Chapter 5: The Cooling Flame

"Don't leave me in the dark..."

Her voice was nothing more than a broken whisper, lost in the heavy folds of the night.

Her hands, small and stained with red mud, reached up on their own. She did not know why her fingers searched for his broad, burning shoulders, or why she held onto the very man who had just torn her world to pieces. The sharp, tearing pain in her lower belly still bit into her flesh like a hidden knife, but under the heavy, relentless rhythm of his body, that pain had turned into a thick, terrifying heat that pulsed straight through her blood.

He did not stop. He could not. His large hands held her hips pinned to the damp ground, his long fingers pressing deep into her soft skin, leaving dark red marks that would turn purple by morning. Every time he drove his weight down into her, her body shook against the cold mud. The wet slap of skin against skin and the sound of his ragged breathing filled the quiet woods, drowning out the owl calls and the rush of the river.

"Hold onto me," he rasped into her ear. His breath was like hot steam against her neck, smelling of copper and dark pine. "Do not let go."

She could feel the heavy, jagged marks his nails had left on her thighs and back. She was marked by his hands, painted in his sweat and the dark blood leaking from the open wound on his waist. Yet, as the night stretched long under the cold moon, her knees hooked higher around his waist. She yielded completely. She surrendered to the strange, frightening pleasure that washed over her in hot, suffocating waves, burying her face into his wet neck to muffle the high, embarrassing sounds coming from her throat.

When those soft, sweet sounds reached his ears, a long shiver ran down his broad spine. He growled low, a deep sound that vibrated from his ribs straight into her chest. He pushed deeper, his heavy frame crushing her into the earth, taking every breath from her lungs before filling her back up with his heat. He consumed her, leaving no part of her skin untouched, no part of her mind free from the overwhelming weight of his presence.

"You are so tight," he muttered, his jaw grinding as he drove into her with slow, punishing force. His golden eyes locked onto hers in the moonlight, wild and unblinking. "You wrap around me like a trap... keeping the black fire away."

"It's too much..." she whimpered, her fingers digging into the hard, slick muscles of his back. Her nails scratched over old, pale scars that lined his spine like silver ropes. "I can't... I can't take any more..."

"You will take all of it," he growled softly, his mouth coming down to claim her lips once more.

He kissed her with a fierce, possessive hunger, his tongue sliding deep into her mouth, stealing her whimpers before they could float into the night air. He moved inside her with a steady, relentless rhythm that pushed her higher and higher toward a cliff she could not see. Her lower belly throbbed, tight and aching, until another sudden, sharp wave of pleasure burst behind her eyes.

She arched her back off the ground, her toes curling into the wet soil as her inner muscles clamped tightly around him. Her breathless scream was swallowed by his mouth.

The tight squeeze of her body drove him over the edge. He let out a harsh, guttural roar that echoed through the tall trees, his muscles locking tight as he buried himself to the absolute hilt. He held her crushed against the earth, his hips trembling as a thick, burning wave flooded deep inside her core, filling her untouched body to the brim.

For a long time, neither of them moved.

The wind blew through the high branches above, dropping cold raindrops down onto their tangled legs. His heavy chest heaved against hers, his heart hammering like a trapped bird against his ribs. The terrible, suffocating heat that had been burning his skin slowly began to fade, drawn out by the small, trembling girl lying beneath him.

He slowly loosened his grip on her wrists. His broad hands slid up her arms, his long fingers tangling in her dark, muddy hair. He shifted his weight to the side, pulling her body tightly against his bare chest so she would not lie in the cold mud alone.

She lay there, shivering, her body sore and bruised, her skin sticky with his seed and her own blood. She pressed her face against his neck, breathing in the dark, heavy scent of him. She felt small, broken, and completely changed, yet she could not pull away from the warmth of his arms.

His breathing began to slow down. The ragged, raspy edge in his throat smoothed out into deep, quiet rises and falls. The fierce golden light that had filled his eyes began to flicker and dim, fading back into the deep shadows of his dark pupils.

"The fire..." he murmured, his voice thick with an overwhelming heaviness. "It is gone..."

He rested his heavy jaw on top of her head, his eyes growing soft and heavy for the first time since he had awakened in the woods. He did not know who he was. He did not know what ancient sins lay behind him or what monster he had been in another life. He only knew the soft, warm girl resting against his heart.

His eyelids fluttered, heavy like lead, slowly closing against the dark. The dark madness in his mind quieted down into a complete, icy silence, and his thick arms went limp around her shoulders as he slipped into a deep, heavy slumber beside her.

She closed her eyes, exhausted, resting her hand on his broad chest. But as the silence of the woods took over, a strange, ice-cold feeling suddenly settled in the pit of her stomach. The warmth radiating from his body began to drop at an alarming rate, turning as cold as marble within seconds.

She shifted, pressing her ear firmer against his chest to listen for his heart.

Nothing.

No beat. No breath. No movement. His flesh was hardening into ice beneath her touch, his broad chest entirely motionless as if the living man who had just claimed her had suddenly turned into an ancient, lifeless corpse right in her arms.