A Kiss at Midnight

Chapter Thirty-Nine

The shackles of surprise to ensnare Annalise's wrists, binding her body to one spot.
Air to become trapped in the cage that was her throat.
She blinked but it did not hold the power to change the scene or who it was that stood before her.
His name, a faint outline on her lips. "Matthias."

He held up his left hand, admiring for a moment the way his fingers curved inwards to form a shape that should not be possible. Muscles and skin realising their improper position sought to rectify their stance. Each to lay flat once more.

"Remarkable isn't it, how the blood borne element of our affliction has granted werewolves more specifically Beasts the ability to heal from nearly all kinds of injuries even grave ones such as falling down a flight of stairs. Or two."
His gaze returned to her. "Forgive me, I have forgotten I am in the company of the one who knows this fact quite well given how she has survived having a cloak of silver arrows be placed upon her back."

"That isn't how I..." her voice trailing off. A slight shake of her head. "W-what are you doing here?" She stammered as he took a step forwards.

"Ilona and I didn't part on the best of terms and in the haste of her departure, I found myself in the possession of a ragged cloth from her dress. So, I followed the scent and it brought me back to you." Smugness to warp his lips into a smile then like a blink of an eye, it changed to let concern weaved its way in uneven stitches across his face.

"I have learned of what the Council did to Prince Adrien. How could they do such a thing to a defenceless, little creature as he?"

Pain, a dagger to be driven through her heart at his words. Nothing to trap the whimper of anguish that escaped her.

Barrymore advanced forwards in long strides. He reached up, to place his hand under her chin. "They killed our boy."

A cry of denial sprang onto her lips at his words.

His voice to soften. "However now, we have a change such things. A new beginning. A chance to have a wolf pup. What we, I desired most of all for you."

A thought occurred to her, he was clueless to Adrien's true age. Also she recalled from Ilona's tale how Erzabeth bore a resemblance to her. It would seem Barrymore had forgotten it was she not Anna whom he shared his bed with. She shrank back from his touch.

"Y-you are mistaken. Adrien is my son."
A shaky hand to gesture at her chest. "Mine. Your desires, Matthias no longer hold any interest to me. I love Zane with all that I am."

Barrymore's expression darkened. "You are mine, Annalise."
A callous tilt of his head as he listened to the sound of an approaching carriage. "I won't let him have you," he snarled, raising his hand to one temple. Nails poised to draw lines of scarlet down the canvas of his skin.

"NO!"
She lunged for him.
His mask of humanity slipping away as he spun towards the door. A sweeping arch of one set of claws. An unavoidable collision. A scream of agony ripped from her lips. Paws to hit the ground as at the same time, Annalise sunk to her knees, one hand clutching her right temple. A cloth of crimson to blanket her eye and hand.

The sound of Barrymore's footsteps to quieten as the distance between him and her grew ever greater.
Her chest rapidly rising and falling with each breath being drawn yet for one moment, time took a respite from its relentless march onwards.
Pain's agonising ensnarement could not stop
the words, guttural in their sound from twisting free to then flee her lips. "I will not let him take Zane from me!"

Nails to scrape against skin.
Teeth to sharpen; elongated canines prepared to impale those whose intent spoke of harm.
The earthy brown of her irises to be plunged under a sea of carmine red.