Page 48 of Scent of Desire
“No, I’ll let you go if it’s what you wish, but your soul will always be bound with me. I’ll be in your head and dreams. Us, it will never end. I warned you there was no escape. For any of us.”
“I know.”
And that’s how I turned to never look back at Ravencliff Manor and left my heart with the monster.
For eternity.
Lily was gone from my world.
She had rejoined the place she belonged to, her land of flowers under the daylight while I remained hidden in the moonlight underworld.
A blur appeared at the window of my club, like a hellish fog sealing the fate of this place.
I squinted at the depraved crowd and their pitiful existence. I wanted them all fucking gone. It was almost morning, and here they were, consuming the illusion I designed for them. Human nature wasn’t worth saving—except for her.
A knot in my throat tightened, preventing my monstrous breathing from filling the air with death and tenebrosity. I had let Lily go because it was the right thing to do. How ironic that it was the only right thing I’d done in my wretched life, and I was paying the price for it by being miserable.
That wouldn’t be the end. Lily knew I’d always find her. She’d never be free of me, as much as she haunted me.
We were a curse.
But for now, I had revenge to execute. A small liquid that could change the fate of humanity. A liquid bound with witchcraft. A cruel scowl twisted my features. They’d soon bow to their desires and impulses, showing the weakness of human nature in all its ugliness. They’d be dependent, exposing their sins and the worst of them in plain sight. Father would be proud.
The countdown had started.
The vial was secured in my box that I hid inside a special locker on the wall. There was no coming back from it. I’d defy the gods and bring to Earth the monsters in hell. My soon-to-be hellions would cause chaos, and all of them would lose everything.
“I’m done.” Guessing by the sound of heels resonating on the floor of my office, I deduced it was Melissa. As for the loud noise that made me fist my hand, it was probably a broom that had landed on the doorstep.
I turned around, amusement flickering at the view of Melissa wearing that orange prison-cell jumpsuit that was out of fashion. Yet, she had managed to wear high stripper heels with a huge belt and other leather accessories, trying to rearrange the ugliness of that outfit. It didn’t work. Not even with the way she curved her hips sideways, thrusting her hands on them, nor her plunging neckline.
“Do it again, then.” I wasn’t in the mood to entertain anyone.
“I’m tired!” She took off her shoes, wincing, before swinging her heels to the floor in an unseductive gesture. A sigh of relief appeared on her lips, and she let go of her femme fatale posture, hunching her shoulders. “These goddamn hurt!” She then leaned against the door. “You won, okay? Can I get my old job back, please? I’ll beg and do whatever it takes.”
“I never change a contract.” I crossed my arms, unmoved by that capricious display. “But if you continue to bother me, you’ll have a worse fate.”
She shook her head and chewed her inner lip. “She’s gone, isn’t she?”
“Who,” I growled between clenched teeth, about to murder Hugo for gossiping.
“Your happily ever after,” she snorted. “I didn’t see her tonight, and you have that look.”
“What. Look.”
“Miserable kind.” She raised her brow, thinking she was entertaining me. “A mix of go fuck yourself and I’m gonna drown myself in a lake wearing my wedding tux.”
“Get. Back. To. Work.” My veins boiled with irritation. Every bad part of me hissed, on the verge of letting out my evilness.
“I used to have the same look thinking of you, before,” she dropped in a whisper that seemed almost sincere and vulnerable.
“Melissa—”
“For what it’s worth…” she dared to cut me off, sauntering past my office slowly, her nails raking the windows into a grinding sound. “I warned you. She couldn’t accept all of you—she wasn’t meant to be with you. She’s good, and you aren’t.”
I’d never wanted to be good. I knew love and goodness were impossible for me. First, for my lack of a soul. Second, because I’d never learned to develop that weakness. Until she came along, and the word “good” was almost appealing to me if it granted me her. But Lily had a dark side. I saw her demons. If only she could allow herself to succumb to darkness so we could reign together in our madness.
Melissa’s eyes glimmered at the view of the box locked on my office wall. She was too curious and wicked for her own good.
