Chapter 10

Montauk

I met a man today. Those were the first words written in Rebecca's journal.

Catherine and Vincent had found Rebecca's journal. Now they were cuddled up on the couch and Catherine started reading.

I met a man today; at least I think it was a man. I was tracking a beast and just as I was about to confront him a tall, dark haired stranger got in my way. I think he was trying to protect me, not realizing that I need no man's protection.

"Well you are definitely related"…..said Vincent.

Catherine smiled, distracted and kept reading.

I should have been angry with him, but there was something about him. I suspect he is a beast as well, but he was different. He was not violent nor out of control, he seemed calm and protective. I was alone and could not take on two beasts so I ran; I could hear him call out to me as I fled.

In all my time with Sealgairi I have been able to feel when a beast is near, I had that feeling again today when I met him, but it was a different kind of pull. This encounter has left me very confused and I wonder whom to confide in. Are there good beasts out there?

My father may know more, having been with the Sealgairi long before me, but I hesitate to talk with him, he is quite rigid in his thinking and I have never heard him speak of beasts in a positive light.

I feel the need to find him and speak to this mysterious stranger.

"Vincent this is amazing," Catherine said as she reverently held the journal.

"Catherine I just want you to remember, that Rebecca and Alistair are not us, no matter how similar things may seem."

"But even you have to admit it is eerily similar to our situation."

"I was not trying to protect you when I first met you; I was trying to hide from you."

"Except that you saved me both when my Mom was killed and then again in the subway and then again with the bike messenger….need I go on?" She said smiling at him.

"Huh, your right you did need saving a lot back then, it's amazing you survived at all without me! I just don't want you to get too caught up in their story. We need information on the Sealgairi remember, not their love life."

"I know, I promise not to get carried away." Catherine kissed Vincent and snuggled back down into his arms.

I found him and his name is Alistair MacGregor. He is a Doctor newly arrived here in NY from Boston. He has a position at the hospital. In checking with the Sealgairi there was a series of attacks in Boston only recently stopped. Now they have started here in NY, is Dr. MacGregor connected to this?

I don't think he saw me, although he raised his head as if to scent the air, I have seen beasts do this before when they are tracking their prey.

Watching him walk through the square left me feeling somewhat discomfited. He has a regal bearing about him, he moves effortlessly through the crowds. As though people sense what he is and move aside for him. I am more convinced than ever that he is a beast. But is he the one I seek, the one who is killing people or is he something else all together. I wish I had someone to speak to about him!

"I feel sorry for her, she had no one to confide in, even when I could not tell Tess or Heather the truth, I still had them for support. I wonder if Alistair was just as alone or if he had a JT too?"

"Not sure there could ever be another JT," Vincent said fondly thinking of his best friend.

Things have changed…I am hesitant to write this all down for fear that the Sealgairi will find it, but I feel as though I must document what has happened.

I was not so much tracking Alistair as he was tracking me. After a few days of following him, I got careless and followed him into a warehouse. I laugh now, but at the time I was scared to death.

I entered the warehouse after him to find him standing in front of a table, lit with candles, food and wine laid out. "You seem oddly determined to get to know me, so I thought instead of following me around….. Would you care to join me for dinner?"

I was rendered speechless, for a moment I just stared at him, he is absolutely beautiful and when he smiled…I felt no aggression from him at all, just a little bit of humorous satisfaction.

I tried to think of something to say, but could not, so I swallowed my fear and took the seat he offered at the table.

"How about we start with your name"? He said softly like he was talking to a wild animal he was trying to tame. You already know I am Alistair MacGregor MD.

"Rebecca Reynolds, I don't have any initials after my name." I said, hoping to keep the quiver of fear out of my voice.

He laughed, "No but you have a sense of humor and considering how fast your heart is beating, I can tell you are brave as well."

I lifted my chin and looked him directly in the eye, "What are you?"

"I think you know already, Ms. Reynolds…it is Ms. Reynolds and not Mrs.?"

"No it's just Ms. Reynolds and what is it that you think I know Dr. MacGregor?"

He smiled at me and offered me wine, claiming apologies for his rudeness. I drank the wine, it was cold and it felt good to have something to hang on to.

"Ms. Reynolds a man in my position has to be very careful and while I can see that you are brave, and beautiful I really don't know you very well, so why don't we eat and drink and talk and see where this goes?"

"Allow me to start; I am recently come to NY by way of Boston….."

He went on to tell me all about himself, except of course the most important thing.

"So when did you become a beast?" I threw the question out of the blue to him, hoping to get a reaction.

He stopped the wine glass halfway to his mouth and just paused for a minute staring at me, much like a predator stares at its prey.

He set the glass down and softly said "10 years." And just like that the predator was gone and the man was looking at me, and it felt like he was looking into my soul.

"How long have you been hunting beasts?" He asked me directly, but softly.

"My whole life it seems." I replied.

He leaned back in his chair, hands extended toward me, palms face up. "So now what happens?"

"I don't know" I whispered both to him and to myself.

Catherine made some kind of distressing noise and Vincent takes the journal out of her hands. "That is enough for now, you were starting to get lost there for a moment. Let's go get some fresh air."

She agreed with him without thinking. Once they got outside the bad memories associated with this place came flooding back. Seeing him kiss Tori, hearing him tell her to walk away, realizing that it was her Father who kidnapped and changed him.

Catherine stopped dead in her tracks.

"What is the…oh shit." The look on her face must have spoke volumes to him or his beast was picking up the pounding of her heart. He quickly gathered her into his arms.

"Catherine, I'm sorry, I didn't realize… you know that I love you right?"

She clung to him. "I know, it's just…this is where it almost ended for us Vincent. When I left here without you, I thought I'd lost you."

Vincent lifts Catherine's chin and looked into her eyes. "You didn't lose me, you saved me."

Catherine pulls her head away from his hand and puts it down, trying to get her pounding heart under control.

"Hey, don't pull away from me Catherine, please. I know this place has painful memories for you, for us, but maybe we could make some positive ones here as well?" He asked her raising one eyebrow.

And just like that Vincent was able to make Catherine forget the bad stuff and think about the good stuff. "Well I could make some pumpkin cookies!" She said smiling and tilting her head.

He laughed and swept her up into his arms, "That is so not what I had in mind." With that he blurred them into the house and up the stairs.

Vincent lays Catherine down on the bed, the same bed they shared here just a month or so ago. He hovers over her, leaning down to claim her mouth in a kiss. Her arms come up around his neck and she arches upward while pulling him down to her. Vincent nestles himself between her thighs, rocking against her.

Catherine moans as she feels Vincent rock hard against her.

We need to get rid of these clothes, she says breathlessly.

Vincent makes short work of their clothing and soon they are skin to skin.

"I want to replace all the bad memories from here with new ones for you." Vincent whispers to Catherine, his hand on the side of her face.

"Right now I don't want to think, Vincent I just want to get lost in us, in you." Catherine reaches up and pulls Vincent to her and kisses him.

Vincent flips Catherine over so she is on top of him; he runs his hands down her back, continuing along her ass. Catherine spreads her legs straddling him as she brushes her engorged and hot sex against his shaft.

Vincent growls and his eyes glow, they are looking at each other and Catherine can tell how close his beast is to the surface.

Vincent sits up and Catherine wraps her legs around him. He lifts her up and sheaths himself to the hilt inside of her. Her head arches back as Vincent places hot wet kisses along her neck and collar bone. She wraps her hands around his head holding him to her as she starts to ride him.

Vincent's lips find Catherine breasts and as he slowly tortures each nipple, he can feel her heart racing underneath his mouth.

Catherine's pace increases, her hips flexing and driving into Vincent. He lifts his head from her breasts and kisses her, holding her up against him with one hand on her back and the other against her face.

Catherine's eyes are closed and she is panting. "Look at me" Vincent says growling her name. Catherine opens her eyes and is lost in his golden glare. She raises her hand to cup his face, kissing him, their tongues sliding around one another. She can see the coiled tension in him; feel that he is holding back from her…. trying to keep the beast leashed.

"Let go Vincent" she whispers against his mouth.

With another growl, he moves forward, Catherine is now on her back looking up at him, he is magnificent. She wraps her legs around him and holds on as he loses control and slams into her. Every time he seats himself his balls slam into her sending pulses of electricity to her core. She is just as hungry matching him, coming up to meet him so all they hear is the sound of their bodies coming together.

Vincent is close but he wants to make sure she comes with him, he grabs her legs and puts them over his shoulders reaching down in between them to rub her clit with his thumb, Catherine starts to come apart, her legs gripping Vincent's neck, he rears back and empties himself into her as she flies.

Catherine slowly returns to consciousness, Vincent is collapsed on top of her and while it is getting difficult to breathe, she loves the feeling of him. She runs her hands down the deep groove in his back. She can feel him smile against her shoulder, his scruff tickling her.

"Am I crushing you?"

"Yes, but I love it." She replies wrapping her arms and legs around him to keep him close.

Vincent rolls over onto his side taking her with him; they lay there face to face.

"Better?" He asks her.

"Very" she says. Her stomach growls also answering him.

He laughs, "I'll go get us something to eat, and you stay right here." He gets up and puts on the blue bathrobe he loves so much. As he heads out the door, Catherine calls out to him.

"Vincent, can you bring the journal up here too?"

He hangs his head, shaking it at her unwavering determination. "Yes dear…"

For the next few weeks we meet at the warehouse. He is always a gentleman. Sometimes we talk about his day and sometimes mine. The killings have stopped for now; Alistair seems to think that whoever it was must have been frightened off by him. There is no doubt in my mind that he is a good man. Lately when he is talking, I find myself distracted by his mouth and wonder what it would feel like on mine….

"Ms. Reynolds" I am lost in his gaze. He says my name again. "Ms. Reynolds?"

"Why don't you call me Rebecca, may I call you Alistair?" The words are out of my mouth before I can think of how he might take them.

"Rebecca"

"Alistair"

That is all it takes and I find myself in his arms, his lips on mine and a fire raging through my blood.

"We cannot do this" He says pulling back from me. He is staring at my mouth and breathing heavily.

Before I can respond he pulls me to him and captures my mouth again, then just as quickly he lets me go and blurs away.

I stood there for some time alone trying to understand my feelings toward him.

I think I love him, but what to do about it?

There is no one I trust to talk to about this, no one but him.

I return to the warehouse over the next several days but Alistair is never there, he is avoiding me. I have never interfered with his work at the hospital, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

He has not been to the hospital in several days. Could he have left? I am bereft at the thought of never seeing him again.

Catherine stopped reading a looked down at Vincent, who had fallen asleep. She smiled to herself. "The two of you must be related" she whispered at him.

He opened one eye….."You better hope you don't find out they had children, we could be related to each other!"

"Eww Vincent" She grabbed her pillow and threw it at him.

He grabbed her and pulled her underneath him. The journal fell to the floor; she could wait to find out what happens next.