Predator

02.

"Baby," Ryan came up behind Neela while she was brushing her teeth and resting his hands on her sides, "please." Even though Neela was scared, her heartbeat still sped up in excitement. Despite still being angry, ryan was intoxicated on hearing Neela's beating heart. "I can feel your blood pumping through your veins," Ryan spoke against Neela's hair before kissing her head.

"Is that a good thing?" Neela asked once her mouth was rinsed clean with water and leaned into Ryan's embrace. "Of course," he watched his mate's eyes gleam as the fluorescent light captured her eyes. "I just wish you could feel it like I do, or even so much as to hear it like I do."

Neela looked down and sighed, "Are you going to hurt me?" She had begun to rub at his covered arms to hopefully diminish his anger toward her. "No, baby," Ryan gently moved his arms so Neela was enclosed in his embrace once again. "I just want to know what's going on in your head, is all. I miss us having the connection like we did in my dreams, I miss the you I know, the actual you."

"I'm just confused, angry, sad, and overall scared," Neela turned in Ryan's arms to face his towering figure. "It's okay, angel. You have to tell me, or somebody else, when you're feeling like that. If you keep all of it bottled up, it'll hurt you." Neela nodded and craned her neck to look up at Ryan. "Let's go to bed now, I haven't slept for three days." 

"Was there a lot of poison they had to get out?" Neela asked, still in Ryan's arms as he waddled them over to the bed. "No, I made you throw all of them up basically. Some good news came from it all though," Ryan beamed as he went around the room to collect some pillows, "after I made you throw up, while we were waiting for the ambulance, I kissed your ear a lot; we were okay the whole time I did it."

Neela smiles genuinely at this, "that makes me really happy," she pulled her hand up to cover her mouth. "It does? Truly?" Ryan kneeled in front of his mate and when she nodded, he enclosed her in his protective arms. "What I want to do is get you into therapy or something like that, the medicine isn't working for you, angel." Ryan spoke while deeply inhaling Neela's scent.

When Ryan relieved Neela of his embrace, she spoke, ashamed in herself for almost ruining everything, "I didn't know how to tell you what I felt, I was worried about you getting angry with me."

Ryan sighed and spoke seriously once again, "how many times do I have to tell you, Neela? I'm not like the person you see in the dreams, you're my family who I never mean to hurt."

After a few minutes of laying down, it was clear that neither of the two were ready to sleep yet despite Ryan not sleeping for days. "Can you tell me about you? Your past and stuff?"

"Be specific for me," Ryan chuckled, "What was life like before you were born? After you were born? Being a demon in general?"

"Before I was born," Neela said simply and sat up so she could see Ryan while he spoke. "Well, like my grandfather, I was to be an incubus. An incubus is a type of demon that gains..pleasure from mortal women. Then I was cursed and couldn't touch a human being without killing them. I've went on numerous killing sprees due to anger, confusion, and want for you. I was heartless. So much so that people would fear me, even my own family, people even now fear me. But, 17 years ago I've felt something new in me," Ryan, while still lying down, flicked his eyes to look at Neela. "I could feel a heartbeat, not mine of course. And it was giving me a sense of stability, everything bad went away once I felt it."

Now looking down in her lap, Neela spoke. "It sounded like it was pretty intense for you."

"You have no idea, I never wanted to feel someone so much. I didn't want to kill anymore, I didn't want to be a monster anymore because I had someone counting on me to be there for them," Ryan paused for a few seconds, just to give Neela a moment to take it all in. "And then the dreams begun the night of your birth, oh my god," he covered his eyes as he felt a euphoric feeling from those good memories. "I was finally touching a human being and I wasn't a demon, I was me, it was you! I didn't even know if you existed at the time, I just needed you. I have you now, it's not how either of us imagined, but I still feel the same."

Ryan silently looked over at Neela and begun laughing, "we should really go to bed or you're going to die of embarrassment," he lifted his arm and allowed Neela to settle in his embrace. "Hopefully you'll sleep well."

That night, Neela faced the pillows while she slept. She felt like she was at ease, safe, protected—she's never felt this with anyone else...not even her father. The couple fell asleep with smiles on their faces, Ryan held Neela in his embrace.

For awhile he just looked at her while she slept and he's never been so transfixed by another person, human or demon, before. He could've died happy then, knowing that his mate begun to trust him. He believed that his mother would be so proud of him for coming this far.

Maybe his family could help him reverse his condition. Every year, the Soptic family has a ball. The Soptic's were one of the richest and most respected families in the demon world, the ball was highly prestigious.

Neela could even meet everyone to know that Ryan isn't so bad.