Page 37 of Wraith

Chapter Thirty-Five

AKALara

I watch as the recognition flashes across his face. He remembers me. Remembers what he did to me. How hekilledme. “You got out,” he finally says, barelyaudible.

“Yeah. I. Got. Out,” I hiss through clenched teeth, my molars grinding together. “You strangled the life right out of me then tossed me in a shallow grave.” It starts slow, the smile that forms on his face, growing wide making my hatred bloom, but before I can lunge at him hespeaks.

“I knew you were a fighter,” he breaths, a smile still firmly set with the relief that washes over hisfeatures.

“No thanks to you,” I spit, jolting from the floor, needing to put distance betweenus.

“I thought for sure I had killed you,” he tells me as if completely shocked I survived his wicked game. Almost as if in awe of me. “It worked so perfectly, evenIthought you weredead.”

“What? Whatworked?”

“The pill,” he says as if that will explain everything. “I thought it killed you. It was only supposed to make you appear dead, but when I chokedyou—”

“You raped me!” I yell, my fists clenched together, nails digging into my hands. He has the audacity to look dejected as if I just told him there were no longer bullets in the world. “Nothing to say to that? Are you going to deny that when I was seventeen years oldyou—”

“No! Fuck.” His hands grip at his hair digging the strands nearly from his scalp. “Shit, this is so fucked.” He starts to walk the length of the cabin, murmuring something I can’t understand. Until I step closer and listen. That is when I realize I have heard it before. He is speakingRussian.

“Wraith,” I call out to him but he doesn't acknowledge, only keeps pacing. “Steven!” I get in his face stopping him from his walking rant forcing him to look at me this time, snapping him from his trance, using his givenname.

“He gave you to me knowing I wouldn’t hurt you.” The man I have been living in the cramped cabin with has suddenly disappeared before my very eyes and is now replaced by a boy—a boy who was once living in the same place as Iwas.

“Roman?” His nod confirms my question. Roman, the man who came into my once happy home and killed my father then stole me away from my innocence, was owner to us both at one point intime.

“He didn’t miss anything. He knew he wouldn’t be able to control me sooner or later, so getting me attached to you was his only bargaining chip. And I played right into it. Before I knew it, I didn’t want anything to happen to you. I wanted to protect you and he knew it.” Holding still as a statue I stare up at him, listening to every word. “He told me you needed a purpose. If you weren’t mine you would have been given to the men—” His words put the missing pieces of the puzzle into place. “I didn’t…fucking hell. I didn’t want to take you like that.” His words leave his lips in a desperate plea for me to understand how fucked up this situation is, I find myself starting to. “You got out.” He repeats his words from earlier, leveling me with his gaze. So much hurt behind his lost eyes. Letting that hurt sink in, I try to push back the understanding that tries to seep into my veins, overriding mymission.

“No,” I shake my head, “you can’t just give me some sob story about how your bosstoldyou to do what you did! You don’t get off that easy!” I slam my hands on his chest forcing him backward, making him stumbleslightly.

“Lar—”

“Oh fuck no. My name doesn’t come out of your mouth. You don’t get that right. You have no rights!” I yell, losing control of my emotions. “You can’t,” I start to sob, the words coming out as a whisper as I find myself dropping to the floor. My knees hitting the hard, wooden surface with a thud before I crumble into aheap.

“You came here to kill me.” He breaks into my moment of weakness pulling my face to his. That broken boy trapped in a life no one should endure staring back at me. I can’t speak so I nod. “Do it.” His words cascade around me, making my heart involuntarily flutter. He steps back holding out his arms offering me his body to do as I please. “End it now. Be free from me.” The man I have dreamt of killing, wept over, cursed over, is standing in front of me, telling me to kill him, ready and knowing how he has wrongedme.

This is what I came here for, what I have wanted for years. I want this man dead for hurting me in the worst possible way, then tossing me out like rubbish afterward. Gripping the discarded knife from the floor I slowly stand to my feet, forcing the wavering from my stance. I step closer to my target. Raising the weapon in my hand I bring the tip right to the base of his windpipe. With my heart in my throat, I straighten, square my shoulders, and look him over. His eyes are clear, ready for his sealed fate. The knife twists in my hand, unsure as it has ever been. I want this man dead, do Inot?

That’s when I seeit.

My reflection in the thick blade. The distorted picture of who I am. Someone consumed by the need to kill one man. A man who is now bowing to mymercy.

My hand, as if it has a mind of its own, pulls the knife away from his exposed neck and lets it clatter to the floor. My body, too weak to stand any longer, falls forward landing on his hard chest with my arms snaking around his frozen body. “I’m done killing,” I tell him, my face muffled in his chest. His body tenses like he can’t decide whether to push me away or embrace me back. My heart leaps in my chest when he chooses the latter. Tears prick the backs of my eyelids and I squeeze them together, trying not to let them fall. It’s finally over. My mission to destroy the man who destroyed me. The man who strangled me and left me for dead. My heart bursts, beating at a rapid rate and I feel as if it might fly right out of myribcage.

Release.

Sweet release from the past that has been holding me captive for such a long time, longer than I canremember.

The moment is broken when he takes his arms from me, leaving me cold, and backs away. The boy still lingers, but Wraith has now reclaimed his features, the tall menacing man I remember hunting. The man whoseMasterwas training me to kill. Suddenly the reality of our situation comes back to me.Master. He is still out there wanting to kill Wraith and probably me if I don’t go along with him. “He is still out there. We need to leave as soon as the storm breaks. Do you remember where you parked thesled?”

“Who the fuck ishe? I think we have come to the part where you need to level with me.” His brows nit, frustrated with my lack ofcommunication.

“I only called him Master. He and his men are the ones coming. He wants you dead and will take me down in the process. I’m sure ofit.”

“Whyyou?”

“Because I went against his orders and came after you—alone.”

“He is the one who trained you?” I nod at his question deciding to omit any other information. “I hope he taught you how to shoot better that he can,” he scoffs, letting that smile of his bloom across his face once again. “Man is a piss poor aim. If I had been the one behind the trigger, I’d be dead rightnow.”

“Lucky for you, it was him and notme.”

---