Girl Enchanted (Book 2 of The Girl Trilogy) (7 page)

I thought about running back to Aurora
Springs where my fae mother lived. But, the community would surely
find me there. They had trapped Shaul and me in their airspace.
That would be one of the first places they would look.

It was just too strange finding out
that I had another mother, a real mother and she wasn’t even human.
And when I thought about it, it was unfathomable that I wasn’t even
human. I was a josephine. I was the sole being who possessed the
elements of air and water—the one and only combination that was
needed to mate with the serpent traits of fire and earth. Together
we were the key to bringing forth heaven on earth. The concept was
unfathomable, but true.

How could such an intense
responsibility be put on me? I wanted no part of it. I just wanted
to have fun. I wanted to fall in love with a normal boy and have a
normal family. Why couldn’t I just live an ordinary
life?

But, life was not normal anymore. With
all the great tragedies manifesting on Earth, nobody had it easy.
Most people were dead and so many others were being tortured by the
serpent people. And the humans, who weren’t being victimized by the
serpents, were being abused by other humans. The world was a dark
place no matter how you looked at it.

But, I didn’t care. Somehow, I was
going to find a pleasurable life away from all this chaos. I didn’t
want the world’s fate to be in my hands. I didn’t even like people
anymore. Even my own mother tried to turn me into the community who
wanted to do medical experiments on me. Why should I save a race of
humans who are so evil?

My head began to swirl with horrible
thoughts. I tried to find the humanity in me, but it wasn’t even
there. I remembered how the serpents on Sunset Boulevard had torn
those girls’ bodies apart. There was blood and guts everywhere.
Their screams echoed in my mind. I remembered how afraid I was and
how awful it felt knowing such horror was possible in a world
created by God.

The more I thought about it all, the
more my mind grew wild with despairing thoughts. I fell to the
ground crying. I didn’t care if I died. I didn’t care who heard me.
I wanted to die.

The earth began to shake and tremble
as my cries escalated. The ground rolled in great waves. The trees
cracked and fell all around. I didn’t care if they crushed me.
Rolling onto my back, I looked up at the sky and wondered if it had
a limit somewhere far off in the distance. Kill me, I thought as my
voice became piercingly beautiful.

But I didn’t die. When my screams
stilled, there I was nestled beneath a pile of trees in a nice
little bed of dirt all my own. I closed my eyes and
dreamed.

When I awoke, I was refreshed. The
blood had dried around my eye and the wound felt a lot
better.

It was still night. The music in my
mind was peaceful and soulful. I enjoyed the rhythms very much. The
leaves beneath me made for a comfortable bed and the fallen trees
served as a hiding place which gave me serenity.

I thought about my times with Shaul.
The replay filled me with warmth and hope.

I remembered the time that he saved me
from the green, scaly serpent people who were trying to kill me and
the girls I freed from the serpents’ pen on Sunset Boulevard in
Hollywood. He was so fierce and confident. He didn’t even have to
fight the serpent who tried to overpower me. The Devil’s descendant
folded under his infallible strength.

After, he saved my mother from her
kidnapers. He chopped off her aggressor’s neck and killed his evil
wife.

Without explanation, he understood my
mother’s ideological beliefs in natural medicine and foraged for
her earthly healing remedies. His actions were altruistic and
non-judgmental. He was a strong force—caring and
nurturing.

In the dungeon, he lavished me with
magical delights. We dined on exotic fruits. He painted the most
alluring pictures of me. Our conversations were of the mystical and
exalted. My time with him rang of splendor and mystery. He was a
rapturous creature of great depth and supernatural
appeal.

But, more than all that, he stood by
me and clung to me with utter devotion. He saw me as I really was,
but was too afraid to reveal. He painted me like a sexually charged
being with strength and grandeur. I liked the way he saw me. He
captured in his art a part of me that nobody else knew. My
innocence was unveiled and only he perceived my inner truth. He saw
what lay beneath my bland, awkward exterior.

I loved Shaul for that. I loved him
for perceiving my essence beyond the physical. He saw who I was
before I even became it. It was as if I transformed into a
beautiful, powerful josephine because he revealed it in his
thoughts. Because he saw me in a magical light, I became that
manifestation in all its glory. Only because of him and his belief
in the transcendent, did I bloom into the embodiment of the
ethereal.

“
If we are separated, we
can communicate through the music.”
I
remembered Shaul’s last words to me before I was paralyzed in the
butterfly net. At the time, in the panic of the moment, I didn’t
know what he meant, but now that I was alone and somewhat hidden
beneath the fallen trees in a peaceful setting, my mind relaxed
enough to ponder.

I remembered that when we were locked
away in the dungeon, before I even knew who the other inmate was in
the cell beside mine, an enchanting voice joined me in song. To my
recollection, I sang, incorporating the symphony in my mind with
the mixed trills, squeals, and rapid clicks of my voice.

Then, to my amazement, another voice
entered my mind joining in the song. It was a soft and velvety
voice that was sensual to the ears. The melodic company was a
mesmerizing surprise that soothed my tortured thoughts in the most
unexpected, dynamic way. Only later did I learn that the other
singer was the prisoner on the other side of the wall. And then,
only after more time, did I discover that that dungeon mate was
Shaul Hainsworth. So, it was possible to communicate, at least in
some manner, in our minds.

I considered singing out loud right
now in hope of luring Shaul’s consciousness to my mind. Maybe
through the words of my song I could convey my location and then he
could come and find me. But, what if somebody hears me? That would
create a horrible predicament considering the community as well as
Aver were likely in pursuit of me.

As I lay there, the musty scent of the
damp woods surrounded me. The stars twinkled in the dark sky. It
was beautiful, causing me to marvel at its resplendence. Now, with
my senses enlivened by my surroundings, I began to sing quietly,
just a note above a whisper. The soulful tune in my mind blended
with my song. It was the music of yearning. The background
instrumentals grew louder, more passionate. My feelings expanded
within.

My mother had taught me
that the world was created with Hebrew letters, so it seemed
logical to use the language to manifest my desires. I commanded
my
yedid nefesh
(soul mate) to me.

To my utter shock,
immediately I heard the erotic silky voice of my
yedid nefesh
singing in
tune to my song. The vocals were poetic and enchanting. It felt as
if I was being transported to a tantalizing hell. I was so moved
that a tear fell from my eye. I hardly knew who was singing to me.
The pleasure I felt was so intoxicating, I could hardly think
straight. My body tingled all over.

I touched my sheer white gown. The
fabric was so soft. The night looked like a velvet black with
jewels of white and amber sparkling on high. The clouds that
floated by were of translucent colors, wickedly beautiful and
surreal like the steam of witches’ brew.

What had I done? Maybe it wasn’t right
to use the holy language to call upon the Devil. I didn’t care. I
was bad. Evil enchanted me.

I found myself involuntarily
describing my setting in my song. The passions of the symphony took
over and in rhythm I detailed my whereabouts with such accuracy
that I even surprised myself. It was as if my soul lifted above me
and could see the entire woods and thereby conveyed the landmarks
like a DTI map.

I tried to stop singing. I did. But,
the music wouldn’t cease and kept lifting higher and higher with
the erotic pulsation that strummed my essence. It was like I was
being played like an instrument. I was the harp, the lute, and the
violin. I was the symphony of the universe.

The ground started to roll gently. Oh,
what did I do?

Suddenly, there were external sounds.
My body tensed. I heard my aggressors approaching fast. At once, I
stood up from beneath the fallen trees. Lit torches moved through
the woods in my direction. My singing was so loud that it permeated
the physical in every direction.

Terror ripped through me at the
recognition of my oncoming pursuers, but I couldn’t stop my song.
The voice of the Devil brought me to such bliss, I could never let
go of this feeling. I wanted more. I wanted to keep going. I wanted
the sounds to take me out of this wretched world.

“
There she is!” one man
yelled out with a lit torch in his hand.

“
It’s Cordellia Dressemme!”
another man said, waving on the others behind him.

They started to run toward me,
stumbling over the rolling ground. I was too consumed with the
devilish pleasures in my mind to bring the music to violence. They
were a crowd of many men. Once in capture, they would surely
torture me for my defiance, for breaking their laws.

“
Lock her down,” Mazen
Tratzel called out in order. “I want her alive.”

I just stared at them moving toward me
as I sang. I couldn’t care anymore. Life was hardly worth it. I
wanted to die, to become transcendent, one with the collective
consciousness as my mother called it, one with the music of
eternity.

But, then I noticed that the crowd
wasn’t coming any closer. They were just yards away, ready to pull
me down in my vile thoughts, but they pounded their fists against
the invisible. There seemed to be a transparent shield blocking
them from me.

In rage, they tried to burn the see
through barrier with the fire of their torches. They even shot at
it, but the mercury streams streamed back at them killing some of
their men. I cringed as I saw the injured bodies fall in the night,
their innards spilling out before my eyes.

The devilish voice stopped singing in
my mind. Everything became quiet for a moment. The silence was
dramatic.

I felt a tap on my shoulder from
behind. When I turned around, I saw that it was a wildly handsome
boy with blue eyes like the sea that bored into my soul with the
intensity that I had been feeling in our song.

His hair blew with the wind. His eyes
sparkled in an otherworldly fashion. I felt as if I had known him
my entire life. I knew who he was and I wanted it to be so. I
wanted him as much as he wanted me.

It was Aver.

7

“
Come, join me for
breakfast,” Aver Hainsworth said with a mischievous expression on
his unusually attractive face. He was holding a lit lantern that he
set down on a boulder to the side of us.

“
What?” I responded in an
exasperated tone. His casualness put an ironic twist on the heated
situation.

The community members were still
trying to break through the invisible shield separating them from
us. A fight broke out and one man was smashing another man’s head
against the barrier. Blood smeared against it and oozed down toward
the ground. Because the shield was invisible, it looked like the
blood was suspended in midair.

“
Don’t know how long this
shield is going to last, so let’s flee for our tea and crumpets.”
He gazed at me slyly.

Exasperated, I rolled my eyes,
surprised at his curious personality. I was concerned he might
suddenly turn into that ferocious black serpent and fold his
horrifying body over mine.

“
You’re my girl now,” he
said confidently as he took my hand.

I tried to pull away, but immediately
a huge swarm of butterflies flew out of my body. I had never seen
so many beautiful little creatures all at once.

“
I know you like me,” he
said with a wry smile. “In fact, you love me.”

I drew back, appalled at his
forwardness. But, his eyes were so blue and hypnotic that I
couldn’t help staring into them.

He tilted his head to the side as he
gazed back at me. It seemed as if I was under examination. “You
look terrible.”

“
Thanks.” My voice was
sarcastic. Everything about him was perplexing to me.

“
Here, let me…” He held his
hand over my injured eye.

I drew back. “What the hell are you
doing?”

A ray of light shined out of his hand
and into my eye. The light was so intense it charged my senses. It
was so pleasurable. I wanted the feeling to last forever. I felt as
if he was filling me with bliss. The light exuded from my pores
outward in every direction.

Then at once he stopped. The light
vanished. I was disappointed.