He had unwillingly watched her go, her black hide quickly lost in the spotty light of the woods. There was a strange division in him at the moment. Part of him wanted to run after her to protect her. Certainly the man was armed. Benny and Trigger had already found other weapons on the two bodies left behind. The other half of him was scared. She was feral, and there was no telling what she would do if he went after her. It was quite possible that she would attack him in the state she was in.

Edward had already sent Trigger back to the manor's garden shed to get shovels, warning him not to be seen. The men would be unceremoniously buried where they were. Benny went through the pockets of the men, looking to find out anything about who they were. He came up with only a few scraps of paper, and some money. When Trigger returned, Eddie waved them off to dig graves for the men. He was not relishing the task of cleaning up after his girlfriend.

Then the screams started. They were so unearthly, the men were uncertain if they were male or female, or even human.

"Finish up here, and then follow," Edward said, rushing off in the direction the screams came from. His gun bumped heavily against his side as he rushed through the dense undergrowth. Tangram hurried along side, though Eddie was almost oblivious to the cub's presence. Please don't let that be her screaming!

Suddenly, the screams stopped. A grunting noise led him to the spot, however, and he immediately turned to empty his stomach at the sight. In half human form, Dee sat on the mutilated corpse of Lighthair, placidly digging a hole through his chest. She had laid out his internal organs along side, and was currently removing the man's left lung. The only way this man would ever be identified was through his dental records. He wiped his mouth as he stood, panting, and looked back at Dee. She now sat staring at him with huge cat eyes.

"Dee?" he said timidly, taking a step toward her.

A happy guttural sound came from her, as she gave him a tired, but pleased feline smile. Before he could say another word, she passed out, falling forward on the corpse and melting back into human form. He rushed to her side, ignoring the fact that his suit was getting covered in gore. Dee's body was slick with blood, and her skin chilled to the touch. It was obvious that her sustained transformation had taken its toll on her.

Wrapping her in his coat, he lifted her into his arms. He met Benny and Trigger as he headed back the way he had come. Giving them instructions to dispose of the body, and warning them of the devastation in the clearing. The amount of blood covering Dee and Eddie both, had the guys asking if she was ok.

"She's fine, I think. I won't know until I get her back to the manor." He shook his head and looked down at Dee as she snuggled against him, holding his tie in her hands. "Just take care of it, please." Turning, he started to walk back, before stopping. "And thank you both. I appreciate your help in this. Bring me what you've found on the bodies when you get back."

"Yes, Mr. Nigma," Trigger said.

"Sure thing, boss," Benny added.

As he walked back to the manor, Eddie juggled the little question mark shaped comm-unit out of his pocket and contacted the Monroe's man, Ian. He instructed Ian to clear the halls of any and all servants, and have plastic trash bags waiting in the room when he returned, along with plenty of clean towels. Ian assured him that everything would be ready when he arrived.

~ ~ ~

Dee remained only partially conscious as Edward stripped her bloody clothing off of her and stuffed it into the provided bags. As requested, not a single servant was seen when he had arrived. The last thing he needed was to be asked what had happened. Even he wasn't too certain on that, and was quite unwilling to speak about the events in the woods.

He scrubbed as much of the blood off of her as he could, draining the tub more than once. She came fully around for that, but was unable to speak. When she tried to kiss his hand, he pulled away, thinking she was going to bite him. Dejectedly, she slumped against the side of the tub, hanging her head over the side, a few tears sliding down her face.

By the time he pulled her out of the tub and dried her off, he was forcing her to stay awake. He had made it back to the bed with her, sitting her down so he could get her something warm to wear. When he turned around with some pajamas for her, she had already crawled under the blankets. There she huddled in a ball, shivering in her sleep. On one of the chairs was an extra blanket, which he placed over her before he left the room with the bag of bloodied clothing to have it burned.

Left to sleep, Dee dreamed feline dreams of chasing prey and playing with fellow felines. As a human, she knew what she had done, though everything seemed only a distant memory, like a movie she had watched. That's how it had always been, from her first kill to her latest. The ring demanded blood on occasion, and when it got the opportunity, it took the blood it wanted. None of it ever felt unnatural. It all felt like part of what she had to do as a predator.

~ ~ ~

"What happened to the men, Edward," Tom asked after dinner.

Eddie shook his head. "Just know that those men won't be bothering you ever again, Tom." They won't bother anyone ever again. "It's all been taken care of. I apologize for bringing this trouble to your home."

"Better that it was us than someone else. How is Dee doing?"

"She seems fine. She's just exhausted. I woke her up to eat, which she did. Though I'm not sure she really was awake. I think the smell of food just made her eat automatically." There was genuine worry in his voice. There had been no expression on Dee's face as she ate the lamb stew and bread before collapsing back into the bed to sleep. While she ate, he had managed to slip one of his dress shirts on her, giving her a little more warmth.

"How did she get so tired?"

Wagging a finger at Tom, Eddie said, "That you don't need to know. But I don't consider her the best bodyguard I've ever had for no reason at all. She more than earns her keep. Did that package get off alright?"

"Ian took it into town immediately after you gave it to him. Stromel won't care that you got rid of his men, you know. He'll come after her again, Edward. You know how the man is. How could you have taken her to his castle?"

"Stupidity and stubbornness. I tried to get her to stay on the plane. She refused. Stubborn as can be, that woman! Next time I tell her to do something, she better damn well listen to me!"

Tom chuckled. "It's nice to see you with someone you care about. Just remember what I said. Stromel gets it in his mind that he wants something, and he will take it." He refilled their scotch glasses.

Grunting, Eddie downed his freshly refilled scotch. "He won't get his way this time. If he wanted Gilliana, you wouldn't give her up." He stood up from his seat at the fireplace in Tom's study. "Thank you for the drinks. I think I'll go to bed now. It's been a long day."

"You'll stay an extra day to rest, won't you?"

"Let's see what the morning brings, Tom," Edward said, patting the man on the shoulder as he left the room.

By now he had gotten over his initial fear of Dee after seeing what she had done. It was her ring that made her do that. To accept her, was to accept who and what she was, and that included the ring. However, when he slipped into bed next to her, he removed her ring. At his touch, she curled herself against his chest, tucking herself under his arm. She still felt as cold as ice, but had stopped shivering. Kissing the top of her head, he sighed and went to sleep himself.

~ ~ ~

In his study, Graf Radulf Stromel opened the packet sent to him by Edward Nigma. Inside was enough information to let him know that those clowns that he hired to bring the girl back had failed. The blood stained items told him that the men had paid for their failure with their lives. This was disagreeable with him, for he would have preferred to end their pathetic lives his own way. He didn't really care that the men had lost their lives. It was the failure that bothered him. No one failed him.

Growling, he threw the items, along with the letter from Herr Nigma into the fireplace. The little man had decided that Graf Stromel was no longer good enough to procure items for. Fine! There were a thousand other common criminals that could get him what he wanted. That did not put aside the fact that the idiot American was hiding something about that girl. Why would he fight so hard to protect her? Why did he care? She was a woman with a secret, something he felt no woman should ever have. All of his compliments had been tossed aside, as if what he had said didn't matter. He said what he did to women because they were stupid and gullible. And this Dee Lemma was just a woman.

Speaking of which...

"Get out of here, all of you!" he snarled at the collared women who waited silently at the edge of the firelight. One in particular caught his eye as she backed out of the room, bowing to him. "You, stay!" The order was given as if to a dog.

Silently the woman returned to the edge of the light, kneeling, eyes cast to the expensive Oriental rug in front of her. Though she looked at it, she did not see it. She saw only her master's slippers as he stood in front of her. When the door closed, he held his hand down to her. Obediently, she placed the short leash into his waiting hand.

"Stand up."

She stood. The woman was shorter than him by at least a head. Just like the American girl. He slapped her across the face, the force causing her to reel back. A yank of the short leash brought her back to her original spot. She made no sound, and still kept her eyes on his slippers.

"Pleasure me in a new way," he said.

This is what women were for. Breeding, sex, and as slaves for men. Any other use was hardly thinkable! He was a reasonable man, demanding little of the women in his service. They were to be seen and heard only when he wanted. Chattel, that's what they were. This one was freshly broken in, and proving to have some inventiveness. Where had he gotten her again? No matter.

He grabbed her by the hair after a moment, throwing her against the desk. The flimsy robes he made the women wear was easily discarded. Twisting his hand into her long red hair, he brutally sodomized and raped her until she passed out and was as limp as a ragdoll. Just as one might do to a ragdoll, he tossed her to the carpets, closing his own robes and calling for his servants to remove the woman and clean up the blood.

When he got his hands on that girl of Nigma's, she would beg him for treatment like that. That little tiger cub of hers would look nice as a rug. He chuckled. Not a rug. Her clothing. She would wear the skin of her precious little tiger cub, the leash around her neck the cub's tail. With the way she talked to him, he knew he would have fun breaking her.
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