Come by Night 3: Kitsune No Yomeiri

Chapter Seventeen - To Love a Beast

The hour has drawn late. The guards circulate less and less. In place of fidgety sounds, groans, and growls, I hear snores and silence. Even the nocturnal creatures are keeping still, for the same reason I am: we do not wish to draw attention to ourselves. What good would it do, anyway? There's nothing to be gained by it.

I hear footsteps approach. These are different than a guard's or the dragon's. The shoes are trying to be quiet, but I can hear the soft scuff, and by the distance between steps, I suspect the intruder is a woman. I wonder if I am about to be looked at by a potential buyer before I go to the block, and who it could be. Then I smell you.

Hotaru? I look up. Is this a trick? I lift myself from the floor, my monstrous claws wrapping around the lattice bars.

"Oh, Mitsuaki!" you whisper. "What have they done to you?" I see the tears shining in your eyes. Your hand reaches through the bars and touches my muzzle.

You have seen me in this form twice, and I am not proud of that. I always assumed you would recoil from me, but you never have. Even so, the intimacy of your fingertips is more than I expect. You stare into my eyes and see me, not the ghastly demon that stands before you.

"What are you doing here?" I ask in the raspy, ragged whisper that is all this mouth may utter.

"I came to get you out."

I shake my vulpine head. "Hotaru, you must go. Do not let them catch you or our —"

"Tsukiko is safe. Once we leave here, we're going home together."

I feel so hopeful, but then I look at my wrists. "I cannot."

"Yes, you can!"

"How?" I ask.

In answer, you produce a key. How did you manage this? I knew you were resourceful, but this is beyond my wildest imagination. You surprise me time and again. I stare at you in awe as I watch you unlock the door. Instead of leaving, you close it gently and walk up to me. I am surprised and concerned. We should be going. I cannot understand why you delay.

"I love you, Mitsuaki. This..." you gesture at me. "Means nothing to me. What you were, the divine messenger, I don't care about that, either. I love *you*, Mitsuaki. Not what you pretend to be, not your past, just you. Demon, man, fox — it is all the same to me." Then you kiss me. It is awkward, but it is no less a kiss. My heart beats fast in joy and I reflexively grab your shoulders, wrapping my long arms around you to pull you in...

I stop myself. "I cannot." Do you not see? This is why it is taboo! A human should not be with such a monster. I am far too dangerous in this form, and your body to frail to take the brunt of this one's power.

But still, you do not relent. "Give me all of you. I trust you."

Those words pierce my soul.

I am an incubus in its raw state. You cannot know how hard it is to have you so near. My worst instincts demand I take you, sink my fangs and claws into your soft skin, to drain you of your essence and pick my teeth of the heart that beats beneath your breast. I shudder, torn between need and revulsion. How can I for one moment contemplate visiting such horror upon the woman I love?

Your eyes do not waver. Your words are not mere poetry between lovers, but a binding truth that supersedes the hunger of the beast. You push me down to the floor and I allow it. The only thing I can do is give myself to you. To do else will be to hurt you, and I could never forgive myself for that. I want to tell you we have no time for this, but my mouth will not utter the words. I do not have that much self control.

You press yourself onto me, only this time it is different. I am of larger size in this yōkai state, and the truth is, you are not physically ready for this. You are acting on a human impulse to prove your devotion to me.

"Hotaru," I whisper, but it's too late. You bite your lip to keep from crying out, virginally tight around me. Yet, you do not relent.

"It is my wedding night and I will have my husband properly, unlike my first marriage," you hiss. The determination in your eyes is an inferno. It pins me to the floor, and all I can do is hold you.

I knew your previous marriage was lackluster, but I never inquired of it. I already assumed I was superior in every way. For one thing, I'm not human. For another, our bond is built on love and mutual affection, not duty.

You cling to me, writhe against me, stifling your cries. I fear hurting you. "Stop," I beseech you. "Unlock me and let me transform."

"What makes you think I want you as anything else right now? I demand the yōkai I married. You will keep your bonds until I am done with you."

I shiver with erotic pleasure when I hear those words. I never suspected such strength as you now demonstrate. I enfold you in my alien embrace and give in. I am not used to being the one to surrender, but with you it is intimacy and commitment.

Neither of us come to climax. It isn't that kind of intercourse. This is more intense than that, and again that sense that we are joined soul to soul, demon to human, beyond time and space. Gods and demons would call this profane, but what should be vulgar is beautiful between us, a holiness in our love-making that transcends all boundaries. We accept one another for whom we are, not what we demand the other to be.

You collapse on my chest after a while, and we lay soaking together. But time is relentless, and even in the world of the kami, the long now moves on. You sense it, too. You slide off me with a soft whimper, and shakily stand.

You reposition your clothes, and hold up the key. Sweet freedom! I quiver with desire to be unleashed! But just as you are about to unlock my bonds, you stop, staring at the glowing object. Your eyes widen with some understanding beyond my ken. "A key to open every lock."

"Hotaru?"

Cautiously you look out of the bars, peek this way and that, then open the door. There is nothing I can do but stay silent and follow in your wake.