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Christina turned slowly, the last of ‘William’s’ skin sliding off of her legs and arms as she met Ruby’s eyes with a boldness she didn’t quite feel in that moment. Ruby wasn’t supposed to have found out this way, she had wanted to spend more time with Ruby as Christina, she’d wanted Ruby to understand her perspective before coming clean, easing the other woman into the reveal, but … that was not to be. All she could do now was stand her ground, and hope that she could appease Ruby’s ire enough to stop Ruby from storming out of the house and never coming back.
Ruby’s eyes dipped down, taking in the carnage and gore that still covered Christina’s skin. She had experienced the aftermath of the metamorphosis the elixir made possible, she knew the pain of the transformation, she knew the level of disillusionment and anger it took to be willing to go through the process, and it surprised her that the slight, pale figure in front of her had put herself through it again, and again, and again. All for what?
“Ruby,” Christina began, hesitating slightly before taking a step towards the other woman. “I can explain.”
Ruby stared at the blood drenched blonde incredulously for a moment, and then threw her head back and laughed, scornfully.
“You can explain,” she began as her dark eyes returned to Christina’s, the intensity and rage burning in them making Christina to pause, holding her place a few meters away from the other woman. “What the fuck can you explain?” Ruby exploded.
“Whatever you want to know,” Christina replied calmly, holding Ruby’s gaze steadily for a moment longer before looking away to glance down at her nude, bloodied body. “Just let me clean up first,” she continued, looking back up and over at Ruby.
Ruby knew how uncomfortable it was to be covered in blood and gristle after a transformation, but she kept the sympathy that knowledge produced to herself as she glared at Christina.
“Was it you?” Ruby asked, her voice lower and more controlled than it had been a minute before though her gaze was as intense as it had been since Christina had first turned to face her. “At the bar, and … after. All of it … was it you?”
“Yes,” Christina said, for once forgoing any coyness. “All of it. On the stairs, on the bed, in the bathtub, then the bed again … all me,” she continued, beginning to walk towards Ruby again, unable to stop her lips from curving up in a smile at the memory, her eyes shining with a familiar hunger and affection as she did.
“Why?” Ruby asked, watching closely, suspiciously as Christina inched towards her.
“Because,” Christina breathed out, drawing even closer, “you are … magnificent,” she continued appreciatively. “Watching you on that stage,” she sighed, smiling a little at the memory, "and then flipping off that piss-poor excuse for an audience with that 'fuck ya'll too'. Talking to you for hours at the bar …” Christina stopped walking, just short of Ruby, and sighed deeply before angling her head away. “I didn’t plan on … feeling,” she murmured ruefully a moment later. “But I did, and … you wanted him the way I wanted you, so...”
Ruby was quiet for a long moment as she considered Christina’s words. Her instinct was to call bullshit, to accuse the blonde of lying, of messing with her head, but the way Christina looked at her, the affection, and desire, and respect that had drawn her to William, despite herself, were all present in Christina’s gaze and tone. And, thinking back to their previous encounters, Ruby realized that it had always been there, she just hadn’t been able to see it at the time.
“Stay, please,” Christina said, reaching out her hand towards Ruby when the woman’s head turned towards the front door though Christina stopped short of touching her when she saw the blood on her hand. “Let me clean up,” she continued, drawing Ruby’s attention back over to her. “Then, I’m yours … you can ask me whatever you want.”
Ruby’s gaze flickered towards the door again, and then shifted to the staircase, holding there for a moment in memory before she finally looked at Christina again.
“You fucked me,” Ruby stated, her tone caught somewhere between bewilderment and accusation.
“You wanted me too,” Christina replied, her voice husky and low. “Wanted him to,” she amended a moment later, her pale eyebrows scrunching together unhappily at the thought.
“You … you,” Ruby began before pausing, angling her head away from Christina in embarrassment as her eyes settled on the staircase and her mind drifted back to that night.
She remembered William’s warm and eager mouth at her breasts, and the way he had smiled at her roguishly before sucking on one of her nipples.
She remembered the way he had teased her, still on the stairs, her dress bunched up around her waist as he kissed his way up her thighs, grinning when she had gasped and twitched. She remembered how his eyes had met hers as he draped one of her legs over his shoulder and then, still watching her, had taken her into his mouth.
She remembered tasting herself on his lips after, and how she’d clutched at him, raw desire pulsing through her when he’d whispered, “I’m not done with you yet,” before lifting her into his arms and carrying her to the bedroom.
Ruby turned away from the staircase and her memories to face Christina once again, unable to stop her brain from conjuring an image of the icy blonde between her legs, pleasuring her with her mouth as thoroughly and enthusiastically as her alter ego had.
“I would do it all again if you’d let me,” Christina said when Ruby drifted off, the expression on her face and the quickening of her breathing giving Christina a very good idea where Ruby’s mind had wandered. “I meant what I said about kissing whatever you want,” she reminded Ruby breathily, a shiver of excitement running through her when she saw the heat in Ruby’s gaze when their eyes met. “I could continue to use the elixir,” she went on, holding Ruby’s eyes. “I can continue to be William for you.”
“Is that what you want?” Ruby asked, speaking before the words had fully formed in her brain. “To be William with me?”
“I want you,” Christina replied simply, “In my life. In my mouth. In my bed,” she continued, her voice a low, husking purr as her words and the thoughts they conjured in her mind began to affect her body. “Being William provides me with a great number of opportunities out there,” Christina said, gazing towards the front of the townhouse, “in the world of men. It’s fucking infuriating, but I would achieve nothing if I didn’t acknowledge the truth of it. I would enjoy touching you in my own body, but if looking like William is what is necessary for me to be inside of you again, then I’ll look like William.”
“Why would you…” Ruby began, her eyebrows scrunching in confusion as she looked at Christina. “You’re young, attractive, white, and rich, and magic,” she continued, shaking her head as she spoke, still getting used to the idea that magic really existed. “In your own body, or looking like William, you could have anybody you wanted. So why me? Why not some oil tycoon, or Hollywood starlet, or tennis pro? Why…”
Christina took a few quick steps forward, instinctively reaching out for Ruby’s hands, though she once again withdrew her hands without contact, not wanting to dirty Ruby with bloody traces of her transformation.
“This is the second time you’ve asked me that,” Christina pointed out, close enough to Ruby now to kiss her if she wasn’t covered in blood. “The answer remains the same. The first time I laid eyes on you, was the first time I had felt magic in a long while where there was none,” Christina breathed, her gaze shining with intensity as she spoke. “You did that … you do that,” she corrected, “to me. You,” she pronounced, holding Ruby’s gaze for a long moment before swallowing and looking away as she took a step back.
“I’ve never been … conventional,” Christina continued, “And as a result I’ve often been on my own,” she went on, using her inability to face Ruby while saying this as an excuse to move towards the hall closet. “I don’t say that mournfully, or regretfully,” Christina said, glancing over her shoulder briefly. “It has often been by my choice. But it is true,” she pronounced as she opened the closet up and took out a long, black evening coat and put it on.
“That night at the bar,” Christina said, turning to face Ruby. “Drinking with you. Talking with you. It was the first time in a very long time that I didn’t feel like I was on my own. It was an intoxicating feeling,” Christina continued, coming to a stop just in front of Ruby. “In fact, I’m still quite drunk on you,” she breathed out, smiling faintly as she finally gave into the urge to touch Ruby and lifted her hand to Ruby’s cheek.
She half expected Ruby to shy away from her bloodied hand, but to Christina’s relief and pleasure, Ruby allowed the touch.
Christina stroked her thumb tenderly over Ruby’s cheek, and her body swayed forward, into Ruby’s body as her eyes dropped to Ruby’s lips, staring at them longingly and Ruby knew that Christina wanted to kiss her. She had become very familiar with what desire looked like in Christina’s eyes.
However, before Ruby could issue a warning ‘Don’t even think about it’ to the blonde, Christina released a breathy, “Fuck,” and took a calming breath before stepping back from Ruby, knowing that she couldn’t kiss Ruby in the state she was in, even if Ruby would have allowed it from her in her true form.
Ruby studied Christina for a short while, the expression on her face inscrutable as she struggled to wrap her mind around the insanity of her current reality, unable to even convince herself it was all a dream because even asleep she knew that she was far too sensible to waste precious energy on hallucinating something as ridiculous as the best sex of her life coming courtesy of a Nordic witch who had seduced her by using a magic potion to shape-shift into a Hollywood leading man.
It was insane.
It was ridiculous.
She needed to go. She needed to get the hell out of this demon house and away from the succubus who owned it. She needed to wipe the memory of William and Christina and the potion and all of it from her head. She needed to tell Christina that she was done, that whatever the hell arrangement they’d had was over and Christina best leave her the fuck alone from now on.
That’s what she needed to do.
What she actually did however, was say, “I’ll wait for you to get cleaned up,” before pausing for a second so that she could roll her eyes at Christina when the blonde smiled at her words. “Don’t look at me like that,” Ruby had then continued, pointing a warning finger at the blonde. “You better keep up your end of the bargain, or I’m outta here, for good,” Ruby stated firmly, her words causing Christina to bite down on her bottom lip to try and mask her smile.
“I understand,” Christina murmured, her voice soft though her gaze was bold, her shining eyes confidently meeting Ruby’s.
The look caused a frisson of something warm and intoxicating to pulse through Ruby, something that left an uncomfortable yearning in Ruby in its wake.
“Go on, clean yourself up then,” Ruby said, nodding her head towards the stairs. “You look like a fucking Dracula,” Ruby said, shaking her head as she ran her eyes over Christina’s blood caked face.
“Yes ma’am,” Christina husked, the smile she’d failed to control turning dirty as her eyes dipped down in contemplation of Ruby’s lips.
“Don’t,” Ruby said warningly.
“Don’t what?” Christina asked, feigning innocence, or at least as much innocence as one could while literally dripping with blood.
“Get all … flirty with me again,” Ruby stated, barely able to believe the words were coming out of her mouth..
“Why not?” Christina asked, arching a challenging blonde brow.
“‘Cause you nasty,” Ruby stated plainly, gesturing at Christina’s hellish and bloody appearance. “You need a bath, and … stop. Stop!” Ruby repeated more strongly when Christina’s gaze took on a look of lusty speculation after Ruby had said the word ‘bath’. “I said I’ll stay, for now. But I’m not joining you, so just go on you,” she continued, waving her hand towards the staircase.
Christina stood up straight, smirked at Ruby as she gave her a playful salute, and then she finally capitulated to Ruby’s demands and headed for the stairs.
Fifteen minutes after she had ascended the stairs, Christina Braithwhite walked into the sitting room of the townhouse. She was dressed casually in a pair of black trousers and a striped fitted sweater, and was still drying her hair with a towel as she sat herself on the same couch as Ruby, being careful to leave a respectable amount of space between their bodies.
“That was quick,” Ruby commented, eyeing Christina thoughtfully as the blonde tossed the towel in her hands onto a nearby chair before devoting her full attention to Ruby. “Afraid I was gonna run?” Ruby asked, arching a dark eyebrow at the younger woman.
“No,” Christina murmured, smiling a little before she dipped her head down for a few seconds, hiding her expression. “You’ve never been afraid to tell me exactly what you think,” she continued, her smile growing. “In my experience,” she drawled, finally lifting her head to meet Ruby’s eyes with her own, “If you were going to leave, you would have told me so.”
“So, you really do like a demanding woman,” Ruby breathed out before she could think better of it.
However, before she could begin to regret the instinctive response, to Ruby’s utter and complete dismay, Christina Braithwhite blushed, and suddenly the only thing Ruby’s brain was contemplating was what thoughts must have popped into Christina’s head to provoke such a response from her.
The thought brought a memory of William to the forefront of Ruby’s mind.
They were in the master bedroom, William laid out beneath her as she straddled his waist. In reality, Ruby had run her fingers teasingly and appreciatively up his chest, but in her mind she now saw Christina where William had once been, the blonde’s skin flushed and glistening as Ruby drew a contemplative finger up between the valley of her breasts, and over her collarbone before her fingers closed around Christina’s delicate throat and carefully squeezed, the action making Christina’s hips twitch up into Ruby’s body as she moaned.
Ruby closed her eyes and then shook her head, confused by, but not wanting to contemplate, why she had just imagined Christina that way.
“You said you have answers for me,” Ruby began, deciding to try distracting her brain with serious conversation. “Are you ready to explain?”
“Yes,” Christina breathed out, finding and then holding Ruby’s eyes as she spoke. “What do you want to know?”
“Everything,” Ruby said immediately, and Christina smiled at her brightly.
“That’s exactly the right answer,” Christina breathed out, calm and relaxed again. “What do you want to know first?” she asked, her eyes and voice warm as she leaned against the back of the couch, making herself comfortable, and, Ruby had to admit, quite a fetching picture.
“How do you know how to make potions and speak whatever that language was?”
“The language of Adam,” Christina murmured, gazing at Ruby thoughtfully. “As for the potions,” she sighed, “that’s going to take a while to explain. Can I get you a drink, or…” Christina paused when Ruby’s face shifted into an expression that conveyed ‘bitch, you’ve got to be kidding me’ so clearly that Christina could practically hear the words in her head.
“Okay,” Christina said, holding up her hands innocently though there was a wicked, playful curve to her lips.
“It all began in Massachusetts in 1795, with a coven of white men led by Titus Braithwhite, who was a cousin of one of my paternal ancestors. The coven sought to harness the power of creation,” Christina continued as Ruby finally leaned against the back of the couch as well, settling in for the rest of the story.
Over the next half hour, Ruby listened raptly as Christina described how Titus’ coven had gotten things wrong, how they’d said ‘open sesame’ when they should have said ‘abracadabra’ and as a result called down hell upon themselves instead of opening up the heavens.
Christina’s tale had then jumped a century forward, to her own grandfather, Addison Braithwhite. Addison, Christina explained, had formed a coven of his own, but it was her father, Samuel, who put the coven on the map, so to speak. Samuel had expanded the coven, and built a new and impressive manor house on top of the ruins of Titus Braithwhite’s old estate.
It was also under Samuel’s leadership that the coven had learned of a slave-girl named Hannah who was pregnant with Titus’ child when she had managed to escape from the estate, leaving her as the only survivor of the tiny apocalypse Titus and his coven had unleashed.
“My father spent years trying, and failing,” Christina said pointedly, emphasizing the last word, “to find out what had become her.”
“Until,” Ruby prompted.
“Until my intuition helped me solve the puzzle, which in turn led me to the last surviving member of Hannah’s bloodline,” Christina replied, answering the prompt dutifully.
Ruby was quiet for a while, her mind working over what Christina had just revealed to her, making connections to some of the strange and surprising things that had been happening in her life and in the lives of people she was most closely connected to.
“That’s why you tracked me down at the bar,” Ruby said, fixing her gaze on Christina once again. “That last surviving member of the bloodline you found, it was Tic. And my sister was there too, so…”
“Letitia,” Christina murmured, shaking her head though her expression was almost fond. “She’s a difficult girl.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” Ruby muttered darkly before giving Christina a sharp, warning look meant to inform the blonde that in this townhouse, Ruby was the only one allowed to badmouth her sister.
“Whatever you want from me, it has to do with Leti, doesn’t it?” Ruby asked, not quite able to keep all of the resentment the realization made her feel out of her voice.
“Yes, and no,” Christina said softly, her gaze tender when Ruby looked over to meet it. “After I met you, getting what I wanted became more complicated,” she admitted, that look, that mix of fondness and awe, and hunger and heat, in her eyes once again as she gazed at Ruby.
“Complicated how?” Ruby asked.
Christina sighed and looked away from her.
“You know how,” she breathed out, the desire in her eyes somehow having managed to intensify.
Christina’s lips parted breathlessly, and she shifted on the couch, towards Ruby, her hand extending slowly towards the other woman before coming to a rest on Ruby’s thigh.
Ruby tensed slightly at the touch, but didn’t pull away, even as Christina’s eyes focused on her lips.
“I want to kiss you,” Christina said, even though Ruby thought that that was pretty fucking obvious. “Will you let me?”
“You never asked before,” Ruby commented lightly, stalling, buying herself time.
“I knew you wanted me when I was William,” Christina replied, her gaze lifting. “Now, I’m uncertain. Hopeful,” she said, smiling wryly, “but uncertain.”
“Finish telling your story, and then we’ll see how I feel,” Ruby breathed out softly, uncomfortably aware of how quickly her heart was beating.
Christina’s proximity and words were having an effect on her, and she needed more time to sort herself out.
Christina’s eyes closed, and she took a few deep centering breaths before removing her hand from Ruby’s thigh and shifting backwards on the couch a little, placing some more distance between their bodies.
“I…” Christina began, releasing a shuddering breath, her body still tight and twitchy, humming with arousal she was trying to suppress. “I’m the one that provided the funds that allowed Letitia to purchase Winthrop House and the one who made sure she knew about the existence of the property.”
“Why?” Ruby asked, confused and some other things that she didn’t care to consider at the moment.
“Your sister is very tenacious,” Christina began, the respect in her voice riling Ruby for reasons she still didn’t care to consider. “Intuition told me that if she was properly motivated through owning the manor house and wanting to keep it, that she would find a way to tame Hiram Epstein’s ghost.”
“And you care about the well-being of a fucking crusty ass, racist ass ghost, why?”
“I don’t. That piece of shit could burn in the pits of hell for all eternity for all I care,” Christina stated, earning a raised eyebrow and small smile of surprise from Ruby. “I simply needed him to be dealt with because there’s something in the house that I require and Hiram’s ghost made it impossible for me to enter the house, let alone search it,” Christina sighed.
Ruby couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled out of her as she shook her head at the blonde.
“And you thought Leti would be easier to deal with?” Ruby breathed when her laughter had abated.
“I did,” Christina murmured, instinctively smiling a little when her response drew a smile to Ruby’s lips as Ruby continued to shake her head at her. “She got a voodoo priestess to magically lock me out,” Christina related, prompting another set of chuckles from Ruby.
“That why you come looking for me?” Ruby asked. “To be your eyes and ears at Winthrop House? To find whatever it is you need and bring it to you?”
Christina nodded, wearily, knowing that Ruby would respond badly to the admission.
“How much were you going to pay me? To inform on my sister? To steal from her? To lie to her day after day? What were you going to offer for my soul?” Ruby asked, frustrated and tired, truly contemplating getting the hell up out of the townhouse and away from Christina for good.
“To start with, I was going to offer you the deed to this townhouse,” Christina replied honestly. “It’s actually in the safe upstairs,” she added a moment later, her eyes drifting towards the staircase to the upper level of the house.
Ruby’s gaze was hard and unforgiving when Christina turned back towards her. When their eyes met, Ruby held her gaze for a moment, staring wrathfully, before she finally spit out, “Fuck you,” at Christina and stood up, intending to head towards the front door and walk through it for the last time.
Before she could take a step away from the couch however, Christina reached out for her, grasping her wrist lightly, much as she had the first night they’d with Christina in her own body at Lancaster’s party.
“I didn’t though,” Christina said when Ruby looked down at her. “Ask that of you,” she continued softly. “After we met, and ... got to know each other better, I began searching for an alternate way forward.”
“Did you find it?” Ruby asked, the fire that had been raging in her dimming with Christina’s words, and her knowledge that the blonde really never had brought up Leti, or Winthrop House the entire time they had known each other.
“Not yet,” Christina replied, looking directly into Ruby’s eyes. “But I will.” Christina stroked her thumb over the back of Ruby’s hand gently. “I’m very motivated. Please, stay.”
Ruby hesitated for a moment, her head angling back to look at the entrance to the townhouse before her attention returned to Christina when the blonde leaned forward on the couch, and pressed a delicate kiss to the back of the hand her thumb had just been caressing.
Ruby’s eyes fluttered closed at the feel of those soft lips pressed against her skin, and when Christina lifted her head, the longing expression on her face sent a rush of warmth through Ruby’s body. And, even though Ruby still really would have preferred not to consider the reaction too closely, when Christina’s tongue peaked out to wet her lips, the way Ruby’s stomach tightened and the image of Christina kneeling between her legs that formed in her brain left no choice but for Ruby to admit that what she was feeling, and had been feeling all evening, was arousal.
“Ruby,” Christina breathed out longingly, and Ruby knew exactly what she wanted, what she was aching for.
“Yes,” Ruby sighed, and Christina studied her expression carefully for a moment before smoothly rising to her feet, her hands lifting to cradle Ruby’s face.
“Yes, I can kiss you?” she asked.
“Yes,” Ruby repeated, her heart pounding madly beneath her breast.
Christina smiled at her as she traced her thumb over Ruby’s bottom lip, her own lips parting breathlessly in anticipation when Ruby’s eyes slid shut as she tilted her head into the warmth of Christina’s hand.
When Ruby’s eyes fluttered open again, Christina leaned forward, and a second later her lips brushed over Ruby’s lightly, teasingly … maddeningly.
“You really playin’ like this after talkin’ so big all night?” Ruby murmured against Christina’s lips, her question incredulous though her voice was soft and her hands had moved to Christina’s waist, keeping the blonde where she was.
“Just making sure,” Christina whispered, before her hands grasped Ruby’s face more firmly, and her lips brushed against Ruby’s again, her tongue teasing the seam of Ruby’s lips a moment later, prompting a low moan from Ruby as her mouth instinctively opened for Christina, her hands clutching tightly at Christina a moment later when the blonde’s tongue stroked into her mouth.
When their lips finally parted long minutes later, Ruby was smiling and a little breathless as she murmured, “I never thought I’d ever have a woman’s hands on my ass, let alone...”
“A white bitch’s?” Christina offered as she kissed the corner of Ruby’s mouth, smiling when her words made Ruby smile. “You know,” Christina continued, her smile taking on a wicked edge as she gave Ruby’s bottom a squeeze. “Technically, my hands and mouth have already been all over you.”
“Only cuz your Merlin ass be lyin’,” Ruby muttered, even as her eyes fluttered closed contently when Christina angled her head down, gently resting her forehead against Ruby’s.
“Not anymore,” Christina whispered, the softly spoken promise sending a gentle heat through Ruby that made her want to take Christina’s face in her hands and kiss her until she was breathless and looking at Ruby like she was the entire world again.
It was only when Christina moaned, long and deep, into Ruby’s mouth that Ruby realized she hadn’t just thought about kissing the blonde, but had actually done it.
“That offer for a drink still open?” Ruby asked, taking a step back from Christina, feeling overwhelmed and strangely out of control.
“Of course,” Christina breathed out, reaching out for Ruby’s hand and giving it a comforting squeeze. “Coming right up,” she continued, smiling rakishly at Ruby as she took a few steps backward.
Despite herself, a fond smile pulled up the corners of Ruby’s lips as she watched Christina back away, and when the blonde was finally forced to turn her back to Ruby so that she could see where she was going, Ruby shook her head at herself, questioning her sanity, as she stood there, watching Christina fix her a drink, instead of heading for the door and never looking back.
Fleeing is what a sensible person would have done, and Ruby had always considered herself to be just that. Letitia was the impulsive wild-card in the family, not her. Ruby had always been the rational one, the reasonable one, the reliable one … until she had met William that night at the bar.
“Bourbon. Neat,” Christina stated, presenting the glass to Ruby with a flourish that Ruby found charming despite herself.
“To us,” Christina toasted, lifting her own glass once Ruby had taken the other glass from her hand. “Uninterrupted,” she added softly, poignantly a moment later, the soft longing that had been Ruby’s undoing that night in the bar once again shining in Christina’s eyes.
Ruby lifted her glass, clinking it against Christina’s.
“To feeling magic, where normally there is none,” Ruby breathed out, finally ready to admit to herself that the reason she was still in the townhouse, and why she had kept coming back to it - even though she knew it wasn’t the smart choice- was because Christina, in both of her forms, made Ruby feel things, good things, things that the world had denied her for most of her life.
In the same way that Christina felt understood by Ruby, Ruby felt seen by Christina. She felt heard, and appreciated, and desired to a degree that had been previously unknown to her.
The feeling was intoxicating, and despite her better judgement, Ruby knew that just like Christina, she would not, could not, give up on or walk away from the magic that had unexpectedly entered her life.
Whatever it was they were doing, wherever it led, for better or worse, she and Christina were in it together.
The End