DISCLAMER, i do not own Beauty and the Beast of course, this is just a work of fiction based on the characters and the show.

A/N : This story is dedicated to Padyn. I hope you'll enjoy it as well. Please leave reviews, it's important for me to get better at writing )

There will be 3 chapters to this story.

Vincent had often trouble sleeping. Nightmares of his time in Afghanistan, or dreams about the family he missed so much, sometimes even nightmares about what the beast was capable of : many times he had awoken in fear of having killed JT, or Catherine.

The last few days had been hard, many restless nights because of such nightmares. Vincent was not in a very good mood and JT did not really know what to do with him. He had tried offering to play video games or watching movies, but Vincent was obviously not in the mood for any of it. JT felt helpless and was annoyed by his friend's silence.

"I can't help you if you won't let me" he told Vincent, or more Vincent's back as his friend was making his way upstairs.

"Alright … goodnight … it's late anyway and I have classes early tomorrow" JT waited for an answer that never came and just threw his hand in the air in defeat. "Whatever" he muttered to himself. He did not know about the nightmares, all he knew was that Vincent was in a bad mood and was not talking much but he had no idea why.

Alone upstairs Vincent tried to sleep, but it was barely 11pm. He rolled over a few times in bed but not able to find sleep he stood and grabbed a T shirt. He then put on his jacket and to go out for a walk, being careful not to wake JT when he left the warehouse.

The streets of New York were never really empty, but in the darkness of the night no one was paying attention to the tall man hidden under the collar of his coat and his cap, Vincent could walk almost freely. He tried to enjoy it and wandered around the city for a few hours.

A cold breeze hit his skin and he took a deep breath to enjoy the fresh air. He tried to relax, to chase away the fear haunting his mind, the task was not easy. His relationship with Catherine was sometimes helping him tame the beast, but most of the time it was only making it more complicated. The constant fear of hurting her was making him tense, and the more tense he was, the less control he had over the beast when it would try showing up.

Breath .. in and out, in and out. He tried to calm down, to relax his muscles as he walks in the darkest streets of the city. But again, images of the nightmares of the last few nights flashed before his eyes : blood, pain … Catherine.

His thoughts were interrupted by some yelling. This attracted his attention, he listened to what was happening not that far away. He heard several man arguing, he could feel the fear in some voices and the anger in others.

Vincent did not want to intervene, though his instinct was always to help lately he had tried to keep a low profile. He kept walking, trying to forget about what he had just heard and focused on staying calm.

That proved useless, he soon heard a gun shot. He couldn't ignore it and before he had time to make his decision on whether he should go or not the beast was already fighting his way out. Was it thirst for violence ? Vincent did not know, but he was too weak to resist the beast.

In only a few seconds Vincent reached the alley from which the sounds had come, he was still looking human but was mostly responding to the beast's will.

There a few men were having a fight, there was only one gun and it was on the ground. Vincent did not know what to do, but the beast did and despite Vincent's desperate attempt to fight his animal side, the beast was making his presence known.

The claws were now completely out and his face looked less and less human. His eyes flashed a golden light but the men did not notice him yet. Only when the beast's breath became loud did they turn around to look at him.

With the weak light of the alley they could not see his distort face, to them he was only a guy at the wrong place at the wrong moment. They forgot about their feud for a second as they probably did not want any witnesses and all together walked toward Vincent, their threat adding to the tension he was feeling.

The beast needed no less to take over the complete control of Vincent's body : he roared and jumped on them. They were only five men, and he had them by surprise, making it easy to get rid of them. Two of them flew against a dumpster, another saw his skin get teared in pieces. One tried to escape but the beast was much faster and waited for him at the other end of the alley. In the dark that man bumped into the beast that grabbed his neck and squeezed the life out of him. The last man had taken the opportunity to grab the gun and aim at the beast, but when he shot a few times he did not reach his target. Soon his blood was all over the ground and the beast's claws.

The only one left standing was the beast, a bit out of breath, probably suffering from Vincent's lack of sleep as well. All around the dead bodies of its victims and blood, lots of blood. Vincent had completely lost control, the beast was breathing heavily as if enjoying the smell of the blood and the sensation of power overtaking him.

Rain started to fall, slowly. The cold drops of water are a delicious sensation on the beast's face. It closed its eyes and savored the smell of the rain mixed with the smell of the blood. In its mind the sounds of its fight were resonating : the bodies falling heavily on the dumpster, the last few breath of the man he choked to death, even the sound of the flesh being ripped apart.

Somehow those sounds were helping the beast relax, and slowly it faded away, until finally Vincent manage to surface again. As he noticed the blood on his hands he panicked and looked around. The blood, the bodies, the echoes in his ear; there was no way for him to pretend, the beast had killed, again.

He had to run, as fast as he could. As panic rose Vincent started to lose control again, he was now in between : not fully beast, but not fully human. Instinct was the only thing that made the beast and Vincent agree on running away.

A/N : What do you think so far ?