Raven (17 page)

Aiyana finally agreed to make a trip back to her apartment with Reed and Cillian in order to grab clothes and make a few telephone calls to the necessary people. Elijah was going out of his mind with worry when she hadn’t answered any one of his forty seven telephone messages. She assured him she was fine and passed off her absence as a business trip with a quirky client who had wanted a portrait of him and his wife out in the bush where there was no telephone reception. That satisfied him momentarily but he insisted they get together soon as he had someone he wanted her to meet. She insisted she was perfectly happy on her own and had no intention of going on any blind date he had set up for her. He hung up slightly disgruntled but she knew he would get over it quickly enough.

Her other clients were emailed to notify them of an urgent leave of absence from her work and she assured them she would be back on board with her projects soon. The incident with the APP and then the subsequent attack from the ravens left no doubt in any of their minds that Aiyana and Eilam were still in great danger; and her staying in her apartment at the moment would be very foolhardy. At this point they had no idea what the APP thought of all that went down, but they knew from their own spies that lurked in the mountains that Einar was still suspicious about their actual deaths. The moment they had plunged into the water Eilam’s flock had returned and fought them off – Cillian and Reed morphing in to their human forms to dive into the ocean and fish them out. So she readily agreed to being escorted back to collect her things and then return to stay with Eilam and his flock until they could figure things out.

Despite their steamy kisses, her thoughts niggled in the back of her mind, intruding on her reality and rudely and acting like a complete fizzler to her sex drive. One minute she would be all hot and heavy with him and the next they would argue over whether she should bloody kill him or not. She had to laugh at the ludicrous irony of the whole situation and pointed it out to Eilam on a daily basis.

“How can you stand there and ask me to kill you when you’ve just spent all this time getting better,” she said, raising her voice at him with each and every word.

“How can you not see it my way? You could have been killed Aiyana, any one of my flock could have and certainly people in the city are dropping like flies from all the murderous rampages my father’s flock are going on,” he said, his black eyes blazing as his temper simmered near the surface.

“Well I’m fine,” she stressed, making no headway what so ever with trying to get her point across to him. Their fights wouldn’t last long though. Her being the more stubborn of the two she would always hold out longer than he and by the time he was ready to fly again he would always return with a gathering of food for her after such a quarrel. When he left after such a fight she would go to the cave’s entrance and wait there for him. She knew without a doubt that he would return and be hers once more. She had to smother a giggle each time she saw the fruit in his beak, and knew it was a compulsive behaviour of the raven as he was looking for a mate. She pondered her thoughts long and hard and asked herself how she could possibly drive a dagger into the heart of the very being she thought of as her soul mate. She had to admit, Eilam had a valid point in that one life to sacrifice for a whole civilization made lots of sense on paper. But when your heart controlled your desires, there was nothing her head could do to convince her otherwise.

In a solemn discussion one day he had actually had the nerve to present her with a dagger! One look at the thunderous expression on her face had him coming up with all manner of excuses for its purpose. To protect herself from other ravens, to go hunting in the woods, to carve fruit for eating, oooh oooh, and her favourite, just in case the APP happened to come foraging in the woods for her. His excuses were endless.

To prevent steam from coming out of her ears, she sheathed it and left him without saying a word and went back to reading a vintage copy of a book she still held in paperback that she’d brought from home.

All of their trips to the outside world were now done under the cover of darkness, their frames too large and easily spotted by other ravens in the daylight hours. Even though neither flock knew of the others exact nest, it wasn’t too hard to get within the general vicinity and start scoping out the goings on of the rival flock. Eilam barely discussed his father. It was a subject he felt was best left alone. She knew from odd comments here and there that the originals of the curse remained evil – full of hatred and despising the pathetic feebleness of the people they terrorised.

The offspring or fledglings as they were called in their youth weren’t all susceptible to the ways or traits of their deliverer that brought them in to this world.

Instead they had forged off on their own to try and find a way out of the curse. And they had found that way in Aiyana, which just about made her the hottest ticket on the planet right now.

Aiyana was getting so used to life with Eilam that she didn’t think she could go back to her loft and live alone, and it was today of all days that sealed that deal forever.

She was sleeping in the room where she had taken care of Eilam whilst he had been recovering. He had been gone a long while and she had woken because she had started to feel cold without his warmth there next to her. It was just as she got up to get an extra layer of clothing from her backpack that he returned.

He came through the fern screen and almost ran into her.

“Sorry,” he said out of breath, “I didn’t think you would be awake”.

“I got cold,” she said as she bent down to grab her jacket.

“Why don’t you let me warm you instead?” The deep warm voice that always made her melt at the knees. He opened his arms to her and she walked into them leaving the jacket where it was, the warmth of his skin heating her own.

His hand brushed her dark masses of hair behind her back, his hand all the while tracing slow circles down her back as he did so. She felt the familiar pull of desire whenever he touched her and she knew from the look in his eyes that he wanted her. She’d seen enough movies to recognise the signs and it just felt so right. He cupped her face and kissed her with a tenderness that belied his true intentions. With the heat of their kisses getting steamier by the minute, she had to take her mouth off of his so she could catch a breather whist he ran his tongue down her neck and to the centre of her throat where he planted kisses that made her moan quietly.

She was too caught up in the moment to be embarrassed by the sound, although she did wonder if anyone else could hear their goings on. A split second later she had completely forgotten all about the noise factor because his hands had moved to her tank top she was wearing and a whole new wave of worry washed over her.

Wait! She’d never done this before!

“I won’t hurt you, I promise,” he whispered in her ear.

“I know this sounds ridiculous, but I’ve never done this before,” she said, waiting for him to laugh his head off at her.

“Neither have I,” he said back, still inching her top higher over her abdomen. She took in his masculine naked chest then and found it very hard to imagine that no one had ever had the glorious pleasure of making love to such a beautiful specimen. 

She wondered if it would be like the blind leading the blind, but she needn’t have worried. He undressed her, sensuously and slowly, taking his time to take in every inch of her body with appreciation showing in his eyes. When she was completely naked she started to tremble a bit, partly because she was still cold and partly because she was so damn nervous about what they were about to do.

In one fail swoop he lifted her off the ground, his arms catching behind her knees and shoulders. He lay her gently down on the bed and stood back to take off the black pants he had on around his waist. She had to admit, she had been kind of wondering about his package. Being a raven one minute and man the next made it hard to see which one was the real him.

Right now, he was all man.

Or should she say all donkey. Oh. My. God. Did she really just think that! What the hell was wrong with her?
She snorted loudly and clapped a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing. He stood naked in the semi darkness, an amused smile on his lips.

“What is it, Aiyana,” he said seductively.

“It’s just that you’re so…um…well, so big,” she said not sure if there was even etiquette for saying such things.
Well he asked!

He chuckled quietly and moved to her, leaning down to bring his mouth to a spot just above her knee. He kissed her so softly, but she had such a knee jerk reaction that she just about kneed his two front teeth out.

“Easy,” he cooed softly, “I’m not going to hurt you”. He planted another kiss, further up her leg this time and she tried to stop being so nervous. He kissed higher until he reached her hips and then traced a line with his tongue all the way up her ribcage to her breasts. He stopped the kiss now and put his whole mouth around her nipple, sucking hard whilst she gasped in delight. She felt a tug between her legs and wanted every inch of him on and in her all at once. He wasn’t in a hurry though. He moved his hot mouth to hers and kissed her with such passion she thought she was going to lose her senses. Was he sure he’d never done this before? Teeth found her neck and he nipped deliciously at her skin there while she ran her hands down his back.

She could feel the scars from the wounds he had received from the other ravens, but she knew it pained him no more to be touched there. Feeling braver she ran her hands lower to his backside and pulled him close to her, just enough so he could feel the wetness between her legs. He groaned and pulled himself slightly back from her, only to push back to the same spot immediately. He repeated this over and over until he could stand it no more.

With their mouths locked and his arms wrapped around her shoulders he entered her slowly to feel the warm tightness of her body. He felt her suck in her breath and pulled out a bit before easing slowly forward once more. The initial pain she felt was soon replaced by an incredible throbbing and she just wanted to rock back and forward with him to intensify the pleasure she was feeling. Never had she imagined it would feel this good. It wasn’t that she had never experimented with herself, but before Eilam she could never have imagined wanting another boy or man to touch her in such a way. She had never felt closeness like this with anyone before him and she was sure she never would again. He had ruined her for anyone else.

Their eagerness intensified with each and every thrust and she knew she was getting close to coming completely undone. He slowed his pace now, he too feeling like he was too close to the edge and not quite willing to relinquish the feeling just yet. He got to the point where he penetrated her deeply and held himself there while she grabbed his back and tried to hold him deeper inside of her. Soon the throbbing was too intense and her climax tipped him over the edge. He cooed in her ear like the raven he was and he released all the love and lust he had felt for this woman since he had first laid eyes on her.

In that moment, she too had ruined him. For after spending such an incredible moment with the woman he loved, he didn’t know if he could bring himself to ask her to end his life again.   

The weather the night before should have been an indication of what was to come. By nightfall a wind gust so strong had rushed over the mountains that the leaves had started to be stripped bare from the trees. Even from the pinnacle of the waterfall they could see the white tipped peaks of the ocean that frothed and foamed with the breath of Mother Nature. Dark foreboding clouds hung low across the landscape and twirled around the tops of the city’s tallest buildings. By midnight, lightening cracked across the sky and lit it up like a new year’s celebration.

Aiyana thought it was beautiful to watch from where she and Eilam where perched up in the tree tops of the mountain. Branches shook around them but she felt safe and peaceful with the man that sat next to her. Their love making had surprised her and enticed her to want more of this creature. Every time she made eye contact with him she couldn’t help but smile a goofy smile and blush like crazy, remembering each and every detail of their intimate encounter. She was still heady with it all and found it hard to concentrate on anything else. Her life as an artist in a city that was doomed seemed like a distant memory, kind of foggy and hazy – kind of like having déjà vu. She was sure she had been there and lived that life before, but the days spent with Eilam now seemed more like her reality, rather than a magical encounter that no one would normally get to experience.

With an exceptionally strong blast of wind, the tree they were in shook ferociously and threatened to knock them both out of it.

“We had better head back to the nest,” said Eilam reluctantly.

“Okay,” she didn’t care where she was so long as he was there. He dove off the branch and morphed mid-air, only to swoop around instantly to come back for her. He gently grabbed her up in his claws and then flew them both back to the nest.

The rain hit her face like tiny pellets and by the time she was back in the cave she was soaked to the skin. They wove in and out of the others who were huddled up inside out of the path of the storm and made their way to the rear room that was his. Once the fern fronds had been drawn closed, she stripped her wet clothes off and hung them out to dry. She stood shivering in her bra and panties, those too clinging to her like second skin. She was about to grab a set of dry clothes when she felt his presence behind her.