Leila was the first of the two to reach her feet, holding a hand out to someone standing outside of Christoph’s line of sight. Rather than assist her lord as she struggled to find her balance, the beast-woman who appeared instead passed over a small bowl and backed out of sight once more. Leila looked over the crowd before raising the wooden vessel to her lips, downing the contents with a single swallow.

She shivered as she drank, dark grey fur standing on end as her ears strained upright. Returning the bowl, Leila took another from the woman attending the fire. Emilia had said that his blood would be made into wine. Was this it? Christoph had expected it to be a slow process, but it’s possible it was just a final ingredient in the mixture.

Crouching down next to her sister, Leila helped Emilia to sit upright, pushing the bowl to the confused woman’s lips even before she could properly get her bearings again. Emilia shuddered as she was forced to drink, back arching in Leila’s arms as the effects of the wine spread over her body.

“Bastias has blessed you this night,” Leila said, parting from her sister and standing over her. Christoph frowned as he hung down in his bonds. Had she even been conscious at the end of the ceremony? Bastias… Christoph tried to recall his memories of the beast god, but they faded from his mind until they were hazy and blurred.

Emilia stood and began to walk towards him with shaky steps, and he felt the ropes around his limbs fall free as someone cut them loose from behind him. Smiling weakly down at the cat-girl, Christoph let her catch him in her arms as he slumped forwards. Although his wounds had disappeared his exhaustion remained, hunger welling up from his fatigue. He looked up at her as she pushed him back against the cross, shifting his weight without effort. Opening her mouth, she swiped her tongue over his neck and he went stiff, a vivid image of Bastias chewing on some meat suddenly reappearing in his mind.

Emilia sank her teeth into his skin, but didn’t move to tear away his flesh. Instead she blazed with sudden energy, and he felt a jolt as it shocked through his body from where she had bitten him. Releasing the grip her jaws had on his neck, Emilia howled up at the treetops, the crowd roaring in response. The beast-people surged forwards as they had the night before, but rather than circling Emilia they surrounded the fire and the throne, a mountain of furred bodies descended upon the woman Bastias has dropped with a yelp. The cauldron of wine was similarly swarmed as the ceremony came to a climax.

Emilia looped his arm around her shoulder and half-dragged him from the clearing, her frolicking clansmen parting to make way for them. After a moment she paused, turning around so she could carry him on her back, his legs wrapped around her waist from behind. Christoph was not a large man, but Emilia was likewise unremarkable in stature. Had she always been this strong? From where the throne had been covered in bodies, he heard the poor beast-woman mewling in distress.

“What are they doing to her?” he asked, pushing his other questions from his mind for now.

“Communion,” Emilia replied, stepping up the wooden stairs into the trees as he leaned his chest against her fur. Hadn’t she been struggling to walk a moment ago?

“Communion?” Christoph said.

“They’re cleaning her,” she said. “As a beast does.” She took the stairs easily, and he bounced slightly against her back as the fire disappeared around the circumference of the tree. As a beast does? Communion? Christoph shuddered as he remembered the coarseness of Bastias’ tongue on his skin.

“Where are we going?” Would she take him back to the prison? Somehow the mood seemed as if that wasn’t the case.

“You are mine now,” Emilia replied. “Body and soul. You do not belong in the prison, you belong with me.”

“Oh,” he said, feeling the bite mark on his neck closing over as she walked. After the events of the night, everything seemed so far away. “Okay then.” Closing his eyes as he nestled into her fur, Christoph drifted off into sleep as she carried him up into the trees.

…

Josephine carried Christoph on her back as she splashed down the alleyway. How far had the police gotten inside? No, they were the least of her worries. The image of a young man entered her mind, headphones covering his ears as he smirked up at her. If he was here… Dan had never had the strength to stand against him. Shaking her head, she entered a nearby building, passing through a fake wardrobe into a hidden corridor. If Christoph’s father was here, too, she needed to…

She slammed her hand into the wall to stop it from shaking. He couldn’t be trusted! Christoph had to be protected at all costs, and the experiment was her second priority. Everything else was expendable. Looking back, she sighed up at her son’s sleeping face before rounding a corner and opening an electronically locked door.

“Mistress?” One of the dolls stood on standby, blank eyes staring over at the pair as they entered the room. The doll’s blonde hair waved gently as she moved, reminding Josephine of her failure. No, she reminded herself, her latest experiment had surpassed all of her expectations.

“Form a playroom,” Josephine said. “Hide Christoph from the outsiders. I’m initiating a purge.”

“What of Angel?” the doll asked flatly.

“Do not touch her,” Josephine said. “Even if I do not return, she is your second priority after Christoph. The outsiders would not dare to harm something so…” No, would they? The familiar smirk entered her mind again, and she felt her chest tighten. Her experiments were not regarded well by those outside her lab.

“Do not touch her,” Josephine repeated, and the doll clicked softly as the message was relayed to the others in the network. The door opened and a line of bodies flooded the room, each one staring blankly ahead, a small black box fixed to the base of their skulls. Surrounding Christoph, they took him through the second door into the safe room, the large glass window soon showing nothing but dolls as they covered his form with their own. Suddenly, the mass parted to reveal a young boy’s face, one arm outstretched towards the open door.

“Mom?” he asked. “Mom, where are you going?”

“It’s okay, Christoph” Josephine replied, her glasses flashing as she looked up at the mob of dolls. Reaching out, they pulled him back into their midst, his little limbs flailing against them.

“It’s okay, baby!” she repeated. “I’ll be back in a moment. For now, just wait for mommy in the playroom, okay?” Muffled cries rang out from behind the glass before the door sealed closed, and a tear ran down Josephine’s face as she said goodbye to her son, leaving him trapped beneath the pile of cold bodies as she went to greet the invaders. Behind her, the mountain of dolls wriggled slightly before falling still.

…

Christoph jerked awake as he was dropped onto the bed, blood rushing as he snapped out of his memories. A weight settled over him, cold skin pressing against his bare chest as hands clutched at his arms, his hair. He tried to escape, but the hands were too strong, the weight too much as it pressed over him. His arms were trapped, his legs tangled as cold hands roamed over his skin.

“No,” he whimpered.

“No?” a soft voice responded to his pleas in the darkness, and he reached out towards it, but frozen fingers wrapped around his arm and pulled it back down.

“No, please,” he said. “Don’t leave me. Don’t leave me here.”

“Shhh,” the voice replied in a soothing tone. “It’s okay.”

Christoph jerked as the words reached him, thrashing about at the hands that held him down. It wasn’t okay. It wasn’t okay! He twisted under the weight, and it lifted off of him at last, leaving him alone in the darkness. He shivered, the emptiness calling to him as the dolls disappeared forever.

“Christoph, calm down.” A cold hand grasped at this own, but before he could jerk it back he felt his fingers come to rest on warm skin. A blue glow suffused the cabin, lighting the darkness as warmth radiated from Emilia’s naked form.

“Emilia?” Christoph blinked as he looked around, his surroundings illuminated by the light of her inner energy. It was not the cold steel of the playroom, but the gentle warmth of a wooden cabin that greeted him. His memories remained only in the past, so very long ago.

Emilia lowered his hand from where it pressed into the side of her face, closing her hands around his as she moved his palm to her chest. His breathing deepened as he settled back into the present. That’s right, the dolls were long gone now, just a distant memory and nothing more. Christoph flinched as he remembered Henry’s blank stare, his cold body lying bloody on the tree root. Emilia gasped as his fingers tightened around her flesh, and thoughts of the elf left his mind.

Christoph looked up at Emilia as she closed the distance between them once more, allowing the cat-girl to push him back down to the bed as she slowly embraced him. “It’s okay,” he said. “I’m fine now.”

“Don’t lie,” she said, straddling him as their faces drifted closer. “You belong to me now, and it’s my job to keep you safe.”

He smiled back up at the naked beast-woman as her weight settled onto him, feeling the soft warmth of her body on his as his raised a hand to draw her into a kiss, her tongue plunging impatiently into his mouth as their lips touched. He had not been the only one in pain tonight.

“That’s right,” Christoph said softly, feeling her hand closing over his stiffening erection as she lifted her hips to align their bodies. He looked up at her in the dim light, reaching hand out to caress her thigh. “If you can keep me alive, I’ll be yours forever.”

Her hips lowered over his with a shudder, the beast-girl gasping as they connected. “You are mine,” Emilia said, kissing at his neck as she began to grind her hips against his. “Body and soul.”

…

Sunlight streamed through a window in the cabin roof, the branches above parting to reveal the brilliant blue of the sky. Christoph smiled up at the sight as he awoke. How long had it been since he had seen the sky? Sunlight reached the forest floor in many places, but to have a clear view of the clouds like this… Emilia stirred in his arms as he shifted, and he leaned forwards to plant a kiss on her cheek before relaxing back into the bed.

Was it really okay to simply accept everything that had happened to him? He sighed, looking over at Emilia’s face as she slept. He was alive and well, and it didn’t seem like she was about to go back on her promises. No, he couldn’t judge their relationship by the night they shared. From what he had seen, the beast clans didn’t share humanity’s common views on modesty. It was possible that it meant nothing to her, simply a slave being put to good use at the whim of his owner.

Christoph pushed his doubts aside as he extracted himself from her arms. Nothing good could come from stressing over his situation. If things went bad, he would make a decision then. Right now, his stomach was growling and his skin was sticky with paint, blood, and other various bodily fluids. Pulling on his shorts, he opened the door to find a dead beas- a dead monster lying next to a basket of fruit. Dragging the food into the room, Christoph turned to see Emilia sitting up on the bed with half-open eyes. The combination of red paint and blood smeared over her body reminded Christoph of a cheap horror movie, but he smiled over at her anyway.

“We have food,” he said.

“Good,” Emilia replied, sinking back to the bed and rolling onto her back in the ruffled sheets. “Come feed me, slave.”

Sighing softly, Christoph carried the basket to the bed and pushed a section of some sort of citrus fruit into her open mouth. She grinned as she chewed, opening her mouth for more when she had finished.

“More,” she said.

“I’ve heard that before,” Christoph replied wryly as he fed her another piece. “Pace yourself, or you’ll just end up aching afterwards.”

Emilia frowned up at him, nipping at his fingers as he fed her the next section of the orange-like food. Reaching down, she rubbed gingerly at herself with a wince. “I’ll be better by tonight,” she said. “Don’t think I’m letting you get off easy.”

“Honestly, I’m just happy to be alive,” Christoph said, falling silent for a moment before grinning back at her as he placed a piece of fruit into his own mouth. “I consider myself lucky to be getting off at all.”

Emilia frowned at his joke, and again as he stole her food. Chewing for a moment, he made a face before spitting the pulped mass back into his hand. “This is terrible,” he said. “How can you eat that?”

“Your food is over there,” Emilia said with a smirk, pointing over to the monster he had dragged into the cabin earlier. “Try not to make such a big mess this time, or you’ll be the one sleeping in it.

Christoph stared over at the small creature’s carcass as it sat on the wooden floor of the cabin. Their cabin. Well, her cabin, but he lived there too. Looking back to Emilia, he raised an eyebrow at the blood-covered bed. “It’s not like the bed is clean as it is,” he said. “Or is it only okay when the blood is mine?”

Emilia stretched again, crawling forwards into his lap. “Be quiet and feed me,” she said, taking the half-chewed piece of fruit from his hand and swallowing it down. “Or I’ll make you sleep on the floor.”