Page 54 of The Spirit Key
I bit into the sandwich and groaned as the salty bit of the bacon and the rich, gooey cheese spread out over my tongue. If nothing else, eating would keep me from having to talk.
“You’re only delaying the inevitable. Youwilltell me.”
A shiver coursed through me. When he usedthatvoice, I would do anything he wanted. It was sultry but had a note of command to it too.
I swallowed. “How do we stop it? I mean—”
“I know what you mean, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since we saw Elizabeth. I never want to hurt another person, especially a child. If… if something happens and I lose control, you have to do whatever is needed to stop it from happening. Even if that means you have to stop me permanently.”
I pushed the plate onto the floor, where it shattered. “What the fuck are you saying? You think that I could possibly kill you?”
He stood, looking down at the mess I’d made. He was so fucking calm, I wanted to smack him. He didn’t say a word as he went into the hall closet and pulled out a broom and dustpan, came over and cleaned up the big pieces, then used the towel to sop up the liquid. Afterward, he went and emptied the shattered remnants in the trash before coming back and sitting down again.
“If you didn’t like the sandwich, you could have just said so.”
“This isn’t fucking funny. We have to figure this out.”
He put his hand on my chest again. “You’ll do whatever you have to in order to protect someone from the thing inside me.” He sighed. “I never told you, but I’ve felt it for a couple years. At first I thought I was imagining things, but over time, the voice grew louder. It was like a whisper in my head, telling me to do dark, awful things. I thought I was going crazy, because I’d never wanted to hurt anyone. But then I started imagining how it would feel to hurt people, and though the thoughts horrified me, they were still fascinating to me. That’s when the dreams started. They were about me doing disgusting things, and I would wake up in a terror. You can’t let me become that person. I would rather you consider it a mercy and save me from a lifetime of regrets.”
“If you knew, why didn’t you tell me this before?”
His cheeks turned a deep scarlet. “I didn’t want to believe it was true. I thought, you know, if I pretended you were wrong, then it wasn’t really happening.” He sighed and pinned me with a sharp stare. “I’m sorry, but that doesn’t change the fact you need to make sure I don’t hurt anyone, by whatever means necessary.”
My throat closed up, and I couldn’t get any of the words I wanted to say out of my mouth. How could he think I’d possibly be able to end his life?
“Let me make you some more food.”
He stood, but I grabbed his wrist. “No, please. Just lay beside me until I fall asleep.”
“Okay.”
He stripped off his shirt, went over and switched off the light, then moved to the other side of the bed and crawled in next to me. I was about to ask him to hold me when he draped an arm across my chest and snuggled in close.
“Good night, Scotty.”
Sleep didn’t come easily, but thanks to his warmth, it finally came.
Chapter Thirteen
THE BRUSHof whiskers on my neck made me shudder.
“You feeling better today?”
“Yeah, a lot.”
“You slept sixteen hours.”
I jolted out of bed. “What the hell? Why did you let me sleep so long?”
He chuckled. “I tried to wake you several times, but you were dead to the world. After the fourth try, I figured you needed the sleep and decided to go do some digging through my mom’s papers.”
If he found something, that would be awesome. “And?”
He reached over onto the nightstand and grabbed a worn brown leather notebook, which he handed to me. I wasn’t sure how I felt about touching it, because what if I found something she never wanted anyone else to know?
“Go ahead and read it. It’s… well, fascinating for lack of a better word.”
I turned to the first page, and there, emblazoned on the inside cover, was written:To Tim and Scott, for when the time is right.
