Melissa MacNeal - Beyond Redemption

My muscles clenched, sucking him deeper. A grimace flickered across his handsome face and his eyes closed with the concentration it took to keep him from shooting too soon. Slowly, gingerly, he shifted up and in, his hands at my waist as he balanced on my parted thighs. I thought my clitoris might explode from the glorious, perfect pressure of his weight leaning into it.

With a groan I curled upward, unable to remain patient. "Go after it, Billy!" I rasped. "I don't care what they tried to teach you about control! I just want us to lose it!"

He responded with a low moan, leaning into me with that hot, hardened body. Spirals of need shot up from my core until I saw starbursts of red and yellow behind my eyelids. I was already humping up to meet him like a shameless hussy, answering thrust for thrust as our bodies sped toward release. The bed began to shake as though possessed by demons…or by vampires spying on us. Never had I felt such a burning, such a deep-seated aching aimed toward a pinnacle of pleasure like I'd never imagined.

"Let go, Andrea."

Billy's whispered command made my eyes fly open, to meet an obsidian gaze in a face transformed by passion. Did I dare believe I saw love there, as well?

"Let go, so I can fly with you," he continued, his body urging mine into a frenzy of need. "We'll soar up and away, beyond these walls-beyond Redemption and the forces that would hold us prisoner here."

My mind wondered if Pink was planting such thoughts in that head framed by a dark riot of waves, but my body was too far gone to care. I surged, unable to resist the rubbing of his cock against my clit. My muscles and nerves tied into knots and I wrapped my arms and legs around him as I cried out in mindless ecstasy. On and on it went, that relentless pulse of pleasure, until I wondered if I'd pass out from the intensity of it.

Apparently we both did.

When I shuddered awake, Billy still lay where he'd collapsed upon me, pinning me beneath his warm, solid weight. I had a feeling hours had gone by, yet the pungent scent of sex and the stickiness between our bodies suggested mere minutes had passed instead. The bed had stopped rocking and the room had resumed its usual cool, quiet silence.

But I felt vibrations that belonged to an interloper.

Silly me, to fall into the fantasies Billy had planted with his words of love-if indeed he'd even realized he was saying them. Only a fool would forget that forces beyond our understanding were at work in this house, giving a semblance of sweet freedom while wrapping us in the invisible chains of a darker purpose.

And yes, as I blinked to clear my vision, it was the filmy likeness of Perfidia that materialized near the ceiling. She floated above the bed, gazing down at us with a wicked intent that shone clearer as more of her molecules came into place. Her gown was the color of blood, translucent enough to reveal her nudity and of a gossamer texture that rippled like angels' wings.

But this was no angel.

The vampire's thin lips pursed around her cigarette holder, and she exhaled slowly through her nose. Then she chuckled, a mirthless sound of power that awoke Billy.

"What the f--"

"Shhh!" I warned, hoping my eyes conveyed the seriousness of our situation. Try as I might, I couldn't detect the presence of Pandora or Pink.

"They've gone into town," the vixen whispered. She didn't need to add that she'd arranged some trumped-up errand so she could take her turn at us: it was written all over her slender, malevolent face.

With a sweep of her hand, Perfidia produced a stream of rectangular cards that were landing in formation against the wall beside my bed. Only the vampire's black magic held them in place as they appeared in order, from the first card in the center to the tenth one that predicted the outcome, and then the ten that covered these in descending order to end at the center again: a covered Celtic cross. How they stayed in place, quivering a fraction of an inch from the wall, was something I knew better than to ask about.

These were Pandora's new tarot cards! I'd never known Perfidia to take an interest in foretelling the future-she'd always scoffed at the notion of Fate, or anyone's ability to chart and interpret it. As the colorful spread laid itself out, arranged by invisible fingers, I knew without looking that these were the very cards Pandora had dealt downstairs as this whole unfortunate affair with Billy Tripplehorn began to unfold.

My lover squirmed, yet his grimace told me he, too, was being held in place by a force far stronger than he was. "I don't know what the hell you think you're-"

"That's right-you don't know!" the vampire snapped, making him curl protectively against me. "You took your turn spouting pretty words to Andrea-such stupidity, to raise her hopes of escaping! So now I'll do the talking, Mr. Tripplehorn."

She focused on me then, her face alight with an evil shine. "Pandora might've dealt this spread, but it is I-the Queen of Swords-who sits in the top position," she intoned, pointing at the card. "Just as it is I who has always ruled your future…by creating your past."

I had no idea what she meant. But my heart trembled with a sickening sense that I was about to find out.

Perfidia took a long draw on her cigarette, awaiting my response to the puzzle she'd just presented. Saying she'd always ruled my future by creating my past! What kind of arrogant nonsense was that? She was merely taking advantage of Pandora's absence to be the queen: the Queen of Swords, who did sat in the top position-representing The Present-of those tarot cards that were hanging a fraction of an inch from the wall.

Billy, too, was still pinioned there. He resembled a sacrificed Christ held to the Cross by invisible nails, only naked. His dark eyes widened as the vampire stepped toward me. Heartening as it was to witness this signal that he felt some affection for me-feared for my safety, perhaps-I sensed Perfidia had rendered him mute.

"Cat got your tongue, puss?" the slender demon teased.

Her gossamer gown, the color of blood, fluttered as though a thousand butterflies were trapped beneath it. I interpreted this as a rising of her agitation-a power I didn't want to deal with. But once again I had no choice.

This time, we were truly at her mercy. I sensed whatever mission Pandora and Pink were on would keep them away-by Perfidia's design. It occurred to me, too, that the tarot spread lingering mysteriously near the wall was more the result of this witch's manipulation than any punches Pandora may have pulled when she dealt the colorful cards.

"You're catching on," Perfidia jeered, now standing only two feet away. "But what I'm about to reveal-what that goody-goody Pandora would protect you from-will affect you long after those cards have crumbled to dust. Long after Pandora ceases to be, for that matter."

My insides tightened. Pandora, as the oldest and most powerful of the Sisters of Samaria, had no intention of bringing herself to an end-or letting anyone else mess with her, either! Yet here stood her partner, foretelling a time when she herself would reign. I understood more fully now why Pandora called the reversed Queen of Swords the Bitch of Swords! Turned upside down, she wielded that weapon without thought of her cruelty's consequences. She presumed the truth was hers to reveal, but at what price?

"Just say it," I rasped, backing away from those frigid eyes. "I'm a grown woman who's made her own way in this world. Nothing you reveal can change who I am, or what I'll do when you've finished meddling with Billy and me."

Her nasty laughter filled my little room. "You're a bigger fool than I thought-and that's in the cards, too, isn't it?" she taunted. "That Queen of Wands might represent you-just as the naive and dreamy-eyed Queen of Cups is Pandora-but having that Fool reversed indicates your new journey with Tripplehorn will take you nowhere. And Justice reversed, covering Pandora, says there's not a damn thing she can do about it!"