Beloved Beast

Chapter Twenty-Seven

"Have a care," Don warned, "You wouldn't want to parade your weakness. I'm half inclined to confine you here and relish in your waste."

"Were the odds in your favor, my dark one, I'm sure you would leap at the opportunity. Should you have a need to distress me or foil my plans, I propose you subdue it. It would be very unwise to provoke me for you know not what I have conjured in the wind." Sera admonished, growing vexed. "It would be most unfortunate to have another village ravaged by your hands, would it not?"

Those taunting words fueled the rage gnawing at him, and he had to curl his hands, an increasing habit of late, to suppress the violence roaring in his veins, and a murmur of panic, for he had sent Elle back to the village. "So, what's next, then?"

Twisting on her soles, she coasted across the room in a fluid and graceful way that was decidedly incongruent to her waning self. Settling upon the bed, she plucked at her splayed skirts – to still their trembling? He wondered. Noticing their visible shaking. "First, I require a new vessel to replace this one." She motioned with a gnarled hand down the length of her body, her features collecting in repugnance. "Sooner rather than later, of course."

Don was hard-pressed to steal a longing glance out the window. Resisting that unreflective impulse, he straightened away from the windowpane and moved deeper into the room, schooling his features to divulge nothing of his inner turmoil.

"I will not kill for you," Don felt compelled to remind her. "You will not steal any more bodies. Lest you forget, my cooperation depends solely on your ability to refrain from taking life."

"You strike a hard bargain," Sera countered, smirking. "Given that I have death on my side."

"I'm warning you, Sera."

"What other recourse do I have?" She snapped, her haggard face bunching in anger. "Without the elemental host, I am forced to move from one shell of bones to the next. That is a very unpleasant way of existing. I will not accept that, and should I not acquire it, you will never be rid of me... or your curse. A fate you are unlikely to accept. So, we are at an impasse."

"Might I suggest curbing your craft, thus preserving your energy and slowing your imminent decline." Don scoffed.

"Why conserve my energy when I have you?" Shoving off from the bed, she gathered to her wilting height. "You are just the right amount of incentive needed to ensure that nothing stands in my way, and that I am free to wield my power as I see fit."

"Why not summon your hounds to do your wicked bidding?"

"They haven't the necessary savagery that is needed for this arduous undertaking." Sera grinned, "I require a bloodthirsty beast."

Crossing to stand before him, she raised a misshapen hand as if to touch his chest. With a rough sound of his throat, Don seized her wrist in a bruising vise. "I would snap your softening bones and not think twice of it."

Undaunted, Sera fixed him with a lascivious stare. "I want you."

He flung her hand away in disgust, "I'm more partial to a corpse."

She cradled her hand to her chest, feigning insult, then dropping it, she threw back her graying head and released a throaty chuckle. "Then you need look no further, for in a sense, that is what I am."

Don stalked away from her, his expression twisting in revulsion. "Were I to condescend to touch you, rest assured, it would only be to execute your death."