Beloved Beast

Chapter Twenty-Three

"I can see your thoughts turning ..." dropping her hands, she started around the felled table, her steps likened to a graceful predator. "Regrettably, I am not privy to them." She arched an auburn brow, "Might I weigh in on your speculating notions?"

A burning festered in his heart as her every word kindled his wrath. "Have you at last come to kill me then, Veda?"

Halting in her slow advancement, green eyes glimmering, she threw back her variegated head of red and gold, and pealed with laughter, the sound wanting of warmth as it rang throughout the empty room. "Veda?" She all but hissed. "My spineless sister has failed me in that regard, would you not agree?"

Muscles tensing and the blood rushing to his ears, Don gaped with an admixture of shock and disbelief, instantly rejecting the likeliness that she could be – nay, it couldn't – Don argued, and yet, he found himself exhaling on a ragged breath, "I killed you."

Sera's grin wavered and her dark eyes flashed with a moment's rage, before it was readily exchanged for dry humor. "Your efforts, albeit commendable, were in vain. It appears even death would not have me."

"I shoved a blade through your heart." He muttered as if to argue her death, inclined to believe her an illusion of some kind. "I watched you die."

"Aye," She snarled, green eyes snapping. "You need not remind me of your betrayal to me."

"My betrayal!" Anger rising, Don took an aggressive step towards her. "It was you who betrayed me!"

The flare fled her gaze and she waved a hand dismissively in the air with an almost blasé shrug. "It is water under the bridge. I am willing to pardon your wrongdoings against me."

Hands curling at his sides, he forced the vicious words through his gnashed teeth, "How are you not rotting in hell?"

Her green eyes blazed anew, alighting upon him with that mercurial rage. "When you kill a de Ceville witch, best ensure you kill the other."

"Is that it, then? Veda brought you back?"

She gave a slow, imperceptible nod.

Mouth twisting with disgust, "Your sister did the world a disservice in reviving you."

Her expression hardened, "Be that as it may, I have no intention of dying anytime soon."

Incensed, Don nearly roared at the injustice of having his vengeance stolen, as the sight of her engendered all the unpleasant memories and feelings he had fought to subdue over the past decade. Even now, he felt the pull of her darkness as it called upon his baser self, summoning parts of him that had once drove his every thought and gesture to violence. Her presence catapulted his mind into his horrific past, thus meting out immeasurable pain and grief. It reminded him of all he had lost, of those he had failed, and her betrayal that had subsequently left him disfigured and cursed in her yawning death.

An image of large doe eyes adorned with warm amber, and hair so dark, it shimmered with threads of blue, suddenly materialized before his afflictions.

Elle.

She was a vision that, with all quickness, brought his reminiscing pain to a grinding halt, and promptly cooled the flames beneath his skin, filling his lungs with feasible breath.

Inhaling deeply of said air, Don's gaze clashed with that perceptive green one. "Something has changed in you," Sera remarked, eyes squinting. "I haven't quite determined what it is yet."