Chapter 47: Danny POV

If I could have kicked Sebastian in the head, snapped him in two, I would have the instant the young Master's voice came from the darkness. I realized my mistake, Sebastian's actions, and I could not let the young Master suffer. Sebastian on the other hand, well, I would relish in watching him suffer.

I held a hand out to the young Master, his eyes filling with confusion and then tears. "Mist… Misses? You are a man… and dress like a woman? And…."

"Young Master, I know this is hard. I am not a man. Not physically a man. I have hidden most of my life as a man - learned to live as a man. But I am not a man. Not in here," I said, touching my chest, where my heart was, where the single diamond teardrop was hanging. "Not physically, either. I dress like a man, but I am still Mr. Hyde. I am also Ms. Hyde. I am truly Ms. Daniella Hyde."

The young Master stood and a look of horror, disgust, and betrayal all flashed over his face. He backed up and almost stumbled over the small settee, and I reached for him and he shook his head, tears flowing over his face as he gasped for air and finally turned and ran from me.

"Young Master! Vincent!" I softly cried as I struggled to stand, the dress too heavy, to light, and swirling around my legs. Sebastian's hands curled around my arms and he breathed into my ear, making me fight and spin towards him, my hands in tight fists, energy flowing through me. "There was a better way for him to find out I am a woman!"

"And when would that be? When he calls for you in the night? When he begs for you to take him? He is but a child, I understand; the Master was only a year older than the young Master when he cried out and I came to him. But he must know. He must," Sebastian said, pulling me down the hall, toward my room.

I shoved him hard as he tried to come into the room after me. "Go to your bed! Mine is not for your pleasure tonight." I shut the door and leaned against it, listening to him still, breathing, and waiting. "I'm not changing my mind! Please! You say you don't want to hurt me, I can take my time to decide if I want the household to know, and now… you took that choice from me." I kicked the door in frustration and gave a grunt. "I know he needs to learn, to know, because he has become attached, so attached to me. But I am his Tutor, not a lover. I am his teacher, not his Master. I am a man he looks up to, not a object he can pine for."

"Yet even you know that some of those are not as innocent as they once were to him," Sebastian said. I could imagine his eyes soften and a small sigh passed his lips. "My love."

My resolve crumbled a bit and I spread my left hand on the door handle, ready to let him in. He was the best - only - one I could talk to, yet I stared at my bare Mark. The delicate lines I also longed to have imprinted into the young Master's flesh, claiming him, Marking him, Contracting him, which would create a bond as intimate as a couple. I pushed down on the handle and opened the door a bit. I slid over and looked at him through the opening.

"You thought that was the best way for the young Master to find out I was a woman? Maybe I wanted to leave him innocent of the…" I looked at him and took in his equally red eyes as mine. Demon eyes. I looked away. "Is there moment when we can simply let the Humans be.. Human? We have two innocent Souls - more really - to protect."

The deep growl that came from Sebastian made me shudder, in both carnal delight and also in Human fear. "I only have two beings I have sworn to protect. The young Master is not one of them."

He slid into the room, black darkness flowing around me and clung to me even as the door was shut and firmly locked. I closed my eyes and answered that darkness with my own and turned and found myself staring into the red eyes of my Demon, as he did to me.

"We have an understanding, Sebastian," I said simply. "I am both your distraction and your anchor. But you still crave the Earl's Soul. I know I am learning, and you are patiently teaching me, but I still am… something more than a Demon. When the young Mistress was born, I was holding the Soul of the beautiful child, a innocence so pure I could not hide the Hunger - the Hunger that isn't very far from my skin. You should have left me, let me turn into the Darkness, into the Demon who consumes without measure, without thought." I put my hands on his chest and looked at him as he brussled his wings. "But you didn't let me. You didn't want me to. Why?"

"You are something nothing else, yes. You are Born, not Made, my exquisite Demon. And I didn't - couldn't leave you - because I want you - I want you - as mine," he answered finally, sliding his hands over my chest and cupping my breasts, before sliding one back up and cupping my chin and sliding both of his hands further down between my legs, now semi-bare as the dress had melted halfway from my body in my transition to my true form. "I want to possess you as you possess me. Keep that unique parts of you intact. Call out to the others as we wish. I want to present myself boldly to you, before others, to know that I can create a craving in you, make others - Human and Demon alike - wish they were my desires. I want them to cry because I crave you. Cravings answered readily." He paused and licked my lips as he pushed me back to his body. "In short, Daniella Hyde, I want to make you… my Mate."

His lips seared mine and I felt the frenzy of the night the Reapers discovered I was a woman, settle into both our bodies. I wanted him, and as I ripped his clothes, into his Demonic flesh, I felt him, him leaning over me, his teeth grazing my throat, down my shoulders, the clothes melting and my bare body before his.

"I am, and will forever be, your woman," I hissed as he entered between my legs, and we began the almost nightly ritual of our own private dance. "No Human will take that. But let them dream, my lover. Let them be a bit innocent, clinging to the mystery that is us... Mm... let them dream of being this Demon's Mate." I panted as he rooted into me, the primal forces of Mating, claiming, creating the bond and so much more, exploded into me, and around me. "Take me…" I moaned, even as he did. "I'll be your everything as you are mine. Until the end of time."

He pulled back and slammed the bed into the wall, hard and fast, and his snarl and lips curling into a laugh, made me glad we had created this moment, these moments, as ours, this was our temple, our alter, our sacrifice as we consecrated our love for the other. The young Master would someday have this bliss as his, and I would stand beside him, watching as he bedded his own mate, as he created his own family.

"Eternity," he cried as he held me, my legs around him, pulling his mouth to suckle on my breasts, a boldness surging out as we Mated.

"Eternity," I answered. "Blissfully eternal."