The Threshold -by Erekose- Malcolm Stewart sat in front of his crescent-shaped desk, his chin resting on one leather gauntleted fist. There were huge window panes at his back showing the blackness of the forest surrounding the mansion and a star-studded, moonless night. He turned off the light of the room when he entered it, closing the door behind him. His sensitive eyes soon became accustomed to the faint illumination of the stars. Only the monotonous tick-tock of the intricately carved grandfather clock at his far left dared to break the tense stillness of the studio. His expression was that of serene introspection, unchanging, his eyes focused on a random point in the shadows of the room. Deep inside though, he felt restless, like a coiled spring. His strong heart pounded hard against his broad, well-muscled chest, a tendon in his sinewy left arm started throbbing, then stopped. He quirked an eyebrow, opened a drawer, fumbled inside it for a second, then took out a small leather sack. After closing the drawer he placed one hand inside the sack. Clicking sounds -like that of pebbles rubbing and softly hitting each other- came out of it. He drew a smooth, flat stone from the sack and placed it on the desk. "Uruz." Then he drew four more rune stones. "Hagalaz... Thurisaz... Nauthiz... Teiwaz..." He placed the sack beside them and looked at them for a long while. The runes seemed to glow faintly in the starlight. "Frea flmihtig...," he breathed. A faint smile appeared on his full lips. "'Tis tonight... isn't it?" He gave a start as a faint, eerie howl echoed on the dark forest. He swung around on his chair, his black eyes trying to pierce the dense shade of the vegetation beneath. After a while he espied several pairs of glowing points moving restlessly. One of those pairs in particular remained still, fixed on Malcolm's own. "Ece Dryhten. My brother... my Shadow... you know it too? Are you so anxious to jump at me and tear my throat open? Do you fear me as much as I fear you?" The small hairs on his nape bristled and he turned around, looking at the runes once more. Thurisaz, the rune of Thor, of the Threshold, pulsed with an argent radiance synchronized with the beating of his heart. He raised his eyes, fixing them on the closed door expectantly. Moments later he heard a door open, close, then a series of measured steps approaching his door. He shifted his weight unconsciously on his chair in response to the pressure he felt between his legs. He slowly leaned back. The doorknob twisted silently, then the door swung inward, letting in the yellowish light of the corridor outside. His pupils narrowed, the effort giving him a slight discomfort, but he didn't blink. Silhouetted against the light was the tall figure of a woman. Silvery chains with tiny jeweled skulls were wrapped around her knee-high, spike-heeled boots. The dark, intricate mesh of her stockings rose up her thick, firm thighs, and were held by garters fastened to a steel-studded belt on her slim waist. Her loins were adorned with a g-string that outlined her generous labia. Her arms were wrapped with long, fingerless, leather gloves that displayed proudly her sharp crimson nails. A lace-up bustierre encased snugly the creamy flesh of her breasts, and her neck sported a leather choker with small sparkling chains dangling from it. He could see her full, red lips glistening, the savage glint of her long- lashed eyes. Her hair was black, long and wild, cascading down her slim-muscled back. She paused there for a second before entering, the carpet muffling the sound of her feline steps. Her eyelids were lowered slightly, smiling slyly as she played absently with her long, silver-handled whip. Their eyes locked on each other voicing a silent, primal challenge. "Jezebel," he said in his firm, deep voice. "I must say, you are appetizingly attired tonight." *Defy him* said a voice in her mind. "Thank you... master." He got up from his chair and faced the windows. "You almost look like a creature of the night. Sweet, dark, dangerous... Of course, appearances are often deceiving..." "Are they... master? He remained silent. *This is the night* "This is the night... master" "The night?" *You are strong, superior. Don't you feel the fire in your womb? Let it fuel your blood with lust, with power* "You know it as much as I do. When the night is without moon, when the blood boils inside our flesh, when the hunger we feel for each other becomes intolerable. And I feel so hungry... so lustful... so strong... so potent..." "Ah...," he turned around. "*That* night." *He feels your power! Look at his cock! Look how much it wants to impale you, to probe you and rob you of your power* "Don't act as if you don't know. I can see the sweat pouring down your temples. Almost... feel... the throbbing heat of your swollen cock-" "Is that the way to address your Master? Have I given you leave to do that?" *Master? Master he said? Hahahahahahaha... he has never been my master, nor yours* "Master...," she snickered. "I don't need your leave for anything tonight! This is the night where you must prove once again your mastery over me and my... body." She fondled one breast with her free hand. "I've seen you grow... soft... lately. I don't think it will be difficult for me to have you licking my feet on all fours. *Ooooh* I'd love that." "You are so naive." He approached her slowly, without malice. But, before he could take four steps, the whip whistled as it cut the air and clawed at his left cheek. He cursed, taking a step back. Something warm flowed down his cheek, dripping on his wide, white shirt. "Bitch!" "Thank you... *slave*" Malcolm shot at her a fierce glance. To her eyes he suddenly seemed to grow in size in the shadows, but dismissed it as a trick of the dim light of the room. He darted at her, but she was fast, and ready. She lashed again with the whip, rending open the wide sleeve on his right arm, wounding and exposing his biceps. Then again along his chest, tearing the fabric and exposing the taut muscles beneath. He gritted his teeth, raising his forearm to protect his eyes as he tried to find a weakness in her defense. Her next swing struck his neck, and the whip coiled around, fastening it tight. As he struggled to remove the whip she moved around him, and crushed her breasts against his back as she placed the metal handle at the base of his neck, pulling with both arms. His neck tensed, his face reddened with the effort, gasping at intervals. *Enslave him! Make him your dog!* "Yield!" She stretched her neck and licked the wound on his cheek. "I will be kind as a Mistress, my bull. My yoke will be sweet, " she increased the pressure, "very swe-" He raised his arms and dug his thumbs hard below her jaw. She became momentarily dizzy, then he grabbed her wrists and pulled them apart, forcing her to release the noose, and threw her over his shoulder. Malcolm took several steps back, and gasped as he finally unwound the whip. Jezebel raised herself lightning-like on all fours, her mane hiding her face, her eyes glowing like fiery emeralds beneath it. She hissed. "You are strong, woman," he admitted, "very strong." He tossed the whip on the floor in front of her. She looked at the whip, then at him, somewhat shocked to see he didn't use it on her. But then she flared at the implication of it, that he didn't need it to tame her. She snarled, took the whip, and flipped back, landing on her feet. He smiled inwardly, proud to have a mate such as she. "And you are a fool!" She lashed again. This time he raised his gauntleted forearm, coiling the whip around it and holding it firmly. "Show me a man, or a woman, who isn't." He wrenched it from her hand and started to approach her. She swung around, aiming a kick at him. He blocked it with his forearm, held her by the ankle and pulled hard, making her to fall to the floor on her back. He immediately straddled her. Jezebel hit him repeatedly and firmly with her fists until he managed to grab her wrists and tie them together with the whip. She buckled furiously, screaming obscenities at him. "Now," he said, pressing hard on her sides with his thighs, "I was going to allow you to come to the Threshold on your feet, but I fear you have lost that privilege, my sweet- tongued lady." He fixed his eyes on the cleavage between her rising and falling breasts, which glistened with sweat like the rest of her exposed skin. Then he looked at her face, her wild hair matted chaotically over her soaked face. Her succulent, blood-red lips were inviting, and he licked his in anticipation. She smiled wolfishly, lowered her lashes and parted slightly her lips noisily, moistening them slowly with the tip of her pink tongue. He inclined his face slowly and pressed his lips to hers, chewing her lower lip as if it were a ripened fruit. Her tongue darted out probingly, shamelessly twisting it around his, her hips arching upward to rub her pussy against his bulge. An alarm rang on the back of his head, and he got up with a start. He cursed, taking a hand to the sting he felt on his lip, then looked at it. His hand was smeared with blood from a small cut on his lip. Malcolm looked at her. She was chuckling, holding a tiny razor between her teeth. He seethed, slapping her face with the back of his hand with more force than he intended, sending the razor scuttling far into a dark corner of the room. She shrieked in pain. He frowned, feeling somewhat guilty for it, then stood up slowly. "You need to be taught again to moderate your conduct, my cat. Will you be so kind as to follow me?" He began to drag her easily across the floor and out of the room into the corridor outside, his physique used to heavier loads that this. She wriggled and pulled at her bonds, trying to free herself or at least to make his job more difficult, but to no avail. Her stiffened nipples ached as they felt the friction against the floor through the leather. Her hands swelled and the stinging sensation on her wrists sharpened. She moaned. At the end of the corridor he stopped, opening the door of an elevator. Malcolm looked back and down at her, then along the floor of the corridor with a smile on his face. "My dear Jezebel, you nasty girl. You are so wet you have left a sweet trail on the floor. You were always such a gusher." She twisted around on her back, smiling broadly, pressing her thighs together, flaunting her soaked g-string. It was slightly lowered, revealing her pubic hair matted with her own honey. "How is the lip?" He quirked an eyebrow, licking unconsciously his cut. "Salty." He tugged her inside the elevator with one pull. As the elevator moved from the top floor to the dungeons beneath she wriggled closer, opened her legs, and began grinding slowly her pussy against his leg, smearing his boot. He withdrew it and placed its front end on her leather covered pussy. He pressed down. "Remain still," he pressed harder. "Still!" She winced, biting her lower lip and moaned. "Yes... master." "Good." The doors opened, revealing a 10'x10'x15' room, with 10 feet high double doors at the far end. There was a glowing runic inscription crowning the Threshold. He dragged her out. Each door was intricately carved with mythical and human forms engaged in all shades of libidinous activities. In the very middle, each half belonging to one door, was a human-sized carving of a bat-winged woman impaling herself on a phallus. There was an iron ring hanging from each of her breasts. Malcolm used his free hand to grab one of the rings and pulled. He strained for several seconds until the door yielded at last to his strength and opened with a sharp, rasping sound. He tugged Jezebel inside. The room was dome-shaped, with a radius of 100 feet. A single globe of light illuminated dimly the place at the zenith of the dome without any visible means of support or energy supply. There were round beds dressed in silk and soft round pillows with iron rings along their circumference. Elegantly shaped steel supports arched over them, from which dangled blue steel chains and a translucent, silken canopy. There was a circular pool in the middle of the vast room, carved into the solid granite of the floor, with several humanoid-shaped fountains recirculating the water in it, filling the place with its music. A life-size jade statue of a water-nymph with snakes wrapped around her voluptuous limbs rose from the center of the pool. It had its slim arms extended, palms upward, supporting horizontally a two-handed sword made of ancient Damascus' steel. At intervals along the base of the dome bronze braziers perfumed the air with a sensual fragrance. "Blue-veined Damascus' steel," he whispered to himself. "A bane for the Crusader's feeble metals. Many a Crusader sword was smashed by this ingenious Moorish alloy. Yes... I remember..." Suddenly he became aware that he was talking aloud, blinked, and looked at Jezebel. She was staring at him intrigued by his obscure monologue. "Master...?" "Just... something I read. Pay no heed." He stopped in front of a tall arch with two fur-lined fetters hanging from the top with silvery chains, and two more on the floor. Malcolm kneeled, pinning one of Jezebel's legs with his knees as he tried to fetter the ankle of her other leg. She fought vainly against his firm grip as he bound her ankles firmly. Malcolm got up, walked around her, and raised her to her feet. He went around her once more and faced her. She had her head lowered, smiling, looking at him though her lashes. He untied her hands, and as he freed them she clawed at him, but he just laughed and held her wrists. She strained her arms, shoulders and back to break his hold, only to see him hold her in place with a fraction of her effort. He fettered her arms with greater ease. She struggled viciously against her bonds, making new beads of sweat to bathe her aggressive forms. He just stood there, with his arms crossed over his chest, pensive. Malcolm squatted, drew a long Scottish dirk from his right boot, and looked at her. She tensed. He glided the cold flat of the rune-carved blade over her cheek, neck, and over the laces that held together the bustierre. Then he placed the tip of the blade against her armpit. She shivered. "You must be wondering what I have in store for you my lovely slave. Well... first of all, I should free your pussy of her modest attire." He sheathed the blade in the front flap of the leather panty, pressing it to her labia, then slid it up, cutting the strap of leather which held it in place. It fell with a wet plop on the floor, a long, viscous strand of honey still connecting them. "Ah, you are so deliciously wet down there my wildcat. Its sweet perfume reaches strongly my nostrils, making my mouth water. It would be a shame to waste such precious nectar." Squatting, he beheld her glorious femininity. Her black hair matted over her mons, her thick, rounded labia parted slightly and dripping, her clit throbbing expectantly. He kissed her clit, then drew out his tongue, gliding it slowly between her labia, tasting her pungent ambrosia. The scent and taste numbed his senses and he pressed his face harder on it, lapping and drinking ravenously at her pussy, his strong hands fondling her ass cheeks roughly. His lower lip stinged deliciously on contact. There was a tremor on her belly that rippled though her body as her senses were washed away by the first orgasm. "Oh, yes Master," she panted. "Lick me Master. Oh... make me cum. Eat me, suck my clit..." He drew his tongue up, nibbling on her juicy pussy lips as he went, then landed on her clit. She moaned as he wrapped her erect piece of flesh with his lips, nibbling on it. He inserted the fingers of one hand hard inside her womb, she stifled a shriek. Then he started to finger-fuck her slowly as he played with her clit. His free hand travelled over her slick derriere to her asshole, teasing it. She drew her head back and to the sides, swaying drunk with pleasure. Malcolm sucked long, hard, and noisily at her clit at the same time he inserted one finger in her ass. Jezebel pressed her hips on his face with abandon, bit her lip, shuddered, then several cries escaped from her as she came again. Honey poured down her love hole profusely, which he drank with increasing ardor. "Oh, Jezebel! You taste so... so good. I could lap your cunt all night and be satisfied by that alone, my exquisite slave." He rose and kissed her hungrily. Jezebel's frenzy escalated as she tasted her own fresh sweetness, as she smelled so closely her own scent. He lapped and nibbled her lips, her tongue coiling around his. Then sunk his teeth hard on her lower lip and drew back. She shrieked, and shot a fierce glance at him as she tasted her own blood. "Now we are beginning to get even," he replied with a smile. She licked her lip and followed him with her eyes as he went to a long table with a series of toys arranged orderly over it. Her body was still glowing with the delicious heat of the flames Malcolm conjured from her pussy. The sting she now felt on her lip, and the slight soreness in her asshole, only served to enhance the sensation. She looked at him dreamily. The wide, tattered shirt and leather pants did little to conceal his broad back or his delectable asscheeks, which she hungered to bite, and she promised herself that she would, even if she had to beg for it. He smiled to himself, for he felt her stare on his ass, and stood there longer than necessary just to flaunt it. Malcolm approached her with a small sack, which he dropped at her feet. "Now, we must free your delicious breasts from such an unjust confinement." He slid his sharp dirk between the laces of the bustierre, then sliced it open with one smooth pull. Her firm breasts bursted free from it, jiggling a bit as they did. She winced and looked down, seeing that he made a small cut on the flesh between her tits. He licked the wound clean. "Thank you." He looked at her sternly, quirking an eyebrow. She smiled slightly. "My Master," she added. "My powerful master." "Better," he grunted. He fondled her breasts and sucked at them, making her nipples swell quickly. "Such beautiful nipples." She wore a silver ring on her left nipple with a small jewel in it. He tugged at it with his tongue and smiled. "But before I go on..." He took a pair of pliers from the sack and, before she could voice her outrage, cut the ring in half, drawing it out of her nipple and tossing it away. She was very proud of her breasts and nipples, but even more of the ring she cherished so much. She looked at him speechless, on the verge of tears. "You need to be chastised after what you did to your Master. Others wouldn't be so kind as I have been to you." She looked down, flushed. He continued fondling her breasts and nibbling at her pierced nipple, then drew from the sack a pair of nipple clamps attached by a small chain. He pinched her nipples hard to make them swell to their utmost, attached the clamps, then twisted the small screw in it to increase the pressure until he saw her flinching. "There. You look beautiful with them on my love." She looked, breathing hard, feeling the pain clawing at her breasts. "They are beautiful, Master. They make my luscious tits look even tastier to you, Master, and to your slave. But, my ring..." "Your ring nothing. You don't deserve it. You will have to earn it again." "Yes... Master." He picked the sack and moved to her back. He drew a flail from it, and teased her asscheeks with it. "You have such a beautiful ass, my love. So inviting, so firm. I'm afraid, though, that I'll have to flog you on it for your misconduct." He slapped it with his hand, leaving the red impression of his fingers on it. The stinging sensation on his palm as he did that, together with smoothness of the firm flesh of the woman, made the small hairs on his arm bristle with delight. "Don't you agree?" "Whip me Master," Jezebel breathed. "I deserve your fury for what I did. My ass is yours to set aflame with the strength of your powerful arm, my Master. Yes, Master, I agree." "I am glad that you can see my point, lovely slave. Now, curve your ass more. Yes, a little bit more... there. Stay that way." He hit her with the flail on one cheek, then on the other with the backswing. She moaned and arched her ass even more, exposing her asshole and the beautiful mound of her glistening pussy. With each hit his eyes acquired a fierce, animal glint. The flail left a chaotic pattern of crimson rays on her flesh, which slowly blended with one another, until both cheeks glowed like coals. He stopped. "More, Master!" She sobbed. "More, please!" He squatted and licked her cheeks, then her hole, pressing the tip of his tongue on it until it yielded. He tasted her hole for a minute, then kissed it, before renewing his flogging. "Who," he asked slowly, savoring the words, "is your Master?" "You!" She gasped. "You are!" "Am I soft? Do you think your Master is soft?" "My Master is strong!" She licked her lips, her pussy starting to water again. "Powerful! You are not soffffft.... my lovely Massster." "But you said it would be easy to have me, your Master, licking at your feet..." "I... I am sorry Master... you are the Lord of my body. Jezebel is yours. Completely." He stopped, tossed the flail to one side, and started licking her sore ass once again. "Ahhhhh... Master...yessss... I... I love you." He paused and frowned, the mist of passion suddenly lifted from his eyes. He walked around and faced her, his expression softer. He extended his hand and touched her chin. "I... I love you too Jezebel. You are my life, you know that." She smiled, and nodded. "As you are mine too." He unfastened the fetters and, just after releasing the last one, she threw herself in his arms and kissed him tenderly. They remained in each others arms for a long while. "Make love to me, Master. Do whatever you want with me." "I will." Malcolm took her by the hand, picked up the sack, and together they went to one of the canopied beds of the dome. He laid her down gently. "Turn around, I still want to give your ass a little treat." Jezebel acquiesced, giving him a view of her splendid back. He licked her hole, then drew a jar from the sack. He opened it, dipped two fingers in it, and lubed her rear gently. Then he took a black anal plug with straps on it and placed its tip on her hole. She squirmed, her clamped nipples injecting liquid flames into her quivering breasts as she pressed them on the bed. "Be gentle, Master," she gasped softly. He smiled, and started to press on it. The sphincter parted wetly, but didn't yield immediately to the plug. He drew it back, and pressed on it, harder, managing to get it through halfway. Jezebel moaned and licked her lips, arching up her neck, relishing the pleasure the ripples of pain on her ass were giving her. "I love endorphines," she said with a throaty voice. Again, he drew it back, grinned, then shoved it in forcefully. She cried loudly, rending the sheets of the bed as she clawed at them, then began to pant. He held the plug fast with the straps, tying them around her waist and thighs. Malcolm placed his hands on her cheeks. "How does it feel?" "Nasty, Master. And oh-so-tight. I came again." "That was lovely, Jezebel." *He released you. Now its the time! Rebel!* She placed her hands on her temples. "That voice!" "What voice?" *He cut your nipple ring! He dared to cut it and toss it like trash! He will do the same to you!* "Shut up!" "Jezebel! What is it?" Malcolm turned her around and grabbed her by her shoulders. "Love? What's wrong?" *Now! Before its too late! Escape! Go out into the woods!* "You will not toss me away like trash!" "What?" She hit him on his groin with her knee and ran away. He winced, gasping for air, but managed to twist around before she disappeared though one of the many doors of the dome. "No!" He tried to yell. "The woods! Don't go there, not tonight!" Then he widened his eyes as everything became clear to him, and made an effort to get up. "Amon! Don't you dare to lay a finger on her!" He faltered at first, then began to run for the door. It led to a long, dark, winding corridor that seemed to have no end. Finally he reached the concealed door that led out to the forest, and darted into it. ***************************************** Jezebel ran blindly through the forest, her cold, naked feet soaked with the moisture of the grass. Tears flowed down her cheeks as her asshole burned mercilessly by the friction of the anal plug. She tripped, fell and cried out in pain. *Get up you spineless cunt!* "I can't," she sobbed. "It hurts too much!" *Then take it out, whore! Take the plug out of your delicate shithole you damn fuck! Now!!* She clawed against the slim leather straps desperately, until she managed to snap them off the plug. She bit her lip and moaned as she slowly drew it out. *Now move your dainty shit-smeared ass!* "Get out of my head!" *Get UP!* She tried to cast out the voice inside her skull, but it was too strong, forcing her to move again against her will. The effort to control her body, her mind, and her forceful race were taking a great toll on her endurance. After a three miles and a half she saw in the distance a tall, ominous hill. Her heart smashed violently against her rib-cage, demanding to be let out. *Go on! Run! Even if your lungs burst, you damned mortal bitch! Run! My patience is waning!* "No!" She screamed. *Yes... oh yes... I have waited so long to get my revenge on my Shadow-Brother `Malcolm'... so long... Now climb the hill! Do it!* Her legs were numb as she tried to climb the hill. When she reached the top the voice stopped. She collapsed, and rolled down the other side. Her momentum carried her whirling body ten feet beyond the foot of the hill, until she finally managed to stop. She lay on her back panting, her naked body shivering with cold. After several minutes she managed to get up and look around, wincing because of the pain in her asshole. The dim light of the stars showed her that she was in a clearing, but not alone. Across her, about 20 feet beyond the center of the clearing, rose a 10 foot tall boulder with its top flattened. There were glowing eyes moving restlessly around it, but the ones that struck the greatest fear in her were the pair of red, baleful eyes of the creature resting atop of the boulder. The black silhouette seemed to be that of a wolf, a very large wolf. When it started to move she expected to see it stand on its four legs, but it raised itself up menacingly on its hindlegs. She heard the sound of tissue and bones creaking as it shifted its bodily mass. The muzzle shortened, the forelegs stretching, the chest broadened. Then the transformation stopped. What she now saw on the boulder had humanoid shape, and it was a man, or at least something male because, whatever it was, it wasn't human. What revealed to Jezebel the sex of the creature wasn't as much the powerfully built body, as it was the animalistic size of the solid erection of the beast. She became fascinated by it, even lusted after that inhuman, hypnotic phallus, but the familiar voice that issued from that alien throat dispelled all that instantly. "Jezebel," hissed the vitriolic voice. "Brother `Malcolm's' pet." He jumped down from the boulder, landing with lupine ease on his powerful legs, the gargantuan cock barely oscillating with the change in momentum. A silvery bead of pre-cum disengaged from its tip, drawing a gossamer arc as it fell. The creature chuckled. "Not any longer." "What do you want? Who are you? God, stay away!" "God? I'm flattered. In a way, I'm just that to my brothers and sisters here," he made a gesture with his sinewy arm. "I am Amon, Lord of the Dire Wolves, Master of Hell Hounds, and now Lord of Brother Malcolm... or shall I call him Saint Aidan? The Holy man who renounced to his holiness and embraced a mortal life. The one who killed my mate Clistheret!" "What?" She answered faintly. "Oh, how I miss when I roamed with her, when I brought to her human babes for her to feast on, her tireless urge, her eternally hungry, scalding womb (how it strangled and milked my aching cock), the carnage we made on the unwary, her pure evil and corruption... Gone! But now... Oh, but now..." He approached, displaying a set of long carious fags. "Now I have his woman." He jumped and landed over her before she could move. She pounded him hard with her fists, but it was like hitting a granite wall. Then she kicked him with all her might on his huge testicles. Amon just narrowed his eyes and licked his lips with his black, pointed tongue. "I liked that, woman. If my Brother enjoys pain, just think how much more I do. Kick me again." His words were, in fact, a command, for she lost control of her limbs once more and hit him on his groin again. "Ahhhhhhhh..... deliciousssssss......" His long tongue passed over her breasts neck and face. She felt the tip of his monstrous cock rubbing up and down the slit of her pussy. "You will kill me if you... you..." she managed to say. "Why, my love, that is precisely the idea. But not immediately, oh no. You will love it at first, filled as you have never been filled before. Then it will hurt, it will tear your womb apart, flooding it with my boiling milk, and you will slowly bleed to death. I'll drink your blood mixed with my cum, then I'll throw your carcass in front of Aidan's gate and laugh! Laugh... before his turn comes!" He pressed his cock against her pussy, but she clenched its muscles. He snickered, pushing harder. The inhuman cock split her wet labia open slowly, chafing her clit with its rough skin as it forced its entrance. She screamed when the head went through. "Now, I'm going to give it ALL!" Jezebel gasped in pain as Amon was suddenly pushed away from her by something white and fast. The shape was smaller than Amon, but it struggled fiercely with him, its solid blows drawing out curses and grunts of pain from the creature. Amon managed to toss the shape away, but he just rolled and stood again on his two feet. "Run Jezz!" "No! She is mine! Mine!" Amon lunged at Aidan, throwing him on the floor and clawing at him. The beast then uttered a long, terrible howl and stiffened. Aidan pushed the beast's bulk away from him, his dirk, which now shone with preternatural radiance, impaled deep in Amon's chest. He got up panting. "Away! Depart Eyes of the Night! Your Lord is no more! Begone!!" The eyes stepped back into the darkness and faded. Aidan went to Amon's body. "No you will not die yet." He drew the dirk from the creature's body and a globe of light issued from it, vaporizing the blood from the blade. In front of Jezebel's entranced eyes Amon moved, and got up with a grunt, the red light in his eyes dimmed. "I condemn you to roam these forests as a mere dog, fiend of the abyss, for as long as a dog may live. Then you may join your foul mate in her hellish domain. Now run, butcher of children! Depart!" Amon shuddered and shrank swiftly into an ordinary dog, which darted away quickly with the tail between its legs. The sounds of the flight of the broken beast died in the distance. A tense stillness covered the woman and the man. "Malcolm...," she hesitated, breaking the silence. He looked at her sadly. "Aidan. Jezebel, If you want to leave I'll understand. I kept much from you. The road I traverse is filled with terrible shadows, and-" "Don't," she approached, placing her hand timorously on his wounded chest. "Malcolm... Aidan, I don't care what you're called, or what your past was. I... I am fascinated... and I love you the same. I want to stay. With you." His face cleared slightly. "You are brave." He sheathed the dirk, darkness falling like a veil over them once more. "Or a fool..." "Show me a man, or a woman, who isn't." He laughed. ************************************************** Jezebel sat on the corner of the crescent-shaped desk beside the window, looking out into the forest. "It looks so different in the daylight." "Appearances are often deceiving..." She looked back at the doorway. "Yes," she smiled. Aidan walked into the room, one arm hidden behind him. He wore a simple black, turtle-necked sweater and gray jeans. She looked again at the window. "I think I saw a dog outside." "There are many dogs in these woods." He embraced her. "Yes." She frowned. "What are you hiding?" He drew back. "Me? Hiding?" He exposed his concealed arm. "Ah, this? For you." He gave her a small silver box. She extended her hand, took the box, and raised up the lid. There was a ring inside it, shaped like a Celtic knot, with a small emerald embedded on it. "A new ring!" She jumped into his arms, hugging him hard. "Thank you," she whispered. "If you like, I can put it on for you. Its not difficult." "I'm looking forward to that."