[oldestbeloved.livejournal.com]

*Surreal...* Soft, loving, carried away on the undercurrent of lust and need. He kissed her, half-kissed her, breathless and shaking as he moves inside her and fingers tight in her hair as he cries out, climaxes.

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She whimpered a little, then just arched into him, holding him tight, feeling him pulse inside, setting off new shivers.

[oldestbeloved.livejournal.com]

He shivered, slowly relaxing, for a moment before easing out, settling to one side. Pulling her into his arms. Stroking shaking fingers through her hair, pressing soft kisses over her face.

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She curled into him, legs still tangled, and kissed his chest softly.

[oldestbeloved.livejournal.com]

He nuzzled a little at her hair before curling around her, holding on tight.

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

"I love you," she said softly into his skin.

[oldestbeloved.livejournal.com]

"I love you," he whispered.

Clung a little tighter.

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She clung back, fingers tracing over his skin.

[oldestbeloved.livejournal.com]

His breathing started to even out, his fingers traced circles and spirals over her shoulder and upper arm.

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She smiled, eyes closing as she rested her head on his chest.

[oldestbeloved.livejournal.com]

He started to relax, even to smile a little. Kissed her forehead.

Started to sing, quietly: "Will you stay with me / Will you be my love / among the fields of barley..."

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She smiled, listening, tracing lazy circles on his chest with fingertips.

[oldestbeloved.livejournal.com]

"We'll forget the sun / in his jealous sky / as we walk in fields of gold..."

He smiled a little.

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

*Pretty...*

She smiled.

[oldestbeloved.livejournal.com]

He nuzzled her hair some more, smiled.

Set the song to playing through the air so he could concentrate on playing his fingers through her hair and over her back.

*Beautiful* Both the song and her.

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She blushed, even though she was used to such compliments. They meant more now. From him.

[oldestbeloved.livejournal.com]

"I love you," he half whispered. Hugging her tight, "Surreal..."

Like a prayer, or a caress, and half because he didn't know how else to say it.

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She smiled, hugged him back. "I love you, too. So very much."

[oldestbeloved.livejournal.com]

"You're amazing," he half-whispered, touched and awed and cuddling close, touching her as thogh discovering her all over again.

[birthrightgreen.livejournal.com]

She flushed a little, again. "So are you."