The Shattered Genesis (Eternity) (84 page)

             
“He has done nothing predatory throughout the entire duration of time that I have known him. He is a good man. He has one eye out for me constant
ly. He would do anything to make sure that I was safe.”

             
“Is that what this about? Feeling safe?” His tone softened only slightly.

             
“No. It is about the fact that when I look at James, I see a brave, humorous, painfully good-looking man who cares deeply ab
out you, Violet, Penny, and me. That is why I am with him. Because I…” I stopped, knowing that admitting to Elijah the true level my feelings for James had reached would only make him angrier.

             
“I’m not going to approve of it, Brynna. I will never approve
of it!”

             
“What, are you our father now?” My anger rose instantly at his assumption that I needed or even wanted his approval.

             
“No, I’m not. Thank God! But I am technically the man of the family now and I don’t approve of him!”

             
“You had no problems with
him only a moment ago.”

             
“That was before I found out that he dates girls half his age! That he preys on girls too stupid to realize they’re being played! What if I started dating someone who was half my age?! What if I started dating a twelve year old, Br
ynna?!”

             
“First of all, that is an utterly ridiculous comparison. What you suggested would violate several old-world laws. This is not a matter of James dating me while I am too young to fully grasp what we are doing. I am an adult, Elijah! Secondly, it is
folly to accuse me of stupidity. I mean, really! It is utterly nonsensical to assume that I would ever be enchanted into foolishness by a man!”

             
“Yeah? It happens to the best, doesn’t it? Look at Mom! Look at Maura!”

             
“And now you have offended me further
by comparing me to them!” I exclaimed furiously, and my eyes turned red at the mere suggestion that I, for better or worse, was similar to Maura or our mother. “They are certainly not the best of any breed, human or otherwise! What occurs between James an
d I has nothing to do with you!”

             
“You know, I get it now.” He was grinning with a sadistic rage I had never seen in him. He was going to say something cruel, something unforgivable. I braced for it.

             
“Go ahead. If you want to have that look on your face,
then you say it, Elijah.” I challenged him in a dangerous whisper.

             
“This is all about Lucien, isn't it?”

             
What exactly he was referring to escaped me somehow. Lucien's death and my relationship with James possessed no commonality to one another, I believe
d.

             
“You're with him to punish yourself for letting our brother die, right?”

             
My stomach turned over. I almost heaved forward as the assault of memories overtook my consciousness. My anger spiked as his words lashed their way through my stream of terrifyin
g thoughts. How long had he floated in the water before I emerged from my stupor? Had he screamed my name? Had he called to me so desperately for help? Had he thought that I was purposely ignoring him so that he would die?

             
That particular thought was the
one to send me reeling into a space of temporary insanity.

             
I ran my fingers through my hair and closed my eyes for just one second as I tried to control the high-speed train of my consciousness. I wanted to scream again and stomp my feet until that terrib
le question faded away. There was not even a tiny part of my brain that could bear it. I could not imagine, even for a moment, that he had thought I was allowing him to drown for some selfish reason...

             
My sweating palms slid off of the table in the hallwa
y that I had tried to grasp in order to steady myself.

             
None of those obvious signs indicating that what he had already said was enough stopped Elijah from continuing.

             
“He probably tells you all the things you want to hear about how Lucien died. He's old,
so he's desperate to keep you. He'll say anything. Any normal, young guy wouldn't be able to look at you knowing that you killed your own...”

             
I would not have stopped myself if I could have. I slapped him so hard across the face that he slammed into the
wall and left a dent in the plaster. He ran through a list of expletives that were meant to make me sorry but failed. I glared at him, wanting to hit him again and again until every last bone in his body was broken. Even in my cruelest moments towards Maur
a, my mother, or even my father, I had never said anything so agonizingly cruel. How could my brother, my
protector
, say such a terrible thing? I couldn’t fathom it.

             
Holding onto the anger while forcing away the hurt, I stormed away and opened the door to
my room. There, I found the man who had caused the great conflict. Elijah followed after me, shouting still about my promiscuity and stupidity, though those are terms too nice to put in the place of what he actually said. He yelled about my ignorance and
malicious self-interest that had resulted in our brother's death.

             
James was standing at the window and he turned upon my entrance into the room.

             
He was outlined by the bright moon that had come up over the tree line. A shadow was cast over his face, eer
ily complimenting the anger I could see in his eyes. If his thoughts were any indication, which they should have been, he had not heard the details of mine and Elijah’s fight. He knew that it involved him but he had tuned out the arguing to give me privacy
.

             
My eyes were ablaze with rage that I would not allow to dissolve into pain. I refused to cry, even in front of James. I would hold onto the anger because it was more honorable than admitting to being hurt. I needed something to distract me, some way to
release the poisonously incensed energy coursing through my veins. My blood was on fire, burning through every part of my insides with no mercy. I would surely melt from the inside out.

             
When James looked into my eyes from across the room, he saw both the
anger I wore proudly on my sleeve and the hurt I was trying to suppress. He sensed my need to release both in a frenzied action. Animals can sense desire in other animals. It was no different for James and I, who were becoming more animalistic with each pa
ssing day.

             
“Come on, then.” He challenged me, and I attacked.

             
I ran forward, jumped into his arms and wrapped my legs around him to hold on. We fell onto the mattress made of feathers, kissing frenetically, as though our very lives depended on that momen
t between us. James and I had been fighting the desire to sneak off into the woods to do exactly what we were doing in the present. Now, there was nothing to stop us and fury to drive us forward. It was  sinful.

             
Our hands were ripping at our clothes as th
e scorching anticipation reached its maximum capacity. I had never experienced such painful desire. There was but one cure for the hunger that James and I were suffering from. There was but one way to exorcise the fear, regret and uncertainty that had been
plaguing us since we had walked off the ship that very first day on Pangea.

             
I did not gasp in shock or feel any fear at all that second time. I was safe there, encased in his strong, muscular arms. With the same rabid intensity of his kiss, James pulled
my hips forward. My back arched as I grasped the soft animal fur beneath my body on the mattress. Because I knew that no one was near enough to hear, I moaned loudly as I reached up, wrapped my arms around him, and clawed his chiseled back.

             
I yelped in su
rprise when he pulled me to him, lifted me up off of the strange bed and slammed me into the wall. Our profusely sweating bodies ground together. He panted into my neck as he thrust harder and faster. There was nothing else in the world that mattered. Ther
e was only him and me. There
was only that tortured longing between us that was being rectified in the most carnal way. There were no other feelings that mattered besides the feel of his tongue moving against mine and his full length filling me perfectly.

             
I broke free of his kiss so that I could bury my face in his neck. I tried but failed to suppress the scream of absolute ecstasy. We both could not stifle the vocal evidence of our climaxes. But I was so drained by the intensity of what had just occurred
between us that I couldn’t worry about how many others had heard, though I assumed it had to have been every resident living in the colossal house.

             
He held me as we both breathed heavily. Somehow, he managed to force his legs to walk back to the bed. I
knew that after what we had just done, my legs simply would not cooperate with the command to walk. As a matter of fact, my shaken and stirred brain might have forgotten what walking even was, however briefly.

             
James propped himself up on his elbow, only t
o become so entranced by me lying completely undressed before him that he had to lean in to kiss me from my neck, down my chest, and down my stomach. I felt that rush of warmth between my legs as his hands ran up my thighs slowly.

             
When his lips traveled b
ack up to meet mine, I could not help but smile.

             
“Feeling better?” He asked me with a grin, “I know I am.”

             
“Yes, I was afraid your severe injuries would leave you feeling less than up for ‘we-are-safe-hooray’ sex.” I told him, deadpan.

             
“That’s what I th
ought this was. I’m glad we were on the same page, dear.” I was lying beneath him, looking up into his brown eyes that never failed to allure me. I giggled at his own deadpan response. He laughed softly, too, as he took my hand and pressed it to his lips.

             
“You were amazing.” He was completely serious now.

             
“So were you.”

             
“Yeah? I try.”

             
“You succeed.” I lifted my head to kiss him again. When we stopped, I could see in those alluring eyes that he was going to ask me what had been discussed between Elijah a
nd me.

             
“Do you want to talk about it?” He asked, proving me right.

             
I shook my head.

             
“But I know that I should.”

             
“You should. We always knew he was going to disapprove. Let me guess; he said I was prowling on you, right?”

             
“How did you know?”

             
“That’s e
xactly what I would say if the situation was reversed.”

             
“Well, it is ridiculous! I am more than mature enough to handle a relationship with an old man such as yourself…” He chuckled at that and I could not suppress my own smile after seeing him laugh. “It
is ridiculous of him to assume otherwise. Not to mention, it is none of his business.”
             

             
“Well, he’s your brother, baby. He’s worried about you. He thinks that you’re allowing yourself to be blinded by love...” He trailed off but returned to the conversat
ion quickly with his typical lighthearted sarcasm in tow, “Or like, or fondness, or whatever it is that we’re calling this these days.”

             
“Ha-ha, I know you are trying to jest about this in order to lighten the mood. I don’t care what Elijah thinks. I do no
t appreciate that he equated our relationship to a trauma from my past and then had the nerve to suggest that I only find you tolerable simply because you lie and coddle me.”

“He said what?!”
Oh, God or Gods…
             

             
“James…” I sat up slightly to put both hands
on his face. “Honey, there is no use being angry about it. I am not even upset.”

             
He knew that I was lying but he forced the newly born anger inside him to die away for my sake.

             
“I should kick his ass from here to next week.” James told me with a dark
scowl.