Candra squeaked and then turned so that her back was facing him. “But you’re undressing in front of me!”
He actually laughed once. “Well, I’m behind you now, but that’s more or less right.”
She didn’t understand why he was laughing, but the light was starting to become more urgent than nudity. “You don’t shift alone?”
“You’re naked in your fur. What’s the difference between being naked in your skin too?”
“There’s a difference!” Candra said as she turned back around with her arms still crossed over her chest. Candra peered up at the sky and then back at him. “You’re a male.”
He was naked by the time she looked back at him, standing there behind a tree with the highway a stone’s throw away behind him. He glanced down once at the obvious evidence of what she’d said, then looked back up at Candra. “And?”
“And I’m a female and it’s dangerous to be naked, because then we might act inappropriately.” She was told that if anyone ever attempted to act in the way that she read about in her health books that she should protect herself from him. In all reality, none of her masters ever wanted to give anyone the satisfaction of taking their Lightborn slave in quite that way.
He actually snorted once as he laughed, but held up a hand in apology. “Okay, not a problem. I’ll…be over here. So as not to act inappropriately.” He shifted, buzzing with the power that she had given him, into a large but emaciated black wolf, and turned around to face the van, even putting up a paw to put it across his eyes for good measure.
She undressed with a speed that she had never otherwise accomplished and then shifted quickly into a thin, dark-brown wolf. Okay. You can look now.
He turned around and went to her clothes to help her take them back to the van. Are you alright?
Candra was still kind of trembling as she stood behind him. I’m okay now. I’m sorry that they had to stop for me.
It’s fine. As long as you’re alright. He jumped back up into the van and pushed the door shut with a front paw before heading back to the back seat with her again. I just never realized the sunlight would be that hard for you.
My masters told me it was because I’m not strong enough to handle it.
Your masters? So you served them by choice?
For some reason his question seemed to confuse her. It wasn’t by choice, but it wasn’t by force either. Well, I was born to serve them. I serve them and they keep me safe from the light. Kept me safe, I guess, now. My mother gave me to my first master so that I would be safe. Ever since, they’ve given me a lot to learn and opportunities to grow. I’ve never been harmed.
Now it was his turn to be confused. Never been harmed, maybe, but…you were living in a prison cell. In a dungeon. With guards. And bars on your door.
There was no light there. That was the best place for me to be. And the guards were there to protect me, to stop people from getting to me.
It’s protection if you’re the one holding the key to the cell. If you’re not, that’s not protection, that’s prison.
Isn’t prison for people being punished?
Or people you want to hold onto so they won’t go anywhere.
She let out a sigh and then moved away from him a little. That was my life. You’re making it sound like I was tortured. Nothing was wrong.
Didn’t you ever want to get out? See something else besides your cell? Room? Cage? Whatever it was?
I did go out sometimes. Candra looked toward the window with a slight whimper at the sunlight coming through. Even in her wolf form, the sunlight was there to torture her. But that always comes.
He moved to close the distance between them, nuzzling his face at her fur, even though while they were wolves, he couldn’t take power from her or give her any of his own. It still felt good to be near her. You’re glowing.
It felt good to have him near, too, and while she was a little offended by his criticism of the only life she had ever known, it all kind of melted away when he nuzzled his face into her fur. I do that a lot. She moved closer to him so that more of their fur was pressed together. I’ve met a lot of people. A lot of wolves. No one has ever been like you.
I get that a lot. But not as much as you do, I’m guessing.
No, I don’t mean it like that. I mean that…I don’t ever want you to go away. I want to stay close to you. Candra didn’t really understand the draw between them, reading about it and feeling it were two entirely different things. It felt like they belonged together, near each other, on an instinctual level.
He knew the feeling, and he nodded against her fur, since he felt the same way. Did anyone ever warn you? About this, I mean?
I read about it in books. She turned her face so that she could lick the side of his muzzle. But my masters told me that you didn’t exist anymore.
Funny, I heard the same thing about you. Not from books, since I never have had much of a chance to do any reading, but from…pretty much everybody.
I also read that once a Shadowborn and a Lightborn have met, there’s nothing that can alter the connection. That they’re partners. For their entire lives.
He didn’t answer that for a long time, but eventually nuzzled the side of her neck again. It was hard to believe she was real. What did it say in your book about the people they loved before they met?
It didn’t. She looked
