Sunny - Mona Lisa Awakening

I cried out as hot pain knifed through me as Balzaar sank his blade into my right flank. I heard a rustle of movement.

"Uh, uh, uh! One step more and we shall have to cut her again," Sandoor warned. "Very good, boys. I'll leave your injured Queen to your tender care while we depart. Do not try to follow us or we will slice the boy as we did his sister. A cut for each one who comes after us."

Sandoor began to back away, flanked by his men, pulling Thaddeus with him. My eyes locked on my brother's pale, frightened face. His eyes met mine and clung.

"No!" I cried, thrashing. But the demon chains held me as securely here, in the darkness above, as it had held me in the darkness below.

I stopped righting. Everything. Stopped fighting that dark power, my beast that prowled restlessly within me, that had waited so long to awaken, to be freed. I stopped righting it and embraced it, opening my body, my heart, my soul to that frightening, scary part of me, welcoming it, whispering for it to come out. Come out and play. Come out now, I need you .

My beast rippled out from within me with a shock or power that snapped the demon chains. It overwhelmed me with rippling sinews and roiling muscles, possessed me and covered me with a thick wash of protective fur, filled me with a roaring cry that pierced the night and struck terror into the hearts of all who heard it. I snarled with a sound that no human throat could ever make. A sound that quickly swelled into one long, loud, continuous angry scream utterly anomalous and inhuman. A wailing shriek such as might have arisen out of Hell.

I rolled upright on all fours. Muscles bunched and coiled, I sprang at my target—the man who held the littler one. I soared through the air, covered twenty-five feet with bounding ease and hit my prey and brought him to the ground.

Something sharp sliced into me and the pain enraged me. Snarling, I struck the cutting thing away, slicing open flesh with my long black claws. I smelled the hot sweet tang of blood and licked the limb I had torn open. Loud screams and the batting and flailing of another limb annoyed me. I snapped it with one easy bite of my jaw, felt my teeth sink with satisfying deepness into tender meat, felt the warm rush of blood fill my mouth and slide down my throat, and felt the hungering need to gulp down the hot flesh.

Others fought and battled around me but as long as they did not bother me or threaten to take away my prey, I was content to leave them alone to their fighting. The creature, my food, was still struggling to my annoyance, that thing that would soon fill my stomach, and the loud screeching noises it made hurt my sensitive ears. One tearing bite into the little bones of its neck and its throat was ripped away. The screeching stopped. It still lived, breathed, but barely struggled now. I settled down, my body pinning my helpless quarry, and prepared to feast.

But the other little one, the cub, stopped me, calling out to me. "Mona Lisa! Mona Lisa!"

The voice was familiar, was supposed to mean something to me, but I could not make the connection. I couldn't understand it. I snarled at the little animal, warning it to back away from my food.

"Mona Lisa. Please don't. It's Thaddeus, your brother. I need you!"

His words penetrated me. Thaddeus… Thaddeus… brother …

I shuddered, closed my eyes, and concentrated, bought against the ravenous beastly hunger that just wanted to rip and feed, and tried to understand.

Brother… brother… brother…

I looked into the cub's eyes. Shook my head.

"Mona Lisa… Please!"

The word. The name. Something connected within me.

With a rush of energy I forced myself to change. My skin prickled, shivered. Fur flowed, receded, disappeared. Bones stretched and changed, and it no longer felt natural to be on all fours.

I stood up and found blood covering my naked skin, blood that even now called to me. I fought not to lick and savor it like hot, sticky taffy.

I watched from a surreal distance as Amber covered me with his raincoat and buttoned it as I stood swaying over Sandoor. I noted with curious detachment that Gryphon stood next to Amber. That Rosemary clutched Tersa and Jamie protectively back against the trees. That empty clothes lay fallen on the ground next to piles of ash scattered about the clearing. Only Tomas still battled an opponent, big-headed Greeves. They were surrounded by Chami and Aquila, preventing any escape. Only Tomas was injured, a slicing gash along his left ribs, the reason why he was taking so long to finish off his adversary.

Tomas lunged suddenly, a piercing thrust of his sword through Greeves's stomach. Withdraw, lift, downward strike, and the head was severed from the body. I watched with a curious disconnection as light shimmered as it was released from the body, as the empty remaining husk disintegrated into ashes, as the clothes fell to the earth when nothing was left to support it.

A gurgle, a raspy indrawing of breath drew my attention back to what lay at my feet. Sandoor. Already his bleeding was slowing, the miraculous regenerative ability quickly closing in the previously gaping wounds. He was far from dead. He was healing, and I knew I could not let him live. He would be a threat to Thaddeus as long as he drew breath.

With a thought, I called Amber's sword to my hand. It sang from its sheath and flew to my grip. One clean downward strike and Sandoor stopped healing. Stopped ceasing to be.

Light scattered free, out of the opened body. I watched Sandoor disintegrate until only ashes and empty clothing lay upon the ground where his body had been.

I lifted my gaze to Amber, to the face that bore so striking a resemblance to the man I had just executed. "I'm sorry."

Amber's eyes were shadowless, blameless. "I am grateful it was not me," he said.

Suddenly weakened, I fell to my knees, onto my hands, feeling odd. The blade slipped from my hand with a sense of foreignness, as if I was not meant to hold such objects in my grasp. As if I was meant instead to feel the cushioning earth springing beneath my paws.

The call of blood lifted my head.

"Christ! Her eyes." I heard Thaddeus say, though the words held no meaning for me. Nothing had meaning but the deep, rich burgundy of blood against pale flesh. It drew me. Beckoned to me. I crawled to it and pulled myself up a lovely living body that bled. My tongue unfurled and licked that rich wine or life.

That living body moved, disturbing my enjoyment and I growled.

"Do not move, Tomas," Amber warned. "She's sliding back toward her beast."

"You want me to let her fucking eat me?" Tomas asked shakily.

I heard the creature's heart speed up, and tasted an emotion almost as mouth-watering as blood. Fear. A delicious spice to flavor the meat.

"Tiger's teeth are even sharper than human teeth. If you run, you'll trigger her chase reflex," Amber said evenly, carefully calm. "You do not want her to change back into her beast."

My fingers clenched my prey's lower back and full buttocks. I was surprised when claws did not pierce the soft tissue. I buried my face against the open wound along his ribs, lapped at the sweet bleeding flesh until I laved away all the blood, and felt the creature shake as I dug in with my tongue and nipped delicately at the tender meat.

A new, fresher scent drew my attention and lifted my face.

A line of blood on a pale limb waved tantalizingly in front of me in silent offering. I released my hold on Tomas, fell to the ground on all fours and grasped the proffered limb, lapping up the blood.

"That's right, darling," Gryphon crooned, "look at me."

The sound lifted my gaze to Gryphon's face. A surge of power prickled and lifted the fine hair along my entire body. My lips pulled back in a silent snarl that faded as I beheld the beautiful, sensual creature before me, irresistibly lovely with his rich dark fall of hair so dramatically black against white tender skin. A cloud of cinnamon-musk pheromones enveloped me, turning my hunger to a different direction. I looked at that full, red mouth, and I suddenly knew that lovely body could satisfy me in a different, more pleasing manner. I climbed up Gryphon's body until I could lick and eat from that succulent candy-apple mouth. He tasted like honey and I purred with delight. Purred even louder as his hands stroked along my neck, delivering spine-melting bliss to sensitive pleasure points.