Part 4

She ran the shower while taking off her suit, shirt, and skirt. She threw the torn and dirty stockings into the waste basket and then took off the rest. Naked, she inspected her body in the mirror. The steam from the shower started to penetrate her cold skin and cover the mirror. Emotionally drained, she started to review the evening, the strange chance encounter with Sebastian, the beautiful stranger enveloped in mystery with whom she would share her bed for the first time in her life. She thought of his face, and all the strength he hid under his long coat, the strength with which he snatched her, and how she spent moments in weightless flight toward him, and then levitating above him. Her breath deepened, chest started to rise, and the steam softened her body. She felt electricity surging from her mind, and through her legs, and up her spine. Her wet lips quivered. She stepped into the shower. The hot water took the remaining memory of the snow away. Only Sebastian left in her mind. The water rained softly down her hair and face, her shoulders, breasts, and legs. Soap’s osmanthus scent enveloped her pale body while a white flame burned inside her, and her breath grew deeper, and deeper. She mustn’t think these thoughts. It will be a long night if she yields to her young, hungry body. But it all felt like love at first sight. Destiny, even. What to do? She buried her fingernails in the palm of her hand until blood came. She turned the water cold. She stepped out of the shower freezing.

“I’ll sleep in the chair outside.”

“No, please. We can share,” she said and climbed down from the pod. “Please,” she pointed up, bowed, and pushed him toward the steps. “You were the most perfect gentleman tonight. Please. We share.”

The gentle push brought tears to his eyes. He looked like someone who hadn’t been cared for in a long time.

Once the translucent plastic closed and the lights went out, Sebastian slept and Akari lay quietly in the darkness. The heat returned to her body and her confused mind thought of levitating in the middle of Shibuya, and their hands entwined as he lowered her to the pavement, and the electric pulse that still coursed through her now, crossing her body at the speed of light, setting her mind and body on fire over and over again. Her breath deepened in the darkness. She couldn’t feel his heat next to her, so she turned to face him. His eyes were open and he didn’t seem to be breathing. She yelped and he jerked awake. She covered her mouth.

“What’s wrong?”

“You. Your eyes. They were open in your sleep.”

“They were?”

She nodded.

“It’s okay,” he said and held her hand. He smelled the cut in her palm.

“You are really cold,” she said and put her blanket over him.

“Am I?” he asked and seemed confused, as if he didn’t remember that a body should be warm.

“Yes. It’s not good to be cold,” she smiled, and instinct drove her to rub his arms and move closer, using her body heat to warm him. He looked at her intently. She lowered her eyes. His lips reached out. Hers didn’t linger. As their lips touched, the wall around Akari came down like a mountain. Their lips reached deeper and deeper. She tasted blood and she pulled his robe and he pulled hers. Blood, bitter and electric, stained their lips and coursed down her throat, and her heat turned Sebastian’s cold body alive, muscles and sweat, and he bit her between her breasts. She yelped and pulled him closer in, and in, and his heat rose, and farther still, and her blood spilled and he drank it. “I love you,” they said in unison, and their lips locked again, and she bit him and blood poured over two ecstatic bodies as they writhed in heat, and sweat, and blood. They were one, and she saw him and his world in her mind like a library, and she saw what a monster Sebastian was, and what made him so. She pulled back and looked into his face. “What are you?”

“I’m yours. I’ve lived through oceans of time, and I didn’t know I’ve been searching for you. I love you and I always will. You are my all. I need you to save me,” he said without a thought. “You are the angel with her power over my world. You are my all.” He repeated, and she pulled him back in, in and in, again and again, in the ecstasy of love until they were spent by the night.