Coming 1/06

Seren rubbed her eyes as she felt herself waking up. What a terrible dream she’d had. First she’d thought the guild had turned her down, then she’d been chased by strange knights.

“I shall have to tell...” her voice trailed off as she opened her eyes and saw the eerie room. She lay on a bed that was completely black. The covers, the wood, even the curtains. The windows were open to show her a dark, overcast sky that held gray clouds and no trace of sunshine or light.

“Where am I?” She sat up slowly, trying to remember how she could have come to such a place.

A sudden movement drew her attention to the foot of her bed. She shrieked as she saw the gargoyle statue come alive. It’s eerie yellow eyes focused on her as its forked, stone tail whipped around it.

“Fear not, human,” it said in a deep, ragged voice. “I won’t eat your heart from you. At least not yet.”

She refused to believe what she was seeing. “I’m dreaming.”

“Nay,” it said in a sinister tone as he eyed her with malice. “No dreams here, bobbin. Only nightmares.”

The gargoyle launched itself into the air to fly about as it watched her. “Kerrigan, Kerrigan,” it called. “My Lord Darkness, ‘tis time for you to return.”

A wispy smoke appeared instantly beside her bed. 

Seren scooted to the opposite side of the bed and watched as the smoke took the form of a man with glowing red eyes. The smoke solidified into the knight who had rescued her. The cinders of his eyes flared to flames, then turned as dark and cold as coal. Instead of the mail armor he'd worn earlier, he was now encased in armor the likes of which she'd never seen before. Blacker than soot, it gleamed an eerie shade of blue.

As soon as he appeared, the gargoyle flew from the window and vanished into the eerie sky. 

She whispered a prayer as she crossed herself. “What are you?”

He answered without hesitation. “Evil incarnate.”

She didn’t want to believe that. And yet, how could she not? Indeed, evil bled from every pore of him. “But you helped me to escape the others.”

His gaze was cold, blank. “Nay, I helped only myself.”

Seren shook her head in denial. “I don’t understand... Why is this happening to me?”

He watched her without mercy or compassion as he stood with his arms crossed over his wide chest. “Why should it happen to someone else? What is so special about you that you should be immune to the callous machinations of fate?”

She swallowed at his harsh tone. “I never said I should be immune to anything. I only want to know why this is happening. Where am I?”

“You are in Camelot.”

She looked around at the cold, sinister walls that bore no resemblance to the place of legend. “Camelot?”

“Aye,” he said. “Can you not see the beauty of it? The magic? Here is where Arthur united a kingdom and saw his whole world crumble before his own nephew brutally killed him at Camlann.”

She knew the famed legend well, but she’d never imagined Camelot looking like this. “Are you one of his knights of the Round Table?”

He laughed at that. “Do I look like such? Nay, woman, I am their scourge. You ran from your blessed knights of the Round Table in town when they would have saved you.”

“Saved me from what?”

“Me.”

Seren bolted from the bed and ran for the door. Before she could reach it, the knight was before her, blocking her way. “There is no way out of here, little mouse.”

“Please,” she begged, terrified of this place and of him. “Please, let me go. I am just a peasant. I am nothing special, nothing out of the ordinary. I only want to go home and become a journeywoman.”

A faraway look came into his cold eyes. “And I, too, was just a peasant once. A liar and a thief, I spent my entire youth running from those who would beat me. Now I am King of Camelot. The wheel of fate is ever on the move. Today you are a simple apprentice without prospects, but in the days to come your destiny was to marry and breed with one of Arthur’s famed knights.”

But that didn’t make sense. “I don’t understand. I cannot marry a knight. I am a peasant.”

His eyes flashed red as he skimmed his evil gaze over her body. 

Kerrigan felt himself growing hard as he watched her standing so courageously before him. She was terrified, he could smell it and yet she continued to fight even though she knew it was hopeless.

She wasn’t anything special and yet...

His body reacted to her nearness in a way it had never reacted to anyone before. He found himself curious over why Dame Fortuna had chosen this meek little mouse to birth one of the greatest powers on earth. What a strange vessel to nurture and breed a Merlin.

“Have you ever taken a man into your body, little mouse?”

Her face flushed instantly as she sputtered. 

“So you are a virgin.”

His little mouse straightened her spine. “And I intend to stay one until the day I marry.”

One corner of his mouth turned up at her challenge. “You could hardly stop me if I decided to take you.”

“There is no satisfaction in stealing someone’s property. True value only lies when the owner gives it to you of her own free will.”

Her brave words gave him pause as he considered them. He cocked his head to better study her pert face. “I know nothing of gifts.”

“Then that is a shame. Perhaps if you were to ask instead of take, then you might have knowledge of them.”

She was a quick little mouse. Surprisingly intelligent, point of fact. “Would you give me your virginity if I asked it?”

The color in her cheeks heightened even more. “Nay!”

“Then what is the point of asking when the only way to have something is to take it?”

“Then take it if you must,” she said bravely, her eyes flashing a vivid shade of green. “but know that by doing so, you are stealing away the only thing I have that is truly mine alone to give. I hope it gives you great satisfaction to leave me with nothing.” She lifted her chin as if readying herself to take his blow.

Take her.

The voice in his head was overwhelming and normally when it issued a command, he followed it regardless of consequence, and yet he couldn’t quite muster the desire to do so now. There was a rare fire in her green eyes that burned away the coldness inside him. 

It was her dignity, he realized.

He remembered a time once when he had held such. But those days were past him. His dignity, like his kindness, had been stripped from him, layer by layer, until it left him a hollow shell that could feel nothing but anger... hatred.

Before he could think better of it, he lifted his hand up to touch her soft, delicate cheek. Her skin was warm, soothing. Sweet. Part of him expected her to pull away, but she didn't. She stood there with the courage of a lioness as she watched him with a hooded expression.

He lowered his gaze down to her small breasts that would barely fill his palm, then lower to the rest of her body. She was a scrawny woman in need of food and care. He could snap her neck with barely more than a thought.

Even if she tried to fight him, she would have no strength for it.

“What is your name, girl?”

She hesitated before she answered. “Seren.”

Seren. In his language that had meant star. “And what would you give me, Seren, to preserve your virginity?”

“I don’t understand.”

He let his hand fall from her face. He watched her curiously as she shivered from his nearness. “You speak of gifts that are so valuable. Show me one that is more special than the gratification I can have with your body and I shall sate my desire with another.”

She cast her gaze around the room as if seeking something to give him. Her eyes widened as her gaze fell to the bed where her red cloth rested. “All I have is my scarlet cloth.”

He snorted at that. “I have no need of cloth.”

He saw the panic on her face and for once he felt no satisfaction from having caused it. 

“I have nothing else,” she said.

“Then give me a kiss.”

Her eyes widened as if he shocked her. “A kiss?”

“Aye,” he said, enjoying this strange game of teasing her without malice. “Let me see the benefit of having something that is freely given and not taken. Kiss me, Seren, and let me judge the value of your gift.”

Seren swallowed at his words, petrified and yet oddly curious. There was something about the knight that appealed to her even though he scared her beyond reason. 

Why would such a powerful man be pacified by a single kiss? 

“I have never kissed a man before.”

He scowled at her. “You’ve never kissed. Never tasted a man’s body? How old are you?”

“A score and four.”

He tsked. “A woman full grown. How is it you have remained so chaste in a world of hungry men?”

“By choice, my lord. By my choice.”

He snorted at that. “And now I give you another choice, little mouse. A kiss or your body. So what’s it to be?”

Seren shivered as she wondered if a kiss would truly sate this powerful man. “And what if I don’t kiss you correctly? Will my actions be for naught?”

His gaze was blank, cold. “You ask a liar for the truth? Are you that trusting or that foolish?”

“Then how do I know you won’t take my body after my kiss?”

“You don’t.”

She swallowed at that. At least he was being honest. But then she had no real choice in this matter. She was at his utter mercy and they both knew it. “Then I shall trust you to be a man of your word. I pray you, don’t disappoint me, my lord. I have had enough of disappointments this day.”

Before Kerrigan could ask her anything more, she laid a chaste kiss to his lips. His body fired at the innocence he tasted, at the knowledge that no other man had ever tread upon these lips. 

His heart pounding, he nudged her lips apart with his and swept his tongue deep inside her sweet, decadent mouth to taste the first innocent kiss he’d ever known. It washed over him in waves of desire, making his groin hard and aching.

Seren moaned at the taste of him. His skin was cold as ice, as his tongue danced through her mouth, licking and teasing her. She’d never experienced anything like it before. 

He pulled her into his arms and held her close as he deepened his kiss even more. She felt him bulging against her hip and knew exactly how much he wanted to take her. 

He left her mouth to trail his kisses over her cheek, then down to her neck where he buried his cold lips against her throat. Her breasts tightened as desire pooled itself to the center of her body.

She’d never known desire before, but she felt the heat of it stinging her now. A foreign, frightening part of her wouldn’t even mind if he pressed her for more...

“Aye, Seren,” he breathed against her ear in a ragged tone that sent chills the length of her body. “A kiss freely given is most sweet indeed.”

Seren felt his hand against her back lift the hem of her gown. She went ramrod stiff in fear of what he was about to do.

Kerrigan’s body was molten. All he could think of was tasting more of her virgin flesh. Of spreading her creamy thighs wide and driving himself deep inside her wet heat over and over again until he was fully spent. 

But she had trusted him. 

No one had ever given him trust before. No one.

And she had kissed him of her own freewill.

His body screaming out in protest, he let loose her dress and forced himself to step away from her. Even so, his lips still burned from the taste of hers. 

And he wanted more. He craved it with a ferocity that stunned him.

Seren watched him carefully, half afraid that he would rape her after all.

He didn’t. But there was something painful in his eyes. Something so deeply tormented that it made her chest ache for him and she didn’t understand why.

He cleared his throat. “Are you hungry, little mouse?”

She nodded. 

“I shall have food prepared for you.” He paused at the door and looked back at her. 

“Aye,” he said quietly as he swept her from head to toe with his gaze. “That’s much better. I could never abide a woman in rags.”

It wasn’t until after he left that she realized her tattered dress was no longer on her body. Instead, she wore a shimmering gown of pale blue samite with a gold girdle and soft leather shoes that matched it.

Seren’s legs went weak. It was all she could do to keep standing. Surely this was all a vivid dream. How could it be real?

“Wake up, Seren.” But it wasn’t a dream. Somehow this place was real.

The black knight was real. And something inside her warned that if she didn’t find a way to escape this place, she would be doomed and damned here forever. 

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