"You love me; that makes you a man. "
I hoped I was right, that he did love me. That love would be enough to fight what hate had done to him.
In that instant, the Earth moved between the sun and the moon, and the warehouse went eerily red, like a wash of blood across the sky. Malachi jerked out of my grasp; a horrific howl split the night, so close, so loud, my ears rebelled. Then the shriek of rending cloth seemed to sizzle along my nerve endings. It took everything I had not to cower in a corner as far away from what Mal might become as I could get.
But I stayed put. If he was going to kill me, he could do it over there as easily as he could do it right here. I couldn't escape, and in truth, I didn't want to. I would not let that witch win.
Murmuring his name, I reached out to cup his still-changing face. He growled, but at least he didn't bite me, then slowly I leaned forward, and I kissed him.
His skin felt as if snakes were writhing beneath my fingertips. At the touch of my mouth against his, everything stilled, and I knew that what I was doing was right.
I lifted my lips and whispered, "Kiss me back. "
I waited, hoping, praying, near to begging, and at last, when he pressed his lips to mine with the fervor I craved, his mouth had re-formed into that of a man.
I kissed him, held him, murmured to him as the Earth shadowed the moon. Thankfully this eclipse would be one of the shortest ever recorded - in the vicinity of twenty minutes. If it had been one of the longer ones - where the moon could be hidden for hours - I don't know what I would have done, except died.
Malachi broke away, breathing heavily; when he spoke, his voice was again a growl, and despair pulled on me like the tide.
"I can't do this. The lust is calling the beast. "
"Not lust. " I tangled my fingers in his hair, which was only hair, not fur, beautiful, black and curling over my wrists in a wave. "Love. Tell me you love me, Mal. "
"I - I - "
The rest of the words were drowned out in a bestial roar. He knocked me onto my back, leaping on top of me and tearing at my clothes.
Closing my eyes, I concentrated on the good times when this gentle man had touched me and made me whole. I wouldn't let this be hate; between us there would only be love.
"Mal," I whispered, and pressed my mouth to his cheek, felt the bone shift beneath my lips. "Love me. Just love me. "
He quieted; his hands went from hurtful to helpful, removing my clothes until I was as naked as he. We kissed, our tongues tangling together as our bodies did, too, and when I ran my palms over his back, urging him without words to make what we felt true, there was nothing left of the animal, neither within nor without.
He came into me murmuring my name. I wrapped myself around him, holding him close, opening myself, giving him all that I had.
His body was granite-hard, straining against me, striving for completion. I traced my fingers over his cheekbones, his neck, his chest, terrified I'd feel him shifting, catching my breath with wonder when he did not.
Suddenly the light changed, the pulsing red fading toward silver as the eclipse neared an end. Mal stiffened, groaned, and threw back his head.
I had an instant of total terror, thinking he'd shift while he was still inside me and then -
My mind rebelled at the image.
But instead of something horrible, something wonderful happened. He gathered me close, holding me as the orgasm took me, spreading from where we joined outward, until I tingled even to my toes.
"I love you, Claire," he said in a voice that was purely human. "I'll love you until the day that I die. "
On the final word I felt him pulse and come, giving himself to me as no one else ever had before.
And in that instant, the moon burst free of every shadow.
Chapter 38
We lay entwined, staring at that bright, round moon.
"I'm cursed to become a beast beneath the hidden moon," Mal said. "In over two hundred years, I've never been able to resist its pull. "
I turned his face to mine. "You were never in love before. "