"What?" the voice answered back and for a split second Beau sensed a hint of...fear... in the voice.

"I said... Come into the light..." Beau repeated his voice slightly clearer from his revelation.

There was no answer... Almost like the voice was at lost of what to do next. After a few seconds... Beau had his answer.

"No."

Beau was right... His opponent was afraid... For someone who could strike so much fear into Beau's heart... The answer surprised him.

"No?"

"No..."

"Why not?" Beau asked.

" I do not want to..." the voice replied softly.

"How do you expect me to keep my end of the bargain when you won't even show me your face?" Beau challenged.

There was a growl and Beau wondered if he had stepped out of line... He closed his eyes expecting the figure to strike him down on the spot... But there was only a deep sigh...

Finally, after minutes of hostile silence...the sinister figure slowly placed one foot before the other. Beau's eyes grew wide when he realized what he was looking at wasn't even relatively human. The feet belonged to those of a wild animal, clawed and covered with fur, bent at the heel... A long wolf tail hung between those legs, sweeping lazily as the figure stepped further into the light revealing, a muscular but lean and supple body much like that of a panther... A panther dressed in a loose white shirt with a wine red cape barely hiding its clawed five fingered paws. Finally, with a jerk, the creature pulled off its hood to reveal a large jackal like face completed with a snout and sharp fangs, a waist long mane of tangled dark hair that fell over its face and shoulders. Its head decorated with a pair of menacing black ram horns that lay on top of its pointed ears. The worst feature however... in Beau's opinion was not so much the ugliest or the most terrifying, but the most misplaced. On that unmistakably animal face... were two, indescribably beautiful... human eyes. As if they had been from another person entirely and didn't belong to this monster before him, two beautiful emeralds that stared unblinkingly into his soul...

Beau backed away, unnerved by those eyes... But unable to tear his own from them. Despite being terrified by the sight before him, he could not help but continue staring at the monster in sick fascination... What intrigued him was that not only was his father's captor a... beastly figure... She was also... Female... Despite being dressed in a men's shirt and breeches far to big for her... The beast's feminine curves clearly gave away her gender... The two glared at each other, both sides unwilling to say a word, until the beast bared her teeth.

"Well are you satisfied now?" She asked dryly, obviously uncomfortable with Beau staring at her.

Beau took a deep breath... Probably his last... and nodded.

"You have my word..." he said softly.

"Beau no!" but Maurice's scream was cut off once again when the Beast, literally tore open the door and dragged Maurice out the cell, down the stairs and into the courtyard, ignoring every single one of Beau's protests.

"Please I beg of you... Have mercy on him... Let him go..."

"He's no longer you're concern..." the Beast said silkily before hastily shoving him into one of the carriages.

"Take him to the village..." was the last thing Maurice heard before the sounds of gears grinding droned out his screams and pleas of mercy. As he clawed at the window, he could see the castle getting further and further away...

The beast clambered up the stairs two at a time, barely able to contain her excitement... This could be it... This could be her chance... This young man could just be the key to her...

"Mistress..."

"WHAT?!" she growled savagely but instantly regretted it. Looking at the terrified candlestick she cursed herself internally. He was only trying to help... so why did she... why was she being so beastly to him... In fact, why was she being so beastly to everyone...

"What Lumiere?" she repeated, more gently this time.

"Uh, I was thinking, since the young man is going to be staying with us for quite some time... Maybe you would want to give him a more comfortable room..."

The beast growled and rolled her eyes... Did the candlestick think her beastly features equated to stupidity? Did he really think she would keep this poor young man in the cold tower? Shaking her head at him, she continued up the stairs.

Beau watched sadly as the carriage pulled itself away from the castle. Curling his fists angrily, he lay down on the straw and shut his eyes trying to get comfortable.

"Does being your prisoner also mean you get to gloat at my suffering?" he asked sarcastically hearing the beast's footsteps enter the tower.

"Watch your tongue, if you want to keep it..." she answered in that infuriating silky voice.

Beau turned to the beast and glared daggers at her. "You didn't have to be so violent... If you have my word, you have my word...

"I couldn't be sure..."

"You could have gave me some time to say goodbye... I'll never see him again..."

The beast blinked, before she turned away, running her hand through her hair feeling a twinge of guilt... He was right... she had been unnecessarily violent... Maybe she should apologize... Yes apologize... That was what she was supposed to do... right?

"But what good would it do?" she thought frowning a little... She couldn't call the carriage back; the damage had been done... Unsure of how to act, the beast sighed

"I'll show you to your room..." she said finally.

"If this was enough for my father..."

"Either follow me down, or die of hypothermia up here. Those are your choices..." the beast pointed out coldly.

Bea ignored her, but he couldn't ignore the fact his body was starting to shiver from the night's cold...Sighing, he pushed himself up slowly and followed the beast down the dungeon steps.

The walk was a silent one, both man and beast engaging in the fine art of ignoring each other. Beau's inquisitive mind couldn't stop him from having a good luck at the castle though... It was grotesque, the architecture, the statues, and the paintings... All of them seemed to have leaped off the pages of a horror novel or the works of Edgar Allen Poe himself.

While Beau was staring at the castle, the Beast was staring at Beau... Despite the sullen look on his face she couldn't help but think he was unbelievably...good looking... He was tall, a tiny bit taller than beast herself, a nice figure, muscular but still slim, with thick wavy brown hair that was tied into a loose ponytail. Sharp features with some roundness, all in the right places...that housed his large thoughtful dark brown eyes concentrated so fiercely on what he was thinking... he fascinated the beast... Suddenly, Beau's eyes snapped back into place, catching the beast staring at him.

Quickly the beast turned away, her cheeks burning, her ears pressed against her head embarrassed. Lumiere, noticing this immediately tried to salvage the situation.

"Say something to him..." Lumiere urged encouragingly.

"Uh... I hope you like it here..." the beast tried only to get a cold eye from Beau. The candlestick waved his "hands", urging her to continue.

"The castle is your home now, so you can go anywhere you want... anywhere except the west wing..." the beast tried again hoping that the prospect of having almost an entire castle to explore would cheer Beau up. There was still no reply from Beau. Dejected, the beast continued walking in silence ignoring whatever signals Lumiere was giving her.

Finally, all three of them arrived in front of a well-furnished door. Systematically, the beast quickly unlocked the door for Beau who simply nodded in thanks.

"If you need anything... My servants will attend to you..." the beast offered hoping to get a word out of the sullen Beau. Lumiere noticing the hostile situation racked his brains to help his mistress.

"Dinner! Invite him to dinner!" He whispered.

"If you are hungry, my servants will..."

"I'm not hungry beast" Beau snapped, his back to the monster.

There was a snarl.

"Don't call me that..." the beast warned, its voice dangerously low.

"Then what do I call you then?" Beau challenged and for the second night that night he locked eyes with monstrosity before him causing the both of them to freeze... It felt like hours of this before the beast backed away and growled sinistey.

"It doesn't matter, Dinner is at seven in the main dining hall..."

"I'm not attending."

Unable to tolerate Beau's stiff shoulder any longer, the Beast snarled and slammed the door shut.

"THAT WAS NOT A REQUEST! IT WAS AN ORDER!" she roared before storming off to her own quarters.

Beau glared at the door for a full minute before throwing himself onto his bed in frustration. At first, he felt the urge to burst out of his room and make a quick escape out of the castle. However, after much consideration, his confidence deflated and he simmered down. Making a run for it would have been fairly risky and not to mention stupid... The unfamiliar castle was a maze of corridors and stairways. Beau knew he'd be caught in a matter of minutes and he hated to think what the beast would try to do to him if she did indeed catch him.

Beau shuddered at the memory of the beast. She was nothing like he had ever seen before... Terrifying with her gleaming fangs and those horrible sharp claws... and to think he had to share dinner with her...

"Ughh..." Beau groaned before sadly peering out of the window, out into the gloom. It had begun to snow, the first really heavy snow of the winter...