1. Beast


    Date: 8/11/2015, Categories: Fantasy & Sci-Fi, Author: billybroadband, Rating: 13, Source: LushStories

    hair. Perhaps because she had named me, or perhaps because of an innate weakness on my part, my feelings for her grew, and took on a less predatory affect. Despite the profound sense of duty that bound me to her, I began to hope that she might no longer be aware of my presence, perhaps remembering me in later years as nothing more than a creature born of an overactive imagination. I wanted her to escape that which had tied her fate to mine and to lead a normal life. And yet I watched and waited. Eventually she began to take lovers, one of whom was more determined than the rest. His ardor for Elizabeth he wore like a cloak, and she responded to his affections. I called him Romeo, as I detected an aura of tragedy about him. He was a handsome lad, and gained passage into her heart, and for a time I thought that she might escape me through him. They made a happy couple, for a time, with impromptu dances down the twilit sidewalks of our town. Their impassioned lovemaking was full of energy and urgency. Romeo bought her records, and music began to drift from her bedroom at night. The night was less lonely with the music of lovers and their laughter and their sighs of sated desire. Then Romeo was gone. I knew by her expression as she hurried past me one evening that a break had occurred and I tasted the bitterness that she felt. I would have reached out to console her, but I was made cowardly by my fear of her revulsion of me if I showed myself to her. She was close but not yet ...
    ready for that, I knew, and with shamed relief I kept to myself and listened to her soft sobs in the night. My heart broke to hear her despair. I found that I could not tolerate witnessing her grief further and I retreated, far enough away from her that my sensitive ears could no longer hear her sorrow. Soon enough, I would find reason to curse my weakness. The Other was there when I finally returned to her residence. He was clever, and hid his presence well. I noticed no sign of him at first, and even when I did sense an intruder I assumed it to be a passing mortal. Finally, he made a mistake. A sudden shift in the wind and the shadows gave him away, and I got a clear scent. I saw his outline then, framed against a small grove of trees at the back of her lot. He was huge for our kind. I stared at him until it was obvious to him that he had been discovered. “It is a nice night, is it not, grandfather?” his voice lilted through the air. There was no fear in that voice, only feigned camaraderie. His voice made my claws protract. I curled them into my palm. “It was.” I said. I had no desire to banter with him. We both knew our ways, and when a fight is upon me I am always anxious to get it over with. “Ah, are there no manners in you? No introductions even?” There was a challenge in his tone. He didn’t like to waste time with frivolous talk, either. I liked that. “Here is my courtesy to you, brother,” I said. “Turn now and walk away and keep walking. This one is under my protection ...
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