Behind Ezekiel's massive palace, lies a huge and intricate garden. We had followed him outside and through the labyrinth of pebble and stone paths. The flowers, having died this season, were replaced with greenery and shrubs that are winter hardy. Beside me, Seraphine pulls Axar into her body and rubs his arms to keep him warm.
"You're a great mother, Seraphine." I lean to the side to whisper, careful not to drop Samael. She stops to look up at me, nearly yanking Axar over. I use my free hand to raise her chin and I lean down to give her a chaste kiss.
"Never again will I ever doubt you. I'll spend the rest of my life to make this up to you." Her eyes are swollen and her face pale from grief and exhaustion, still the smile she gives me might be the most beautiful sight I've ever bore witness too.
"Thank you. You can start by feeding me when this is over. It's wrong and selfish, given thesituation, but I'm so hungry." I manage to chuckle softly at her and nudge her forward.
"Not selfish. Survivors guilt, lover. Also let's remember you are a pregnant..." What would you consider her? "Creature and typically pregnant things are often hungry." Axar snorts loudly, causing Ezekiel to turn back to us.
"I can arrange for him to sleep with our horses, if you'd like."
"I wouldn't trust him around them if they are female." She side eyes me. Ezekiel gives a hearty laugh.
"I see the shape he's left you in, perhaps you have a point." Seraphine's face fills with blood and her cheeks redden. We all laugh despite our gloom and Axar breaks his silence.
"Alex would have gotten a kick out of that. He actually made a rhyme about mama Sera's belly. It went 'Seraphine, Seraphine, big as a trampoline.' He also said if he looks like you, Nox, that he would put him in the corner and feed him with a slingshot if he ever babysit." We all crack up and Sera pinches Axar.
"I'm not sure if I should miss him now." She smiles sadly. "He was such a smart ass, but he was a good person. I never even knew who he was, mom said that he gave me a ride to Barima's house after our fight and that he sat in the driveway worried. She said he didn't want to leave, that he knew by looks that I had to be his sister. He looked out for me, and I never even knew who he was. He always had my best interestsin mind. There will never be another like him."
"All he ever did for me was ruin my intimate moments with females and wreck my home. Boy would wrestle with our relatives and allies, and destroy half my decor and furniture. When he was a kid, Samael and Ivara came to visit and he pissed in a vase and sat it back on the table to see if I'd notice. I told Samael about it later, and instead of dumping it he went and stuck flowers in it. He got his wise cracking from Samael, and his heart from his mother. Ivara was always so tender and helpful."
Ezekiel tells his stories until we arrive and we all soak up the information, and we awe and chuckle at the right moments. I make Seraphine sit to rest while we, along with several other men of her family start to dig. Axar sits next to her, keeping her distracted and sending me nervous looks when she isn't paying attention.
We get the holes dug, and Ezekiel does some sort of strange rituals over the bodies with flowers brought from inside the palace, candles, and some sort of relic. Each person comes up to the fallen, and places a hand on them. Some a tap on the shoulder, some a kiss on the head. Seraphine hugs each of them tightly, kneeling beside them and Axar does the same after helping her to her feet. Ezekiel vows tp find Ivara's body, and to bring her home to rest too. Then he starts introcing us, to everyone and naming names and relations to Seraphine. She seems pained, though she masks it to try to interact with her new family.
I notice Seraphine's leggings are stained on the inner legs, going past her knees below the sweater dress she had worn. I sweep her up into my arms and excuse us, Ezekiel tells me to choose a room and that the servants will help us if we need it until he comes back. He volunteers to keep Axar, introducing him to the strangers as a best friend and would be hero of Alexavier. The family recieves him well, having a very warm and inviting aura about them all.
It takes me no time to reach a room with her, and to lay her down. This room, while not nearly as elaborate and gaudy as Ezekiel's, is still oozing of class and wealth. A servant followed close behind us, and I had pleaded with her to bring food and drink for Sera and to heat her a bath, which she obliged without hesitation. She was the one who was quick to spot the resemblance in Seraphine and Ezekiel.
Seraphine isn't witty or combative as usual, and allows me to look her over. This is odd, because normally her modesty would kick in and she would become uncomfortable. I remove her bottoms gently, trying not to jar her because I've watched her favor her sides. As I suspected, she's spotting. Her ribs are bruised and around her back. Healing lacerations around her shoulders. First thing that comes to mind is to have her feed from me, blood and energy. She tries to refuse, fearing that I am too weak to feed from. Though I am starving myself, I ignore my pulsing hunger to sate hers.
Reluctantly, she gives in and feeds. I position myself beside her and I turn her onto her side to face me. I prick my skin to entice her, and her big eyes darken. Absolutely perfect. Her tongue escapes to lap my throat and I contain myself purely out of respect for her state. The irony isn't lost on me here. Once I would've fed from her without hesitation, slept with her whenever I willed, but now it is different. She is my lover. The mother of my child. The days of her discontent and subservience are over. I knead her scalp as she finishes her feeding, rubbing the lush green locks between my fingers.
Her color comes back to her cheeks and her heart calms. She holds me tightly and all I can feel is an overwhelming appreciation, and strong love. I can tell she is trying to give energy back to me, and so I oblige. I will need it to help heal her wounds. I take my time with this, rubbing her back and legs trying to mirror her appreciation with my actions. I mouth a thank you to the dedicated servant, picking her mind for a moment I deduct that her name is Gemi. She tells me that the bath is ready whenever she is.
Straightening her dress, I leave her to follow Gemi to retrieve the warm buckets for her bath. Gemi protests and tries to offer help, but I have no issues carrying the water myself. I let her bring the tray of food only because she insisted, wanting to make a good impression on Seraphine. Seraohine would like her regardless, but she will not take my word for it.
Despite the enormous windows and natural light, it is becoming darker inside. After packing the buckets I light candles for us. I fix the bath, and gather towels and spare clothing from chests in the room. They will work until we return home tomorrow. Thinking fast,, i place the tray of food by the tub for easy reaching. I waste no time in stripping her bare, and packing her to the tub. She digs in afraid to fall as I carry her.
"Do you really think I'd let you fall?"
"No. Just paranoid I guess."
"I'll always take care of you, Seraphine." She scoffs playfully.
"Like you did when I had a terrible accident, and lost my memory?" I stiffen. I had forgotten that lie.
"You get stiff when you are confronted for lying." She taunts.
"I get stiff other times as well." I counter, trying to fluster her so she'll let off of it.
"Yeah, because you lie then too." She cackles.
I pretend that I'm going to toss her into the tub and her little claws scratch at me. I drop her prettily into the tub, careful to be easy. She pops up from the water, wet strands covering her face like a marine animal that encountered a patch a seaweeds. She flicks water at me, and I dodge quickly shedding my clothes to jump in with her.
"Have you no shame?" She scolds, covering her eyes indignantly. "Who said you could join me." I rub her belly.
"Not like you haven't seen it. The proof is right here. And for your information, I needed a bath too. I am dirty." She covers her face to hide her blushing.
"Dirty? A dirty minded dog!" She splashes me.
I growl at her and pounce, careful of my weight and I nibble her ear. She shoves me away, but not before my long tongue can flick across her face. I lift her into my lap and massage her shoulders, occassionally grinding or nipping at her. She relaxes, the water almost lulling her to sleep. I feel her back and sides as she enjoys the water, feeling for tension or to see if she flinches. Seeing that most of the soreness is gone, I reach over and begin to feed her from the tray. She tries to feed herself, and I swat her littke paws away.
We say nothing as we simply savor this moment between us. In this moment, I understand why Narius was so devoted to his mate and why he was willing to die for her vengeance. This is unlike anything I have ever experienced. He had told me all along that there was nothing better than finding your other half.
"I'm sorry. I despised her, but I didn't have any problem with him. I didn't want to see him die. I should never have killed her. Had I not, she would've held me up from protecting you or the others that I love. I did not stop to think of him in that moment..."
"I understand. To be completely truthful, I would have killed anybody to get to you. In my mind when I seen Asmodeus, I was prepared to launch myself onto him well knowing that I would likely die. I'm guessing at that point I became possessed and had attacked you instead. But I would have fought anybody including my brother to have protected you. I never meant to lash out, it's just that I never understood how much I did appreciate him until he was gone. I had always thought that I cared very little for anybody. You are the person I am most comfortable with, that I can express myself with. You didn't deserve to play lightning rod for my abundance of emotions." All is quiet again, before I extinguish the silence. "Are you feeling well now? I mean are you still, bleeding?" She shifts, nervously.
Personal talk still makes her uncomfortable, and in some odd way the deviant part of me finds it a bit humorous that after everything she can still be so bashful and modest. Her innocence and impish nature only charm me, like my cruel nature needs her to create balance. The hands that feed her now are the very hands that have torn the life away from others twice her size, or often just as innocent. The body that gave her our child, us the same one that had pinned and slaughtered most the others before her. The lives and the suffering of others had once meant nothing to me, but now I find myself adoring a child I've yet to meet and worshipping the very woman I had intended to wipe my feet on.
"I believe it has stopped. I am just tired, a little sad, still a little aching..."
"I guess I just have the touch then." I boast. "You will be sad for a while I'm afraid. You got to meet and know them though, and you even made amends with your father. It's not going to take all the grief away, but maybe it will help you find peace." I try.
I get us out as the water cools and I dry us off. I comb Seraphine's hair with my fingers and a jeweled comb on the vanity, admiring the way it falls across her shoulders and drapes around her changing figure. Her round belly jutting out now, past her fuller breasts. Her hips have widened just a bit, and her skin has a dewy flush across it. I pull the gown over her, and I can only sigh. She looks like art. As if she could have been sculpted by Michaelangelo.
I lay her down and cover her up so I can dress. In minutes, she is fast asleep. I kiss her lips and I leave the room to find Ezekiel and Axar and let them know that she should be alright, but that I am going to keep her off her feet for a while. I can hardly wait for us all to go home tomorrow. The nursery I will create will shame my grandfather's. I grin as I imagine Sera holding our son in her arms to nurse as she reclines in a gown, in the breath taking nursery that I have planned.