Chapter 65
He Will Kill
Ipaced the floor of the ballroom. Karson had been gone for hours. Ethan had rung Bob and urged him to fly here. I wasn’t sure what was said, but when Ethan hung up, his face was pale.
Sarah might not even still be in Portland. She might not have killed Mary. Sending others to do her dirty work was a trait she reveled in. Regardless, Mary’s blood was on her hands.
And soon, Karson would drown in Sarah’s.
Mary was probably murdered early this morning after the paper came out.
Tired from all the crying, trying to wrap my head around it all, I sat on the edge of the chair and rubbed my hands over my face.
Georgie stroked up and down my back. Her eyes were bloodshot from crying, her fingers shaking around the glass of wine Josh had poured her.
“You need to go,” Ethan growled for about the tenth time. “You can come back later.”
I lurched back to my feet, annoyed. “Why does everyone always think the worst of him?”
“Because he is a cold-hearted killer,” Janice said, removing the hood from her rain jacket as she strode in.
“Janice,” Michael warned. “There is no need to bring up the past.”
“She deserves to know,” she snapped. “Everyone knows but her.”
“Knows what?” The room stilled. “Tell me,” I insisted.
“He killed his fiancée,” Ethan said.
His fiancée. Karson was engaged? I knew he’d been in love before, but I never knew he loved someone so much he would marry them. And he had killed her.
I closed my eyes, trying to process it all. He wouldn’t harm someone he loved. I saw the way he crumbled when Mary died. Saw his love for her. He’d do anything to protect her, protect me, protect us all.
“Ethan,” Michael growled. “It is not your place to tell her. You were not there when it happened.”
I opened my eyes and shook my head. “He wouldn’t do that.”
“He did, Amy, he did.” Ethan paced across the room. “One moment of pure rage and he stabbed her.”
All this time, Ethan had tried to warn me away from Karson. But he wouldn’t say why. This was the reason.
“Oh my God, Amy,” Georgie whispered, her eyes darting to Josh for confirmation. He shook his head, looking perplexed.
“I don’t think he will hurt her,” Rodney said casually. He was sitting on the stage, one knee bent up, polishing a small, sharp-edged blade.
“I don’t care what you think, I know him.” Ethan’s voice dropped to a low snarl. “And put the fucking blade away. What are you, heartless?”
Rodney looked down at the blade slowly, as if it had just dawned on him, then placed it in his pocket. “I know him too, and he always keeps what he needs. Until he no longer does.”
His words struck me like a punch. I didn’t flinch.
I didn’t show him any emotion. Fuck him.
I looked to Michael, my heart in my throat.
His face was grim. “It was years ago and there were reasons for it, but he needs to tell you.” He threw a hard look between both Janice and Ethan. “It is not our place.”
“Not our place.” Ethan raised his voice and threw out a hand. “You want to wear that when he rips her throat out?”
“This is different!” Michael shouted. “You weren’t there, and you never even asked what happened.”
“I don’t need to know any more than he fucking stabbed her.”
The world was ringing. Shifting. I stepped back and sat on the arm of the chair.
Ethan’s voice was steel. “I am taking you, Amy, whether you agree to it or not.”
I stiffened as Ethan stepped toward me. My hands lifted, my magic tingling through my blood, ready to explode. “No, you’re not.”
“Oh, but I am.”
“Don’t make me hurt you,” I whispered, getting back to my feet.
He smirked. “Don’t you know by now I am far more adept at combat than you are, even with your witchy skills.”
“Fuck you.”
“If you’re up for it, I am,” he said bitterly.
“This is not the time to joke. This isn’t funny, none of this is funny.”
“You think I don’t know that?” He raised his voice again. “You think—”
The door slammed shut and stopped us both dead in our tracks. The sound of his footsteps striding toward us beat the pounding in my ears.
Ethan and Michael moved in front of me. Rodney sighed and climbed sluggishly to his feet, then moved in a blur of speed beside me.
Karson looked terrible, his hair messy and soaked, blood splashed across his gray shirt. He stopped abruptly and looked up as if he’d only just noticed us all standing in the room.
Georgie gasped.
His eyes—
They were black, blacker than the cold depths of hell.
Karson, the man who loved me, who held me so tenderly, looked like something else. Something inhuman. It was as if there was nothing but agony, hate, and rage burning in his soul. His power filled the whole room. Swallowed it. Devoured it. My heart began to race.
Ethan tensed.
“Did you find her?” Michael asked, his hands interlocked in front of him.
Karson’s gaze burned over Michael, Ethan, and Rodney standing around me like vampire blockades. Was that a flicker of hurt I saw? His lips curled into a sneer. “As if you could stop me, as if any of you could stop me.”
“All this is my fault, not hers.” Ethan straightened, pumping his chest out. Ethan was tall and physically fit, but Karson’s fury had a way of making them all look small. “If you blame anyone, blame me.”
“It’s no one’s fault,” Josh said smoothly, “but Sarah’s.”
Rodney picked something out of his nail. “As much as I’d happily see the witch dead, no offense,” he inclined his head at me, “I would hate to see you do something you regret later.”
Karson swiped a vase off the side table. It shattered to the floor, leaving yellow flowers intermingled with shards glinting sharply against the dull light. His gaze shifted between the three vampires. “You think so poorly of me, you think I’d harm a hair on her head?”
Ethan’s lips curled. “You’ve done it before.”
Karson flinched, then stilled, a predator kind of stillness.
A volcano on the cusp of explosion. “You all believe the worst of me, even when I show you over and over again how much I care for this family, what I am willing to do, to sacrifice, to keep you all safe.” His voice was laced with anguish.
“I expect the entire world to think poorly of me, but I expect my family to know I am not the monster everyone thinks I am.”
I stepped to the side so I was no longer sheltered by Ethan and Michael. His gaze, as scorching as the hot summer sun, locked with mine. Tears prickled my eyes. Not from fear, but from the pain I saw—I felt down to the depths of my heart—radiating off him.
He walked toward me slowly, almost hesitantly, as if he was trying to control the urge to explode. His body vibrated with tension—with anger. Those eyes were like staring into the unlit pits of hell.
I deserved every ounce of his anger. What I’d done had killed Mary, beautiful, sweet Mary.
I shook with guilt, with grief, but I raised my chin as I stepped forward to meet him.
I would not be afraid of the man I loved.
I would not think the worst of him. I wanted him to know I only wanted to love him.
Ethan cursed, darting his eyes to Michael. Michael held up his palm—wait.
“Karson,” I whispered.
Karson’s shoulders slumped and his head dropped as if all the energy had drained from him. He made a low, deep sobbing sound in his chest, and in less than a heartbeat he had me in his arms.
“I didn’t mean to, I didn’t mean to, I’m so sorry.” All the pent-up emotion rushed out and I burst into tears as I wrapped my arms around his neck.
One arm cradled my back, the other my shoulders. His head sagged against mine. “It’s not your fault,” he whispered. “It’s not your fault.”
I closed my water-soaked eyes and urged every ounce of warmth and love I had in my heart into him. I love you so much.
I love you, the gods know how I love you, I heard him say in my head.
Shocked, I pulled back a little, but his hand swept through my hair and pulled my head back to rest on his chest.
After some time, we parted reluctantly. His eyes were no longer black, nor hazel as they usually were, but a mixture, like leaves drinking in the night.
I wiped at the tears on my face and looked around. Josh had his arm slung around Georgie’s shoulders. Rodney was pouring drinks by the bar, Ethan and Michael next to him.
“Where is Monique?” Karson asked, his voice rough.
“Questioning witches and vampires with Kenneth,” Michael answered. “She’s overcome with grief and is upset with what has transpired. You can’t blame her, any more than we can blame anyone else for this whole sordid mess. It is all Sarah’s doing. If you want to blame anyone, turn your anger to her.”
Karson spun on his heel to look at Michael with a snarl, his fangs flashing. “I blame both of them, and Sarah will suffer a fate that will make her wish she had never been born.”
Michael and Ethan shared quick, nervous glances.
Panic surged in a hot rush through my entire body. He didn’t verbalise what he’d do to Monique, but from the anxiety on both Ethan and Michael’s faces, it wouldn’t be pleasant.
I swallowed hard. “Whatever fate you decide for Monique, then I must out of fairness be given the same.” Karson’s eyes shot to me.
“You’re the king of vampires, Karson. If you spare me, a witch, and punish one of your own for the same indiscretion, then you’ll lose the respect of your people, and worse, gain haters from those who like Monique. ”
Karson didn’t answer, didn’t flinch, he merely stared at me. Everyone just stared at me. Was he considering punishing me too? For the first time, my stomach squirmed uncomfortably. I might have just dug my own grave, jumped in, and sealed the coffin shut.
Rodney opened a top cupboard and reached for a bottle of whiskey. “She is correct.”
“Not helping,” Ethan muttered out of the corner of his mouth.
My eyes hooked to Rodney. Inexplicably, I wanted to move closer to him. I could feel the pull of safety beckoning. If anyone could protect me, it would be him. The biggest monster in the room. Second biggest.
Not that he would.