“You know naught of what you’re involving yourself with, mortal.” He closed the gap between them, stopping afew feet away. “You’d best step with caution in the presence of Fae.”
“There are far more scary monsters in this world than you pretty boys with your inflated egos.” She flung her arm up, dismissing him with a wave. Dismissing! “You’ve no right to call yourself a brother. Murderer, perhaps. More fitting.”
Thaddeus scowled, grabbing her forearm as she huffed toward the entryway. She spun, twisting her arm and snapping it back, anger and fear entwined in her expression. Her strength surprised him. ’Twas then, when the lamplight hit her neck, that he saw the deep marks along her pale skin. Marks that mirrored a hand having choked her.
Her lip. Her neck. The faint scent of tears. The fear.
Goddess, what the bloody hell happened to her?
He recalled the pictures he had seen on her desk after she left her apartment. That darkness within him struck out, and it took every ounce of willpower to pull it back, restrain it, regain control of himself and hide the magic about to burst from his skin.
“Don’t youdaretouch me again,” she growled, her face tense, jaw tight. She angled away from him, the corner of her mouth twitching. “You disgust me. Next time you try to manhandle me, I’ll kick you in the balls, too. I’m sick of all you fucking men.”
Thaddeus blinked. Once. Did women in this world truly do things like that to men?
She’d said “too.”
He hadn’t missed that small detail.
“That’s what I thought.”
Rori rounded him, the growing distance between them chilling. Thaddeus shook his head, breaking free of whatever pitiful spell she’d cast on him, and sifted to the entryway. Rori skidded to a halt as she came around the corner, hermouth falling open on a loud gasp. Thaddeus cocked his head, greeting her with an arched brow. His teeth clenched behind tightly closed lips. A strange pulse of dull pain rode through the sides of his face.
He took a step toward her. She stumbled back. Another step forward, forcing her further from the door, back beneath his control. He lifted his left hand, palm up. Pent-up magic poured through his skin, forming a fluid sphere of clear gray. Rori’s gaze flickered between his face and the orb, eyes flashing with worry.
Alas, the fear he sensed did not intensify. ’Twas fear of someone else. And yet…
His nostrils flared as he took a sharp inhalation. His mouth lifted in a dark grin. “Is that fear I smell?”
Rori dodged to the left, between him and the wall. He smacked his hand against the wall, blocking her escape, angling his body to corral her back to the flat surface. He unleashed a series of bindings, capturing her arms and legs in power-forged shackles. She struggled against the bindings until her face became a sexy rose and her breaths turned labored.
Goddess, if she would only look like that spread over satin sheets…
Thaddeus scowled at the sudden image, and the wicked swell of his cock.
“Pitiful sight you are. You’ve no chance of escape, so you may as well save your strength for better use,” he warned, bringing the orb closer to her face. “Do tell, little human.”
As he began to project an image into the wavering orb, Rori’s fight stopped. Her eyes widened and that scent of fear exploded. The rose from her cheeks drained, leaving her skin a sickly pallor and her eyes brimming with terror. Something ugly twisted in his gut, but he ignored the sensation. Her…pain at the projection affected him in a way his mind simply didn’t understand, but he nearly lost the will to keep the image alive.
Instead, he dipped his head close to her ear. Inhaled the floral aroma of her hair. His gaze lowered to her parted lips, to that gaping bite mark that continued to ooze blood and stain her teeth. The darkening circles around her neck. Her heart raced in her chest. Her breaths had stilled.
He whispered against her ear, “Do you fear the one who did this to you?”
Image after image projected within the orb. The pictures he had found on her desk. Each image fueled his fury a little more than the last. He drew his hand from the wall and brushed the tip of his finger along the side of her neck. She flinched, prey at the mercy of her hunter. Heat seeped from his finger and into her skin. Soft. So utterly soft. How could a single human possess such supple flesh?
“Such damage for a mere mortal.” He traced the marks along her throat. She tensed beneath his touch, her chin tilting up, away from his hand. The glow of her eyes dimmed. She swallowed hard. Tremors skated through her muscles. “Imagine, little human, the damage I could do to you with a thought. Like the flame of a candle—” He snapped his fingers into a fist, destroying the orb and the images. She gasped again, those pouty lips trembling. “I can snuff the precious life from your body. ’Twould be a shame to have you exist in naught but a trail of smoke.”
He closed his eyes briefly, snatching the frayed edges of his control. After a moment, he drew back, lifting his head, straightening his shoulders. The redhead, so petite and fragile-looking, tipped her head up. She was more than a foot shorter than him, so delicate despite the oversized clothes.
The tears brightening her eyes cut through his next words,leaving them to absorb into his tongue before they were spoken.
“You, Thaddeus, are a monster. Black of heart and soul,” Rori said quietly. Her voice delivered a vile punch to his conscience, her words as cold as his essence. “I don’t fear you. I willneverfear you. Iloatheyou.”
His grin grew, a glacial façade to hide the confusing response caused by her words.
“You’d be wise to fear me.” He traced her neck to her jaw, leisurely learning the angles of bone and the taut stretch of muscle as she ground her teeth. She tried to turn her face away, but he caught her chin between his thumb and forefinger, resting the tip of his thumb against her bottom lip. “Alas, mortals have never possessed much desire to preserve their meager lives.”
She scoffed. “To you, my life may be meager, but it holds far more meaning than yours. A beast who spews threats to mask the true coward he is.” She gave a sharp jerk against the spelled ropes binding her to the wall. “At least I’m trying to make something of myself and not prowl around apartments uninvited and hurl threats at those who hold a severe disadvantage to myself. If it makes you feel powerful to pick on people who hold no power against you, you’re a pitiful excuse for a living creature.”
