Mack (King #4)(23)

“Why don’t you tell me what’s inside first?” I folded my arms over my chest, grateful I had on my thick dark sweater. The chill in the morning air was prickly to say the least.

“It’s the sort of thing you need to see for yourself.” His voice was suddenly tinged with an ominous tone, and I felt the baby fine hairs on my arms and neck stand straight up as the expression on his face shifted into something that was difficult to articulate. It was…like…he wanted to hurt me. Hate. Rage. Whatever. But he looked mean and deadly.

Okay. Now I’m afraid. I realized Mack had my keys and there was nowhere for me to go—nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.

I’m an idiot. If he intended to kill me, which I now had the impression he might, given the strange, deadly vibe oozing from his direction, I deserved to die. Just like those stupid girls who “check out that weird noise” in the attic during a horror movie.

I lifted my chin a bit, faking composure. A victim’s fear often fed a killer’s ego. “Mack, tell me what you’re doing—what’s really going on here? Because if you plan to drag me inside to cut my throat, you know I can’t go anywhere, so you’ve won. But I’d at least like an explanation.” No. I wasn’t giving in. I was buying time to think.

His blue, blue eyes flickered with disdain, and his surreally handsome face was coated in rage. There were no traces of the kind, dimpled man I’d seen only moments earlier.

What the hell happened to him?

“I owe you nothing, Theodora. Now do as I say, and get your ass inside, or I will drag you by the hair.”

Oh f*ck. I knew in my heart that running wouldn’t do any good, but I did it anyway. I turned and sprinted down the road.

Arms pumping, boots slamming into the earth, I ran as hard as I could, kicking up dirt behind me. I felt a hand grab my sweater and jerk me back. My body slammed onto the ground, knocking the wind from my lungs.

“I f*cking told you to get inside, woman,” Mack growled as I tried to breathe but couldn’t. With little effort, he plucked me from the dirt and threw me over his shoulder.

My lungs kicked back in, and I screamed, “Don’t do this, Mack! I can help you. You don’t want to do this!”

Marching with determination, me bouncing painfully on his shoulder, he said, “Shut the hell up. You have no clue what I want to do.”

I clawed and kicked, but he was too burly, and I was no match. “Mack, please! I’m begging you to let me—”

We crossed the threshold into the cabin, and that was when I became pretty darn certain that I was the one who’d gone mad.





CHAPTER FOURTEEN


TEDDI





“What the…?” I whispered.

Mack threw me down onto a soft leather couch beside an unlit fireplace, and then gripped the sides of his head, snarling and groaning with his eyes closed as if in pain. Then suddenly his face relaxed and his head snapped in my direction. “You cannot run from me like that, Theodora. Do you understand me? Do you!” he yelled.

Nodding absentmindedly, I was totally speechless. The inside of the cabin wasn’t dark and dusty, and the walls weren’t rotting wooden planks. The inside was rustic, yes, but it had clean white plaster walls and a cozy living room with a bearskin rug, fireplace, and knotted pine coffee table. In the other corner was a round table with a gas lamp in the middle and a hutch filled with canned food, stemware, and plates. There was even a little kitchen area with a propane hotplate and a granite counter.

My mouth half flapping, I stuttered out, “I—I—dun-dun-don’t understand.” And then I looked up at Mack. “Holyf*ckingshit!” I was no longer looking at him, but…but… “Your hair. Your face.” His hair was dark, his stubble was jet black, his skin was a deep olive. But those eyes—those blue, blue eyes. He looked like that man King. Exactly like him.

Mack stood there, arms crossed, staring.

“Mack? Please help me understand what’s happening here.”

“You are a Seer, Theodora. And these grounds—think of it as a place where the energy you draw your gifts from is concentrated.”

He meant to say it was turbocharging me or something. The crazy thing was, I could feel it. I could feel this strange pulse beating through my veins and throbbing against the inside of my skin.

He continued, “It’s why the tribe who once lived here considered it sacred.”

“But you don’t look like you, and this place is not what I saw when you opened the door.”

“A spell to trick the eye and keep people from coming inside just in case they make it past the wards around the edge of the property,” he added.

“So…you…” I blew out a breath. Mack looked so…so…f*cking goddamned beautiful. I had to look away and try to process.

“You’re seeing me as I once was when we first met,” he explained. “Don’t you remember me?”

I shook my head no.

He reached over onto the hutch and grabbed a small silver ashtray. “I don’t have a mirror, but this will do. Look at yourself.”

I took it from him and glanced at the shiny surface. The blurry reflection staring back wasn’t the face I knew in the mirror.

“Shit!” I dropped the thing on the floor. The eyes had been brown and almond shaped with thick black lashes.