“You don’t need to tell me any of this. She already explained it,” I say.
“I do need to tell you. I need you to know. It was never really you I wanted to hurt like that. Never.”
“It doesn’t matter. You told me in Italy that you loved me. You told me and you showed me with the… room.” I clear my throat not able to say the word. He looks pained at the reminder. “I pushed you that night, Constantine. I wanted you to show me this monster you revile, that you are so scared to show me. That you think is the real you. Lance is wrong. That is not the real you. The real you, is the man I had to push into hurting me. I know you didn’t want to do it. I made you. The you I know could never want to hurt me like that. I am sorry for trying to make you do something you didn’t want to do. My reasons were selfish. I wanted to be everything for you. Everything you needed me to be. I did it because I thought it would make you happy. Instead, I made you hate yourself and for that I hate myself. You say that I’m the light of your life, but you don’t let me in far enough to shine in your darkness. You have to let me in, or I can’t help you. I know you love me. You showed me that night just how much. It makes me ache for you. It makes me want to do that with you all day, every day for the rest of my life. This is why I got so cross with you for calling it ‘fucking’ all the time.” I smile and he chuckles. The first sound he has made throughout my speech. “However,” I say, serious again, “what you have done is not acceptable. I won’t tolerate it. How many others are there out there?”
“None.”
“Constantine, please, tell me.”
“None, Aefre. There have been others, yes, but they are all dead. I got rid of them all. I tried to be merciful and I let Polly go, asking her never to return. She agreed and I haven’t thought of her in years. I never wanted you to find out what I had done. I had no idea that Lance would do this again.”
A chill goes down my spine at his words ‘I got rid of them all.’
“I know you have wards on your dungeons,” I blurt out then, forgetting myself for a moment. He looks at me sharply, as does everyone else in the room. I pull my face at him cont
ritely and say, “Sorry.”
“Don’t be. There is a very good reason for that, but it isn’t what you think,” he says, resigned. “But now is not the time for that. I will tell you, but not now.”
Well, leave a girl hanging, why don’t you.
“Fine, but promise me that this won’t happen again. I won’t be substituted for your amusement,” I say sternly. He looks mortified, as I have voiced his actions in plain English in front of everyone. “Promise me,” I repeat when he just glares at me.
“I promise,” he says quietly.
I nod briskly and stand, pulling him up with me. I realize I must look a fright, having been out in the rain in the forest before. I didn’t get a chance to fix myself up. Looking down at myself, I catch Polly staring at me in wonder that I can handle him like I do. I push the horrible thought away of what he has done to her, all the time wishing in some weird way it was me. Twirling in a circle, I fix myself up in my normal garb as clearly this party is over before it even started. Which reminds me...
“Where are all of Lance’s friends?” I ask, hand on my hip, as Lincoln, Tatiana and Polly stare at me, now standing in front of them in a tiny black mini skirt, strapless black top and my black Louboutins. My hair is dry and pulled back over my shoulder.
No one replies, so I try again in Russian this time and Tatiana answers me, “Most of them left. Those that stayed are downstairs with him.”
“Fine, what do we do about him, then?” I say again in English.
“A good question, but here’s another one first. Who the Hell is this guy?” Cole asks coming up beside me, possessively putting his arm around me and pointing rudely at Lincoln.
“Lincoln Anderson,” he replies for himself. “Resident cursed Werewolf. Your wife here broke my curse.” He looks at me with a shrug, as he again knows things about me that I haven’t told him.
Tatiana looks amazed. “How did you break his curse?” she asks.
I wonder how she knows what he said.
“I recognize him,” she adds, as I look at her in question.
I shrug. “I’m still not sure,” I mutter in Russian.
Getting a bit tired of switching languages now, I say again in English, “We need to figure out what to do with him.”
“The plan hasn’t changed,” Constantine says. “We kill him.”
“No, we can’t. Remember what I said?”
“I heard you,” he says in that infuriating way of his that means, yes, he heard you, but he is paying you no mind.
“Constantine, you can’t.”
“My charges, my decision,” he says harshly and stalks off towards the kitchens.
With a horrified look at the hapless Polly, I follow him quickly. “No, you can’t do this. I won’t let you. Two charges, Constantine, you can’t do it.”