Lucifer

    Both Lucius and I were preoccupied when we got back from break. But he promised me that he had something special planned for Valentine's Day, to make up for it. So I pretended not to notice his whispering in corners with friends and his unusual increase in mail, until Valentine's Day. Whatever it was, it would be dramatic.

    There were valentines there from my friends, and one elegant paper swan. It read, simply, "5 pm. The Birches, Hogsmeade". I remembered the pretty house, set back among the birch trees, but was amazed. If he'd rented the house for us....oh, this one was going to be good. So I went to my trunk and found a little thing I'd ordered from Madam Malkin, and dressed very carefully indeed before setting off to Hogsmeade. Tonight was going to be unforgettable.

    He opened the door when I knocked, smiling at me, and greeting me with a gentle kiss. "Happy Valentine's Day," he said. "Did you think I'd forget?"

    "No," I said, "but I didn't expect...this..." My voice trailed off as I looked at the lovely table set for two, and he smiled.

    "The entire house is ours until morning," he said. "I have so much planned for us..."

    "Well, the dinner looks marvelous," I said, smiling. "So let's eat, and enjoy."

    He uncorked the wine and poured for both of us, and we ate. I'd never had food like this. The beef was so tender it melted in my mouth, the wine coiling around my tastebuds like a lover, and the chocolate mousse made me close my eyes and shiver, it was so good.

    He waved his wand and banished the dishes to the kitchen, and summoned a cup and a bottle.

    "A last drink, Evadne?" he said, smiling. I could smell it as he poured it into the cup. "It's Chambord." He grinned. He knew I adored it, ever since he'd introduced me to it. "And something a little extra." He took a vial out of his pocket.

    "What is it, Lucius?"

    "It...heightens the senses," he said. "I got it last time we went home, for us to share. Tried some myself," he said, and grinned slightly. "I almost came from the feeling of my hair down my back. And that was before I took myself in hand."

    Oh, that was a very sensual image. I wanted to watch him do that sometime. I could imagine the way he'd look as the flush crept down his torso....

    "It sounds like fun," I said. "But only if you share it with me."

    "Only one glass," he said. "I intended to."

    He poured it into the liqueur, and stirred it with his finger. "To us," he said, and took a sip, then handed it to me. We traded sips of the rich liquid, tasting like summer and sin, and I could feel the alcohol coiling through me, relaxing me. And then he set it down, and reached for me.

    His hand stroked down my hair, kissed the outer rim of my ear and ran down my throat, a fingertip's touch. My eyes slammed shut as the pleasure of it roared through my body. Oooh. Party, all right, just he and I. God, he knew how to do it. I was so ready for him, just like that, skin too tight and my clothes too much on my skin. And he knew it, too. He smiled at me. "Shall we take this into the bedroom?"

    It's hard to walk when you're kissing each other, and by the time we got there his hair was loose from its tie and his lips a little red. There was color in his cheeks, and his eyes were bright.

    "Oh, nice," he breathed, when he saw my shirt open. Black lace framed my breasts, the short cups lifting them up, this skin that rarely saw the sun pale and soft. I'd dripped the perfume he'd given me down between my breasts, hoping....

    "You like?" I said, and smiled at him,

    "Oh, yes," he said and kissed me again, eating me alive.

    When he released my mouth, we both tore at each other's clothing. Get it off, touch skin. He was cool to the touch, as bare-chested as a child, more fair curls lower down. I couldn't help thinking we made a lovely contrast, his light against my darkness. And then his hands touched my breasts and I stopped thinking at all. There was something behind me. Oh, a bed. Yes. Lying down would be good now. My head was spinning too much to stand. He pulled me to him, and the sensations spun up like a fire. Familiar fire with him, light angel burning me into pleasure...

    He kissed me again, deep, took my lower lip between his teeth, and bit lightly, pleasure and pain and pleasure from the pain...a little more than should be so early in the night. Something shrieked alarm in my head. Too much, too fast, something wrong.... I pulled back, and I searched his face with eyes fogged with something more than my own desire. I could feel it in me now, like gasoline on a fire. And I could see in his face his truth, that he'd given me this...stuff. And he had no remorse. I had been wrong. So wrong.

    "Too much..."

    "Don't worry," he said, smiling at me with his cool, elegant smile. It was the look he had in class when he showed that he knew more than the teacher thought he should. "You won't remember anything. I, on the other hand, intend to savor the memories of tonight."

    "We drank from the same cup!" I tried to get up, but he was lying half on top of me, and with the drug in me I couldn't shove him off. I didn't know that I really wanted to.

    "There's such a thing as tolerance," he said, and leaned in and licked the side of my throat to hear me whimper. "I've been saving this for now."

    "Lucius, I don't understand," I said. There was something wrong, but the heat in my body made me want to forget about it. His skin against mine was driving me insane.

    "Nothing to understand," he said, shifted angles, and pulled my body to him.

    The slide of him into me sent a wave of fire straight up my spine and down my limbs. I saw rose-pink golden light behind my lids, and my head felt disconnected, and I was flying, soaring, attached but not attached to my skin. Every touch stoked the fire higher, and even the sensation of his teeth in the muscle of my neck as he clutched me to him at the end was a pleasure, accented by the drug. I had never felt so good in my life.

    He rested, panting, for a moment, his head in the curve of my shoulder, still in my body. And then he pulled away and sat up. I couldn't yet. The golden pink light still had me held motionless with ripples of pleasure running through me just from breathing. "Join the party," he said, and the mirror on the wall opened up. I knew the faces. Gil Parkinson, his short hair damp with sweat and his face flushed. Gus Rookwood, naked to the waist, his hair loose around his face. He was looking at me with a hunger that scared me. Adrian Mulciber with color up under his dark skin, and his pants fastening loose, loose like his shining curls hanging down his narrow back. Terry Nott was licking his lips and staring at me.

    Lucius reached for his robe, and threw it on casually over his naked body. "Can't have a party with just two people," he said, and moved away from the bed. He looked mussed and immensely gorgeous.

    "Very nice performance, Lucius," Adrian said, looking him over. Lucius met his eyes with a slow lazy grin that reeked of sex. He leaned back in the armchair by the bed and said, "If you want it, Adrian, come get it. If you want the bike there, take a ride. Just don't break it, don't even chip the finish. She won't remember this in the morning."

    There were nods, and then there was skin on mine again, but it was not Lucius's."Mmm, Lucifer," said Adrian, and I thought, how right, how true, and I'll remember none of this. I could see him still, until Gus Rookwood stepped between us, and he was kissing Adrian, light on dark, and he was laughing. And I cried.

* * *

    When she woke up, she was in her own bed. She felt sweaty, and went and took a bath, looking at her body. No marks. No sensation of anything being wrong. just memories of her boyfriend and some wonderfully intense lovemaking, and something about a potion they'd shared. "An amazing potion," she said softly to herself. "He's so wonderful, my bright angel..." and her smile when she saw him at dinner was brilliant and filled with love.

    Gus Rookwood cornered Lucius on the way back from dinner. "I developed the film," he said. "How many sets of prints do you want?"

    "Just the one, I think," he said. "But I want the negatives."

    Rookwood looked mildly disappointed.

    "I know the potential, Gus," he said. "But I had them taken for my own reasons."

    "Yeah, right," he said, with resignation. "Reckon they do lose their potential if every wanker in the place has got a set." He licked his lips. "Hell of a night that was."

    "Exactly," Lucius said. "And we both understand that you recieved your compensation in advance."

    Rookwood nodded. "I'll bring 'em over after curfew," he said, and moved to intercept Lacerta Carlisle on her way up to her dorm. Smiling, Lucius went on to his. Everything was coming together nicely.