CURSED AS ASWANG, SAVED BY HIS LOVE

CHAPTER 5:THE PRICE OF BEING LOVED

*Chapter 5: The Price of Being Loved*

The motorcycle ride back to her house was the longest ride of Isabella's life.

She sat behind Elias, her arms around his waist, but this time not because she wanted to feel his hard body. This time because she was checking his temperature every ten seconds.

He was burning up.

"You're so hot," she whispered against his back.

Elias laughed, even though his face was pale and sweaty. "Isabella, if you whisper that in my ear while wearing that red dress and holding me like that, my fever is the last thing you should worry about."

"This is not the time to be sexy, Elias!" she hit his back, but her beautiful eyes were watering. "Lola said the curse transfers through willing blood. You offered it. Willingly. Out of love."

"And I would offer it again," he said, stopping the bike in front of her small house.

Lola Pina was already outside, burning incense, with a bowl of black liquid and a live white chicken. Her old face was grave when she saw Elias.

"You foolish boy," Lola said to him, not unkindly. "You think love is just dinner and kissing? In our family, love is sacrifice. And sacrifice has a price."

She pulled Elias inside, made him sit on the wooden floor. Isabella knelt beside him, still in her wrinkled red dress, her stunning hair a mess, looking nothing like the town's untouchable s*x goddess now - just a scared, beautiful girl in love for the first time.

Lola took his bandaged arm, unwrapped it.

Isabella gasped.

The three scratches from her claws last night were no longer small scratches. They were black. The veins around them were black too, crawling up his forearm like roots, pulsing faintly red with every heartbeat.

"The curse is inside him now," Lola whispered. "By the next full moon, in three days, he will change. And unlike you, anak, who learned to control it for five years, he is a man. A strong man. His aswang will be stronger, hungrier. He will not want animals. He will want humans."

"No," Isabella said, her sexy voice breaking into a sob. "No, no, no. This is my fault. I am cursed, not him. He was perfect. He was normal."

Elias, despite the fever, despite the black veins, reached out and cupped her face. His touch was still gentle. "Hey. Look at me. I'm still here. I'm still me."

"For three more days," Lola said sharply. "After that, you will crave blood. You will crave her blood most of all, because you love her. The curse is jealous. It will make you want to consume the one you love."

Isabella pulled away from his touch like it burned her. "Then don't love me! Stop! Stop loving me and maybe it will stop!"

"I can't," Elias said simply. His dark eyes, now slightly bloodshot, never left her beautiful face. "Have you looked at yourself, Isabella? No man can stop loving you once he starts. You're impossible to stop loving."

Even now, even dying from her curse, he was calling her irresistible.

Lola slammed the bowl down. "There is one way. But it's dangerous. And it will require her to do what she has been afraid to do for five years."

"What?" Isabella asked quickly. "I'll do anything."

Lola looked at her granddaughter - at her perfect body, her seductive face, the beauty that had been both her blessing and her prison.

"You have to stop running from the beast, Isabella. You have to become the aswang fully, willingly, on your own terms. Not half-beautiful, half-monster like you always do. Fully. You have to embrace the cursed, sexy, terrifying, powerful woman inside you. The true Aswang Queen. And you have to bite him back. You have to give him your blood willingly, out of love, to make the curse recognize you both as one. If the curse thinks you are already one soul, it will not need to take him."

Isabella stared, horrified. "Become... fully? Lola, I can't. I worked so hard to stay human. To stay beautiful. If I become fully - I'll be a monster. He will see me as a real monster."

Elias grabbed her hand, his hot, black-veined hand squeezing hers.

"Isabella," he said, his voice hoarse but firm. "I saw you half-monster and I thought you were the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Do you really think seeing all of you would make me love you less?"

She looked at him - at this man who had stayed through her transformation, who had offered his blood, who was now dying because of her.

For five years she tried to hide her sexy, cursed, powerful side because she thought no one could love a monster.

But this man was asking her to be a monster, for him.

That night, in her small room, Isabella stood in front of the old cracked mirror.

She took off the red dress. She stood in only her simple white underwear, her long black hair down to her hips, her body perfect - small waist, full chest, long legs - the body that every man in Baler dreamed about.

But tonight, she wasn't looking at her beauty. She was looking for the beast.

She closed her eyes and whispered: "Come out. I don't want to hide you anymore."

Her body started to shake. Her bones cracked. Her eyes flashed red - not one, but both this time. Her teeth sharpened. Her nails grew into black claws. Her beautiful face remained beautiful, but now dangerously so - her lips redder, her eyes glowing, her skin giving off a faint, smoky aura. She was no longer half-human. She was something else entirely. A Sexy, Beautiful, Irresistible Aswang Queen. The kind of monster that didn't just scare men - she seduced them to their death.

She looked at herself in the mirror and gasped. She was still stunning. Still sexy. But now her beauty was lethal. No one could resist her, and no one who tried would survive.

The door opened. Elias stood there, his fever making him sway, his eyes wide.

Isabella turned to him, tears of blood in her glowing red eyes, her claws trembling.

"Do you still want me?" she whispered, her voice now two voices - her sweet voice and a deeper, growling sexy voice underneath. "Do you still think I'm beautiful?"

Elias didn't answer with words.

He walked forward, cupped her monstrous, beautiful face with his black-veined hands, and kissed her - really kissed her - claws, fangs, red eyes and all.

And Isabella, the cursed aswang who no one could resist, finally let herself bite the man she loved.