Beastly Desires

Chapter Thirteen

"He is here under my command."

The hair on Colette's neck stood up. She slowly raised her head and stared  into the dark recess of the hall. The butler's face went pale but he did not let an emotion slip.

Colette could not see who spoke. It was hardly a whisper of a growl. "Whose command?" She spoke softly.

Hazy red light glimmered in the darkness of the hall. Whoever stood there was cast in shadow, their body concealed in darkness.

"Mine." The voice growled. It was an inhuman sound. Deep and guttural. Primal.

The butler winced. He had not spoken one word since meeting. She wondered if he had been commanded not to by this person in the dark. If he was just as scared as she was at the sound of their voice.

"Why? What has he done?" Colette squinted, trying to make out any sliver of a form that voiced the darkness.

"For his safety." The darkness rumbled.

Her father let out a sickly groan at her side. "Safe from what?"

There was a long pause of silence. Colette thought the person might have left, had she not  seen the butler's eyes flick to the side.

"Me." He breathed.

Colette stood up, clutching her cloak close to her chest. She took a hesitant step toward the cell's open door. "Let me see you."

What could this person be if they feared for her fathers own safety. What uncontrollable malice did they hold?

The butler stared into the hall before nodding. He seemed worried, but willing Colette noted.

She took another step forward, stopping at the threshold of the cell. "Come forward." Her voice was quiet, unsure.

"You will fear for your own safety once I reveal myself." There was wariness laced with foreboding in those words.

What was there to  fear when her biggest fear lay behind her. One festering wound away from death.
Colette stepped over the threshold and turned to face the darkness. She brought the small candelabra she held out in front of her. The candle's light exposed a large bulging chest clothed in linen. Colette slowly moved the light up. The yellow light was interrupted by tendrils of smoke that spilled across a pair of broad, hunched shoulders. From the open collar of a shirt,  she saw black shiny hair. It was thick and coarse, falling in waves that cascaded from around the person's neck. She could not make out the color of their skin. The hair seemed to cover everything and as she brought the flame closer to their face she gasped at what she beheld.

A beast- man... a beast with the face of a man, aside from his sloping muzzle stared down at her. What she thought was hair was fur. Tufts of fur protruded from around his face and flowed out from the top of his head like that of  a lion's mane. His eyes were a striking red with swirls of fire. Smoke seeped from his nose and slightly parted mouth.Where it came from she did not know.

Pure terror left her frozen in place as her eyes made their ascent. Its horns  tapered into rounded ends. Not sharp enough to pierce and skewer, but to gouge and fling its prey into the air. A more terrifying and prolonged death, Colette imagined. Those were what its horns insinuated. Black, onyx rods of death.

Her gaze found his once more and she could have sworn regret flashed across their molten eyes, before they hardened into burning coals.

"W- what are you?" She breathed. Terror still kept her rooted in place. Run! She screamed internally, but her legs were made of lead.

"Death."