The handsome part-celestial part-fiend lay now in his bed, allowing the gentle night breeze to brush over his perfectly formed features, silently welcoming the cool of it on the skin of his face and bare chest. He was tired, exhausted, but a nagging feeling in the back of Koell�s head told him he would find no sleep that night. All his thoughts constantly returned to his mother, not allowing him a moment�s inner-peace as he relived the words his father had spoken to her.

�Once home, you�ll never be able to ever leave again. You know the rules, Twinkletoes, and you�ve disobeyed each � and every � one of them��

Koell closed his eyes, the harsh growl of his own father�s voice echoing in his mind. The more Koell let himself consider that she was with him, the more it weighed heavy on his thoughts, and on his heart. She deserved better; he could give her better, he wanted to give her better. But he couldn�t, she wouldn�t let him for whenever he got close she would push him away; afraid of the consequences, perhaps. He felt discarded, abandoned; unwanted.

Koell�s fists made the mattress recoil beneath him, shaking under his weight and the force he subjected the structure to. �Take me home. I want to � be with you�� It was now his mother�s voice that plagued his conscience with words that he could only wish she would speak to him. But she hadn�t, instead letting them fall on the ears of Kaehlin; the brute. His father.

From across the landing he heard the cries of the child; Rhaul was restless. This was no surprise considering; the child had undergone an ordeal far greater than that of his family, perhaps save his mother, for it had been he who had lost his arm to the sadistic experiments of the elven mage; the arm that had been replaced with that of a cat, a mystical rakshasa, or tiger-demon. Koell ground his fanged teeth into his lower lip, attempting to use his pillow to drown out the child�s cries. He had been forced to tell Kaehlin that the child belonged to him; there was no other way. But even Koell was unsure. How could he be? There was as much chance, perhaps even more, that Rhaul was his son as well as his brother; but how could he let Kaehlin know such a thing? �I couldn�t,� the restless son told himself, �for it would have been the death of all of us. Myself, the child� and mother. For her, always.�

With an exasperated sigh, Koell clambered from his bed, pushing aside the silk. His naked form glistened for a moment under the moonlight before he stepped out of it and into the shadows, making his way to the window. He closed it, shutting away the breeze that had rippled over him moments ago, and for a moment he let his eyes wander out over the town. Rovandon. A grace it was, however small, to be home. Pulling the curtains closed now, Koell made his way back to the bed, folding his great, feathered wings in at his back. He paused mid-step however, when he heard the scream pierce the silence.

The sound of his mother�s cries sent a shudder down Koell�s body, from the top of his horns to the very tips of his toes. His golden eyes staring blankly at the single wall dividing his bedroom from his parent�s, the hands of the young man curled slowly into fists, a small crack emit from the knuckles. The cause of Am�naelihn�s pained cries was not a question; Koell knew that this was the punishment that his father had earlier insinuated. He had seemingly wasted no time in getting her into the position he was so fond of; so good at. Koell�s heart began to beat; faster and faster.

Things had changed; things were different now. So much had happened though that no longer did he feel inclined to stand by and let such things happen. He lowered his head, golden locks fell down over his flushed face. He may be unwanted, but she was not. He heard his father�s growl, felt his pleasure vibrating through the walls of the house, his brutal, sadistic delight drowning out the unattended wails of Rhaul. He had heard enough.

Koell didn�t bother to close the door as he left the bedroom, fists clenched, fanged teeth grit and jaw set, wings spread. Her cries. The pain would end; soon.

-

Her wrists did nothing but to rattle the shackles that secured her small wrists to the bedpost, the unforgiving steel grinding the skin from the bone, leaving the flesh red and raw beneath the metal. An agonized whimper escaped Am�naelihn�s parted lips as she lifted her head, trying to catch a breath through the pillows and bed sheets scatted unceremoniously beneath her face. He had taken her by surprise, though she had been more than on her guard for such a thing. He�d warned her earlier as they had escaped Cae�ratheuil�s lab, but his manner in the carriage had been so� calmed� that she had almost let herself forget what he had in mind for her, until it was too late.

Now she lay beneath his enormous, muscled form as he straddled her hips from behind. He had focused his cruel intentions to the welted scars along her back where she had lost both her wings. She could tell her body was so new to him; he handled it with unknowing and uncertain hands, though this took nothing from his strength and the rough actions that drove him onwards. Her every scream, her every cry� the punishment for all she had done to him. He could feel it, and it was his fuel. Her elven form was beautiful, as the race was always defined to be, though he silently considered that her celestial form had been more to his taste. But she was still Am�naelihn no matter how she appeared, he could feel it was her, in every squirm, every struggle and every labored gasp muffled beneath squeals of suffering. Dragging his forked tongue along her delicate skin, the tiefling shifted further up her body, forcing his fingers deeper and deeper into the damaged welts marring her back. Her cries echoed around the room, reverberated through the closed door, into the hallway, to Koell�s ears.

-

Letting his wings tuck in at his back, Koell gently rested his head against the door, listening intently through the wood. He heard their movements, every one of them, from the creaking of the bed beneath their forms, the growls of pleasure from his father, the cries of agony from his tortured mother. The sound of it was enough to drive any child mad, but Koell was not �any child.� He loved his mother, as none other could. Especially not his father. To him, Am�naelihn was everything. His creator, his savior, his mother and his love, his pleasure and his pain. Above all, she was his.

And for all his love, all his care, she would not return it as he wanted. She discarded him even now in favor of another, not a single thought of him running through her mind as she was entwined in her business without him. Know one in the world could care about her more than he did; no one could want her as much.

And yet here he stood, hearing her screams, his groans; he let the tear slide past his eyelids, down his face, flushed as it was with anger. His knuckles were painfully white as he clenched tight fists at both his sides. Why did she not want him? What had he done to make her prefer to be without him, to prefer to be with� him?

Koell wrapped his hand around the handle that was his entrance to his parent�s bedroom. The door was no guard from the sounds that his mother made behind it, beneath his father, within his sadistic grasp, subjected to the pain he inflicted. With a scowl Koell tugged the handle towards him, the force causing the door to vibrate in its frame, the thick wood to split clean through with the handle at the center of the damage, splintering on both sides. A deep breath later, Koell had hastily retreated from the hallway, away from them, from the room, and in the direction of Rhaul�s wails. He could not interrupt them. There was too much at stake; most of all, her life. He felt so helpless, and yet it was her wish for it to be this way.

-

Kaehlin lifted his head from his lover�s back, his crimson eyes flashing dangerously as he glanced to the door. He saw the cracks crease the wood, threatening to break the entire structure. He narrowed his eyes a moment, going to lift himself from Am�naelihn�s trembling form to investigate the cause of the damage. Her quaking lips captured his, her tongue teasing over his, and she pulled him down on top of her frail and damaged form, the chains cutting deeply into her wrists where she had twisted them to turn herself over. The tiefling closed his eyes, his tongue teased into lustful action, his hands moving to her thighs hungrily. Am�naelihn whimpered softly, her eyes flitting to the door for just a moment.