Awakening (The Magic of the Black Forest Book 2) (7 page)

Giggling, I removed the shield and asked if they were okay.

“I’m fine, love,” Bradley replied as he wrapped his loving arms around my waist.

“I’m better now that we made it back before you decided to enter the forest without us.”
Seager snarled.
“Natalia, I heard you loud and clear. Didn’t you hear me telling you to stay in, that we would be back shortly?”

“No I didn’t, but you heard me? I was wondering about that. How far away were you when you heard me?”

“We were pretty far. We had to run all the way back hoping to find you before you wondered off,”
Seager said, still annoyed.

“Natalia, honey, the forest is not safe. I’m glad you waited for us. Good idea putting up the shield.” Bradley took my hand and guided me down a trail.

“Did you hear me?” I asked eagerly hoping to find out if we could communicate with each other from a distance.

“No, only Seager did. He mentioned you were going out, and then I heard the doorbell. A few seconds later, my chest ached as if you were in danger. I knew we had to hurry, that it was only a matter of seconds until you’d be lost,” he teased. Placing his finger under my chin, he lifted my face allowing my eyes to meet his. “I apologize we were gone longer than expected.”

Smiling, I took his hand and pulled him deeper into the trees.

“No need to apologize. Once I got outside, I felt a bad vibe. I knew it wouldn’t be safe if I took a walk on my own. It is so beautiful out here I couldn’t bear to be inside so I put up a shield to protect me until you arrived. Maybe you felt my fear?” I shrugged my shoulders trying to figure out why he felt as if I was in danger. I was hoping he could hear me like Seager could. “If Seager heard me, why didn’t you?”

“I was preoccupied. Had I not been feeding maybe I would have heard you. As for the aching in my chest, I think it was because I hadn’t realized that you could wander off and get lost. I should’ve known better. It would be harder than you think to track you down out here.”

“Makes sense I guess. I wonder why I didn’t hear Seager?”

Annoyed Seager responded sarcastically
, “Probably because you’re a witch and we’re not. I may be gifted but I’m not magic. Your voice came to me with the wind. You’re just lucky we can both run fast because look what’s heading in our direction. That must be what Brad was feeling, the upcoming danger. Had you have gone any further without us, you’d be his next meal.”

Not far from us stood a cougar with its tail whipping in the air, it was pretty big and looking right at us. Seager started growling angrily.

“Seager, please take Natalia back to the house.”

Bradley pulled away. Avoiding eye contact, he politely asked me to go inside with Seager. Without hesitating, I did as he asked. As we walked away, I heard a lot of snarling. Once we were in the cave I asked Seager what was going on. Apparently, I interrupted Bradley’s hunt earlier and hunger had gotten the better of him, and he didn’t want me to see him that way.

“So he’s killing the cougar?”

“Yes, Nat, he’s killing the cougar. Why don’t you tell him to finish hunting, promise to stay in until he returns and that I won’t leave your side until he does? Go on, tell him.”

“What if he doesn’t hear me? Never mind I’ll ring the doorbell so that he knows we made it safely into the house.” Concentrating, I told Bradley to come back when he was finished. I also sent him an image of what would be waiting when he returned. I laughed aloud while ringing the doorbell.

“What’s so funny, Nat?”

“Just something I showed Bradley. Trust me you don’t want to know.” I giggled.

Seager took a nap while I went back upstairs to look at the pictures of Bradley’s childhood. This time I took a flashlight. The room was comfortable and felt safe, secure. After admiring the portraits and photography, I laid down on the couch. The last thing I remembered before dozing off was staring at another one of Bradley’s baby pictures. I held it tightly against my chest.

***

My dreams were of Bradley and me in a previous life. Although unable to determine when or where we were, I could tell we were clearly happy and in love. The clothing seemed to be from the eighteen hundreds, but I’m no expert. Bradley looked the same, just an inch or two shorter than he is today. My hair was long, curly and red; otherwise I looked the same, too. It quickly turned into a nightmare when a man came out of nowhere and stabbed Bradley in the back. Dropping to his knees then to the ground, I screamed out his name and woke with a start. Sitting upright on the couch, all the lights were out again. Tears poured from my eyes remembering the horrible ending to my beautiful dream.

“Oh, Bradley!” I sobbed.

Suddenly the lights flickered on; the door opened and in walked my Bradley. I jumped up and wrapped my arms around him. With my face buried in the hollow of his neck, crying uncontrollably, I told him what I dreamt about. It took me a few seconds to realize that he did not wrap his arms around me. When I did, I backed away to look into his eyes.

“Wh-what’s the matter?”

“Are you bleeding again?” A frustrating sigh followed his question.

Touching my lip and seeing the blood on my fingertips, I stomped my foot saying, “Darn it! It keeps ripping open. It’s never going to heal.”

Pulling me against his hard body, he caressed the cut on my lip with his tongue, and released out a low growl. “It’s time for you to heal it!” After throwing me over his shoulder and smacking my ass, he took off down the stairs.

At first, by the way he tossed me over this shoulder, I thought he was going to take me into the bedroom and we were going to make love. Instead, he plopped me into a chair at the kitchen table.

“Time to heal your lip, Natalia. Before we left for our honeymoon I asked Dave to pick up a list of healing herbs and put them in the cabinet. Just precautionary.”

Intrigued, I went over, opened the cabinet and started reading the labels. “How did you know these were healing herbs?” Healing spells were some of the first spells I read about in my parents’ book of spells.

“Ok, your aunt told me. Actually, she created the list and wrote down the instructions on how to create the poultice and this healing spell,” he said, tossing a folded piece of paper onto the table. “She was worried you might get hurt or forget the spell so she wanted us to be prepared. 

Bradley grabbed a towel from the drawer and sat down at the table. Following my aunt’s directions made it easy to whip up the poultice. Once finished, I joined him by straddling his lap, and snuggling in close to him.

“Natalia, my love,” whispering in my ear, “We have a lifetime to fulfill our desires.” The fingers on his right hand fisted the hair at the nape of my neck. Pulling me in, he crushed his mouth on mine. Our tongues danced momentarily before his traced my bottom lip. Sucking it into his mouth, a loud wanton moan escaped me. Abruptly, he pulled away. For several minutes we sat there staring at each other. A look of disbelief fixed on my confused stare.

Spreading the poultice on my lip with the tip of his fingers, “Please cast the healing spell so that we can seal up that wound.” Guilty eyes turned away from mine.

The healing spell healed my wound instantly.

“Bradley, why are you so sad?”

“I’ve taken advantage of you. Please accept my apology and my promise to never do that again. Your blood tastes so sweet I was unable to stop myself. Just the smell of it…” He shuddered.

“I could’ve stopped you but I liked it…”

Cutting me off he warned, “Natalia, if I went into frenzy, you would have never been able to stop me. We must be more careful in the future. I have been doing that for a few days, it’s not good for either of us.”

“I gave myself the wound. You would never hurt me intentionally. I know you would stop before you hurt me.”

Disappointed, I got up and ran into the bathroom, locking the door behind me. The situation was frustrating and even though Bradley was right, I couldn’t figure out why it upset me so much. Standing in front of the mirror, touching my lip, there was no more pain, no more sensitivity. The cut gone, vanished by magic. Having to always be so cautious upsets me. What’s the point in my being a witch if I can’t come up with a spell that can protect Bradley from hurting me? If I were like him, a vampire, then Bradley wouldn’t have to worry about sucking me dry.

“Natalia, please let me in or come out here.” Regret and sorrow were heavy in his tone.

“I’m getting in the shower. I’ll be out in a few minutes.” Needing more time to figure out what had bothered me so much, I stalled, not ready to face him yet.

For the second time that day, I jumped into the shower, letting the water run over my face washing away my tears, and clearing my mind. After a few minutes, I realized why it had upset me so much. So many times I’d tasted his blood and feared that he would soon put a stop to that as well. For months I’d been doing this, and it made me feel closer to him.

After figuring out why it upset me, I got out of the shower, put on my housecoat and went to face him. I found him sitting on the edge of the bed, so I sat down beside him and apologized for running out on him. Also adding that he was right. Once again, he straddled me on his lap. I love it here.

“I believe you showed me something that I was going to get when I got home…”

“You heard me this time?” I asked thrilled but surprised. Thinking he would want to discuss my lip or reaction to his request to heal it, I was quite relieved when he didn’t.

“Yes, last time I was lost in the hunt. This time I kept some of my wits about me. I had the upper hand until you sent me the image of your naked body. The cougar almost got a hold of my throat. It took me a moment to regroup and get my head back in the hunt. That’s why I was so upset when I first returned.” Kissing me tenderly, he cupped his hands over my face. “Do me a favor, in the future when I’m hunting, please do not send me any images. You can talk to me but keep it clean, okay?”

Blushing, I replied, “Okay. Sorry about that. I wasn’t thinking.” Smiling, I looked up at him and asked flirtatiously, “Did you like what you saw?”

“Mrs. Jenkins, you have no idea. I believe that you promised me something when I got home…” he repeated.

Opening my housecoat, I took hold of both his hands and placed them on my bare breasts, “Well, what are you waiting for?” I giggled.

That evening Bradley reminded how much he loved me, and how much he cherished and adored my body, by making mad passionate love to me.

***

Taking advantage of our seclusion we spent most of our time inside exploring each other physically, not outside enjoying our surroundings. Losing track of time, it went by quickly and the days soon turned into weeks.

One morning, Bradley woke me up bright and early. “Since I promised you a honeymoon that included a waterfall and other scenic views, I thought we’d take a ride. It’s a little chilly out, but it’s a beautiful sight to see.”

“I’d love to. When do we leave?” After jumping out of bed, I raced over to the dresser and put on my favorite blue jeans and a blue t-shirt.

“Right after breakfast. There’s bacon and a stack of pancakes waiting for you in the kitchen.”

“Why not in bed?” I teased.

“Because we’d end up spending another day in it.” Smiling, he wrapped his arm around my waist and led me to the kitchen. “Not that I don’t enjoy spending the day in bed with you. We’ve been here a few weeks so it’s about time that I showed you some of the scenery.”

After breakfast, but before we left, he led me upstairs to the second floor. The first door on the right had three deadlocks. It was the one of the two rooms in the house that I hadn’t been in yet. The other room, sat across the hall, the door locked tight by the same number of deadbolts. I’ve been waiting to see if he was ever going to show me what lay behind the doors. And, today, it looked like I was finally going to see what was behind door number one, or in this case, the door on the right.

Pulling a key from his pocket, Bradley started unlocking each lock. My excitement grew with every turn of the key.  Eager to see what was behind the mystery door I stepped up on my tippy toes, trying to get a peek over his shoulder.

When he finally opened the door and stepped to the side, I gave him a puzzled look. A spiral staircase was all that was hidden behind the mystery door.

With every step I took up the seemingly endless staircase, my curiosity grew. I tried to bite my tongue to prevent myself from asking what waited for us at the top of the stairs, but it didn’t work. Curiosity got the better of me.

“What’s at the top?”

Laughing loudly he said, “I knew it wouldn’t take you long to ask. This is the quickest way to the top of the mountain. It took Dave and me several years to build this. You’ll love the view.”

About forty steps later, we finally made it to the top. After opening a steel door with a fifteen-digit combination, Bradley walked through into what looked like another cave. Seager and I waited behind while Bradley went ahead to make sure there were no bears lurking in the cave that led to the outside. When he returned, he led us through a small and narrow tunnel. We walked in darkness for a few minutes. My nerves on edge, I clung to his shirt. Once I saw daylight my grip relaxed and my fingers uncurled from the material of his shirt. The closer we got to the outside, the greater the cave expanded, opening up all around, allowing us to walk freely, side by side.