Murder Game (GhostWalkers, #7)(26)

How could she ever look Kadan Montague in the eye? Would he expect her to just follow him down the trail into hell, now that she’d allowed seduction? Because she’d been a willing participant—she couldn’t deny that, even to herself. Especially to herself.

She risked a glance at him and her heart nearly stopped. He was calmly breaking camp. Most of her things were packed, and even as she watched, he’d already opened her locked camera case and extracted her precious cameras and footage as if he owned them. The pounding in her heart roared in her ears. What had she done?

We can do this the hard way. He had warned her. She could never say he hadn’t warned her. She’d allowed him to talk her into coming back to camp on her own. He’d used her own nature against her. Hell, he’d studied her, he’d admitted that. He knew exactly which buttons to push, and he’d pushed them by revealing the childhood story he’d never shared with anyone else. How stupid could she get? It probably wasn’t true. She wanted to weep for her own stupidity, but there was another side that was furious at the deception.

Give the girl a night to remember. He’d been in her head. He knew how alone she’d felt, how different. She’d practically climbed all over him. Tansy suppressed a groan. She couldn’t, for one moment, blame him. He’d warned her from the beginning he meant to take her back. He was ruthless, willing to use whatever means were available to him—and she’d opened the door for him to use sex. Damn him. Damn her. Now she had to figure a way out, because she wasn’t going anywhere with him.

Kadan kept his head down as he methodically packed Tansy’s things. It was possible she didn’t realize that the more they used telepathic communication, the easier it became to slip in and out of each other’s mind. He had been reluctant to separate himself from her. He couldn’t remember lying with a woman in his arms and feeling utterly content—at peace. Whole. And now she was lying there, regretting their night together, the night that meant the world to him. What did he expect? Her to come to him open, with a huge, happy smile?

Her thoughts were raw and self-accusing. He knew exactly which buttons to push, and he’d pushed them by revealing the childhood story he’d never shared with anyone else. She wanted to weep for her own stupidity, but there was another side that was furious at the deception.

Deception? Anger and hurt wrapped up so tight he couldn’t tell one from the other. Kadan, the GhostWalker with ice in his veins, felt the burst of temper rush through his system, and he turned toward Tansy, reaching into his pocket.

“Hey! Catch!” Deliberately Kadan flicked the small game piece he’d found at the last crime scene through the air toward her.

The object gleamed in the early morning sunlight as it came toward Tansy’s head. She reached up in one quick motion and snagged it out of the air just as she caught his thought.

Damn me for trusting you. I told you the one thing about me not another living person knows, and you believe I used it to get you in bed. There was fury, but more than that, there was hurt.

She’d hurt him. Her fingers closed around the smooth edges of the object he’d thrown to her, and her heart sank as vicious, violent energy greedily swarmed over and into her. She tried to drop the game piece, but it was already far too late. Worse, she hadn’t prepared herself. She heard herself scream, deep inside where no one could hear, as oil poured into her mind, slick and black and filled with sludge, carrying the weight of the dead and dying, the pleas and protests, the begging voices, the sickness that rose with the dark stench of blood. Kadan had said the blood was like a second skin, but it was worse than that, it seeped inside through her pores, until blood was inside her mind, sticking to everything she was, every part of her soul, dripping like wax off a candle and fusing with her like a hot weld.

Kadan heard screaming, the cry of an anguished animal, filled with pain, with agony, but she was completely mute, the blue gone from her eyes to be wholly replaced by the silver violet shine. Eyes of glass. His stomach lurched as he flung the bag he was packing onto the table and raced to her, gripping her hand, prying at her fingers. “Drop it! Drop it now.”

He’d read the reports, but he hadn’t understood. Damn it, he hadn’t understood. Now he did, and he thought he was going to be sick. He was there with her now, in her mind, and the reality of what she felt—what she went through—was far, far more devastating than any report could ever have described.

“Damn it, Tansy, drop it now!” Bile rose. He’d been angry. He never allowed anger. He stayed in control, because when he made the decision to hurt someone, it had to be based on logic and reason, not emotion. “Tansy . . .” He whispered her name and pulled her limp body into his arms.

There was so much blood. He liked that. The splash and splatter of it. Like a painting and he was the artist. He’d wanted a different card. He couldn’t use the women. Either of them. The girl was fourteen and the mother—ah—the mother. She was beautiful. And such a f*cking snob. He would love to force her to watch him do the daughter first. But he’d lose points. How many points if he f*cked them both? Would it be worth it? They’d all be mad at him, but what the hell, he deserved a little fun.

It wasn’t his fault that he pulled the wrong card. The sound of their voices sobbing and pleading were better than any high, better than any aphrodisiac. He’d done the husband first. Macho man. Idiot, thought he could keep his family safe. Then the son. Waste of time killing the brat, but he didn’t want to bother with the kid screaming. No, now came the fun. He had hours for fun, but if he indulged his fantasies, he’d lose points. Whatever should we do?