Beast

by James D. Horton

  Wolf growls next to me, hunching down before exploding towards the monster heading for me. I see his fangs extending and claws coming from his hands. The Fallen is moving fast, too fast. It's a race to see which impact will happen first. Wolf's leap starts to bring him in front of me and he hits into the side of the monster just as the Fallen slams into me. My head explodes into stars as it bounces against the lot beneath me. The world tumbles over and over, sky, asphalt, sky, asphalt. I roll up against something hard; I can't seem to get my breath again. My vest has come off, too late to try to put it back on now.

  I hear growls, tussles, and see a blur of motion. I try to move my head to take it in but it's too heavy. I'm not sure when that happened either, it really wasn't this heavy a moment ago of that I'm certain. Wolf and the creature roll past my vision then stop. The Fallen is on top of Wolf, its head moving in with fangs extended and I know the intent, it will rip out Wolf's throat. Blood is flying up into the air in front of me as the creature and Wolf roll again. I try to reach out to help but my head is still thick but I do finally draw in a full breath. It hurts, making me fairly sure that something in me is broken now. I try to roll to my side, fuzzy thoughts of the boy in my mind.

  The two of them circle each other making jabs and feints. Wolf is bleeding from multiple wounds but the Fallen seems mostly unharmed. Wolf is favoring his left leg and I can see a gaping wound there, blood pours out of it to pool on the street but he smiles anyway, showing his teeth, and then moves again, impossibly fast. All I can catch is a blur as the two of them slam together. I hear the sounds flesh being pounded and tearing but I have no idea who is doing what, no way to tell who is winning. They go around, then around again, and then they separate out and return to circling one another. Now the Fallen is hurt with long gashes across his face and down his chest.

  Wolf goes in low and fast but the monster is ready for the move, leaping up and coming down on Wolf's back. Wolf yelps in pain as the Fallen digs claws into Wolf, piercing through what should have been protected by Wolf's ribs. He throws himself up, shaking to get the fiend off of him but it is stuck there. He reaches back and grabs the creature with both his hands. I see his claws digging into the beast and I feel him straining, growling with pain and effort as he physically rips the Fallen off of his own back and slams it into the wall behind me.

  I roll out of the way, pain turning my vision red as my ribs crack under pressure again.

  Wolf is on the creature again I see as I struggle to rise and finally make it to my knees. He growls and the Fallen howls. Wolf grabs it by its hair and pulls back exposing its neck. He is slowing down but the beast is holding nothing back. With no reserve or hesitation it starts to turn into Wolf's move so I push into it with everything I've got. I will submission into it. It slows just a bit and Wolf rips his claws across the exposed neck and blood explodes out drenching Wolf and reaching clear over to me. Wolf leans back his head to the sky and he howls long and clear, it echoes around the alley.

  Wolf stumbles back from his fallen foe, barely keeping his feet. His shoulders are bowed, his head hangs low, I sense the effort in him to stay upright. I feel the hunger in his beast, it is close to the surface and he struggles to contain it. I approach him anyway, I want to help him.

  I struggle to my feet, trying to hold my ribs and keep them from moving too much. I walk over to him slowly, one weak step at a time. My head pounds, I feel thick like I'm walking through cotton slowly reaching out trying to get there but uncertain that I will ever make it. I struggle to form words, my mouth moves but it is dry and refusing to do its job. My hand touches his shoulder. He spins fast; his face is gaunt, gray, the face of a desiccated corpse, not the man I have grown to love.

  Pain explodes inside me. I try to back up, to get away from the pain but I can't move at all now. I look down to find what is restricting me. His claws are inside me, I only see his wrist showing just below my breasts. I stare at this oddity, trying to process it as the red haze of pain settles over me; a pain so great it no longer processes as a hurt but as something beyond comprehension. I look up in time to see his eyes widen, his mouth works but no words come out. Then I am falling, going to the ground again.

  "Wolf! NO!"

  Someone is yelling. Who is that? Is the monster back? A blur of red crosses over the top of me towards Wolf, so I let my head loll that way. Athene is there, standing before Wolf and slamming her fists into him. Happiness to see her rises up inside me but is consumed by the pain. Wolf steps back under her assault not fighting her.

  "Not her, not her!" She cries out over and over. Then she is coming towards me.

  She looks so pretty, I think as she comes to kneel down next to me. She raises my head into her lap letting me rest. I'm so tired; just a little rest seems to be the right thing for the moment. With my head at this angle I can see the gaping hole where my chest was, but it doesn't really concern me now. I'm sure once I rest it will be all better.

  "You have to turn her," Athene says.

  Turn who? Into what? The thoughts come slowly, in time with the beating of my heart. I see Wolf on the other side of me, kneeling and close. He looks at Athene.

  "No," he says. "Not her. Not this."

  You should speak more, I think to myself. Athene looks at him and now I see her fangs for the first time as she hisses at him.

  "If you won't, I will!"

  "No," he says softly but I hear the danger in his voice, I feel the monster in him preparing to fight. Then I feel Athene, her monster is different, lighter, more delicate but every bit as dangerous. Well caged, gilded with gold, a chain of pristine silver holds it in a cage made of light.

  "You will not stop me," she says quietly.

  She turns the left side of her face towards him showing her scars. He growls in answer.

  "This was a lucky blow." Athene moves to take her coat off, ignoring Wolf as if he isn't a dangerous vampire. She slips her red satin jacket off and balls it up, placing it under my head. Our eyes meet and I try to smile at her but a coughing fit takes me, my mouth fills with the coppery taste of blood. I see the fire in her eyes, anger and desperation. I try to tell her that it doesn't hurt but my mouth is still not working right. She smiles at me and I feel warm, then she is gone. I close my eyes feeling the pain pulse one more time.

  I hear sounds around me but I can't see, I feel comfortable and free, the pain is gone now. I open my eyes becoming aware of my surroundings again. I'm surprised to see I'm looking down on my own body. What a mess I am! There is a gaping hole in my chest, my face is covered in blood, but I look happy. Hey, gotta take the good with the bad. Athene is facing off with Wolf one to each side of me. He is growling, she is shaking her head. I strain to make out the words they are saying and in a moment I can hear them.

  "This is not the life for her!" Wolf snaps at Athene.

  "We don't all suffer for what we are Wolf," Athene says. "Turn her, take her into our family. Do it or I swear I will take her as my own."

  Wolf looks over at the body of the monster he has just taken down. He walks over to it and reaches down grabbing the body by its hair and lifting the head, turning it to face Athene.

  "You see this!" he yells at her. "You recognize him?" A slight widening of her eyes is the only sign of recognition from her but it is there. "Yeah, it's Billy. Mine. This is what I created; this is the path I led him down. No one can walk it with me; I alone can walk this darkness. I won't bring her into it!"

  "Wolf, I'm sorry. I understand your pain, but that is not the end and this is not her end. I have seen her in times to come. She will be important, our family will need her. He was not strong enough; you cannot blame yourself for that."

  Wolf looks at her and growls. "I will not allow this," his voice is low and dangerous. In a jerking motion he pulls the monster's body to his lips drinking deeply. His flesh fills out as he does so and his open wounds start to close. He keeps his eyes locked on Athene as he feeds draining the last drops from the corpse. "I beat you onc
e."

  "That, dear Wolf, was a lucky shot." Athene smiles at him her eyes narrowing with her words. She steps towards my body her eyes focusing on me. "Her heartbeat grows weaker; there is no time for this debate. She will be mine. I find her beautiful and strong, like my sisters of old . . ."

  Wolf slams into her and they are rolling in a blur of motion. Where before I would have seen nothing but flashes of color, now I can see them move. They exchange blows; solid thumps hitting each other with enough force to break concrete, fangs bared each of them growling one at the other.

  Wolf rolls over and pins Athene below him, he raises a hand back, his claws glistening in the night. Athene turns her scarred left side towards him and I see him hesitate for less than a heartbeat, but it is too much. She moves like lightning, her legs coming up and around his neck from behind, interlocking around him, pulling and flipping him off of her. She is on him as he lands skidding. She raises his head smashing it into the sidewalk shattering concrete in concentric circles out from the area of impact. She pulls his head to the side baring his neck. Again she turns her scarred left side to him.

  "Yield," she says, knees on his arms, weight holding his chest down, one hand twisted in his hair the other pulls back to deliver another massive blow.

  Wolf stares at her, fury flaring in him but I feel his beast yield to her.

  She nods, rising, and then rushes back to where my body lies. I see it struggling for each shallow breath and it seems I should be worried but I don't feel it. Athene is there holding my head and stroking my hair. I see her biting her wrist. I look down at my broken body, recalling the pain of being in it. I don't want to go back to that, but when I look at it I feel it pulling at me. Athene moves her arm over towards me and I feel the pull grow stronger. I struggle against it, not wanting to feel again but the night grows deeper, darkness surrounds me and then is complete.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  I

  awake with a start and my stomach clenches. Panic grips me as I brace for the pain but it doesn't come. I'm staring up at a canopy above me. Frowning, I try to assess my situation. I remember lying on the ground with my head in Athene's lap being pulled down, and pain, I didn't want the pain. Now, my hands run across softness and my head rests easy. Slowly, afraid of the pain I'm sure must be waiting to pounce, I turn my head. Wolf sits in a chair, his cowboy hat is pulled down over his eyes and his legs are stuck out before him. A smile spreads across my face at the site of him. He's alive! A warm feeling spreads through my limbs as I look at him.

  Looking around at the rest of the room I see a wooden nightstand next to the bed I realize I am on. It is a massive four poster thing with a canopy above it and curtains pulled back that attach to each of the posters. The blankets are all done in red velvet with gold trim and as I run my fingers over it I can sense every fiber of the cloth and it is luxurious. I don't want to stop the pleasurable sensation of that cloth on my skin. The pillows behind my head are overstuffed, enfolding me in a warm embrace as I lean back into them and stretch out. I enjoy the sensation of my muscles moving, feeling stiffness in them as if I've been sick and inactive for a while. The sheets are amazing as they run across my skin and I realize I'm undressed.

  The rest of the room looks like something that would be on television for the richest celebrity residences. It is decorated in overstated opulence, every accoutrement placed exactly right to flow to the next piece of the room. All of it soft, waiting to be touched and experienced. A massive wardrobe that sits against the wall across from the end of the bed dominates that section, a door to it is open so I can see that it is filled with beautiful gowns.

  This must be Athene's place, I realize. Wolf would never live in such luxury. I look over at him in his chair again and see how out of place he is. His jeans are stained with dirt; his shirt is ripped and stained, the duster owning its name completely as it is covered in dirt and filth. Even his cowboy hat is beaten, worn, barely holding its shape, but all of that is part of what makes him Wolf. He is not by any stretch of the imagination a 'poster' cowboy, he is the real deal. He lives and works in his clothes, they fit him like a glove, right down to the five o'clock shadow on his jaw, the hard lines of his face, the wrinkles around his eyes as if he is almost permanently squinting into the sun. Despite his naturally pale vampire skin it still has a reddish almost tan tint to it.

  As I stare at him and see him as he is for perhaps the first time, I realize that I do love him. I wish he could love me back as I do him, but my thoughts return to him and Athene facing off over my body and I know he cannot. It is not in Wolf to give his heart, at least not to me. Remembering the two of them facing off against each other brings back the wounds I have suffered. Apprehension fills me but I have to know. Slowly I push the comforter down past my chest. Thoughts of Athene's face flit through my thoughts as I will myself to look at what is left of me. As my breasts come free the start of the scar comes into sight.

  It is an ugly thing located just below my breasts, puckered angry scar tissue but the wound is closed. I reach my hand to it and touch it gingerly but there is no soreness or pain. I take a slow breath watching the skin twist around the scar where before it would have rose and fell gently. Outrage fills me for a second, almost overwhelming me with intensity, it is a dark red rage that rises up in me causing me to gasp. I struggle with it for a moment then push it down.

  What the hell was that? I wonder to myself, but then I know. A beast, a beast within me. I reach out towards it, feeling it in me now as I have felt it in all the vampires that have filled my life for the past week. I see it clearly for what it is now, all the darkness, all the pain, all the primal instincts and urges coalesce into a living thing pushing for its own base desires, waiting to overwhelm rational thought at any opportunity. Implications rush in on me and I gasp. A movement to my right causes me to jerk to the left. I'm shocked at my own speed as I move from prone under the covers to crouched and ready to pounce while still putting distance between myself and the incoming threat. I feel the beast inside me purr with pleasure while also growling and ready to fight, its power fueling my muscles.

  Wolf stares into my eyes and we lock there for a moment in time. One that I will carry with me all my days. I see the pain in his eyes, the long history of loss, the sadness at watching me become what I am now. He stands still, I can feel him carefully pushing his own beast down, resisting its urge to show dominance over the beast within me. The moment passes and I relax, pushing down my own beast.

  "I didn't want this for you," he says at last and in his voice is the weight of years, the sound of loss so profound I can't comprehend it.

  "Why?" I ask him, genuinely curious. "Was I not good enough?"

  "This is no life," he says shaking his head. "Stolen moments, all leading to nothing but loss and pain. You were pure, I wanted you to die pure, clean."

  "Pure? Die?" Madness floods me and that newly formed darkness in me leaps up, engulfing my mind. I lunge without thinking; throwing myself at him and feeling fangs extend in my mouth for the first time as I scream.

  He catches me mid-leap without effort, holds me at arm’s length but the beast has me and I scramble for purchase, I need to reach him, I want to feel his flesh ripping under my fangs. He frowns, and then his own beast roars,

  I feel it and I tremble, the strength of it is awesome and overwhelming. I feel myself retreating, the beast now formed within me struggles to get away, to run and hide somewhere, to be anywhere but here with this monster, but then it changes. I hear a wildcat scream, and realize it’s me. Wolf growls, but I meet his growl with a roar. It rips from me and I feel the power surging through me, now at my command. We face off, a wild cat against a wolf, darkness surging in me refusing to be cowed by him.

  I struggle with this new urge to fight, pushing it down. With final push of my will, I take control, but the memory of strength remains. Inside I feel a quiver of fear, I've never known power like this, in me or what I felt in him. I know why he is feared by t
he other vampires now, why they manipulate him but try not to garner his ire. He is powerful, strong, holding more back than I had been able to conceive when I was a mortal. My own, new strength, is now a match for his but I know his is greater than all of theirs I've encountered.

  "I'm sorry," he says and I see it, a tear of blood falls from his eye and trails down his cheek. His mouth moves as if he will say more, there is a slight tremor in his lips, then he purses them and turns away, heading for the door.

  "Wolf!" I cry out after him. He pauses, one hand on the handle, his back to me not turning around. "Don't go . . . I need you." His head bows at my words, shoulders hunching over under the apparent weight of my request.

  "She will take care of you," he says at last. "My path is not for you." He is out the door before I can say another word.

  Emptiness fills me, he has been the center of my world, I want him, I love him. Now I sit in the middle of all this opulence empty inside with nothing but an ache where my beating heart should be. I let myself collapse onto the bed, the implications of it all wash over me. I hear the door open and close with a click and I allow myself to hope for a moment that he has returned.

  I raise my head, hoping to see him, but it is Athene walking into the room with a smile. She is wearing a stunning white lace dress, cut down the middle to show her ample cleavage, a shining wide gold belt around the middle accents her waist, there is flowing white cloth down her legs with a long slit on the left showing her calf and thigh as she walks towards me. Her black hair hangs loose, flowing in natural curls around her alabaster face and down her shoulders. She has it pulled into a loose binding just above her shoulder line, wrapped in a leather cord. The emptiness starts to fill with her presence and I embrace it, pulling her presence in to replace the hole left by Wolf leaving me.

  "You're awake, excellent!" She says and I feel my heart leap with joy at her words. She is the most beautiful woman I've ever seen, even the scars on her left side add to the beauty and character of her face. "We have so much to do!" She moves around the room opening the curtains to reveal a full moon shining brightly.