Phases

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

   Marianna stared at him as she rested her chin in her hand. "Torture. Imprisonment. A lifetime of servitude to a monster."

   He scoffed, "Do I appear as such a monster to you?"

        "Don't patronize me," her tone was icy, "You and I both know you have no control over the lykos. Even those that have been years into the change have very little control."

   He lowered his gaze at her words. He had no argument for that.   But if only she could see.  This was exactly what he wanted.  Change.  A way to control the beast or to break the curse.  To do things differently than ever before. He was lost in an eddy of emotion trying to make her understand. 

        "Have you even experienced your first change?" For the first time, she sounded almost timid.

        "You know that I haven't. You would have felt it." Lord Park's voice was barely a murmur as he took a seat in the chair beside hers. Out of instinct, Marianna leaned away from him. "Please, stop," he told her.  "I've already told you that I wouldn't hurt you."

        "But the day will come," she told him, "It's inevitable. You will either lose control of the beast, or your fear will overcome you."

        "My fear?" he questioned.

        "Jimin," she dropped his formal title, "It is the way this always goes. You live only so long as I do. As the lykos grows in strength within you, so will its desire for power and immortality. Fear of losing that power will consume you."

        "No," he argued softly.

        "You know the histories as well as I do," she continued, "We lumanati are either locked away in cold dungeons by power hungry men driven mad by their lykos or we're stolen away by their enemies to be tortured or killed."

        "No," he repeated more firmly.

        "This has always been the way," she stated, "Who are we to wield the power to break a curse that has survived for centuries? I have no such power. Do you?"

   Jimin sighed in frustration. She was right about the history of their ancestors. For that, he could not argue. He had never known the source of the original curse. He wondered if anyone did. If his grandfather had, he had not deigned to share the answers with Jimin. In all honesty, he had barely told Jimin the very basics of it all before he himself had become so mad that he had publicly beheaded his own bonded, ending his life as well. Jimin shuddered at the memory. It was no wonder Marianna hated his entire family. It was her own grandfather that had been beheaded by the previous Lord Park.

        What a fucking mess. He thought. How in the hell are we to navigate such a fucking mess?

        "Then let us create our own way," he spoke decisively, belying his internal unsurety, "Let us vow to never repeat the mistakes our ancestors made. Let us agree to work together to free ourselves and our future generations of all of this."

   She fixed that cold, green glare on him once more and he believed he would pay anything to know the thoughts that played across her mind.  What thoughts lurked in the mind of such a woman?  Cold, calculating logic and fiery, untamed rage made for an interesting combination.  He was almost as intrigued by her as he was frustrated.  It was with that cold calculation that she regarded him with now. 

        "If you so much as look at me with contempt, utter one harsh word, or give me cause to doubt you, I will end us both without a second thought," she vowed, "That will be my cure for this curse; to snuff it out before any 'future generations' can even be made."