Chapter 22
Later that night, Victoria set her plan into motion. She loudly readied herself to go back into the woods. She wore heels that clacked with each step across the wooden floors. Slipping from her room, she made sure that the latch clicked loud enough to echo down the hall. She carried a bright lantern that cast shadows out of every dark corner, knowing full well that its flame could be spotted under any doorway she passed.
Instead of exiting out the front door, she went to a drawing room situated directly below Elias’s bed chamber. She fiddled with the window, allowing it to swing open and bang against the wall. Victoria grunted as she mounted the frame and climbed haphazardly out into the night. If she hadn’t woken half the house, then she hadn’t done her job.
Victoria paused out on the lawns, well within view of anyone who might be looking out a window. There, she adjusted her cloak, pulling it low around her face. Then, she hurried toward the woods, trying very hard not to laugh. This was serious work she was doing.
She knew it wouldn’t take long. Just beyond the trees, she waited. Two minutes, three? Then, she began to call out in a cautious tone, “Hello? Is anyone out there?”
Who would come, she wondered. Would it be Elias? Her guess was the troll.
She heard his breath before she saw him, and it startled her even though she had been waiting.
“Hello?”she cried, making her voice sound fearful.
“It is dangerous in these woods,” growled a voice.
“I’ve been told.”
“But you don’t listen.”
“Come out of the shadows.”
“I will stay where I am. I’ve no wish to frighten you.”
Victoria stood taller now, tossing back the hood to her cloak. “Do you really think I would be frightened?” she demanded. “Did I seem frightened this afternoon when I bested you in battle?”
“That was no battle. If I wanted to, I could have killed you.”
Victoria cast the lamp light all around. Elias, troll Elias, remained out of sight. “But you don’t want to kill me, do you?”
“There are plenty of things out here that would.”
“I’ve come across nothing but you.”
“You denied there was a troll until you saw one, and now you will deny death until it befalls you. Are you so hell-bent against learning?”
“I learn best by experience,” she called. “And so far I’ve learned this: you won’t harm me.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Come out of the shadows, troll. I wish to look upon you.”
Elias didn’t want to be seen. But maybe this was the only way. Let Victoria look and when she saw the hideousness of him, she would sicken and run away. That would finally solve everything.
He stepped into the light cast by her lamp.
Her expression softened. She smiled. “There you are. My troll.”
“I am not your troll.”
“You most certainly are. I’ve captured you. You’re mine.”
“And what do you want to do with a beast like me?”
“What wouldn’t I do?” Victoria set the lamp on a stone and approached Elias. She could see it so clearly now. The scars were a perfect match. The eyes were his. And his spirit, she could feel it so intensely. It sang in harmony with her own. He must feel it, too.
“You shouldn’t speak that way to a monster.”
“What’s your name?”
“I have none.”
Victoria frowned. “You lie. Anyway, don’t you want to know mine?”
“If you feel the need to tell me.”
“I do. I am Victoria Fairfax.”
“What are you doing here, Victoria Fairfax?”
“Looking for you, of course.”
“Why?”
“We parted so quickly and after…I wanted to see you again. I wanted to talk to you.”
Elias said nothing. He had seen Victoria attempting to sneak out into the night. Why, he couldn’t understand. She should have been terrified after coming upon him in the woods this afternoon, after seeing a monster face-to-face. Why would any woman return to the forest after that? He followed her out here, partially out of curiosity but more so to protect her. Once he was close, once he could smell Victoria’s scent on the air, he did something that came quite natural in the moment. He turned back into a troll.
It would be easier, he reasoned, to face her as a monster than as a man. He could pretend to be harder and meaner than he was. He might even finally succeed in scaring her away. But Victoria was nothing if not consistent and she gazed at him, unflinching.
“I’ve come here to marry Lord Fairfax. Do you know him?” Victoria asked.
The troll nodded. “He’s an old man.”
“He is.”
“And you are a young and vibrant woman. Why do you marry him?”
“Why do you think?”
“Money.”
Victoria nodded. “If I do not marry, my mother will fall into poverty. I myself would be happy to be poor. But my father is dead, and I am left in charge of tending to my family. So I marry, not for love, but for my mother’s protection. Do you understand?”
“Women like you all want the same thing…” the troll began.
“You don’t listen. You don’t want to listen.”
“I don’t.”
“Because you are afraid of me.”
The troll laughed. “That is absurd.”
“It is, but it is true nonetheless. Do you know what I love?”
The troll glowered at her.
“The sea. I would have endured anything to get back there one day.”
“Go there now. I will give you the coin you need.”
Victoria shot him a teasing grin. “Are trolls so rich, so generous?”
“I don’t want you in my forest.”
“You do. You just don’t want to admit it.” Victoria stalked closer to him.
Elias growled. Her nearness affected him. He didn’t know if he could maintain composure around this woman he cared so deeply about. In this troll state, his emotions often got the better of him, and when it came to Victoria, his darkest fear was this: he would become more animal than man, and he would do something to harm her.
“In a few days, I will be wed,” she told Elias. “I am going to marry an old man who has no interest in loving me. I will be a bride—but unkissed and untouched.”
“What shall I do about it?” he demanded.
“What do you want to do about it?” She was so close to Elias now, she had to crane her neck to look up into his face. “You’re handsome. I don’t think you know it, but you are.”
“You’re mad with lust. You would fuck anything that would take you.”
Victoria slapped him. Her eyes were red hot with rage. Something in Elias snapped. He gripped Victoria by the wrists and dragged her to a nearby tree.
“I think I am right about you. You want to be fucked. The old man isn’t going to do it. Isn’t there anyone else? Another man in that house? Or did he reject you, too?”
Victoria gritted her teeth but said nothing. She didn’t want Elias to know she was on to him. “What if you’re right?” she argued as he pressed her back against the tree.
“Then maybe I will give you what you want.”
“I don’t believe you.”
Elias growled, his face coming very close to hers. “I am losing all control with you, woman. If you are not careful, my reserve will snap.”
Victoria leaned in, kissing his mouth with messy passion.
The troll’s green eyes blinked. He was dazed. “A woman like you would really kiss a beast on her own accord?”
“Shut up and kiss me,” she demanded.
And for once in his life, Elias listened. What did it matter anyway? He was not himself. He was a monster, and a monster didn’t have to be a gentleman, did he?
His lips crashed against Victoria’s, and this time he didn’t let himself think about the danger or driving her away. He let himself be a beast. But jealousy was a treacherous thing. It tugged at his heart. Just yesterday, Victoria was kissing him. Today, she was seeking the affection of a troll. Of course, he knew they were one and the same, but Victoria didn’t. And that meant her flirtations were nothing more than sexual desire that could be satisfied by anyone or anything. He, Elias, wasn’t special to her and that hurt.
He took solace in her kiss. He took his anger out on her dress.
The bodice was ripped from her body. He watched her face, searching for any signs of fear. But he saw none. Her eyes twinkled. She reached for him. Soft, feminine hands felt amazing on his body. When they tore at his belt, he paused her.
“You were rough earlier.”
Victoria laughed. “I’ll be gentle now. Unless,” she offered, “you like it rough?”
“Not that rough.”
She gasped when his cock was freed from his trousers. “It’s big.”
“Do you still want it?”
“I’ve all but begged for it.”
“Let me hear you beg,” the troll growled, pressing her back harder against the tree. She wrapped her legs around his waist and he hitched her higher.
“Please. I want you so bad. Give it to me.” Her eyes never left his. This woman was mad, Elias thought. Fearless and mad. Damn it all, he was going to take advantage of that.
His thick cock slipped insider her. He felt that same sensation of losing all control, but tonight, he did not stop himself. He drove into her, hard and rhythmic as she begged him to keep going.
Her screams of pleasure grew so loud that he feared someone might hear them from the house. His hand covered her mouth, and her tongue played against the new scar she had given him upon that first meeting. Elias buried his face in her neck, breathing in her scent. Victoria was everything he would ever want in a woman. She was wild and brave, and so fearless that part of him thought…that maybe…maybe she would still want him even if she knew the truth.
But he couldn’t make himself believe it. She was just a lonely woman that needed to be fucked. She didn’t care who did—man or beast. It broke his heart to be so close to the love he coveted and yet, so far away.
Her climax brought on his own and they collapsed together on the forest floor. He was catching his breath and she had thrown her body across his. Her head rested on his chest.
“I hope you got what you needed,” he said finally.
“I was thinking the same thing about you.”
“What needs have I?”
Victoria straddled him, looking very seriously into his face. She was completely nude, but she stared down at him like a warrior. For a moment, he was worried that she had indeed captured him.
“How can you be so bold?” he asked.
Her thumb ran done one of his sharp fangs. “It’s easy when there is necessity. I was raised on a ship. In a storm, when there are pirates, one cannot second-guess themselves. Lives are lost when that happens.
“My father died in a storm. And that left me to care for my mother.”
“Should she not care for you?”
“I am a grown woman,” Victoria said, her tone was filled with reprimand. “And the law will not allow Charlotte to marry until my father has been gone 10 years. If she could, she would marry—to protect me. But she can’t, so the duty is mine. Can’t you understand that?”
“I suppose I do, but I don’t like it.”
“And I didn’t like the idea much either. Thankfully, there was Lord Reginald. If it weren’t for him, I’d have had to marry a man who would have expected me to life up to my wifely duties.”
Elias shifted, remembering their earlier conversation.
“I would endure marriage with Lord Reginald, because he is a kind man with a generous spirit—and an extensive library. What more could I have asked for in a situation like the one I was in?”
Elias didn’t know and so, he held his tongue.
“But I do want more.”
“You are greedy. Is it his coin you are after?”
“No, you ass. It is his nephew I want. I love you, Elias, and I think you love me too.”
Big green hands went to Victoria’s waist. Elias moved the woman away from him.
“What did you call me?”
Victoria reached over, her fingers grazing the pinkish-green scar where she’d sliced his hand open. “Elias, I know your secret.”
He rose and began pacing the clearing. “Since when? When did you know?”
“I think I knew the moment I saw your face. It didn’t make sense to me, I had to put all the pieces together. But once I accepted that there could be a science behind the transformation?—”
“You tricked me.”
Victoria huffed, refusing to concede to this, but knowing it was true. “You gave me very few options.”
“I made you trick me?”
“Well…yes. If you wouldn’t have been so self-conscious about your secret?—”
“Victoria! I was protecting you!”
“Protecting me from what?”
“From this!” Elias indicated himself and the forest both. “I am cursed! I don’t want to curse you too! I don’t want to bring any harm to you, Victoria!”
“What makes you think you will?”
“I am a monster hiding in man’s land. If people find out, I will be killed. Anyone harboring me will be accused of witchcraft and killed. That goes for you and your mother. You speak so high and mighty about doing anything it might take to protect your mother, but here you are putting her in danger. And I am not talking about poverty, Victoria. I am talking about life and death.”
She hesitated. “I thought…I thought you were afraid of harming me.”
“I am afraid of harming you. I don’t trust myself when I am a monster.”
“I trust you.”
“Fine. But you can’t say that you trust the people of Winstonshire. Lydia Pritchard and Agnes Pembroke would dance around the fire that burned you.”
“I don’t care about them.”
“Nor do I. I care about you and your life!”
“Elias, we can figure out a way to make this work. I want you. I need you. There is nothing for me now that I have known you. Even the sea, my love—the sea, has lost all meaning in comparison to you.”
“None of that matters, Victoria. None of it compares to your safety. I don’t care who you marry or where you go, but you can’t stay here.”
“You would have me go back to the capital and marry another man. After we have lain together?”
Elias was silent.
“You would have me marry a man that would use my body?”
“I would have you live. Go back to the capital, woman. It is where you belonged from the start. Damn your father for indulging you for so long. He’s done you no favors.”
“Don’t speak about my father that way! He made me the woman I am and unlike you, I happen to like myself.”
“Get out of here! Go back to the house, Victoria. Marry my uncle, if that’s what serves you best. But stay away from me.”
“No. You will come to your senses. You’ll see that we belong together and that everything will be alright.”
“You are failing to grasp the most essential point: I don’t want you. I don’t love you. And we certainly don’t belong together.”
“Then why do you care so much about my safety?”
“I don’t want any blood on my hands. Whose blood is beside the point.”
“You kissed me.”
“That doesn’t mean I love you. It simply means I am a man.”
Victoria stared him down. “No. I think you had it right the first time. You’re a monster, Elias.” She scooped up her torn dress and sprinted for the house.
Elias dropped to his knees and slowly transformed from troll to man. He remained there for a long while, his heart aching.