Rose, Wilted: Book 1

Chapter 18 - Tick Tock

The snow was beginning to thin when the Beast went hunting a few days later. It was still early, and the sun was just beginning to wake, tinging the snow gold and casting purple shadows of the looming trees. The air was frigid, but his fur provided a layer of insulation against the chill. He stepped carefully, keeping low to the ground, his large paws rustling the snow too softly to be heard. Upwind, a scrawny doe took halting steps on spindly legs, nosing through the snow for a scrap of grass. It was almost spring, but not yet warm enough for any kind of growth. The doe was having no luck, but the Beast was. He stalked closer, keeping his eyes trained on the doe.

Hungry. Kill.

Hungry. Breakfast first, then I'll get the animal out of my head.

Warm. Blood. Kill.

Just a little closer...

Kill it! Eat!

The Beast lunged. The doe screamed as animal claws raked down her flanks, legs flailing. The Beast pinned the deer under its weight, ignored its shrill bleats and clamped his jaws around the throb of blood pulsing through the doe's neck. Gradually the thrashing quieted as warmth bled into the Beast's jaws and pooled like saliva, some of it dripping out onto the snow between his teeth and melting beneath its heat. The doe's side heaved one more time in a last breath and then silenced entirely. The Beast yanked at the deer's throat and tore into a steaming breakfast. The monster in his head began to quiet, satisfied as the brown bones began to appear. Funny that everyone thought they were white. They were pale to be certain, but covered in pink gore and had a brown tinge like dry leaves and crunched just as easily between his jaws.

The Beast's blood was still rushing in his head, his breathing coming in heavy gusts, barely stopping between torn bites of flesh. He struggled not to think of what he was eating, the slimy entrails and the raw flesh that had been pulsing just a moment before. It was harder to eat like this now. It was more of a fight, both to eat and to get the animal out, thanks to her. But the monster that shared his head had a blood lust had to be satiated in one way or another. The Beast glanced at the doe's wide eyes. They were blue. Brilliantly blue and dead. A shiver shook his fur. It was either this blue eyed doe or the one that lived back at the castle.

The Beast licked away the last of the irony tang from his teeth and rubbed his face and chest in the snow to try to wash out the stain in his fur, hoping he hadn't missed a spot. She would never say anything if he did, but he never missed the way she bit the inside of her lip when she saw scarlet in his fur. He shook himself dry, but noticed that he'd missed a spot on his paw. Instinctively he raised it to his mouth to lick it clean but stopped inches from his tongue.

Humans don't do that. You're not an animal. Stop acting like one.

The Beast growled in annoyance at the victory the monster had almost won.

What else have I been doing without thinking?

"Has your girlfriend ever seen you like this? It's enough to make me want to vomit."

The Beast stiffened. Not even the crunch of snow had betrayed her. Anger contorted his features. He turned, fur bristling and teeth bared, wishing there was still blood dripping from his fur.

"You," he snarled.

"Hello, little brother."

She still looked exactly the same as she had three years ago, still twenty one and somehow even more infuriatingly beautiful than he remembered. Despite her stay away from the castle, her ebony dress was still fit for a queen with rotting heart, untouched by the wet snow. A mocking crescent moon pendant hung from around her neck. She still that champagne blonde hair and eyes like slivers of black ice reflecting a dull blue sky. She still had perfect pale skin and rose petal lips turned up at the corners in a smug, superior expression.

And she was still human.

"It's sick really, that you've sunk to this," she said, her voice dripping with sweet venom, smiling like a viper. "It's no wonder you've given up on breaking the curse. Do you really think if she saw you like this she would stay with you?"

The Beast snarled and lunged for the Enchantress, but crumpled in midair as if meeting an invisible wall. She chuckled as he sprang back to his feet.

"Now, now, that's enough of that. We're family, remember?"

A dun colored wolf appeared from behind her skirts and curled back its lips, snarling with flattened ears. The Beast blinked, but it was the only thing that betrayed his surprise. Then it was his turn to loose a poisonous laugh.

"So you still keep him around. It's not enough for you to ruin my life, is it? You have to bring him low too. I suppose it works though. You've changed him, brainwashed him so he'll never be loyal to anyone else. Not in that form at least. He was right to break off your engagement. He was the only one of us who could see what you were becoming." The Beast turned his focus to the wolf. "Lord Denver, you should know, if you can hear anyone but Jayla through that shell, that Rowena still waits for you. She's never had eyes for anyone else."

The wolf's snarl cooled and for a moment the fury faded and something pleading bled through. The wolf whinned and then sat back on his haunches and howled.

"Shut up!" Jayla screamed. The wolf's howl cut off abruptly and the growl and the fire overtook it once more. Her composure slipped and her eyes had gone wild, like a hunted animal's.

"Shut up! Don't you dare, ever say that little brat's name again!"

"So set your pack on me, Witch, I dare you."

"Oh, wouldn't it be so satisfying if I did that?" Jayla hissed. "I could set them on you anytime I like, but I don't need to. You haven't got long, little brother. How many roses are left? Fifty? Thirty?"

The Beast kneaded the snow under his claws.

"Fourteen."

The Enchantress cackled.

"Really, only fourteen left? How are you hiding that from her? A little spell on the bushes I suppose. But you've never been good enough at magic to fix them all, or keep them looking alive for long. Ha! It'll be like an early birthday present. You'll be dead, I'll can claim the throne and then just for fun I'll have a couple executions. First, that little peasant you've attached yourself too - what was her name, Emma Lisa? - then my traitorous maid, and then, oh, probably one or another of the thieves running around the woods. I'm sure I could find one somewhere."

"Don't touch her. Don't even think about it."

"Oh, it'll happen brother, mark me. You can both be dead together. I'll make sure to stick your heads on spikes right next to each other. And at the rate the roses are dying I'd say you've got about, oh, a week. Maybe two if you're lucky."

The Beast snarled.

Jayla grinned.

"Tick, tock."

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Tick, tock...

Short chapter this time.

And the race against time begins...