All Your Fates (Currently editing/updating)

Epilogue: End of Act One

Music Track List:

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Gabriel's POV

I had taken care of Emma during her full recovery, which took more than several days. It could hardly be unexpected. But she was a strong one. Strong even for her – and that is saying something.

And when I laid beside her naked body on the bed, comforting her shoulders with the finest luxurious sheets money could buy, I would often wonder what it was about this Emma that made her so...special. And then I would wonder about other Emma's out there, unknown to me as of yet...equally as strong and tantalizing, and it gave me a thrill. I could not wait to discover the full gamut of her...the full sum of her soul based on all her little choices. And desires. And fulfill them.

But in the meantime what she needed now most was rest and I was careful to accommodate her healing. Even if it meant putting aside my own desires. Besides, I could always satisfy them without her. Or with other hers, only with feelings towards them not so fresh and keen as this one.

I rested on the bed of my hotel room for many of a day and night, studying her soft form, the pink returning to her cheeks, the dark circles under her eyes  fading, her translucent pale skin warming like bread baking in the oven.

Fortunately some of her passwords were the same from other worlds so I was able to easily send emails to her family regarding a sudden interest in a trip to the Galapagos Islands with little access to wifi on the way. Her Gran sent more than a few concerned emails, but I knew Emma had a track record of sudden unresponsiveness that would not seem overly suspicious.

I stared at her face and felt relaxed and at home and tried to not feel the teeniest bit of guilt that I was somehow, if not only partly, to blame...by association.

And then one day she woke up. Like Sleeping Beauty. And I kissed her nose softly and said, "How now, my love. Fully recovered?"

Emma sat bolt upright in bed and yawned. And kept one eye open on me in suspicion, even though the sheets fell off her shoulders into her lap, exposing her most glorious soft white breasts to me.

"Clothes," Emma finally said. And it wasn't a request.

I smiled ruefully and unbuttoned my shirt slowly then handed it to her.

She stared at me nonplussed, but took the shirt and put it on.

Finally she said, "How long have I been out?"

"Quite some time," I answered. "Near two weeks."

"That explains why I am so hungry," she quipped and I laughed heartily. "My love," I replied, "You are always hungry."

"Knock it off with that love business," Emma demanded and I stopped chuckling.

"Aw...what are you going to do...go back to him?" I cajoled. "After he tried to kill you by sending you into that trap?"

"He didn't try to kill me...it was...something....else," Emma shot back at me with fiery defiance due to some misguided loyalty. "But not him," she decided and I was not the least bit surprised. Smart cookie that she was.

"Emma! Don't be a fool. David is..." I paused trying to find the right word, "Something old and ancient and...unusual. You can't trust a thing he will say or do."

Emma stood up and started looking around the room for pants. She had the audacity to open all my drawers and closets and rifle through as if I had no right to expect any privacy. And I loved her for it.

"Well...you know what they say," Emma quipped without looking back at me after finding a pair of pants she felt small enough to fit into but still fartoo large. "Birds of a feather..." she trailed off while rolling up the cuffs and then looking for a belt.