Rochester Mansion- The Complete Series Read online

  Listen to what I say

  Give me light as bright as day

  The cavern illuminated with a flicker as if fluorescent strips were warming up across what turned out to be an immense chamber. It rose upward, the jagged rock walls climbing away to the ceiling that was distant, yet perfectly illuminated. This was true also of the perimeter of the chamber as he reached out and touched the nearest walls. From what he could see, there was no exit.

  Mike walked for a few minutes, covering about half the perimeter of the chamber. The closer scrutiny showed him nothing more regarding any possible exits.

  How had Sela brought him from here to wherever it was she called her home?

  Help me not be alone

  Take me straight to Sela’s home

  He questioned his own spell as soon as he said it. The problem with the rhyming magic was that it was so literal. Sela’s home could mean the place where she and he had first made love while it could just as easily mean the house she grew up in or even the bed in Rochester Mansion where she lay right now.

  Probably not, Mike thought. I’ve probably been gone for hours already. The note he had left would have to suffice.

  Literal or not, the spell brought him to Sela’s living room. It was just as he remembered it, but it somehow didn’t feel the same without her there. He wasn’t sure why he had chosen this place but it was as good as any. He wanted to understand a little bit more about how The Source operated before he was faced with any form of confrontation.

  “Where’s the bedroom?” Mike asked, voicing the words aloud as he glanced more thoroughly around the decorative living room. On his first visit, he’d been a bit too distracted by her beauty and the whole situation to pay much attention. On the second, he’d spent the whole visit in the comfort of her bedroom.

  Walking to the wall he glanced around the room. It was roughly circular, but it did not appear to have any doors or windows either. With a quick rhyme, he willed himself into her bedroom. It was the same. Each location was a place of its own. No hallway led from the living room to the bedroom, they were just isolated sets on a magical soundstage of sorts.

  Mike sat on the edge of the bed and thought about it for a minute. Happily, the voices hadn’t returned, but they had only been in that first cavern. He was down here to rescue Aimee and Eliza while putting the whole ‘dues’ business to rest. He knew he owed the house, or its magic at least, and he was prepared to settle the score one way or another, as long as he was able to keep the ones that he loved.

  Take me to the place

  Where my captive love awaits

  He pictured Eliza in his mind’s eye as he recited the hasty spell. The two of them might be together, but he wanted to be specific just in case.

  Chapter Two

  The music was the first thing, even before his eyes adjusted to the dim lights. It was a live band playing covers from his college days, back when…

  …he had first met Eliza.

  “Dude, check her out.”

  Mike jumped as an elbow dug into his side.

  Trent Alderson.

  Trent had been his best friend in high school and the only person he’d known at the university until meeting the woman he would eventually marry. The woman he was painfully nudging him to look at right now.

  Mike followed his buddy’s gaze over to the far side of the dance floor where Eliza was just walking in through the festively-decorated door to the banquet hall.

  “Go for it, dude.” Trent chuckled.

  It was a joke because the vision in a white sweater-dress was significantly out of the league of both ogling Freshmen.

  “Right.” Mike said, taking another sip of the punch.

  Something in him shifted a bit, as the moment a person becomes fully lucid in a dream. No, that’s what I said, Mike thought. Whatever this is, it doesn’t have to be the same.

  Does it?

  The thought haunted him as he stood there watching her, trying not to let the memories of their early days together engulf him like a comfortable blanket. This wasn’t real, or at least, it wasn’t happening right now. You’re still in The Source, dude.

  Mike snorted a laugh into his drink, drawing Trent’s attention.

  “Shit, man. When are we going to be able to land something like that? It’s really not fair.”

  He had seen her at this party all those years ago, watched her dance, watched her be happy; but she wasn’t. He hadn’t learned that fact until months later when the two of them were actually dating. She was as alone as he was and was looking to break out of her normal rut. As she had said, she was twenty-years-old and dating her type hadn’t particularly been working out for her, as her last abusive relationship had dramatically pointed out. She had been looking for someone different.

  “It’s like winning the lottery.” Mike said, putting his glass down blindly on the table behind him.

  “Yeah, never going to happen.” Trent sighed.

  Mike looked back at his friend who had committed suicide just a month later. He wanted to prevent that, but he knew that wasn’t the point of whatever this was. Maybe he could influence that tonight as well, though this was probably only a magically induced fantasy as opposed to real time travel.

  “No.” Mike said, getting his friends attention. “It’s more like you’ll never win if you don’t buy a ticket.”

  Trent laughed. “Good luck with that.” The smile faded into a look of surprise, if not admiration, as Mike backed away a few steps before turning and working his way through the crowd to where Eliza was standing, staring at the twinkling lights.

  She was even more beautiful than he remembered. Her skin was almost painfully white, allowing her dark hair to provide a stark contrast and a focal point for his eyes. Her dress was perfect on her, giving a sense of cottony softness to the hard lines of her athletic figure, providing the perfect balance-point between exposure and holding back some mystery of her shape.

  “It’s a good tune, but I can’t dance to it.” Mike said as he approached her, watching her eyes come up to his. It was an inside joke between them, two awkward and gangly people who had grown up idolizing the dance shows on television on which they would never fit in.

  He’d won her first smile weeks later in reality, but the one that erupted on her face made him feel like he’d just won it again.

  “I can’t dance to any of this.” She said, gesturing to the dance floor with her eyes.

  Mike nodded when they returned to his, echoing the smile back to her.

  “I’m Mike.” He said, offering his hand.

  She took it.

  “Eliza.” He felt her warm palm and held her hand past the amount of time that was normal for such a meeting. “I’ve just…”

  She looked down at their hands, his darker skin contrasting sharply against hers. She looked back up into his eyes but she didn’t try to pull away.

  “Can I kiss you?”

  Mike watched emotions roil through Eliza’s pretty face, each tied directly to an emotion he’d learned over their years in love. They were as easy to read as flashcards. Surprise, shock, happiness, caution, and just a hint of giddy excitement. This would certainly make making the first move easier, Mike thought as he waited for an answer. Was this part of the way the magic of The Source worked?

  “Yeah, sure, I guess…”

  Mike was also very aware of Eliza’s indecisiveness. When they had finally hooked up in college, she had chided him for waiting for her to make up his mind about her. You should have just kissed me, she had said.

  The second time around, Mike did just that. Before the young beauty could even finish the hedging in her sentence, he pulled her in by her palm, bringing his lips to hers. Those gorgeous eyes met his once again then snapped shut as the kiss started to slowly smolder, as if embarrassed that they had been open too long.

  Mike kissed her like she had been gone for a hundred years and not just a few days. This Eliza was gone, but she was still the woman he loved. Thin
gs had just gotten a whole hell of a lot more complicated.

  Chapter Three

  “This isn’t really my style, you know.” Eliza said, covering a half-smile with her hand as she always had when she was nervous.

  Mike wanted to tell her that it wasn’t really his, either. He was running in uncharted territory and couldn’t help but to just stare at her as much as he could get away with while still staying on the road and not having her notice. So far things were off to a good start. That first kiss had just ended with her standing there staring up at him until he asked her to dance. As awkward as it was, they both enjoyed it and she was the one that asked him if the two of them should get out of there. He’d quickly agreed and realized it endeared him even more to her that he couldn’t find his car in the parking lot, though that wasn’t really his fault as he had parked it there close to ten years prior.

  “It’s not really mine either.” Mike said, pulling into her dorm building. For him, it should have been painfully obvious. A pretty girl like Eliza, though?

  “Kiss me again.” She whispered as he put the car in park.

  Mike leaned over, gladly kissing those lips, still tasting the hint of the punch at the dance on her tongue and on her breath.

  “C’mon.” She smiled, pulling on the door handle behind her and pushing it open with a metallic creak. “Come up to my room.”

  He wanted nothing more than that, but a part of him kept interjecting, reminding him of what was going on, even though he really had no clue what was going on. I’m not back in college about to hook up with Eliza on our first date, he thought. That didn’t come until she had finally taken matters into her own hands and seduced him.

  “Lead the way, beautiful.” He said, climbing out his own door and slamming it as he watched her pad barefoot down the sidewalk, glancing back at him with high heels dangling from her fingertips.

  “Don’t miss the door…you don’t have a key!” She laughed, producing a key card from somewhere within her dress and pressing it against the pad, banishing the red glowing LED in exchange for a green one. She darted inside as he picked up his pace, grinning as his heart pounded watching the door slowly ease itself shut. Ten years later, Mike knew her well enough that she might not open the door for him if it shut. She liked him to work for it, and that was probably the reason she had divorced him. He hadn’t been actively working to keep her.

  Mike’s fingers slipped between the door and the frame with just a moment to spare and he pulled it back open. Eliza tried to dart away but he caught her by the hand, pulling her back into his chest. “Not going to let you get away that easily.” He said, leaning down to kiss the nape of her neck.

  He heard her sigh. “I don’t think I really want to get away.”

  She spun in his arms and gave him another intense kiss that he knew he’d remember, even if this wasn’t reality. It would be integrated into his memories of her forever.

  From there, they could hardly keep their hands off each other as they climbed the stairs, Mike getting a fresh first look at her delightful body. Her porcelain skin was exquisitely touchable and he took full advantage of his position behind her, goading her up the stairs with touches that he never would have been bold enough to risk back in those days.

  “I don’t want this to be awkward, so I’m just going to shut up.” Eliza said as they slipped into her room. He could hear the deadbolt automatically slide into place like the door on a hotel room. He tried not to laugh. Eliza always talked too much at the wrong times and she knew it. She’d often ruined a tender moment together by bringing up some non-sequitur that threw them both off the track. She did notice his huge smile, though.

  “What?” She asked, smiling as she leaned against the dresser as he approached her. “Sometimes I tend to…”

  Mike pressed against her, bringing his lips within a few inches of hers. “Shut up.” He said, right as he kissed her, his hands going first to her waist and then feeling free to wander a bit as the kiss heated up. Her own hands were active too, and for a young woman with as little experience as he knew she had in those days, she made quick work of his belt and pants. He assisted their trip down to his knees with one hand and used it to lift her to the top of the dresser a moment later.

  “Please.” She whispered.

  Mike’s lips found hers again and with a little guidance from her all-too-familiar hand, he was engulfed in her heat as he slid into her primed body. The kiss continued unabated, despite gasps and groans of pleasure that traded places with their breath as he drove into her body as deep as he could, pulling her ass towards him.

  Had she really not been wearing panties that night? He made a mental note to ask her when he saw the real her again, and then made another mental note to pay attention to what he was doing.

  Eliza’s heat astounded him. Their lovemaking hadn’t reached this frenetic pace until they had been married for over a year. Her teeth sank into his lip as he rocked his hips back and forth, each thrust met with a return tilt of her pelvis, delivering a friction that was going to guarantee this tryst to be a short one if it continued.

  “God, you’re beautiful.” Mike sighed as he broke the kiss, pressing the hair out of her eyes as he continued his motions, feeling the tight walls of her vagina caressing his cock as it slid in and out, as if it was trying to greedily keep him for its own.

  The dorm lights had two modes. Darkness and Emergency Room. As she had flipped on the switch as they came in, Mike had the enviable role of watching the gorgeous blush cross her beautiful features. It fired up the love he already held for her in his heart. Only Eliza could be embarrassed by a compliment received while she was getting feverishly banged on top of her dresser, but then again, Eliza’s ability to be every woman at any time was one of the best things about her.

  Mike wanted it to last, but he could still read her body to the point he knew she was close to the edge. He pulled out to the frustration of his cock and bent over, pressing his face between those taut thighs.

  “No, I’m not…”

  Clean, Mike thought. Eliza had always had a bit of a hang-up about it. It had been years before she had even considered letting him go down on her unless she was fresh out of a shower. It had taken him that long to truly convince her that he loved the natural scent of her body.

  Mike’s tongue blazed a swath of heat from the bottom of her slit to the top, cutting her voice off in mid-sentence. Her body seemed to freeze, as if in awe of that singular sensation and simultaneously waiting to see if it would happen again.

  It happened again.

  He probed deep inside her before moving to a direct attack on her delicate clit. He played her body like a concert pianist pretending he was at his first lesson. The beautiful melody he created erupted from her lips like notes that were definitely music to his ears as she reached orgasm.

  Mike heightened it with his motions, dismissing any thoughts of magic. He wanted this to be real even though he knew there was no way it could be. He had cast a spell to bring him to her, right? There was something to that, but he couldn’t precisely put his finger on it. Her pleasure was paramount, though.

  “Fuck, fuck, fu…”

  The sound of her voice cut off. She probably had clamped her fingers over her mouth to stifle her moans; another bit of Eliza run by sheer embarrassment. He wanted to hear every bell-ringing note but he let her ride the pleasure out in her own way. It went on and on as he worked her body with his mouth, each slight nudge making the swing arc higher and higher into the air until he finally let its momentum peter out.

  Mike pulled the discarded desk chair over to him and sat down hard in it as Eliza trembled on the dresser, her body still rocking with occasional jolts as a new burst of energy flooded in from her overwhelmed system.

  It was a full minute before she looked up, taking her hand out of her face.

  “Holy shit.” She whispered.

  Mike smiled, but Eliza wasn’t done.

  “Holy shit.” She repeated. “I�
��ve never…”

  Mike remembered. He’d never fully believed her, but from the things she had said when they were married, he had just witnessed Eliza’s first orgasm.

  “We can do it again, if you want.” Mike said, smiling up at her.

  He saw that gorgeous blush rise up out of nowhere, leaving a splash of color on her cheeks even after it quickly departed. “God no. I mean, I need a minute.”

  Mike laughed and she looked at him. For a moment, her emotions balanced on a teeter-totter, then fell on the side that made her snort in return laughter.