*Cut Up Angels pt. 2

     The power washed over her like a tidal wave of electricity, arching her back and tossing her thirty feet. It hurt. It hurt like no pain she’d experienced this far, and Velisian’s goal was met. The pressure burst stars behind her eyes, and ripped free from her throat in a wordless scream. His laughter tickled her brain until it stabbed, and she swallowed down air, only to lose it again.
     “Atlanta, my beautiful, Atlanta, you please me with your indulgent screams.” Her brain settled into an electric buzz, just this side of pain as she tried to catch her breath, sprawled out in the weeds and dirt. Her throat burned, her chest ached, and something in her back had popped when she struck earth. The pressure that was swelling low in her waist, and her sudden inability to move her legs, told her it was bad.
     She couldn’t form a complete thought, and her eyes wouldn’t open, or maybe they were open and she couldn’t see. There were tears on her face, she could feel them like little trails of warmth, cooling as they moved among the sharp sting of falling rain. Her fingers went numb.
     “We’re going to try something new, Atlanta, just before I let you go. I hate for us to part on such unpleasant terms.” His voice was far away, even as she felt the shifting air around her that signaled his approach.
     Velisian touched on his blood within her once more, and like flicking a switch the longing seared through her. The vampires called it the “blood-need” but what she felt at that moment wasn’t just a need, it was a desperation. She felt as if her skin would peel back and her flesh would rot away if she couldn’t feel the touch of Velisian’s skin against her own. Atlanta couldn’t move her broken body, though it ached, and screamed for her to haul herself, by her teeth if need be, towards the one thing that would give her peace.
     His laughter hurt like cutting.
     “Cry for me, Atlanta, and I will hold you.”
     Yes, she thought, anything. I’ll cry…I am crying. Her sob wrenched free from her throat, and echoed in the darkness. Once it began, she couldn’t stop, as one after another ravaged her throat, until her face felt hot, and her body shook.
     And then he knelt beside her, pulling her delicately into the circle of his arms. She didn’t care that he wasn’t mindful of her aching bits, and that each shift to haul her closer had brought delightful sniffles and yips. She could almost feel him, kept from her by only a thin layer of cloth. His hand smoothed over her face, trailing cool relaxation wherever it touched.
     She wanted to be brave, of course, but there is no braveness, no bravado, that can spare a human from the longing once they’ve had the blood. So she nuzzled her face into his touch and relished every ounce of that soothing magic that danced between them at finally giving into the craving for touch.
     “I could keep you,” Velisian whispered, and the words were only dull echoes in Atlanta’s brain. “You would be my favorite.” The cool touch of his lips against her forehead sent an uncontrollably shudder through her. “But you would break, my dear, and then you would leave me.”
     Atlanta sighed, knowing that whatever he said, it must be true, after all, she was warming from somewhere in the core of her stomach, the place where his blood was strongest, and with little wisps of magic it spread through her at a leisurely pace. Whatever he was doing, it was easing the ache from her muscles, and erasing the sharp pain above her eye. If she could just sink all the way into it, this power of his, she’d wake up in a better place, she just knew it.
     This must be death, she thought, but no matter how tranquil it felt, she couldn’t quell her fear of dying.
     It felt as if her whole body was weighted as she tried to pull back from the roaring quiet within her, but she slowly fought her way back to consciousness. Velisian still held her, stroking his fingers fondly through her hair and humming. His eyes weren’t on her face, but somewhere past this little battlefield they’d made.
     His humming stopped for a moment and he sighed. “It wasn’t this hard to kill your ancestors.” Atlanta cringed inwardly, causing Velisian’s eyes to refocus on her. “So you’re awake then?” He seemed genuinely confused. That makes two of us thought Atlanta, grudgingly grinding her teeth.
     One thing was certain, the longer she stayed awake, the more she realized she was no longer in pain. Her eyes immediately sought out her weapons, they were closer now, since she’d been thrown. If he would just put her down she could give it the old bounty hunter try, which was a nice way of saying she’d run like hell and try to grab something sharp before he killed her.
     “Focus, please,” he said, turning her face with his index and middle finger. When Atlanta didn’t jerk away he smiled slightly. “Much better.” His fingers smoothed over her forehead, down her cheek, and came to rest lightly around her neck. “Now what to do with you?”

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TBC…dun dun dun