Page 25 of Fated In Ruin
But now, his body had filled out, bulging neck thick with muscle, evidence of similar brawn beneath the layers of strange, handmade clothing.
He appeared less brutish than in Malachi’s memories, his long hair neatly clipped, his blue tunic long and flowing, trimmed in reddish fur that revealed the solidness of a thick, wide chest. Not even close to modern attire, more like something out of a renaissance painting. I sank deeper into the couch, afraid to move.
“All I’ve had was time, hidden away in the darkness,” Ravok crooned, prowling around Malachi as he shuddered, his hands clenching helplessly at his sides. I almost felt sorry for the bastard, but he’d made his bedand I had to get out of here before Ravok spotted me.
“I watched from my tomb as they started to fall. First Katarina, followed by Caine himself. Then my brethren, one by one, felled in turn by pride and arrogance and stupidity.”
He turned slightly, the bands of sunlight illuminating his tan pectorals bisected by a single, silver scar, as if someone had sliced a perfect line down the middle of him.
“How could you know this?” Malachi whispered through pale lips. “I cut you off from the outside world. Magic, iron…”
“Iron that protected me.Savedme, from the fate that befell my brethren.” Ravok tapped his finger to his head. “I’ve never been cut off up here. Always watching, always aware of your every move, my son.”
“I’m not your son,” Malachi growled. “None of us were, you fucking monster. We despised you, you sick fuck.”
“And yet you are the one who saved me, Malachi.” Ravok’s cruel smile gripped my heart in a merciless fist andsqueezed. “Without your help, I would have ended up slaughtered beside the rest. Thank you for keeping me safe, as a good son should.”
“Then of everything in my life, I shall regret that choice the most.” Malachi swallowed hard. “I should have killed you long ago, the oath be damned.”
Ravok shrugged, pausing right behind Malachi. “Why do you think swearing that oath was the first act I performed after I found you? A blood pact born from loyalty is more binding than any, and nothing in this world has ever mattered to you as much as your brother.”
His dark gaze flicked from the back of Malachi’s head to me, and I smothered my whimper when he trapped me beneath that weighty stare. “Until now, of course.”
“Vicious means nothing to me, she is simply a means to an end. A way to torture my enemies and exact my revenge.”
Malachi’s voice thrummed with all his usual cold arrogance, not a shred of weakness on his face. But his body turned into a coiled spring, every muscle tight, the cords in his powerful neck bulging as he fought against Ravok’s control.
“Such lies are beneath you, Malachi. I’ve seen her.” Ravok’s smile grew and grew, right along with my dread, his eyes never leaving me. “Tastedher, and she is worth the wait. Riannon’s spawn, a child of two worlds, born of two bloodlines, the inheritor of an ancient power. Soon enough, she will be mine.”
“Never,” Malachi spat, his flat expression twisting in rage. “I’ll kill you before you ever lay a finger on her.”
“I already have. I’ve tasted her, sampled her curves, the sweetness of her lips. I’ve had more of her in my sleep than you’ve had awake and what does that say aboutyou, my son?”
Malachi’s face went bone white, his eyes flaring. “You are lying.”
“Am I?” Ravok’s stare deepened and my stomach clenched into a painful knot when he pointed a finger straight at me, “Ask her yourself, since she’s sitting right there.”
Everything in front of me broke apart, the edges of the illusion fraying as reality filtered back in, the only thing that stayed the same was that godawful miserable music.
“I’ve got you. You’re safe.” I was curled on the green couch, but Malachi wasn’t halfway across the room, body clenched in impotent rage. He cradled me on his lap, our bodies pressed intimately together, my cheek cupped in one warm palm as he curled himself around me.
“You’re okay,” he murmured. “He’s gone, and you’re all right.” He managed a long, shuddering breath. “You saw that, Vicious?”
I was well aware of Malachi’s hard body flattened against mine, and made no move to push him away. I needed this. I neededhimholding me together right now, with his firm grasp and his soothing words, while I tried to wrap my head around what I’d just seen.
“I…yes, I saw everything.” I was shaking, adrenaline coursing through me unchecked.
That had been…what the fuck had that been?
Had we been caught up in a memory, or something worse?
“What just happened?” My fingers dug into Malachi’s arm. “Is he really gone?”
“He’s gone, for now. On occasion, Ravok…speaks to me.” Malachi dipped his head, and I swore he skimmed his lips across my hair. “Never when it’s convenient, mind you, but that…was one of those times. I’m sorry you had to see him, I know the aftereffects can be…harsh.”
Maybe that’s why my shaking wouldn’t stop. “Was I hallucinating, or did he actually see me in your…head?”
“It appears he did. Which should be impossible, even for him, but apparently, I was wrong about that, too,” Malachi muttered bitterly before heaving a breath and sitting upright, setting me carefully aside, his hands slipping slowly down my arms.
