Zane watched her sleep, wishing he could wipe her memories of Alonzo completely. She was still fighting against his intentions. Three weeks! Three long, disaster-ridden weeks. And she was still fighting him. It nettled him. No one else had been able to stand against his influence this long. What was it with her?

Of course, no one else he’d influenced had been tied so strongly to someone. He had never seen tighter weavings and bindings between two people as the ones that bound Hanna to Alonzo.

He could feel Alonzo calling out to her in his dreams. Zane tried to block the cries, but Hanna seemed strangely tuned to his dreams. She heard his calls, and she struggled to answer them.

The only thing going for him was that she couldn’t remember him outside her dreams. She saw him in occasionally flashes when awake and she dreamed of him continuously, but she couldn’t truly remember who Alonzo really was.

She turned in her sleep, face restful. For once… Usually she was tormented by dreams. But he had taken it upon himself to help with that tonight. She needed her rest, and his feeding could wait. She was worth more than that to him.

Gently, he stroked the curve of her cheekbone and neck with his thumb. If only she would give in to him fully. Let him win and forget Alonzo. Forget her whole past and be his alone. That was what he wanted. He wanted her to belong with him, to him. To breathe solely for him. And that couldn’t happen if the others were in the way. Especially not if Alonzo was in the way.

His brooding caused his focus to slip on the calm he was imbuing in her dreams, and she stirred restlessly, a tear sliding over her lower lashes as she slept. It slid down her cheek, slow, cold… Unobserved.

He felt restless himself. He needed to be free of this dungeon. In another week. In another week he’d be strong enough. Strong enough to take Hanna’s memories from her feeble hold on them. Strong enough to leave this prison.

He rubbed his chilled skin, hungry now. His stomach growled, an untamable beast. Zane shook his head, and then he got up. He walked quietly out of the room to the other two rooms below the dungeons. Only two of them. One was where he kept his prisoners. The other… The other was his way out. If he could simply grow strong enough to use it without fear.

***

Hanna woke, eyes fluttering open gently. She had dreamt that Alonzo’s gentle fingers were softly tracing the lines of her face. It had been a sweet dream, one that held much comfort for her. But now it was gone. Bloodcurdling screams echoed around the stone walls.

She shot upright, hair falling in delicate tendrils around her bare shoulders. What was going on? With a sinking feeling, she knew. It was Zane. And those were his victims. She hadn’t heard this before. Probably because he’d made sure she was asleep all the other times, and she hadn’t woken because she’d been exhausted.

But tonight, she wondered how she could have missed the screams of raw agony and terror. Whatever Zane had transformed into, it was terrifying, and he was eating the people she was listening to. She couldn’t take it.

She shoved the covers off her body, and slid out of the bed. She ran, barefooted, into the next chamber, following it to a small, dimly lit chamber. She rushed in, sobbing. “Zane! Zane, please. Don’t.”

He looked down at her, his head soaring above her on a neck of pure muscle and rippling scales. His blue eyes blinked at her.

He dropped whatever was in his mouth. Blood dribbled down his chin and neck, staining his ebony scales with crimson, and his talons were glistening in the liquid.

Hanna’s horrified eyes fell on the still form on the ground. It was a woman, though hardly recognizable. She shrieked. It was just too much for her. She collapsed to the stones, passing out.

***

Zane’s heart dropped. He lowered his massive head to nuzzle Hanna gently.

She had collapsed onto the stone floor in a heap after seeing the woman he had begun to consume.

The other humans watched, eyes wide, faces pressed against the bars he had conjured to keep them prisoners. Their faces were white against the stark blackness as they stared upon the abject dragon and the mauled woman. Then their eyes fell on the still, white form of the young woman the dragon nuzzled.

One woman had the courage to speak up. “You get away from her, Beast! Leave her alone, you hear. She’s naught but a child. If you must consume someone, consume me!”

The others gasped. “No, Mara!” A young man stepped forward. “You can’t do that. Think of your daughter, Tara!”

“Peter, I am thinking of her. I’m going to die anyway. We both know it. But maybe if you hold out because I went first, you can take care of them both. I’m old… You’re young. You have your brother, Finn. Promise me that you’ll take care of them both. Don’t leave my daughter all alone!” The woman pleaded.

Zane cast a malignant eye on them. He couldn’t speak in dragon form, so he rumbled ominously.

Mara glared at him, her eyes fierce with anger. “You stop that! I don’t care how big you are. If I’m going to die anyway, I’ll have my say.” She turned back to Peter. “Promise me.”

Peter nodded. “I promise that if I get out of here alive, I’ll take care of Tara too. Just as though she were my own daughter.”

Mara nodded. “Thank you.” She looked back up at the giant dragon, Zane. “Now, you monster, leave the girl alone. I’m old. I’m ready to die.” She gazed at him through the bars.

Zane closed his eyes, and when he opened those seconds later, he was human once more. “She’s not going to die. I love her.” He whispered, thinking to himself that his love might be a death sentence despite all his attempts to keep her alive.

Mara stared, eyes wide, mouth slightly open. “You... You what?”

He glanced back up, smiling thinly. “You’ll die eventually, woman. But not today.” He scooped Hanna into his arms, turning away from the people who huddled around the bars. He carried Hanna back to the bed in the lit chamber where he had first woken.

Softly, he laid her warm form on the bed. What had happened tonight… It was unforgivable. She shouldn’t have seen such a thing. He didn’t want her to see the monstrous part of him. He wanted her to see only the part of him that was human and gentle. He wanted her to see only the side of him that loved her with a fiery passion. Not the raging, demon-like dragon she’d seen in there.

Burying his face in his hands, Zane wept. He’d made a terrible mess of it all. Everyone he’d ever loved… He’d killed Hanna’s ancestor, Marion, because of his lust for power and his unwillingness to be defeated. The only way they had been able to bind him was when he’d given in because they had killed her. And he would kill Hanna too, wouldn’t he? If he didn’t end up killing her, she’d hate him after tonight. Which wasn’t a thought he could bear.  

Her eyes fluttered open, landing on the hunched over form of Zane. His shoulders heaved, and strangely, strangulated noises were coming from deep with him. She realized with a start what it was. Zane was weeping. For the first time since she had met him, the arrogant, intoxicating man was weeping.

Images swept into her mind again, and she leaned over the opposite side of the bed, retching. Zane realized she had revived then, and took shuddering breaths to calm his sobs. When he was composed, he lifted his eyes to meet hers. The sapphire eyes were so brilliant, especially filled with tears as they were.

They didn’t belong in such a face. They were not a human’s eyes. No human had eyes so brilliant in hue. They were a dragon’s. He wasn’t human. She'd known that from the start, of course, but it hadn't hit as hard as it did now.

Hanna started weeping as she realized that she hadn't loved him like she'd thought. Forceful images swept into her mind of those she did love. And with it came the sheer torment of not remembering them. All she knew was that Zane had done it to her. Was he a monster as he had been in that room? Or was he the kind, loving man who had cared for her here? She loved the kind, loving man she had thought he was, but what if that wasn't who he really was in reality?

She lifted her tear-stained face to see him looking at her. “Zane… What did you do?” Tears streaked down her cheeks. “Did I ever love you?”

He shook his head. “No. I don’t know. I can’t…” He moaned, cradling his head in his hands. “Hanna, I’m so sorry you saw that. I guess it was only a matter of time. But… But… Like I told you before, I can’t eat in anything other than my normal state. And dragons eat big things. Cows, horses… And… And people when those other things aren’t available. When I’m like that, I don’t have feelings. I don’t see them as anything better than animals that way.” He was crying again.

“And as a human? What then, Zane? When you’re like this, how do you see us? See me?” Hanna’s voice trembled.

He looked up, eyes blurring with tears, then looked away. “You don’t want to know.”

“Zane.” The way she said his name caught his attention. “I want to know.”

His voice was ragged, hollow even when he answered. “Hanna… I’m a monster. You can see that now… Surely…”

She shook her head. “Zane, I don’t know. I… You… I know you did something to my memories, but that’s all I remember about it. You never gave me a chance to see you as you really were, good parts and bad. How can I judge?”

“How can you not? I never gave you a chance to see the good parts because they never existed!” Zane howled, furious with her for not understanding.

She clung to him with her gaze. “No. That’s not true.” Suddenly she was overwhelmed with love for him. It wasn’t like the fierce, unwavering love she had for the man she couldn’t remember. The one who called in her dreams. Instead, it was wild and passionate. And she was utterly convinced that he was better than he seemed. “Zane, you may have been born a monster, Demutatori, whatever… But you choose if you become that monster. And the man that I saw, despite the fact that he kidnapped me, took my memories, and tried to keep me away from what I saw tonight…. That man was a good man. Still is. Zane… Please… Be honest with me. How do you feel about me, regardless of if you’re a monster or human?”

Zane stood, walking over to her. “You really want to know?” He whispered.

She nodded, standing up. They were inches apart, and Zane felt his pulse increase. He kept his voice low, and he reached out to wipe a tear off her cheek with his thumb. “I love you. And… I need you. Please don’t leave me.” He kissed her then, hard and wild, finally letting go of his feelings and telling her the truth.

She kissed back for a moment, and then drew away. “Zane, I don’t want to leave you. I think… I think I’ve come to love you back in the weeks I’ve been here even though I knew what you were, what you do. But…” More tears slid down her cheeks.

He wiped them away. “What is it?”

“Please. I want my memories back. Can’t you give them to me again?” She pleaded, grasping his hand as it rested on her cheek.

He shook his head, tears pooling in his own eyes. “I can’t give back what I took, Hanna. Not unless I die. And I don’t want to die. You understand, don’t you?” His eyes fell from hers.

She nodded. “So I’ll never remember the boy I keep seeing in my dreams? He keeps calling me… Zane, who is he? Please, tell me. I need to know. I think…. It’s so distant, but I think I loved him once. Long ago. It seems like years ago. Can it have only been three, four weeks ago?”

Zane smiled sadly. “If I tell you, will you love me less?”

She shook her head. “I don’t think I can. I don’t know… I don’t control my feelings very well, Zane.” She whispered, head resting on his shoulder.

He nodded. “Fair enough. His name is Alonzo. You did love him once, very much. You still do. I… I wish…” His voice caught.

“You wish what?” She whispered into the stillness.

His silence filled the air for a long while, and she thought he might not answer her, but then he spoke quietly. “I wish you loved me half as much as you love him. He’s the reason you can’t forget completely. The reason you haven’t forgotten completely. Because you are tied so strongly to him with love that even my own, considerable power is hard-pressed to break the bond.” He smiled sadly at her.

“Oh… I… I don’t remember. It’s like… Being told a story of some long forgotten event. You believe it’s real, but it isn't. Zane, you wouldn’t… Lie to me about this other boy… would you?” She looked up into his eyes, hands pressed gently against his chest.

He shook his head. “No. No more lies." He shuddered. "I’m tired of them. I already got one person I loved killed, and it was because I was too blind to my own darkness to control it. Maybe… If you promise me that you’ll be my wife… I mean, I think I can gain enough power to get by… To get out of here. And if I had you, I wouldn’t need to rule the world.”

She put her arms around his neck. “You mean that… For me… You’d give that up. You’d live a quiet, family life just to please me? You would give up the darkness you have been pursuing?”

He nodded. “For you, I would do that.”

She nodded slowly. “I… I don’t know, Zane. That’s a hard question to ask me…”

“Will you marry me?” Zane asked, his face inches from hers. 

His heart pounded and mentally he pleaded with her to say yes. If she said no, the darkness would consume him. When he first took her, she wasn't supposed to become so important. She was important, but not like this. Over the last few weeks, though, she'd become his life-line. She'd become the one point of brilliance he could see in his confusion, guilt, anger, and darkness. 

She was silent a moment, her eyes lowered. Then they fluttered up to meet his again. “Zane of the Demutatori, I believe you are a good man at heart. I love you. And, yes. I’ll marry you.”

He smiled, tears flooding into his eyes and dripping down his cheeks as he kissed her. She laughed when she broke away. Only briefly, she wondered if maybe, just maybe, marrying a shape-shifter who had to eat in a dragon form wasn’t a good idea. But after they were free of this dark, forbidding place, he could simply eat cows and pigs. He didn’t need a huge amount to eat. Dragons were resilient creatures. They could live on a single meal for months, maybe even a year. And she loved him. She believed in him. She believed in them. They would make it work.

Maybe it was all Zane messing with her mind, but looking into his tear-filled eyes, she knew it was more. There was such desperation in Zane's eyes. A desperation that said she was the only thing tethering him to sanity. She didn't exactly know how she loved him, but she knew she did, and she cared too much to be the one to destroy him.

Call her stupid, but they could make it work. She was sure of it.