Title: A Beneficial Guise Part 3

Author: Mina Robins

Fandom: Once Upon A Time

Pairing: SwanQueen

Rating: T One-Shot

Summary: Emma is a hunter, a cold blooded survivor, and she's acquired a taste for a certain Mayor. Tonight is the night she has decided to enact on her desires to feast, though maybe she'll entertain these human dreams… At least until she bores of it.

…

-3rd month-

Emma waved the Bear claw at the departing Sheriff as a goodbye. Graham was finally leaving the building, which meant that she was allowed to drop the harden pastry back into her desk drawer. Her body wasn't capable of digesting anything other than blood and small quantities of liquids such as water and the sort. Graham was the chivalrous sort of annoying that would always bring a double of his own store brought lunch whenever they were in the same shift. And seeing how the whole god damn town only happened to have a couple Deputies and Sheriff on staff, Emma felt that they spent far too much time together. He insisted it was because he didn't want others to say that he was starving her since they always seemed too busy for her to grab a lunch or even bother to pack one. He didn't want her to think that he was depriving her of her break time even if it was her choice not to eat. Though Emma knew there was more to just being a thoughtful superior. She could smell the fondness in his scent, could sense the motive with the way his body carved into the space around her, close enough until she could only watch the pulse beating in his neck.

It made her murderous thoughts simmer with possibility.

She knew that Graham had slept with Regina before. She had smelt it in the sheets and gleaned it in the submissive wilting of his posture when Regina was around. Though that was in the past and Emma was not one to waste thought on who had once loitered in Regina's bed. As long as Graham did not approach and Regina had not beckoned then all was well in her mind. Her want to hurt Graham was only for the pursuit of the fine blood that pumped steady and strong. At least that was what she told herself whenever he sat too close to them during a town council meeting.

It was odd to watch the full array of charm coming from him; it was just shy of being boyish, with his head dipped slightly forward but his gaze flicking up through his mousey brown hair to meet hers expectantly. It was like watching a dog with a bone in its mouth, waiting for its master to take the offering while its tail swirled about like it was having some kind of epileptic fit.

Emma would never humour even a bit of solid food into her system since her body would just make her vomit it back up. The taste of food didn't change after being turned but it certainly lost its appeal once she learnt that nothing solid she ate would stay down. It was like being strung out, left cold turkey to get clean, when the shivers wrecked her body so hard that there was nothing she could do but suffer through her stomach spasm and cringe. That was another lifetime ago and she had no fancy of ever reliving any part of those moments.

She had taken the habit of waving one particular Bear Claw around as a ward to cease Graham's ardent overtures of affection. The pastry had all but aged into a rock at this point but it served as a passable prop. She absentmindedly brushed her fingertips off from excess sugar over the waste basket.

She had one last piece of paper work to complete before calling it a day; it was a terribly benign documentation about how she had fetched another stray cat from a tree that was always easier to clamber up but impossible to climb back down.

Being able to glamour humans also meant she could use the same trick on animals. During her apprenticeship under her master's guidance, learning to exert full mental control over other beings had been one of the most exhausting and tedious exercises she had to undergo. The way she lived made the skill a necessity and it was always an entertaining trick when she got bored. Though no matter how much entertainment value it was to have this ability she could never forget the mortifying hours she spent glaring at crickets as she goaled to simply make them take one lick of water. She worked up to birds and then felines and then all the way into a very long tenure of stalking out at the public zoo. Those months at the zoo had been enough animal mental harassment Emma could stand for the rest of her days. And yet here she was 10 years later and none the wiser, staring down cats to calming dogs.
Graham said she had a lucky knack for it and David had teased her on being an animal whisperer.

Emma wished she had just broken the damn thing's neck.

…

Emma could smell the pungent aroma of Mr. Gold's cologne, the scent that wafted off the miniscule man carried a pinch of clove. The clicking succession of his cane quickened as he chased her retreating back. This was the man that threatened her Regina. She could just end him here, humans are such fragile things. She unhurriedly turned and thought of all the entertaining things she could do to him, slice him open from plexus to navel with just her nails. String him up by his own intestines; she could use his shop's rafters as a makeshift hang man's bar. As the man scratched and whined when the organic noose ripped him apart and sealed his throat close. It would be a terribly messy affair, the kind that would drench her attire in bits of flesh and flecks of blood. She would set the whole damn place on fire. The pain would be intolerable but he would still be alive if done right, choking on the fumes. The livid inferno would char that sly grin off of his face, his skin would taunt under the high temperature, pulling, rippling back into his skull as the fat bubbled and sluiced off his scrawny body. The image of him suffering would be enough; she did not require the screech of his voice to settle her ire. She wouldn't even deign to indulge in the cretin's blood.

"Ms. Swan, so good to have caught up to you, I had some things I wished to discuss with you." Gold was leaning heavily on his walking stick now that he had caught up to her.

Her lips automatically turned up into a polite smile before she conscientiously changed her expression to reflect her careful concern. "Is there any issue with the boys from before; did they come back to the shop, I'll be happy to swing back again if you need my help?"

"Oh, there will be no need for that; I just wanted to offer some advice on the Mayor." His smile was furtive as he leaned conspicuously near. "She's not as she appears, Ms. Swan, it would be in your best interest to cut your associations with her." With the Saviour entangled with The Evil Queen there would be no way for his curse to be unraveled. He needed Emma to realize that a curse was present and that it stemmed from Regina. If Emma had such knowledge and believed in it, only then would True Love's kiss given to her Son break the spell. Love had to be equal in both participants and Rumple doubted Regina had the capability to love anything outside of herself.

A town filled with love birds like Snow and Charming, watching them come together and fall apart at intervals like tacky soap drama's protagonists. It was a vicious cycle of lies and misfortunate events since David had awoken. If only a kiss was all it took… You could love another's body, their touch and smell, but the background knowledge, shared passion for who they truly were was a requirement along with believing in a fairy tale. Silly little tawdry Kodak moments that Gold could live without ever witnessing, awareness of the spell and memory of witnessing another's naked soul must be intact or else nothing will come to fruition from a simple touch of skin.

"While your advice isn't welcome, your concern is noted, but who I stay with or leave will be my own business and not yours." This seemed like the correct amount of attitude to throw into such a conversation. Emma's first option was still to just rid the man of his head for intruding in her affairs but Regina had called it, that Emma wanted to start up a 'rampage' and she had no interest to prove her human lover right. She found it amusing that her own eccentric need for being right was the only thing keeping him alive.

"Come now, haven't you ever been suspicious of Regina's motives of seducing you into her bed?"

Emma wanted to drag her hands down her face in annoyance, if anyone had done the seducing it had been her and not Regina. What is with this man and Henry both jumping to the conclusion that Regina was the one at fault at all times?! She could still just dart her hand out, smooth nails slotting into and through his skin and muscles, letting her fingers snatch onto his collarbone for a good grip. They weren't even that far from his shop, she would strangle him till he passed out and then patiently wait for him to awake before bringing her earlier fantasy to life. Instead she placed a flicker of doubt over her features to test the waters.

When Gold's expression turned wicked she redoubled her efforts to act surprised and slightly anxious, as if he had dug up a great secret and then shook her head in faux disbelief. "Regina loves me."

Gold patted Emma consolingly on her shoulder and she did her best not to duck away from his approaching limb. Humans could be so ridiculously sluggish; one could only guess how they managed before the invention of tools. She felt the need to fight off the cringe on her face as she watched in slow motion as the hand descended again in another pat. She wasn't some cat that he could just molest when he needing an outlet for his unspoken thoughts. "Tsk tsk, she does play a great enchantress, must have been due to her past, say, what did she claim as her occupation before coming to Storybrooke?"

Emma blinked, she knew she wasn't supposed to know about Regina's history but she did, what the hell was she supposed to make up here? Her facial expression faltered away from the concern and hit a frustrated blankness that she hope Gold wouldn't notice. Fucking humans and their incredibly intricate ways of-

"Nothing, did she?" Gold teased, glad he had the upper hand, he internally scoffed. Royalty tended to breed the most inept kind of offspring. How was Emma ever going to go searching if he wasn't here to guide the dim witted princess?

Emma remained silent since Gold was practically doing all her acting for her; she supposed she should now be wrecked with some denial and a pinch of worry? That was her best guess and who could fault her for trying? Humans are annoying little things, especially this rat.

"Well then, I'll leave you with that food for thought." Gold gave a nod of his head, glowing now that his words had pushed this idiot along. He grinned once more and then proceeded to head back towards his shop, a particular cheer in each clack his cane made on the concrete.

If it was entirely up to her she wished that she could just have killed him to begin with, honestly, was he supposed to plant seeds of doubt? Emma scrunched up her features to a scowl as the man glanced back at her, he nodded again, obviously pleased with his efforts.

The blonde sighed, stuffed her hands into her jacket pockets and turned back towards her den. Fucking humans.

At least Regina would be returning from work soon.