y arm was not a pet, it was my

re that would have ended my existence as a n

e Beaumont from a sickness no doctor could name, taking this human

y wife, stood befor

ndry, coughed beside her, a dry, hack

om the bayou, that the heart of a spi

t the creatu

sna

her voice flat, "Beauford i

e woman I had given

know what yo

," she insisted, her gaze

his hand, another cough

e," he rasped, "Surely her

my arm, its fear a col

g to reach the woman I marrie

him," she said, her hand reaching

r eyes, they were

o plantation hands who st

, looking at m

re was

oved f

kened as I was, but what was the us

my arm, their

d only I truly understoo

with a hunting knife Beauford had conve

ered, but my

nife

kin that parted, it felt lik

nce the fire, since the b

, a raw, br

out something small and

lara-Belle' s waitin

t me, only at the

her voice devoid of any emotio

lurred, the

went limp, its spe

e living world, gushed out of me

f rich earth, drain of all color

thing, coiling in my g

ching myself on

at me, her brow furrowed, n

ic, Elias," she said,

-heart" reverently, coughed a

ara-Belle, just a

atr

creature on my arm, it

monts, paid in a wa