Rosalind - Amby Awards 2023 TOP PICK

76- Flesh and Blood

Rosalind brought the cold in with her when she entered the manor. Behind her, Caspian carried the stag to the kitchen and set it on the butchering table with a thud.

Rosalind's cape was covered in snow. Icy white flakes clung like burrs as she headed up the stairs. "My lord," she called. Her voice, though a ghost of a whisper, found its way to Caspian. As if pulled by an absolute force, the lord exited the kitchen and followed his lover upstairs.

Blood covered Caspian's hands as he carefully opened the door to his study for Rosalind. The pair entered a semi-darkness. Inside, warmth ebbed from slowly-dying cinders. The lord moved to a decanter and poured a glass of wine for Rosalind.

"Can you not drink what I do?" she asked taking the glass from him. Peering inside, Rosalind saw the red liquid scraping along the sides as though it were trying to free itself.

"Not unless it has been laced with blood."

Rosalind walked to his desk and rested the glass down. "Then that is how we will drink it." As she spoke, her eyes darted over the lord and the stains of blood the deer had left on his clothing and skin. "Yours and mine. Do you have a knife?"

Raising a brow, Caspian chuckled. "You have gone beautifully mad, have you not?"

Opening a drawer, Rosalind replied, "I have a few more miles to go." Drug paraphernalia rolled around the drawer, but Caspian's blood had already created the desired effect so she did not ask him for his powder or dust. In the high created by the beast's blood, there were no terrifying shadows on the wall, simply a sense of sureness and strength. She felt invincible. When Rosalind saw there was no knife in the first drawer, she continued to search until she found a small razor. Touching the blade to her wrist, she cut along her skin and let a few drops of blood trickle into the wine.

When Caspian saw her wrist turn vermillion he rushed to her and grabbed her hand with his blood-covered ones. "You will drag me to insanity one day." Bringing her wrist to his lips, Caspian sealed the cut.

"Bleed for me," she demanded as she took hold of his arm and tugged his sleeve up exposing his reptilian skin. Sliding the razor over his wrist, she cut deep enough to draw blood. Turning his wrist over the glass, she let his own blood fall in with hers and the wine.

Inside the glass, the wine bubbled momentarily. A little sea of crimson birthed tiny waves. Rosalind watched in awe, a gasp escaping her.

"You did not know what my blood could do to you," Caspian uttered as he walked behind her and snaked his arms around her waist. "You see things, do you not?"

"I am seeing things," she whispered into the glass. "The wine reminds me of the sea were it drowning in blood. The snow outside was flying upwards before." Pausing, she touched the wine to her lips before speaking again. "It does not frighten me. I want to stay in this Wonderland I see."

"Beloved, it is not a Wonderland you see. It is an Abyss that will drag you deeper and deeper into its core until the only thing on your mind is destruction." Caspian leaned into her ear and licked along the lobe. "If becoming a monster like me is what you desire you may as well slit your wrists right now. This life I lead I would not wish it to you. I would rather die a thousand painful deaths than have you become what I am."

Turning with the glass, she offered him some wine and watched him drink. "I feel alive when I am with you." Thoughts of him reading poetry from Bellua crept up and tugged at her skirt like a waif in need of acknowledgment. Every time Lord Caspian had entered her mind it had caused havoc inside her, Rosalind recalled the pain and then the bliss those dreams had caused. When she had finally had him in bed, she felt as though a shell around her had broken and she was able to morph from who she always was to who she was meant to be. It is madness, I know. But is love not the ultimate insanity? "I desire you like I have desired no other." Inching up, she pressed her lips to his neck leaving a trail of kisses along his skin. When the lord growled low, she nipped causing him to hastily set the wine glass down on the edge of the desk and utter that he was going to take her right there. "I want you to, Caspian," she replied. Leaning closer into his bloody clothes, she undid his cloak and let it fall like a snake shedding its skin. Rosalind worked at the buttons of his shirt before pulling it off his shoulders, leaving him partially clothed.

Caspian undid the laces of her dress and pressed his lips to hers. He groaned as his tongue searched for hers. The lord's hands darted over exposed flesh, one dipping under her bodice as the other hiked up her skirt and slid over her thighs.

Feeling his hands crawl over her, Rosalind shivered and broke the kiss. "Do what you did before," she pleaded, "that thing with your tongue."

Caspian reached out and pushed everything off the desk. The glass, already too close to the edge, fell inelegantly and shattered on the floor spilling blood and wine on the stones. Hoisting her up, the lord lay Rosalind on the desk. "I will do anything for you," he growled softly while he pushed her dress up higher. "Ask me for the sun and I will burn my wings trying to reach it for you." Kneeling between her legs, Caspian listened as she shuddered and cried out when he touched her.

Shocks of electricity ran through Rosalind. Inside, a million little explosions caused every part of her to tremble. When she reached for him and pulled him nearer, she heard the room echo her cries. A million tiny insects, shiny as the candy which had sat on the dinner table, crept furiously up the walls towards a swarm of silver butterflies slumbering on the ceiling. Closer to an edge he had taken her before, she soon found herself again. Yet this time she called out for him to stop just before that final explosion and whispered breathlessly. "I want you inside me, now."

Tugging his trousers open swiftly, Caspian rose and hovered above Rosalind. When he slipped inside her it was demanding and harsh. Embracing her, the lord thrust against wetness and warmth until he felt her arch back and cry out as she came. With her quivering from the fading spasms of her orgasm, Caspian continued his pace until he too shuddered and pulsated inside her. Breathless, he looked at her, at the way her eyes hooded after she had come, and the small, swift breaths she took as her heart tried to calm itself down again. Remaining on top of her, he cupped her face. The deer's blood left faint marks on them both. "I want you forever," he uttered as his fingers feathered across her cheek. "You belong to me."

Rosalind saw the beast's face slip momentarily into a man's, his glacier-blue eyes and blond hair made him look celestial. "And you belong to me. My heart and soul. My flesh and blood."