“Am I?” he drawls, amused as he starts to circle me. “You throw yourself at me. Instinct rules you because you’re completely lost to the madness. Why do you think it’s me who can bring you down? Sound familiar? Perhaps a Kane and Alyssa scenario?”
Taunting me, he tsks and shakes his head like I’m an idiot he’s mocking sympathy for.
“Seems whether you’re sober or high, you don’t take rejection well.” He stops circling and just stares at me coldly. “The things I do are not some romantic gestures to spare your feelings. The people I kill are not tokens of my affection, Princess.”
“And the people you’ve spared despite your brutal nature to kill?” I ask dryly.
His eyes narrow to slits. “Just because they’re still breathing, that doesn’t mean I’ve spared them.”
“Would you let me bind you to a truth vow like you did Polly and revisit these questions?” I ask, smirking when he visibly stiffens and watches me like he’s waiting for me to strike and attempt it.
“Didn’t think so,” I state blandly, acting very unimpressed, even though I know it’s like tempting a cobra to strike at a hand.
When I twirl a lock of hair around my finger, his eyes dart to the motion then back to mine as he arches an eyebrow at me and gives me a dry look.
“If you saw me having sex—” I pause when he slips and growls before stifling it and clearing his throat. That causes me to grin because I’m tired and apparently I get crazy when I’m tired. “—then you’ve seen all of me. Possibly a lot. It’s rather unfair, since I’ve not seen as much of you.”
“Don’t play this game with me, Princess,” he says in a gruff tone.
“What game? You’re the one saying you’re completely immune to me. I’m a weak and pathetic little thorn you deal with. Yet you refuse to train me, say nasty things to compensate, and then expect me to not figure out that I’m not actually your thorn.”
His expression turns unimpressed.
“I’m your weakness,” I add, watching as a dark expression crosses his face. “You spent centuries watching a short period of time on a loop. If you don’t want me dead, I’m assuming it’s because those visions made you care about me.”
It happens too fast for me to see it.
One second he’s standing several feet away. In the next instant, he’s directly in front of me and pinning me against a stray tree in the meadow. It cracks when my back hits it, and I lock eyes with his, letting my own turn silver in warning.
Just in case.
The gaze in his eyes is predatory and lethal, but my fear is once again weirdly absent.
“I had centuries to see just enough to drive me insane,” he says quietly, pressing his body right against mine, even as he keeps his head leaned over and puts his mouth to my ear. “I’ve spent centuries learning to hate you enough to keep my control.”
His lips brush my neck, and I arch into him as his hands slide down to my waist, his grip tightening on me like he hates the fact he enjoys touching me. I feel the same way every time I touch him.
But right now, my arms are dangling loosely at my sides as I show more control than Mr. Control.
He drags his lips back up to my jaw, never actually kissing any part of me, just teasing me with his lips.
“I couldn’t smell you there. Hear you,” he whispers, and I fight hard to remain still when the tip of his tongue barely brushes my jaw. “Taste you,” he adds, then grips me tighter. “Feel you. Is that what you want to hear, Princess? You want to know that it’s a bit more of a fucking struggle for me when you’re near?”
When he drags his lips back down, I feel the teasing sting of his fangs, and my blood pumps faster in my body, almost desperate for him to do something that won’t be undone.
“Is that what you need to hear?” he asks in a hushed breath when the pressure of his fangs is gone before he breaks the skin.
Inwardly groaning, I refrain from begging. Because I know it’s just a side effect of our entwined destinies and all that shit.
Alton was so wrong.
Slade isn’t willing to die just so his twin can live in misery out of obligation.
Slade is just broken. Like the women in that suicide circle. Ready to die because they don’t want to face the nightmares that come with freedom after prison.
“No. I want to know why you’re so desperate to die when you know your brother already lost his will to live. And if a Gemini has to die, let it be him. You get his death, and—”
My breath comes out in a rush as he dematerializes and rematerializes several feet away, a smirk donning his lips. “Tell my brother I’ll be seeing him soon, Princess. Glad we had this chat.”