The Ballad of Aramei Read Free

him, crushing his lips against mine. He kisses me long and hard and I press my naked body against his, grabbing his hair in my fists.
    The kiss breaks and the first thing I notice is that Isaac looks clean. I step back and look him up and down.
    “Why aren’t you gross like me?” I cross my arms to look reproachful, but really it’s more to cover my breasts. And I still stand at sort of an angle so that my thigh covers my private area below.
    He tugs his head back. “This way,” he says and reaches out his hand.
    I take his hand and walk alongside him toward the sound of water.
    “I feel like Adam and Eve,” I say, “well, Adam and Eve written by Seth Grahame-Smith, anyway.”
    Isaac smiles over at me, but doesn’t say anything.
    “What is it?” I say.
    “Nothing.”
    I narrow my eyes at him and he gently grips my hand as we make our way over a large fallen tree branch.
    “Isaac,” I say, though watching my footing more than looking at him now, “I’ll just start digging around inside your head if I have to—Oh! That’s right! I can do that now, which means you can’t hide anything from me anymore.”
    His lopsided grin deepens.
    “I already told you that I don’t care if you ever listen to my thoughts,” he says.
    He reaches out and pushes away a dense patch of low, thin tree limbs that jut out over the path so that I can walk through them.
    “But you know I don’t want to,” I say.
    He walks in behind me, letting the limbs snap back into place afterwards.
    I see the creek out ahead now.
    “It’s just that I’m glad you’re taking to this so easily,” he says.
    We make our way to the edge of the creek and I step right in, letting the water come up to my waist and I begin to wash. Isaac sits on a large tree limb sitting low near the ground. The tree that it comes from is awkwardly shaped, rising over the top of a small ridge that surrounds the creek.
    It really doesn’t feel so weird bathing in a creek. Not that I’ve ever done it before, but I spent my childhood swimming in ponds and creeks and rivers and lakes, so it doesn’t bother me. Of course, I’d love some soap, shampoo and conditioner. A lot of conditioner.
    I look over at Isaac sitting on the limb as I scrub the blood from my elbows and say, “Define easily.”
    God he looks good naked …I force myself to look away.
     

Chapter 2
     
     
     
     
    I HEAR ISAAC JUMPING down from the limb and I wait to look up when I hear the water move as he steps into it. He comes up behind me and guides my body back so that he can wet my hair.
    “I tried to prepare myself for this,” he says, combing his fingers gingerly through my wet, tangled locks. “I expected you to be completely traumatized by the whole experience, to wake up after a shift like right now, and maybe hate yourself, hate me for what you’ve become.”
    He works his fingers through another section of my hair, never pulling it.
    “I told you that I would never hate you,” I say, “I promised you the night you changed me.”
    I feel his breath on the back of my neck as he sighs deeply.
    I turn around to face him.
    “Isaac, what’s wrong? And don’t lie to me.”
    He gazes into my eyes, searching for something, though I’m not sure what, but he seems concerned. I study his face for a moment and then it hits me. I don’t need to probe his thoughts to know what he’s thinking.
    I let my head fall slightly to one side and I reach up and rest my fingertips on his cheeks, water drips from my hands and runs down the length of my arms.
    “You think I’m forcing myself not to hate you because of my promise?” It discourages me that he would even consider that, but I can’t bring myself to criticize him for it.
    Isaac looks right into my eyes, but doesn’t answer.
    I lean up and kiss his lips softly and he knows that words aren’t needed to assure him now. He knows that I would still love him even if the promise was never made.
    “So,” I say, looking around at the