Beauty's Beast(59)
Anger flowed from Charmion. The cat in her lap awoke with a hiss, its yellow eyes narrowed.
“I warned you!” Charmion said, her voice echoing off the walls. “I told you she was not strong enough to bear a child!”
“The choice to have a child was not mine alone!” Erik said harshly. “I did not take her to bed by force.” He took a step forward, his right hand clenched. “She came to me willingly, lovingly. I told her of your fears, and she laughed them aside. She said you had always coddled her, but she was not afraid.”
The big black cat leaped to the floor as Charmion surged to her feet.
Eyes blazing, body shaking with fury, the witch extended her arm. Erik’s clothes disappeared at a wave of her hand.
She stared at him intently, at the long black fur that covered his left side from his shoulder to his feet. She smiled with satisfaction as she saw his transformed left hand, his feet, which were now paws. His left ear was that of a wolf.
Soon, she thought, soon the transformation would be complete.
Erik called on every ounce of courage he possessed as he stood naked and ashamed before her. But he would not cower. He would not try to hide what he was becoming. She had concocted the hideous curse. Let her look her fill.
“Are you satisfied, Charmion?” he asked quietly. “Does what I am becoming give you pleasure? Does it ease the pain of Dominique’s loss?”
“Yes!” she hissed. “Yes, and yes, and yes again.”
She walked toward him, one long-fingered hand reaching out to stroke his furred side. She laughed softly when he tried to draw away and realized he couldn’t move.
Frozen in place, he could only stand there, repelled by her touch, as she ran her hands over him, a look of evil delight in her black eyes as she slowly examined the results of her spell.
“What are you going to do with Kristine?”
“Nothing. For now.” Charmion walked around him, her hand stroking his fur as if he were a pet. “She has something I want.”
Fear unlike anything he had ever known churned in Erik’s gut. “What do you mean?”
“She’s carrying a child. A girl child. I shall call her Dominique.”
“No!”
Charmion stood in front of him. “Oh, yes. I shall have a new daughter to replace the one you stole from me.”
“Charmion, please . . .”
“You wish to beg me for your child’s life? It would be more effective if you were on your knees.”
She waved her hand, and he dropped to his hands and knees, forced there by her power.
“Beg me, Erik. Beg me for your daughter’s life as I once begged you for mine.”
“Please,” he said hoarsely. “Take Hawksbridge, take all my holdings, only please don’t take my daughter from Kristine.”
She laughed in cruel amusement. “How the mighty have fallen!” she said, her voice filled with mockery. “You should see how you look! Erik Trevayne, mighty lord of Hawksbridge Castle. A few more months at most and the transformation will be complete. Perhaps I shall keep you here for a pet. Yes, I think that is a most wondrous idea. You will be able to watch your daughter grow up.” A laugh of pure evil spilled from her lips. “Yes, I shall enjoy watching that. I shall enjoy looking into your eyes when you gaze at her. Think what it will be like! You will remember everything. Everything. But you will be a beast, lacking the power of speech, totally in my power.”
He fought off a sense of growing horror to ask, “And what of Kristine?”
Charmion shrugged. “I fear I shall have no need of her once the child is weaned. Perhaps I shall let her go. Or perhaps I shall turn her into a beast, as well. Would you like that?”
“No!” He struggled to break free of her power, to rise to his feet, but he couldn’t move, could only kneel there, helpless, while she stroked his head, her eyes thoughtful.
“Both beasts. Perhaps the two of you will mate and have more children,” she remarked. And then she laughed. “Though I suppose it will be more like a litter, really.”
“No! No . . . please.” A howl of anguish rose in his throat, and with it an overpowering sense of guilt. This was all his fault. He should have ended his life when Dominique died.
“Come along, my pet,” Charmion said. She lifted one hand, beckoning him, and he had no choice but to obey.
On hands and knees, he followed her through the great dark castle. The black cat padded after him, hissing softly.
Erik tried to free himself from the grip of Charmion’s awesome power. He willed himself to stop, to stand, but his body refused to obey.
They turned right at the end of a long corridor and went down a winding flight of cold stone stairs that led to a dark, dank dungeon. The cat sat down at the bottom of the stairs, yellow eyes glowing in the dark.