A Haunting Reminder

The swamp's humidity clings to the aged kestrel's skin, fighting for coverage with nightsweat that has drenched his bare chest, shoulders and back. His breath comes quickly, panting; he remains seated on his cot struggling to reach composure. His gaze jerks quickly about the dimly lit chapel, the rolling smell of incense juxtaposed with that of the marsh and muck waiting outside the temple proper's doors. He closes his eyes and turns his head again, his auditory senses heightening. Nothing out of the ordinary; snores from other followers and clergy, the occasional scream from the dungeons below. His eyes snap open as realization dawns.

"Jolen!"

A single piercing word, reverberating through his subconscious, bringing him to lucidity and waking. Not a dream, he thinks. "Adia?"

The voice echoes with a long-familiar tenor; that accented, husky tone dredging up distant memories. As though stepping from the corners of his mind, the lithe form of a dark kestress silently emerges from the shadows of the room and crosses to his cot. Her head inclined she murmurs warmly, "Jolen? Is hea' you a'. I been lookin' fo' you sa' long." Her movements are a study in fluidity as she braces her palms on the cot, straddling Jolen's waist. Her body arches lightly, the heat of her skin brushing across the male's body beneath her.

"Jolen..."

Her murmured word is a mental caress, breathed out on a sigh that carries the heady scent of spices. Then the press of a demanding kiss covers his mouth as she claims his lips with an undisguised desire. Her fingers nimbly unlace the light garment that protects his modesty and with a rough movement, pushes it back from his chest, allowing her touch to trace possessive patterns across the muscular physique.

"You a' mine, my love, you canna' eva' belong ta anotha'..."

Dumb shock settles across his features, his hands moving of their own volition to encircle the hips bearing down on his lap, the talons digging into the dark flesh. Jolen casts a furtive glance at the space on the cot next to himself, finding it empty of its familiar form, absent the tell-tale signs of recent use beyond his own.

The lithe creature perched upon him casts a curious, knowing smile, her own talons brushing his jaw and shoulders, stroking deliberately. He leans forward and crushes his mouth against hers in a heated, longing fashion, a low moan muffled in the ardor-rich embrace. As she responds to him with equal fervor, an odd sensation buds in the periphery of his thoughts, sending brief pulses of... oddness through his mind and emotions.

The force and demand of emotion from the shadowy form distracts Jolen from any thought as to the nature of the situation. Indeed, as her touch and taste fill his senses, all rational thought is pushed aside. Her teeth close on his lip, tearing at his mouth savagely, though the heat of her mouth soothes the areas moments later. The slick caress of her tongue easing his wounds and causing his blood to race. Words are lost in the passionate kisses, and her body comes to rest atop his own, the swell of curves and warm flesh press against Jolen's skin. A palm brazenly strokes his thigh and hip, as the mysterious lover urges him with sensual touches to give in.

Focus jarred, he reaches up, clutching a great mass of dark, soft crest feathers as he pulls back, his beak and mouth burying against the now exposed neck and throat of the wanton kestress above him. Memory unravels as her musk and scent driving into his nostrils, burning his sensations and bringing them to a fevered state, every fiber transformed into a ravenous beast screaming for her flesh. He inhales deeply once more, gasping a prayer to the Aether as his mouth clamps to the damp flesh of the hollow of her throat. His wings unfold and flap out once, wrapping about the form of the lascivious creature in his grasp; the bold brown of his plumage noted somewhere in his mind as he clutches closer, driven to have this woman.

A throaty moan resounds in Jolen's ears as the kestress presses into his grasp. Her fingers find their intended target at last, and as her palm slides along the length of his cock, stroking it, she hisses the words into his ear.

"Yo want me, none otha' like me, Jolen. Yo've wanted ta possess me, an' love me agin'." Her words are punctuate by her rough gasp as, with one swift move, she rises and mounts his hips, sinking down to guide his length inside the inferno heat of her flesh. "Na' take me." She pulls his body up against her own in a fierce demand.

All thought is lost, Jolen growls huskily as his hips roll to throw Adianna off himself, forcing her onto her back, his hands moving in practiced fashion to pin her wrists over her head. Holding them there with a hand, he reaches with the other to part the pair of quivering thighs, wedging himself in between them and re-entering her.

He throws his head back and hisses loudly, blind to the possibility of rousing the rest of the sleeping chapel. Vigor and need consume him as he plunges in, driving without abandon, his dark body and flesh meeting with Adianna's thighs with a hoarse groan.

A wrenching cry wrests Jolen's attention and he finds himself sitting up in his cot. Gone is the phantom lover and the room is heavy once more with the soft sounds of the sleeping chapel. As he works slowly to reconcile the previous minutes with the reality that it had all been a dream, he reaches up to touch his throbbing mouth. His fingers pull away smeared with blood, further adding to his confusion. At that moment, another cry floods his mind, rich with pain as it reaches out blindly for help and pierces his consciousness. Jolen grits his teeth, breathing heavily as he tries to push the shared suffering aside long enough to discover its source. Waves of fear ripple through him, and then sound of his own name, murmured in his head.

Then just as suddenly as the connection was made, it disappears again, emptying his mind of all but his own thoughts and the sound of his heartbeat. Jolen hesitantly casts about, reaching to find the thoughts of all those in the vicinity, hoping to touch upon the one from moments ago, but with no success. All he was left with was the knowledge that Adianna had been in pain...and she had called for him.