Page 45 of Rose and Shadows
“Sweet place,” I spoke, choking a little on my words as I found my throat extremely dry. I forced onward, especially as he turned around and threatened to unnerve me as he eye-fucked me so blatantly. “Looks new—except for these chains. You just moved in? Couldn’t wait for somebody to see the new digs? You know, most people will have objects as housewarming gifts.” A snarl escaped me. “Not strung up people.”
His lips curved. “The chains were used on me by your dear daddy. A punishment. And not the kind I usually go in for. Hebled me out, tried to indoctrinate me back around to his way of thinking.”
That must have been what Sylas had referred to when he’d brought up my dad putting Victor down three centuries back.
“Indoctrinate? Given what I’ve come to unfortunately know about you, I’m thinking you mean him trying to get you to see reason, ease away from the whole psychopath bit?”
He sauntered toward me, one slow and drawn out step at a time, his eyes all over me again. “A psychopath, as you so eloquently refer to it, is just a being greatly misunderstood. Overlooked, ahead of their time, a maverick.”
I couldn’t suppress a shudder as he shook off his designer charcoal blazer, then tugged off his shirt with a burst of vampire speed, baring his massive muscular chest.
He sped over to a closet, then hung them up in several bursts, before then unfortunately returning to stand before me.
He purposely misinterpreted my reaction and smirked. “Yes, relish the view. Soon you’ll be permitted to touch as well.” He grasped my jaw in that way he was too fond of doing. “Back to the psychopath thing and my reframing of it… a maverick, overlooked, ahead of their time… don’t you see how similar we are in those respects? You are most definitely a maverick. Ahead of your time undeniably in the way you view and advocate for hybrid kind, the way you approach much. And you were overlooked by your deadbeat father for years on end.” He stroked my jaw and I only just managed to suppress another shudder. “Who in their right mind would be so foolish as to overlook you?”
“There’s no mirror here,” I bit back.
I braced myself for him to crack my jaw like he’d done before.
Instead, I got a surprise as his eyes shone at me and he actually even loosened his grip. “You’ll see soon enough. Don’t fret, precious.” He studied me, this time without any sexualityto it. “Are you in pain? Or is it just slight uncomfortableness permeating your veins?”
“What is it? What did you do to me?”
“Diluted holy water.”
I jolted. “What?”
“All is well, no need for panic. That previous instance where I tortured you with it, I used a concentrated dose. This was just very slight, enough to keep you docile.”
“Docile for what?”
“To make it easier for you to enter into a moreacceptingand open state of mind, something that, given our previous encounters, I’m aware needs some work.”
“There is no version of this where I’m in anacceptingstate of mind when it comes to you. Doing this, bringing me here, and whatever else you have planned with that device that Morien made for you, is all pointless. You’re an enemy to me, you tortured me, and you can’t see reason. You’re warped, Victor.”
He stepped up closer, making me grit my teeth as his bare chest pressed against mine.
It got worse as he slid his fingers into my hair, stroking softly in an almost tender sort of way. “Mmm, I’m delighting in the way you growled my name. Do it again.”
“No,” I ground out.
His fingers skimmed over my cheek. “I’m aware that a facet of this resistance from you has nothing to do with me, or what’s between us.”
What’s between us?His delusion ran even deeper than I’d already clocked. Actually, it seemed to be worsening with our every encounter.
“It’s about those you believe you’re in love with.”
“I am in love with them,” I bit back, the rawness to that statement bursting out of me almost automatically, because my love for Velra, Sylas, and Cassius ran so deep.
“Yes, you’re predisposed to view it that way.”
“Predisposed?”
“You’re a victim of abandonment. By your father, no less. He may have explained it away and you may have reconciled, but it doesn’t undo the wound it inflicted. A wound that runs so very deep. That’s also compounded by the extreme level of rejection you’ve faced because you’re a born wolf-vampire hybrid—from your pack, fromPuritasand others across the supernatural world who share their beliefs.”
“If you’re trying to form some sort of twisted bond with me by drawing a parallel between us, you’re way off. My dad rejected you because of your actions, not because of what you are. And as for yourPuritascomments, you’re a fucking member.”
“We’ll come back to your assumption concerning Remnant. But as forPuritas,I’m not in it for the rhetoric.”
