Page 125 of Cursed to Be Mine
“Is that what your girls tell you?” she sneers with a lift of her chin, her biting nails the only sign of her fear. “Let me fuck someone else, sir, so I can actually come?”
His narrowing eyes tense the muscles in my back. He is not known for his sense of humor...just his psychotic games. His smile doesn’t relax the knots any, a baring of teeth beneath a cold stare.
“You have quite a mouth on you, young lady. I’m going to enjoy watching that get beat out of you.”
My body stills at his deliberate choice of words as ifI can feel an anaconda slithering up behind me. My hairs rising. Senses heightening. Urging me to stand and fight.
“Hit her,” he says turning to me, the snake lunging at my back. I bite the inside of my cheek, drawing blood to control the sudden flair of magic boiling beneath my skin.
“No.”
“Hit her, or I’ll kill her now, then rape her corpse while you watch.” For the first time, his sneer is one of genuine pleasure. “Your little anti-rape spell won’t work then, now will it?”
She grabs the arm of the hand she’s holding, squeezing my fingers tight. “Don’t,” she whispers on a plea, able to feel I’m on the verge of losing control. Or maybe she can see it. My jaw is locked. My hands are fisted. There’s so much magic boiling through me that my skin is red and blistering. If I don’t force it to settle, it’ll cook me from the inside out.
“Kira,” she murmurs, stopping my heart with one little fucking word, and I turn to her as if pulled on a string.Kirais more than a devotion of love, more than three common words. It transcends the bonds of the humans’ soulmate (one you connect with on every level) and the gods’ lifemate (the literal other half of one’s soul, ripped from them during their creation and flung out into the worlds). It is the giving of one’s very soul. All of her. In this lifetime and the next.
I wonder if she’s realized that.
If she’s managed to translate it through my actions.
Shuddering, I force the magic down, knowing that to let it loose won’t just kill me and Antonio but her as well.
“Hit me,” she says, her eyes showing no fear orpanic. Just an encompassing calm that flows down our bond, giving me strength.
Her strength.
As well as her levelheadedness.
She saw him catch a bullet and how fast he can change into his wolf; she saw how close to death’s door I was when I jumped into Talon’s shadow. She doesn’t need to know the specifics to know that attacking him is certain death.
But I can’t hit her.
Hurting my girl is an unforgivable sin.
“No.” I wanted it to come out strong and final, but the word is raw and twisted, fumbling hoarsely out of my throat. It lands on its face in front of her, nothing about it capable of protecting my girl.
Pushing back his chair, Antonio starts unbuttoning his shirt, a feral smile darkening his eyes. The magic blisters the veins inside me as I watch him, butkiragrabs my chin and yanks me to her.
I try to keep my eyes on the enemy, but she digs her fingers into my chin, demanding me. “You promised you wouldn’t do anything stupid to save me. Youpromisedyou wouldn’t leave me,” she whispers, her words as heated as the magic slowly killing me. “You attack him, and you will hurt me more than any fist, more than anything he can fucking do. Because even if we survive, I willneverbe able to trust a word you say. Don’t do that to me,kira, please.”
Lifting the hand she’s holding, she presses it against her heart as she feathers her other hand from my chin into my hair, pulling my head to hers. Looking into my eyes, our foreheads touching, she urges, “Hit me. I want to survive,kira.I want to survive and spend a lifetime with you.” Her fingers tighten in my hair. “Ican suffer anything knowing you are waiting for me at the end of it.”
Her eyes flash with words she doesn’t say, angry vows of vengeance she doesn’t dare utter, knowing how good a werewolf’s hearing is.“Promise me we will survive and kill this bastard together.”
Clutching her fingers, I scream inside, my mouth not moving despite the agonizing need to release the pain. I close my eyes, blocking out the sound of Antonio undoing his belt.
Without part of his DNA, I can’t attack him in a way that will actually hurt him. My magic is just a tickle on his nose with his current strength. He’s never lingered around Maddox long enough for my brother to be able to study him either, so I can’t hurt him if we ever get back home.
My only chance to kill him is in his presence, but doing so will kill Scarlett too and probably everyone else in this building. Maybe even the block. Magic is hard to control at the best of times; now I’m barely standing from the payment it’s already taken and my emotions are making it even more volatile.
As much as I hate to admit it to myself, I can’t deny that the only chance I have is purely in my head.
Antonio can shift in less than a second thanks to the hybrids he’s consumed. He can kill me by the time that second is up. Then Scarlett will be defenseless, her anti-rape ward dying with me – something Antonio knows.
Which means…
I have to hit her.
