Girl Possessed (Book 1 of The Girl Trilogy) (14 page)

But, the last painting was
something entirely different. I looked wild and
hot
. Never before had I imagined it
possible that I could look so erotic. Though I was almost naked, I
was posed in a way that my private areas were covered. I had on
black thigh highs, spiked heels, and long black gloves. My long
dark hair was blown straight up in the air—I looked just like how I
feel inside—a lustful, desirous girl possessed. How did he know
just who I am? I would never show anyone that crazy side of my
essence.

I couldn’t believe anyone could ever
see me, the ugly duckling with the humpback, as he did. Shaul made
me beautiful.

The music played on and I could hardly
hold my balance. Shaul stood up and helped me sit down beside him
upon the soft white fur rug. My body tingled from his
touch.

“
How in the world did you
do this?”

“
I just unlocked the golden
gate in my mind and uttered some chants and spells.” His expression
was ironic and playful.

“
Oh, that’s all.” I thought
his silken voice might melt me alive. My body started getting dizzy
and I became overly aware of my breathing. “So, you just decide
what you want and you magically make it appear?”

“
Basically.” He
shrugged.

“
If you can do that, then
why don’t you break us out of here?”

He looked away as he spoke. “I’m in
this cell because I want to be.” Then he turned back to me and
gazed at me through sparkling slit eyes.

“
You want to be here?” I
felt my throat tighten.

“
That’s why I crossed the
boundary line.”

“
What?”

“
I wanted to get caught. I
didn’t know you would follow me.” His expression
saddened.

I could hardly speak, but I managed to
whisper, “Why did you want to get caught?”

He put his forehead against the tips
of his fingers as if he was embarrassed to answer. “I, uh, wanted
to stay away from you.” He glanced up at me through his
lashes.

His voice was soft as he continued,
“These walls are made of shoham stone from the Garden of Eden. I am
powerless over them. I can only escape through them if someone else
destroys them, so I knew this dungeon could contain me when my
desires rose aflame.” He paused for a moment, a slight trace of
embarrassment on his face. “I purposely attacked the guard when he
brought me here so he would lock me to the wall and treat me with
higher security.

“
Then, when you shook the
walls with your cries, the stone attached to the chain loosened and
eventually fell out on its own.”

My chest tightened. I could feel the
pounding of my heart. “Why did you want to avoid me?” I shook my
head. “I just don’t understand.”

“
I don’t want to avoid you
anymore.” He smiled at me with an amused look on his perfect face.
“Like I said before, it’s too difficult and I’ve given in.” His
playful expression turned to sadness.

Shaul’s openness excited me, but
embarrassed me all the same. “I don’t understand why you wanted to
avoid me in the first place.”

He brushed his fingers through his
hair. “It’s a complicated story.” His luscious lips lifted into a
crooked smile that flooded my stomach with butterflies. The
fluttery feeling was so intense within me. Suddenly and all at
once, actual real live butterflies shot out of my body fluttering
all around the room. I was shocked. How could such a thing
happen?

“
I guess somebody else has
magical powers too.” He chuckled softly as he watched the lovely,
colorful insects flutter before our faces. Then he looked at me,
staring into my eyes. “You have enchanting butterfly
eyes.”

“
What do you mean?” My mind
was flustered.

“
I can see the reflections
of your beautiful creations in your aqua eyes. It looks like
butterflies fluttering above the surface of a tropical
ocean.”

I couldn’t help but giggle lightly.
The imagery was splendorous. I couldn’t believe anyone could see me
the way he did. “I have no idea how I did that. You must have
created them—not me.”

One of his eyebrows lifted. “Oh, it
was all you, Cordellia. Intensity of thought brings forth physical
manifestations.”

“
I don’t know what you
mean.”

“
You’re mind is extremely
intense now that you have entered puberty. With that comes
power.”

I wasn’t sure what he was talking
about, but I saw that there were lots of butterflies in his cell
and according to him I had magically created them. As much as I was
attracted to Shaul, I didn’t know if I could trust him. But when he
gazed at me with his sad eyes as he was now, I wanted to touch him.
He was incredibly gorgeous and all of his mannerisms set me on
fire.

The butterflies settled down and
rested on the edge of the bathtub.

“
Maybe you should magically
dress us in attractive clothing,” I suggested, looking down at my
drab brown robe.

He turned his head sideways. “Hmmn…”
His face was filled with irony. “That’s a great idea. I could use a
shave too.”

I laughed. From what I remembered, he
was even better looking, if that was even possible, without the
beard.

“
I really wish you’d stay
away from me,” he whispered, melancholy catching in his silky
voice. “I really don’t want to hurt you, but I don’t know if I can
control myself.”

Shivers ran through my body. I knew I
was crazy to associate with a serpent person, but I felt I had no
choice. I was undeniably falling in love with him.

“
Ok. Here goes.” The blood
seemed to drain from his face as he stood in concentration. I
stared at his eyes and noticed how they lit up like shiny sparkling
diamonds. He whispered some words in the same foreign language I
heard him speaking in his sleep months ago as I listened from the
other side of the wall.

At once, the brown robe
fell to my feet and I found myself standing in an elegant white
gown with a chunky necklace of diamonds
around my neck. Sparkly pixie dust surrounded me for a moment
then dissipated into the air.

I looked at Shaul and he was dressed
in black slacks and a fitted white sweater that accentuated his
fantastic physique. Sure enough, his beard was gone and he was
cleanly shaven. His hair was neatly trimmed. I had to catch my
breath. He was certainly the best looking boy alive.

He stared at me with that dreamy look
in his eyes. “You look ravishing.”

“
Thank you,” I whispered
awkwardly. “You look good too.” I wished I’d thought of something
more poetic to say, but I generally felt tongue tied in his
unfathomable presence.

His expression turned playful. “I want
to feed you.” He walked over to the golden platter of delicacies.
“Don’t worry. I won’t serve you bat eyes.”

I laughed.

“
This is manna.”

“
What’s manna?”

He sifted his fingers through a
delicate China bowl of what looked like a flaky grain of some sort.
“After God took the Hebrews out of slavery in Egypt, he fed them
manna. It tastes like whatever you want it to taste
like.”

“
Really?”

Holding the bowl out to me, he nodded.
“Think of what you want to eat and then take some of the manna and
place it on your tongue.”

I thought of my favorite chocolate
truffles and took some of the flakes and placed them in my mouth.
My eyes opened wide. “Mmmn. This is amazing. It tastes just like my
favorite treats.”

We spent the next half hour or so
imagining different delicacies that transformed out of the
manna.

I think the smile on my face was the
biggest it had ever been. “After all the horrible dungeon meals,
eating manna is like tasting heaven.”

He laughed. “Or hell,” he said
facetiously.

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry
at his joke, but I was having too much fun to worry about
it.

“
What language were you
speaking in before when you brought forth these
clothes?”

“
I cast spells in Latin
because the angels don’t understand the language. If they don’t
know what I’m saying then they can’t stop me.”

I rolled my eyes, not sure how to
respond to such a foreign concept. “If they want to stop you, maybe
that’s a positive thing. I mean, they’re the good ones
right?”

He laughed. “You’ve got a point there.
But, it’s extremely hard for me to be good.”

“
You’re actually able to be
good even though you’re a serpent?”

“
Serpent people are
innately evil, but I’m different and I don’t know why. My brother,
Aver Hainsworth, who has the other half of the original serpent’s
soul, is completely evil as would be expected.

“
I have many evil desires
that overwhelm me much of the time, but for some inexplicable
reason, I truly desire to be good. This contradicts all serpent
behavior, but it is my guess that God gave me both an evil and a
good inclination so that I would have a chance at achieving the
world’s correction.” He spoke in a serious tone and the expression
on his face was deeply sad.

I felt confused. “The world has a
correction?”

“
Yes. Your mother and I
discussed it in the speed wave on our way to Seneca Mountains.
Remember?”

It was difficult for me to concentrate
because the music was possessing my mind. “I think I remember,” I
managed to mumble.

He smiled slightly, as if he somehow
sensed my desire for him. The light of the fire flickered across
his stunning face as he continued, “Whoever possesses the soul of
the original serpent and whoever possesses the soul of Eve has the
potential to perfect the world by returning the original apple to
the Tree of Knowledge.”

“
Well, you and your brother
both possess the soul of the original serpent, so does that mean
that either of you can bring peace on Earth if you put one of your
light balls with the DNA of the original apple back on the Tree of
Knowledge?”

His gorgeous eyes widened as he
nodded. “Yes. I see you do remember.”

I could hardly breathe. His eyes were
deliciously silver, reminding me of liquid mercury. There was
something highly lethal within his essence that aroused me to the
very core. I wanted to kiss him so badly. I sensed his wickedness,
but my desires were too intense to resist anything about
him.

I nodded.

“
That is our test,” he
murmured as he gazed at me. “If either of us chooses to sacrifice
ourselves and our species, we can make the world completely good,
eradicating all evil from existence.”

“
Sacrifice yourself? I
don’t understand.”

“
If my brother or I return
the apple to the Tree, all serpent people will cease to
exist.”

“
Why?” I was
shocked.

“
We can’t live in a world
that is entirely good because we as a species are entirely bad. The
light of the flames coming from the fire place made ominous shadows
on his face.

My body started to tense and a
sickened feeling came over me. “So, you’re saying that if you
complete your mission of returning the apple to the Tree of
Knowledge, then you will die, but all the humans will live in a
perfect world.” I was trying not to cry.

“
That’s right, Cordellia.
But, it’s not as simple as that.”

I wiped my eyes with the back of my
hand. “What do you mean?”

“
We have a choice. We can
either return the apple to the Tree of Knowledge and sacrifice
ourselves for the good of mankind or we can eat from the Tree of
Life which gives the serpent people eternal life and the power to
take complete control of the world making it entirely evil under
our rulership.”

“
Are you
serious?”

“
Yes, I most certainly am.
And I can assure you my brother most definitely wants to eat from
the Tree of Life. If he does, then he will rule over all serpent
people and all beings. It is the same for me. If I follow my innate
desire, I will eat from the Tree of Life and, in turn, rule the
world for eternity. All other species including humans (and mermaid
fairies like you) will be slaves to the serpent people. It will be
a never ending hell on Earth.” His face was expressionless, but I
could tell his feelings were raging beneath the surface.

“
This is just
horrible.”

“
I know. It is.”

“
So, why haven’t you or
your brother completed your mission?”

He paused and looked at me seriously.
“Everything in our being compels us to pursue our desire to eat
from the Tree of Life, but we cannot gain passage to the Garden of
Eden without the reincarnation of Eve to help us. She was part of
the original sin and she also has the ability to make the
correction.”

“
How can the reincarnation
of Eve give you entrance into the Garden of Eden?”

“
Either my brother or I
have to mate with Eve and produce a son. Our son will be the
reincarnation of Adam, the original man who Eve convinced to share
in eating the original forbidden apple…”