Soulwalker (12 page)

Now the time had come. The daylight had gone, and Tarris had no more excuses. Even dinner had passed far too quickly for her.

She opted to remove her suit and use the wheelchair, storing her precious walking aid in the spare bedroom. Removing the frame, in Tarris’s mind, was not sexy and was something better out of the way before bed.

Tarris’s heart was thumping wildly. What she had held in expectation from earlier in the day was now upon them, and she was more than a little nervous. She watched anxiously as Asher approached and stopped mere inches from her. “Take my clothes off,” Asher murmured.

“Why?” Clear ice eyes widened.

“It’s part of the seduction.”

“It is?” Really? Maybe she should have paid more attention to the intricacies of the mating ritual.

Asher stepped into the space between Tarris’s legs. Her hands grabbed the wheelchair armrests and pulled Tarris slowly forward.

From the moment Asher’s lips touched hers, Tarris’s emotions soared. It took only moments for her to pull Asher closer as she remembered the body-to-body sensation with relish.

Asher pulled away slightly. “Now, undress me.” The low light of the room cast enticing shadows over Asher’s face. Her eyes darkened from azure to a midnight blue in a matter of moments.

Tarris couldn’t help but look over to the wall. “Now I wish the bed was in the spare room.”

“Ignore them. It’s only us, all right?”

For Tarris to convince herself of the mental deception wasn’t easy.

Asher wrapped a hand around Tarris’s neck and pulled her in, her tongue demanding entrance and receiving it. Tarris’s fingers touched her and slid slowly over her shirt to find entrance to the skin beneath. Asher whispered, “I have a feeling I don’t have to show you anything.”

Tarris could feel Rya shifting anxiously as curiosity and apprehension swirled around inside her. She was driven to know. Her fingers finally found the clasps and clumsily undid them to reveal shadowed terrain. As if outside herself, Tarris watched her hands slide past the material to Asher’s pale skin. Her heated fingers burned a path across a patch of skin that was soft and enticing, unlike anything she had felt before. She wanted to convey all her emotions in that touch: innocence, curiosity, sensuality, and excitement to name a few.

A shaky sigh escaped Asher’s lips at that first touch. The whisper of material sounded like an explosion in the silence of the room. Tarris had taken the first step down the road of discovery. Her eyes were at their strongest in the low light, and she used them to great advantage. Her gaze wandered down over the skin she had touched moments before. Rya shifted again. “Steady,” she whispered.

“Did you say something?”

“Just talking to myself.”

“Come…” Asher grasped Tarris’s shaking hands and lifted them to the magnetic clasp on the front of her bra. Tarris’s eyes remained fixed on her chest for long moments before they rose to meet her own. “You can do it.” Asher’s hands rested over Tarris’s as the clasp came free. The moment Tarris cupped her breasts, a low moan escaped Asher’s lips. “Oh God, honey.” In a flurry of activity, she tore at Tarris’s clothes, bringing skin against skin.

Tarris felt herself being steered toward the bed and helped to lower herself fully to the mattress. Her apprehension grew as her skin was slowly revealed. Her body trembled as her pants gave way to the colostomy bag lying against her skin

“You are beautiful,” Asher murmured. Tarris looked into her eyes and knew in her heart that Asher meant it. She hadn’t considered herself beautiful. She was well aware of how her body looked. Her muscular upper body was due to compensating for her paraplegia, and it made her lower half look emaciated. Yet, when she looked at her lower half alone, it wasn’t wasted but merely thin. The suit she wore had exercised the muscles, thereby keeping them pliable and useful. All that was needed to make them work was the nerve conduction.

Tarris felt naked in more ways than one. Asher studied her, and Tarris didn’t know whether she liked it or not. Was it the physician or the woman who looked at her? A lone hand traveled up her body, starting in territory where she felt nothing and crossing over the border to sensation. Her skin twitched before it instinctively withdrew. Asher continued the easy stroking of her skin, allowing Tarris to relax and welcome the new touch. Her eyes never left Asher’s hand as it discovered her, even when she found her breast. It was… it was… A gentle sigh escaped her lips as Asher teased her nipple.

“Good, huh?” Asher chuckled. Her soft lips replaced the hand, and her moist tongue gently circled the rapidly responding nipple.

Tarris planted her hands in Asher’s hair. She wanted more contact. “Please…”

“What do you want?”

“Come to me.” When Asher made a move, she was stopped. “No, naked,” Tarris said. “I want to feel you next to me.”

Tarris watched Asher undress as she slowly removed her clothes one piece at a time. A sensual heat spread out over Tarris’s skin and a smile touched her lips. What could have turned out as a disastrous event had turned into something wholly unexpected.

Asher moved to the other side of the bed and stripped the covering back before wrestling Tarris to the sheet underneath. “Now, where were we?” she asked in a sensual tone. She slid into welcoming arms, and Tarris felt the heat infuse into her skin. They touched, they tasted, and they teased, but kept the pace slow and easy as Tarris learned about love.

Tarris wished so much to be able to feel everything. She wanted to love, to live, and just to be happy. Could she ever have that? Random thoughts flew through her mind haphazardly, and she was unaware that she wasn’t the only one thinking them. Rya absorbed her sister’s wishes, intent on giving her what she wanted. After all, it was through her that Rya even existed at all.

Tarris just couldn’t get enough of Asher. It was like a dam had burst. All her emotion and need exploded around her. She needed something, but she didn’t know what. Asher had been right. It was in her heart and in her head.

Lost in the moment, Tarris wasn’t wholly aware of Rya’s movement from one body to another.

Asher sat up. “What… what’s going on?”

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know. I feel weird. I don’t know what it is.”

Tarris had a moment to reflect on what was happening, and her mind settled a little away from the contact. Something was wrong. She searched herself for Rya but couldn’t find any evidence of her. As she lay there she calmed herself, meditating until she found that state that would send Rya on her deadly journey. It was then that she sensed Asher.
What are you doing?

Helping you
.

Tarris rarely received clear words from her shadow warrior. Her communication usually consisted of images and emotions.

You’re scaring her.

But this was a chance to feel what Asher felt. “Calm down,” she said to Asher. She wrapped her hands around the metal bed frame to pull herself farther up the mattress. The mood was rapidly disappearing, and Tarris vainly tried to hold things together. She was close to what she had denied herself all these years. “Come here,” she whispered gently. “Don’t be afraid. It…” Oh God, the moment of truth. Will she run or will she stay? “It’s me in you.”

“It’s you?”

Tarris watched intently as Asher thought it through. “My… my… shadow warrior.” Tarris hadn’t explained things very well.

“Okayyy.” Asher made a move away.

“No!” Tarris wrapped her hand around Asher’s wrist and held on. “Please. Please.” She hesitated. “For want of a better word, it’s my soul.”

“Your soul.”

Tarris sighed deeply. “You want to know what makes us different from you? Why we are feared so much? Well, this is it.”

“Uh-huh.”

“We’re able to detach our souls from our bodies. Only albinos seem to be able to do this.” Asher regarded her dubiously. “Fine.” Tarris lay back and called Rya to emerge. Before the thought had finished, the black shadow seeped through the pores of Asher’s skin. Asher gasped but was stilled by the hand holding onto her arm. Rya’s dark shape lay gently over Tarris's prone form and slowly sank back into its host.

“That… that…”

“You can leave,” Tarris murmured. Rya wrapped herself around Tarris's heart and helped take the pain. Tarris closed her eyes. She didn't want to see Asher leave. She just knew this was going to happen. She was destined to live her life alone. Time dragged on without a sound. Had she left so silently?

Rya could feel Tarris’s sorrow and tried to comfort her. Tarris knew that Rya had good intentions, but Asher wasn’t prepared to accept who she was. Tarris threw her arm across her eyes, as if physically blocking out the outside world for a while. The tears wouldn’t come, and Tarris wouldn’t allow them. It was not who she was.

At first she was only vaguely aware of the hand on her skin, slowly caressing its softness and warmth. Moments passed before she sensed Asher was still next to her. She could feel the warmth and smell of her. Tarris’s turned to look at her. “Why?”

“It… it just took me by surprise, that’s all. What was that?”

“She… she’s a part of me. What is she? A manifestation of my mind? My soul? Who knows? I consider she’s my twin that never lived. She has been a part of me all my life, and without her I’m not complete.”

“She, huh? And does she have a name?” Asher’s voice held a hint of curiosity.

“Of course.” Tarris let a smile cross her lips at the question. Maybe things would be all right after all. “Rya.”

“So was Rya being a busybody, or did you send her?”

“Me? Oh no, no, no. I would never do such a thing.” Tarris’s lips said one thing, but her hands told another story as they slowly caressed the skin still visible to her. Of course she wanted it all, but she wasn’t going to admit that readily. “Rya was just helping by letting me feel what you feel.”

“And you can sense what she senses? What about me? Can I feel you?”

“I have no idea. I would say by your reaction that you felt her there.”

“You’ve never tried this before?”

“Errr… no.” Tarris’s voice became guarded because she was moving into territory where she didn’t want to go. “Now…” She swooped down to kiss Asher and frantically tried to make her forget what the conversation was about.

“She wouldn’t hurt me, would she?” Asher asked.

“Of course not.”
Not unless I told her to.
“She was just curious, that’s all.”

Asher seemed to make some sort of decision. “If I asked her to leave, she would?”

“Of course. She means you no harm.” Tarris couldn’t believe that Asher would even consider allowing Rya inside her again. What would she get out of the connection? “You… you would do this for me?”

“For us, Tarris. I must admit that I’m curious also, but… but there’s that element of fear that makes me hesitate.”

“Then it won’t be an issue.”

“But here’s your chance to feel it all.”

“Not at the expense of you. It can wait until I can walk again.” But both knew the likelihood of that was marginal at best. Too much time had passed, and it would take a miracle for it to happen.

Asher took a deep breath. “Oh boy. I can do this,” she muttered.

Tarris touched a long tapered finger to her chin to ask for her attention. “It’s not necessary, Asher. Just… love… me.”

“Rya,” Asher whispered, “come to me.” She looked up. “Can she hear me?” Tarris nodded. “Come on then. I won’t hurt you.” Tarris tried very hard not to laugh. If only Asher knew what Rya was truly capable of.

Go on, but be gentle.
Tarris felt the familiar rush as Rya left and watched as she momentarily hovered above Asher before she descended through her skin. It was strange to see it happen, and Tarris felt a twinge of jealousy. Rya had been hers and hers alone, a gift she had rigorously guarded. Now her twin was going to someone else, and Tarris wasn’t sure she liked it. However, she did have that connection and keenly observed the interaction between the two of them.

Asher lay back as Rya moved from one body to another. “She tickles.”

Tarris chuckled.

“All my nerve endings are jumping. I feel like I want to scratch myself.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Errr… hello?”

Tarris smiled at Asher’s obvious attempt to make contact. She knew that Rya didn’t speak but emanated a warm fuzzy feeling that would settle Asher’s nerves greatly. Asher would understand “
thank you,”
but it would only be in abstract images and thoughts.

Asher looked at her in wonder. “And you live like this every day?”

“Why? Is it bad?” Tarris had never known what it was like to live without her twin. Even when she was on an assignment, Rya was there in her mind. Their connection was unbreakable.

“No. It’s…” Instead of an explanation, Asher pulled in Tarris and kissed her long and hard. Emotion welled up as Tarris responded eagerly to her. “Oh my God!” Asher moaned almost painfully.

“What do you feel?” Tarris’s insides jumped with giddy glee. Asher’s feelings could be read quite easily, but through her own link with Rya, the sensations were magnified. Tarris was barely able to hold in a moan.

“I… ahhh… no… oh God no… it’s…” Asher rambled, and it pleased Tarris that she had been able to make her speechless.

Tarris held on tightly to her connection with Rya. She allowed it to fill her mind and stir up images she had never even imagined. Hauntingly erotic images that she knew had not come from her mind. “My, my, Asher. What a dirty mind you have.”

A blush spread rapidly up Asher’s chest to her hairline. “Oh Lord. You got that? Oh no.” Her hands rose to her face as she tried to cover her shame.

“Don’t be embarrassed. I just never knew you could do that.”

“Oh please, don’t rub it in.”

“Maybe when I have my legs we can try that, because I’m not going to hang from the ceiling to satisfy your lewd dreams.” Tarris laughed gently as the blush deepened. “Stop it… there’s nothing wrong with what you thought. I was just pulling your leg.”

“Why you…” Asher wrestled herself onto Tarris and took up residence between her limp legs. Almost immediately all play was forgotten as their bodies touched. Asher tasted every bit of skin she could find while her fingers discovered the body underneath her.