Fire and Ice

Reverend James felt a pressure weigh down on his body and slowly through haze encrusted eyes forced his reluctant vision to focus on the object above him. His eyes swam in the contours of her beauty, as the blurred vision of Cadet Darby sat straddling his waist and leant over his body, breathing her hot breath against his skin. Confusion mixed and entwined with excitement as he fought to control his urges and remain pure to his vows. His hands wandered over her tight muscles in her thighs, tracing the contours of the fabric as it pressed against her skin. He blinked away the sleep from his mind and stared into her eyes...her feral, wild eyes.

Consciousness hit him like a steam train as her body weighed down heavy against his and his eyes met her solid stare. Her pupils had changed from their soft blue hue to a ferocious bright yellow with a streak of a black pupil cutting through the wild compensation like a scar. Small splashes of saliva fell from her slobbering jaw as her teeth hovered over his skin like rows of tiny needles, sharp and protruding poised stab at his flesh and rip the soft tendons from the bone. James moved his hands from her thighs and grasped desperately at her arms, his shouts dying in his throat and his panic swelling in his stomach. Fingers pushed at muscular arms, running through matted fur which circled her arms.

“I hungry” she growled in a thick guttural voice which dug at his soul. She bent down and whispered in his ear, smirking as the words fell over him like a waterfall, “I want you in so many ways” it mocked as saliva splashed his cheek and traced a line over his face as he tore his eyes away from her. “I can feel her desire” came the voice from the cadet, “I feel her urges, her sexuality. I know what she desires...who she desires” a deep rumbling rattled in her throat and Reverend James realised it was a animalistic chuckle.

“Cadet” whispered James under the pressure of her body.

“She cannot hear you” the voice mocked as the form of Cadet Darby writhed on his body, rubbing herself against his groin and waking feelings in his loins that he had not felt for years. “I must feed” it whined. Her eyes locked onto the priest again and grinned a wide smile, revealing her pointed sharp teeth. Darby flicked her tongue over her lips seductively and allowed flecks of spit to cover her mouth as she lowered her head toward his, smiling as he struggled beneath her body. Her tongue stabbed at his cheek and ran along the soft mound of flesh, leaving a trail of saliva in its wake. “I want to taste you” she giggled as her tongue paused over his cheek and ran along the contours of his bone and ridged around his eyes, flicking at his lashes. She shifted her body and arched her back as she stretched her muscles, talking into the early morning sky as her hands ran over her tight form. “I want to bathe in your blood and feel it warm my insides” her hands wandered over her breasts and down to her stomach, “I want to feel you inside me, I want to touch your flesh and take it from your body. I want to shred your mind and taste your soul” she gripped his arms as she shifted her weight to sprawl over her body. “I must feed”

“Joanne” he whispered as their eyes met. He grasped at her wrists as they forced down toward his chest. She gazed into his eyes and her demeanour softened, her head tilting slightly as she spoke.

“Help me...” she whined as she pushed her clawed hands toward him.

Dominica Brown released his grip on the cowering Chamberlain and moved silently toward the window, where he stood in quiet reflection as he gazed over the canopy of the forest. He listened as the old man coughed as he struggled to regain his composure and rolled onto his side. “I am a man of the cloth...” he started, refusing to meet the venomous glance from the floor, “and despite what I have seen here, I refuse to be bound to your level” he stood in contemplation as the morning sun touched the leaves and danced across the dew soaked treetops. “Beautiful is it not?” he bent his head back as he raised the question and immediately answered his own question reliving the Chamberlain of the chore, “of course it is. See how the sunlight plays with the leaves. You never answered my question”

“I do believe that God watches over us all, and the Lords...”

“That was not what I meant” interrupted Brown, “I do not question your faith. I asked if it is beautiful” The Chamberlain shook his head and followed the gaze of Father Brown. “Consider all you can see before you and think on this...today will be the last dawn this planet will ever see. After today, the leaves will not be touched by the sunlight again” he sighed as his eyes dropped to the floor, “never again will the morning air caress the dew”

“What do you mean?” enquired the Chamberlain.

“The planet is dying” replied Brown simply, “this world has but one day left”

“If that is the will of God...”

“We have free will!” snapped Brown, “we have the right to survive, to live”

“If our lords wish us to die, then that is their will”

“But we do not have to” sighed Brown. “We follow the words of the lord as divine, but we continue to shape our own lives to our image. This world may be dying, but it does not mean we need to die”

“I do not understand how we can survive of the lords have ordained our death”

“We can help” said Brown finally looking toward the old man, “but we would need your help”

“How?”

“Talk to Lady Theye, tell her to save her people”

“She wouldn’t listen...”

“Then make her listen!” shouted the priest, losing his temper with the Chamberlain and his negative attitude.

“I would need proof” he whined.

“I can give you proof, if you can get us out of the village unseen”

The Chamberlain thought for a moment, then nodded eventually, “very well” he said, “if you can prove to me the world is ending then I shall talk to Lady Theye”

Captain Everton Crane; forty eight years old; father, husband, officer and now here he was standing in the morning breeze on the edge of the canopy staring out over the world before him on the cusp of potentially his last day of life. The wind ruffled his hair slightly, disturbing the strands covering his head and pushing them from left to right. He gripped the bottom of his jacket and pulled it ceremoniously down, straightening his uniform. A tear gripped his eye as he thought of his family and wondered whether he would ever see them again. Slowly he walked around the platform, his hand running along the thick handrail which protected the boundary between the safety of the palace and the ground below. Fingers curled around the wood around Crane peered over the side toward the forest floor miles below. He briefly imagined falling, his body plummeting and tumbling down...down...down, before shaking the thoughts from his head. Leaning heavily against the railing he closed his eyes and cast his head back in the morning breeze.

Aston James could feel his hands press against hard muscles as the animalistic body of Cadet Darby thrust against his body. He frantically held her at bay while meeting contact with her eyes, his own searching for glimpses of humanity deep within the feral pupils. “Listen to me!” he hollered over her wild snarls, “this is not you, you are human”

“I hungry!” she snarled back, her teeth snapping at his neck and flecks of saliva splashing against his skin.

“No, your not!” insisted Aston, “fight the feeling” He could hear the movement from the edge of the camp and imagined the children waking and seeing the transformed figure on top of him.

“I feed” Darby snarled.

“Fight it, you must fight the feeling!” shouted Aston, “I have faith in you!” he heard female screams across the camp and tried to blot out the sounds of panic from the children.

“I can’t” sobbed Darby, “it’s too strong, it must feed”

“You can do it”, Aston felt his muscles relax as her grip weakened, “think about your life...your loves”

“Feed me!” screeched Darby and lunged at the priest, her teeth grazing his cheek as her body thrust forward. He used the sudden momentum to force her onto her back and straddled her body, using his weight to hold her down. He grimaced as her feral body slashed and fought against him as he gripped her wrists and pushed her arms back on the rough ground.

“Listen to me!” he commanded as the inside of his thighs held her waist hard on the floor as she wriggled against the force of her enhanced strength, “you are human, you can do it cadet, I know you can” he looked into her eyes and watched as the yellow hue began to fade leaving a pale blue iris staring back for a moment, “remember who you are, who you love” he leant his head toward hers, “this is not you”

“Please” she sobbed as her muscles tensed beneath his body, “I can feel it in my head”

“Fight it!” urged Aston as he placed his head close to her ear, “I believe in you, I have faith...Joanne”

Cadet Darby sobbed as her eyes returned to her natural pale blue and waterfalls of tears fell over her cheeks. The sharp excess of teeth fell back and the hair which had sprouted across her arms, legs and face dispersed as she became normal.

“I’m going to let go now” said Aston calmly, nodding at Darby.

“Don’t” she sobbed

“I trust you” he smiled and released the grip on her wrists and stabbed at the sweat which encrusted his forehead. He sighed heavily and rolled onto the floor by her side and stared at the morning sky taking in deep breaths of air as his lungs fought to regain a rhythmic beat.

“I’m sorry” sobbed a weak voice by his side.

Aston lay on his back watching as the clouds formed over their heads and his hand scratched in the dirt, searching for her’s. Their fingers entwined and he replied softly, “don’t be, it wasn’t your fault”

“I could have killed you”

“But you didn’t”, his fingers squeezed her hand and he smiled at the sky, “you fought it and you won” his words did little to reassure her feelings.

“What happens next time?” she asked uncertainly

“You fight it again...and again...and again, until we can find a cure”

“And what if we can’t?”

“We will” promised Aston.

“You can’t say that” she replied, not looking at him, but following his gaze into the sky.

“Once we get off this planet, it’s effects should be neutralised”

“You can’t be sure”

“We will find a way”. Reverend Aston James smiled at her as her eyes welled up with tears and gently planted a kiss on her forehead. “I promise” he breathed into her ear as he pulled her body close to his own and held her in his tight arms.