Homelands Pt. 06 Ch. 06

She choked back tears. "Do you at least get to say goodbye?"

He nodded.

So she took him to bed once more. Perhaps for the last time.

He'd long since proven himself the best lover she'd ever had, and ever would have. But somehow, he still managed to outdo himself that night. Every little touch sent jolts of ecstasy coursing through her. His lips would hardly graze her skin and her Libido would quiver, her blood boil, and her skin tingle. When he entered her, it felt like the first time. Like she'd only imagined it all the other times she'd taken a man deep inside her.

Part of that was the heightened sensuality their kind always experienced after giving birth, and part was a subconscious need for the evening to be especially memorable. But part of it was her son's doing. He knew that she needed this to last. To leave an indelible imprint in her mind so that she might feel just a little bit less alone at night.

She loved his energy, his passion, the caged lion he sometimes unleashed on her. But that wasn't what she needed this time. So his fur and claws, mane and tail, stayed buried.

They moved slowly, as if trapped in gel, the better to savor every little sensation. A lifetime's worth of soft kisses passed back and forth between them. Their eyes burned, bathing the room in a soft sapphire glow. Yet besides their luminescent eyes and ultra-sensitive bodies, there was no trace of the supernatural. All the talents they had, the flourishes they often used to spice things up, lay dormant. That night, they were simply man and woman, no matter that they were immortal, mother and son. Theirs was a love like no other, in their world or that of mortals.

When Eric planted his seed deep inside her, she opened herself up to the gift. Poured all the energy from her nearly empty Libido into her womb. And felt a familiar quickening as a new life came into being. The universe collapsed in on her, until she and her lover comprised the whole of existence. Even as every ounce of strength faded from her body, she was filled with a sense of divine power. The power to create life.

Gabriela had never conceived a child so soon after bearing one. She didn't know if her body was up to it. But she couldn't let her son leave without putting another baby inside her. Not when she didn't even know if she'd ever see him again.

Eric sensed it, of course. And he smiled, told her that he loved her, then kissed her.

Tears of joy and of sorrow streamed down her cheeks. The thought of parting with her son hurt more than anything ever would. But the look in his eyes when he realized what she'd done, the pure joy she found there, warmed her heart.

"Come back to me," she whispered to the son who was still inside her.

"I will," he said.

"Your children need you."

"So does my mother. Though no more than I need her," he replied.

She drifted off to sleep in her son's strong arms soon thereafter, a smile born of happiness such as she'd never felt gracing her lips.

When Gabriela awoke in the middle of the night, her bed was empty. But the same was true of neither her womb nor her heart.