Bind Our Loving Souls

by April Marcom

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Excerpt
Chapter One

The leaves of the little bush became blue as an enormous flash of light blazed through the sky, dyeing the world a rich cobalt blue for only a second. Then something smashed against the ground on the other side of the far hill, ten times louder than thunder, and shook the earth violently.

I rolled out of the cave in my haste to get away, just in case the walls were about to give. But it remained intact as the trembling ceased.

I stood in the rain for a moment, considering going to investigate the great noise, when something leapt onto the top of the far hill from the other side. He gazed at everything for a moment as he sat crouching. He looked so human, and yet so inhuman at the same time. Kicking off with two very powerful legs, he went sailing outward and then down through the air.

I stifled a scream as I grabbed a branch from the ground and threw myself back into my hiding hole. The branch was nowhere near big enough to hide me, but it was all I had. So I curled myself into the tightest ball I could manage and held the pitiful limb in front of me.

Through the pointed leaves, I watched the manish thing move to the center of the valley on all fours. He’d just jumped from the top of the hill to the bottom, and yet he seemed completely unharmed. There, in the center of the stormy wraparound hills, he stood tall and studied the ground surrounding him.

His skin was azure, but his arms had a sort of dark leopard print on them. As he twisted around to look back, I saw the dark knotted hair that grew to an uneven point between his shoulder blades and on the back of his knees, which bent toward his back instead of his front. It looked like it was easier to get down and run with both his hands and feet that way. Aside from the bluish color, these would have looked normal if it hadn’t been for the razor-sharp claws that grew from each finger and toe.

I assumed it was a him because the only thing he wore was a cloth tied around his waist that dangled halfway to his backward knees, and what I could see of him looked male. The black cloth had several stones on it that cast bits of strangely colored lights, which somehow scared me even more, because the longer I watched him the more positive I became that there was nothing human about him. And no human could have created him.

He turned back to study the ground in front of him some more as he walked closer to me.

Even with a good distance between us, the fear swelling inside me threatened to push me to a breaking point. “Turn back,” I whispered softly to myself.

My blood ran cold as he looked up, meeting my eyes with glowing amber ones. He threw all his weight onto his hands as he leaned forward and shot toward me. The hair on my arms stood up as my body shut down the way it does in my nightmares. My voice refused to work; my muscles wouldn’t move. I was frozen with fear, and he was heading straight for me.

Slowing down only when he was close, he stood up and stared. His orangey eyes were terrifyingly unearthly. His head tilted slightly to one side as he leaned closer to my cave.

I broke free of this immovable state when he reached in with one long hand. Screaming, I kicked his hand away with both of my muddy tennis shoes. But the whole space I sat in was only maybe two and a half feet deep. I was practically throwing my body out of it just trying to get his arm away.

He pulled his arm back and looked puzzled as he stared at me. His lips parted and a breathy hissing sound came out, only making me more afraid. It continued as he reached out for me again.

This time when I tried to kick his hand, he moved it to the side and grabbed my ankle, yanking it out of the hole, and pinning it against the side of the hill underneath. I tried kicking him with my other leg, sure I was fighting for my life, but he grabbed that foot with his other hand and pinned it next to the first one. He managed to hold onto both with one hand, even though I was trying as hard as I possibly could to get free, and reach out to me with his other one.

I tried slapping it away, but he grabbed one of my hands and I forgot my fear completely. In fact, I forgot everything—who I was, where I was, everything. I simply stared into his luminous eyes, the growing intensity of their light making them seem like two little suns burning into my soul, and lay against the back wall. My body went absolutely limp as I slid down.

It felt like I was floating. And then my life began to flash before my eyes. I saw childhood memories racing through my mind, the greatest joys and heartaches I’d ever experienced, the sleepless nights of studying and worrying over this or that. Every so often a flash of blue would appear for a moment and I could almost make out two creatures like the one still holding my hand, his parents perhaps. Then there was this growing attraction I felt for whatever it was that stood before me. The all-consuming warmth that began spreading throughout my body was amazing.

Finally, he let go of my hand. There was suddenly a great deal of pressure in my head as everything came rushing back at once. It felt weird to sit up.

The being’s skin looked as if shimmering sun-kissed fish scales were creeping up over his arms as they went from blue to ivory. It spread over his shoulders and then his entire body until he looked as human as I did, aside from his still-glowing eyes. No more claws. No more matted black hair, just golden brown locks.

The sensation of being wet and cold and having water fall all over me began to return as I shivered and stared at him in amazement. “Who are you?” I asked, stepping out of my cave.

“Eeee-knock—of the Halvandors,” the man said in a ghostly voice, fading between human and what had come from his mouth before.

“What did you do to me?”

“I have only seen your memories.”

My eyebrows drew closer together. I felt naked and self-conscious at this, like he had just seen a part of me that was forbidden.

But he put a hand on my cheek as his overpowering eyes offered me a look of admiration. His voice became low and perfectly human. “You have a very beautiful and breathtaking soul, Sarafina.”

“It’s Sara,” I said softly, feeling too many things at once to be sure of which one was the most prevailing. His kind words put me at ease, though.

And with the intense attraction I felt to him, I couldn’t help but reach one hand out to touch the skin between his shoulders, just under his neck. I stared at this skin, softer than anything I’d ever touched, as I rubbed my thumb over it.

Enock put a hand behind my back and leaned closer. “I’d like to kiss you,” he said.

I stared at him in surprise and mild trepidation, but also realized I wanted the exact same thing. It was impossible not to be fascinated and drawn to the dark strangeness of this man. “All right.”

 

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