Mack (King #4)(25)
I cringed.
“Don’t look so shocked,” he said.
“I think you’re misinterpreting my lack of enthusiasm. And you’re mistaken if you think I’m going to kill you.”
“You have no choice, Theodora. It’s your fate. And you want to be free of your vow just as much as you want to free me.”
“Fuck you. I won’t kill you.”
“Sooner or later, I will not be able to hold back. That rage you saw out there—that violent man—he’s inside me. And looking at you only aggravates him. Eventually, he’ll break free again, and when he does, he’ll try to kill you. You will have no choice but to defend yourself and end me.”
I understood now what he was saying, nevertheless… “There has to be another way.”
He gave me a look that made me want to crawl inside a hole and die. “What?” I snapped back.
“You think I haven’t tried?”
“How the hell should I know? Not like I’ve had time to think through every piece of this.”
“My brother and I have attempted to break the curse many times—nothing works. Not even dying. And, by the way, the part where I’m dead, disembodied, no way to feel anything other than suffering and pain, that’s no picnic. You have to do this for me, Theodora. You are just as powerful as your father was, which means you are capable of ending this pain. And you must do it now. Before I lose control and try to hurt you.”
I understood what he was saying. I truly did. Seize the moment. But I could not do what he asked. I wasn’t capable of murdering someone. I just wasn’t.
“I’m sorry, but we’re just going to have to wait until you ‘lose control,’ because I’m not about to take a knife and slit your throat or run you over with my car or whatever the hell you imagined I’d be doing to you.”
Mack shook his head at the floor. “If I get to you first, then all this starts over again. You’ll be reborn, and I will have to sate my urges.”
I stared at him, trying to grasp what he was saying. He didn’t mean that…that… “You go around killing people?”
“I’m very good at it.”
I wanted to vomit. I didn’t remember my father, this Kan man, but what a jackass. What was he thinking when he’d cursed Mack?
“Great. You’re a serial killer.”
“No. Never that. But there is always killing to be done in this world, Theodora. For my brother, for powerful people, for pride and country.”
I just…I just… “This is too much.” I stared at him in complete wonder. And awe. And then the lust kicked in.
One corner of his mouth curled into a wide smile.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing. You gave me that same look the second time we met.”
“I wish I could remember,” I said.
“Perhaps you simply don’t wish to. Not a surprise, frankly.”
I was in no position to speculate. “Tell me what you remember. I want to know everything.” What I really wanted to know was how to save him. And the devil was always in the details.
“If I tell you, will you do what I’ve asked?” he said.
I couldn’t lie, so I danced around the question. “It might increase your odds of persuading me.”
He shook his head. “Stubborn. You are always so stubborn.”
~~~
MACK
It was the least I could do for Theodora, I supposed. By my estimations we still had a few hours left until King used his gifts to find us and until the deed needed to be done. And I had to admit, spending time with her, staring into her large green eyes (I wasn’t a Seer, so I saw the real her), watching the way she looked at me, it all started bringing back those memories from when she was óolal and I was simply a stranded stranger in her village.
So yes, even against my better judgment and knowing how much more difficult it would make Theodora’s task of ending me, I found myself unable to resist having these final moments together. There was nothing sweeter, nothing more right in this world than spending time with her. When I wasn’t busy pushing back my urge to kill her, that was.
I cleared my throat, determined to project nothing but confidence. There could be no doubt in her mind regarding how this day would end.
“The second time we met,” I said, “was about five hundred years ago. I had been recently raised from the dead by my brother after his many failed attempts. Not a happy period of my life—King was as tormented, bloodthirsty, and just as violent as I was. And he was strong—something he liked to remind me of.”
I watched Theodora’s expression sour. “He hit you?”
“No. He beat me. Severely. But he beat anyone who displeased him. He killed anyone who disobeyed him.”
“Jesus. No wonder you don’t want to see the guy.”
“I admit that I dreamed of killing my brother and taking revenge, but then I learned the truth about him and what he’d given up to bring me back from the dead.”
“Don’t hold me in suspense,” she said with a certain grim fascination.
“He was cursed like I was, but he was a ghost, his soul in constant pain.”
Theodora’s mouth sort of hung open, revealing a bit of that soft pink tongue. I wanted to stroke it with mine along with a few of her other body parts.