Fate's Design Reserved

Judas lifted an eyebrow, but got dressed as asked and followed her from the house. "So, you got me out here." he said carefully, "What do you wish to show me?" He was insanely curious, but he was also cautious. Though, he couldn't deny any longer that he loved her very deeply, he still wasn't entirely ready to trust her so implicitly. Anything could happen out here that he could not control and he didn't like that much....

Ariel led him to a building within the city and down a hidden underground path. When they arrived at the destination, she clapped her hands and a hidden room lit up like the stars. The room was a dance studio but not just that, it had paintings of Judas and Talia. Paintings of him meeting Ariel. Ariel says walking through the room, “My mom knew about this before they happened. But instead of talking about the visions she would paint them. It was how she explained to me what I was going through. This place is my favorite place. It was the only place her and I could go to get away from dad. It has more life than anywhere else in the city. I have not shared this place with anyone.”

Judas entered the place cautiously, but as he looked around, he suddenly felt something hit him that was actually quite astounding. He saw pictures of himself and Talia, of him and Ariel. A sudden question hit him, that he simply couldn't keep behind his teeth. "So if you saw all this in your mother's paintings, why did you not recognise me that first night in the cemetery?" He asked....

Ariel looks at him and says, “When Talia takes over me, my sight gets messed up not including my mind. Plus how was I going to explain how I knew you outside of her memories? But it does explain why I have never been scared of you.” She strokes one of the paintings with her fingers. She says, “I have never been good at speaking. Dad is not the kind of guy to led a woman speak out of turn.” She looks at the painting her mother did of her and Judas in the distant future. “She knew you would turn me and she told me to embrace it because I would be free.”

Judas moved to Ariel and put his arms around her much the same as how he'd done it in the picture. "I think I would have liked to have met your real mother." He told her quietly as he stared at the pictures in turn, seeing almost their entire future played out in the canvas. "She sounds like someone I could have respect for." He looked at the picture of them together again and cocked his head to one side. "There is but one thing missing from this image." He mused and then put his hands to Ariel's belly. "Did she foresee that as well?"

Ariel thinks about his question a moment. She then led him to a few more paintings. They were paintings of Ariel holding a baby. But that is as far as the paintings go. Her mother's sight only went so far. "I think that we can get more than one child through the years. Because she paints me with lots of different babies. So that is something for us to enjoy. Although I am not looking forward to all the labor parts." She kisses him softly with a smile.

Judas regarded the pictures with care and smiled at them. He reached out and touched one delicately, touching the image of the infant in Ariel's arms. It made him happy to see such things and after his long life and much of it alone, it had always been something he had desired. His revenge and hatred aside, this was something he truly wanted. "I'm looking forward to it." he said honestly. "There is never a moment when a woman shows her real strength than in the throws of giving birth to her child."....

Ariel could see in his actions that he really wanted a child. That was something she could give him in return for everything gave to her. She was a little more ify about becoming a parent. "I am fine with becoming a parent but not until my father is dead. I do not want any risk to our child's life. It would kill me if we lost a child." She cannot see her surviving the loss of a child. She was strong but not that strong.

Judas nodded in agreement, "I understand." he said, "I feel that way as well. However." He grinned darkly, "It would certainly be something for him to know upon his death that his line has merged with that of his mortal enemy. That his grandchildren would be mine, the devil and demon he has battled with his entire life. Not only then would his death be memorable, but his soul would be destroyed with it. Such a delicious thought, if there ever was one."....

Ariel could understand his hatred of her father. But he suffered the pain of her ancestors. She suffered his abuse first hand all her life. Nothing that he had been through could compare to that. "I will just feel better knowing that he's gone. I don't care about anything else." She would feel safer knowing that he was gone. And that he could not hurt their child like he had hurt her for all those years.

Judas nodded, "As you wish." He told her and took her back into his arms again. He held her close, almost possessively and exactly as the pictures described him holding her....

After a while she needed to leave. The longer she stays in this place, the more she didn't want to leave. She says, "Come on Judas. I can't stay here too long or I feel like I'm being drawn into the paintings. Trust me it isn't pretty picture when that happens. I just really wanted to show this to you. To show how much I trust you."

Judas furrowed his brow at her comment and cocked his head to one side. "What do you mean drawn into the pictures?" He asked, wondering just what the hell she was on about. How could one be drawn into a picture? Certainly, one could be drawn to one and be made to gaze at it for hours even, but never drawn INTO one....

Ariel crossed her arms over her chest. "My family was cursed a long time ago just like you were cursed. My family is cursed when it comes to painting or whatever other talents we are good at. My mother's paintings can actually draw in someone's soul and lock them away. My dancing draws people in. But I can control when I take someone's soul away. That is why I won every time in a dance competition. But I can turn my curse off and on. I can make it were only draw the person in. But the more I hold it back, the more tempting it is to let the curse just do what it needs to."

Judas lifted an eyebrow and stared again at the picture before staring at her. Now that was some gift! He was impressed and a myriad of ideas began to form in his mind of the use he could make of such a gift. The ease of which he could dispatch his enemies simply by letting Ariel dance for them. Oh, the pleasure of it! But wait. No. Ariel was not happy about her gift, in fact, she called it a curse. As much as he might want to use her gifts to aide in his war with the church and the council, it would not be fair on her. She was his wife, his beloved and the mother of his coming children. She was not his tool anymore....

As soon as she saw the look in his eyes she wanted to hide and never come out. He wanted to use the gift or curse as she saw it. "If I use it it will change me. When someone of my family seals away a soul, they grow more talented with their gift and the curse become stronger. Some members of my family say that we grow more beautiful the more we absorb souls. What if it makes me evil I mean worse than I already am?"

Judas quickly shook his head, "As much as I would like to use your gift, I won't." He promised, "You are already more than beautiful and I want to keep your dancing for myself alone. I am selfish like that." he grinned and pulled her close....

Ariel cuddles into his embrace and says, "But I can see it in your eyes that you want to use the gift in order to harm our enemies. I mean I can see how it would be useful to you. But I would be very concerned that I would lose my self to it. Think about it. Every once in awhile you can go into a blood lust after being in a battle for so long. It's the same thing. I mean I won't mind using it every once in awhile but not all the time."

Judas nodded, "Indeed, that is true." He said, "But you are not my slave, nor are you my tool. You are my wife and the mother of my coming children. And I understand the lust for something that has been so readily available for a while." He reached down slightly, touching her belly and kissing at the side of her neck. "And the bloodlust that comes with it, has always been hard to resist. However." He let her go again and stepped back with a slight bow, "I am learning to resist, as you can see."....

Ariel looks at him with a smile as she knew that he was trying to be better. She says to him, "I will use it if you want. There is a ballet coming to town. It would not be hard to sneak in." She looks at the paintings one last time before she starts pulling the souls out that her mother trapped in her paintings. She pulled them out one by one. And then she absorbed them into herself.

Judas stepped back further as Ariel began absorbing the souls trapped within the paintings. He could feel the strength within her growing and he liked it... liked it a lot. "We will have to see who will be attending this performance." He said and moved to her again. She radiated power and vitality and he soaked it up onto himself as well, trading their energies. It also gave him some access to her bodily goings on as well and he smiled deeply as he felt his seed taking hold inside her. This he didn't share just yet, he wanted her to figure it out for herself.....

Ariel looks at him with a smile as the souls made her feel rejuvenated. She says to him, “It is like my system is getting a jump start, it feels good. Mom said that she did not like to turn it off. When she did she felt numb like a zombie. Maybe if she did not turn it off, she would still be alive.” She smiled some feeling her body being transformed by the energy and power she is getting from the souls.

Judas nodded, "It is what makes us who we are." He told her as he continued to hold her and tap into her energy. He could definitely feel his seed taking hold now with the surge of power going through her and through him too. "And now, if we feed while like this, the pleasure is how you modern folk say, mind blowing. And then after that...." He kissed at her neck again, letting his fangs rake gently over her skin as he held her closer than ever.....

Ariel looks at him a moment as she listened to him explain how they would feel. She says to him, "But that does not make sense of the other stuff. How I could force my own soul out of my body. Mother could not do that." Her body went on high alert when he kissed and ran his fangs over his neck. She strokes his chest with her hands. She says, "I am ready and willing but we can't do that here. It is not our home..."

Judas grinned, "It will all come to you in time." he told her softly and then looked around as she refused him again, but this time on the grounds this was not their home. He simply picked her up into his arms and took her to the wall. "Everywhere is our home." He said, "Anywhere and everywhere we choose to be, it is ours to call home."....