Beast.
Man.
Sound of bones cracking, tendons grating.
Beast. Man. Beast again. Faster.
Back and forth he went at a dizzying speed and I watched with horror, struck by the sudden fear that he might kill himself if he didn’t stabilize his body fast, from the sheer stress his organs were undergoing in the rapid, incessant transformations. Not to mention his skin and bones! And, no matter how angry I was with him for ruining our lives, I can never stand to see that man die.
“Ryodan, breathe! Get a grip on yourself!” I cried, but my words were gasoline on his fire and the morphing sped up and he began to bay, jaws wrenched wide, then he was a man roaring, then a beast howling, such a terrible, desolate, fractured sound, and I couldn’t think of anything else to say so I shouted, “Ryodan, goddamn it, I love you! Stop hurting yourself! Don’t you dare die! I can’t deal with that right now!” Not only did I hate watching him die, I’d have to wait days, maybe even weeks for him to get back so we could finish this damned fight, and who knew if I’d even still be here?
The beast jerked, stumbled, dropped to a knee, shuddering violently, then began to turn back into a man, bit by bit, first his hands, then his arms, his shoulders, and finally his face.
I held my breath, refused to say anything, in case it pushed him back into that terrible morphing of forms again. For years I’d wanted to see the great Ryodan lose control. I’d just learned a painful lesson. I never wanted to see it happen again. I’d kill anyone who ever tested his control, protect him. Never let him break. This man was my…bloody hell, my hero and I wanted him to always stay strong and whole.
He knelt, gasping for breath, chest heaving, tatters of clothing hanging on his trembling body.
Then, chin tucked down, he glanced up at me from beneath his brows, eyes still crimson and ground out, “Never. Tell. Me. I. Don’t. Care. You can fling any other insult you want at me, but not that one. Never that one. Everything I’ve done, I’ve done for you. Everything.”
He lunged to his feet and stalked toward me, naked but for odd bits of clothing here and there. I yanked my gaze to his face, in no mood to torment myself further.
“Don’t touch me!” I stepped hastily back. “And put something on.”
“Don’t tell me what to do,” he growled. “Suggesting works better at times like these.”
“You tell me what to do all the time and it’s—”
“You never listen.”
“—not like we’ll be having future times like these because—”
“We’ll always be butting heads like this. You’re too goddamn stubborn and so am I.”
“—our time is up, Ryodan. That’s my point and it’s your fault.”
He snarled, “What did I say to you in the cemetery that night?”
“You told me you were leaving,” I snarled back. “And that I couldn’t come.”
He stalked past me, into the bathroom, and came out with a towel wrapped around his waist, dusting part of a sleeve from his arm. “That’s not what I mean and you know it. The thing you boxed. The thing you never once looked at. The final words I said to you.”
“You told me to never come to you,” I said hotly. He was getting too close and he was right, I was angry with myself and had been for a long time.
“After that. Goddamn it, Dani, what did I say right before I left? I know you heard it. I know how acute your hearing is.”
I closed my eyes. He’d said, until the day you’re willing to stay.
“You had my number! If you’d called me, I’d have come. But you didn’t.”
“You didn’t call me either!”
“You wanted my brand. You wanted to know you could never get lost again. That mattered to you. I gave it to you.”
“What the hell does that have to do with anything?”
“For fuck’s sake, because of that brand, I feel your emotions. I felt them that night in the cemetery. You may not have wanted me to leave but it wasn’t because you wanted me to stay. You wanted me to sit around, waiting endlessly, doing nothing, all for the slight chance Dani O’Malley decided she wanted to see me. I bloody well did that. I sat there four motherfucking months and you never. Once. Came. I came to find you a dozen times but you couldn’t get away from me fast enough. I know exactly what you felt that night in the cemetery, I felt every bit of it. Anger that I was leaving, hurt that I wouldn’t tell you for how long. But more than anything, more intensely than all the rest, you felt relieved. You were bloody fucking relieved to see me go!”
I fisted my hands so hard, my nails bit through the gloves into my icy flesh. “What are you saying? That you went away to punish me?”