Chapter 14

"What have you two been up to?" Mhalice said smelling the air around him. Aurora backed up, just enough to get closer to Bheast if he tried to grab for her. Bheast came farther up to be beside her, his male instincts kicking in like heroine running through his veins.

"What is it you want Mhalice?" Bheast said looking at his brother.

"I came here for her" Mhalice said gesturing to Aurora "She wasn't in her room and she didn't come to me for our session today. It didn't take me long to figure out where she went."

"I can go wherever I please Mhalice" Aurora said taking a step forward "You don't own me and if I'm going to be here forever I should at least be allowed to go where I want."

"I have forbidden anyone to go into the west wing" he sneered at her "You cannot expect me to let you stay here with him."

"Your shadows tried to kill her in the daytime" Bheast said speaking up as his voice was starting to turn into a growl.

"What?" Mhalice said, his eyes growing narrow.

"It's true" Aurora said looking at Bheast "They came to my room and tried to kill me with a dagger. One of your doggen saw them in my room before I escaped. I came here because I knew I would be safe."

Mhalice for the first time looked bewildered and very serious "Are you sure? This wasn't a vision of yours?"

"It was real" Aurora said "I know the difference."

"Stay here, don't leave under any circumstances, and do not let him out" Mhalice said pointing to Bheast "Keep her safe" he said to him.

Bheast nodded at his brother before Mhalice exited and locked up the doors with loud slams.

"He will talk to them" Bheast said "But they won't take him seriously. They are hybrids, neither of their cultures will respect their rules."

"Hybrids?" Aurora said looking at him.

"Have you known any Moors?" Bheast said looking at her.

"Yes" she said "They help my uncle with his business."

"Well those shadows out there are both sympath and Moor. That is how they move through the darkness so well, and their sympath side lets them have great power. Our father found them on a whim in a cave farther up north. They've been under us ever since" Bheast said his eyes looking farther than just the wall.

"Why does Mhalice treat you so badly?" Aurora asked "You would think you being his brother, he would show some mercy with you."

Bheast was the one who now snorted with a sarcastic laugh "Mercy doesn't run in our family. It didn't stop my father from killing my mother, and it doesn't stop Mhalice from locking me up." Bheast suddenly looked at her with hard eyes "What did he mean by visions?"

Aurora stared at him, thinking of how she was going to explain herself "I see...everything" she said holding up her hands "For years I couldn't touch anyone, not without seeing their painful pasts, their futures. I see the present and things still left to be done. It's a curse and a blessing."

"Do you see me?" Bheast said looking at her strangely.

Aurora didn't want to answer him but she had to be brave "I have seen you...many times."

"And that's why you stay?" he said.

"I stay because I want to" Aurora said straightening her back "I have known greater monsters than you think you are, and I have lived through them."

"You just think I'm not a monster..." Bheast said walking away from her.

"No" Aurora said getting his attention "I have known you Bheast and if there's one thing I know in my heart, it is that you are not a monster."

Bheast turned and looked at her for a long time before going into the room where he was usually chained. He sat on the hard stone, thinking of what Aurora said as he heard her still cleaning up around the wing.

This female..she drove him crazy. Her tenaciousness and her bravery...things he had not known in anyone before, they confused him on why she wasted her time on him. He was nothing, he had never been anything but a burden.

Bheast thought about his past, his mother, who was so beautiful from what he could remember. She had blonde hair, like him.. and dark blue eyes like sapphires... he could almost see her if he tried. She had been warm, and nice, even to Mhalice she was kind. But her curiosity had sealed her fate and led his father into madness.

"Bheast?" Aurora said from the doorway. He was shaking again, his massive body trembling as he sat on the floor with his hands grasping his head.

"You need to go" Bheast said, his voice dark like an oncoming storm. Aurora had a feeling she knew what was about to happen.

"Where am I going to go Bheast?" she said calmly.

"I don't care just go" he said feeling the dark seed in his chest pulse with hatred and anger.

"I'm not leaving you, not right now" she said trying to come towards him "I'll help you if you just let me..."

"YOU CAN'T HELP ME" he roared at her as he sprung up and shoved her away "I AM THE BEAST IN THE CASTLE, THE MONSTER THAT MOTHER'S TELL THEIR CHILDREN ABOUT AT NIGHT. I AM THE DARKNESS!" Suddenly his fist came crashing around her. Aurora ducked as it slammed into the wall. Bheast let out a roar like a wild animal about to charge. She ran from the room, hearing Bheast rampage from within.

Her heart was beating like a rabbit's as she searched around the rooms for somewhere for her to hide until he stopped. Last time Mhalice had a chain to steady him, maybe if she could just make one...

Suddenly the wild bellowing from Bheast came from the hallway as she turned and saw how much it had taken over him. His eyes, now jet black with dark veins showing in his skin, looked at Aurora as if she were a stranger, his fangs long and ready to tip into flesh as his body trembled with power.

"Bheast..." Aurora said quietly.

The male let out another terrible roar and charged for Aurora. She did the only thing she could think of and ducked out of his way while rolling towards the wall. Bheast went hurdling into the doors that crashed open with wood flying away in pieces.

Aurora heard the crashing and running of feet before she opened her eyes to look out the doors. The beautiful paintings had been torn while giant holes in the walls revealed the stone behind them. Deep scratches into the rug showed that Bheast had ran through the hallway and gone who knows where.

Suddenly Aurora heard the shriek of a female and knew that the beast was certainly out of it's cage.

Quickly she ran towards the screams, trying to think of a way to subdue Bheast enough to get him back to the west wing. She turned down corridors and back and forth into rooms before she found a little huddle of servants hiding beneath a desk as Bheast rampaged in the random bedroom.

"Come on" Aurora hissed from the doorway "Get out! I'll distract him, just find me some rope!"

The doggen nodded as they stared at her in horror as she came into Bheast's view as he was tearing up a nearby sofa. He turned towards her sharply, his breathing ragged as sweat poured from his brow. He looked exhausted, but like a caged animal he was also rabid to anything and everyone.

Aurora held out her hands and tried to calm her heart rate "Bheast" she said calmly "I know you are in there. Think about who I am, think of who is talking to you."

Bheast huffed and growled at her as he circled around her. She could see his muscles ripple and flex under his skin, like a living thing was running inside of him. She heard the quiet shuffles of the doggen as they left the room, never breaking eye contact with Bheast for fear he might go after them.

"Listen to my voice" Aurora said "Remember who I am."

Suddenly a change shifted in Bheast as the blackness in his eyes began to cloud. Slowly he groaned and kneeled on the floor, his breathing getting slower.

"That's it" Aurora said calmly "Just calm down, I'm here, I'm not leaving." Aurora slowly came over to him as Bheast went on all fours to the ground, his head bent to her. Slowly she rested her hands on his head, stroking his hair as if he were an animal that needed to be assured she would not harm him.

"Shhh" she said watching him calm under her "It's alright, everything is going to be alright."

She heard the doggen come in behind her and the hand that was not stroking his hair went behind her to grasp for the rope. She brought it around and slowly wrapped it around Bheast's neck like a collar.

"Let's go back to our room" Aurora said letting him stand up. The darkness was still in his eyes, but a knowing was now there, no longer a wild craze but an understanding.

The doggen watched as Aurora led Bheast through the hallways back to the west wing. Their eyes were wide as they watched her tame him with soft words and gently persuading to keep going. As they reached the west wing though, Bheast saw one of the doggen holding a metal collar and immediately something snapped him out of the calm submission he had been under.

Bheast roared and broke from Aurora's grasp to charge at the doggen. Suddenly Ttempo came at him with steel chains and lassoed them around Bheast before he could get to the servant.

"No don't!" Aurora screamed as she watched them drag Bheast through the west wing towards the red door at the end of the hallway.

"Don't hurt him!" Aurora shrieked but Alma and another young male grabbed her before she could go after them. She watched in horror as Bheast was dragged through the door as his eyes stared at her in fear as the blackness that had taken over his eyes slowly turned into blue...