OneShe climbed into the big four-poster bed and snuggled her favorite teddy bear against her. His name was Bart and he was wearing faded denim overalls, one strap of which was fastened with a safety pin. She was also missing an eye but the little girl couldn't sleep without it. Her dad pulled her blanket up under her chin and kissed her on the nose. She laughed; his beard tickled his face. "Tell me a story, Dad." He perched on the edge of his bed and crossed his arms on his knees. “And what story would my princess like to hear,” he asked in his accent, a shadow of the past. “You know,” she said, a smirk on her lips. "Now, now, this isn't a bedtime story. You're going to be up all night with bad dreams." "No, I won't," she said. She sat on the bed and hugged Bart. “I like the story, it doesn’t scare me.” “You like him, don’t you?” His father gave him his secret smile. In truth, it was more of a smirk. Right lip raised slightly to expose an endearing dimple beneath his mustache, his cupid's bow lips pursed to make it look like he was pouting. "I forget that you're fierce, like she was." "Then you know I'm not afraid. It's more of a love story, anyway." He took out her hair. "What do you know about love?" "I know that true love is worth fighting for. Tell me about mom." "I was a mercenary, part of a group of soldiers hired by her father to protect his family She was young, seventeen when we first met, but I had just turned nineteen myself. She was beautiful, a mass of curly hair like. an untamed lion She also had cat-shaped eyes, deceptive eyes with green spots when she succeeded, bright as the sun when she didn't. She had skin like pale honey and she was always. warm. "He stared at a corner of the room as if he could will... middle of paper... .... crying in the house, ignoring the unholy mess his killers have created and. found you in our room. You were in your crib, next to your mother on the bed. She had been…” He cleared his throat before continuing. “The blood even sprayed you. The police came and took their reports but I knew who was responsible." "And you killed them." "Yes. Our neighbors had a large family; They agreed to watch you while I was gone. » He paused for a moment then finished abruptly. “The mercenary who wanted to rape her the night she snuck out, I disemboweled him. I slit his father's throat. "The little girl shook off her blankets and crawled into her father's lap. He sobbed as she held him; her tears wet the back of his nightgown as she held him. She finished the story for him by whispering the last one in her ear "Because love is the only thing worth killing and dying for..."