Elliott Kay - Good Intentions

Alex opened his mouth, but then closed it. Lorelei understood. There was much to say, but not while he was trapped behind the wheel of a car. Comfort and privacy were not far away now. She watched him as he drove, studying his movements and his demeanor with weary but interested eyes. Her soft smile remained.

They didn’t park in the hotel’s garage, opting instead to abandon the car on the street. Lorelei was pleasantly surprised when he wordlessly picked her up in his arms and carried her the entire way to the door, then to the elevator, and even to the door to the honeymoon suite. She kept them concealed from the eyes of others, holding close to enjoy the shelter and support of his arms.

Not for the first time since his escape, Alex felt grateful that none of the vampires nor the sorcerers had bothered to steal the wallet out of his (now tattered) leather jacket. He let her fish out the key card to the door while he held her. Lorelei opened the door for them both and he carried her inside. The lights were still on.

“We need our own place,” Alex said.

“I will see to it soon, love,” Lorelei assured him.

“Don’t…no,” Alex shook his head. “Lorelei. I’m not worried about that right now. I’m only worried about you.”

Lorelei touched the side of his face with one hand. “There was too much to say in the car,” she said simply. “For both of us. You can put me down if you like.”

He looked around the room. “We both need to get cleaned up, but I don’t know if…will a bath be okay for you? I don’t know how hurt you are or if…?”

“A bath would be wonderful,” Lorelei nodded, “if you would share it?”

“That’s what I was planning, yeah.” He brought her to the spacious tub and sat her down on the soft bath mat beside it. “My turn to take care of you tonight.” She watched him get the water running. Then he threw off his jacket, kicked off his shoes, and knelt next to her. “You need sex to heal, don’t you?”

“Yes. Your desires will make me feel better, but your pleasure and satisfaction provide much more.” She offered a faint smile. “The farewell from the witches offered some small relief.”

“I have to confess that sex isn’t the first thing on my mind right now. But I want to help you however I can. Would it hurt you? Even if it heals?”

His lover shook her head gently. “Do not try to force yourself, Alex. I could endure, yes, and soon it would only help me, but even I have limits to my lusts. Beaten and weary as I am, I want only to be with you. All else will come in time.”

Alex nodded. He stroked her matted, bloodied and filthy hair. “You don’t have to hide what you look like from me, y’know.”

“It doesn’t take much effort at all.”

He shook his head. “Show me.”

Lorelei nodded. She looked down for a moment, then back up. It was as if Alex had blinked, but he had not. One moment, he stared at a beautiful but bruised woman. In the next, she was still beautiful, but even more bruised and bloodied, and now there were horns. Wings. The tail. An animalistic, predatory change in her eyes. Her skin turned red. She reached up to touch his face again. “I was so afraid, my love.”

“You stopped calling me master,” he observed with a slight smile.

“You didn’t go so far tonight to rescue a slave,” Lorelei smiled back. “I suspect we would both prefer to save that word for play from now on.”

He swallowed hard, afraid to ask the question that plagued him. “You could have freed yourself from me with that crown, couldn’t you?”

“Yes,” she nodded. “To seize a crown in Hell is to break all bonds. I would have been freed. Other lords would have fought to conquer me, and perhaps triumphed…but perhaps not.”

“Why didn’t you take it?”

“To what end?” Her gentle tone contrasted sharply with her wicked features. “To rule a corner of Hell would be to lose you-unless I were to keep you there. How could I do either? Alex…you are a bright young man, but you are young. I could have found a way to escape you at almost any turn had I wanted my freedom.

“Lydia did not lie to you about everything. I have manipulated you. Used you for my own needs. Pressured you into things you found uncomfortable simply to further my desires. I have been awful. You suffered so much pain and your friends were endangered, all because of me. I am a monster. I will always be a monster. Whatever they did to you tonight…you were hurt so much. And you see what I am. I don’t understand why you do not reject me. I don’t know why you still want me.”

“I owe you everything,” he shrugged. “I knew what you were all along. I made my own decisions.”

“But they hurt you so much. All because of me.”

“I’m over it.”

“You’re not,” Lorelei countered. “You’re different now. I felt…Alex, you wanted to die.”

He searched for words. “I remembered a lot of things that never happened to me. It’s all stuff that happened a long time ago to other people. Maybe they were me. I don’t know. I remember a lot of fighting, and dying over and over, and being lonely and hurt.” He shook his head. “I remember pieces still, but it’s mostly fading. But when Lydia tried to make me choke on that stuff, I remembered everything like it had all just happened two minutes ago.

“So in the beginning, yeah, I guess I just wanted it all to end. But I didn’t want to lose you,” Alex said. “I would never want to lose you. I was so afraid of what they would do to you. So once I could sort out my head again, all I could think about was finding you.”

“Do you feel sorted out now?”

“I think so. It’s not so hard to think straight anymore.” Alex glanced at the tub. It had filled up enough to get in. Alex finished undressing. Lorelei studied him as he moved. He didn’t feel the least bit self-conscious in front of her. He helped her out of the remains of her nightgown and carried her into the warm, comforting bathtub.

“You are changed,” Lorelei told him. “It’s in your movements, in your face. In your voice. You’re still my Alex, but something seems to have settled for you.”

Alex reached for a washcloth, pulling it through the water before raising it to Lorelei’s face to gently clean away blood and grime. “I kinda feel like my life just makes more sense now. Not all the craziness. Not you, no offense,” he grinned a bit, “but everything else. Like why I’ve always felt so lonely, y’know?”

“Drew said that you always seem to expect things to come to a bad end. Perhaps this is some holdover from another life. Or lives.” Her eyes held a slight shimmer. He continued his gentle work. “You must have done a lot of fighting in your past.”

“Yeah. I guess so. Or whoever I used to be.” He didn’t know where to begin.

Lorelei allowed him his silence for some time as he bathed her. “My love,” she finally said, “there is such sadness in you.”

“I think I’ve had my heart broken a lot,” he told her. “I remember that more than the fighting or the dying. The faces are there, but I can’t describe any of them. It’s like I’ve got one name after another on the tip of my tongue.” His eyes fell away from hers. The words came out slowly. “I’ve been cheated on. A lot . I’ve been abandoned. Rejected. Betrayed. And I’m pretty sure that whenever it looked like it might actually work out, I’ve…died. Or she did. Or both of us. But I don’t ever remember being happy for long at all. Just long enough to know that I was in love, and then it all fell apart.” He took a long breath. “Mainly I just remember being hurt and lonely.”

“Then perhaps we are not so different after all,” Lorelei suggested. Her words sank in. She could feel it. Lorelei touched his jaw with her fingertips, turning him to look up to her.