Midsummer Bride Pt. 02

***

Mrs. Everette laid her hands on Miranda who sat still on the couch.

"You've been marked, dear," she said.

"This is insane," Harper shook his head in disbelief. They had bandaged his wounds. Churchill lay by the fireplace letting out a whine every now and then.

"You saw the beast for yourself," Mrs. Everette scolded.

"I didn't see anything," Harper said. Though he was more inclined now to believe that something supernatural was happening now. Anything that can draw blood is real enough for Harper.

"But she did," Mrs. Everette held Miranda's right wrist gently but firmly in her aged hands. Her bourbon eyes gleaming, brow furrowing in deep concentration. Her raven feather earrings swayed as she moved her head inspecting the horned circle.

"This is blood magic," Mrs. Everette gasped softly. "Powerful. Dark."

"Can you undue it?" Miranda asked hopeful.

"The fairies are old," Mrs. Everette wondered. "Older than the island itself. Their knowledge of magic is more than my own. Did you eat or drink anything from their world?"

Miranda stared at Mrs. Everette. Her green eyes became rheumy. Hot tears of shame slid down her ashen cheeks.

"I only sipped it...," Miranda choked.

"What does that mean?" Harper asked anxiously.

"But you didn't eat the golden apple?"

Miranda shook her head.

"Then there's hope," Mrs. Everette patted Miranda's hand, squeezing it reassuringly, a broad warm smile on her face.

"What does that mean?" Harper felt out of the loop.

"There's still a few days left of Midsummer," Mrs. Everette got up getting things from her bag, herbs, flowers, crystals and jars of stuff Harper didn't want to know.

"Oberon and his fairies will try again. If we can keep her in this house until after Litha then she'll be free." Mrs. Everette handed Harper a garland of St. John's Wort. Miranda knew the flower was one of the things one may use to repel fairies.

"Her hunger will return and the mark should fade as you get farther from here," Mrs. Everette continued. She started fairy proofing the house. "No fairy is going to get past us, dear, don't worry. And no more letting in strays."

"You mean the cat?" Harper asked confounded.

"That was Oberon's beast in disguise," Mrs. Everette explained. "It's hard to wash it's smell off you. Dogs can smell it no matter how many times you wash or how hard you scrub."

So that was why Churchill and that other dog freaked out around Miranda. Dogs. Sharp senses.

***

After they guarded the house with salt, iron, herbs they all went to bed. Garlands of St. John's Wort decorated every window along with arcane sigils made from human blood from a person born on All Souls Day. Harper was afraid to ask where Mrs. Everette got that from.

Harper lay on his back staring at the ceiling fan. Flowers, sigils, amethyst crystals crowded his windows. He had a iron poke next to his bed just in case. Then he heard a small creak.

Miranda stood in the doorway of Harper's bedroom. They didn't say anything. Miranda silently crawled into bed with Harper who didn't protest. What was the use?

Miranda snuggled up to Harper. They lay there in the dark not saying a word, their hearts beating uncertainly. Miranda boldly draped her leg over Harper's. My God this girl was trouble! Harper felt her hand rest on his chest.

Her body wanted him. Every fiber of her being crying out in need. It's been a long time since she'd wanted someone, another human, with such urgency.

Miranda's palm was warm. She nudged his cheek with her nose as her hand traveled down towards his pants. She felt the bulge, rubbing it gently causing a groan of longing to escape Harper's stern mouth.

Miranda went further still as he felt the caress of her lips ghost a kiss on his ear. The sound of her breathing was making him harder. His body ached for hers.

Miranda's hand suddenly slipped under the elastic of Harper's pants. She took the engorged flesh into her hand beginning to stroke it.

"We shouldn't," Harper whispered a warning.

"We should...," Miranda whispered back. Harper rested his arm, wrapping it around Miranda's shoulder hugging her closer as she worked his shaft, freeing it from it's bonds of cotton. Miranda kissed Harper's neck, her lips sizzling on his flesh. His skin tingled with desire. He was overcome with a sudden lust for this girl.

Then Harper rolled over and gave Miranda a molten hot kiss. He was desperate to taste those foreign lips again. This time his seeking tongue parted her supple lips, tasting the richness inside her sinful mouth. It was warm and wet.

But resting between her wanton thighs he could feel a place that was warmer and wetter and willing. Miranda's tongue sought him out as well dancing erotically in each other's mouths. Harper rolled over on top of her, Miranda releasing her hold on his hard pulsating cock.

Miranda opened her legs, wide in welcome for him. She felt Harper's hot flesh, iron hard resting against her wetness. She wanted to feel it inside her, to where she ached most for him since he took her to his home.

Harper pushed the dress shirt up over her hips, her stomach, her breasts, those luscious mounds with hard pointed nipples erect and firm with her lust. He buried his face into her cleavage, kissing and licking them to Miranda's delight.

She raked her fingers through his golden hair, pulling his head up to meet her to once more kiss her hard and brash yet slow and sensuous.

Miranda tore off the rest of her shirt then helped Harper drag his off. He then shed his pants. Now they were skin to skin. Hot and heavy. Flesh on fire. Harper trailed kisses down Miranda's stomach, digging his tongue into her navel making her spasm, biting her lip.

Harper kissed her creamy white thigh. His stubble tickled her sensitive skin, causing goose bumps to erupt all over. Harper licked the wet slit.

A thin trail of trimmed black hair above her moist sex. He kissed it, breathing in the scent of her lust. Miranda sighed blissfully, lifting her hips telling Harper to satisfy her.

He hadn't gone down on a woman in a long time. He forgot the joy, the excitement of plunging one's tongue into a woman's hot pool of femininity. To hear her moan and feel her writhe and contort in ecstasy.

Harper cupped her pussy with his mouth. Miranda gasped as she felt his tongue dive inside her. She whimpered as Harper placed her legs over his shoulders. His nose was buried deep. Coming up he found her clit, stiff and engorged, waiting for him.

Miranda's nerve endings were electrified. Her heart fluttered as Harper sucked on her fat clit. Her breathing became ragged as she climaxed.

Despite Miranda's shallow breathing and moans he continued to lick her. Then Harper stopped, his face glistening with her juices. Then Miranda smiled at him and said, "Kiss me."

Harper came forward letting Miranda claim his mouth for her own. She tasted herself on Harper's lips. She wrapped her legs around his waist pulling him in, guiding his shaft inside her slippery private satin flesh.

Miranda sighed as Harper pushed deeper. She dug her fingers into his back muscles as Harper gently rolled his hips. She panted in his ear as he quickened his pace.

Harper could feel an explosion building inside him. It felt so good to be inside Miranda. She was tight, her muscles soft like satin and molten hot.

Miranda suddenly rolled over taking the dominant position. His cock still throbbing and hard inside her, Harper got a look at her in the moonlight, her fair freckled skin gleaming in the silver light.

They stared deep into each other's eyes for a moment. Miranda's hands hot and firm on Harper's chest that slowly rose and fell from his nervous breathing. Then Miranda lowered herself, anchoring her lips over Harper's. The scent of her hair enveloped around him as he felt the tickled of her dark locks on his chest.

Miranda kissed him sensually as his fingers ran along the curve of her body from her shoulders, along her back down to those lovely swollen cheeks.

He pulled her up, urging her to move. Miranda obliged rocking her hips in a slow erotic rhythm driving Harper crazy. He was overcome with this urge to cum inside her. It's been a long time since he's done that inside a woman.

Miranda moved faster, riding Harper as he held onto her rocking hips. She moaned as she felt Harper hit her sweet spot. It was almost like listening to a song, the way she hit some high notes.

Finally Miranda hit the crescendo. He shot his hot seed deep inside her. She bent over him, flesh glazed with sweat and rosy from her burst of pleasure.

Harper buried his face in Miranda's perspired neck, some strands of hair damp and stuck on her wet flesh. Harper and Miranda lay there locked together, their sexual organs still fit together like two pieces of a puzzle.

Harper eventually softened sliding out of Miranda as she slid off him wrapping her in his strong embrace. Miranda rested her head on Harper's chest listening to the beat of his heart.

"How long has it been for you?" Miranda asked.

"Since I've had sex with a woman?" So it showed? Damn. "About a year and a half."

"Quite the dry spell," Miranda teased lightly.

"Sleeping with kidnap survivors isn't recommended," Harper chuckled.

They lay entwined, bodies awash with fiery sensations, their nerve endings still flickering.

"You think it'll work?" Miranda asked. Harper moved a few strands of hair away from her face revealing her mysterious beauty.

"This is my first case involving fairies," Harper spoke honestly. He pressed his face to her forehead savoring the smell of her, spring tempered by sweat. "I'm used to shooting flesh and blood people. Though... that's what got me transferred here in the first place."

Miranda looked at him with those forest green eyes that were so mesmerizing. They watched him curiously as Harper told her his story. There was a man kidnapping 12 year old girls.

He would rape them then gut them, leave them in an alley with their guts leaking out for the rats to feed on. Harper had found out who he was but he had connections. Some posh ponce friends with the mayor of London.

Harper wasn't allowed to go near him. He was suspended eventually for harassment. But Harper refused to back down. He found the bastard staking out his next target.

She had long blond hair with large chocolate brown eyes and pouty lips. She was going to have to beat the boys away with a stick. Or her father would. Harper made sure that the girl would have that chance.

He shot him. Left him bleeding in the street as he did so many of his victims. He made sure to clean the scene of his presence. A witness identified him but none of the evidence stuck. Harper walked but was transferred to quiet Cornwall.

"It was worth it," Harper said firmly.

"You did the right thing," Miranda surprised him. "You saved that girl's life and many others."

His fingers raked through Miranda's black tresses caressing her head as he angled his face to kiss her full lips. His tongue seemed to melt in her mouth. Harper rolled over, ready for another passionate romp. This time it was simple. Intense. Intimate.

They kissed deeply and Harper fucked Miranda slowly. His molten iron brand set her insides on fire reaching into her core. Every muscle in her body tensed as she reached that dizzying height. They came to that height together.

Miranda even called out his name, "Artemus!" He never liked his first name but he loved it when she said it. It was like a song he never heard before and now wanted to hear again.

They made love over and over first hard with a sense of urgency then slow and sensual as if an apology for the beginning until the sun rose and both their bodies were spent.

***

Miranda lay there in Harper's embrace. Her back molding into his front. As the first golden rays of morning touched the floor then her white flesh Miranda could feel Harper's steady breathing and cock poking her arse.

She smiled as she reached behind her and began to stroke it. The shaft grew fat and rigid in her gentle grasp.

Harper stirred, moaning into Miranda's ear. As she rubbed his turgid member Harper reached up and kneaded her breast, her brown nipple growing dark and erect as his thumb grazed over it.

Harper kissed her neck whispering into her ear seductively, "You already wore me out last night..."

"You seem ready for another go to me," Miranda guided the mushroom head of Harper's cock to the soft warm petals of her womanly entrance. She was a little damp but her loins were like a fiery furnace, Harper groaned as his proud erection touched her puffy wet lips.

His body over ruled him again as Harper lifted Miranda's leg up then pushed forward into her enticing, hot tunnel. It was a moment of carnal pleasure that sent their pulses racing into a dizzy frenzy. Miranda sighed heavenly.

Miranda played with her clit as Harper rolled his hips, pumping faster until he came. Miranda felt his hot seed deep in her womb. She cried out right after him. They lay entwine basking in the haze of sex in sheets damp from cum and sweat. Then Oberon's words came back to ruin the bliss:

"You think the detective is going to fall in love with you? Ask you to stay?"

Miranda wondered.

"Harper," Miranda asked.

"Hm?"

"When did you say Rick and Hayley were coming?"

"Tomorrow I think," Harper sighed rolling over on his back, stretching his muscles. Missing the contact Miranda rolled over and Harper wrapped his strong arm around her, her face resting beside his.

"What if I don't want to go?" she asked.

"Mrs. Everette says after Litha it will be safe for you to go," Harper remembered.

"I mean after that..."

Harper turned to face Miranda, blue eyes puzzled, "What do you mean?"

Miranda propped herself on her elbows looking at Harper with her curious green eyes. Her dark curly hair draped over her one shoulder.

"I've been gone for 7 years," Miranda recalled what Oberon said. "They have lives. Kids probably. Interested in new things. I've been gone a day and in that day the world moved on without me."

"7 years isn't that long." Harper ran his fingers over Miranda's bare shoulder. The light hit it so well he couldn't resist pressing his lips to it.

"What about us then?" she asked trying not to sound foolish. She didn't want to sound like a child. Harper thought it over.

"I'm a bit old for you," he said.

"38 is not that old," Miranda tilted her head, her tone going down an octave. "Besides technically I'm 30. 8 years isn't that big of a difference."

Harper cared about this girl. More than he expected to care. His male organ was getting hard again at the thought of being inside her.

"I'll only make you miserable," Harper said. "I'm a cynic with a bleak outlook. You'll find someone I'm sure of it."

With that Harper kissed her. They fell back into their sexual rhythm of hard and soft.

***

Harper and Miranda had spent the last two days fucking each other's brains out. It was perhaps one of the few moments in his life that he found himself contented, not completely miserable. Mrs. Everette was a soldier who didn't rest. She kept checking and re-checking the sigils and replacing flowers that wilted.

Harper and Miranda were at the breakfast table when they heard a knock. Harper had the iron poker ready just in case. He opened the front door to see a young black man in his late 20s in a blue t-shirt.

"I'm Rick Atwater," he said dark human eyes full of apprehension. "Someone at the station said I could find Miranda—"

Miranda stepped into view her green eyes wide.

"Rick?" Miranda was in disbelief. Rick's dark eyes brightened. He swept Miranda into his arms in a frenzy of joy. The way he hugged her suggested more than just a friend.

"My God, Miranda!" he was on the verge of tears. Harper closed the door behind them trying to dissolve into the background. He felt a smidgen of jealousy followed by guilt. He no right to be jealous after he just told Miranda to go and find someone.

"I thought you were dead," Rick couldn't let go. Miranda glowed inside... until she felt her scar itch and burn. She didn't say anything though. She only smiled at Harper to reassure him.

***

Harper gave them some privacy. Mrs. Everette was folding laundry, giving Harper one of her disappointed mom looks.

"What?" he asked irritated.

"You're just going to let that girl go?"

"I barely know her."

"You seemed to know her well enough to almost break your bed for the past two nights," Mrs. Everette raised a critical eye brow. "Reminds me of myself and my husband in the early days of our dating. The day we met it was like a thunder bolt. That passion never aged with us."

"You think I was struck by this thunder bolt?" Harper leaned against the door frame of his room. He could still feel the heat of Miranda's flesh. The sweat on his skin from hers. The blazing fire that erupted every time they touched.

"You tell me," Mrs. Everette gave Harper the powder blue shirt that she wore her first night here. He smelled it. It lost her scent. He missed that scent. Suddenly the house began to shake. A gust of howling wind rose through out the house, knocking down St. John's Wort garlands and crystals.

Fear hit Harper like icy water. He ran down stairs. Churchill was barking frantically, the doors were wide open and malevolent whispers sang in his ears.

His heart was in his throat when he saw that both Atwater and Miranda were missing. The wind suddenly died down along with the whispers.

"What happened?" Mrs. Everette ran down stairs.

"Miranda!" he called out.

He grabbed an iron poker then sprinted towards the woods.

"Harper, wait!" Mrs. Everette called out but Harper was too far to hear her as if he would if he could.

Harper ran into the dark forest, rays of daylight streaming through the trees. He looked around his chest tightened with fear. The morning mist stayed to carpet the ground.

It grew thicker as he went deeper into the forest. Harper began to hear the whispers again. They made his blood turn cold but anger rose in his stomach. He was ready for them.

Suddenly Harper heard it. He heard the low animal growl of the beast. This time Harper could see him. The creature was as big as a pony like some prehistoric saber tooth lion with black fur. It eyed him shortly then lunged forward. Harper was ready though.

Once he can see something he was less afraid. The iron poker pierced the creature's shoulder. It cried out as Harper watched the iron burn as well as cut the beast.

Dark blood dripped from the animal's wound. It's hot foul breath made Harper want to puke. But he swallowed the bile and twisted the rod. The black cat beast cried out in agent, a twisted scream that cut Harper to the bone.

Harper shoved the beast off him. His weapon now lodged in the creature's shoulder. It was limping but still ready to fight and now he had no weapon. Then Harper heard a horn. Silence. The creature limped into the mist then disappeared.

Without thinking Harper ran into the mist but it dissolved in the sunlight.

"No no no!" Harper cried out. "MIRANDA!" But no answer came. Only the morning birds were singing and Harper felt only the stone of defeat sinking in his stomach.

***

Harper came back to the house to find Mrs. Everette with Miranda's real friends Rick Atwater and Hayley Bennett. It must have been Oberon disguised as Rick Atwater and Harper let him in. He was disgusted with himself. How could he not see it?

Harper was bitter for a time. Months passed but the gaping hole in his chest still hurt him. Until he received a message...

Harper was home. Churchill was resting by the fireplace while Harper was reading "The Tempest". A knock came at the door. Ever since Miranda, Harper had some apprehension at answering doors. Only Mrs. Everette was allowed in.