Love Charms (44 page)

I
had warmth and security, reassurance and happiness.  I had Evan, and Cinna, and
even Desiree a little bit.  Not a lot, just a little, but enough.  Maybe I was
one of them, like the others that everyone despised, but not entirely.  I was
me, Sadie, and I didn't have to be something I didn't want to be.  No one could
make me into it.

Evan
bullrushed Alex and slammed into his shoulder.  Surprised, first from me and
now from Evan, Alex dropped his knife and tumbled towards the ground.  The
blade clattered against the concrete, but the sound of it got lost in the thick
sheets of rain blaring down from the dark grey clouds above.

Alex
fell, but not far.  Rebounding off the street, he threw himself at Evan.  Both
men toppled, landing hard on the slick asphalt.  They grappled, assaulting one
another, and with their rain-soaked bodies they looked like sweat-drenched
ancient Olympian wrestlers; muscle and power seeking to overcome their
opponent.

I
backed away, scared, unable to think of anything to do.  I didn't know how to
stop them and I couldn't, either.  Alex broke free from Evan and stumbled to
his feet.  Desiree rushed forward to keep him away from me, but Alex sidearmed
her and threw her aside like some useless piece of trash.  His hand slammed
into the side of her head with a loud thud, boxing her ear hard, and she
crumpled to the ground, letting out a sharp cry.

And
then he came towards me.  He made it one step before Evan grabbed his feet and
pulled hard, grounding him.  Alex kicked at Evan, trying to break free, but to
no avail.

I
stared at the two men fighting.  In my raincoat, Cinna meowed and fidgeted,
confused at the sounds outside.  She didn't like it here and I didn't, either.

Desiree
rolled into a ball on the ground, hurt.  I couldn't see her well through the
pounding rain.  The growing throb of anger building in my temples, giving me an
aggressive headache, didn't help either.

Alex
fought Evan and Evan fought Alex and Desiree was hurt, thrown aside, treated as
if she were useless, unimportant.

I
lost Cinna.  I let her go.  I started to shake, furious, and I didn't
understand this.  Why?  Why were they fighting?  Why did this happen?  Why did
everyone hate each other?  Alex hated me, I knew, but why?  I never hurt him,
never did anything to him.  And because Evan liked me, Alex disliked him.  Now,
added to that, was Desiree.  Alex abused her, flung her aside, hurt her.

I
didn't want anyone to be hurt, but I didn't have a choice in the matter
anymore.

Briefly,
I contemplated myself and the others and Evan and them.  When Evan touched me,
I felt warm, but I didn't feel that way with everyone.  When Desiree touched
me, I felt soft and nice.  The other men from Evan's camp made me burn harshly.

But
what happened if I touched someone?  When I touched Evan, what did he feel? 
And Desiree?  Those men?  When the others grabbed someone, ripped them open,
gorged on their bodies, why didn't the people run away?  I knew that sometimes
they couldn't, but I didn't know if this happened all the time.  I didn't think
it did, because I'd seen situations where someone should've been able to overpower
the scant few others chasing them, but they didn't.

They
froze at the last second, caught by a hand that should've been too weak to hold
onto them properly.  I never saw what happened after that, always turned away
and hurried off, but now that I thought about it I wondered why it happened.

Maybe,
in my mind, I knew a little of the reason.

I
went forth, angered and enraged, monstrous.  I was a monster now, one of them,
the others, a zombie, dead.  I used to be human and I wanted to be again, but
that didn't mean I should ignore what I was.  I had wanted to, but I couldn't
anymore.

Evan
and Alex fought, clutching at each other's bodies and trying to rip each other
into inhuman, unrecognizable shreds.  Through the rain and the haze of pain
that it brought to my now exposed hand, I grabbed Alex's forearm right before
he went to punch Evan in the throat.

My
cold, harsh anger brought the ex-military man to a halt.  As soon as I wrapped
my fingers around the soft, warm flesh of his arm, he froze, startled, and then
fell over.  Screaming in agony at the biting chill from my hand, he fell away
from Evan and thumped against the ground.  I reached for his throat, clenching
it tight in both hands, staring at him with icy malice in my eyes.

Why? 
Why are you doing this?  I wanted to ask him, to scream at him, but I couldn't
find the words.  My fingers dug into his flesh, ignoring the heat and burn on
my fingertips, and I clutched his throat, squeezing.  Just a little more,
tight, and then... rip!  If I did that, if I killed Alex, then everything would
return to normal.  Everything would be fine.  Everything would...

Evan
stopped me.  Alex lay beneath me, still, having gone into shock from the numb,
frozen feel of my hands.  He breathed, shallow, and every time he exhaled, a
hint of frosted fog drifted up into the rain-soaked air.  His wispy gasps
vanished soon enough, destroyed by the rain, but I still saw it every time he
breathed.

"Sadie,"
Evan said.  His touch was quiet and compassionate, a gentle tingle of love to
bring me back from my infuriated state.  "It's alright, Sadie.  We can
leave now."

I
let go of Alex and panicked.  Spinning around, oblivious of the rain splashing
against my hands and hitting my face, I searched for Cinna.  I'd let her go,
distracted by my need to finish this fight once and for all, but I needed her
back.  She was alone and lost and stuck in the rain and I needed to find her.

Desiree
held her.  Cinna didn't like this, though.  Caught in the rain, scared and
upset, my kitten dug her nails into the sensitive skin of Desiree's arms.  Thin
streaks of blood trailed out of the small rakes left by the cat, but still
Desiree held her, refusing to let go.  She tried to calm the cat down, to
reassure her, but in the middle of nowhere with rain pouring onto her, Cinna
refused to believe everything was fine.

Desiree
didn't let go of her, though.  She held Cinna, no matter what, and kept her
close and safe.  Desiree's arms were smeared with blood and rain, the wet mix
trickling into a puddle on the street, but she never let go.  She never
screamed or hurt the kitten or did anything mean.

She
simply held her.  She saw me watching her and she smiled just a little bit.

I
stared at them both and then I passed out from fatigue.

* * *

I
awoke in the dark, confused.  A light shone somewhere above me, illuminating a
line near my head, but other than that I couldn't see a thing.  Where was I,
and why was I here?

I
remembered the rain, the agony of it, and fighting.  I remembered watching Evan
and his leader grappling on the rain-slick road, fighting one another with a
mortal imperative.  I remembered Desiree with Cinna, the kitten perplexed and
frantic, scratching the girl.  Desiree held her, though, and the rain streaked
down her cheeks like silent tears, but she never complained.

Where
was my kitten now?  Where was I?  Was I dead?  Maybe this was the afterlife and
the light above me was the light I needed to follow to go to heaven, or
wherever.  I didn't know where I needed to go, but apparently I was about to
find out.

I
tried to move and get up and crawl towards the end of the light, but something
heavy weighed down upon me.  On my chest.  My bare chest.  I wore no clothes.

I
wasn't dead or in heaven.  Sprawled out on a blanket from an emergency medical
kit, with another laying atop me, I recognized the movie theatre all around
me.  And then I saw a vague glimpse of Evan's arm over my chest.

His
hand clutched me tight, groping the side of my bare breasts.  Oh my!  I flushed
and fidgeted, completely not expecting this.  What, what, oops, it was Evan and
we were, and...

He
woke up, saw me fussing, and put a stop to it.  With a sneer, almost growling,
he pulled me across the blanket towards him and rolled atop me.  Positioned
above me, the faint glow of the flashlight nearby shining soft light on his
face, he stared into my eyes.

Evan,
I realized, was also naked.

"Nope,"
he said, matter-of-factly.  "You aren't getting away from me."

"Evan,
what..."

I
didn't have time to say more.  Oh my God oh my God.  What was going on?  I knew
exactly what was going on, but... oh my God.

He
parted my legs with one knee, then plied my thighs open, cracking my resistance
as easily as if I were some soft nut.  Apparently he wanted a taste of me and
wasn't going to take no for an answer.

I
was pretty sure I wouldn't have said no anyways, but I never had a chance to
formulate a proper answer to his unasked question.

He
slipped into me easily, his recently awakened erection twitching and virile,
excited to get on with the new day.  I gasped as his heat invaded me and dug
deep inside of me, warming my core.  I wasn't expecting this and I wasn't
aroused at first, but my body decided to quickly change its mind.  Evan pushed
into me, demanding.  My hands shivered at my sides, wanting to do something but
unsure what to do, muscles taut and tense.

Reaching
around him, clutching at his body, I pulled Evan closer to me.  His hot,
passionate chest blazed, lighting my stomach and breasts aflame, and I bit my
lower lip, caught up in his excitement.  Sensuously and slowly, he pulled out
of me, leaving only the head of his cock nestled in the folds of my slit. 
Then, hard and fast, he thrust back in.

I
jolted and squeaked.  Fuck!  I squeaked!  What was I, some squeeze toy?  I bit
my lip harder, blushing, embarrassed, but this only seemed to stoke Evan's
excitement.  He kissed my nose down to my upper lip, then wrested control of my
lower lip from me and nipped on it lightly.

I
opened my eyes (because I realized I'd closed them, unthinking), and looked up
at him.  His face lay so close to mine and he had my lip between his teeth. 
With a grin on his face, delighted, he claimed my lip and my body for his own.

I'd
never woken up to sex before.  Granted, I hadn't quite done it this time,
either, but this was as close as I'd ever been to this kind of thing.  It
exhilarated me!  My body, sleepy and a little light, soft and pliant, grew
energetic and aware under Evan's potent ministrations. 

He
pushed deep into me, pivoting this way and that, doing everything within his
power to claim the deepest parts of me for his own, and then he eased out of me
slowly, leaving me frantic and undone at the loss of him.

His
chest squashed my breasts, flattening them hard between us.  My nipples,
delirious and bright with his heat, wriggled beneath his body.  I kissed him,
or I tried, but Evan kept my lip in his mouth.  He kissed me, too, but it was
sloppy and careless.

Sloppy,
careless, and the most erotic situation I'd ever been in.

He
grabbed my hips, holding onto them for dear life while he pounded into me in
reckless morning abandon.  We had everything left to us, the entire day to look
forward to, and this, I thought, was a great way to start it.

I
wanted to think what we did was some sensual display of lovemaking, and I think
it was that, too, but our bodies had a carnal, lusty nature to them, too. 
Entwined, one, his hot passion mixing with my silky smooth and cool demeanour. 
They combined, erratic, into a steaming, sordid mess.  Evan and I made love,
but we also fucked, hard.

Together,
coupling and loving one another, our breath grew foggy and thick.  The steam
and heat and chill cool exterior wrapped around our bodies, enveloping us in a
cozy blanket of cloud.  Cozy on the outside, yes, but roiling in the middle,
like some active molten volcano in the Antarctic.

I
came.  Hard.  My body bucked and twisted, spastic, but Evan held me down and
rutted into me, needy and wanton.  I loved him.  I wanted him.  I said as much,
though it fled from my lips in some murmured, garbled mess.  Evan knew,
though.  He understood.  His words of adoration fluttered to me, deep and
alluring, and though I didn't understand anything he said, I knew what he
meant.

He
thrust into me once more, then held himself there.  Squirming, trying to
wriggle that smallest, tiniest amount more inside of me while I writhed and
flailed beneath him, he somehow managed to keep his hold on me tight.  I felt
him inside me, consuming me, and he came, too.

It
was like some philosophical epiphany deep in my brain.  I stared up, mouth
agape, eyes wide.  The dark theatre ceiling, pitch black and invisible to me
now, seemed so interesting and amazing.  Evan's seed spread through my core,
heating my body to a steady, cascading warmth, and all I did was stare.

I
quivered beneath him and I felt him twitching, but I couldn't break myself away
from staring at the ceiling.  Just a little more, just a little longer, and I
could reveal the secrets to the universe.  I don't know why I thought this, and
I knew it was silly, but...

An
inferno roared inside of me, incendiary.  I expected a peak to my climax and a
sudden, soft, coming down, but, no.  Instead, my body redoubled its efforts.  I
gasped and cried out, clutching Evan's torso in my arms, pressing into his skin
with my fingertips.  He smiled at me, angelic, and offered me his throat.  For
a lick, a nibble, a...