Chapter Five

They tore themselves from one another, their unnatural lust sated. As passion faded to nothing, the horror of his actions crowded in on David. There was no escaping what was left of his conscience. He could not bring himself to spare even a glance for the lifeless bodies in the henge. Something in him shattered and died; maybe the last forlorn glimmer of hope, maybe the last spark of humanity. He would never find peace; never feel the beautiful oblivion of death. Anne had taken his soul as surely as his body, leaving him forever torn asunder.

He agonized over the last few days, realizing that he had given Anne exactly what she had asked of him. Her demon child was a certainty now. He could already feel it growing inside her, pulsing strongly with inhuman life. He knew that he would have to take it from her, that he could not allow such an abomination to flourish. The child he'd always dreamed of, the child that he had been unable to have with Meredith, grew now in the womb of a monster. He could not bear the thought. This child, his child, would die before it drew a single, independent breath.

He wept uncontrollably then, accepting no solace or consolation. Finally, Anne left him to his grief and went hunting on her own. Much to her surprise, he was still lying motionless in the cool, damp grass when she returned just before dawn. When she held out a hand to him, he took it in his without a word. His movements were stiff and mechanical, and his eyes were dead, completely void of expression. It was as if all sense of warmth or life had been driven from him.

He followed Anne back into the crypt, then flopped carelessly into one of the huge chairs. Stark naked but for his cloak, he made no effort to cover himself, no pretense of false modesty. The cold stillness in his eyes chilled even Anne as he watched her every movement without blinking. His eyes were predatory, and his attention never wavered. It made her hair stand on end, an effect she was not used to. She could almost feel him thinking; feel his thoughts upon her as if he stripped away the thin veneer of her civilization and knew her for a ravening beast.

It was only in her uneasiness that she realized the enormity of what she had done. It was unthinkable, raising a male to the Anakarre. There had been a reason why they had never taken a male into their numbers. She should have known better; instead, she had let rage blind her. Meredith had been her first daughter of body, her only child ever born of love. In unthinking, intractable grief, she had done the only thing she had ever forbidden to the Anakarre. Now, oath-broken, her life would be forfeit.

It was a reasonable price. Millennia ago there had been both males and females of her race, or at least of her ancestors. The males had been savage, uncontrollable brutes given to berserk rages and cruel fancies. Solitary by nature, they had ravaged their lands, stripping them clear of human life. Devoid of food, they had begun to infighting, devouring one another. They had been so vicious that some of the younger females had splintered off, vowing never to bring a male to live among them. This was what had allowed them to survive while the rest of their race perished. Under Anne's rule, they had held that oath as law for centuries. She had violated the sacred vow, and now David appeared to be well into the first stages of the Rage.

Her daughters would be Hunting her soon. They had a sworn duty to fulfill. Death was the only penalty for breaking clan law. She would not make it easy for them, but they would win in the end. Their numbers were to great for her to resist alone. Desperately she tried to think of a solution. With this new life growing beneath her ribs, she had no desire for death. For the first time in centuries, she actually had something to look forward to. Somehow, she had to live to enjoy it. Rage built behind her eyes, then died abruptly as if checked by some outside force. Anne shook off the bizarre thought, she'd have to find time to puzzle it out later.

David's anger was a direct result of her meddling. In her implacable fury, she had pushed him too far; tormenting and torturing him to the brink of rage. Her only hope now was to hold the anger from him; find some way to rekindle warmth and emotion. It would take all her skill at deception, but perhaps she could reclaim the situation somehow. Coldly rational in her thoughts, she knew what it would take to rectify her mistake before it was discovered. Gathering her thoughts to her, she moved carefully, aware of the fine line she trod. If David had sunk too far into the Rage to listen, the game was already over. This could so easily blow up in her face, damning them all. If his rage exploded, there would be no stopping him, no going back. He would become a barbarous monster, incapable of compassion or conscience. She had to make him believe there was hope.

She could only trust that his modern upbringing had allowed him to hold to some small shred of sensitivity, something that would combat his innate male aggression. Mankind had changed a lot over the last several centuries, becoming far less brutal. With any luck at all, that change would be enough. "David." She spoke softly, her tone as reassuring as she could make it. It took all she had not to let loose the rage she felt rising in her. It never occurred to her to wonder why she tried. "What are you thinking?"

He looked at her silently for a moment then laughed bitterly. "Thinking? To think would be to live, to be human. There is no thought left in me now. I am the creature of your revenge, a vicious beast." The timbre of his voice was rough, oddly abrasive, and tinged with madness.

"That's not true, you know." Her reproach was mild, but brooked no argument. "You have an eternity ahead of you now. Find the joy in it, the wonder. It still exists; you have but to touch it. Reach out and the world can yet be yours." She strove to make him see the endless maze of possibilities. It went against every fiber of her being not to just strike him down, but once again, something held her back. It was beginning to annoy her.

David pointedly turned his back and faced away from her, physically repudiating her statement. "Dress it up with all your pretty words, its still a tapestry of lies. You made me what I am out of spite. You meant it as a curse, not a gift, and so it has been received. There is no wonder left in me; just horror, cold and dark. You've left no shred of life for me to hold, no hope."

Anne saw the faintest flicker of doubt go through his eyes before he looked away from her. She made no comment, but she could feel the stirring of promise as she realized that the battle was not completely lost. He still owned some small scrap of reason; she just had to find and nurture it. If she did the job well enough, she could set him free before her children even knew what she had done. A fleeting thought crossed her mind and was gone before she could grasp it. It was the merest whisper of a notion; she could have just killed him, thus destroying any evidence. Deep inside her, the nascent embryo shifted, settling itself to wait, radiating smug contentment.

(c) M.C. Sak 1999