WARNING MATURE: This chapter is mature! If you are uncomfortable with sexual content please sit this one out.

24 AD

Sensation, hot and bright tore through him at the feel of her lips against him. Her exotic wild honey smell, and her soft moan, as Helix tentatively ran his tongue over her lips made him ache in a way he'd never known. The world was nothing and everything all at once. Eslein's mouth opened to his tongue, hers searching in return. She tasted of cherries and sweetest wine.

The kiss lasted until both were breathless and gasping. As they pulled apart, gazing into each other's eyes, each with a question there Helix grinned slightly.

Eslein returned the grin then softly asked, "Was that your first kiss?"

Heat rose to his cheeks. "First kiss like that yes." He searched her eyes. "Was it... okay?"

She smiled and kissed him again. "Does that answer your question?" She whispered when their lips again parted.

He nodded. A fire burned in him. The desire to touch her, feel her skin, and again see her perfect curves unhindered by clothing pushed him to action. Helix let go of her wrists and found his hands sliding under her blouse. She was so damn soft! A calloused finger pressed and rubbed along her back, stomach and then her chest. Eslein arched into his touch a gasp escaping as he ran his thumbs over her breasts in soft, firm circles. When his hands slid away to explore further, their lips met again, tongues entwining.

Helix kissed his way down her neck, one hand in her hair, the other on her back. Her head tilted back as much as possible, giving him better access to her neck as she shivered under his touch. "You're perfect!" He growled gently against her skin.

Eslein smiled, "If you say so." With that, she tugged on his shirt front and pulled him toward the bed.

As they helped each other out of their clothes, throwing them off the bed to land wherever Helix allowed his eyes to suck in her beauty. Lean flexible muscles. A slender waist that dipped into shapely hips and perfect legs. Breasts, that while smaller than average, were perfectly symmetrical and drew his gaze. Her eyes, smoldered with desire.

Helix fully shared her wanting. Yet, he found himself fidgeting self-consciously as Eslein returned his gawking with an appreciative, studying stare of her own. Sculpted, toned muscles, hardened by years as a sailor and soldier, tingled under her gaze. His manhood was fully risen, expectant and demanding. As her eyes drifted down the awkwardness became too much to bear.

"I. Uh... don't." Helix looked away, face flushed as her gaze lifted to his. "I haven't done this."

"You're a virgin?" Her question was gentle, non-judgmental.

"Not exactly..." Foggy memories of Sal's body rushed to him, unbidden and unwelcome. 

She must have noticed his sudden discomfort because her soft fingers reached out, catching his face between her hands, Eslein kissed him deeply, her thumbs gently brushing his cheeks as she pulled back. It was a sweet kiss, yet Helix's mind yanked him far away as visions cascaded past his tightly closed eyes.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Black depths swirling as pressure built in his chest. He couldn't breathe! Red hair billowed in the current as a hand reached out to save him. Helix tried fruitlessly to pull away as her hand grasped his.

The water vanished instantly, replaced by a sickly sweet smell, silk draped walls and soft, cold hands sliding over his abdomen. He tried to fight, tried to refuse. Sal's chilling laugh drifted all around Helix.

"No!" He growled.

"No? But we already did? Don't you remember?" Sal spoke, standing just in front of him, an adders smile curling her lips.

"No!"

The vision cascaded again, tearing the world asunder as Sal straddled his naked body. Her breasts bounced with each roll of her hips. Sighing moans of pleasure escaped her mouth as she took him. Helix felt it all. Each twitch of her body, each inch of their connected skin. He couldn't move, couldn't speak. Trembling, Helix felt an uncontrollable pressure building in his member. He struggled, screaming within in his own mind as Sal undid him.

Helix snarled with rage. His vision went black then lightened to reveal Sal standing across a strange stone room from him. The walls and floor looked to be carved from solid ruby.

She flashed a simpering grin. "Enjoying your witch?"

Helix only snarled a feral animal sound.

"Know this prince," Within a blink she stood before him, eyes blazing with immortal ferocity, "I curse you, as long as you walk the earth, I will never let you find pleasure in another's embrace! Their touches will be mine, their faces mine! Ever will you be the unloved."

Helix reached for her, his hand sliding through her form like the ghost she was. Meeting her gaze, teeth bared he growled. "We will see."

*~*~*~*~*~*

Pain exploded through his skull. Somewhere Eslein was shouting. Something about leaving? Or being alone? Helix didn't know.

A sudden breathless, weightlessness caused his eyes to snap open. Some creature held him against the wall by his throat. Blazing hazel eyes filled with hatred, a face twisted with malice, sharp teeth glinting and right behind the creature two white pillars of flame. No, not flame Helix realized, wings. Wings made of fire. The recognition clicked a second later as Eslein again shouted.

"Cinix stop!"

It was strange, Helix briefly thought, that Eslein could not get the creature to let go. Her eyes were solid blue, the air thrummed with her power as she was trying to pull his arm away. Cinix was entirely unfazed.

His lungs began to burn as they tried and failed to pull in oxygen. Left without another option Helix let the strange instincts welling inside him rip free. With a roar his body convulsed, pain slicing through his being with searing heat. A fine red mist coated the air, the walls, Eslein, and Cinix as well.

Both the witch and Cinix recoiled as Helix fell to all fours, black hackles raised and wolffish teeth barred. A deep rumble echoed about the room as the wolfs golden eyes fixed on the blond.

"Helix? Are you okay?" Eslein asked, her voice soft.

His gaze flicked to hers, the snarl dying in his throat. Shame overtook every emotion. Moving with a preternatural speed he leaped through the open door, most likely left open by Cinix's arrival. As he ran for the exit, people leaping out of his way, Helix swiveled his ears backward.

He could hear Eslein's angry words. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

*~*~*~*~*~*

Dusk filled Carthage with deep shadows and fading red hues. Helix crouched in an ally way watching the light fade. He'd avoided people as best he could over the past few hours. Most of the citizens ran. A couple of city guards had tried to track him, presumably to hunt him down. Who wanted a giant wolf prowling their city? Still, Helix outmaneuvered them with relative ease.

As the last rays of sun faded to true dark the wolf pondered his options. Perhaps he should go back to Eslein? He shouldn't have run off and left her with that... that whatever he was. But he couldn't stay.  Eslein had wanted him, and Helix had wanted her. Oh gods how he wanted her. Again a snarl escaped him. Why couldn't he escape Sal? Was it a vision? A memory? A message? It felt real. All of it had felt real.

Glancing around the corner Helix eyed the temple of Hera. The veiled woman had said she knew how to find Zeus. Perhaps she did, perhaps she didn't. Helix intended to find out and he intended to find out a good deal more from the woman. The god of lighting was the driving force behind his life being how it was. The god of lighting would die!

It was a few minutes later when Helix spotted her. Still covered in her robes and veil. Crouching the wolf slipped around pillars and bushes until he could easily pounce on the stranger. He waited. Time passed slowly, but at last, the woman sighed and walked away. Helix followed her, careful to stay hidden and silent. Every sense was heightened, every breath measured. When she turned down a deserted road, deeply steeped in shadows Helix delighted in his fortune. It had occurred to him that he might have to break into a house to get her alone.

With scarcely a whisper of sound Helix leaped. His paws collided with her back. With a cry, she fell to her hands and knees and quickly turned over facing her attacker. He was on her in an instant, paws on her shoulders shoving her back into the hard ground. Pulling on his rage he let his jaws close around her throat. She stilled below him, breaths coming in ragged intervals.

"Are you going to kill me prince?" Fear laced her words.

Lifting his head to release her throat, he forced words out, "Only if you do not answer me."

"I am the one that suggested our meeting tonight."

"Remove your veil. I want to see your face." Helix shifted his paws to the ground on either side of her body.

Awkwardly, as if feeling her way around his legs the woman reached up and raised the veil. "If you insist."

The face greeted him was lovely, familiar and yet not familiar, but it was the eyes that he noticed most. They were milky white and completely glossed over. "Are you blind?"

"Blind? No. If you asking if I can see you or the world around us, then that is also a no."

The snarl was involuntary. "Speak plainly! Who are you? Why do you look so much like her?"

"Nona Salvius. I am Dacuma's sister."

It had to be her! She had to be the reason for the vision at the inn. Helix's teeth snapped together, barring with a growl. "You said you know where to find Zeus. Tell me, lift your curse and then be gone!"

She shifted uneasily under him, "Zeus will be coming to the Fate to testify against my sister. I know nothing of a curse nor can I give one."

"Liar!"

She flinched, fingers digging into the stones below her. "W-what makes you think I cursed you, prince?"

"Shortly after you left the inn, I was forced into a vision where Dacuma or more likely you cursed me."

"She reached out to you through the rift. You must have called her in some way."

"I would never call that woman!"

"Her power is weak. You weakened her. She can only reach you in a vision if you opened that door in your mind. And even then only if you are close enough to a rift."

Helix considered her words, suspicion lacing every thought. "Say I believe you, why did you come to me?"

"I owe you. Many of us owe you. Dacuma has created more problems then you can even imagine."

"And Zeus? Why tell me about him?"

"You asked. As I said, I owe you."

"What is the Fate?"

She shifted uncomfortably, "It is a tower in the Specter where the dead and Spectral are judged. It is also mine and my sisters home."

The vision flickered in his mind of strange red stone. "You can take me there?"

"Yes."

Helix stepped to the side allowing the woman up. "Which seer are you? Past or present?"

At that question, she smiled. "Present."

*~*~*~*~*~*

Authors Note: I am not 100% in love with this chapter... I wrote most of it while sick so please forgive typos. Still, here it is!

What do you think of Nona?

What do you think Cinix might be? And why did he attack?

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Oh, and Elosky4groove this is again for you and your strange love for the... ahem, Sal.