Page 22 of Beneath Hoof and Hollow
My hips slow, but before I withdraw, I tilt her face down to watch. I don’t know when our bodies got so close. I was so caught up in the rapture and awe of it all that I forgot to make her look the whole time.
“Your husband sounds like a boy. You’ve been needing a good fucking by a man.” I pull out slowly, letting her watch as my spend drips from her swollen pussy. My cum is not invisible. A fact I find wildly amusing.
Emeline gasps when I empty her fully. Those plump lips are parted, her breaths still heavy as she looks again to the place where my face should be.
I’vealready had her, but in this moment, I’m overcome with the need to kiss her. She isn’t expecting it. Of course not, she can’t see me as I lean toward her. The only warning she gets is my thumb and forefinger against her jaw as I tilt her face up to meet mine.
Our mouths connect and the world goes very quiet. All thoughts of the hell I’ve been trapped in before now. Every worry of what the future holds when I’m banished once again. All of it disappears, silenced by the featherlight lips tentatively pressed against mine.
Emeline sighs, draping her arms over my neck and melting into the kiss. I could stay in this moment with my golden-haired star, lip-locked, blood-stained, bathed beneath the light of the moon, for eternity.
When our kiss ends, she’s smiling. “It’s hard to believe The Headless Horseman not only has a head, but a beautifully soft pair of lips, too.”
My fingers bury in her thick hair as I steal one last taste. “Tomorrow night, you will give me a visible body. Then I’ll show you everything you’ve been missing and all the things that are possible between two people. Things you’ve never even thought to consider. I’ll spend an agonizing amount of time on each part and position.”
She flushes. “Tomorrow night.”
I nod. Tomorrow night. I’ll finally have my body back. The curse will be broken. And with any luck, I won’t have to be banished back to the demon realm. A detail I haven’t mentioned to Emeline yet.
If all goes as planned, we’ll have plenty of time for questions and answers at the start of a new forever.
I shake my head.Look at you, gone soft for a gold-haired creature with a magical voice and even more magical cunt. Just thinking of what lies between her thighs has me hard again. She gasps as I lay her down, settling between her thighs and taking her again without a moment’s hesitation.
I’venot gone soft. Not where it counts, at least.
I’ve hidden the heads before sunrise. It won’t do to have the villagers alerting Itrimort and hunting me down. I’m still not to full strength, though I’ve regained my powers faster than ever before.
In addition to blood and carnage, my magic seems to feed off of Emeline. Her body, moans, the invisible but fully felt marks from her nails down my back. All of it fuels me.
Horace and I are hidden deep in the western woods. Emeline claims no one comes here. She says this part of the forest is haunted. She’s right. There’s a small but deeply haunted acre amongst the trees. A trapped soul turned shrieking ghoul. I can feel the exact spot where its cursed patch of forest ends. That is where we linger.
Horace sleeps, peaceful even in the presence of the ghoul’s tainted energy and sudden screams. He’s unbothered by most things. The skeletal horse doesn’t even seem to notice that his ribcage is filling up with foliage. The trees are doing a mass shedding today. There’s a steady flow of leaves raining down. The gentle pattering of their crisp edges hits the soft earth and fills the silent moments between the ghoul’s cries. Enough leaves accumulate in his pale skeleton that he ends up colored orange and red.
Tonight, I’ll finally be gifted a body. Once I’m visible in flesh and blood I’ll send Itrimort back to his prison below. A familiar wallowing feeling creeps in. What will become of me when I’m done? Will I be banished to the demon realm the moment I’ve completed my task? Will Emeline lock me away as all others have done before her? Will my new body save me from the curse I’ve suffered for so long?
Even amongst haunted places, I’m more relaxed here than in the demon realm. The air is so clear up above. The sun is blinding, shining from its hiding spot behind the soft autumn clouds. I don’t want to go back to darkness and torment. I can’t bear to leave everything behind again.
A scream reaches my ears from somewhere closer to town. This one does not belong to the ghoul. Horace’s head pops up. His ear bones twitch forward. The sound has caught his attention too. I give him a gentle pat.
“I’ll check it out.”
I know the hanging tree even before I see it. Death permeates the air. Its branches have darkened and twisted, changed by the energy from the horrors its had to bear witness to. Maybe I’ll burn the tree down before I leave Sleepy Hollow, release all that darkness trapped within.
Male voices and female cries grow louder as I creep closer.
Three men stand in front of a barrel. The sobbing womanshakesatop it, noose slung around her thin neck. A sweaty, balding man looks side to side. “Reverend Statton isn’t here.”
“He doesn’t have to be. I’m certain she’s a witch.” That confident voice belongs to the tallest of the trio.
“Listen, I’ve been on board with all of the trials so far. But this one feels like it could be personal for you.”
The tallest man shoots a glare his way. “The extermination of witches from our town is personal. Itrimort himself?—”
“But you didn’t suspect her until she refused to return to your home with you last eve,” a rat-faced man speaks quickly, his words nervous and soft. “I saw no signs of witchcraft. Usually Reverend Statton confirms it. We do not have the eyes to see evil the way Itrimort does.”
The sweaty man nods in agreement. “She probably refused to bed you because she knows about your fiancée. The timing of her disappearance is suspicious.”
Anger radiates off the leader. “This has nothing to do with Emeline.”
