Dead Water by Tim O'Rourke

grabbed my breasts, my throat, anything he could get
hold of. He pulled me forward, covering me in kisses. He nipped at
my flesh with his fangs and I groaned with pleasure. I moved up and
down, and when I felt the muscles in his stomach and thighs
contract, I pushed myself fully down onto him. Potter arched his
back and cried out as if it was an involuntary act – something he
could neither control nor keep locked inside. A fiery hot gush of
pleasure suddenly gripped me, making my whole body shake like I was
undergoing some violent seizure. With tears of sweat covering my
body in a silky gloss, I collapsed into Potter’s welcoming
arms.
    He
pulled me down on top of him. Still inside of me, Potter held me
tight and breathed, “I want us to stay locked together like this
forever. I never want to be apart from you again,
tiger.”
    “ We feel like one person,” I whispered, still trying to catch
my breath.
    “ I don’t ever want that feeling to go away,” he said, stroking
a stray length of hair from my brow.
    “ Nor do I,” I whispered, resting my head against his chest. But
in my head, I could still see that statue of Potter and Sophie
looking so happy together. “Hold me tight,” I said.
    “ For always,” he whispered back, folding his wings over us like
a blanket.

Chapter Sixteen
     
    Potter
     
    “ We should get going,” I whispered in Kiera’s ear.
    “ So soon?” she murmured against my chest. “I could stay here
with you like this forever.
    I pulled
my wings tight about us. “Me too, but Murphy is going to be sorely
pissed if we keep him waiting much longer.”
    “ I guess you’re right, but...” Kiera trailed off.
    “ But what?” I whispered.
    “ Once we leave here, things are going to change,” she said. “I
get the feeling that we’re coming to the end of our journey in
this pushed world.
I get the feeling that everyone will continue on from here, while
I’m being led down a dead end.”
    “ I won’t leave you here,” I said. “If you stay, I stay. We’re
like a pair, a team. We’re like a couple of old
bookends.”
    “ Not so much of the old,” Kiera grinned up at me, slapping my
stomach with the palm of her hand.
    “ C’mon, we should start heading back,” I said, unfurling my
wings.
    We
dressed without speaking. The glass of my blood stood on the tree
stump next to the flowers. It had gone thick and black like
treacle. I hooked it out with my finger. The congealed lump
splattered to the ground, turning the snow pink.
    “ Ready?” I asked, looking over my shoulder at Kiera.
    “ All set,” she smiled, pulling her coat tightly about her
slender frame.
    Reaching
out, I took her hand in mine and led her back through the wooded
area and towards the field. At the treeline, I could see the row of
caravans in the distance. “C’mon,” I said, heading back across the
field towards them.
    Murphy
was waiting. He stood propped against the bonnet of the car, pipe
dangling unlit from the corner of his mouth. He looked at how Kiera
now had her arm hooked through mine. Before he’d had the chance to
say anything, the campsite owner appeared from around the side of
the kiosk. He had a spanner in his hand and I guessed he had been
fixing the broken cigarette machine.
    “ Found him then?” he said, looking at Kiera.
    “ Huh?” Kiera asked.
    “ Your friend here,” he said, nodding in Murphy’s direction,
“has just been telling me how Gabriel often wanders off and gets
himself lost.”
    Cheeky bastard, I thought, glancing
at Murphy. He simply shrugged his thickset shoulders at
me.
    “ That’s right,” Kiera agreed with the campsite owner. Doing her
best to hide a smile, she looked up at me and said, “Gabriel was
lost, but I’ve found him again now.”
    The
campsite owner came towards me. Then, talking as if I wasn’t there
at all, he sighed and said, “Poor fella. In the daylight, I can see
he ain’t exactly normal. He’s got that vacant look behind the eyes.
I can tell