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Worship the Bean



“The preparationsssss to confront the Queen are mosssstly complete, Bell-a.  On the nexxxxt risssse of the ssssun, your training will begin.  There issss not much time for you to train, assss the Queen’sss health will begin to deteriorate, and sssshe will undersssstand that sssomething issss amisssss.  Training will lasssst furth sunnsssss long.  You will require much resssst and nutrient intake.”

I nod, “I understand that.  But, Esssme?  Do you think I’m going to do okay?  I mean, I’ve never used a weapon.  I don’t know how to fight, and, well, what if the Queen kills me, or has someone else kill me?”

I gnaw on my lip in nervousness as I watch her walk around the strategy room in the city home, pulling up images of the Queen’s ominous castle and pinpointing entry and exit points.  She makes notes on a glass computer screen that she holds on her arm but she stops and looks at me.  She sets the handheld device down and walks over to me, standing in front of me and looking in my eyes.

She cups one side of my face in her and, and says, “Bell-a, my daugh-ter.  I have mosssst faith that you will remain out of harm.  Do not fear, for we will protect you...and Edwaird.  The time hasssss come for her end...and your beginning.”  She leans in and kisses me on the forehead, then goes back to the screens.

I watch her for a few moments then leave the room.  Her mention of protecting not only me, but Edwaird, too, really makes me worried, because if he needs protecting, that means she believes he will be pinpointed in being killed in all of this.  That cannot happen.   Ever.

The rest of the family is gone for the day.  They all have separate errands to run as we prepare for the fight.  Edwaird has stayed behind, wanting to spend time with me, and I go in search of him, needing to feel his touch now more then ever as we get closer to the big day.  I find him reading a book in what I’d consider their library.  He sits in the window seat and when I walk in, he immediately looks up from his book.

“You have concccccern within you.  I feel it, my Bell-a.  What issss it that worriessss you?” he asks, standing and meeting me halfway into the room.  I possessively wrap my arms around his waist and bury my face in his chest.  Unable to stifle the emotions that flow through me, tears flood my eyes and slide down my cheeks.

Edwaird holds me close to him, tightly, and just lets me cry.  I open my mind and throw out my thoughts mentally to him.

Nothing can happen to you.  If something did, I would die, Edwaird.  You can’t fight!  I can’t lose you!

“Aghizzzzzzzzz, my Bell-a.”  His arms wrap tighter around my shoulders.

Nothing will happen to me.  Our family will protect usss both, Bell-a.  You can be ssssure of that.  Calm, my Bell-a.

He holds me, and we sway to our own silent symphony.  After a while, I calm a little, but still feel terrible nervousness.  We walk back to our bedroom and I take a shower while he goes to the kitchen to find something for us to eat.  I don’t know what it is, but I am suddenly ravenous, like my body knows it needs to prepare itself for something huge.  I could seriously eat the fucking Soom right now and even I know how disgusting that sounds.

Edwaird is already back in our room by the time I emerge from the shower.  When I exit with a towel on my head and my robe wrapped around me, there is a plate of food awaiting me.  The only reason he has put the food on a tray is because there is too much for him to actually carry.  It’s like he read my mind...he probably did.

There is something to be said about sex on a bed.  While all of the other places we’ve had sex have been fun --a lot of fun-- I still love bed sex.  I love it most, because it’s soft, and he’s so hard, and I love his hardness pushing me into the softness...which is exactly what happens.

I love this man.  I love him so much that my heart and mind can’t really fathom it.  I eat enough to sate my appetite, and then my appetite takes on a new shape.  The shape in the form of Edwaird, and sex, and an orgasm that will make me scream.  It’s a good thing they make the walls extra thick here.

Edwaird and I lie next to each other; he lazily draws circles on the flesh of my stomach, having pushed my robe open.  The towel is gone from my head, but my hair is still wet and splayed across the bed.  I trace the shell of Edwaird’s ear and he makes a noise close to a purr.  It makes me think back to the first time that I saw my new family, and the sounds that came out of Essssme and Carlisss when we first saw him standing naked after they saved me.  They took off down the hall and there was lots of ear touching.

I totally get it now.

Before my flain were uncovered, I’d always had a slight turn on from earplay, but now it‘s ridiculous.  There has to be earplay now for me to get off.  These little holes sense shit!  They pick up more than your mind can fathom and being that I have four instead of three, Jassspeer has told me he thinks that I am even more sensitive to sight, sound, touch, everything.

Edwaird’s fingers are replaced by his tongue and I decide to forget about all of the scientific bullshit for now.  This may be our last chance to be together before our fight and I need to make the most of every moment before I start training tomorrow.  I’ll need to get extra sleep so that I can be ready to go early in the morning.

Edwaird’s tongue leaves my belly, and with my eyes closed, I don’t see where he goes next, until I feel it.  All thought flies out the window and I just feel.  I feel his tongue lick up the outer part of my ear, feel his warm breath fan across my flain, feel his fingers thread into my hair.  I pull him closer, closer, until he is on top of me and his mouth moves to mine.  He kisses around my mouth, teasing me, then finally, his lips touch mine.  He is gentle, but I don’t want gentle.  I want him to consume me.

I deepen the kiss and grind my hips up toward his.  He gets the point and kisses me harder.  Our teeth clink together and he moves his mouth down my neck, then sits up to move the robe the rest of the way off of me.  He kisses and licks across my collarbone and I squirm below him, seeking friction.  His mouth latches onto my nipple and I whimper, wanting and needing more of him.  He sucks on it while his fingers lightly pinch the other one.  He moves down, his hands framing my rib cage and his mouth licking in the curve of my stomach.  He finds my jutted hipbones and licks at them.  Torturous, because I want his mouth elsewhere.

He lightly drags his nose across my pubic bone, looking up in my eyes.  I know what he sees.  He sees want and need and the hope of ecstasy in my eyes that I know I’m going to get.  He kisses the small patch of hair there and my head falls back.

His fingers lightly graze my entry, and I feel warm air blow across the part of me that aches for him.  He slowly pushes his fingers into me and a low moan escapes me.  But I want more, and he seems to as well, because his mouth is on me within seconds and I nearly scream at the pleasure.  He doesn’t have to work me, licking and lightly nibbling on me until I fall over the edge.  While I’m still riding the momentous waves, he enters me hard and I scream in pleasure.  He pulls me to him a little and I wrap my legs around his middle while my back is still on the bed.

He moves in me slowly, and his length seems to be the hardest it’s ever been inside of me.  My body feels so feverish.  He makes me feel this way, and I can’t get enough of it.  With a slowness that could be considered torture, he slides in and out, then in and out, and I want him to pound me fast and hard.  But still, this is better, because I know that I will feel this from my head to my toes, out through my fingertips, and past that, if possible.

Edwaird lowers himself to me and our mouths crash together hungrily.  Our tongues mingle, fight for dominance, then recede to a passionate kiss.  He begins to move in me faster and the warmth down below begins to build in me once again.  I feel sweat beginning to bead up on my upper lip and see that it is forming on Edwaird’s forehead, as well.

Edwaird starts to push into me harder and faster, but then I push him off me and turn over onto my belly.  I stick my ass up into the hair and he plunges into me.  I feel him so much deeper this way and he wraps one arm around me as he fingers my clit while he fucks me from behind.  This is So.  Much.  More.  

My vision starts to tunnel out and all of a sudden, I see a burst of stars as I tip over the edge.  Edwaird pumps several more times into me, very quickly and he grunts loudly as he comes, then collapses on top of me.

Neither of us are able to move or speak for several minutes, but finally, I move out from underneath him and cuddle into his side.  He peppers my face and forehead with little kisses and I sigh happily.  I want to stay right here, like this, forever.

I know that can’t happen, at least, not until I take care of my biological mother.  I hate that I share the same genes, same blood as her, but at the same time, I wouldn’t ever take it back.  This is who I am, who I’m becoming, and I would never give Edwaird back.  So, while it sucks that she can’t at least be nice, I understand that this is the path that was destined for me.

Destiny.  Kismet.  Fate.

I take it all, as long as I still have Edwaird in the end.

With that last thought, I turn to Edwaird and kiss his smooth lips, then let darkness of needed sleep take me.

Tomorrow will come too soon.

Chapter 14 - Worship the Bean

Teaser:

Bella’s POV ~

When I wake this time, I smile at the sight that my eyes open up too.  Edwaird is still laying beside me, but he too is awake and propped up on his elbow, gazing at me.  I lift my hand up to his face, cupping it, and smile back at him.

“I knew you’d come for me, but why are you here?  Were you hurt badly somehow?  Please Edwaird, I can’t bear it if something horrible has happened to you because of me.” I begin to sob, and he uses the pad of his thumb to brush away my tears.

“Ah-gizzzzzzz, my Bell-a.  You are thine mate, your plight issss mine, and where you go, I follow, even in the final death.  I wisssh it ssso.”

I begin to sob harder at his words.  I can’t help it.  He can’t die, ever!  Edwaird pulls me closer, and with his body nearly covering mine, I begin to feel better, stronger.  The colors change again, and it seems that there are clouds a little ways off.  I can see a sheet of rain fall from them.

“It’s raining?” I ask, confusedly.

“That issss the cleansssse.  We are healing, my Bell-a.”

“Healing?” I ask, trying to remember what it is that I need to heal from.

Memories crash through me and all of a sudden, everything is so clear.  The colors are gone, but so is Edwaird.

I sit up with a cough, sputtering in a panic as I try to ask for Edwaird, but I can’t speak.  It feels as though there is fur growing in my mouth, and I move my tongue around in my mouth, attempting to clear out the feeling.

My chest beats quickly in my chest as I take in my surroundings and look around for Edwaird.  I see that I’m back at the bedroom in my family’s country home and over in the corner, Emmeet is slumped in a ball on the settee in the corner, sawing logs.  I take a deep, cleansing breath.  I must be alive, because I know for a fact, that my entire family wouldn’t die if I died...would they?

I stand up from the bed and find my legs to be quite wobbly.  I tip-toe over to Emmeet and touch him on the shoulder.  He sits up quickly and looks over at the bed, finding me gone.  I grip his shoulder tightly then, and he looks up at me as he flinches defensively.  Emmeet jumps up from the settee quickly and grips me tightly, hugging me too him.  He begins to whimper, and I have to stifle my giggle at the emotion he shows toward me.  It must be the hormones.

When he pulls away, his face is streaked with tears, and he quickly pulls me toward the door.  He moves quickly, and my feet feel like those belonging to a fawn newly born -- uncertain and shaky.  Emmeet wraps one of his muscular arms around my waist and pulls me down the back staircase into the kitchen where the rest of the family sits...along with Edwaird.

He drinks from a bowl that seems to hold some type of steaming fluid, and I simply watch him, relieved that he is okay.  I touch Emmeet on the shoulder to get his attention, then put my finger to my lips, hoping that he understands that I just want to watch them before they realize I’m awake.

Emmeet keeps a hold of me, and we stand there together, watching the rest of the family.  Esssme leans down close to Edwaird’s face, speaking softly to him, but he shakes his head, looking sad and unsure.  He finishes the rest of the bowl, and Esssme takes it from him, then turns to move back over to the pot.  She looks up then and gasps, spotting Emmeet and me.

“Bell-a!” she exclaims, and everyone in the room turns to look over at me.

Edwaird jumps up from the table, sending utensils and cups scattering to the floor with some of them crashing and breaking.  He runs over to me and scoops me up into his arms, carrying me over to the fireplace where he sits in the larger of the two chairs there.  I hug him tightly to my chest, afraid that if I let go, this will all have been part of my dream, and I can’t possibly bear that thought that that could actually happen.

After several moments I finally pull away and see that the rest of the family is crowded around us.  Edwaird cups my face in both of his hands, placing his forehead against mine and sighing.  He says nothing.  Neither do I, because right now, there are no words.

No words to tell him how much I love him.

No words to tell him how scared I was that I would never see him again.

No words to explain what and who I am.

Everything hits me in the chest -- the severity of all of this and how close I was to death.  I think I may have actually died, but was brought back...again.  Tears flood my eyes and spill over my lids and down my cheeks.  Painful sobs escape my mouth, and Edwaird again pulls me tight against him.  He sits there cradling me, rubbing soothing circles on my back until finally, he pulls me away once more to look me in the eyes.

Esssme immediately hands Edwaird a cup, and he holds it to my lips.  I take a sip of it, then grab the cup out of Edwaird’s hand and chug it.  When it’s gone I want more, and I hand it to Esssme to refill it.

“More, please,” I rasp out.  My voice is hoarse from disuse.

Esssme returns with the cup refilled, and I chug that too.  When it is gone, I finally ask, “How long was I out?”

“Ssssavontaaainthh Moon,” Esssme responds.

It takes me a second to figure out that I was in limbo for seventeen days.  Seventeen fucking days of trying to make my way back here.

“Wow.”  It’s all I can manage to squeak out.  No wonder I feel so foggy and it’s so hard to walk.

“Let ussss give Bell-a and Edwaird a proper reacquaintancccce period,” Esssme says as she begins to usher the rest of the family toward the door.

“No!” I shout, startling them all.  “Um, I mean.  I want you to all stay, so I can tell you something.”

Esssme looks at Jassspeer, and something transpires between them.  What that is, I can’t be sure.  I let it go because I already have so much on my mind and so much to worry about.  I am fearful of the way they are going to take my next piece of news.  Will they shun me for who I am?

I open my mouth to speak, but a cough comes out instead.  Edwaird tips another full glass to my lips, and I sip at it.  My hand moves to my throat as I swallow the liquid down, and I realize, my necklace is gone.

“My necklace?” I ask, looking at Edwaird as I trace my fingers along my neckline.  Edwaird jostles us a little in the chair, but extracts my necklace from some hidden pocket of his shirt.  He gives Essssme a quick glance, then holds it up to clasp it at the base of my neck.

Once it is in place, I can’t deny that I feel better, more whole somehow.  For some reason, I know that it is just one more thing that confirms who I am.

Everyone finds seats near Edwaird and me, and within a few moments, Jassspeer returns, holding the hand of a very old, very blind woman with milky white eyes and long, gray, straggly hair.  She closely resembles the woman in the Snow White fairy tale that offers up the shiny red apple without the horrendous nose.  In the hand that Jassspeer does not hold, she grips a thick, spindly wooden cane.  At the top of it appears to be a real eyeball, somehow preserved inside of a clear glass ball.

I look at Essssme in question, wondering who the old woman is.

“Bell-a.  You musssst now tell the sssstory of what happened to you.  We will then do our bessst to decccide why you were taken, and where we go from here.  Introductionssss will be made after.”  Esssme announces.

I finger my necklace, mustering up any courage I can find to tell them what happened and who I am.  I notice the old woman’s gaze fixed upon me, even though I don’t think she can hear me.  I know they say that the blind use their ears to find people, but she almost seems to be staring at my throat, and I’m not making any noise there.

“Well, I guess I’ll start by telling you that it was the Queen that had me taken, because I’m her daughter.”

I dive into the story then, telling them every last little detail I can until there is nothing more to tell.  I blacked out and now here I am, seventeen days later.  By the time I finish, most of the jaws of my family members are on the floor, intrigued, amazed, and also appalled by what they put me through.  Most of all, they are completely surprised by who I am.

I glance at Edwaird finally, having not once looked at him when I told him the story, afraid of the reaction I would see on his face.  He is not looking at my face like I expect him to be, but he is looking at my neck.

I raise my hand back to figure out what he is staring at, drawing in a sudden breath when I feel them.  “Oh my God,” I whisper.  Edwaird looks at me then and gives me the largest, most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen.

He looks at the old woman then, and asks, “What doesss it mean?”

I’m confused by his vague question toward her, but she simply walks over to us, now refusing the assistance of Jassspeer, and stops mere feet in front of us.  She raises her cane first, then her other free hand comes up to cup my chin, and gently, she turns my face to the left.

In a very thick Sislan accent, the old woman says, “Furrrrrth.”  She then turns my face back to the front and moves her free hand from my chin, down to my throat and picking up the metal symbol of my necklace.  She moves the cane so that it too, is in level with my neck and it almost seems as if she is using the eyeball atop her cane to actually see.

Ssssshe isssss.

I hear Edwaird in my head, and I’ve completely forgotten our ability to communicate in this way.

How?  I mentally ask him back, suppressing a giggle that wants to erupt out of me of the sheer absurdity of all of this.  I mean really, we only fantasized about this kind of shit on Earth.

The old woman gently places my necklace back against my skin, then raises the cane up so it is at eye-level with me.  It makes me squirm a little, but I do my best to stare into it.  I think this is what she wants and it appears that she is here to help us out in some way, so I am certainly not going to make it difficult on her.

The woman lowers her cane then and ambles back to the spot at the table where she had been sitting at earlier, next to Essssme.  The room is quiet as we all wait for her to get comfortable and do whatever it is she does.  What that is, I have no idea.

Esssme speaks first.  “Bell-a, thisssss isss the Oracle.   Sssshe wassss born unto Ssssissla without the usssse of her orbssss but knowing all the ssssame.  Sssshe isss the foreteller, and you musssst lisssten to everything sssshe tellssss you, for the fate of Ssssissla liesss in her wordssss.”

I swallow down the lump in my throat and focus on this small old woman, the Oracle.

“There wassss onccce a time of ssssimple living.  There wasssss no King or Queen but, inssstead, an emperor.  You may find that the title of emperor may ssssound atrocccioussss compared to king or queen, but it meant ssssomething elsssse entirely in that time.  The emperor wasssss a man of reasssson.  While there were thosssse that prosssspered more than otherssss, there wassss no Sssssislan that went without sssshelter or sssssussstenanccce.”

“He wassss with high honor.  The people of Ssssisla followed him with eagernessss and protected him at all cosssts.  There wasssss never a need for protection, until there ssssuddenly wasssss.  The Emperor and hissss mated female were forcccced to meet their final death, sssslain where they laid with ressssting orbsssss.  There wasssss a man to take over the Emperor’sssss posssition immediately upon hisss final death.  Not a sssoul quessstioned him, assss they all feared for their livessss without hisss protection.”

“Under the reign of the new Emperor, life went on mosssstly assss it had under the lasssst, and the ssssoulsss of Ssssisla learned to trussst the new Emperor, that wassss, until he found himssself a mate.”

“The Emperor’sssss mate wassss a beautiful woman, but that wasssss where possssitive attributessss ended.  She wasssss colder than the Sssssigma Range tip.  The Emperor ssssuddenly died in the night, and sssshortly after, hisss mate adopted a new line of reign, requiring all to refer to her assss Queeen.  Queeeen Sssssulpicccia.”

The Oracle looks at me pointedly, then continues.

“Queeen Ssssulpicccia took the life forccce of her own mate sssso that sssshe would have complete control over Ssssisla.  She bedded many malessss whenever sssshe chosssse, which inevitably, will be her downfall.  Won’t it, fair Bell-a?”

She gives me a wry smile as everyone in the room looks at me.

“The firsssst Emporer had a child, a sssson.  He happened to be with hissss wet maid on the moon of hissss Unma and Fisssere’s, or mother and father to you, final deaths.  He wassss ssssaved and hidden, hissss name changed ssso that the Queen would never learn of hisss heritage.”

“What was his name?  His title?” I ask her.

“The title given to him under hissss Unma and Fisssere, wassss Cai-uuuuussss, but hissss wet maid called him Fffeeleex after it all changed.  Cai-uuussss had to hide who he wassss, for he held many traitssss of the old Emperor, hisss Fisssere, and it wassss alwaysss a posssibility that the resssemblanccce would be noticccced.  He made many changesss to hisss appearanccce asss disssguissse.  He wassss a male of much allure, but in hissss need to hide, he made himssself ssslightly lesss pleasssing to the eye.”

“It was the diminissshment of hisss looksss that drew him to the Queen.  Ssshe did not want to keep her bed with sssomeone who thought them more attractive than her.  Now, he knew of the sssstory, knew of what sssshe had done to hissss family and alssso, how important it wasss for her to keep her title, sssso he laid low for a while, doing what ssshe required until he wassss ready to move forward with hisss plan.  He knew he would meet hisss final death of courssse, but he had nothing he wanted to remain in hisss life for.”

“On the lassst night that he bedded Queen Sssulpicccia, he made mention of children.  That wasss all it took for the passsage of the egg to transsspire.  The Queen wassss furioussss, meant to end him, but ssshe did not know if he had made storiesss about her already and feared that ending hisss life would be disssastroussss.  Sssshe let him live long enough to carry the child, then ended him.”

She pauses, takes a sip of her drink, then looks at me.

“I know the rest.  I’ve been told the rest.”  I look over at Edwaird, his eyes wide in amazement.

“Bell-a, the firssst Emperor wasss of the puressst blood we know.  The Purity.  Within you, you carry that blood.  Like you, he too had the four gillsss of flain.  There isss no other like you.  The markssss you both carry abreassst isss a foretelling.”

“Desssstined duo,” Edwaird whispers.  The Oracle looks over at him and nods.

“Yesss, young one.  Now, there issss alsssso the matter of the piecccce,” she says as she once again, brings her cane up to look at my neck.  “Have you underssstanding of what it ssssignifiesss?”

I pick the metal up from my chest and twirl the chain around in my fingers, shaking my head.  “No.  I do not.”

“That isss the Sssissooka, child.  The Sssisssookah issss a tale of a deity that wasss both a creator, and a dessstroyer.  It wassss believed to be nothing but a falsssehood, until now that issss.  The Sssissookah hassss never chosssen a sssoul to bear it, but now, it hassss chosssen you.”

“Is this bad?” I ask, tracing its design with my finger.  It doesn’t feel bad, not at all.  If anything, it has been something to help me calm myself.  “I mean, well, what does this mean?”

“It meanssss that the sssstory wasss not a tale at all, but a foretelling of your return to ussss.  It meanssss that onccce again, there will be enlightenment for our home, and you will bring it.”

With that, the little woman stands up and puts a hand on Esssme’s shoulder.  She then walks over to Jassspeer who escorts her out.  Everyone in the room stares at me, and I feel a surge of nervousness course through me.

The woman has got to be on crack!

Crackkk? Edwaird questions me in my head, and I shake my head at him, as if saying ‘never mind’.

We all sit in a stunned silence for a while, but finally, everyone begins to get up.  As they do, they all come over and hug me, then raise my hand up to their faces and kiss the inside of my left wrist.  This day couldn’t get any weirder.  Things like that shouldn’t be thought though, because yes, yes they could.

Edwaird and I are the last to leave the large kitchen and he carries me back up to our room.  I protest, saying that I can walk and I feel fine, but he isn’t having it.  When we are finally back in the room, he sets me on my feet, then wanders into the bathroom.

I decide that I need a shower because who knows how long ago I actually had one.  I no longer have dried blood on me, so I must have been given a bath or at least a sponge bath at some point, but I feel grimy all over.

I follow Edwaird into the bathroom and lean over, turning the shower on.  When he realizes I’m behind him, he turns around to face me, and the look in his eyes is enough to make my panties spontaneously dissolve.