Body of Water Ch. 06

"Please."

I exhaled and nodded. I could control my desire for a minute or two.

"You're amazing, my lovely. I lose control around you all the time, you know that." As he spoke, he reached for me, sliding his fingers through my loose hair. "You may not have your powers, but as you can tell, I have mine."

I nodded, wondering why he didn't just go back to his natural state of being.

He cocked his head to one side and gave me a mock-wounded smile. You think I could just leave you behind?

I shook my head. I knew that. From the moment we'd first encountered each other, we'd always been together.

Until we hadn't been.

"Don't think about it now, my lovely." He cupped his palm around my cheek and I leaned my head into his comforting hold. "I want to make love to you and I want to taste your beauty."

"Then do it." I didn't care that I sounded like I was begging again.

"I have my powers, you don't. If I can't control myself, you could be hurt. Or worse."

"So? If I die, won't I just start another life cycle in another human body?"

He shook his head. "It's not that simple. You've never actually died in a human body."

I frowned. "Then how do I go from one life to the next?"

"I'm not sure. Whatever power he's managed to wield, it keeps you alive until he moves you to a new life cycle."

"What about you?"

"I'm the same as I ever was."

I stared down at him and felt the heat fade from my skin. Oh, I knew Aedan was still generating warmth like he always did, but I could no longer feel it.

"He's kept me in these bodies? For thousands of years? And you're not?"

Aedan nodded. "Once I realized what he'd done, I stayed in this shape until I could find you."

The devotion and love in his eyes and voice barely touched me. I knew it was there, and I loved him too, but my vision was becoming clouded over with rage.

"Nerina, calm down."

"How can I?" Even to my own ears, I sounded dangerously unsteady. "All this time you've been searching for me and I didn't know? Because he wouldn't let me know?"

"But you know now. Isn't that enough?"

I narrowed my eyes. "We've lost so much time together."

Aedan scoffed and reclined back on the pillows. "What are a few millennia to us, my lovely?"

OK. He had a point there. We were eternal.

But so was he.

"So he kept me trapped for all this time, without me knowing who I am, and you searching for me all this time." I tried to wrap my head around it all. "Why didn't he just strip my powers from me entirely and keep me with him? He's been seeking me out every time too, hasn't he?"

Aedan nodded. "He had to look for you each time you took a human body."

"Why?"

"His powers are very different from yours and mine. Yes, he stole enough of your essence from you to keep you trapped indefinitely and to block a lot of your memories, but he couldn't just take over completely."

I stared at Aedan as I considered his words. Everything he said made sense and made me even angrier.

"He did what he could to keep you unaware," Aedan went on. "He would find you every time, and he manipulated you over and over. Eventually he managed to get you into a life here, close to the mountains."

The ramifications of that sank in and my eyes widened as I gaped at Aedan. "No..."

He nodded, his expression sober. "Away from any significant body of water."

"And no connection to the sea."

"Well, the rivers are connected but in your weakened state, you wouldn't escape before he'd catch up with you."

My mind was reeling. "I can't believe it."

"Oh, Nerina." Aedan pulled me down next to him and stroked my arms to warm me. "You're in control again. You needn't fear him."

"But you just warned me that I don't have the same level of power that I did! You're afraid if we make love, you'll lose control and hurt me, aren't you?"

He hesitated before answering but I didn't need to hear him say it to know the truth.

"If he finds me, he'll put me in a new life cycle and I'll lose you all over again." My breath caught and I choked back a sob.

Aedan's grip hardened and I gasped when I felt the hair on my arms crackling under his heat.

"You will never lose me, do you hear?"

I met his gaze and saw the flickering light deep inside.

"I will always come for you and I will find you."

I knew he meant it and I knew he would keep looking for me. I know he'd told me that with every passing life I gained back more of my powers. I wondered now if the amount of time passing meant I lost some as well. One step forward, two back.

Aedan's eyes flashed. In a swift move, he rolled me onto my back and covered my body with his. He was still naked and his hot erection brushed the skin of my abdomen.

"You're going to take me?" I sounded weak and needy.

"I will, and damn the consequences."

I laughed, just shy of hysterical. "You just said you don't want to hurt me."

His eyes darkened and he lowered his body so that we touched everywhere. His heat infused my skin and I was soon panting with need. I spread my legs and cradled his hips between my thighs, ready to take him inside of me.

"If I hurt you, it'll be up to you to stop me."

He lowered his head and clamped his lips over the faded spot on my neck. I shuddered, arching off the bed as he kissed and caressed the spot. His hands sank into my hair and his lips met mine in a hot kiss that stole my breath clean away. I shifted my hips under him as his tongue invaded my mouth. I wanted him inside me with a desperation that I hadn't felt in eons.

He moved his mouth to my ear to growl at me. "Not until I say so."

I whimpered, completely at his mercy. I'd never been the weak one but it felt so right with Aedan, not frightening as it had with him.

Because he could hear my thoughts, Aedan knew when my mind turned to the other and he didn't like it.

With a flash of scalding heat, he thrust into me, taking me hard and deep in a single move.

Instead of feeling invaded, I welcomed him with all my being. I wrapped my arms and legs around him with a joyful laugh as he pulled back and thrust again. His lips found the spot on my neck again and we rocked together in a rhythm that was long forgotten and achingly familiar at the same time.

"Aedan...Aedan, look at me..."

He didn't stop moving but he turned his head and met my gaze. His eyes were roiling orbs of flame, like miniature suns. His lips brushed my mouth and his breath mingled with mine, his unique tangy scent singeing my throat. He slowed his movements to a more controlled pace but he still burned me inside and out.

I wouldn't change this.

He grinned and kissed me again, our eyes never leaving each other's. His tongue danced around mine and drew forth whimpers of desire from me.

I would have you like this for eternity.

He acknowledged my words by sinking deep in a forceful move that stole my breath away. His movements lost their controlled edge and I felt him slip towards oblivion with me. We gazed into each other's eyes and kissed and rocked together until I felt an orgasm bubbling to the surface.

I threw my head back with a cry as I came and Aedan roared as he went with me. The bellow of his cry scorched me and I felt the hot gush of him deep inside my body.

I want this...

I couldn't even finish the thought.

The building shook and toppled over, like a toy tower built of plastic blocks. The human part of me denied the possibility of it ever happening but my true self screamed in denial.

He'd found me.

"NO!"

Aedan's cry echoed my own and I felt him rip us into nothing before the building crushed us beneath concrete and dirt below the city. When I took form again, I was alone, naked, up to my knees in an icy cold river.

I was disoriented at first and my body still vibrated from the pleasure Aedan had awoken in me. I blinked and rubbed my eyes as I tried to sort out what had happened. The water felt cold but so good that I recovered myself in seconds. I lifted my head and looked across at the cityscape. It was still there, no giant cloud of dust and debris announcing the implosion of a high-rise apartment building.

Had it been an illusion?

Even as the thought occurred to me, the rocks beneath my feet shifted and made me stumble. I fell face first into the water and gasped in shock at the bracing cold. Even in the middle of summer, the Bow River ran ice-cold.

The rocks moved under my hands and I fell under, the rushing water closing over my head. I didn't panic. Instead, I let it wash over me. The rocks tried to tug on me again and a swirl of cloudy mud rose in my vision to stop me.

But I was myself again, even if there were still a few holes in my memory. He couldn't hold me captive, not here.

I slid away, flowing against my current. The rocks and mud lay still, letting me go. I thought I heard a condescending laugh but I ignored it.

The relief and joy of finding myself again overruled all other thought processes. I wanted to find Aedan, wanted to share my joy with him. We would make love again, in our natural forms and give thanks that we were together again.

Except we weren't together. Aedan was nowhere near me. My river was ice cold because he was not warming me. Again the laughter sounded and I jettisoned myself further away.

I traveled upstream, away from the blocky metropolis and the thrum of millions of human bodies. I splashed up rapids and falls and dodged rising boulders and clinging tree roots until I felt a familiar tickle.

I stopped and rose, taking watery human form in the middle of a vast mountain range.

It was the wrong thing to do.

All at once, the water receded from me and I was human again. The shadows grew larger and wider as the mountains closed in all around me. I felt my breath catch and a heavy weight settled on my shoulders and around my chest. In another second, I couldn't breathe.

That was when he showed himself.

He stepped out of the mountain and took shape before me. Rock and gravel scraped together and dirt shuddered from his form until he towered before me. He was a grotesque formation with two legs and arms like a human but he was the least human thing I'd ever seen.

"You thought you could escape me?"

Gone was the sexy accent and sensual dark eyes that had almost won me over. He was no longer a sexy man who'd found the quiet, unassuming Nerina attractive. Here was the being that'd enslaved me and kept me from my true love for far too long.

Anger bubbled in my chest and he laughed, clenching one boulder-sized hand into a fist. I fell to my knees in the empty river bed, cursing him the entire time.

"Spare me your empty threats, Aqua. We both know you have no power here."

He was right. Damn him, but he was right. And damn him for using that diminutive name. I was so much more than that.

"Right now you're nothing, Aqua. You're mine to do with as I please." His craggy brows lowered and the rocks of his eyes ground so hard against the brows they spewed dust. "And I am pleased to claim you at last."

I shook my head. Sparks dotted my vision and the human remnants of me knew I was dying. I thought back to what Aedan had told me, about dying as a human.

Grinding rocks and shuddering dirt drew my gaze back to him. "You would become my plaything. Even more than you have been. Although, I must admit, your previous incarnations were never as...responsive as this Nerina."

I recoiled at the memory he thrust into my mind, of a handsome, dark-skinned man going down on my human body. His silky dark head was buried between my thighs and the thick, mossy tongue was tickling my insides until I was begging in silence for him to finish. For some reason, as the memory washed over us both, the hold he had on my chest loosened. Air, glorious air filtered into my lungs and I sucked it gratefully.

"Alas, we were interrupted before you could properly take me." The memory was cut short with an avalanche of gravel sliding down the mountain slope.

The pebbles washed against my feet and legs and I held my position. I eased my chest wide to take in more air and that was when I tasted the acidic tang.

A rumble shook the ground and I looked up to see him advancing towards me. With every step he took, more of his rocky shape fell away until I was faced with a more human-sized formation of rocks, like a crude Greek sculpture.

"Now, you will take me into yourself and I will have what is owed to me."

Owed?

"Yes!" Dirt and shards of rock splattered my face and head as he bellowed at me. "Owed. For an age you ignored me in favor of your changing lover. You had no idea how wide and powerful I was growing."

I groaned as something parted in my mind. I watched the creation of the world in a series of flashes until the first great continent was fully formed. By that point in the world's history, I'd known Aedan for eons already. He was right. I hadn't noticed him growing and becoming stronger.

It had turned out to be my downfall.

"It doesn't matter what you remember, Aqua."

I bristled at the name and drew more air into my lungs without letting him see it. I recalled Aedan's words about knowing what I was now, about remembering my power. I wavered when I sent out feelers for more of my essence but I was far from any source of water. His power had grown enough that he'd drained this entire region of any moisture; river, stream, rain and even snow.

At the grinding of rock on rock, I looked up and felt my face caught in his sharp grasp. I felt the slick warmth of blood pour over my cheeks and down my neck. My eyes lowered to follow the drops to the parched earth and I wanted to weep.

"You don't know despair, Aqua. I will teach it to you."

The images he showed me then horrified me. My human shape was ripped apart by his brutal rock penis and I was left to die on the mountainside. My mortal blood poured over the ground and he soaked it up. Eventually this body decomposed and became part of the dirt and plants and empty riverbeds. He had me then, essence and power absorbed through my mortal death.

Tears pooled in my eyes as he repeated the images over and over. His grip never loosened on my face and I felt the hot sting of tears mingle with my blood. I lowered my lashes again but couldn't see anything except his rape of me. By the fifth replay of his deepest desire, he was laughing. It was a horrid, grating rasp and I cried more.

Through the eighth and ninth replay, I caught a flicker of my present reality. My tears and blood had pooled near my right hand on the ground. I stared at it, felt sadness and hopelessness welling inside me.

Then the mixed pool of salty blood began to bubble.

I blinked, the image of that mingling with the horrifying rape he kept showing to me. The milky pool of red began to spread, the bubbles bursting in wider and wider arcs until it coated the ground all around me.

All of a sudden, the vision of my ultimate death cut off and an iron fist closed around my throat.

"Don't bother," he hissed at me and I shut my eyes against the thick scent of his breath. "You are mine."

Steam shot up behind him and he whirled around, his hand falling from my jaw. He jerked me to my feet as he turned and I was forced around with a whimper. Another bolt of steam cracked the ground beside us and with this geyser, I smelled something familiar in the air.

"What is this?"

I lifted my eyes to meet the unpolished orbs of his eyes and I saw something there. Fear, maybe?

He shook me and I dangled helplessly in his grasp. "What are you doing?"

I needed another blast of steam. I knew with a direct shot of this sulphuric steam, I could slip away.

And he would never get hold of me again.

The tip of the mountain over his shoulder crumbled and he dropped me with a cry of pain. I stumbled to my feet and sucked in air. As my strength returned, I scrambled towards the fissure in the ground where the first geyser had broken through. I put my face over the gap and inhaled. There he was, my love. There also was a trickle of myself, in vapor form.

I lifted my head and watched him stumble towards his mountain. He grew larger but pieces of him broke away even as he tried to reconstruct himself. He put one foot down and it shattered. He wailed in pain and shock and I had to cover my human ears to block out the terrible noise.

Then the mountain split open, right down the middle, as if it were a log being split by an ax along a perfect fault line.

I gaped, my hands still over my ears and he reacted faster than I would have thought possible.

He turned and leapt on me, taking shape and curling into a great boulder.

With me inside.

For a second, just a second, panic held me immobile. Then I felt all heat disappear. I shrank, as it was in my nature to do so when frozen. His entire being tightened as I shrank and I let it happen. He had panicked and trapped me like this, but if he'd thought it through, he'd have known it was the wrong thing to do.

At last, we both gave a last gasp and settled. I don't know how long we remained that way. Perhaps a thousand years, perhaps only a few mortal hours.

I waited.

Then I pushed a bit.

He didn't feel it. So I pushed again. When I knew he still hadn't felt it, I drew inward before pushing the last time. He groaned but couldn't stop the nature of us both from happening.

The boulder split apart in a ragged line and lay in two halves on the bank of the river. I stepped out, my feet splashing the dry ground around us. The second I stepped into the riverbed, it flooded with clear, clean water.

I sighed and slipped into it.

I didn't leave the boulder laying there, in two dangerous pieces. Even stunned and wounded like that, he could cause me pain.

I rolled one half of the boulder into myself and shoved him far downstream until he lodged in a bare cliff that was perpetually battered by wind. I turned back to take care of the other half but a geyser shot up beneath it and, because he was weakened so much already, he shattered to a thousand pieces.

I splashed up over the banks and capped the geyser. It pulsed again, shooting pleasure through me.

Oh yes. Let's.

So we made love, there on a mountaintop where he no longer had any dominion.

****

It was long gone, but I bobbed in the cool water where we'd first met. In the distance, I could see a shoreline that had once created a smooth edge from one tip of the globe to the other. Now I was somewhere along the path Australia had taken before reaching its final destination. There was a lot of seismic activity in this part of the world, and many volcanoes.

I loved them all.

I thought you'd never come back to me.

I twisted and rippled in pleasure when I felt the hot lick of him sliding through me. I drew myself together to one spot and he surrounded me with a warm pulse.

I miss this place.

In our joined minds, images of our first meeting rose and everything that followed in those first few centuries.

I gave a contented sigh that rippled away from us in a gentle wave. I wish there was a beach here, just for us.

Human beings had taken over much of the world but we were still the greater forces. Undiminished with time.

His warm laughter was a caress deep inside of me. I can make one.

Before I could protest, I felt the shifting beneath me. I laughed, bigger and bigger waves rolling away from where we mingled. In the blink of a human eye, and yet hidden from their view, a tiny island sprang up. He rolled up and outward until it grew a little wider and a little higher.

I curled over the edge and stood up on human legs. Nerina's legs.

Even after everything that had happened, and after all the knowledge of my human cycles had returned to me, I still most closely identified with Nerina.