"Ezekiel!? EZEKIEL?!" Isabel ran and ran, until she saw Ezekiel Clayburne fall to the ground and swear as his broken and deeply injured arm fell underneath him.
"Ezekiel!"
Ezekiel bit back a sob of pain, and held tighter to his arm, attempting to push himself away from Isabel by kicking out his feet and sliding across the dirt.
"Stay away!" his strained voice yelped as he backed straight into a boulder. Another curse fell onto his lips, but remained unspoken as Isabel crawled forward like a careful, spooked cat.
"Hush, it's okay I won't let it hurt" the wide eyed teenage girl inched closer and straddled Ezekiel's lap amidst his agonized protests and feeble attempts at escape.
"Hush, Ezekiel, hush. Let me help you." The boy held fast his broken and sliced up arm until Isabel laced her fingers around his mobile hand, while stroking the sweat-matted hair away from his face with their twins.
"Don't. . . please just don't." Ezekiel whispered through teeth gritted against the pain, grunting as he struggled still to back away. The boulder cracked and the reverberations seemed to stun the boy in a man's body long enough for Isabel to say a few words and send the cool black power of her order magic through his body in an act of healing.
Closing his eyes against the sensation, Ezekiel's breath came loose in a series of pants and grunts until quieting considerably as his head rested against the two halves of boulder. Right then he seemed to see her with different eyes, and they sparkled and shone in the heat of hormonal passions, blood loss and the sweat of their intimate distance.
"I told you I wouldn't let it hurt" Isabel's voice was thick with new sensations and the surprise of a dry throat. Leaning her body closer, she pressed herself against him, her nerve endings on fire at the intensity of the contact. The demon within her begged and bellowed to be let loose, to claim him and claim the night for the wilds of passion, but her soft, quiet voice was steady and strong. The demon would not be out tonight. Shifting laboriously on his lap, her hand went from his newly healed arm to stroking upwards and running down his chest, before planting itself at his well muscled abdomen.
"What. . . what are we. . . Isabel?" Ezekiel's breathing came in gasps as her lips descended closer and closer towards his own. Her other hand left his cheek to reach for his hand, placing it firmly on her hip, his fingers sliding nervously from the rise of her buttox to her shoulder blades before resting on the small of her back.
"It won't hurt. I won't hurt you. Not like them. Not ever" she spoke huskily, her dancing eyes claiming his in that last moment of turning back. His hand pushed her back closer to him, and her lips brushed tentatively upon his before reaching down and claiming him. Before he knew he was doing it, Ezekiel gently took her hands and towed them up around his neck, so he could trail his hands slowly, caressingly down her arms, down to her adult, sensuously tempered hips. Pressed together and panting, Isabel and Ezekiel ended their kiss with Ezekiel's broken, quiet tears slowly crawling down his face. Taking ahold of her tossed aside sweater, Isabel dabbed at the tears until they both broke out in a refreshing laugh.
"It's so stupid. They. . . they don't even realise they're doing it until it's . . . "
"Hey, enough of that. Stay away from those thoughts, Ezekiel. Stay with me." Her voice seemed so much smaller than it had a moment ago, or had it been an hour? Time did seem askew. Ezekiel slowly nodded, and Isabel crawled off his lap to be laid down on the grass. The only noise that of her black iron jewelery and the sound of his leather clothing rustling as he knelt, then laid down beside her, placing another gentle kiss on her lips.
Lying entangled in each other's limbs, the teenagers dreamt the same dreams, and Ezekiel got to wake up in time to watch Isabel sleep peacefully in her truest state: completely unguarded. She awoke with the sound of the Euphoria drums, and gasped at the image of Ezekiel looking lovingly down at her, brushing the hair away from her single horn.
"Dance with me" he asked, helping her to her feet and holding her in his arms. She smelled like earth and vanilla, sweet with that inescapable alluring hit of spice. Her smile held the joy of worlds, while her receeding fangs added to her coy expression of utter triumph.
"Always." Walking together, the pair entered into Euphoria and no one before had seen such chemistry presented on the dancing fields as Ezekiel and Isabel let everything go and were carried away by the rhythym of the sacred beat.