A Child's Dream

Chapter 8 Family Trees

Slowly she made her way inward. Though the ridges of the once well-traveled road were exceptionally grown over, there was no mistaking this area. She knew it all too well. Few people of the town around her bothered her, as she crossed to what seemed to them a forbidden place to go. With each step she remembered. The trees and bushes were long gone, and the house, she helped to build, no longer proudly stood, there was unmistakable evidence that a house was once there. A portion, a corner, of the foundation, was really all that was left. By it\'s angle, she knew it was the outside, southwest corner.

Carefully, like reaching for fine china, she touched the decaying man made stone. But there was no life in it. It is a hard thing to describe to someone, that when you live in a place so long you feel the foundation breath. The feeling is strongest when you actually take art in the construction of the house. It becomes part of you almost. And now, like herself, the stone was dead inside.

Her four-legged friend poked his head around the stone, and whimpered slightly. \"You\'re still here?\" she asked, surprised he ventured this far at all. \"You can stop following me. I\'ve found what I\'m looking for.\" The small wolf stepped around her, his paws gaining more of the decaying concrete breaking into dust. \"In a few years there won\'t be anything left. Just like me.\" The animal tugged at her cloak, he\'d done it once before, and she\'d listened. It may have saved her life, and she listened now. She turned to find a large stone behind the remains of the only tree, long dead, on the once lush property. Being in its shadow she never noticed it.

Upon looking at its surface she realized what it said. It was a headstone. Not just for one person, but for many. Her whole family. The names were etched in granite and the stone was covered, by the surrounding evidence, in many layers of fiberglass resin. Though now the top of the stone was sowing through, the many layers over time were being worn away. Like the remains of the house, soon there\'d be nothing left of it either. She ran her hand down and across the lists of names as she read them aloud. \"Deirdre and Hector Barrett, parents to Raymond and Kevin. Raymond and Trisha Barrett, Parents to Glenda, Casey, Kathy, Harriett.\" Their families were listed below, but these were her cousins, all who died the in the first 25 years after she disappeared. Her father Kevin however lived passed them all.

\"Kevin Barrett, father to Kira, Denis, Kally-Anne.\" She slowly traced her hand over the remainder of the names, her brother and sister, died in the first 15 years after she was taken, her sister\'s husband shortly after her brother, and their four children both shortly before, and within three years after, the passing of their parents.

The only two names without dates were her father\'s and hers. Beside her year of birth, 1970, was Presumed Dead 2010. Her father then had to have sealed the stone in the tough glass like plastic, in order to protect the family\'s names. From the remains of it around the base, the plastic had to be twelve inches thick all around. When her father made things, he made them to last a while.

From the dates on the stone, she knew her father had to have passed on some time after 2028. A horrible thing to do, to out live ones entire family. She understood that feeling so much more now. Gently she leaned against her family\'s marker, and cried. \'I\'m home daddy,\' she wanted to scream, but found no voice to sound it. \'I\'m home.\'

She sat alone there, her tears for her long deceased family spilling to the dry ground, the only ones there to see it, were her horse, and a lone wolf, who watched in silence.

It was some time before anyone dared disturb her, and even then it was with extreme caution. The wolf had left in the night, perhaps feeling it\'s work was done, and now a strange black haired man approached her, his clothes of cured deerskin, decorated with beads and animal tufts of fur. He had a water container in his hand, and poured a little in his hand and wiped her face. With a jump in her body posture she turned to him and locked with his silver eyes. \"Remember me?\" he asked quietly. She shook her head. \"I am Logan. From the bar some days ago. I will not hurt you. Why are you still here?\"

\"It wouldn\'t matter to you,\" she said. \"You wouldn\'t understand.\"

\"Perhaps,\" he sighed, handing her a cloth to wipe her nose. \"Perhaps I would. Tell me.\"

\"Thank you for your concern, but I\'d like to be alone.\"

\"But you are not alone. Your horse is here. Though his body invaded, his spirit is with you. He chooses not to leave you. Just as the wolf chooses not to.\" Slowly she glanced around but saw no sign of the wolf. \"You do not understand,\" he said noticing her questioning glance. \"I am the wolf.\"

\"A shape shifter?\"

\"Yes. I have followed you since you scared off the game, coming over the wall. I was trying to frighten off your prey, but when you killed a rabbit and shared it with me, I knew then I was wrong. So I sought to redeem myself, instead got caught in a trap. But you set me free. Then I knew you were good at heart. My life was yours then, I could not leave you till I\'d returned the favor. But to see you sitting here, just waiting to die, that isn\'t right.\"

\"In less than 6 years, I\'ll be dead anyway. So what you do for me now has no bearing on my final fate. I release you from your duty, return to your people. Let me be, please.\"

\"It is not that easy. You are not sick, but your heart is hurting. Tell me its story, and I will understand all. Perhaps then, I will know how to help you.\"

\"You can\'t help me, Logan. No one can.\"

\"I wouldn\'t say no one.\"

His horse was nearly drained. He\'d ridden it hard ever since he\'d made that accursed crossing. He hated the water, and even though he could see the bottom, just ten feet down he gathered, the feel of the wet rope on his hands was nearly unbearable. Once he reached the shore, he thrust his hands into the warm sand and prayed the heat would suffice to stem off any further requirements. He\'d lost so much time already, he hoped she was no more than three days ahead of him. Once back in the saddle, he rode straight through two nights and two days, hoping Nightmare would catch her scent, but the horse\'s power supply was severally taxed, and he had to trade two of his daggers to a local refueler to let the horse power up again. That took two days, the dealer haven shut off all power at night to keep it from being stolen while he slept.

Luckily D had made the trade for when Nightmare was fully charged, the refueler would receive the second dagger. Underway once more, D rode hard, further east, preferring the lesser traveled trails as apposed to the heavier taxed main road. The advice given him by some farmers he\'d asked about seeing a woman in a green cloak riding a silver horse. They hadn\'t seen his love, but provided the much-appreciated information all the same.

As he weaved his way down the once prominent road, he was sure, Nightmare started snorting, and sometimes dipped his head to the ground. \"What is it?\" asked the sym anxiously.

\"He\'s got something. THERE!\" Quickly he dismounted kneeling next to the track in the soft dirt. \"Take a look.\"

They sym pushed out form his palm, looking, sniffing, and even tasting the dirt onto he ground. \"Its Max\'s track alright. It\'s no more than 16 hours old. She\'s not far now. Keep going!\"

\"I intend to.\" Again he galloped the horse down the path, allowing it more to follow its nose than his direction. Around old buildings, over restored or rebuilt bridges, and through a small flooded portion of road, Nightmare charged. Pushing on through its own will, knowing its friend, and his master\'s mistress, were not far away.

Suddenly, after hours of running, the horse turned sharply, away from his path and headed into a small town. D had a bit of a struggle reining in his mount, and at times it even pranced sideways down the street, straining at the bit. \"Something wrong with your horse mister?\" asked a man with a pulse rifle and side arm.

D eyed the man for a moment, his gaze finally resting on his badge. The sheriff. \"I\'m looking for someone,\" he said calmly.

\"That doesn\'t answer my question.\"

\"Doesn\'t matter. I\'m looking for a woman. She rode in here on a silver horse, not too long aghe\'he\'d be wearing a green cloak, and may have the hood up.\"

\"Maybe I\'d seen someone like that. What\'s the reward on her?\"

\"There isn\'t one.\" and he rode on, letting his horse once more lead the way.

\"She\'s here somewhere D. I can feel it,\" Whispered the sym.

\"I know. But if I reach out for her she\'ll sense me, and she may run. I don\'t want to frighten her.\"

\"Then we\'re ridding blind! What do we do?\"

\"We let the horse follow his nose.\"

\"Oh please, don\'t break out a box of fruit loops. I\'ll slap you silly.\"

Inwardly D smiled. The sym hadn\'t cracked a joke like that since Kale was taken by the Purists. To hear it do so now was oddly refreshing. He\'d never live it down if he said anything about it.

They\'d reached what seemed like the other end of the town, several houses and streets had passed, but still no reaction from his mount. There were a few small shrubs dotted across the ground and a tall wide dead tree, but he couldn\'t see any sign of Kale. Suddenly Nightmare veered left, ran a short ways and turned right, stepping lightly up a small rise. As he journeyed inward he saw Max lying on the ground, apparently resting, and a black haired man next to the tree. As he got closer he realized he was talking to someone, and recognized a familiar green cloth laid out in front of him.

\"...You are not sick,\" he was saying, \"but your heart is hurting. Tell me its story, and I will understand all. Perhaps then, I will know how to help you.\"

\"You can\'t help me, Logan,\" came her sad reply. \"No one can.\"

\"I wouldn\'t say no one,\" D said softly.

The two turned. The dark haired man stood to block his passage as D approached. \"She\'s not for you Dark one!\" he said defensively. \"Be on your way.\"

\"She\'s my wife,\" he said gently, not looking from her. Behind him, Max and Nightmare stood once more side by side, soft knickers exchanged between them, the tails of their adventures while parted consuming their thoughts.

The black haired man nodded and stepped away. D knelt down beside her, and brushed her tears from her face. She didn\'t smile, and her eyes never changed expression. \"I\'ve much to atone for, my Kale,\" he whispered. \"I can only ask that you forgive my arrogance. I didn\'t stop to ask you, or even talk to you about anything. And I destroyed all your trust in me, in a single night.\"

She shook her head. \"You saw what you saw, you heard what you heard. What were you to think?\"

\"Still, I should have stayed. Confronted you...to learn the truth.\"

\"You wouldn\'t have listened. Anymore than your father listened to me the night you left.\" She held out her open hand, her balled up cross at rest within, \"We can\'t be fixed as easily as this, D. Promises are like a chain, it\'s only as strong as the weakest link. I see it in your eyes, questions and doubts.\"

\"Not about us!\"

\"No. About me. Too bad you can\'t go through my mind as Delron had.\"

\"Actually, I can. But it\'s dangerous. My ability is not as fine tuned as his, or father\'s. I could hurt you.\"

\"I\'m already hurting D! What more can you do?\"

\"I could kill you with what you\'re asking.\"

\"Just do it. It\'s the only way you\'ll be able to look at me again.\"

\"Alright. If that\'s what you want.\"

\"Not here!\" demanded Logan. \"People are starting to get curious as to why so many are here now. You need a room. I\'ll stand watch over you if you wish.\"

\"Thank you. Come Kale. We\'ll find a room somewhere.\" Effortlessly he took her in his arms, the horses naturally fwingwing the two, regardless that Logan, in wolf form, held their reins in his teeth.

Secure at last in a room above, possibly the noisiest bar he\'d ever walked into, he set Kale down onto he bed, gently kissing her brow. But she didn\'t kiss him back, she didn\'t hold him. Not that he could blame her. Never once, in all their six years, had he broken a promise to her. Until that night. That night he let himself act like the wounded husband he was, and not given her the chance to try and explain. But she was right. He wouldn\'t have listened, and the shame he felt of that struck him harder than before. \"Kale, this is dangerous. Are you sure?\"

\"If you don\'t. You\'ll forever doubt me, forever suspect the worst. This isn\'t just for me to redeem myself to you, it\'s for you to redeem me. Do it.\"

He turned as he heard a rustle, much like water through a brook, to see that Logan had returned to human form. \"Don\'t let me hurt her,\" he said. \"If I try to do something that I shouldn\'t, and you\'ll know what that will be, grab my wrist. An outside touch will bring me back, and shouldn\'t harm her at all.\" The brown skinned man understood and nodded. Turning back to Kale he kissed her, steadying his mind, summoning what he dared. He\'d only done this once, to a dying woman six years prior, to learn where his quarry had gone. She was still alive when he left her, but she wouldn\'t last much longer. She knew she was dieing, and though her thoughts were aware of that truth, she didn\'t ask him to end it for her, and killing a human, he just couldn\'t do out of cold blood. Killing for justice was one thing, killing the arckers another, they weren\'t totally human any more. Before Kale, he couldn\'t kill a human. It just wasn\'t part of him.

He kissed her again, settling himself beside her better. \"You must relax,\" he whispered. \"You mustn\'t fight me.\"

\"I\'ll t-try...AH!\" She felt his presence in her thoughts more clearly than ever before. She saw darkness, not the void of light, but what he called the darkness of his soul. His vampire half. Gently bright white arms pulled her back from it, a great love surrounding her. She tried to see passed the arms, but found the light too bright. \'What\'s happening?\' she asked within.

\'I am with you,\' came his answer, \'don\'t be afraid. Relax.\'

His voice, or whatever it was, was soft and soothing. At once she relaxed into the lights embrace. Quickly images of her recent journey flashed by, the path she followed to return, reversing. The real image she saw over shadowed by memory. The land was indeed once very beautiful. Lush with trees and grains, both wild life and livestock abound. He too could easily love this place, for she was as much a part of it, and like it now, slowly dying inside.

Further images passed them, her rescue of the wolf, her hunting kill shared with it, and her leap over the wall. Nowhere in her remembrance was there evidence or even suspition of being followed. What had happened to the boarder guards?

\'The what guards?\" she asked.

\'Later,\' he replied, and pressed on.

He watched her journey across the mountains, one he had to postpone till storms had passed. \"I don\'t want you to die!\" screamed a little girl. \"Peter, please! Don\'t let her die!!!\"

\'Aceline? You met Aceline?\'

\'She found me in the snow. Keep going.\'

He followed her memories further back, passed a disinteresting journey across chilling lands, her escape through the Barbarois\' tunnel, avoiding being seen by those witnessing his brother\'s trial. His faint cries under his father\'s search for the truth, he was sure, light on her ears as she fled.

\"D wasn\'t the one who kissed you...it was me,\" his brother\'s words echoed hauntingly. \"I had kissed you...I was the one who...seduced you...I was the one...who bit you.\"

\"YOU SON OF A BITCH!!!\"

\"He left me...He promised he\'d never leave me...Edward...he promised...he broke his promise...It\'s happening ...oh god...its happening again!!\"

He pushed through her guilt her memories all jumbled together at the heart of the truth. Such pain as he\'d never felt, and all because of him. \'Keep going,\' her thoughts whimpered.

\'I\'m hurting you.\'

\'No. Just keep going.\'

Much of her following memories were darkness, sounds of footsteps echoed sometimes, and the crackling of a fire. Then the sensation of a kiss. \"I knew...y-you\'d...f-find usss.\" My D, my love. \"I\'m ssso ccccold.\"

\"I\'ll warm you,\" he heard. A voice so distorted by fatigue it could be anyone\'s. Then the feeling of pleasure, her pleasure.

\"Warm...us... both...Uh!\" More, oh D, give me more please.

Curiously he pressed closer to her remembrances. There was more here than her belief she\'d been seduced by him. The bright arms around her let her go, and she remained still as the light went forward to the moment she betrayed him without knowing it.

\"There is more love,\" said the voice. \"I...hunger...\" He felt the phantom pain of the fangs that sank into her flesh. Ignoring it he sought out her thoughts. What was she hiding?

\'No D, please!\'

D!!! I want you inside me, so much more into me! Please D!! I want all of you! \"D!\"

\'You wanted me to do that?\'

\'Yes...\'

\'Kale...why didn\'t you say so?\'

\'Because it isn\'t right!\'

\'It gives you pleasure...\'

\'So much so...yes...\'

\'Then I shall...\' Bright hands grouped her form, a face appeared from the light and pressed a kiss to hers, clothes quickly vanished as nude forms pressed close...

Suddenly D snapped around. It was cold and hard, alien to him. It wasn\'t anything he was prepared for. In the distance he could hear the gentle beat of drums, ancient drums not heard by human or Dhampire ears in centuries. From between his darkness and her light, a giant wolf leapt forth, grabbing D by his wrist and pulling him away from her.

She followed for a time, standing at the edge of his darkness, as the wolf passed between them, another form appeared behind her. An eagle in flight, swooped down, flapping its wings between them, startling them both...

D crashed to the floor, Logan at last releasing his hold. He turned and checked on the girl, to find she wasn\'t harmed, but resting. \"What...happened?\" D asked. \"Did I hurt her?\"

\"No,\" Logan answered. \"But you were becoming lost in her desire. If I didn\'t bring you out, you could have become so tangled, neither of you would have survived.\"

\"Thank you,\" he sighed. \"I take it you were the wolf?\"

\"Yes.\"

\"And the eagle?\"

\"My guide on that journey. You should rest now, dark one. You are more tired than you know.\"

D tried to rise, to bring himself to his wife once more, only to collapse on the floor. Logan helped him to her side, and spread the blanket over them. \"I shall stand watch outside. You rest. I\'ll not be far should you need me.\"

\"Thank you.\" The door closed as he turned over and held her close. Yes, close. Close once more. His love, to rest with, to sleep, to love, to dream.

It was well after the town had gone to sleep, when he woke at last. He kissed her brow and found she too was awake. \"Did you see?\" she asked.

\"Yes. What a fool I\'ve been.\"

\"No. You couldn\'t help what you saw, or thought.\"

\"Can you forgive me?\"

\"Can you, me?\"

He kissed her tenderly in answer,. Su. Suddenly a warmth spread over him and settled in the pit of his stomach. Hungrily, he kissed her, wanting more from her than just forgiveness. He wanted her. In a way he never expected. He found he didn\'t just want her, he wanted to possess her, her body, her flesh, even her very soul. Hurriedly he pulled their clothes from their bodies, heedless of where he tossed them, trying not to break the sustenance filled kiss.

At last he had to, as he pulled her shirt from her. Madly he tore off their boots and pants, till all that was left between their nakedness was air. Quickly he wrapped her legs around his hips, his unusual harder erection gliding along her tender folds. \'More, D.\' her words echoed in his mind. Savagely he drove into her, but nary a cry escaped her lips. He threw his weight into her, feeling her passage slick and inviting at his onslaught. His groans of effort echoed off the walls, till she reached out and drew him close in a kiss.

Quickly he pulled her upright on his lap, his strength launching her up his length, her weight plunging her back down. Their sighs of pleasure and ecstasy mingled on the air. His wife would be his once more, totally, and completely his. He\'d see to that.

A careful hand caressed her buttocks, seeking out the object of her deeply hidden desire. At once he found it, and pressed his finger inside. She gasped in shock, her body\'s natural reaction to tnd knd keep the intruder out, but as he pressed inward, the sensation turned from a mild discomfort, to that of a soft erotic warmth.

\'More, D.\' he remembered. Oh how he\'d give her more. Reluctantly leaving her, he turned her over, propping her knees under her, making her press her shoulders to the pillows. There she sat, spread before him, and again he plunged into her moispthspths. Before each outward stroke, he\'d slide his member over her craves, spreading her ample fluids over the area he would soon invade. With each inward pass, he\'d make it slow, gaining her body to a point of total need for release. With his pleasured torture her body released more of her wondrous cream, that he used elsewhere. \'More, D.\' her words had begged, and now she would get it.

Gently he pressed into that wondrous place, her body pulling him deeper, their cries louder and louder with every millimeter he dove further. He\'d never done this before, though he\'d heard others talk of it in bars before the war, he never dared to try it. Carefully he pressed further, her body opening up to him. Till at last he was totally inside her. \"OH GOD D!!!\" she cried in total shock of what he\'d done.

He reached under her, through her folds to her tender bud. Vigorously he rubbed it with his thumb, as fingers gently invaded her other depths. Suddenly she started screaming, her body bucking hard under him. He wasn\'t sure where it came from, perhaps it was his own secret desires that slipped out, he wasn\'t\' sure, but the words dripped from his lips before he could stop them. \"That\'s it, cum. Cum hard. As hard as you can...AHH!\" Repeatedly he thrust into her, his essence spilling inward, as the gates of a great damn were opened. He could feel his seed filling her, sliding around his member as he thrust in and out with his release.

Slowly he eased her to lie down, shifting his upper body slightly to not suffocate her, but remaining in position with his member still inside her depths. \"How...how did you know?\" she managed to ask.

\"I felt it...in your thoughts. Why didn\'t you tell me?\"

\"I was afraid you\'d think ill of me.\"

\"It brings you such great pleasure,\" he said, kissing her shoulder. \"And I want so much to pleasure you.\"

\"D...take me...make me yours once more...\"

\"You already are mine. But if you insist, I can claim you again.\"

\"Yes...please do.\"

The hall had long emptied, and such sounds in a place like this were not uncommon. But to be forced to be woken by them was quite another. Wolf - Logan - lay flat on his side, his back against the door where the two he guarded had once been sleeping. As her cries of pleasure increased again, Logan pulled his paws over his ears. A moot attempt at best.