The Wolf and the Unicorn

A surge of sensation flooded her as his blood touched her lips. Antigone trembled slightly as she drank for a handful of seconds, then closed the two small holes in his wrist with a flick of her tongue. She licked the last sweet drops from her lips and looked up to meet his gaze, which burned with an intensity to match her own. Beckett smiled and pulled her to him, his lips brushing gently across hers, sending ripples of electricity down her spine.





All too soon, the kiss was over, and she found herself facing him, her face flushed. "You know," she said, "I know next to nothing about you."





Beckett smiled and twirled a strand of her hair around his finger. "What would you like to know?"





"Everything," she replied, laughing. "Or whatever you feel like telling me."





"Let's see..." he moved so he was lying full-length on the couch and slid a pillow beneath his head, turning onto his side. "You might as well get comfortable, it's a long story."





Antigone rose to go towards the other couch, but he took her hand and pulled her up to lay beside him, her face inches from his. "Alright, ready when you are."





"Well, you already know my name is Beckett. I'm an archaeologist and a historian, and one of my hobbies is chasing after Noddist artifacts. I try not to put myself in situations like the one you found me in, but it happens more often than not, I'm afraid." He chuckled, "But normally I can find my way out of trouble on my own; this is the first time I've had a beautiful woman come to my rescue."





She snorted. "Oh please. I've looked into the mirror for enough years to know I'm not beautiful. My sister Iza was the beauty in the family; I was the clever one."





He raised an eyebrow and quirked a half-smile. "If you say so. As I was saying, I usually can extricate myself from bad situations. If you hadn't come along when you did, though, this might have proven to be the exception." He closed his eyes and rubbed them wearily with a gloved hand.





"I meant to ask you before," Antigone took his hand in hers and ran a fingertip along the back, "Why are you wearing gloves?"





He sighed. "For the same reason I normally wear sunglasses...although I seem to have lost those along the way." He looked at her, his eyes glowing crimson. "Even the most obtuse of mortals can tell that my eyes are something not quite normal."





"Ah," she nodded in understanding as she continued to trace feather-light patterns across the back of his hand. "Since neither of us are Kine, why keep them on?" She gently tugged the thin leather glove from his hand.





Beckett would have held his breath if he'd still been breathing, waiting for her reaction. His hands were a visible testament to a time he'd lost control to the Beast within; the back of his hand and his fingers were covered with dense black fur and instead of fingernails, at the end of each finger was a thick black claw.





She kissed the back of his hand and twined her fingers within his, and then leaned close to feather a kiss across his lips. He removed the glove from his other hand and wrapped his arm around her waist, guiding her beneath him on the couch as he deepened the kiss. Once again, sensations and emotions he thought long gone flared to life within him as she responded, arching her back and pressing her body against his.





"It's nearly dawn," he whispered in her ear after what could have been a moment or an hour of kisses.





Antigone nodded. "I know." Her limbs felt heavy and as much as she felt she could go on kissing him forever, she was losing the battle to stay awake. "Come with me," she said, rising to her feet and leading him down the hall by the hand. "Bed's more comfortable than the floor."





He hesitated for a moment.





"Unless you want to sleep on the floor..?" she asked, standing beside the bed, then realized the reason for his hesitation and looked away, embarassed. "Look, I am falling asleep standing here. I need to lie down. I'd rather you were with me in case there is some aftereffect of whatever that stuff was that Yeqon poured on you. But if you'd feel more comfortable on the floor or one of the couches, I understand."





Beckett nodded. "I hadn't thought of that. You're right, of course." His mind was clouding over with exhaustion as he stumbled past her into the room. He barely had time to kick off his boots and settle down on the bed under a soft comforter before sleep overtook him.