Lady of the Night (Downworlder Series, #3)

Chapter Twenty: A Dragon's Fury

I watched the streets carefully.

It was my job.

I was the eyes and the ears, never missing anything, never letting anything by. I needed to watch, we needed to watch. We were her boys and we watched. Our mama requested it of us. We watched... and protected. It was our job.

Like a tiny casket of jewels amid the putrid feeling of death and the incessant scent of rot, the brothel lay like a small beacon of brilliant beauty and treasure. We had to protect it and the females within. We took care of our girls, our sisters. Mama requested it of us and we did as we were asked.

There was a time when the world seemed so very far away. The beast inside me was constantly ravenous, never finding enough to fill the void within. Scraps and garbage and unlucky patrons of the streets were never enough. His hunger drowned me out, silenced me, made me weak and invisible. He ruled over me, the hunger forever driving him forward and me too weak to stop him.

Then she came.

A light in the darkness with a kind touch, a soothing word, enough to sate the beast. She had fed him her kindness, her love, her caring, and her food. She had slowly but surely she sated his ravenous hunger. She had shown us both that the hunger hadn't just been physical but emotional as well. We had needed the kindness and the caring, the love, to truly feel full. She had been patient as she had done so and when it was finally sated, the void finally full, I came forth and met her, our saviour.

Our den mother.

She took us in, loved us, cared for us. In return she asked us to watch. To protect. So we did. We would live or die by her command and she knew it, we told her as many ways as we could. Some of us could not speak but we let our actions show her just how much we returned her love. We would be with her, protect her and the girls and forever do as she asked. There would never be hesitation because the gift she gave us, loving the unlovable, was more than we could ever repay.

Cars drove by, the irritating gleam of headlights just missing my spot in the shadows. I bared my teeth, agitation rolling underneath my skin. My beast was right there, always waiting for my concentration to break so he could once again push me back. We lived out of sync, out of order. There was no balance to us. We were stuck in an endless competition with each other, each of us vying for control. I knew there would be no equilibrium between us and I accepted that fact.

We were a creature of the city's making and we were better off than some of those whose consciousnesses merged into one, creating deformed and twisted creatures that were not men or beast but both. Like being tossed into a bowl and mixed together, they came out wrong. Some could whine, attempting human speech but being unable with beast vocal chords and others would bark out words as their beasts tried to use the language they were stuck with.

Mixed beasts like them were naturally feral. Anger towards their positions and the things they didn't understand drove them forward. They didn't get along, always fighting to fill the void inside but with Mama they were settled. She calmed down the feral nature that dominated them. She calmed us all.

I could feel her presence before she even arrived, my beast reacting like a pup, wiggling with excitement and radiating love for her. She softened his usually harsh edges and made him bearable for me to exist with. She was like a goddess to him, she was the one thing on the earth that he idolized and I did too. She gave me my control back, as tentative as it was.

I sniffed the air, curling my lip up at the stench that permeated the air around me. The city was a cesspool and it didn't surprise me that it prompted the divide between my beast and I. I narrowed my eyes at the darkness of the streets. I could smell the drunks that wandered the streets. The smell was growing stronger and I could hear a group of them coming closer. I wanted to chase them off but I knew I had to stay put.