Page 23 of Morena
The braid binding my arms pulled tighter until stars burst behind my eyes. Pain blurred into heat, every nerve strung taut, caught between horror and lust.
And through it all, one truth split me open. I wanted more.
I wantedher.
Something shifted over my face, and suddenly I could see her. Even with skin gone pale and bronze turned ashen, even with her eyes bleaching white, she was beautiful.
What the fuck is wrong with me?
The chains of braided hair crumbled to ash, freeing my arms. I gripped her hips, growling, “Let me take control.” I tried to lift us, but she pressed me down, shaking her head.
“Let me show you what you’ve missed all these years,” I whispered against her ear, and slowly, she let me.
I lifted her, slamming her ghostly body against the wall, spreading her hips wider, thrusting harder and deeper. Her claws tangled in my hair as she moaned.
“You like that,Reina de la Noche?4“ I breathed.
She arched, dragging her claws down my back until blood slicked her fingers. Lifting them to her lips, she licked them clean, her eyes locked on mine as I drove into her again.
“Yo no soy Reina de la noche, guapo,”5 she said, looking at me.6“Más bien tu pesadilla.”
She took control again, pushed me onto the mattress, straddling me, riding me. Her hands pressed into my chest as she moved her hips. She looked at me; my eyes started to bleed again, and she pressed her claws into my flesh, carving a name into my skin:Morena.
I hissed as pain laced through me, my cock twitching when she rode me harder. She pressed her bloody fingers into each letter, then first to my lips and then to hers, just before she kissed me again.
“Morena,” I moaned, my body about to give for her.
She laughed and cupped her breasts as I opened my eyes, blood spilling more freely now.
“You have no idea,” she said, lowering her face until it hovered inches from mine. “You belong to the dead now.”
Her laugh echoed through the empty walls as she bounced on top of me, forcing me to moan her name a second time.
Suddenly, she screamed, hands on my face, claws pressing into my eyes. I felt them dig in. She could have torn them out, but instead she let me bleed, and in that moment I didn’t mind. I was even ready to beg for darkness.
“Do it,” I said. “I am ready to face the dark.”
She pressed harder. “Do not tempt me,ojos tristes7,“ she warned.
I surprised her by jerking my hands up and gripping her hips, holding her still while I thrust into her harder. She pulled her claws from my eyes and dragged them to her breasts as her head fell back, face toward the ceiling. She moaned, a sound that shredded into a scream and shattered a window into thousands of pieces. Glass rained down, slicing our skin, but I didn’t care; I kept going until my vision rolled and she tightened around me.
I felt my body lift from the mattress, as if I was levitating while she moved in wide, circular motions. She made me gasp, and then I came, my cum spilling into her.
She moaned, slamming my body back onto the mattress, my bones rattling as I was still inside her, my cock still pulsating.
“I was wrong,” she said, laughing between breaths. “Some things are worth dying for.”
And just like that, she disappeared, leaving me alone on the dirty mattress.
I hammered my fist against it, then looked toward the window. Night still pressed against the glass, and no neighbors had heard a thing except me.
I walked down the hallway slowly, sneaking so no one could hear me, and stopped in front of the mirror. I was a broken man looking back. My hair was a mess; the bun that used to hold it all was hanging loosely on top of my head, and my body was scarred with cuts.
“Well, hell,” I said to my reflection as I stepped closer and wiped the blood from under my eyes. “You look like you fucked a ghost.”
I leaned in, and something moved inside the mirror. When her face appeared, I jumped and lurched back against the far wall. It was not her ghost so much as her memory.
She wore tight, high-waist jeans and a blouse tied in a small knot above her belly button. Her hair was dark and curly, a silk scarf wrapped around her head, and silver hoops hung from her ears. She laughed with someone. I couldn’t see the face, though I caught the flash of a small palm tree tattoo on his wrist.
