The Torn, Book One of the Holding Kate Series (6 page)

The sunlight was
too bright. My eyes were blinded by the unnaturally glaring white after being in a dark cave so long. The light caused stabbing pains and I plastered my hands over my eyes and tried to figure out what was going on. Air blasted up from around my feet, I could feel my hair blowing around. Corey pressed into my back, and I started to turn toward him.

“Kate! Don’t move!” Corey bellowed over the blast of wind that buffeted around us. I felt his hands reach around me and he clamped me to his back, locking us together, back to back.

“Corey, what is wrong? I can’t see!”

“Me either. Just give it a minute for our eyes to adjust.” He kept his arms locked around me.

“Where are we?”

“Hold on.”

“Holy Guacamole!” His grip tightened.

I moved my hands down to his and tried to peek out of one eye. The light was still too intense. I squinted, using my lashes to filter the blaring brightness until they adjusted. When I could open my eyes without pain, I grabbed tighter to Corey, and slowly we turned to face each other wrapped tightly in a wrestler’s hold.

We were standing on a flat rock about a yard in diameter, lifted on a thin pillar of pale stone. I had been to the Empire State Building with my mom one year. We rode the elevators to the top and walked around the observatory. The height of that dizzying drop made me literally ill, but it was nothing compared to where we stood.

With no rails, no ropes, nothing to secure us, except each other, we gawked at the ridiculous drop. Miles below us were pink clouds painted by sunrise and beyond that, who knew? The wind was overwhelming and whipped around us, threatening to push us off the edge of the tiny stone we called foundation.

“Corey!” I cried. “Dear, God!” My whole body rocked in tremors of fear and cold. Corey hugged me tighter. “What are we going to do?”

He was silent for a moment, and then he spoke into my ear. “We are going to memorize everything we see, right? We are going to soak up everything we need to survive, okay?”

His calm tone was a balm.
Right. Yes. We are going to observe and absorb.
“I guess that means I have to open my eyes,” I whimpered.

He laughed. I felt his body chuckle as it was tightly pressed to mine.

Tension seemed to flow out of me and slide down the rock pillar. I felt a sense of giddiness—maybe it was thin air or adrenaline, I don’t know—but a sense of belonging engulfed me. As I embraced Corey, it was as though arms bigger and stronger than his held me. A feeling of pure love seemed to seep into my being, as though our souls were somehow exposed, and we were stripped down to our basic selves, wide-open to a greater being, a benevolent and loving entity.

Corey drew his head back and looked into my eyes. We simply stared at one another with round eyes and full hearts.

“Are you feeling this?” Corey asked with a sense of wonder.

I nodded and nearly purred with contentment and satisfaction. I looked up at Corey and his blue eyes mirrored the sheer joy and peace that I felt. His face broke into a wide smile and mine followed suit. We literally beamed at one another, bound together in a tight cord of sacred love.

“Wow.”

A rushing sound of ferocious wind twisted up the pillar. We leaned over to see the clouds swirling in tornado strength and rising up to meet us. The sound was like a train bearing down on us. We locked our arms around each other and braced for the impact.

Wind blasted us off of the stone and we flew into the air, ripped apart by the sheer force of the raging bellows. Only Corey’s iron grip on my wrist kept us from being blown in opposite directions. We were carried higher and higher in the current. Corey walked up my arm and screamed in my ear as he bolted me to his chest.

“Lock our belts together!” He shouted.

I reached down and unbuckled his belt and slipped it through mine before buckling it back around his waist. He nodded and still we flew higher and higher.

We began to relax a bit, realizing that we weren’t in any immediate danger of falling anyway since the wind seemed to be pushing us up. But that state did not last long. I guess it is true, what goes up—you know. We reached a peak, seemed to hover a split second, and then began to plunge toward who knew what.

I left my insides up above me and screamed as we plunged toward what could only end badly for us. I looked at Corey who was bolted to my side and the scream dried in my throat.

He was smiling! Seriously? Then I felt it too. A slight pressure seemed to cup us as if a great hand were controlling our fall. My mouth flew open and my eyes bulged.

Corey laughed and I thought it was the nicest sound I had ever heard. That same feeling of completeness swelled inside of me. Pure love. I found myself smiling, too.

We weren’t even falling anymore, not really, it was almost as if we were flying. Corey wrapped his right arm around my waist and yelled.

“I want to try something. Follow my lead.”

I nodded and watched to see what he was going to do. He maneuvered us to where we were lying out straight like sky divers, and then moved his arm to direct us. I mirrored his motion with my arm and we actually started directing our fall. We quickly learned how to spin and flip and whirl in a circle. It was amazing as though we were playful seals and the sky was our ocean. We danced on the sky waves for what seemed like decades. No, I literally mean, we did this for decades, twenty or thirty years passed, maybe more, I don’t know for sure. We were outside of the normal passing of time. We had entered the realm of eternity.

Sheer joy bubbled up inside of me. I couldn’t stop laughing. Corey’s blue eyes twinkled and his blond hair buffeted in the wind. We laughed until our sides hurt, then Corey wrapped me in bear hug and dove to the side and we began to tumble head over heels. We leveled out and he held me tightly with one arm and touched my face with his other hand. We smiled into one another’s eyes, lost in the eternal moment of joy and love and purity. He turned so I could lie along his body. I propped my elbows onto his chest and we talked for hours, days, years, decades as we fell through the sky and fell in love. He had the most pure heart I had ever encountered and the most startling revelations about life. The sound of his voice became my hiding place and I crawled into it and lived there, anticipating the next words he would say.

He was engrossed by my menial thoughts and expressions. He hung on every word I said as though each syllable were a priceless jewel to cherish. I spoke of things with him that I could never share with anyone else, completely safe in his arms. I had no fear that he would reject me. With each word I spoke, his love encircled me, drawing me nearer.

Eventually, I noticed something whirring past us and broke eye contact to see what it was. Pink fluffy stuff, like cotton candy, sparse at first, flew past us. I looked over Corey’s shoulder my hair flying out behind me.

I pointed and he adjusted our fall so he could see beneath us. The pink fluffy clouds were gathered in a dense net and we were falling toward it very quickly. As we penetrated the thickness we began to slow until the fluff was so heavy it stopped us completely.

We were entirely blanketed in thick pink down. All around us, above us, below us, we were resting at the center of warm pink comfort.

I was relieved that we did not end up a splat on some rock below and I was exhausted. I snuggled against Corey’s comforting warmth and he stroked my hair until I fell asleep. Wrapped in his arms, I felt security and peace like I had never felt in my life. I sighed and pressed against his strength. He locked his arms around me and hummed in my ear the most content sound anyone ever made.

We breathed as one.

We dreamed as one.

Time was fluid.

It trickled around us…

through us…in ebbs or drifts,

…slow and languorous,

…caressing our senses,

…defining our memories.

“Is this a dream?” I murmured in a timeless haze.

“Mmmhmm.”

We had held each other for an eternity, basking in sheer joy and deep abiding love. I stroked his smooth arms and chest. “I like it.”

“Mmmhmm.” He touched my hair, my cheek, my lips and ran his finger down my jawline to my ear lobe. He traced my neck, my collar bone, my shoulder. I turned my head to accept the tender gestures. We had always been like this, together. I couldn’t remember a time in my life that did not consist of floating in bliss with Corey.

“I have loved you for a thousand years, Corey.” My half lidded eyes gazed into his.

“I will love you for thousands more, Kate.” His smooth voice seemed connected to something deep inside of me. When he spoke, I quivered in response, as though he plucked a string that vibrated at my core.

“Do you hear the singing?” I spoke into the crook of his neck and traced the line from his ear to his collar bone with my breath.

“Mmmmhmmm.”

“Can you make out the words?” I breathed in the warmth radiating from his body and something stirred deep inside of me.

Corey cocked his head to listen, while tracing my face with his finger. “He loves us too.”

“Yeah, such a great love.” I sighed in complete harmony with Corey and the voice. We were eternal.

“So much love,” his voice was a mere whisper. He turned my chin up to his face and gazed into my eyes with tenderness and passion born of an eternal bond. “Can I kiss you, Kate?”

“Mmmmhmmm.” It seemed a natural progression and expression of the love coursing around us, through us, the love that was power, the love that was creation.

I lifted my eyes to see his beautifully contented expression, full of love and purity. His eyes twinkled with peace and a dreamy quality. Then his sweet lips were on mine, tender and gentle, softly exploring the taste of me. Corey was sweet and light, pleasant and peaceful. Strength flowed from him into me, surrounding us and holding us in this precious moment. Our lips touched and parted and nibbled and savored, each kiss demanding another, insatiable sweetness.

We existed to be wrapped in each other’s bliss, arms and legs intertwined as well as heart and soul. Kisses went on and on, each as sweet and pure as the first. Our kisses were given to one another as precious gifts. Corey learned exactly what pleased me most and naturally gave openly and unreservedly. I realized that he like it best when my tongue grazed his lip. He responded passionately with a moan of pleasure and his intensity quickened.

It made me happy to ignite his desire. His joy was mine. His passion became mine. He realized that I loved it when he slid his hand over my skin as he nibbled my bottom lip. I would literally melt into him. My pleasure sparked his and we burned brighter with each kiss. Hundreds, maybe thousands of years passed as we shared tender and passionate kisses. Purity and passion perfectly balanced as we touched and explored each other’s lips. This is what I was made to do. This is what I had always done, loved Corey and had taken great delight in pleasing him. My soul was completely open to this powerful and good boy. I was his and he was mine. It had always been. Our kisses climaxed in intensity an eternity ago and we floated on this eternal crest of hunger, never tiring of our soul mate’s taste and warmth.

At some point I realized something was jabbing in my back and finally it became uncomfortable enough that I opened my eyes and glanced around while continuing the kisses.

I turned my head and Corey traced a line of kisses down my neck. “Corey?”

“Mmmhmmm.” He continued to bless me with sweet kisses.

“I don’t think…”

He silenced me with another set of delicious kisses. I surrendered to their unspeakable sweetness, closed my eyes and opened my heart fully to Corey’s blessings, returning them with strength and love.

“Ahem.”

We splintered apart and looked around. The fluffy pink clouds were gone. A past that no longer existed to us reasserted itself. We were on the floor of the cave surrounded by vaguely familiar faces.

Who were these people? How did they get here? We had never needed anyone else in our haven of bliss.

Corey’s breath was on my neck as though he couldn’t resist the nearness of me. I turned back to him and gasped at the intensity on his face. I kissed him with passion born of a thousand years.

Someone trilled a nervous laugh.

Once again, Corey and I turned to them and the strange cave that we seemed to be in. The dreamy quality of our existence slowly began to fade and the harsh reality of this group of strangers in this cold, damp cave asserted itself.

I stared at the blond who stood by the torchlight with her brows arched toward the ceiling and her features seemed vaguely familiar. The name Mel floated into my mind. Did I know her?

She was surrounded by the others.

I know them too,
I thought.

Oh!
I remembered them with a jolt! Our team mates! We were back.

I had a sense of loss, as though paradise had fled and abandoned us in this dank dark cave. The people we had once known—had even started to love—stared at us. They were becoming more and more familiar as I lay wrapped around Corey. I started to feel as though I shouldn’t be beside Corey.