Beauty and the Beast (Not Quite the Fairy Tale #3) (12 page)

Chapter Fourteen

the Call

T
he scream wasn’t human, it was wild, evil, agonizing and it was coming from her throat.

No. No.
No
.

He could not die. Her beautiful Beast could not leave her behind. Everyone knew how their story was supposed to go. They were the kind of pair made and designed to meet, argue, laugh, cry and love, together, happily ever after.

But even as she worked frantically on his body, quickly turning to a carcass, she knew he was dying. Her eyes scanned his beyond flesh, and she saw with her own eyes that the weapon had found its mark.

Why had he protected her!
Why
!

She hadn’t realized she’d asked – or more likely, yelled – out loud, until his hoarse, broken voice murmured a weak:

“Because you’re mine.”

She hadn’t thought possible that her pain could increase, but these last words doubled it.

He was wrong.

He’d protected her because she’d lied to him. To herself. To the world.

Everyday she went around pretending to be nothing more than a girl, hiding the fact that of the two of them, she’d always been the Beast.

If he’d known the arrow wouldn’t have been fatal to her, he wouldn’t have died. It was all her fault.

No more.

Belle stopped attempting to use her meager understanding of first aid, and closed her eyes.

No more hiding. She was powerful, she knew it, she felt it to her bones – always had. And if there was the slightest chance that what she was could end this nightmare, she was embracing it.

For the first time, she called to the only real beast of Jereena.

No word passed her lips, but she felt her desperate cry for help resonating like the echo of an earthquake.

They heard it, too, because when her eyes opened again, they were there.

Some soldiers, guards, the King and other humans stood around her, but beyond, a group of creatures had materialized themselves.

Eyes wide opened, King Armand bowed slightly and moved to let them pass.

They were a diverse bunch of unfairly beautiful things. There was a tiny woman with butterfly wings, a very scary, tall thing with black horns on her head, and in front, a man so exquisite she actually thought she might have passed out and started dreaming.

“What the
hell!”
The scary woman was seething.
“Her kind isn’t supposed to be here!”

“Shut it, Mal,” the beautiful man ordered. “The bleeding needs to stop. Do your thing.”  

The frightening fay was obviously not happy about it, but she clicked her fingers before replying: “Done. Won’t save him, though. Too far gone.”

In that moment, Belle had never hated anyone as much as she hated that creature; she might have gone for her arteries if the leader hadn’t knelt down next to her, checking over Aiden.

“He’s not going to make it without changing, I’m afraid,” the man told her softly, confusing her.

Changing
? What did he mean? The dark cloud which had settled over her mind thinned out, because he’d implied that there
was
a way to make him come back to her.

“You’ll have to process the change quickly, before his soul passes. It’s already left his shell.”

Each word caught in her throat when she tried to reply. She was desperate because he wanted her to be
quick
but she had no fucking idea what she was supposed to do! Trying again, she finally managed: “I don’t know what to do. Please show me, I’ll do anything. Anything at all.”

She felt their stare on her, and she couldn’t really blame them from looking at her like she’d lost her mind. She was sobbing like a damn lunatic, but she just couldn’t help it.

“Shhhh,” a soft, musical, delightful voice murmured, although there was no one there.

What came first was the mist – a white mist, which thickened and took the shape of a female.

Then, a real woman appeared out of the cloud.

Belle was beyond caring about the fact that nothing made sense right now; all she knew was that that… female thing made it better.

It was strange because the newcomer looked cold, unforgiving. Her eyes were frost, her beauty, so striking it hurt. Her hand touched Belle’s, and it was actually sub-zero kinda cold.

“Don’t panic little girl. He’s not going anywhere. Hades has no claim on his soul.”

Her piercing blue eyes turned as black as her long hair and she looked up, shearing around the darkening skies. They focused, and she smiled – the kind of smile which made people shudder with fear. Belle sighed, relieved.

“There, I got it,” she told her, pointing towards Adler.

The dog whined, but he nonetheless approached, and turned on his back in sign of submission.

“Hands on the beast,” the stranger instructed, and Belle immediately touched Aiden’s forehead. “Mhh… I meant the other beast, but never mind. Touch the animal, now. Your partner’s attached himself to it. You’ll need to do a transfer. It’s simple; just think about things which are particular to the man, it should remind him where he belongs. I’ll work on his shell.”

Under other circumstances, Belle might have had things to say about a drop dead gorgeous creature groping Aiden’s chest, but considering that blood disappeared under her pristine, crystal white fingers, she let her have at it.

There were delicate blue filigrees now marring his skin; and soon there was nothing left of the huge gaping hole on his peck. Nothing but a star-like scar that resembled a perfect snowflake.

“Transfer, little girl,” the weird woman gently admonished her. “We do have time, but there is a lot of work to do. If it wasn’t long and difficult, any minor god could recall their dear from the dead.”

♦

Somewhere in a little southern kingdom.

Each time she awoke, the introductions got more and more tiresome.

At first, her slumbers hadn’t extended over the occasional decade here and there; when she’d awoken, no one doubted, questioned, wondered about her. They knew exactly who – what – she was.

After the first century of sleep, she’d had some trouble. Her kind had gone to history, by then.

The last time, gods had been considered myths.

The humans were right, in a way; what they believed to be true about gods
was
a lot of myth, sprinkled with a little dash of fact.

But it baffled her that they could have forgotten; not because she wished to be remembered.

Because they
should
have recalled the threat her kind represented. The fays remembered that, at least, if their animosity was any indication.

“They both need sleep,” she said, to no one in particular, and a flock of mortals converged around the little goddess and her newly fashioned god.

They were taken again and Eira painfully rose from her knees, finally turning to the two kinds of mortals facing her.

She sighed at their expectant gaze; she really did hate introductions – particularly when she’d just woken up.

“You’re her,” the oldest fay amongst those gathered here breathed. “You’re Skadi. The Winter Goddess.”

She sighed. Amongst her many names, this one – her first – was perhaps the one she hated the most.

“Eira,” she corrected. That one, she’d given to herself. It meant Snow – simple and to the point, just like her. “And if you do insist in standing on ceremonies, I do prefer the Snow Queen.”

They had many questions and she, few answers; fewer yet that she would give.

“I do not know how Belle ended up in this dimension, no.”

What she knew was that it was no coincidence. She’d felt the shift since the last time she’d been awake; the world was more powerful, now. Older, somehow. She could feel the presence of others like her – not just the little Belle, either.

The gods had tried to come back to the dimension they’d shared with the mortals since she – and a few of her kindreds – had helped lock them away. They’d liked using humans, fays, elves, shifters like little pawns; she suspected their constant bickering wasn’t nearly as fun now they didn’t have innocents to use to fight their wars.

“But it’s not possible. No god should be able to even pass though the portals…”

“No god,” she confirmed, “save for those who helped designing those portal. Amphitrite, I, Persephone and Aphrodite have free reign over our own doors. She could be one of their children.”

She was very vague about it, although her response could have been absolute.

She knew whose child Belle was, of course she did. Just like she knew there was a child of Amphitrite somewhere close-by; she felt the energy.

The only question was, why were her friends implanting their blood in this world?

And there was only one answer she could think of.

There was another war coming.

Chapter Fifteen

the Price Of A Rose

A
iden was ready to go on a hike, carrying a grand piano, skipping and playing the flute all at once, the day after he’d died.

He knew why, of course. He’d seen it – perhaps not with his own eyes, but with Adler’s.

When he left his body behind, he was surprised to just be standing above it, looking down; wasn’t he supposed to disappeared, or be sucked in heaven, hell, the Valhalla,
somewhere?

He wasn’t sure what had made him go to Adler, probably the way the dog had looked at him, like he could really see him. He’d just intended to pat him, reassure him, but somehow, he’d ended up
in
him.

Adler liked that. He was a clever dog, but actually becoming sentient had rocked his world.

Good. At least, we can still keep an eye on her, make sure she’s safe, right?

Adler heartedly agreed.

But turned out, instead of letting him stay dead, Belle had just called some serious badass fays and gods to get him sorted out.

He knew he wasn’t the same guy he’d been the day before; he felt it. Something surrounded him, making him feel heavier and lighter all at once.

Belle. He wasn’t sure what the hell it meant, but he knew he had a part of Belle in him. 

“Where is she?” were his first words, unsurprisingly.

The medics surrounding him had expected his voice to be weak, but like his limbs and everything else in him, it was on super form.

“She stayed here all night, but I told her to go get some rest,” Armand replied. “Which means she’s most probably pacing in the gardens right now.”

Ignoring the protests of everyone who wanted to check him over, Aiden leaped to his feet, without bothering with a shirt – or shoes, for that matter – and ran, leaping two, three steps at once down the stairs just like she often did.

As promised, he found her in the gardens; more specifically, the inner rose garden he’d designed as the perfect place where he’d eventually propose; according to Ben, if she had any doubt, the perfectly groomed red roses would have worked in his favor.

Aiden had taken a particular care with the flowers; only he and the head gardener had been authorized to come here, and tend to them.

Their work had paid off, every bud seemed full today; or perhaps it seemed that way because Belle sat there, in the middle of it all.

There were five benches so of course, she sat on the ground. There was a rose on her lap, and she had a book in one of her hand, to make the picture complete.

He’d said she was just unfairly superior to every woman out there, but well, she kind of was a goddess, so that didn’t count.

Fuck, a goddess.

“Do you know how much those roses cost,” he growled darkly, making his voice as low, threatening as he could.

Her head rose, a huge smile illuminating her entire face.

Somehow, he managed to keep his expression neutral.

“They are priceless, woman.
Priceless.
And you just went and stole one? I do believe that a punishment is in order.”

“Do you now?”

He’d made it next to her; she extended her hand, probably meaning for him to help her up, but after obliging, he pushed the ring he’d quickly grabbed from his chest of draw where it belong.

“There is your life sentence, Sibelle Thornton. You will be mine, from today until the end of time – literally. There’s nothing you can say about it, because I am a fucking persistent ass who is going to ask, and ask, and ask, until you’d just have to agree to shut me up.”

By the time he’d finished the last word, her lips had fallen on his; it started as a kiss, but the dance of their tongue grew too tantalizing, too fucking good. Before he knew what he was doing, Aiden’s hand had climbed up her naked legs and found way into the silky underwear she’d obviously worn to drive him to madness just that little bit quicker.

He might have regained some sort of decorum, recalling where they were, if her hands hadn’t moved from his hair, down to his neck, his back, before firmly taking his ass and squeezing it.

Squeezing
it.

“Guilty,” she said breathlessly, breaking their kiss.

He frowned.

“I plead guilty.”

And after that, she showed him how very guilty she was, hooking her fingers into the front of his PJs.

“Sit back, handsome,” she ordered, pushing him down gently until he was on the floor, at her feet.

He watched her slowly push her panties down her skirt, and then, she sat on his lap, folding her legs behind his back.

Slowly, torturing him, she worked his cock out of his trousers, and pushed the head right at the entrance of her molten, wet folds.

Enough of that shit. He grabbed her waist and pushed her down, impaling her. She yelped in surprise, and then, she chuckled.

“Something funny?”

The second thrust, hard and deep didn’t make her laugh, at least. Swallowing her moan, he resumed their kiss as he rocked up, slowly getting her adjusted to his girth. The needy moans and the way her hips rocked to meet his made him want to howl like a damn wolf. Maybe Adler had ended up imprinting some dogginess in his mind – or maybe she felt just that damn incredible.

Probably the latter of the two.

So quickly he should have been embarrassed, he was on the brink of coming like a damn teenager; but he was Aiden Archer. He was
not
going to blow his load in five minutes, even if restraining himself was making his eyes water, his chest heave and his hands shiver.

But then, Belle’s perfect pussy contracted around his dick, and that was it; he was filling her up.

It was only then that he noticed that she was still in that damn proper dress, and that he hadn’t actually gotten to see – or hell, even
touch
most of her body.

It was his turn to chuckle; Belle joined in.

“Well, while that was the best sex anyone ever had in this kingdom, I propose we take it upstairs for round two.”

And three. And four.

And every single one ever after.