A Soul's Sacrifice (Voodoo Revival Series Book 1) Read online

  His briefs had also found their way to the ever growing pile of clothes and there we stood, watching each other bare in the dead night. Both of us seemed too afraid to move too soon and ruin whatever was budding between us. There was lust to be sure and I knew things were going to get messy. I had never been any good at separating emotions from sex. In fact, I was guilty of letting my emotions bleed through that night even though I knew that what we had would never go beyond a single night of casual sex.

  I closed the space between Rhys and me before I even realized I’d moved, drawn to him like moth to flame and I was burning up with need. Pushing myself up onto my toes, I wrapped my arms around his neck at the same time he scooped me up. I wrapped my legs around his waist, feeling his ready and waiting weapon nudging at my opening. He took a step or two, carrying me along the way, before settling us down onto the dock and laying back. I was straddling him, completely in control of the situation. I felt powerful in that moment. He ran his finger through my slick lips, making sure I was ready for him. He began stroking his shaft a few times until a bead of clear precum had seeped from the head. Rhys rubbed it on me adding to the wetness that had already collected. I sat up higher, giving myself some room to reposition and maneuver.

  Rhys’s hand kneaded my breast, rolling my budding nipple between his finger and thumb. I positioned myself over his awaiting shaft, panting with the need to have him buried deep inside of me. It had been far too long since I had been fucked and had a decent orgasm. It left me unable to wait any longer. I lowered myself until the head of his cock was engulfed as far as it would go without forcing it. He was larger than average and it had been a long time; it would be an undoubtedly tight fit. Rhys groaned and flexed his hips, trying hard to bury himself deeper into my warmth, but I wouldn’t let him just yet. I wanted to savor the moment. Bracing my hand on his hard chest, I took a deep breath and lowered myself an inch, trying to adjust and stretch to accommodate him. A small squeak escaped my mouth.

  The seconds felt like minutes and I needed the friction that he would give me so I moved back up slightly letting my juices coat his shaft. Rhys grabbed my hips tightly, abandoning my nipples while they grew harder still in the night air. His rock hard shaft was just inside my opening waiting to plunge deep. Gripping his arm, I slid down quickly, letting out a long, loud moan, not stopping until his pubic bone met mine and he was buried within me, making me feel so full. My pussy pulsated around his shaft. He was gripping my hips so tightly that it was sure to leave marks afterwards. He hissed and gritted his teeth and he flexed again, reaching so deep it almost hurt and left me gasping. Then I started to move along with him. Up and down, addicted to the way he felt inside me. The pressure started to build low in my belly. Pulling me down to him, he took my nipple into his mouth, tweaking the other one as he rolled it between his fingers. Sweat began to slicken my movements and I could hear the wet sounds we were making as our soaked centers met. Guttural moans left me as I panted in exertion and in sheer bliss. This was ecstasy. Rhys’s thumb found my swollen little button and circled it while I moved against him. His other hand grabbed my neck and pulled my face towards his, crashing our lips together in a violent, heated kiss. Nothing about this man was soft, not his body and not his delivery.

  Suddenly, he rolled while taking me with him and then he was above me. His eyes were fierce, almost animalistic. Then he started to move again in deep, rough thrusts, bottoming out within me as his sac slapped against my ass. He picked up the pace, moving fast and grunting with both pleasure and effort. The coarse, wooden boards beneath my back and the intense sensation he was eliciting were sending my senses into overdrive, making every touch hypersensitive. The rough boards were a wonderful counter to his smooth skin. I moaned as the pressure continued to build. My pussy squeezed him each time he pulled back like it wanted to do anything it could to prevent him from leaving. His smooth bare shaft against my own skin was a sensation I had never before experienced. I neared the tipping point as the pressure within my core became too much. Unable to help it, I squirmed underneath of him, while Rhys continued thrusting into me.

  “I’m going to come. Oh God! Don’t stop,” I panted.

  Then I exploded around him, squeezing and pulsating, unable to keep my shriek of euphoria quiet. Rhys kept up his relentless assault, his grunts nearly eclipsing my own in volume. The aftershocks still racked my body, leaving me covered in gooseflesh. Grinding against me, Rhys slowed slightly, prolonging each stroke. He pulled himself back, almost completely out of me, before slamming back home. Teeth gritted, he slowed even more so that he was just barely moving, savoring every nerve ending igniting. His grip on my hips as he held me in place was almost painfully tight.

  That familiar pressure began to build in my core again. The last was so strong and intense that I wasn’t sure I could withstand another orgasm of that magnitude and I was sure that every single one with Rhys would be earth shattering. My thighs gripped his waist tightly. My fingers clawed at his back, trying to anchor myself as the rapidly building pressure became too much. It was too intense, just too much. I was fighting the urge to escape the building orgasm, though I knew I wouldn’t, couldn’t withstand the lack of fulfillment that awaited me at the end. Rhys’s cock was swelling, filling me even more fully as he was nearing the finish line of his own race. Biting down on my lip, the waves of pleasure pushing me towards the peak, as Rhys swelled even more and threw me over the edge into oblivion. Stars burst behind my eyelids, leaving me blind to the world around me. I had never come so hard in my life. It was so much more than the first. Holding on to Rhys as snugly as I could manage as the ebb and flow of my orgasm coursed through me, I felt his muscles start to contract. His movements became erratic, while he shoved himself as deep as he could go. He let out a long, loud moan and a few grunts as I felt him explode within me, coating my inner walls with his seed. He pumped himself in a few more times as he slowed his pace.

  As the aftershocks subsided, we both collapsed into a heap right there on the dock, too tired and drained to move. He lay there on top of me, resting his head on my breasts while he hugged my sides to himself. I wrapped my arm around his shoulders and let my head fall back onto the dock with a thud. Moving slightly, Rhys slid himself out of me and I felt his seed spill out onto the wood beneath us. I’m not sure how long we lay there like that, naked in the night air. At one point, I was even fairly sure that Rhys dozed off from the way his breathing deepened and evened out. The sky was visible in the small clearing of trees. I reclined there, watching the twinkling stars in the darkness, wondering how I’d missed this my whole life. With some effort, squirmed my way out from under Rhys. I had been right he was sleeping. Standing and regaining feeling in my extremities, I made my way over to the pile of discarded clothes and picked through it to find mine. There was no shame in what we’d done, but I didn’t want to make the situation any more awkward than it might already get by Mama seeing my clothes covered in dirt. So, I prayed that, when I found my clothes at the bottom of the pile, they weren’t too disheveled and muck covered. I found my panties and slid them on. They didn’t appear to be noticeably dirty, however my pants were a different story. They put me in mind of a cowboy’s jeans after a long cattle drive, completely dust covered and caked with dried on mud. Luckily, I found that my blouse had escaped unscathed and unmarked by the dirty environment I had subjected it to. Whatever. I would just have to make do with the pants. So, I quickly dressed. Rhys was spread on the dock unmoving and appearing incredibly peaceful. Closing the distance between us, I settled in next to him and laid my head upon his shoulder. The thought that we fit together perfectly, zipped through my mind, making me blush. Too quick and way too much, Maya, I told myself. Just exist in the moment and be content. That became my goal.

  I never wanted it to end. When morning came, I knew that, whatever spell had been cast over us, would be broken and we would have to face the awkward after phase. Knowing that it was the first and last time I would be with him
hurt, but I wouldn’t regret it. I couldn’t. I cared too much, although I knew that men weren’t built the same way. He would move on and I would have to try my best to do the same. I would put on a brave face and pretend like seeing him happy without me wouldn’t kill me in the process.

  Listening to his deep breathing and feeling the slow expansions of his hard chest was hypnotizing. I could have done it for hours. Watching the stars and laying there with him, put me at ease. I was lost in a sea of post coital bliss. Those star were so far away, yet their light still shone brightly. A twinkling caught my eye close to the edges of the tree line. It was a jet airliner. That airplane was a reminder, a reminder that I wasn’t alone and I was a part of something bigger just like those people that were completely unawares on that plane. There was a world out there that was still marching ever onward. Even as I was sequestered there in the swamp, where time seemed to crawl, the inevitable end crept closer. It had become too easy to forget the outside world, the one where monsters didn’t exist and were just figments of people’s imaginations. Why couldn’t I go back to that world? At what point had I taken a cosmic wrong turn to end up in that situation? The questions continued to roll through my head until I was numb to them. Self-pity had never been my strong suit and wouldn’t do me any good. I needed to let it go and move on with the hand that I’d been dealt. Even if that hand meant that I was bat shit crazy and imagining everything. A tiny twitch next to me brought my racing mind back to Rhys. I really hoped that this wasn’t imaginary. Losing him to fantasies and never having that moment for real would be too tragic. Those moments with him, were ones that I was sure I wanted to savor for as long as I could. I wanted to look back on them fondly as time marched on, remembering the contentment that I felt when I was with him.

  Deep exhaustion slowly began to overtake me despite my best efforts to overcome it. I lost the battle, our exertions having taken its toll. The white flag raised and I dreamt of him that night, in our sanctuary within the Louisiana swamp. Sanctuary, that was what Rhys was for me. At least for tonight.

  Chapter NINE

  Training Day

  We stayed there that night in the middle of the swamp until the wee hours of the morning. At some point I had drifted off into a deep, restful sleep, completely content just to recline in his arms and be in his company. I wasn’t sure exactly when I’d surrendered to sleep, but I knew that when I did, I’d been supremely happy and content, without problems for a brief interlude. At some point that night after I’d given way to my dreams, Rhys had awoken and dressed himself before attending to me. He had carried me back inside the small dwelling and tucked me into my own bed, or at the very least, that was what I hoped happened.

  That morning, later than I would have liked it to be, I woke up alone and tucked in, not mildly comfortable on the dock with a very naked and handsome Rhys. I didn’t like the idea of Mama Yansa carrying my near comatose body inside and I highly doubted the woman had the strength to pull off such a feat. But you never know, and Mama was a woman chock full of surprises at every turn.

  Lounging there wasn’t going to change anything and I needed to get down to the business of getting Angie back. No more distractions from my ultimate goal. She was counting on me to come through for her.

  I stretched myself out, feeling a slight twinge at the apex of my thighs, reaching far over my own head and even curling my toes, trying to release any tightness or tension that had built up with the stresses I had been accumulating. Throwing the heavy quilt off of myself, I sat up. Quickly, I noticed the telltale signs of the previous nights’ activities. The slightest of movements were made much more pronounced by the ever evident soreness south of the border. Going forward, I promised myself that I wouldn’t subject myself to that torture again. From now on, I needed to keep my parts in shape and, at least occasionally, used so I wouldn’t have to endure it again. All day that day, I would be reminded of where Rhys had been last night, marked his territory even, and made to relive it all over again. I enjoyed the animalistic version of it, even if it was only one sided.

  Crossing the small room, I snatched up my bag and pulled out a clean pair of jeans in one swift motion. Fishing around in the bag, I managed to find one of my favorite t-shirts. It was old and visibly well-worn, but I still loved the comfort it gave me. My gray LSU football t-shirt had been my dad’s. It was one of the only physical reminders of him that I had left in this world. Needing the familiar desperately, I slipped it on. Much better than the clothes I’d been wearing. I couldn’t leave the room and interact with Mama Yansa and Rhys like that and risking the awkward questions about how my pants were nearly ruined. Examining myself in the tiny framed mirror that hung on the wall of the bedroom. I made myself presentable, by tucking my wild, escaped strands of hair into the messy bun I had formed on the top of my head. It wasn’t elegant, but it worked. The notoriously famed humidity of the region would make any attempt at neat hair impossible.

  Taking a deep breath, I said to myself, “let’s rock this shit.” I was hoping to pump myself up and learn everything that I could quickly over the next few days, the mission had been delayed long enough.

  Stepping into the hallway, I noticed the smell of something I couldn’t quite place, so I did what any normal person would have done and I followed my nose. It led me to the kitchen. On the way, I noticed that Rhys was absent from the couch; he must have been up for a while since I hadn’t heard him moving around from the confines of my room. Mama stood over a small kettle, stirring its contents with a wooden spoon. Rhys was nowhere to be found within the kitchen either, I figured he was out doing whatever it was that he often disappeared into the swamps to do. Man was a damn mystery that was for sure.

  “Pull up a chair, child. I’ll have a bowl ready for ya in a minute,” the old woman said with a wave of her hand over her shoulder.

  I wasn’t going to argue with her so I perched on top of the stool that had been pulled up to the table. My stomach growled loudly at the mention of food, not caring what the meal would even be. Moonbeam leapt onto the table in front of me and rubbed herself against me for attention.

  “There you are, pretty girl.”

  I scratched behind her ears just the way she liked it. The cat hadn’t made herself known much since the previous afternoon. I was relieved to see that the nasty Ayida hadn’t harmed her or made a meal of her. Familiar or not, I didn’t trust the snake not to follow an animal’s natural instincts. The thought of the snake made my apprehension spike up a level and made me search frantically around the room, trying to spot the reptile in question. She was nowhere to be found, so I returned my attention to my feline guide.

  “How does it work?” I asked Mama. “How will Moonbeam help me when I have to fight the coming battle?”

  “Well, as far as da battle itself goes, I doubt she will be too much help to ya, but da learnin’ that ya have to do before, she will help ya immensely,” she explained.

  All right, then I guess I would just have to play it by ear.

  “Okay, so let me get this straight. I am the direct descendent of Marie Laveau, who was in fact a voodoo priestess with great powers. Some mystery man is murdering people in sacrifice to the Loa Baron Samedi to ensure that he will be given great powers. He likely wants these powers to take over and rule all of New Orleans if not the entire state of Louisiana. Because I am the great voodoo queens descendent, I supposedly have great powers and am our only chance at defeating him in some kind of weird magical duel. Am I close?” I was almost out of breath by the time I reached the end of my rant.

  Mama’s eyes crinkled with silent laughter. A chuckle sounded behind me, surprising me to the point that I almost came out of my skin when I jumped and whirled around to see who the interloper was.

  Rhys stood in the entryway, leaning against the door frame, crossed arms looking entirely too cocky. The image of him when I saw him that first night in the bar came rushing back. I liked this side of him, playful and so sure of himself and the effect he
had on the women and I imagine some of the men around him. He was scrumptious in jeans that hugged his large muscular legs and white t-shirt that accentuated his broad shoulders. His hair was wet like he’d just taken a shower. It was dark, wavy and curled at the tips just as they were reaching his shoulders. His predatory gazed raked over me from head to toe and he licked his lips. My belly did flip flops.

  “I’d say you hit the nail right on the head,” he said with a wink.

  I gulped, trying to bring myself back to my senses so I could open my mouth and not have a garbled mess tumble out. My cheeks heated with a deep blush as I thought about all that I knew laid underneath his tight coverings and what a fine specimen he was. I coughed, embarrassed, as I remembered that we weren’t the only two people in the room. Shooting Rhys one last venomous glare for practically announcing we fucked, I returned my attentions to Mama who had just scooped her breakfast out of the kettle and plopped it into a bowl. She shoved one of the bowls across the table to me. I picked up the spoon, scooped a bit out to examine it and determine what it was that we were to be eating since I couldn’t tell by the aroma that wafted around the kitchen

  Grits.

  Also known as southern oatmeal. I hadn’t had grits in years! I remembered them fondly. My mother used to prepare them, sprinkling sugar over them and a splash of milk. I followed the memories I had and dug in. It was heavenly. This was something I would have to remember to make once all of this was over. Hastily, I added a bit of sugar and some milk to my bowl, making the perfect breakfast dish and started in. What a blast from my past! Each spoonful just melted in my mouth. Nothing was going to ruin today if it was going to start off this good.

  Looking over at Mama, I asked one of the burning questions that I had been wondering since the day before but had yet to give a voice to.

  “So why me? I’m sure there are plenty of other descendants that can wield white magic.”