Kiss of the Beast (A Classic Paranormal Romance)

by Mallory Rush

  "Look!" he exclaimed, pointing to a mime. "He reminds me of a Dreamweaver."

  "What's a Dreamweaver?"

  "They're enchanting creatures. Nothing logical about them, but they create the most splendid comedies and tragedies. Their world is real but it's not, like spun imaginings on paper. By the way, I've read all your books—Stephen King, now there's a Dreamweaver if there ever was—and I'd really like to get my hands on some more."

  She should be beyond surprise of anything by now, yet she gaped at him. "I must have a thousand books in my library. When did you have the time to read them?"

  "It seemed a lot safer than watching you sleep when I couldn't sleep myself the last two nights, wanting you." Though his hands were on her shoulders, she could feel a brush between her thighs, more like a warm palm than the cool breeze skating up her legs. "Actually, you have a thousand and twenty books, but about fifty are missing the last chapters. Why did you tear them out?"

  "I didn't like the endings, so I warmed my toes with them in the fireplace while I rewrote them in my head. I like my endings happy. I like to think the dragon could actually sleep with the dove." She ran a fingertip over the shawl's fire-breathing dragon. "You remind me of a dragon."

  "And you remind me of a dove." From thin air, Urich plucked one. Eva's gasp of delight was joined by several others who watched him set it free. Seemingly oblivious to their small audience, he said, "make that more like a flock of doves." With a sweep of his arms, a flock of fluttering grey wings swooped through the gathering crowd and up into the air.

  "Wow!" shouted a child. "How did you do that?"

  While Urich took in the riveted spectators and greeted them with a bow, Eva frantically wondered how they were going to get out of this one.

  "Ladies and gentlemen," he announced, "allow me to introduce myself: Urich, master magician of the Universe. Welcome to my world of wonders." While Eva silently prayed he wouldn't do anything too spectacular, he proceeded to do just that. Blowing her a kiss, he breathed fire from his dragon lips. Touching his fingertips to the dancing flame, sparks ignited on each one. Flicked to the sky, a shower of fireworks rained over the crowd going wild.

  "More! More! More!" Came the roar amidst deafening applause.

  Urich reached into his pocket then presented an orchid to a small girl at the front. "There's more where that came from," he said, shoving both hands into his pockets. Pulling them inside out, he said, "Now where did they go?"

  "Here!" came a shout. And then another, and another, until there were enough orchids to fill a hothouse waving at Urich on the pier.

  Eva felt a little cheated since she didn't get one.

  But then he reached down the front of his shirt, appeared to be searching through the hair that wove a spell of its own, then with a flourish he pulled out a huge bouquet.

  "For my lady," he said, presenting it to her with a bow.

  As she accepted his offering and thrilled to the title of his lady, Urich whispered, "Time to make a little magic of our own—alone."

  Pulling her beside him, his voice carried over the mass cheer going up.

  "And now, for my final act, my assistant and I will disappear before your very eyes. Your shawl please?" Her hands filled with flowers, Urich gestured to the shawl and it floated from her shoulders to his. Sweeping her into his arms, he said, "now you see us. And now you—" He snapped his fingers.

  "Don't," he finished just as they landed with a plop on her bed. The flowers crushed between his chest and hers, Urich chortled with glee and thrust them to the floor. "They smell good, but not nearly as sweet as you."

  Touching his lips in mid-descent, she said, "what you gave those people was a wonderful thing. But Urich, what about the florist who's going to find an empty store?"

  Always, he thought, she was always concerned about such things. It struck him that while he found her sterling ethics one of her most admirable qualities, it could be irritating. Especially when his own ethics would surely be bending at the meeting he was due at soon. And especially when he was in need of her giving touch to get him through what lay ahead.

  "A hundred or so stores is more like it and they won't miss a flower or two. And as for what I did, the pleasure was more mine than theirs." Remembering that ocean of smiles and shining eyes, he was humbled and honored to know his talents could give so much pleasure to others. "It made me realize there's a better use for my gifts than I've put them to in the position I was given to serve."

  "And just what exactly is that position, Urich?"

  "An uncomfortable one," he said evasively. Enough of this conversation; it was getting too close for comfort when closeness was exactly the comfort he needed. Nuzzling deep between her thighs, he murmured, "Yes, I'm most uncomfortable at the moment. With your legs cradling mine, your breasts softer than the feathers of a dove, you're making me so hard that I hurt. Feel me hurt," he gently commanded, pressing deep into the warm hollow that he ached to fill until they were sealed tighter than a vise, her hallowed halls wet and clutching and so full...

  Shunting the image, the sensation it provoked from his mind to hers, he heard Eva moan long and low in the throat he licked at. The urge to mark her was too great and he tongued his way up to her lips before he demanded, pleaded, that she ask for The Kiss.

  A safer kiss he gave, ravaging her mouth and funneling all his dark desires within it. And he took, took, took, all that bright glorious light in her soul that she shared without reserve. It made him greedy for more and he pawed roughly at her breasts. And what comfort it was that she didn't shrink from the animal who began to hump upon her in a frenzy, but met him in kind while scratching wildly at his back.

  So caught up in the madness, he didn't realize where it was leading until she had wedged a hand between them. Tugging urgently at his zipper, she cried, "Help me. Take off your pants, get rid of my hose, be inside me."

  Urich went suddenly still. Eva had no idea what she was trying so desperately to unleash. And The Kiss had to come first, had to. Much as he was deserting the ways of his people, this was one code of honor he could not break. Powerful as his lust for her was, his respect for the mate he would take went deeper. As did his love.

  They were ample to jolt him into action before it was too late. With a snarl, he flung himself off. Off her, off the bed, he had to get out. He was half-way there when she caught up. Jerking him around, she demanded, "Where do you think you're going?"

  "Anywhere but in reach of you. Believe me, Eva, you don't want me to stay. If I do..." He touched her neck then withdrew with a tortured groan. "I'll be back."

  He made it as far as the door before he heard the stamp of a foot. "You just stop right there! Damn you, Urich, how dare you do this to me. Again! Every time you get me so hot that I'm scorched from the heat, you dump cold water all over us. And then you have the nerve to act like you're doing me some kind of favor."

  "I am." The gaze he turned on her was ferocious in its hunger, all but snapping her up in a single bite.

  But instead of warning her off, it seemed to incite her all the more. "I don't believe you, you—"

  "Yes?" he challenged, crushing the knob in his fist.

  She seemed to search for an epithet that was adequately scathing to describe what she thought of his favor to withhold his favors. Finding a deserving word, she hurled at him, "You're a beast."

  Silence pulsed like the beat of his heart, a war drum that gave way to the sound of metal stripped from metal.

  "More than you know, Eva." He tossed the mangled knob to her feet then swung wide the gutted door. A flash of his teeth and he passed a hand over his loins as he again advised her, "more than you know."

  Chapter 12

  "You're late."

  "An unavoidable detainment." Urich offered no explanation to either Raven or Zar. He resented having to tear himself away from Eva. He'd waited until she slept, then stolen into her dreams to tell her it was love that had made him leave her, that he'd come too close to giving h
er The Kiss. A kiss that would bind them beyond human vows, allow them to share an intimacy beyond human means.

  "Your gaze is distant and strangely... soft?" Zar frowned. "Where are your thoughts since they're obviously not on this meeting?"

  This meeting is a travesty of justice, Urich wanted to rail. Knowing such an accusation would stir their suspicions, his gaze hardened on Zar.

  "True, my mind isn't here. If you ventured among humans I'm sure you'd find your thoughts distracted too."

  "There is only one human we're concerned with," Raven interjected. "How goes your progress with her?"

  "It's none—" of your business! "It's none too easy. She's a complicated creature, as all humans are. They're a mire of emotional contradictions, and quite convoluted in their reasoning. Highly interesting."

  "Enough of 'they'. What of she?" Zar pressed.

  His father's interest in Eva ground like nails to teeth. Urich silently gnashed his.

  "She accepts me for what I am."

  "Then she's ready to accept us and lend her assistance," was Zar's eager conclusion.

  "No." A thousand times no! "She can accept me because I exhibit enough human qualities to put her at ease. The rest of you, however, lack the nature to give her a sense of comfort and connection."

  "If this comfort and connection is essential for her cooperation, then I'll do what I must to aid it." Zar's sigh was one of resignation. "I'll study this nature of humans and emulate the necessary behavior."

  "An exercise in futility," Urich smugly advised him. "You don't have the skill."

  "And what skill would that be?"

  "The ability to feel."

  Zar appeared puzzled; Raven fairly cringed. He knew of the lipstick and had obviously kept that to himself—along with his awareness of the attraction Urich had confessed to.

  There had been whispered rumors that Raven had loved his mate, and that misfortune had been coupled with the tragedy of her loss. It had supposedly happened long before Urich was born, and though he'd never given the rumor credence, the flash of compassion in Raven's gaze gave him away.

  The brief connection of their gazes relayed infinitely more than they'd ever spoken in a vastness of earth years.

  Raven lowered his eyes and began to pace the alloyed floor. How cold it was, Urich thought, missing already the warmth of wood.

  "It would seem we have a problem that defies a logical solution," Raven concluded.

  "Nothing defies a logical solution," Zar pronounced with the absolute authority Urich had once admired.

  "Humans do." He said it with the authority he now prized above his father's. "If you don't believe me, why don't you pay a visit yourself? You just might find Earth as disarmingly delightful and deliciously decadent as I do."

  "Considering how oddly this place and these beings have affected you, I don't want to risk a similar contamination."

  "I see. You didn't mind Mylar risking it and raised only minor objections to my exposure, but consider yourself either too weak or too worthy to do the same."

  "How dare you speak to me as if I'm a coward!" In several fleet strides Zar came within touching distance but stopped short of jabbing a finger into his wayward son's chest. "You know why I can't place myself in jeopardy."

  Indeed he did, but sympathy for Zar's position was beyond him. And he certainly wasn't about to deliver the apology his father was waiting for.

  He glanced at Zar's clenched fist. Deducians were averse to touching and he took a perverse pleasure in goading Zar to contact him for one of the few times in their lives.

  "You want to hit me, don't you? Go ahead. Do it and see what it feels like. Consider it an experience in human nature I'm offering in return for offending you. No need to worry that I'll strike back since your safety is something I wouldn't dream of jeopardizing."

  "Why, you—you—" Zar smacked his fist into his palm.

  "Careful, you're beginning to sound almost human. You're even close to looking like one of those Trojans on a gaming field ready to tackle an opponent. Football, they call it. Most entertaining—barbarically so."

  Zar's anger gave way to an expression of incredulity. "You can't possibly approve of such things."

  "But I do. It's fun. So is eating junk food, wearing jeans and sweatshirts, watching movies." Holding hands, kissing soft lips, playing magician, giving Eva flowers...

  "I don't believe what I'm hearing! Listen to yourself, Urich. First you insult me, then you praise their heathen customs as if they're superior to our own. What has this place done to you?"

  Before he could lash out with an incriminating answer, or a fist of his own—would it feel as satisfying as a hug?—Raven hurried their way to abruptly intercede.

  "Calm yourself, Zar. Urich was simply trying to assist you in a better understanding of Dr. Campbell's race. This is the sort of irrational behavior her kind displays and since no amount of reasoning can explain it, he thought it easier to show than to tell." A sharp glance at Urich. "Correct?"

  "Thank you, Raven." He owed him more than his thanks. "This is what I'm dealing with there. Abysmal, isn't it?"

  "Horrifying," concurred Zar. "No wonder Mylar met such a terrible fate. I thought it due to his empathic abilities, but given your own report, we could never adapt to this crude planet. We'll continue to search for another while going ahead with our initial plan."

  His narrow escape had led to an iron trap that slammed down on Urich's heart. He wanted Eva by his side. He wanted the company of humans, one of the cigars he had inhaled, a newspaper and an E-Z Boy recliner with Eva on his lap.

  It would defy their comprehension; he didn't understand it himself, but still he felt these yearning desires.

  Choosing his words with far more care than he had his previous ones, Urich chanced saying, "crude as it is, there are many wonderful things about it as well. For all that's unpleasant, a wealth of goodness prevails. My choice of example was negative and I should have selected better."

  "Such as?" Zar looked dubious.

  "When humans argue, they make amends in various and charming ways. Between men it usually involves a hand-shake. It's often used for greetings and partings too. Here, I'll show you." He made a long reach and clasped his father's stiff hand, shaking it briefly.

  Zar discreetly wiped his palm on his thigh.

  "Humans like to touch," Urich advised him. "You might even come to enjoy it yourself if you tried it more often."

  "I doubt that—at least when it comes to males. But what of women?" His expression said he wouldn't find that contact nearly so distasteful. "How do they express amends?"

  Urich knew he'd cut his tongue out before saying they liked to kiss and make up. "Why don't you come visit and find out yourself? An afternoon in the company of humans—" Many humans... many, many women. Exactly! "You'll be safe. In fact, you might be pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable their habitat can be. You could try their food, see them play on a field of grass and perhaps even dance with one of their females. Dancing, very quaint. And I can't even describe how flattering it is to be looked at by these Earth women. They call us 'hunks'. Our features are highly attractive to them."

  Zar stepped back as if he might contract whatever illness was affecting Urich's reason.

  "Raven, you go. If you return speaking a similar gibberish, we'll retrieve Urich and take the female with him. She'll surely adjust better to us than we possibly could to her species." That said, he left.

  Once alone, Raven whirled on Urich. "I should have let you hang yourself!"

  "But you didn't. And Raven, we both know why."

  "Don't remind me. I've spent most of my existence trying to forget the very thing you're battling now." He shut his eyes as if battling his own reason's loss all over again. "Don't let it win, Urich. For your sake, for all our sakes, don't let it win."

  "Too late, I'm... a goner—as they say on Earth. As for why you'd want to forget what was surely the most marvelous occurrence in your life, it makes no more sen
se to me than propagating a race that can contribute nothing but logic to a universe that could learn more from humanity than it ever could from us."

  Raven paled. "It seems you're dangerously close to becoming more human than not."

  "I can only hope so."

  "This goes from worse to worse to worse." Sinking into a rigid chair, his shoulders slumped wearily.

  Urich laid a hand on one, startling Raven. "I wanted to console you," he explained. "It's one of the good things I've experienced. When you come—say, in two Earth weeks—I'll share some of these pleasures with you. I think you'll have fun."

  "And if I do, you'll want me to keep my silence about that from Zar, along with the rest." He scowled. "It will all come to light eventually. And when it does, you can claim temporary insanity, while I'll have no excuse for being a co-conspirator in abetting this madness. Not that I care to keep what life I have left, but my honor will be tarnished and that's worse than death."

  "You show a greater honor now and for that I'm eternally grateful. No one will know about this but us," he assured. "As for claiming insanity, I couldn't dishonor the truth of my emotions anymore than I could give Eva into Zar's hands."

  "His impatience allows you little time to find a solution—if one exists." Then as if unable to resist heaping some misery on the source of his, he said bluntly, "you have only yourself to blame for the entire situation. It was you who convinced the Tribunal that only Dr. Campbell would do."

  "She was the logical choice. At the time," he defended.

  "And now?"

  "Eva's still the best." He felt Raven shudder at his lethal whisper: "But Raven, she's mine."

  * * *

  For a long time Urich gazed at her, so peaceful and trusting in sleep's repose. He longed to claim that peace, some sense of trust for himself.

  When he told Eva, as inevitably he must, of his leading role in her willing capture, her trust in him would have every reason to waver.