Page 46 of Grotesque
He wasn’t getting off that easy. “Why are you here? And I don’t mean now but I mean… overall in this house. I know you’ve been here since it was built.”
Red light flickered within the whites of his eyes. “I am part of it,” he said simply. “How do you know how long I’ve been here?”
Well shit. I ignored his question and moved on quickly. I didn’t want to have to explain Rosaline’s diary, not when I wasn’t finished reading it. “What are you?”
Corban ran his thumb over my lip. “Ask another question.”
“Why won’t you tell me?”
“Because it’s so much more fun to keep you guessing.” A soft smile spread his plush lips apart. Pointed fangs flashed.
Absentmindedly I touched the marks on my neck. A flutter of nausea hit me when I realized Quint could have seen them earlier had my hair not been down. There’d be no way I could have explained those away.
“What do you want with me?” I asked.
“Isn’t it obvious?” He chose that moment to stalk even closer.
I evaded him, slinking my way backward into the kitchen. He was clearly a creature of magic and I didn’t want him casting a spell on me. Because that was the only explanation as to why I wanted him so badly. When he touched me, I became a different person. I didn’t recognize her, and wasn’t in a hurry to meet her again when I barely understood what Corban was.I stepped around the center island, trying to maintain some distance
“Give me a straight answer,” I said coolly.
Corban spread his hands on the island and leaned forward. The barrier didn’t provide as much space between us as I’d hoped, as he was so tall. He was practically leering in my face at this angle. “I want to give you pleasure, Sorcha. I want nothing more than to fuck every thought you have right out of that pretty little head of yours. I want to consume you.”
It sounded more like a threat than a declaration of love, yet I found myself still rooted to the spot before him, despite my instincts screaming at me to run. Because I knew the pleasure he could give me. Something else told me what he had given me so far was just a taste.
I swallowed. “Are you from this world?”
He slid around the edge of the island, his palm making a shushing sound as it caressed the wood. “I’m afraid you’ve used up all your questions.”
“I’ve let you into my body, the least you can do is let me into your mind.”
Something like surprise crossed his features. Corban tipped his head to the side again, hinting at the starving predator lurking beneath his curiosity. “Two more,” he said, his words clipped.
“Are you from this world?” I repeated.
“No.”
“Why do you only come out at night?” I backed against the counter as he hovered over me. The tall shadow he cast swallowed my entire body, shrouding me in darkness.
He pressed one hand against the cabinet and the other to the neighboring counter. I was trapped. My heart slammed against my chest despite my body warming to the idea of him putting those large hands on me again. Fear and anticipation, they were becoming as close as lovers. Like Corban and I would be if he kept this up.
“Would you like me to haunt you in the sunlight?” My eyes widened as a hand made entirely of shadow stroked down my face, before wrapping a strand of my hair around its finger.I glanced left and right, both of his real hands were still firmly planted on either side of me.How?!
His eyes slid past my face to something behind me, and his body seemed to freeze. He became so still I thought he had turned to stone, his skin greying as a tremor suddenly ran through him.
“You’re a very bad girl, Sorcha.” He plucked one of the stems from the vase that sat on the countertop just past my hip and tossed it to the floor. “Keeping gifts from another man who does not even know you. Foxglove. Hemlock. Nightshade.” With each name he tossed one of Quint’s stems to the floor and in their stead others grew. Ones I recognized from the garden. “These suit you much better.”
I could feel the color leech from my face. “Poison. Those are all–”
Corban sneered. “They’re only deadly if they’re misused. Oh, don’t look at me like that. Did you really think the garden was nothing more than pretty ornamentation when a creature such as I haunts your domain? Macky may have planted the Belladonna Garden, but these days it answers only to me.”
For all of the scary stories I had read, I knew nothing about what poisonous plants looked like. Their names rang loud and clear, though and I watched in horror as the sparsely decorated vase bloomed with a deadly bouquet.
Corban’s breath stroked chills down my skin. “How does it feel knowing you’ve invited Death into your bed? That the darkness you seek between pages is blood and flesh before you.”
I saw my eyes widen in the dark mirror of his own eyes. Heat fanned the shadows around us. Heat I did not know he could produce, for his hand was ice-cold as it wrapped around my wrist. Within the warring temperatures rose the musk of twin rage and desire.
His thumb moved over my wrist. “It’s my turn to choose the game. I am going to count to ten. That is all the time I’ll give you,” he whispered.
