“I am glad it is you who came,” she said remembering the earthy taste of his skin. Holding her arms wide, she glanced up at the heavens and blinked away the droplets. “Forgive me,” she whispered. “But know that everything I did, I did for them.”
“What are you saying? Is it some sort of spell? Are you rousing your demon army to come slay me where I stand?”
Ivana ignored his incessant questions.
“Punish me. Protect them.” A sense of relief pushed to the fore. The rain had come to cleanse her, to wash away her sins. Despite the gravity of her situation, she felt oddly calm. She sucked in a deep breath and closed her eyes. “I am ready now. Do what you have come to do. Do what you will.”
Set me free.
Chapter 3
Leo stared at the golden-haired devil and had to admit she looked more like a celestial being; one of God’s heavenly angels waiting for the clouds to part so she could be spirited home. Damn it. With her arms stretched wide, her face glistening with a radiant sheen as the raindrops slipped from her skin, her dress clinging to the soft curves of her body, he knew he did not have the strength to carry out the evil task.
She lowered her head and stared at him. “Why the delay? Do you plan to wait until you see a glimmer of hope flash in my eyes? Is it your intention to torture me?”
Torture?
If she believed this to be torture, then the woman had no real concept of the word. Loneliness plagued him. A feeling of utter hopelessness was his constant companion now. The pain lingered. It festered inside with no hope of an end in sight. That was the most brutal punishment of all.
Leo wiped his hand on his thigh then gripped the handle of his sword with both hands. One mighty swing and he would take her head from her shoulders. Clean. Easy. It would be an act of retribution, a way of restoring the balance. It would be a way of making her pay for all the agonising nights he had spent craving blood. It would be recompense for the nights he had spent glaring longingly at the pulsing vein in a pretty debutante’s neck, knowing he could never truly satisfy the need clawing away inside.
Justice was all he wanted, for Elliot: his brother and friend. Justice for Alexander and for all those forced to live with the restrictions brought about by the terrifying affliction. And so, with a renewed sense of determination he took a step forward, drew a deep breath and raised the sword.
The heartless creature before him offered a reassuring smile — a smile of all things — then raised her head to the heavens once more.
“Bless the children,” she whispered, but he heard the words rebound back and forth in his mind. “In my absence, keep them safe. Protect them always.”
The children?
Did she mean the children she had used to deceive him, to cause doubt and uncertainty to take hold? For a moment, he might have believed she cared about something other than her need to steal the souls of mortal men. Why would a woman sent to do the Devil’s work pray for the Lord’s assistance?
Leo lowered the sword once again. A sudden urge to understand her motives gripped him. “Tell me. Tell me why you turned me into the monster you see before you. Tell me why you sought to rob me of my humanity.”
The golden-haired temptress glared at him. “Will you not just get it over with. I am tired, cold and soaked to the skin. At the moment, death seems quite a pleasant option, and I have no desire to talk anymore.” Her weary gaze drifted over him. She opened her mouth to speak, hesitated, then said, “But know that you earnt the right to be chosen. Know that you had a part to play in it all.”
The woman spoke in riddles in an attempt to confuse him. “That explains nothing.” He wanted an answer to the question haunting him. This was to be his only opportunity to make any sense of it. “Why me? I need to know why you chose to me out of all the men passing through here.”
Not just him. Why had she chosen Elliot and Alexander? Were there more gentlemen wandering the world suffering with the same debilitating affliction?
She narrowed her gaze, dropped her hands to her side. “You mean you don’t know? You do not remember? Do you not have the faintest suspicion? Have you not come to the obvious conclusion?”
Leo wiped the water from his face and flicked the excess liquid from his hand. “Would I have asked if I did?”
“Have you not replayed the events of the night over and over in your mind?” she asked incredulously. “Have you not examined them in the hope of stumbling upon your mistake, your error of judgement?”
Leo gave a disdainful snort. “I have lived the nightmare over and over again for the last three years. I have dissected every word spoken, every deed and action. But still it makes no sense to me. My mind is like a dark, empty cavern whenever I think of what happened to me that night.”
She shook her head and cast him a look that spoke of contempt. But another emotion flashed briefly in her eyes: compassion, perhaps pity. “Then I cannot help you. You must kill me, or you must leave here. You do not—”
“Frau Lockwood. Frau Lockwood.”
Suddenly her gaze shot beyond his shoulder, and she muttered a curse. “Now look what your dithering has done.”
His dithering? She made it sound as though she wanted him to put an end to her life.
“Do not say anything to him,” she continued through gritted teeth. “He has no idea what we are. He would be frightened, confused. He would not understand.”
Leo glanced behind at the old man tottering along the street, holding a coat above his head to protect him from the rain. “If I abide by your request, what will you do for me in return?”