Mira (4 page)

Rillan grew more annoyed, waiting for her response.
 
He stood up.
 
“I’m tired.
 
If you’ve had enough conversation for one night I’ll take my leave.”

“No!” Mira stood up.
 
“Don’t go yet.”

“Then answer my question.”

Mira looked away from him again and walked over to the fire. Haltingly she said, “I guess they think that the, uh, deaths have increased because you’re growing more--”

Mira heard his footsteps behind her.
 
“Bloodthirsty,” he asked, finishing her sentence.
 
She felt his breath on her neck.
 
“Cruel? Vicious?”

Mira turned around to find herself face to face with him.
 
“Yes,” she blurted, suddenly feeling brave.
 
“Are you trying to frighten me?”

He backed her into the fire hearth and pinned her against it, placing his hands on the mantle on either side of her.
 
“What advantage would I possibly have by frightening you?”

She could feel the heat behind her and tried to push her way out of his arms, but he countered her movements and smiled at her, baring his fangs again.
 
Her eyes widened, still she pushed the fear down.
 
“I suppose that you would have the same advantage in frightening me this way as you had in frightening me by leaving me to wander alone in the dark or by leaving me alone in my room for weeks on end.”

He was taken aback by her confrontation.
 
“What if I were to tell you that I haven’t eaten in weeks?”
 
The black of his pupils bled out through the blue again.
 
“How brave will you be when I decide to take you to my bed?
 
Are you so lonely yet that you’ll give in to that?”

Mira swallowed hard.
 
“I don’t know.
 
Why are you being so manipulative?”

Rillan moved away from her.
 
She barely caught the change in his expression, before he turned. “I’m done for this day.
 
Go back to your rooms.”
 
Rillan headed toward the door.

He had almost vanished completely into the darkness, when Mira realized what he was doing and called after him.
 
“I know why.”
 
She heard his footsteps stop.
 
“You give us two choices.
 
You or complete and utter loneliness.
 
That’s why we can’t talk with anyone but you. That’s why this place is so dark and frightening.
 
Then you wait until we are so desperate from the loneliness that we willingly submit to anything if only to be near another body.
 
In a strange way you’ve set yourself up to be a savior, so that you don’t have to rape us.”

Rillan’s tone was sad and hollow.
 
“Go back to your room Mira.
 
In a week’s time I’ll come for you.
 
I won’t be able to resist the thirst much longer.
 
Prepare yourself for it.”
 
Then he was gone.

That night and through the next day Mira thought back to the first lessons she was taught.
 
The lessons in the beginning spoke of the great warrior who came to the druids.
 
He was a good man.
 
So this is what happens when a good man is turned into something that people believe to be inherently evil
, she thought.
 
He must truly despise himself.
 
All he really wants is someone to care for him.
 
It’s hard to believe that he hasn’t gone insane.
Mira paused a moment in her thoughts.
 
Or maybe he has a little.
 
At the very least
,
he’s hurt and angry.

It took Mira most of the afternoon to reach the decision she finally came to.
 
She soaked in a long bath, then put on one of the dresses in the closet that she was particularly fond of.
 
It was a soft green and reminded her of spring.
 
It wasn’t one of the overly fancy ones.
 
In another lifetime she may even have been able to own this dress.
 
It fitted her personality much better than the heavy brocade and beaded gowns that it shared the closet with.
 
She brushed her hair out and pulled it back from her face with some small carved wooden combs.
 
She had never owned jewelry so this seemed as good an occasion as any to wear them.

Mira stood in front of the mirror looking at herself.
 
She decided that under the right light, she may even be considered pretty.
 
She took a deep breath and realized that she was excited.
 
She had been waiting a long time to lose her virginity.
 
In some ways she was a little disappointed that it hadn’t happened sooner.
 
She was actually more scared that he wouldn’t like her than she was of what else he may do to her.
 
She pushed those thoughts out of her mind and resolutely walked out of the rooms and down the hall.
 

Mira held the lantern high and stared into the darkness around her.
 
She was familiar enough with where she was going at this point.
 
She noted the sound of her feet on the stone floor and wondered how good his hearing was.
 
She could feel a chill rush through the hall and wondered how cold it had become outside the cave with the changing season.
 
She thought about anything other than what she was doing:
 
how much she missed breeze blowing through trees, her friends who were counting on her to do her duty, the way her feet sounded padding down the hallway, the amount of time and energy it took to build this place.
   

Before she realized it, she was standing in the room that she had now met him in twice.
 
It was dark as it had been the last time she was here, and he was nowhere to be seen.
 
Mira turned around and walked out the door she came in.
 
Since she thoroughly looked through this room for a door the last time she was here, she was positive that his rooms were behind one of the other doors in the main hallway.

Mira examined several of the more intricately carved doors she passed on her way to this end of the hall and decided she should start by picking one and looking.
 
She didn’t need to go far to reach the first set of doors.
 
One led left and one led right.
 
Well it’s one way or the other.
 
If one doesn’t work, I can go the other way.
 

Mira walked up to the door on her right, turned the knob and opened it onto another hallway.
 
She sighed.
 
I absolutely hate that there isn’t light anywhere down here
.
 
She couldn’t see anything beyond the lantern light, and it didn’t go far.
 
Forcing herself forward, she walked into the hall, and the light from the lantern fell on a set of rooms similar to the rooms she was residing in.
 
The only difference being, it was obvious no one had been here in a long time.
 
A fine layer of dust covered everything.
 
The bed wasn’t made, a broken door hung on one hinge from the disused closet, and the room generally looked as though someone had gotten up one day, left hurriedly and never returned.
 

A chill went through her body.
 
Whatever happened here was a long time ago and nothing to do with me.
 
She turned and left the room quickly, happy to leave the peculiar scene behind.

Reaching the hall, she pulled the door closed behind herself and immediately moved to the other door.
 
When she heard a door slam somewhere further down the hall, she jumped and turned toward the noise, holding the lantern up over her head.
 
It sounded as though it came from the direction of her rooms.
 
Booted footsteps echoed down the hall coming toward her.
 
They were heavy and fast.
 
Suddenly her resolution failed her, and she felt the need to hide.
 
She turned the knob on the door and slipped into the room, closing the door softly behind her.
 
After a moment of heart pounding, she thought to put out the lantern.
 
Standing in the dark, staring at the door she came through, Mira could hear the footsteps coming closer.
 

Turning, frightened, she softly padded down the hall into the main room at the end of the corridor.
 
She was taken aback at what she found.
 
This was what she had been looking for.
 
Rillan ap Tiernay’s rooms.
 
There was a large bed, similar to hers.
 
The fire was lit and the few candles about the room were burned nearly completely down, making the shadows dance long across the floor.
 
The room smelled clean, like rain.
 
That’s when she noticed a large crevice in the cave wall that led up a shaft.
 
There was a heavy stone and metalwork cover that could be closed over it, presumably during daylight hours.
 
She could smell fresh air wafting down the shaft and rain.
 
It was pitch black, but she knew that if there had been stars that night she would have been able to see them.

“You shouldn’t be here.”
 
The cold voice made her jump.
 
Mira turned around to see Rillan standing behind her, glaring at her.

She swallowed hard.
 
She had promised herself that she wouldn’t let him intimidate or scare her.
 
She was going to offer herself to him.
 
That’s what I was trained for.
 
I belong to him.
 
He’s been more than reasonable waiting for me.
 
“I don’t want to wait a week.
 
I’ve come to you now.”

Rillan was amazed at the strength in her voice.
 
He almost believed that she wanted to be there with him.
 
“I’ll not argue with that decision, if it’s truly what you want. But if we begin this, and you change your mind, I may not be able to stop.”

“I don’t want you to,” she said in that same strong, resolute tone.

He reached out, allowing his fingers to graze the white skin of her neck. She shivered from the chill of his hand. Mira's eyes fluttered closed, and she breathed softly. She felt his fingernails drawing a line from below her chin to the bodice of her dress. They continued around edge line of her bodice, over her breasts, then back up the other side of her neck, until his hand was pressed against her hairline.

I never expected him to be so gentle
, Mira thought, as she felt his other hand on the opposite side, turning her around and cupping her face.
He's painted as a bloodthirsty warrior with uncontrollable hunger. The teachings never talk about this side of him.

           
Rillan watched Mira.
 
His hands caressed her neck and cheeks. She didn’t even flinch. The shiver that he felt against his palm was like that of an excited lover.
 
He expected frightened trembling. He leaned down, his lips only a breath away from kissing her, still not quite trusting her offering, coming as it did on the heels of his ultimatum.
 
Even so, she was soft under his touch, and he was nearly blind with hunger. He couldn’t refuse her, not now that she was here. Her breath warmed his lips, and Rillan pulled her to her tiptoes, closing the distance between them, kissing her gently.

           
The contrast always overwhelms me,
he thought.
Their warmth against my cold. Balance.
Mira accepted him, pressing her lips back against his, dragging the moment out endlessly.

           
When Rillan released Mira from the kiss, she sighed breathless and dazed for a moment.
 
“I wondered how that would feel,” she said. “I spent a long time wondering.” Her eyes remained closed, and a small flush crept up her chest, beginning above the bodice of her dress and creeping up her neck to her cheeks. Rillan smiled, remembering her youth and inexperience. He moved his hands down her neck, caressing, pressing palms on her shoulders. Mira felt the movement and held her breath in anticipation.
I'm enjoying this,
she thought, surprised. Finally she opened her eyes and held his dark gaze. “So much I expected has been wrong,” she admitted.

           
“Yes,” he replied, simply. With one more sweep of his hands, he pushed the sleeves of her dress off her shoulders and few inches down her arms, exposing more of her chest.
 
One arm slid around her waist and pulled her body to his. He placed the other hand over her heart, to touch the place where her pulse quickened while he kissed her. Warmth spread outward from beneath his fingers.
Her skin is soft as flower petals, and she smells like roses
. Rillan leaned down again, placing small kisses around her jaw line and down her neck.

           
Mira felt Rillan's kisses like the fluttering of butterflies against her skin. When his hand moved from over her heart, to caress her breast, she gasped.
 
Embarrassment, uncertainty, and excitement flooded her senses. His fingers explored the neckline of her bodice before sliding between the fabric and her flesh. One nipple was caught between the cool, slender digits.
 
Her body responded instinctively to his caress. Her nipple swelled between his fingers, as he squeezed and pinched.