Chapter 6
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Elsie snapped, palm itching to slap the demon again. He’d taken far too many liberties, and her temper was rising.
“My family, friends, and entire pack? All dead and gone to make me into the perfect slave. I have no family or home to return to, and do you understand what that means for you? You’re stuck with me.
I am going to protect you, Mistress. I don’t care if you get hurt, but I’ll stop anyone else from taking your life. Your death belongs to me.”
An icy chill shivered its way down her body. Cornick was a bigger bastard than she’d realized, and she already knew why they’d killed his family. They’d done it to break him.
Elsie couldn’t look away from the shine of pure hatred in his eyes. She could argue until her face turned blue, but it wouldn’t change anything. She was part of the organization that had done this to him, and he would never forgive her for that.
Elsie had him restrained, but she’d never felt less in control of a situation. His questions made sense now. He’d taken the time to weigh her answers and decide her culpability, and she’d come up lacking.
“Why not kill me now?” Elsie asked; a pang of guilt had knocked the wind out of her. He had reason enough to hate all hunters, especially her. Flashes of recent memories assailed her. Too absorbed in her own victimhood, she’d treated him like shit.
“I think you’ll continue playing the white knight for as long as it suits you because you’re responsible for me.
As you keep reminding me, I’m yours. And so, Mistress, I want you to experience all the happiness and contentment I had in my life.
When you have everything you’ve ever wanted, I’m going to rip it away, giving you enough time to mourn your losses before I watch the life leave your eyes. ”
“I guess I’ll have to kill you to prevent that.” She moved her knee to the center of his chest to more firmly pin him down. She’d have to draw a firm line between pity, guilt, and her personal safety.
“Do it,” he taunted, tilting his chin back to expose his throat.
“My last breath will curse you to be forever haunted by my image. I’ll never get to hug my mother again.
Or run with my brothers beside me. I’ll never bury myself in the arms of my lover or learn another sage life lesson from my father. ”
“They’re all gone now, and your people made me watch. The hunters took everything from me without explanation, and it was all for you. A spoiled little bitch who climbed to success using the bodies of innocents.”
Elsie’s eyes widened, and she released his wrist, sitting back on his middle. A pressure built in her chest, making Elsie sick to her stomach. His opinion hurt, but the echo of his pain rocketing through her body hurt the worst. He wasn’t just wounded; he was a creature lost in torment.
“I understand why you’d think the worst of me, but I swear I’m not a bad person. At least…I never wanted to be. My job is to protect the humans from demons that want to kill them. I didn’t–”
“I, I, I. That’s all you ever talk about.
Yourself. You know, I’ve never hurt a human in my life, but you won’t set me free because it might make your days a little uncomfortable.
Go on. Kill me, Mistress. Let me live in your conscience forever.
” He squeezed the hand he held captive a bit harder.
“I’m alone in this world, thanks to you.
Your death is the only thing I have left to live for. Do it.”
Elsie closed her eyes, letting his pain, grief, and rage settle inside her. Cornick and Mordane had made him completely dependent on her. If he needed someone to blame, she’d shoulder it for now.
“I’m not going to kill you,” she said finally, opening her eyes and looking down at him.
“Hate me all you need, I don’t blame you.
My death is yours, if that’s what you want.
I don’t have anything else to offer to assuage your rage and pain.
So, I won’t let anyone kill me except you. Maybe someday you’ll change your mind.”
He sat up so suddenly that she slid down his middle and into his lap, her eyes widening in surprise. Lowering his head until their faces were an inch apart, he curled a lip, showing his fang.
“Don’t count on it.” He let her go.
Elsie flexed her fingers and stared him boldly in the eye. “I won’t.”
She stood up and offered him her hand, but he sneered at her. She shrugged and lay on her bed with a long, loud sigh. They’d made their positions clear. He wasn’t going to kill her today, so she might as well rest.
“You’re going back to where we started?”
“I stand by what I said. If you try anything like that again, I will put you down. I may have given my life to you, but I have no intention of making it easy for you to take. Do not touch me again, demon. It’ll be the last decision you ever make.”
He lifted his gloved hand and wiggled his fingers at her. “I never touched you,” he mocked, “and I won’t. Not until I’ve decided it’s your time to die. When that time comes, I will make you suffer before taking your life with my own hands.”
Elsie looked away from the heat of his gaze. It was the strangest pact she’d ever entered into, but she decided it was better to keep him close.
“Great, I’ll add it to your to-do list.” She tucked her hands under her head.
“You belittle me.”
Elsie pressed her lips together. She had to make a joke out of it. She’d promised her death to a demon, and that was far too intimate.
“No, there’s nothing I can do to change your mind, and there’s no point in worrying about the future. It’s not like I can mark it on my calendar. Unless you’re willing to give me a delivery date for that threat?” She raised her eyebrows, looking over at him.
“You are…” He searched for the word, and Elsie waited patiently. People often had difficulty boxing her into a single descriptive word. “Vexing.”
“I’ve been called worse by creatures more frightening than you.” She shrugged.
He sat on his cot with his boots still on, his back against the wall, facing the door. Elsie recognized that stance. He didn’t trust his surroundings, and he had every reason not to. She wondered how long it would take him to relax.
Quiet stretched between them. Elsie would have left it alone, but his emotions continued assaulting her, and she was done putting up with it. His head tilted again as she sat up to glare at him. She felt his curiosity, and damn if that didn’t tip her over the edge.
“Stop doing that!” she demanded. He blinked at her, then looked away. Instead of curiosity, she caught the shadow of irritation. “I said stop!”
“I looked away, didn’t I? What else am I doing to bother you? Existing?”
“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.” He looked at her again, and Elsie tapped her fingers against her knee.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Why are you worked up again? I thought we had a silent agreement to sit in our separate corners and think about how miserable we are.”
“I’m angry because you are! Stop throwing your emotions at me!” she demanded. He leaned back against the wall and draped an arm over his knee, studying her in silence until her tapping fingers came to a stop.
“I’ve been wondering the same about you.” He frowned. “Why are you prying into my head? Afraid I’ll kill you in your sleep?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she snorted at him, but she was hit by a sudden bout of anxiety.
If he could feel her emotions, she’d definitely been giving too much away.
Nobody should have that much insight into her thoughts and feelings.
Her head was the only place she could be unapologetically herself, and now even that was occupied.
“I’m not doing anything. I have no gift of telegraphing emotion or thought. Not even my family were privy to what’s in my head.” He yawned, and Elsie caught herself staring. His fangs were in full view without being threatening for the first time.
“I don’t think you’re telling the truth.” The problem was that he wasn’t lying. He believed what he said to be true. “I’ve dealt with hundreds of demons, and never experienced anything like this with any of them.”
“You’re only about the tenth hunter I’ve ever had the misfortune to meet, and you’re the first to have done this to me. Don’t the Hunters teach you to keep your thoughts and emotions to yourself?” He rolled his eyes in her direction, and Elsie squirmed. He definitely wasn’t lying.
“They don’t teach us much about magic. Keeping our thoughts from projecting is something we have to figure out on our own.” Elsie stared at a healing scar on his forearm, wondering if it still hurt. “You aren’t hearing my thoughts, are you? I’m not hearing yours.”
“No, I’m not. It’s just your emotions that are obnoxiously impossible to ignore. You have a lot of magic, why are they letting you walk around without knowing how to use it? Aren’t untrained witches a little chaotic?” he snorted.
Chaos was putting it mildly. Hunters started training with mentors at twelve, about two years before their fae and witch-infused blood started heating and catapulting them through puberty.
It was a tumultuous time. Their magic matured faster than they did, turning every surge of teenage emotion into a potential catastrophe they had to learn to choke down or risk someone getting hurt.
Elsie had the advantage of training with a demon prince and a goddess from a tender age, and she’d still had trouble keeping her magic contained. She’d been fortunate to have Albright there to help her through it.
“I know how to do basic healing, but any other magic we learn is self-taught.”
He’d touched on a subject she had a hard time with. She’d asked herself the same questions. The hunters claimed to value those of fae and witch lineage, but not teaching them how to harness their magic was a strange way to show it.
“That sounds like every other power-hungry regime throughout history. You plebeians can’t rise and fight against injustice if you’re powerless.”