Chapter Six
It felt like paradise.
I didn't go home to The Glen again, I was beginning to prefer sitting in the woods, staying as close to Emilee as I could be. I didn't care if anyone missed me.
She loves me, she really said it! I grinned like a fool as I thought of her warm lips on mine and imagined the kisses in our future. The thought of having to wait all day to see her again was driving me insane.
How insane will I feel when she's gone? I grimaced at the thought—it had been bothering me whenever I was alone now. The truth was, we hadn't ever really been together, and I hated it. It hurt knowing everything that happened was just a dream.
What if we just run away together? We could live together in secret somewhere, forever. Until she dies. I stopped that train of thought. The ending was unacceptable to me. I considered several other options, but they all ended the same way. I couldn't take it anymore.
Emilee was looking at herself in the mirrors when I eagerly entered her dream. She was trying to do something with her hair, a look of discontent on her face, and she was as lovely as always. She dropped her hands to her side, blushing furiously when she realized I had arrived and was watching. I smiled.
I let my eyes travel down her body hungrily, noting her blush deepen as I took in her tight blue t-shirt, white cotton skirt, and white heels. I didn't think it was possible for her to look bad, ever.
"Hi," she said shyly, clasping her hands in front of her. She smiled slightly, biting her lower lip as she did so.
"Hello, yourself." I responded with my own smile, walking towards her. "Did you know," I said when I finally reached her pulling her into my arms and brushing the hair from her face, "I love it when you bite your lip like that. It just about drives me mad!" I raised my hand as I spoke and brushed my thumb over her bottom lip. She closed her eyes and sighed, leaning into me as I wrapped my arms around her waist. We fit together perfectly, and I loved that too. I just plain loved everything that had to do with Emilee.
I tightened my hold on her hips and crushed her to me, my mouth finding hers instantly. She opened her mouth and I licked her bottom lip tenderly, moving one of my hands from her hips and up to her face. I pulled gently away from her, smiling as I caressed her cheek and then rested my palm on her neck. She leaned in for more kisses, but I teased her by coming just close enough to feel the heat of our breath mingling. I laughed as she moaned in frustration and finally gave in to her.
The need for more grew as we kissed, tasting each other's lips again and again. I sucked on her lower lip as she slid her hands under my black t-shirt and rested them on my stomach, her fingers fanning over my abs. I moaned as she grabbed my sides and yanked me closer, deepening our kiss and locking her fingers together with her arms encircling my body. It was like an animal instinct was starting to overtake us.
I broke away from her mouth and nuzzled my face into the crook of her neck, tipping her head to the side. I bit her softly there and felt her grip on me tighten. Slowly, I trailed bites up her neck until I reached her ear. I let my teeth graze the lobe before I sucked on it as Emilee kissed my shoulder.
My hands slid down her sides, to her waist, and I pushed her up against the wall. As I did so, she kicked off her heels and jumped up, wrapping her legs around me as she had for some of our other kisses. Her hands twisted into my hair as I held her tightly, kissing her collarbone. I slid my hand up under her skirt, onto her thigh, and suddenly found myself being pushed away as she slid her legs down to the floor. Disappointment filled me as much as I didn't want it to.
"Wow," she said, trying to catch her breath. She reached her hand up to caress my face and I leaned into it, still wanting her touch.
"Why did you stop me?" I had her sandwiched between myself and the wall, and was tempted to start kissing her again.
She smiled softly as she answered. "We were starting to lose ourselves to something I'm not ready to fall into yet," she explained. "I didn't want to stop, trust me!" She looked somewhat frazzled, and the blush returned to her face as she continued. "I want to . . . not stop. You know what I mean? I just want it . . . I want it to be real. That's not something I want to happen here. I want it to be real."
"I understand," I replied, as she looked away embarrassed and dropped her hand from my face. "This is real though," I pressed. "I'm really here."
"I know that," she countered. "I meant real as in . . . not in a dream."
"Oh."
She stared at me hopefully, waiting for me to continue. "Is that a possibility?" She looked worried at my lack of response, her eyes starting to show signs of sadness. I smiled warmly at her to try and calm her fears. I honestly didn't know if we would ever have the chance to be together like that.
"Maybe," I answered. "We'll talk about it later, okay? I'm trying to come up with something." She smiled at that and wrapped her arms around my waist, making our embrace more casual. I breathed a small sigh of relief. I hadn't wanted to get into things that might make her sad.
"Emilee . . . you would tell me if you were ever going to go away, right? I mean, if you moved or something, you'd let me know so we could still be together?" I didn't look at her, waiting for her answer. I was sure that if I'd been mortal, I'd have knocked years off my life with all the extra pounding my heart was doing.
"As long as you want to be with me, you'll always know where I am," she answered. My heart calmed a little.
"Forever?" I turned to look at her, grasping her hand tightly in mine.
"Forever."
I took Emilee to see the world in her dreams, just like I'd wanted. By sharing my memories with her I realized what I had been missing in my own life; I didn't want to be without her ever again. Each night brought more happiness to me, but the knowledge that I was immortal and she would someday die, ate away at me more and more every passing day.
I was looking for a way to remedy our situation, but the answers were not being found easily. Frustration was setting in.
The next night, with Emilee's permission, I took her to visit one of my memories in England—to an old country dance. I remembered with perfect clarity all the people that had been in attendance as well—delighting her with the surprise of fellow dancers to sweep across the floor with. Of course she could only dance with me, since everyone else already had a partner, but she didn't mind. We only wanted to dance with each other anyway.
Once we were done with our dancing for the evening, I took Emilee outside to see the moon—it had been the reason I remembered the event so clearly. I also loved to show her the world she'd always wanted to see. It was something I could do for her that she hadn't been able to do herself.
There had been a beautiful Rose Moon that night, causing the tiny village to throw a dance celebrating the bountiful strawberry season they were experiencing. As we walked under the full orb, I took the opportunity to teach Emilee more about the Fae and their enjoyment of dances—how it was unlikely for the more rebellious of us to miss one being held in an area close by.
"And the people never knew? You were all there dancing with them and they didn't even know it?" She looked at me with a surprised expression on her face.
"Oh, some of them knew," I laughed. "They just didn't want to say anything. A lot of the time we, the Fae that is, would cast spells on the humans so they wouldn't notice. Those who did were inclined to drink more because they were nervous and then they would think they imagined the whole thing."
"So you can use magic other than glamour?" she questioned.
"Sort of. Humans tend to listen to what we say. We have the magic of . . . persuasion I think is what you would call it," I laughed. "We do use some magic to get around though. There are other kinds of beings that are heavy magic users, but Fae don't really bump into them very often—we like to keep to our respective kinds."
"Interesting," she replied. "Have you ever met one? That reminds me too. You were going to tell me about the Fae who has wings," she added on.
"No, I haven't ever met one," I laughed. "And the winged Fae I know is actually the Mother of our Glen."
"Glen?" she asked, confused.
"That's where I live, The Glen. It's kind of like a Fae town. Each one covers a wide area—I think there's only two allowed on each continent. That's all there is right now anyway. Each one has magical paths that lead out of it—created long before I was born—by the real magic users; they have been known to help those not of their kind for the right price, if they feel so inclined."
"Oh, I see." She contemplated this information for a moment as we continued our walk under the moon. "So what did your Mother do to get her wings?" she continued, after she'd absorbed the information I'd presented.
"She is one of the original Fae and was granted her wings as a peace offering from the Gods that took her from her mother. I believe she did something noteworthy as well, but I'm a little rusty on my history," I joked. "In spite of all the punishments she's given me, she is a wonderful woman. She can be scary at times, if you've rubbed her the wrong way. She's a good leader. She always puts the safety of her people before anything else."
We continued on in silence until we came to the doors of the dance hall. I was better at sensing when Emilee was beginning to wake since I was the one in control, and I began to notice the familiar signs of our time together coming to an end.
I gathered her into my arms and gently brushed the tips of my fingers over her cheek, smiling softly as I did so. I leaned in slowly—savoring the scent of her hair—and brushed my lips back and forth over hers lightly. It was a sweet kiss, still fire inducing, but I knew I didn't have enough time to kiss her thoroughly before she would wake. Instead, I simply held her in my arms with her head resting on my shoulder until she faded away completely.
Beautiful strains of music flitted through the air around us the next night. I hadn't created this memory to dance though; for a change of pace, I reached into my past and extracted a night at the opera for us to enjoy. Fae have always loved music and they use it in every ritual, but it was different for me. I liked the story the songs told. They didn't always have to be about the good, rule-following people—sometimes they were about rebellion and being who you wanted to be. I was rebellious to the ways of my people, but I kept a place inside myself for music, even if I hadn't enjoyed it as often as I liked. Opera had always been romantic to me, and I hoped Emilee would feel the same.
Emilee and I sat in our own private box, hands clasped and dressed for the occasion. She was so beautiful—she always was—but tonight she looked radiant. It didn't have anything to do with the deep-red gown she wore or the way her curls were pinned up. She was beautiful as a person, and tonight her inner beauty was complimenting her outer.
I was especially enjoying myself—the opera was one of my favorite forms of art and it had been a long time since I'd been to one. Emilee seemed to be enjoying herself as well, taking in everything as fast as she could, her perfect smile slightly glowing in the lights from the stage.
She leaned slightly towards me, and whispered, "This is beautiful! What are they saying now?" Her eyes never left the stage, her enchantment with the show apparent.
"The hero is declaring his love for the heroine," I explained.
"How do you know?" she asked in wonder. "Do you speak Italian?"
"Maybe," I laughed. "I have seen his show before too, you know. And the translation is in the program," I chuckled.
She looked at me affectionately and then returned her attention to the show. I softly hummed along with the song, switching to the actual words halfway through the melody. I could see Emilee's smile widening as I sang, but she continued watching the stage. I scooted myself closer to her, gripping her hand tighter, until I was whispering the serenade right into her ear.
As the couple on stage shared a kiss, I leaned in and kissed her neck, nipping her skin softly. She gently leaned into me, and I could hear her sigh contently. I moved down to her shoulder and licked the delicious skin there. I untangled our hands and wrapped my arms around her slender waist. She finally turned from the show and granted me the kisses I had been waiting for.
The music flowed around us as we kissed each other for the rest of the night. Each note was a new memory that became etched into my mind. It was hard to keep things chaste, but somehow we managed.