Book 6: Wicked's Kiss
Excerpt: Chapter One
The first kiss was for the dying. The unsuspecting prey, coiled lovingly in his arms. Soft skin pressed gently to his lips. Memories, wants and desires a warm, celestial rush mixed with the salty tang of copper bursting through his senses, each one filled with light. Heated like the memory of sunshine kissing the flesh. He could almost taste it. Smell it on her flesh. Oh, the sweet, sensual heartache. The memory danced on his tongue, and he swallowed it down. Took it from her.Watched it burn bitterly from her eyes while hope faded. While the last vestige of her light withdrew.
She clung to him, helplessly now. Watched him partake of her glory while he selfishly watched the light and life fade from her eyes. Both of them knew that this kiss was for her and her alone. Her one true kiss—the kiss for the soon departed.
The second kiss brought his own memories. Memories and despair. Every drop he swallowed burned his throat, his veins on fire. His life giving nectar brought no hope. He was filled with it, and yet he was unfulfilled. Irony, such a bitter pill to swallow, but he would choke it down until his own destructive end.
He closed his eyes. Held the girl closer, yet he no longer felt her warmth. The light had passed between his greedy lips. It left him thirsty. Always so thirsty.But even he knew that redemption was not something he could consume. So he drank instead the memories. Swallowed hard the pain. And still the memories came.
Coins against the cobbled stones resonated in his. Dark eyes watched him from darker robes. Ravens squawking their condemnations. Sinner, sinner, sinner, the birds seemed to call. Their voices chimed with the clanking of the coins. Sounds and censures still able to burn a soul, all these long years later. A soul he no longer owned. Oh, but the fire that coursed through him. The agony and the pain.
The final kiss had condemned him. Condemned him to this eternal hell. This life of eternal darkness. It had been a chaste kiss. A kiss meant for a brother.Meant for his master. A kiss that brought about the end...his end.
Even now, in the far reaches of his mind, he could still hear the laughter. Darkness mocking him for his greed and his weakness. It was the laughter that chased him from the garden. Chased him into the night. His guilt that rode him like a lover. And all the while, the darkness mocked him. It tore at his once human soul and decried his treachery throughout the Heavens and the earth. Sealed it forever in the form of a kiss.
It was only fitting that such a kiss would set him free. But was he…free, that is? The question haunted him still.
He wondered still, while the girl's blood and light filled him and the dark world around him came alive with color and light. Was he free? It was only here, deep in the blood, that he felt most complete. That he felt most alive. For it was here in this one small, fleeting moment he felt whole. And yet, he knew that the darkness would come again. The darkness always came. The light would fade, his victim would grow cold and his veins would once more turn to ice. Any remembrance to his soul would be lost to antiquity once more. Oh, but for the memories of his crimes. These he would not lose. These would always haunt him; his betrayal, his punishments and yes, even his death.
Some memories remain with the blood. What he would give to forget. Just once.
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