A/N: For those who read the original story, you might remember that there were two variations of this scene. I am sad to say that I am only including one, as I decided that I liked the "original take" even less than the "alternate take". This was my, admittedly, unusual attempt to try to explain a few things: 1) How deeply the connection ran, therefore allowing their souls to join and communicate. 2) To show how Carlisle originally kept control of the "beast". 3) Show how any combination of them might interact and communicate together through their souls rather than on our "normal and boring" physical plane. So... here ya go.

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THIRTY-TWO

I felt the beast trembling just beneath the marble surface and stared into Carlisle's eyes, suddenly seeing the images from his mind. I saw how he had held the animal back in the past, how the creature was now wary of being willingly released after so many centuries of having to fight to be free from captivity. I sighed his name softly, sympathetically, and allowed my subconscious to take over and slip onto another plane, the plane where the halves of my mate's conscience dwelled when one or the other was in control. To my surprise, the room was cold and forbidding and darkness surrounded the majority of the area. The only light was a very dim one in the corner where a cage, barely big enough to fit a grown man, sat in solitude.

I winced as I stared at the pale, naked creature curled up inside the bars. I nearly cried when he turned his bright red eyes up to me and gazed at me sadly, as if he knew why I was there but was afraid that I would be disgusted and leave him there all alone. Oh, my beautiful beast. I cooed softly through my spirit as I approached the cage and was surprised when he snarled menacingly. I froze for a moment, unsure why he would react in such a manner, until I realized that Carlisle was standing directly behind me. I never took my eyes off the beast as I knelt at a distance. "I didn't think it would be possible for you two to share the same space."

I sensed Carlisle shake his head as he squatted down beside me. "We can," he commented, "but I try to normally limit my time with him. If I remain in here for extended periods of time with him, my body slips into a state akin to shock or sleep. With both of us here, in this state of unconsciousness, there is no conscious state of mind to keep our body... awake."

I felt panic shoot through me but was instantly smoothed over by calm from both halves of my mate. "That means you're vulnerable, Carlisle. You should surface and-"

"Not yet," he whispered firmly, his topaz eyes never leaving the naked form of his darker half. "I need to release him. I unlocked his cage Sunday, when you sat on the deck talking to me while I was in the tree. I thought that he would begin to roam our subconscious as he is supposed to, but he did not. He is too wary to. He does not understand why after three hundred years of captivity, he's suddenly being allowed from his cage. He does not believe that he is truly free, so he stays in side, still fights against his cage."

When I made to move forward, Carlisle stopped me. "I am the only master he has known on his plane. While I can restrain and command him, these dark recesses of my mind are his territory. You must let him adjust to you, let him come to you."

I gazed back at the animal that was constantly hidden in the depths of Carlisle's soul. "Why do you hide here when you're obviously free to roam the expanse of your mind?"

It seemed that even on a spiritual plane the beast was unable to speak verbally, so he showed me. There were images and emotions. There was his natural rage, the pain and loneliness he had felt over the past three hundred years. There was the joy that he had felt upon seeing me. There was his struggle to break from his prison to be with me. There was his fear of hurting me. There was his own animalistic love and adoration and lust. He let me see and feel it all in wave after wave of sensations and pictures.

I wanted so much to throw open the door to cage, but being told that the only presence he was used to having in his dark and lonely world was his other half - his primary master - I knew that getting to close could make him more agitated. He had only just stopped snarling as it was!

I understand what you feel, I felt toward the animal as tenderly as possible, but I still don't understand why you come back here. Why here if Carlisle does not make you?

I could feel his frustration as he tried to formulate his thoughts into one feeling, finally answering through our bond as Carlisle answered aloud: "Home."

When Carlisle approached the cage, the beast began snarling as he backed into a corner. He looked over his master's shoulder to me when I whispered bello bestio, his eyes lighting up with surprise and understanding. It's okay, I murmured, we're not going to hurt you. I promise. You don't have to keep coming here. I know you can't always have control of your body, but when you are here in your mind, it's your space. You don't have to stay locked away.

He looked between us both warily, growling when Carlisle braced his hands on the cage and knelt before an almost-identical image of himself. "I am sorry," my mate said softly to the creature he had held captive for so long. "Before you, as a human, I had believed that our kind could only be savage, mindless, cruel killers. I was so terrified of the horror that you could become that I imprisoned you here without seeing the exceptional potential of what... of what we could become together."

I watched, awe-stuck, when he pressed his forehead to the bars and stretched his fingers through. I was even more shocked when the animal moved forward as he continued to rumble nervously, pressing his face near his master's. After a few moments of hesitation, the animal grasped the other's fingers.

Carlisle's voice was gentle but firm when he spoke to his bestial half. "I will not let you overtake me nor will I allow you to have free reign of our body, and I will most certainly not allow you to turn us into a savage monster. But I refuse to keep you prisoner any longer, and I swear to you," he whispered harshly, "I will never again hurt us this way."

He swiftly opened the door to the cage then moved to crouch close to the ground behind me, his thighs parted around me as we waited for his animalistic side to move out of the metal construction.

I wanted to reach out my hand to soothe him, to have him thrust his face toward me, to rub his cold cheek against my palm and purr. I wanted to touch his unfiltered form of the beast, caress the angles of his face, but he was obviously still a bit anxious. He was also very curious as to why my presence was in his territory, but when I shifted backwards slightly to give him some space, I felt my heart clench at the mournful keening sound he made. "I'm not leaving," I whispered audibly in our spiritual plane. "I'm staying here with you for now."

As if to prove my point, I sat down cross-legged a few feet away from the cage.

I was afraid to come any closer, since this was the first time that I had dealt with the beast in his untainted form. We had only connected in the physical world before, with his spirit being filtered through the mind and fibers of Carlisle's restraint. Even though I had control of this creature on most levels, in the physical world, he had an immortal body. In the physical world, he was not subject to being controlled by someone other than his humane half. So while he would be willing to calm for me, submit to me, as he was doing now, it was clear that he did not want that domination to be taken from him like his genteel half had done.

They were more alike that Carlisle realized, and I sent the flood of realization to both man and beast, feeling Carlisle's chest vibrate against my back with silent laughter and watching the animal's lips curl into a small smirk.

I'm not going to control you, I said to my lovely animal as he crept to the edge of the cage. And more than that, I'm not going to allow you to go back to your prison after this. He released you for a reason, and neither of us plan on returning you to that horrible thing.I nodded my head at the metal construction before focusing on his eyes again. You don't need to fear me being in your world and you don't need to fear hurting me in my world. Or yours.

I could see why Carlisle had called himself an animal, a beast. Even when the human part of his soul controlled their body, he still did not move quite the way this creature did. As this beast circled, he stayed braced on the highest part of his palms and fingers and on his toes as he slowly made his way around me and Carlisle. Even still, though, his limbs moved with the most inhuman grace, his lithe body tensing and relaxing with every careful glide forward.

He sniffed the air as he adjusted to my spiritual presence in his normal solitary space, but when he was directly in front of us, he moved forward. It was obvious that he was still tense at his other half being near him, but he was far more curious about me while I was in this form. He deeply inhaled my scent, starting with my hair then working his way down to my neck, my chest, and then to the intimate juncture of my thighs. He lowered himself to the floor as he took in my growing arousal. He suddenly shot back up, his face hovering mere inches in front of mine as he cocked his head. He was curious, yes, but still equally confused.

I smiled. I was coming to see you alone. I didn't expect you - him - to follow me. I came to get you to come with me, to surface consciously. Despite having just been officially freed, this still seemed like a genuine surprise to him as he had always had to fight to be let out, even when he wished only to protect me. So, very slowly, not wishing to startled him, I took my time to lean forward and my tongue slowly darted out to lick his cheek. When I sat back, his red eyes were gleaming with adoration and pride. Did you not believe me when I showed you both what I felt?

I was surprised when the walls of the forbidding room shivered then gave way to the image of the beautiful forest. I gasped in utter shock when I realized that it was not just the room that was missing from our spiritual world, but my clothes! And from the cool chest pressed against my back, it seemed that Carlisle was as naked as the beast before me. It also seemed that in a spiritual plane, my bruises no longer existed, which left me wide open, quite literally, to their attention.

I could only groan in overwhelming pleasure as four hands guided me down to the soft, mossy blanket of the forest floor where I was pressed between the two halves of my mate: the beast before me and the man behind me.

"Oh God, I won't survive this," I whimpered, my body and soul already shivering from the waves of love, lust, adoration and reverence crashing into me from both sides. Mi bello bestio. Both man and animal purred at the name, and I was lost in the sensations of hands and lips and teeth, completely unable to separate where one of us began and the others ended. "Please..."

Purrs and growls surrounded me as Carlisle nipped at the back of my neck and the beast latched his lips around the flesh above my pulse near the front. Each had a breast, squeezing, pinching, twisting, tugging. Carlisle used his venom and fingers to prepare the tight rings of muscle hidden between the globes of my backside while his bestial half worked my pussy and clit into a frenzy.

It was in the midst of my orgasm that they both carefully mounted me, pumping in and out of me, slowly at first then building their speed and strength as they moved together. It was overwhelming, delicious, reverent, erotic. And dear God, did I really want them to merge when, together, they could accomplish this? My spiritual form was being filled from both sides as well as being flooded with the emotions of both man and beast. And when I finally floated down from my high, they were still there kissing, nipping, licking, purring. They both were still assuring me in their own ways of their undying love, and when they began to make love to me for the second time, I was certain that I had died and that my soul was in heaven.

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TBC

Sorry. No fun tagline tonight.