Chapter 2: We Own Her Soul …

Albert.

I hold her gaze.

My eyes taking her in. If she knew my mind, she’d flay me with the carving knife I saw in her kitchen, moments ago.

Isabel looks focused on the cartoon. Chuckling, calling her mum’s attention.

I watch the little cub with intrigue. Our little cub.

When I returned to the States, two days ago, read the file on Selene and the baby, I had almost frozen on the spot.

I had a little girl. Isabel.

Selene had given our baby my mum’s name and my surname.

Isabel Helen Bethel.

Her eyes, stunning as my mum’s, with flecks of Selene’s beautiful black orbs.

The photo hadn’t done Isabel justice.

Yes, I know my daughter’s name. I know she was born earlier than expected. Like me, when I was born. I know her birthday is tomorrow the 22nd, like her mum. I had read it all in their files.

She's beautiful, highly spirited.

Her smile, mirroring her mum’s, despite her chubby cheeks.

I smile, recalling the rhyme, ‘Chubby Cheeks.’ Can’t wait to sing it to her.

I never sing. But this little one makes me hum the song in my head.

“How did you know that Albert?” She repeats her question.

I want to respond. This girl makes me do things I never do. Am turning to mashed potatoes inside, like the one Isabel just ate.

Instead of responding, I turn an expressionless gaze to her.

“You fed her, go eat something. I’d watch her.”

She hates me. It’s there in her eyes now as she stares at me. But I don’t care.

If I count the people that hate me in the world, it’d fill up my cursing jar.

My best friend, Raoul Laurent puts a jar in my face, every time I curse.

Fuck she’s doing that thing with her lips again. Sucking her lower lip. Turning me on.

Biting it, I see me pulling out the lip with my teeth, sucking it. Consuming her.

Her hips have widened, since I last saw her.

Lost all that baby weight she gathered during the pregnancy.

I saw close shots of her. She was beautifully chubby.

“I’m only getting up to eat, because I’m hungry and it’s almost past my meal time. Not because you’re right.” She remarks.

I nod my head absently, chiding my thoughts.

My focus shifts to Isabel, whose eyes equally shift to me.

I hear her mum busy with utensils in the kitchen.

But I ignore her, pulled into the moment by this little one in her kitty onesie.

I draw closer to her, sitting where her mum just vacated. She regards me awkwardly, pointing at the screen.

“Kitty jum jum…” She excitedly stands on the chair, mimicking the funny character on the screen. She asks me to do something, I don’t know what she wants.

Then she grabs my fingers, instinctively.

Something funny happens, which hasn’t in years. I don’t pull back. I let her hold my gloved hands. She’s innocently asking me to do something, but all that grips my heart is the fact that this little girl is holding my gloved hands.

“She wants you to jump.” Selene’s voice breaks in.

I raise my eyes sharply.

She’s watching our fingers, and I can tell what’s on her mind.

The same fingers I prevented her from touching.

Instinctively, I pull my hands back. The little one hits her bum on the cushion.

I don’t know if it’s the shock, but she's upset; water works and cries. I want to carry her. But I have never carried a little one before.

What if I stain her? Taint her innocence forever? Like I tainted her mum.

Selene fixes things. Singing sweet nothings to Isabel.

Isabel is scratching her eyes, while I watch them.

I see Selene. Beautiful, her skin, color of dark chocolate, delectable even from my line of vision, like the first time I tasted her.

Her long tresses in a high bun, exposing her long neck.

I wouldn’t talk of her breasts; fuller, more distinctive, since I last saw her.

I want to sink my teeth in her neck, like I did the first time we slept together. The first time I possessed her. Took her. Ruined her for anyone else.

Branded her my possession forever.

She became one with the real me. The me that no one else sees. The me I should keep tucked away forever.

We own her soul. We’ve branded her.

A familiar voice says in my head.

I feel its tentacles spreading. Reaching me. Wanting to lead. And if I let it, it would do things.

Things that had made her scared of me before.

Things that had made her question me.

And I didn’t have answers, because I was never given them.

She’s ours, Albert. Let’s take her here. We’ve missed her scent for so long. Let’s drink from her nectar. Remind her, what she means to us.

I pale, my body breaking into sweats, knowing the truth.

Knowing what it craves.

I am a mix of darkness.

I shouldn’t be here with these pure souls. Souls I yearn for, presently.

However, I can’t. I want to reach Selene. Ask her to want me to stay.

The real me. Not the me fighting for the surface.

But I don’t. I pull back. Everything retreating. Taking with it the sunlight.

I was wrong thinking I could mix both worlds.

My dark, her light. I was wrong coming here. I Should have maintained my initial stand.

“I should go.” I turn a stoic face to her, interrupting her from cooing Isabel, who has fallen asleep.

I want to ask how she knew Isabel was sleepy.

But I have shut me out. The me that wants to kiss her beautiful small lips.

Selene’s gaze holds me ransom.

A plea, lurked in her eyes. Disappears.

Now she is the same girl that I had handed the paper towel to, earlier.

Hurt. Betrayed by me.

Silently, I leave again.