Page 14 of Pick Your Poison

Seven

Lilith

I must be fucking crazy.

It’s like my body was moving all on its own while my brain and common sense was fighting it every step of the way.

But in the end, my body and curiosity won and here I am, standing in the middle of the Bellevue lobby, ready to throw questions at the most mysterious man I’ve ever met in my life.

I’m a timid, reserved person by nature. Life’s tough lessons have taught me not to rock the boat, for any reason, unless absolutely necessary.

This feels necessary to me.

It takes some pushing and shouting to actually get anywhere with the receptionist. Eventually, I’m led into a small office on the second floor to wait for Carter.I’m sitting in a large, leather wingback chair when he finally steps into the office in all of his glory.

It takes my breath away because he’s just as beautiful now as he was last night.

He stands in the doorway silently, just staring down at me while I stare up at him from the chair. I’m frozen in my seat as all of the energy has fled my body and been replaced with intense attraction that I wish I could shoo away.

Without a word, he closes the door behind him, sealing us in the windowless office, completely alone. I should be terrified of him, of the unknown surrounding him, but I’m not. My heart tells me that I can trust him.

“Why are you here, Lilith?” he asks, with his hands in his pockets as he leans back against the door with his gaze on me.

“Honestly, I don’t know. I’m not sure that I could have stayed away if I tried.”

“You shouldn’t have come back here.”

“Why? Because it’s dangerous?”

He is as still as stone; it doesn’t even look like he’s breathing.

Maybe he’s not.

“Fine. If you’re not going to talk, I will.” I dig through my bag for my phone to find the photo that I found online. “When I saw you on the sidewalk two days ago, I felt this connection, this vibration, between us that I haven’t felt ever in my life. Not even once. I didn’t understand it, but I wanted more of it. That’s why I was looking for you through the doors, but then there you were, outside with me like you teleported there. It was like you felt it too and needed to know what it was. Right or wrong?”

He stands there just as silently as before and it makes me angry, so my tone elevates.

“Still not talking? Fine, I’ll keep going. You invited me to your party, and for a moment, I felt like I didn’t have a choice, like my body and my mind wouldn’t let me say no. That feeling dissipated quickly, and my free will seemed to return to my body asI left to think about coming back here. When I showed up here last night, I felt you watching me before I even knew you were here. I could feel the tingle on my skin. I could feel the coldness of your touch… without even seeing you.” I pause for a moment, swallowing audibly. “Then in the… other party… I felt hazy, like I had been given something to relax, to loosen my inhibitions.” I close my eyes at the memory. “I felt like my entire body was buzzing and all I wanted was your hands on me. You gave me that. You touched me and made me feel alive… you did that to me while others around me were being hurt… right?” And of course, there is no answer from him again. “You were supposed to hurt me, weren’t you? I wasn’t supposed to remember any of this. I don’t know how I know this, but I know it. I don’t know why this is happening, but I can’t deny it nor can I think of a logical explanation for this.”

I hold my phone out to him, wiggling it a bit, asking him to take it, which he does. He flips it around to stare at the screen and his expression remains statuesque, not that I expected otherwise.

“If that article is to be believed, and considering it’s from a very reputable source, I’d say it is… that photo is from 1937. And no matter how many times I look at it, no matter how much I try to talk myself out of it… I know that’s you, looking very much the same as you do now.”

“You’re mistaken. That’s impossible.” He tries to hand my phone back to me, but I don’t take it.

“I’m not, and I won’t let you gaslight me. I’m not a dumb, young girl that will just disappear into the dark when something is a little intense or scary.” I stand up and face him, but I don’t close the distance between us. “I only remember a little of what happened last night. I think I deserve some blanks filled in, don’t you? I mean, you were kind enough not to hurt me. That has to mean something, right?”

“What makes you think I hurt people?” He meets my gaze and those dark eyes start to tint red, just as they did the first time I saw him.

“I could hear the screams, but my head was cloudy. I was… literally intoxicated by you.”

I can see the Adam’s Apple in his throat bob before he moves to place my phone on the small desk that resides to my right.

“Are you scared?”

I step closer to him instead of answering to show that, to my own detriment, no… I’m not scared of him.

“If you were going to hurt me, you would have done that already. I just need to know what is happening or what you are. I deserve to know.”

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