Howler's Night by Marie Hall

demon.”
    Slowly, I wrapped my fingers around his wrist and gently extricated my face from his grasp. “You can’t stay here.”
    “I’m not leaving you.” He stepped back, giving me some of the space I desperately needed.
    Fidgeting with a particularly large hole across my thigh, I shook my head. “Just not in the bathroom with me. You… you’ve got to go.”
    Instantly I scented the disappointment of my words moving through the room. Though a part of me still felt lost and confused, another part, a part that grew fuller and deeper with each passing day, was so attuned to his thoughts and emotions that I felt them as if they were my own.
    Tucking a dirty strand of hair behind my ear, I whispered, “I’m sorry.”
    “I’ll be back with some clothes,” Asher said in a monotone, and then he turned on his heel and walked away.
    ~*~
    Asher

    I was finally able to beg some clothes from one of the panthers’ old ladies. She was an older woman, frozen in her form in her mid-forties, but she and Pandora were about the same size.
    I looked at the leathers and grimaced, sensing this would be the last thing Pandora would want to wear, but it wasn’t like we had many options. Not bothering to knock on the door, I entered and was just about to set the clothes down on the sink when a pale flash of white caught my eye.
    Dora had the curtain closed, and she was sitting with her legs crossed in front of her, leaning her head on her knees. But I could see through the fluttering sliver of cloth and undulation of steam beneath her. From her neck all the way down to the backs of her thighs, she was covered in thick, puckered scars.
    She looked like someone who’d been flogged and stitched back together, only to then have the process repeated ad nauseam. Bile flooded the back of my throat as anger beat a raw and furious rhythm inside me.
    Her spine stiffened, and I knew she’d sensed me. I cloaked myself in shadow a split second before she turned. Her intelligent eyes seemed to target my position, but I knew she couldn’t see me.
    After a minute, her shoulders relaxed and she turned back around. I couldn’t trace as she could. If I opened the door, she’d hear me for sure. So I took a seat on the bench outside and dropped my gaze to the floor.
    Several minutes ticked by before she whispered, “I’m coming out now. If you care for me at all, you’ll look away.”
    I opened my mouth, ready to defend myself but knowing I couldn’t. So I squeezed my eyes shut when she turned the water off, and even after she’d dried and dressed and left the room, I sat where I was, wondering what in the hell we should do now.
    Pandora could think properly now, but she was still far from whole. It was the dead of night when I finally walked out of there, heading to my cot in the pantry.
    She was back inside her cage, curled up in a ball, and the sight of that hurt worse than even when she’d tried to attack me. I didn’t stop to consider whether she’d want me to move her or not. I just rushed into that cage and scooped her up.
    Her eyes opened instantly, and she gazed at me warily. “Where are you taking me?”
    “To the bed,” I snapped.
    She wet her lips but didn’t say anything for a while. There was only room enough for one on the cot, so I laid her down on it before stooping to take a seat on the floor beside her.
    And I listened to her breathing and watched as the shadows slid along the walls from the rotation of the moon.
    She finally spoke after nearly an hour of silence. “Ash?”
    Just as Pandora was raw, so was I. I didn’t know how to act around her anymore, what to do to make her see I’d never hurt her. If I turned, I’d take her back in my arms, and I wasn’t sure whether she’d want me to or not.
    “What?”
    After taking several deep breaths, as though starting and then stopping herself from talking, she finally asked, “Where is Luc?”
    My eyes slipped shut, and I hung my head. I didn’t know what to tell