~Beauty~
Teigan was her kidnapper. She had assumed he kept her to hurt her. Even if he didn’t, he still had a reputation for being dangerous and cruel.
So why did he jump in front of her? Take the flames for her?
Bethany changed into the sweatpants and t-shirt Carina had lent her and crawled into bed. The cotton fabric stuck out like a flag, refusing to cling to her body. The air between her skin and the fabric almost made it feel like she wasn't wearing anything at all. She longed for a hug, for someone to cling to her so tightly she knew it would be okay.
She knew she wouldn’t be doing much sleeping at all - not with the oversized clothing and all the unexplained events.
She laid on her back and stroked the bandages around her arm. Beth had accompanied Grayson to the emergency room after a brutal collision at one of his football games and her stitches were a near replica of how he had looked once the doctors had finished. Carina took out a kit and sat her down the moment she was through the front door meanwhile she sent Teigan upstairs. It was as if his injuries were the equivalent to a skinned knee.
The things he did that night . . . He had done them for her. Why?
Trying to make sense of it made her headache. She couldn’t figure it out on her own. There was no logic to what had happened to Teigan . . . or even Ryan Daniels.
She closed her eyes and replayed the scene in her head.
The whole thing felt like it happened in slow motion.
Flames shot out of the gun Ryan Daniels was holding. Beth had fallen a few feet away, safe from the growing heat. Teigan was standing in the fire, it licked at his skin as he was screaming his lungs raw. She thought she might faint from the horror of it all.
The fire disappeared and uncovered the new Beast. Pink welts were scattered across his body, blistering and oozing. Still, he didn’t crumble or wither in pain. He stood his ground, chest rapidly rising and falling with his hands trembling at his sides. Teigan’s beastly face was on full display but what was most worrying to her was the way he only seemed to see Ryan Daniels.
Ryan stood there, unable to move in his state of shock. The Beast took advantage of this and pounced on the arsonist. Ryan had dropped his flame thrower off of his back to run faster but he was caught by his jacket and tossed to the ground. The two wrestled, the leaves and twigs on the dirt crunching underneath their bodies.
Beth could tell this was going to get ugly. She wanted to run. She wanted to hide. She wanted to forget this nightmare. Her limbs felt too heavy to move, encased in invisible cement blocks. All she could do was squeeze her eyes shut and melt to the ground. Her hands shielded her ears from the tortured cries to come. She didn’t want to hear the Beast kill Ryan Daniels.
She waited for a disturbing crack or the gurgling noises of a strangled person but the rustle of nature and breathing faded out into silence.
“Get up. We have to go.” She uncovered her ears and opened her eyes. Ryan Daniels was nowhere in sight. The only evidence he had been there was his flame thrower. She gawked at the empty space where his corpse should have been. “Come on.” Teigan winced as he scooped her up in his arms, accepting she wasn’t going to get up herself.
She should have taken this opportunity to fight him off. He was weak and probably would have left her had she put up a fight. All she could do was cry.
A rose glowed in his chest pocket, inches from her face. It was similar to the one that rested on his nightstand, except it was the same shade as Ryan Daniels red hair.
Beth’s eyes snapped open at the thumping sound coming down the steps. Carina’s shadow passed her cracked open door to the kitchen and then back. She couldn’t help herself as she hopped out of bed and followed her up the stairs.
“Didn’t he tell you to stay downstairs?” She was cradling a water basin against her chest with a rag slung on her shoulder.
“Is he going to be alright?” There was no sense in the question. Beth witnessed him take down a strong and burly man after being burnt with a flamethrower. He even carried her back to his car and drove her home afterwards. It was like her brain was still on the scene of the crime. “I want to see him. Could you ask him if he’d let me see him?”
She paused, squinting at the young woman. “Why?”
“I want to speak to him.”
“Very well.” She disappeared onto the second level and Beth took a seat on the steps. She hugged her knees and tried to figure out just what she was going to ask.
What happened to Ryan Daniels?
Part of her already knew the answer.
“He says he’s willing to see you,” Carina announced, descending the steps. “Second room on your left. And no arguing . . . You both need your rest.”
Beth had an easy time finding his room considering she had been there a few hours earlier. As she entered, she wondered if he knew that. She took her time taking in every corner of the space to keep up the charade. If he didn’t have to know she had crept into his personal space and stole from him, then she’d prefer it.
Teigan’s skin was still horrendous but he was wearing clothing that hadn’t been simmering under a flame. He straightened upon her arrival, sitting up against his headboard.
“Hey,” she said. Her arms were crossed tightly across her chest, not trusting that her hands would know what to do if she kept them free.
“Hey.”
“Um . . . How are you feeling?”
“Like a million bucks.” He smiled to himself, shaking his head. “You can’t catch burns so you don’t have to stand so far away. Did Carina force you to come to see me?”
“No, no.” She moved closer, taking a seat on the stool that had been pulled to his beside. It wasn’t like he could kill her because of his condition and she was starting to see that if that was really what he intended to do he would have done it already. “I wanted to check on you and . . . ask some questions.”
He sucked in a breath. “About what?”
She was searching for the words when her eyes found the second rose. It was on the nightstand in a glass of water. It was far less appealing than the other and again the shade of red unsettled her. She swallowed and opened her mouth to speak. Then closed it.
Teigan followed her gaze. He leaned forward, his eyes scanning her expression. “What? What is it?”
Her eyes were glued on the flower. She felt as if she were in a trance. “Is that . . .?”
She shook her head. That was the wrong question.
She started over. “You aren’t a normal person. I mean, besides your reputation in the city . . . you look . . .” She was searching for a way to say things that weren’t offensive until she realized this man had taken her hostage. “You look like you're wearing a Halloween mask under your regular mask! You’re inhumanely strong and fast. The way you jumped roofs a few days ago made no sense and you somehow made a grown man disappear!” Beth felt like thread unraveling. “Look at you! You should be burnt to a crisp and even though you are burnt, you are taking it like a boo boo from the playground!”
He stared back at her, eyebrows raised. “You could have just called me ugly. The Halloween part was unnecessary.”
“What?”
“And I know I’m a jerk for keeping you here.” His words were coming out a mile a minute. “You have every right to hate me and you should. I don’t know if it makes that big of a difference but I set an offer on a new place so I’m working as quickly as possible -”
“You’re not answering my question.”
“You never asked one.”
She huffed and crossed her arms again. She wasn’t even sure what she was asking.
“I want an explanation. How is all that possible?” She watched him as he sat back, turning towards the roses on his nightstand. He was quiet for so long that she thought he might have fallen asleep.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
She let out a small laugh. “How could I not when the proof is talking to me?”
He turned to her, nodding. “Fine.”
She took a breath to prepare herself, wishing she had some tea to ease her into the madness that was undoubtedly going to spew out of his mouth.
“I wasn’t born like this. A few years ago, something happened.” He cleared his throat. It sounded like his windpipes were trying to collapse to keep whatever secret he was about to tell.
“What happened?” A freak lab accident, she guessed. A mutant gone rogue.
“I was cursed.”
Cursed. The word echoed in her head. It summoned ideas of magic, spells, and fantasy realms. She thought of fairy tales and children’s story books but figured he must have been referencing something less tacky. Maybe he was referring to witchcraft and dark magic. Beth always despised that. She wasn’t a hard core believer in the supernatural but she did believe there was some kind of evil force in those things.
He took her lack of response in stride and continued. “It was a witch . . . Well, she’s not really a witch. I call her one more out of spite than accuracy. She visits me sometimes to scold me and I’ve deduced she’s just a human with a special power; shapeshifting.” He was talking fast again, getting caught up in his own words. “Anyways, apparently she had been observing me from a far for sometime and found me especially detestable. She tested me one night in order to decide if she should punish me and I failed. She condemned me for being . . . ‘selfish’. Next thing I know, I’m like this.”
She sorted through the information. “So, the curse was to make you ugly? What are the superhuman abilities then?”
“A mistake. I don’t think she truly knows what she’s doing.” He pulled a pillow into his lap and played with the pillow cases’ fabric. “I don’t know if she meant this or not but I can’t die either.”
Beth’s eyebrows came together. “Are you telling me your immortal?”
“No . . . Yes. Maybe? All I know is my body heals relatively quickly. These burns will be gone soon. It’s the only way I can do what I do.”
The reason he was so good at being a vigilante for New York City.
“From my knowledge you aren’t as durable. You put yourself in a lot of danger tonight.” His face was back to its guarded frown. His posture had straightened from the slouched position he had sunken into.
“Lets not pretend you didn’t put me in the position to take risks like that.” Her voice was as sharp as his demeanour.
“I know.”
“But you did protect me from that awful man so . . . thank you.” It didn’t hurt too bad to say it. The fear of being in mortal danger was too fresh for pride.
He bit his lip. “And are you okay? After everything that happened?”
She stood up, a sudden heat rising into her chest. “No but I haven’t been since you brought me here.”
Beth stormed out and down the stairs. She closed the door to the room she was sleeping in, almost wanting Carina to lock her in.
She hated that he asked her that question with a hint of sincere concern in his eyes. If he was more complex than she had once assumed - if he truly had been cursed and if he truly hadn’t meant to hurt her, this made it harder for her to blindly despise him. She wanted to loathe him. Where else would she project all this rage onto?
It had even gotten her to realize that being kidnapped wasn’t the only thing that sent her blood boiling. It was the thought of her mother leaving her with him and getting high instead of helping the police search for her, it was the thought of Grayson blaming himself for what happened or not going on with his life despite her absence, it was the way the news channels spoke more on the Beast than her being taken, and the way the maid who was an accomplice to crime made Beth feel more taken care of than her mother had in years. And what she hated most of all was that the feeling of being imprisoned hadn’t started when she was first taken by Beast but rather long before the two had even met.
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