Page 20 of Falling for the Beast

She couldn’t believe his words. Didn’t want to believe them. This man before her was a healer. The kind of person who would put himself through pain to lessen someone else’s. He was not a killer. She blinked and swallowed, unsure of what to believe. She needed to know. Needed to hear him say it. “What happened?”

Defeat filled his face, and his shoulders slumped. “All right. I’ll tell you. Everything.”

Chapter 10

Thaddeus pulled his leather jacketdown from the coat hook and handed it to her. “Let’s go for a walk.”

She slipped the coat on, an expression on her face that he couldn’t read. He wished mind reading was one of the powers he’d been given.

He led her around the house, to the pathway into the woods. Dried leaves covered the simple dirt path. “I used to come out here and play as a child.”

“It’s beautiful,” she said, gazing up at the trees, bright with fall colors.

“It’s secluded.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and started walking. She stayed by his side.

He wasn’t sure where to start, so he began at the beginning. “My mother died in childbirth. I never knew her.”

“Growing up without a mother must have been hard for you.”

Sweet Aribelle. Always thinking of others. “It was. I grew up in solitude much of the time. My father did the best he could, but I didn’t have much structure at home. He was gone a lot and gave me whatever I wanted. I don’t want to blame him, because he doesn’t deserve that, but it fed into my narcissistic personality. I became a hostile and selfish teenager, and then a jaded and egotistical man.”

Aribelle walked alongside him, her boots crunching on the fallen leaves. She listened intently.

“I started seeing a woman named Serina. She was as self-indulgent as I was. She liked the lifestyle I could offer her, with the family wealth at my disposal. We mostly spent the weekends partying. We were young, and nothing bad could touch us. That is until we both got high and I got behind the wheel of her Lamborghini.”

Aribelle sucked in a breath and looked up at him. “You had an accident?”

He nodded. “I hit a steel lamppost going eighty-five.”

She glanced at the scar on his face. “Is that how…?”

“No. I walked away without a scratch. Serina died with the impact.”

Aribelle put her hand on his arm. “I’m sorry.”

“I wish that were the end of the story,” he said. “My father had spoken of an old woman who lived near town. It was rumored she could…do things.”

Her eyes widened. “Heal people?”

“Yes. I was egotistical enough to think I could take Serina’s lifeless body to her and force the old woman to heal her. I didn’t want to own up to my mistake. I wanted to cover it up. I showed up on her doorstep with Serina’s body in my arms, demanding she help me.”

He closed his eyes, remembering that hot, summer night. He was covered in Serina’s blood. He carried her to the door, much like he’d carried Aribelle the other day. But that time he’d been arrogant. Belligerent. “The old woman took one look at her and said Serina was dead and there was nothing she could do. But I didn’t want to accept that. I demanded she do something. Anything to heal Serina.”

They came to a fork in the path, and he motioned for her to take the right side. “The old woman said the only thing that would restore Serina was an ancient spell, laced with darkness. She warned me about serious consequences for using that kind of magic, but I insisted. She asked me if I was willing to let someone else die in Serina’s place. I gladly accepted those terms, thinking I would get out of any punishment if my mistake would be erased. I didn’t care about some person I didn’t know dying. I reasoned that people die every day.”

He looked down to see if Aribelle was appalled by his actions, but she was simply listening, her face unreadable. He continued. “The spell was cast, and Serina awoke. She was furious with me for ruining her clothes and her car. She told me never to call her again. I wasn’t upset. I was relieved. I had avoided punishment.

“I had no regrets as I walked home that night. I knew what I was going to say to my father to get him to pay for Serina’s Lamborghini. I was cocky and happy I’d gotten what I wanted.” They came to a small bridge and he stepped on the wooden planks then leaned on the railing, looking down at the tiny river snaking its way underneath him.

“When I got home, I saw him lying on the floor. He’d had a massive heart attack. He had no pulse.”

Aribelle blinked, her face stricken. “He was the one who took her place,” she whispered.

“Yes. And instead of feeling regret, I was filled with fury. I felt like I’d been tricked. I went back to the old woman and demanded she fix it. I wanted no consequences for my actions. Instead of fixing what she’d done, she cursed me.”

Aribelle looked confused, so he went on. “She said I was an overindulgent monster, and cursed me to become what I was. She took away my humanity. Turned me into a beast with the strength of ten men.” He couldn’t make himself tell her all of it, it was too humiliating. He left the worst of it out and continued. “She knew I wouldn’t be able to control it, so she gave me the power to heal. To take away what I was going to do to people, and take it upon myself.”

Aribelle took his hand. “But you don’t—”

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