Chapter 1

A Chapter by M J Moore

Hair and Makeup and the How's of Love

Devlyn lay haphazardly across the velvet-draped bed, her long mahogany in a high pony tail up off her neck. To the untrained eye, she looked like any other young collegiate. Which just proved appearances were incredibly deceiving.

“I don’t see why you’re getting all dressed up for tonight. I meet, come on, Katia, you’re preening, for crying out loud! It’s just another night at the club, like any other.”

Katerina turned her iridescent green eyes on her best friend. Those eyes were intriguing enough to give many men pause, and the rest of her package captivated their entire attention. “Because, my dear, we are no longer living in Europe, because of your mouth and ironic detachment and vulgar sense of humor that the French did not find amusing. So here we are. We’ve got one of the most successful clubs in The Quarter, thanks to our divine skills, and as a result, we never know who might come in. Unlike you,” she mocked softly with a upturn of her lips, “I like to be prepared.”

Devlyn continued to watch Katerina dressed with a casual grace. Both women were equally beautiful in their own right. Katerina had that elegant, almost ballerina-type grace that was all poise and sophistication. Reaching six foot tall, she was lean and firm without being a waif. Her features were firm and strong, but delicate enough to be feminine, she had a pert nose and wide eyes that seemed to be constantly, though subtly, changing color. Her hair changed on a whim, though naturally was blonde mixed with copper. But it was her beautiful alabaster skin that drew the most beauty, that pure peaches and cream complexion few women had naturally. She could stop a male at twenty paces, and she knew it.

Next to her, at times, Devlyn felt simply gaudy, with her long dark hair and honeyed skin. She also lacked Katerina’s height by half a foot. She was more curvaceous than her companion as well, though they were both satisfactory in the hips and breast department. But it was Devlyn’s face that was striking, that kept her, like Katerina, from looking normal enough to be human. Strong chin, small pert nose, full lips typically found in a smirk, and extraordinary eyes that were a brilliant teal, slightly up-tilted at the edges, framed in thick, dark voluminous lashes, her face was exotic, features molded from her beautiful, delicate mother and darkly handsome father.

Devlyn shrugged her shoulders, trying to act flippant. “It’s not about being prepared, Kat, or the lack of preparation. I just feel clumpy with all that makeup on.”

“It also helps to cover up how naturally alluring we are. And you certainly love the attention you get from wearing a little of it. You love to be the tease, Devlyn. You know you do.”

Devlyn grinned impishly. “I do love the music here. Much better than that damn Celtic s**t you’ve made me listen to for centuries.” As the pillow went flying from across the room, Devlyn’s smile was replaced by pleasured laughter. “Come on now, you know I was only joshing you. I love your little bagpipes and clogging. Really, I do. But you have to admit, modern music is perfect for forgetting all of your worries.”

“I will admit no such thing!” Katerina defied staunchly.

Devlyn smiled, knowing Katerina agreed with her at least in part, or she would not be so stubborn. Katerina had been made into a muse centuries before, in Scotland, and had thus learned English in that country. Even after so many years, she still had a slight accent, one that was more pronounced the more emotional she was feeling. Thinking back to that time, she grew wistful in remembering all that she tried daily to forget.

“Tell me again what it’s like,” Devlyn said, moving to rest lazily on her back, staring almost mystically at the ceiling. There was awe in her voice, mixed with deep sadness. She would never admit it out loud, but the longer time she spent on earth, the longer she was away from her own plane, her temple, the more she started regretting her decision all those years ago.

“What’s what like, Dev?” Katerina asked, not quite following her friend’s changing mood. Typically she could read Devlyn’s mind like a map, but there were times when the goddess went inside herself, to somewhere she did not share with Katerina or anyone else.

“Love. I’ve never felt anything akin to it. There was one night, a long time ago…but that was more what you call lust and a jumble of confusion. Tell me again what it’s like to lie in a man’s arms in utter contentment, safe, with the world melted away. What it is like to have a lover and be a lover, to be physically and emotionally one with a man who wants and is consumed only by you. To wake up with that someone next to you, and you never want to leave the bed and escape that moment.”

Katerina simply stared at Devlyn’s frame on the bed, tears threatening to spill over from her eyes and frivolous emotions. “It’s been such a long time since I’ve felt that, Devlyn, I’m afraid I would have to remind myself what that feels like before I can accurately describe that for you.” There was much sorrow in her voice, sorrow, regret, and raw pain.

Devlyn sat up slowly and looked at the would-be blonde. “I’m sorry. But you’re my muse. I made you the Muse of Love. How do you not experience it, and experience it often?”

Katerina smiled slightly. “Oh, you innocent, being here has taught you humility and humanity but it hasn’t taught you bitter love. You have not been intimate with any man. Even after so long of time traveling through the centuries, you always stayed away from romantic entanglements, quite rightly.

“But I’m afraid that the act of love and the making of love have become one with one another and the acts of making love and sex is now synonymous for intercourse, and the differences between the two are lost on most of the population. So where I once inspired sonnets and ballads and deep, emotional love and the art of that love, I now only inspire a hard-on.”

“So the men in your company, that’s never love?”

“It hasn’t been for a long time, honey.”

“But that sucks!”

An evil grin snaked across Katerina’s features. “Oh, it can suck, blow and do all sorts of wild things. Love may not be in my grasp, Devlyn, but sex can be very, very good, even without love. Especially between enemies…” She added with a wicked grin.

Devlyn suddenly bounced up from the bed and physically shook all the thoughts out of her head. “Well, I’ll just never know, now will I? Now, help me finish getting dressed so we can go out to paint this town a different shade of neon!”

“You could, you know,” Katerina sing-songed, referring to Devlyn’s future nuptials. The goddess was technically betrothed to a fellow Cynthonian god, though Katerina was not exactly sure which one. Devlyn had a tendency to not talk about her life in the heavens. Katerina’s human life, lived so long ago, had been an early, primitive people who had worshipped Devlyn’s pantheon, and Katerina suspected that her knowledge of the gods kept Devlyn more discreet. The girl preferred to keep her god life and her human life separate, at least as much as was possible.

“No, I couldn’t. I refuse. It’s him or nothing. I still choose nothing.”

“He can’t be all that bad.”

“I will not be forced, for that final time! That’s why I’m here. It’s why I’ve been here. I will not be made a maid for a male, god or mortal, or otherwise,” Devlyn stated defiantly. “And if that means being forced to stay here on Earth for eternity, so be it.”

“Wow, a virgin for eternity. Now that has to just royally suck. I mean, I know you were friends with Mary, but even she got rid of the bubble.”

“B***h.”

“Virgin.”

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