Dark Desire
by KatiKat

After sunset the inn´s main room was full. The men were laughing, shouting, arguing, playing cards... and drinking heavily. That´s why nobody paid attention to the cloaked figure sitting in the corner nursing the same beer for over an hour now.

Nobody besides the man sitting at the table with said figure. It was a fisherman, a stocky man who got bored by his neighbors and felt thrilled by the company of the stranger that arrived in their village just before the sun disappeared behind the hills. The fisherman, Angus, was overwhelmed by the feeling that something finally broke through the boring routine of his life.

"So, you´re after a lifebearer, huh?" Angus asked, taking a healthy gulp of his beer.

The man, whose face was even in the warmth of the main room, still hidden by the folds of the hood of his black cloak nodded. "Yes, he ran. But I will find him and bring him home where he belongs!"

The fisherman nodded knowingly. "Lifebearers are a pretty skittish sort. And in most cases, they are not even worth chasing after." He took a drink of his beer again, then set the goblet back on the table. "Why don´t you find another one? There are enough of their sort around."

The cloaked man shook his head. "No, I want this one and I won´t rest until I get what´s mine!"

Angus fidgeted in his chair, the tone of obsessiveness in the stranger´s voice made him uncomfortable. "And what´s so unusual about this one? He really fertile or what?" the fisherman tried to lighten the mood.

"He is special..."

The fisherman noticed that the cloaked man´s hands that were holding the goblet were shaking.

"I remember when he was a boy, I carried him around on my shoulders. Back then he was nothing more than a cute brat, a pup," the stranger continued. "I´ve known him his whole life. I was the second one after his parents who held him in his arms when he was born. I never considered him a lifebearer, just a kid that was always around." He took a gulp of his beer. "I had pretty much resigned myself to spending the rest of my life alone, without a mate or a family. But then, one summer..." He gripped the goblet tightly in his hands. "When we passed through the village, I decided to visit his family. I brought him a gift and his Sire pointed me to the stream where the young one should have been washing laundry. I remember hearing the splashing sounds as I came closer..."

Angus fidgeted again and cleared his throat. He didn´t like the heat in the other man´s voice. Maybe it had been a mistake to sit with this stranger...

"I wasn´t prepared for what I would see," the black cloaked man said. "I´ve never seen such a beauty in my whole life. He was standing naked in the stream, washing himself, running his hands over his pale skin. His long hair was unbound, glistening in the afternoon sun... His lean body gleamed with youth and health, his long limbs moved with such grace..." He took another sip of his beer. "Never in my life did anything excite me as much as that sight. Many lifebearers were ready to share my bed, but I found early on that they didn´t do anything for me. Not their looks, nor their touches or kisses. They didn´t arouse me at all, no matter what they did. But here... one look was enough to let me feel like a man. I desired him more than I desired anything else in my whole life. I wanted to throw him on the ground and take him then and there but... To find physical relief wasn´t enough for me... I wanted him to be mine, to own him, to make sure he would be always there to give me pleasure. So I swallowed my need and went to his Sire and paid him for keeping the boy untouched for another couple of years, until I was ready to settle down."

Silence fell between the two men and this time it was the fisherman who broke it. "But something happened...?" he prompted the stranger. The man´s tale scared him, but he felt fascinated by it at the same time, too.

The stranger drank the rest of his beer and set the goblet down on the table with a loud slam. "His bastard of a Sire allowed him to be claimed by another."

There was a dark chuckle that sent shivers down Angus´ back.

"But he paid for it. They all paid. And I will make sure that they pay in the future, too!" The man´s voice was full of menace.

The fisherman cleared his throat again and shifted his own empty goblet from hand to hand. The certainty that he made a mistake when he took a seat at this table strengthened. He had to find a way to get away from him. And quickly. But before he could move, the stranger lifted his head, showing Angus his scarred, burned face for the first time. The stocky fisherman shivered as the older man smiled at him darkly.

"It was good to talk to somebody again." The stranger lifted his glove-covered hand and touched the angry red scars the fire left on his face. "As you can tell, I don´t enjoy company often lately. So... I think I should thank you for yours."

It wasn´t until closing time that the bartender noticed his neighbor Angus slumped over on the table. Shaking his head and muttering something about the stupidity of drunk people, he went to nudge him awake. But when he touched the man´s shoulder, he found it stiff and cold. The fisherman was dead, his throat cut.

The mysterious stranger was long gone...

The End