Page 47 of Rose and Shadows
No matter what he said, what he did.
No matter that the fucking holy water was weakening me and making me feel more than a little off, something that was confusing in itself.
“You’re not even going to ask what your gift is?”
“Strangely, I can’t seem to give any fucks.”
Instead of snapping, or bursting forward and crunching my bones with his next-level strength, he merely smiled. “You’ve certainly inherited your father’s stubbornness. He was a tough nut to crack about certain things as well.”
What things?Part of me wanted to ask that, but the other part knew he’d just twist the narrative to suit him.
“You know it takes two, right? I also have a mom.”
He tensed. “She’s not a part of this.” Then he ground out bitterly, “She never should have been a part of any of this. The only reason she hasn’t become my target is because she had a hand in creating you.”
Just a hand in it?Jeez,he was demented. With our every exchange, he kept demonstrating more disturbing depths to it all.
“Can’t even say her name, huh?”
He pulled his pants the rest of the way off, then burst toward his closet, and neatly hung them up alongside his shirt and blazer. “Made especially for me,” he explained, as he strode back over, now just in a pair of tight gray trunks. “Hard to come by and very expensive. I don’t want unworthy blood on the fabric. Yours I would wear with elation.”
I looked away as he started to run his hand over the front of them, clearly trying to draw my eye there.
“Blood?” I asked instead. “What blood are you talking about? Whose?”
“Ah, yes,” he said, with some sort of creepy glee. “Your gift.” He rubbed his hands together as he stopped a foot from me. “This ties back to our earlier conversation, specifically concerning the deep scars of rejection you’ve suffered through in your life.” He winced. “A life so new too. Still so young, yet so much damage.”
“Are you building to something?” I gritted out.
“Still such impatience, such attitude. You’re fortunate that it arouses me much more so now, rather than merely being seen as an obstacle.” He cocked his head to the side, then told me, “Before you were rejected by your pack for the vampiric aspect of your nature, you experienced another form of rejection. Specifically, your first crush that wasn’t on a female. That crush was on a wolf within your pack named Jesse Harmon.”
Holy. Shit.The creep factor was beyond—knowing that meant he’d researched so fucking deeply into me. Maybe even actually been watching me as well.
Before I could even begin to process that, he continued, “He hated that you were attracted to him, something that was complicated for him by the fact that the attraction was actually returned. He chose not only to repress it, but to take out that frustration on you. In fact, he’s carried it with him all these years. When your efforts with Crossborn became publicized and put you in the spotlight, that hatred bled into action. He formed his ownPuritascell recently. A cell specifically created to hunt you down and transport you toGenexisand have you executed.”
My stomach roiled as it became clear what he was building to.
“Your supposedloveshave sought out your other remaining enemies, those tied to your deceased stepfather, and removed their threat. But they couldn’t find Harmon.” He leaned in and brushed his lips over my cheek. “Fortunately, you have me. Mmm… my pretty thing.” I twisted in my binds, yanking on the chains when he slid his hand down over my open fly. My breath hitched as his fingers hovered there, just a fraction of an inch from making contact.
And then he pulled it away and smirked down at me. “Not yet, remember?” He breathed me in, scenting me, as his eyes flamed with lust. “Make no mistake, though, when I am through,you will beg for my touch, and even sob in utter desperation for the pleasure I can bring you.”
I clenched my fingers in the cuffs. “Is that the line you fed to Sorin?”
He arched an eyebrow.
“He claimed the two of you were in love.”
“Ah, yes. His parents are incredibly withholding. It didn’t take much.”
“It was all lies?”
“It was a means to control a deeply sadistic and highly volatile being. Your associates ending his life did me a favor. He’d served his purpose. All that remained was tying up loose ends.”
“You were gonna kill him anyway?”
“If Cassius hadn’t already seen to it, yes. Sadistic and volatile, remember? That can’t be left out there, especially not obsessing over me. The danger of that can’t quite be quantified.” He stepped back and rubbed his hands together. “Now, onto your gift.”
Before I could get a word out, especially in a bid to find out how the shit he knew it had been Cassius who had murdered Sorin, and not Velra—or even me, he blurred from the room with his vampire speed.
