The Man and the Beast

 

The Man and the Beast

Nyomi

 

His world was kill or be killed.

If a problem came, they ended it with death.

And now I understood even more what he'd been telling me about my need to be careful.

He would kill anyone for me.

Anyone.

At any time.

Even a woman carrying his children.

And he would do it for me right now, calmly, with his hands still warm from touching my face. Because to him. . .I was the only thing in the world worth protecting.

The realization didn't arrive like a thought. It arrived like a temperature drop. The bedroom's warmth—the same warmth that had cradled me five seconds ago, that had laughed with me about my new hobby, that had blushed when I called him a prime grade bad ass motherfucker—had cooled around the edges.

All because the Dragon had arrived.

And I would need to deeply understand these two sides of him. I was lying beneath the man who had lovingly whispered Tora in his sleep and apologized for tears he hadn't caused. And I was also lying beneath a man who had just asked me, calmly, if I wanted him to murder a pregnant woman.

Both men were the same man.

That was the insanity my mind kept tripping over—the way these two versions of him weren't separate, weren't a switch he flipped, weren't a costume he changed into when the situation required it.

The Dragon was the man who had cocooned me all night. The man who had cocooned me all night was the Dragon. Loving me and lethally destroying another were not two different settings. They were the same setting, expressed differently depending on what the room required.

The Dragon held me because he loved me.

The Dragon would burn the world for the same fucking reason.

And he was waiting for my answer.

Jesus Christ. . .If I say yes. . .he will really do it. . .

I was new to loving a man who meant his warnings literally.

He waited for my response and his gaze never left my face. His eyes had gone dark, almost pitch-black. The brown gone deep enough to disappear. And what lived behind them was the unyielding grip of a beast, ready to strike. Its hissing breath laced with poison and malice. It was the unrelenting force, an endless void with jagged edges that threatened to swallow everything in its path, leaving only emptiness and destruction in its wake.

Kenji was waiting.

No.

The Dragon was waiting for his Tiger to tell him whether to set a pregnant woman on fire, and I had to gather myself to that fact. Knowing that whether I liked this part of him or not. . .there would be no escape.

Then, the dragon-shadow rose from his back, his shoulders, the breadth of him that was caging me against the silk. The shadowy wisps uncoiled out of his spine. Long, dark ribbons of smoke peeled away from the line of his shoulders first.

Then more.

Then more still.

Soon, the smoke gathered itself in the air above us, thickening, darkening, taking shape as it climbed.

A neck unspooling.

Scales appearing and then shimmering.

A massive body forming and taking up the entire fucking ceiling.

Shit.

Its serpentine spine stretched the full length of the bedroom. Its body arched along the ceiling and pressed against the corners of the room until the corners weren't corners anymore but the soft inside curve of a shadowy beast that had filled the whole space. Its tail dragged down the wall in a slow, shimmering coil and laid itself across the foot of the bed like a chain made of obsidian.

The wings unfurled along the walls and stretched themselves wide.

Its head tilted down toward me. Those eyes were still gold and they watched me, probably waiting for my answer too.

It’s still. . .big from the party. How long will it last? Is it. . .stronger somehow?

I swallowed. “Kenji. . .she’s pregnant and—”

“Just tell me—”

“She’s fucking pregnant—”

“This is not a question of morality. This is a question about how my Tiger feels—”

“Kenji.”

“Do you want me to kill her?”

Every sane cell in my body shuddered.

“Do you, Tora?”

My breathing picked up.

“Because I would for you.”

My bottom lip quivered. “She’s pregnant.”

“That’s why this conversation needs to be careful.”

“You can’t kill her.”

“And you cannot ever feel threatened—”

“I was just explaining—”

“My Tiger will never feel threatened by anyone. I would kill them first. Set them aflame right in front of you so you can watch their skin melt, liquify, and crumble into nothing. So you can smell the stink of their burning hair and flesh. So you can touch their ashes when it’s all done. Pick them up in your hands. Let them slip through your fingers and blow in the wind. Rub your palms together until they’re gray and grainy from their cooked bones.”

The dragon-shadow sneered above us.

My stomach twisted. “Kenji. . .stop. . .”

“Do you want me to kill her?”

My eyes watered. “No.”

“You would never need to know how it happened. Your hands would not be dirty from—”

“Don’t.”

“Whether those babies are mine or not our peace is not threatened. I could kill her afterwards—”

“Kenji. . .” Shivering some more, I shook my head. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

“We need to.”

“We don’t. Because you’re. . .scaring the fuck out of me.”

“This is who I am.”

“I know. . .”

“We can never pretend about this part of me.”

I swallowed. “I know.”

“You don’t.”

“I’m learning.”

“Be quick with it because like you. . .I’ve realized with every fiber in my body that I am maddeningly, insanely in love with you. . .in a way that has no boundaries. No morality. No fucking conscience. Nor guilt. Or logic. And it is not a calm feeling in my heart. It is a storm. Wild. Raging. Constantly craving more.”

The dragon-shadow’s gold eyes glowed.

I shivered.

“And there’s nothing I wouldn’t do. Nothing. To make sure that it remains.”

“You will not kill her.”

He tilted his head and watched me. Part of me was scared that in his head he decided to kill her anyway.

The dragon-shadow left the ceiling, lowered a foot, and studied me too.

Both of their eyes on me at once. The man's brown gone almost black, dark as river stones beneath deep water. The dragon-shadow's molten gold, ancient, magical, and mysterious.

The man and the beast.

The lover and the killer.

The two halves of the same impossible love.

Pinned beneath the weight of their gaze, my breath went shallow. My heart hit my ribs hard enough to bruise. My skin warmed everywhere at once, like every nerve had risen to the surface to be witnessed.

I had never been looked at like this in my entire life.

Studied like a sacred thing.

Guarded like a treasure they would burn cities to keep.

Held by two sets of eyes that were really one set of eyes, because the man was the beast and the beast was the man, and both of them belonged to me.

They were both mine.

And I was theirs.

The dragon-shadow lowered its enormous head closer until I could feel its presence as cool weight against my chest, settling there like a guardian. Its breath, if shadows breathed, was the breath of a creature too vast to fear anything alive.

And it was breathing for me.

Watching for me.

Waiting for me.

Meanwhile, the Dragon's mouth was a careful line, but his eyes held a hunger I recognized now.

The hunger to protect.

The hunger to keep.

The hunger to make sure his Tiger would never know terror again unless he was the one giving it to her.

I felt the obsession of it. I felt the worship of it. I felt every second of being chosen by a creature whose every choice carried the weight of fate, and a man who loved beyond measure.

A tremble started at the base of my spine and rolled all the way up.

I was wanted.

Watched.

Owned.

Adored.

By man and beast.

By Kenji and the Dragon.

By love and fire.

And underneath the fear of what he might still decide to do—a deeper, more dangerous truth settled inside me.

I had never felt so completely, dangerously safe.

I cleared my throat. “There. . .won’t be many times where I ask you to. . .kill anyone for me.”

Kenji remained silent and his face gave away nothing. Yet, the dragon-shadow peered even closer and the glow of his gold eyes intensified.

I chose my words carefully. “For you. . .for. . .your world. . . the solution is usually death. I understand more and more each day. But for me. . .I would always want to find solutions that do not deal with death. And. . .when I tell you I feel a certain way about a person. I would like you to brainstorm with me on ways that don’t involve burning them alive.”

The dragon-shadow tilted its huge shimmering, wispy head to the side.

Was it taking note?

Or did it think I was crazy?

Then, Kenji tilted his head to the side, matching the dragon-shadow completely. “So. . .”

I quirked my brows.

“This means no torturing either?”

I widened my eyes. “Well. . .I mean. . .obviously if the person is pregnant no. And I’m not a fan of torturing women because I’m about that feminist life. But you know. . .I would want to probably find much healthier ways to deal with the situation.”

“Sometimes drawing blood is healthy for all parties involved.”

My throat went dry. “Well. . .I believe you.”

“But for now you want me to look at more diplomatic solutions to solve your problems?”

“Yes.”

“Then, we would include Reo in the discussion. He is the one to still my finger when it wants to press on a trigger.”

“I love Reo, so I’m always a fan of that.”

The dragon-shadow rose back to the ceiling and began to scan the room. Some of the pressure of its intensity left my chest.

“Hmmm.” Kenji nodded. “At the party last night, Reo took me to the side and brought up another option in dealing with Kiko.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“He said this at the party?”

“He did.”

“Why do you think he was even thinking about Kiko and the situation?”

“Trying to figure out the Roar’s thinking is like trying to solve a puzzle with 40% of the pieces missing.”

Yet, I thought about why Reo brought Kiko up last night and guessed that. . .he knew Kiko and her crew tried to crash the party. He was the Roar after all. Before I got any security breach, he would have received it.

I was just glad he didn’t tell Kenji or Hiro that. If he had, I might have smelled her crew and her burning bodies this morning.

I let out a long breath. “What option did Reo bring up?”

“He thinks we should break the rules of our way and get the DNA test before she has them.”

I widened my eyes. “Oh.”

“He knows the doctor and we have a lab in the small clinic on this island. He believed we would have the results within 24 hours.”

“Oh shit.”

“Would that calm you?”

“Yes. It would at least stop everything from being up in the air. Then. . .if the twins are yours. . .I can mentally prepare for that and maybe even figure out how we can all. . .co-parent in peace.”

“Then, I’ll tell Reo to put that in motion.”

“Okay.” I bit my lip.

A DNA test. Holy shit. We’ll know sooner.

He watched me. “Do you feel better?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Then, that is what we will do.”

I exhaled.

The Dragon had been ready to commit murder seconds ago, and now he was offering me cheek swabs, lab work, and a piece of paper.

This was why I could still remain with him, even though he was a murderous beast. Because even though all that deadly violence existed, the man outside the beast could choose something else when his woman asked him to.

The dragon-shadow began to fade, and the cold golden shimmer in his eyes dulled. His sharp angles softened as the darkness of his shadows lightened and his presence that had clouded the room and threatened to consume me slowly dissipated too.

I exhaled again.

Slowly, Kenji rolled back onto the bed and brought me with him. A second later, I was back against his chest and gathered in his huge arms.

Holy fuck that was close.

Kiko was sitting in her villa off on the other side of the island and was clueless to the fact that I had held her life in my hands.

The bedroom let out its own breath, or maybe it was me again.

The birds’ chirping had gone, yet the faint sound of the ocean remained.

A residual tremor ran through my body.

He felt it and held me tighter.

Fuck. . .