Part 3 (1/2)

Chapter Three

The next few days were a h.e.l.l unlike anything he could imagine. Fever had him sweating for hours, his mouth parched. And then cold-so cold no amount of heat could possibly warm him.

There was pain. Obscene in its intensity, it tore at his bones, feasted on the flesh of his neck and burned at his gums. Malachi would have cheerfully taken the pain of the whip over this, had he any choice.

By the time the cloak of sleep lifted, he was half mad from pain, from hunger and from fury.

And she was there. Shoving off the cave floor, Malachi stared at her. Rage was a living, breathing monster in him and as he glared at the demon, the rage became him. He felt something rip through his gums. Blood flooded his mouth. Reaching up, he touched his fingers to his lip and felt a weird bulge there. Opening his mouth, he probed at his teeth. No-they were no longer teeth.

Fangs. He had wicked fangs in his mouth, just like a wild animal.

Just like her.

”What have you done to me?” he growled.

She sighed and as he watched, tears rolled down her ivory cheeks. ”What I had to. As you must do what you have to.”

She stood before him with her head lowered as Malachi moved closer. He waited for her to run, but she never moved.

He wanted to feel her neck snap beneath his hands. Could almost feel it. But she did not run, did not flinch. Did not even move as he reached up and closed one hand around her delicate skin.

Under his fingers, he could feel the slow pulse of her heart, the thrum of blood rus.h.i.+ng through her veins. He could imagine tightening his grasp, squeezing her neck, feeling bones break.

But she stood there, s.h.i.+vering, terrified-and waiting. Like she knew what he planned to do.

With a snarl, Malachi tore away and dashed out of the cave.

In the depth of the woods, he scented game. It was like a perfume in his nostrils, getting more and more powerful as he drew closer. His mouth watered and there was a throbbing along his gums.

The fangs-they were throbbing, pulsating. And as he drew closer to the animal, that pulsating grew worse.

Just in front of him, he saw the deer, a huge buck with a wide spread of antlers.

Conscious thought seemed to stop. Malachi knew only the hunger and the prey. It took only a matter of heartbeats to take the buck down and it was not until he had sated the burning hunger in his gut that he realized what he had done.

Killed an animal. With his own hands. And drank from it. Even now, the hot salty taste of blood burned in his mouth and he felt almost drunk from the sensation.

Then nauseated. As the full reality of what he had done struck him, Malachi was overcome with the need to vomit, to empty his guts out onto the ground and try to purge himself.

It will not help.

The soft voice whispered into his mind and he snarled at the invasion. ”Can you not leave me in peace even in my own d.a.m.ned head?” he demanded as the woman started to murmur to him.

She was not close. Somehow, he knew that. He thought he could even sense her, faintly. Back in the cave, right where he had left her.

Why do you not kill me and be done with it? she asked.

Malachi shoved away from the dead deer, his legs wobbling a little, his head spinning. Leaning against a tree, he whispered, ”Just leave me in peace, demon. Have you not done enough?”

She sighed. He could almost feel it, like a ripple against his skin. I wish I could make you understand. I did what I had to.

”Just leave me be.”

She left him in peace.

But still, Malachi felt bound to her. Trapped.

Even in his dreams, the sensation haunted him.

When the dream first started, he had welcomed it, but the relief was short lived. Even here, he could not truly escape what had become of his life.

He covered his dream lady's body, as he pierced the soft, wet folds of her s.e.x. Mal took her roughly, urgency, hunger and desperation fueling him. He came inside her, once, twice, bringing her to peak over and over until her screams turned hoa.r.s.e and her hands slid from his shoulders to rest limply at her sides.

”You're unhappy,” she murmured to him as he finally pulled away. He lay on his back, staring up at the darkness as she cuddled to his side.

Malachi snorted. ”It is a bit more than that. I have not even the words to explain what has happened.”

For a moment, she said nothing. Then her hand started to stroke him across his chest, the touch gentle, as though she wished to soothe him. ”I know what's been going on, Mal. There's very little about you that I don't know.”

”You know,” he said slowly. He sat up, pulling away from her warm, soft curves. Malachi closed his eyes against the dark foggy world that surrounded them.

”Yes. I know. Even before she found you, I knew something would change for you, and soon.”

”A warning might have been nice,” he muttered.

”Why? So you could laugh it off? Or ignore me? Or worse...try to leave? She needed you. This is your destiny, Mal. It was what was meant to happen.”

His destiny-that was a bitter joke. He was destined to spend his life by draining away the lifeblood of others? ”Destiny? I was born to become this?” he snarled. He reached up and touched the tip of one fang and it sliced open the flesh of his finger. ”To become an animal?”

”You aren't an animal. You are destined to save others. To protect them. You are a warrior-she sees this. I can see it. Every one can, except for you.”

”How can you see anything? You do not truly see me,” Malachi growled, trying to pull away from the smooth, strong arms that held him. ”As I do not truly see you. We are nothing to each other, save for these dreams.”

For a moment, she was silent. Then she finally said, ”You are everything to me. I cannot control these things, Mal. I am controlled by fate and destiny as surely as you are. Even as your sire is.

She did not choose you randomly. She was guided to you.”

More talk of destiny and fate-impotent rage coursed through him and he pulled away from her. ”How do you know so much of her? Do you watch us from wherever you are? Are you the witch that led her to me?” Malachi demanded.

His body ached at the separation and his c.o.c.k jerked, throbbing like a bad tooth. The need to cover her once more and sink his length inside of her was overwhelming. Even stronger than that d.a.m.nable hunger that plagued him.

She was silent and for once, he thought he might get some kind of true answer from her. When she stayed silent, he taunted, ”Can you see us? How can you see? What do you see? Did you see the first night she bit me? Drunk as I was, I remember little. Can you help me remember?”

She sighed shakily and Mal felt ashamed. He had hurt her.