Emerald Knights Ch. 02

"That's a little better" She said to no one in particular and walked out of the busy toilet. Outside the bus station, the moment she was out of the oppressive heat and throng of people, she fell in love instantly with the city. Toussaint invaded her senses with sights, and smells colours and textures. She walked past a street preacher that attempted to give her a leaflet warning her of the demons of the night but she just smiled sweetly and continued down the street. She walked down Melody Lane where hookers stood outside buildings in minimal clothing, their hips sashaying to music, their golden and tanned skins gleaming with sweat and sex. She continued on stopping at a food stall where she conned a bit of fried chicken from the street vendor. He had been so enamoured that when she asked for one he merely handed it to her wordlessly.

She walked down Boulevard du Orchid where music blasted out of every bar, motel and restaurant and people danced on the streets. She found herself laughing and dancing with them, swaying to the rhythm of drums her feet tapping against the cobbled streets. She finally had her fill and veered down a dark, narrow alleyway at the end of which was a bar Voodoo Room. She threw the left-over bone of chicken and threw it over her shoulder, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Gal!" She heard a voice whisper to her side. Slightly surprised she turned to find an old man, his skin the colour of nuts, aged and leathery. He was missing several teeth.

"You din wanna be goin' there, gal" He nodded at the bar. "Fool's paradise that, man go in never come out"

Lia threw a glance at the bar and then back at the man who didn't seem all that credible sitting on the street in nothing but an old battered pair of board shorts and a tattered bowler hat.

"I'll take my chances sir." She smiled kindly, threw him some coins and continued down the alley. Behind her, the old man's grey eyes watched her with sorrow for a moment before he disappeared into the night.

Lia stepped up to the two big, black burly men at the door neither of whom acknowledged her, and walked into the bar. For all the old man's warning, it didn't seem like the den of inequity that he made out. The decor was old but in a endearing way with several round tables and chairs in front of a poorly lit stage where a man was playing music so smooth and soul-wrenchingly sad that it practically turned the bar blue.

Lia turned away from the mesmerising performance of the man and walked up to a bar where the barmaid was reading a trashy novel, her elbows on the counter, head in her hand. Lia was even more mesmerised by the bartender whose beauty she could not compare to anyone else's. Her head was shaved close to head a revealing her high cheekbones, large deep chocolate eyes and full lips. A haircut that should've made her look masculine did opposite her slender mocha neck, begging to be kissed.

Snapping out of it, Lia walked in front of her. "Hi" She said with a smile.

The bartender didn't look up. "What d'ya want?"

"Um, Bourbon?"

"Ice?"

"Please!"

Without a word the bartender set her book down on the counter, pulled out a glass, threw in some ice and poured a liberal measure of Bourbon into it. Silently, she set it down in front of Lia and turned back to her book.

Lia smiled politely then turned to face the stage, leaning against the bar and sipping her drink in quiet contentment.

Back in Gregoria, Selena woke up with a start and reached around trying to find a weapon. Instead she found herself in a darkened room, in a large bed and not alone.

"Where am I?"

"My place" said the form sitting in the chair by the window.

"Where is that?"

Alexander raised an eyebrow at the stupid question but Selene did not see it.

Selene looked down at her exposed body and then back at him. "Why am I naked?" She asked.

Alexander did not reply, merely continued to sit quietly in the chair. Selene got out of bed and stood before him, naked as the day she was born.

"Well, if you want to cop a feel go ahead" She stretched her hands out, her green eyes flashing with anger.

Alexander admired her slim white form; the smooth curve of her alabaster neck, her swell of her breasts and their dusty pink nipples. His eyes moved down her body to the tuft of dark curls and he briefly considered taking her up on her offer. Instead, he stood p wordlessly and walked to a large wardrobe and pulled out a silk robe and slung it over her shoulders, letting his hands rest there.

"You are not my prisoner but I cannot allow you to leave, Selena." He said in an even tone, his blue eyes locked with hers.

"That is the dictionary description of a prisoner" Selena snarled and pulled her arms through the sleeves of the robe, tying it around her waist. She looked around the room suspiciously and remarked "Who decorated this place, batman?"

Alexander fought the urge to smile and said nothing as Selena walked around the room, exploring it and its exits before coming back to stand in front of Alexander again.

"So, what? Why am I still alive?" She asked hands on her hips.

"Tomorrow we go to the Council."

"Ah, so they can do the dirty business" She smirked.

"No one is going to kill you Selena." He grabbed her chin forcing their eyes to meet once again. "I promise you this."

"Please," She pulled herself out his hot gaze and turned away from him and opened the curtains to a night sky. "I've no fear of death. In fact I welcome it with the things I've seen and done. Death, one event and quickly over at that. Life? Now life is a hell of a lot worse. Lasts a lot longer."

Alexander walked over to where she was standing and grabbed her face, his fingers almost bruising her pale skin. His blue eyes shone in the darkness and belied the overwhelming tenderness he suddenly felt for the girl in front of him.

"You are not going to die, Selena. You have my word as King of Gregoria, as a man, you will come to no harm" Selena's heart fluttered briefly and something inside her broke. Without a second thought from either of them, without question or consent, Alexander leaned down and captured her mouth in a searing kiss.

Selena moaned and wrapped her arms around his neck pushing against him just as his tongue was pushing against hers, invading her mouth as if searching for something. Perhaps the remnants of what was once his soul. His hands dove into the dark cascade of her hair and held her there as his mouth plundered hers. Another moan escaped Selena's mouth as Alexander kissed, nipped and licked over her jawbone, down her neck, at the crook of her collar bone. Selene shivered and released his shirt from his trousers, her fingers aching to find bare skin. She ran her hands up his stomach feeling the delicious ripple of muscles underneath her hands as she continued up to his chest. She sighed as Alexander's hands found her ass and gave it a gentles squeeze pushing her up against him so she felt the growing bulge against her lower stomach.

Alexander's hand returned to her hair and pulled so that her neck was exposed and her eyes were forced to meet his. Slowly, never taking his eyes off hers, he undid the tie of her robe and let it fall open, revealing her beautiful body to him once again, pale and luminescent as the moon. His hands moved over her left breast cupping it, enjoying the weight of it as Selena's eyes fluttered shut and her mouth hung open in desire. His hand tweaked her nipple briefly, eliciting a slight gasp, as he moved down over her stomach, tangling lightly in her inky garden before quite ruthlessly plunging into her warm wet folds. Selena moaned and Alexander let her head fall onto his shoulder, shivers running over her body even though Alexander kept his hand still. She began moving against him by her own according, seeking release the way a drowning man seeks land, her fingers closing around the material of his black shirt. Alexander watched as her hips gyrated against him and small whimpers escaped her perfectly pink lips, her green eyes shut against her personal onslaught of pleasure. He added a second finger and watched Selena react to it, pushing harder against him moving her hips faster and fast. He smiled slightly, waiting. Selene threw her head back and moaned deep, her body quivering in his arms. Alexander leaned down so their foreheads touched and whispered.

"Selene."

She did not reply but continued to thrust against him.

"Selene?" He repeated with a self-satisfied smile of a man who had a woman in his sexual grip.

"Aaahaa"

"Sorry" He said and pulled out of her, expecting her to become enraged with him. But it was as if he had done nothing at all. She continued to move in the seductive rhythm of sex but without him. Suddenly her eyes opened and her green eyes were aflame with something akin to desire but more dangerous. She could no longer stand on her own accord and feel to her knees on the floor, shivering shaking and moaning.

Alexander stood back in awe as her hair seemed to defy gravity, power crackling in the air as her own fingers found her pussy, the silk robe falling off her shoulder as she rubbed herself desperately.

"Selena?" He watched as her skin seemed to glow slightly her eyes staring off into the distance, as if she was in a trance.

Selena wasn't there. As her fingers plunged in and out of her hot body, faster and faster, the pressure in the room was building to match her. She was whimpered, her head fell back. She was pushing her fingers with urgency, with need that was almost unnatural when a loud crack went through the air and Alexander was propelled backwards and hit the wardrobe behind him He watched as Selena's hand stopped its movement and she screamed into the ceiling green light shooting out into the ceiling like a column of emerald night. Seconds later, the moment over, Selena slumped onto the ground, limp and lifeless.