The Leader

The Leader: Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven: Talia.

He kisses my neck and slowly works his way up to my mouth, and I can taste him on my tongue. His taste, his scent, his angelic looks all make me shiver in delight. I close my eyes, and he kisses my forehead. Everything is about him now. My whole life revolves around Liam, my own angel. I need him right now, and no one is stopping us from doing anything more than usual. And yet, I can't bring myself to do it, because something is stopping me.

"Mm, Liam. Enough. Please." He pulls away and looks at me with those big, black eyes, shrugging off the pain as usual.

"I wish I knew why you do this to me," he says.

"So do I," I reply, guarding my thoughts carefully. "Liam, I need to say something."

"Yeah?"

"I... now, this is going to sound stupid, but..." I trail off, not sure how to put it. I know that the only way I can say it with enough strength and emotion is with my thoughts. I think of how Liam makes me feel, the way he has turned my life upside-down, how he takes away the pain of my past. Finally, I think three words: I love you. He pauses for a moment, then he wraps his arms around me and crushes me to his chest in a warm hug.

"I love you too, Tal." I relax, because I've been waiting to hear those words for a long time now. He pulls away and prepares to leave, but I stop him.

"Stay, please," I beg of him.

Later, I lie wrapped in his arms, and I'm trying not to fall asleep, though I'm doing a terrible job of it. I close my eyes, and I fall into a nightmare.

The ground is littered with bodies, though the battle is still going. The first attack had been assumed, and yet the second was a surprise. Now we're fighting again, and though my friends are dying, I cannot move. I'm kneeling on the ground next to a body. There is still a dagger in his heart, and yet it beat its last minutes ago. I see the blood soaked through his clothes and onto me. He still holds my hand, or maybe I'm holding his. I don't know. Five or six soldiers come to me, and I fight them off. I use my fire to burn through their skin. Then I feel a sharp pain near my head. I have been stabbed in the neck. I begin to choke on my own blood, and I kill the final soldier. I fall to the ground, yet I manage to drag myself over to his body. I splutter on my last breath, and I lay next to my love. My love, my one and only angel.

Falling.

I'm Falling.

Through darkness.

Through time.

Through life. My life.

And then, there is a tunnel.

At the end there is him, my one true love.

He is waiting.

And now, there is peace. Peace at last.

I sit up, nearly thrown out of the dream. I am so glad that I'm not a seer, because otherwise the vivid dream might be a vision. Still... it seemed so real. I'll ask someone about it in the morning. So, I fall back to sleep and have no more dreams.

When I wake again in the morning, I have not forgotten any aspect of the dream. Rather, I have been pondering it all night, and now I remember it even better than just after I had it. I stand without waking Liam, and then I leave the house. While I walk down the streets, I remember the dream, and the feeling of using the fire element. The heat had welled up in me and made my hands burn before I shot flames out of my hands. I have an idea now, to find if it was a vision or just a regular dream. I close my eyes and focus on the heat that is deep within me and has been building up for years. When I open my eyes, my hands glow a sunburnt orange colour, and they are extremely hot. However, no matter how hard I try, I cannot produce flames. I sag against the wall of my house after I use all of my energy, and I pant heavily. When I finally make it inside, Liam embraces me, and I relax in his familiarity. His scent and body shape help me as well. I close my eyes, and he kisses me softly.

"I had a vision," I say simply. "In my dream. Obviously seers aren't the only ones who can see the future.

"What happened?" he asks, noticing the look on my face. I involuntarily run through the dream in my mind, and I watch as shock and horror cross his face. He looks right into my eyes, waiting for something.

"I..." My knees tremble, and he catches me as I fall. "I don't want to die," I say. "I'm not ready to let go of life. I'm afraid." I sob, and he pulls me even tighter to his chest. I am so glad he loves me, and I only realise just now how lucky I am to have him.

That night, due to my vision, we kiss with a yearning that hasn't been there before. Neither of us knows when the vision will happen, and so we need to spend as much time together as possible before then. He pulls off his shirt, and I run my hands over his chest and he lowers me onto the bed. I know right now that I cannot stop, and I don't want to. He rips off my thin singlet, and I sigh as he places his hands on my back and unclasps my bra. He shrugs out of his shorts, and then pulls mine off. Now there is only one layer seperating us, and that is easily removed. As we continue kissing, skin on skin, he moans, and the sound makes me shiver. I wrap my legs around his waist, and then he tangles his fingers into my hair. I close my eyes and enjoy this special moment that I can share with him, my love.