Chapter Four: Melting Into The Darkness

Chapter Four 

Sawyer

               I didn't imagine it. She really saw me tonight. There was no denying it. She looked for me and found me. Her glance lingered, and she knew. We were connected. Has she always known, or tonight did I will her to see me? Whatever caused it, we both knew it was a secret that neither one of us would ever tell. She turned her head and went back to talking with her friends. Her bodyguards were morons who didn't use their eyes or noses. Or else surely, over the years, I would have been caught. Especially when I did what I was about to do.

               After Aurora, her friends, and the guards went into the Tower; I waited. I knew my princess lived at the very top. She had a beautiful prison with a view. Whenever I roamed in my wolf form out in the woods, most of the time, if I looked up towards Briar Heights, I could see her golden hair gleaming in the window. I wanted nothing more than to go and break her free. What kept me from doing that was death. I wasn't exactly concerned with my own death because I was not attached to living. No, I was worried about who would watch over her and keep her safe if I wasn't lurking in the shadows. If I tried to free her, would they think she was working with me, or would I be mistaken for a lone assassin? No one would ever believe I loved her and wanted to protect her. It wouldn't take long to figure out I was the Second Beta of the North. My father’s general was First Beta, a job I would have when my brother took over, and I had more experience. Hopefully, that wouldn’t be for a very long time. But I knew better than to hope.

               I didn't feel like waiting long tonight since I had to get back to my father by morning, so once I saw her light flip on, I knew it was time for her nightly rituals, and that gave me an hour before it was safe for me to go up. An hour later, her light went out. Usually, I waited a couple of hours to creep up to her room and make sure she was completely asleep. Using the servants and workers' back entrance, I made my way up the stairs. I always did this part in wolf form, which was common among workers not carrying anything because it was easier than walking up forty flights of stairs. Those with loads used the servants' elevator. It was small and cramped. The only stop I made was to the camera room where one lone guard sat with a beer in hand, and four others lined up on his desk. He was already starting to nod off. I used my phone and entered a code that put the camera outside her apartment’s entrance on loop for one hour. That’s all I ever gave myself with her. Anything more would be too much of a temptation.

Unlike Aurora, who was a beautiful golden color in wolf form, I was just the typical black, but if you looked closely, you would see the contrasting grey fur of my Triple Goddess tattoo on my front left leg. It matched what was on my left forearm. It was unnoticeable unless you knew what to look for. While I was in Southern Illyria, my arms were always covered. At home, people knew my mark and thought I was a religious fanatic. I wasn't. I just believed we were blessed with magic, and with that, we should show gratitude to the goddesses and use it with respect. I suppose I was a killer with a conscience. Though I can say with absolute authority, every single one of my kills went to a scum of the earth that would never be missed, and someone somewhere would be giving prayers of thanks that they were gone.

               I knew I had to kill, so I always volunteered for the jobs that took out those known to hurt women and children. In my code of ethics, those two groups were special. Occasionally some women willfully enjoyed employment under the head families, but most were innocent bystanders. The eager spies and sharpshooters were a different class that didn't need anyone's protection. But the female who was forced into a marriage to give father details, that wasn't right. Those poor women didn't usually last very long before their new husbands would discover the betrayal. Then I would be called in to dispose of the husband since he was already under suspicion.  It was a useless cycle.

Why force the marriages when we knew the man would be dead within months. But my father insisted we give his men a chance to prove loyal, which they never did. My father could sniff out betrayal like pigs sniffed truffles. His ability to sense betrayal made mine even more intriguing because nobody, including him, saw it coming.

Why did my thoughts always drift back to my family? I made it to my destination. The top floor where Aurora lived with her father. As I did every time I came to the Tower and outside the door, I used my one and only special gift, winnowing or misting teleportation.

                                                            ***

Winnowing was a secret gift from the Fae. When I was a teenager, I roamed far from where I should have been during a full moon shift. I made it close to the northern part of the river. Two larger wolves were growling and biting at a small green-skinned, purple hair boy, clearly a Fae child not old enough to hold a glamour. He couldn’t have been more than six. I could feel the wrongness of the wolves attacking the child, so out of instinct, I ran towards the wolves, who mistook me as a friend there to help, and bit hard into the first one’s neck. In shock, the second only blinked before I was on him and did the same. Those two were my first kills. They weren’t orders or commands, but of my own free will. In all reality, I was the one who committed a crime by our laws. I saw evil and injustice and tried to fix it. To calm the boy, I sat down next to him and rubbed my nose to his ankle as he cried for his mother, who shortly appeared.

The Fae had been having a party or ritual, and the little one snuck out to see the dogs he spotted playing out his window. Looking around, I was baffled by where is window could have been because we were in a small strip of land near the river, and past that was a massive forest of trees. I gathered the wolves were the doggies, as he pointed to the now human bodies and cried, “Bad doggies.” His caregiver quickly plucked him off the ground. Using magic, she forced me to return to human form. I breathed a sigh of relief, being able to talk.

“You saved him?” she asked, looking at the bloody bodies a few feet away.

“Yes, of course. It’s wrong to hurt someone innocent,” I knew Fae were dangerous magical creatures, but I knew I was in the right. I had been shirtless when I shifted. She grabbed my arm and ran her cool, perfectly manicured fingernails over my unmarked skin. “You are a wise protector. And until now, you were innocent; those were your first kills, and they were your kind.” I shook my head in agreement. I had been holding off on my first hit, and at fourteen, I was running out of time. “You did something tonight that no one would have expected by saving this child. For that young protector, I call on my personal god to bless you with a gift.” She chanted a language I had never heard and walked away. Within moments a moonbeam shone directly on my forearm and a dark crescent moon imprinted on my skin. I then heard a rich male voice, but it must have been in my head.

“You have done well, young one, and protected my child this night. Though I am a god of festivity and fertility, I have many powers and names. For a protector such as you, I grant you the ability to reach those in need within the blink of an eye. No power comes without consequence. You must train and become strong because using the gift will make you weak. You are a young warrior with a long road ahead. May my gift help you find your way.”

I bowed my head, closed my eyes, and gave thanks. Then just as quickly as it happened, the night was back to the way it was, and I was a wolf again.

                                                            ***

               Winded and exhausted, I melted into the shadows of Aurora’s room. At first, I thought I heard whispers, but I must have been mistaken. No one else was in the room. Winnowing less than twenty feet just made me tired, and it was easy to recover.

Over time, I played with my gift and learned the hard way what winnowing too far or weighted down could do. One afternoon years ago, I winnowed from the wine cellar to the river’s border with a full keg of beer, which was about twenty miles and one hundred and forty extra pounds. The moment I arrived and saw the water, I passed out. It was hours later when a young couple who came to skinny dip and fool around in the forbidden waters found me. Seeing the beer, I remembered the guy laughing and patting me on the back, thinking I had drunk too much. He offered help, which I resisted, and told them to keep the keg as a gift for helping me up as I began to walk home. They waved me off and wished me well, eager to get back to their activities. From that point on, I didn’t test my gift. I only used it in small areas or to briefly stay hidden in the shadows.

As always, Aurora was asleep after a long soak and a bit of reading. I saw the book on her nightstand. The outside cover had a ridiculous title about being an in-depth study of the stars. But I knew her better than that. I’m sure somewhere there was about on that topic that she had lovingly read, but when I picked it up and looked inside to the page that was marked, I couldn’t hide my smile. She had hidden away another saucy romance. I read a little and longed to lean down and kiss my sleeping beauty as the hero in her book did. Reading on a few more lines, I really wanted to reenact what he did to his bride. My cock twitched at the idea of waking her with a kiss between her thighs.

               She deserved to be held and loved. Without thinking, I sat down next to her on the edge of her bed. I pushed a few strands of her golden hair from her face. Her beautiful pink pouty lips were glossy and begged to be kissed. I don’t know what came over me, but I leaned down and pressed my lips to hers. I breathed in her sweet vanilla scent and gently touched her warm cheek as I kissed her. What I didn’t expect was to find her hand over mine, kissing me back.