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Hoping my acting skills were believable, I turned to face Victor with an awed smirk. “Impressive. Very, very impressive.” Marching toward a tiny ibex with sharp horns and a fake black nose, I patted its dead hide. “Did you hunt everything yourself?”
“No.” Gathering both glasses, he padded toward me in his ridiculous slippers and passed me the overflowing one. “My guests like to help me decorate. They have other pursuits outside of visiting my humble abode and enjoy displaying their trophies.” He chuckled. “Some have homes with wives and children so they can’t house their keepsakes there.”
“Of course.” I nodded.
No one wanted their wife to see she married a psychopath.
I accepted the drink with a low chuckle. “I appreciate the whiskey, Victor, but you’re forgetting I don’t drink to excess. You’ve poured enough in here to tranq an elephant.”
He sipped his drink with a knowing glint in his blue eyes. “Oh, I remember.” Tapping my glass with manicured fingernails, he shrugged. “But tonight is a special occasion. So…bottom’s up.”
I swallowed a reluctant mouthful, cursing the full-bodied burn on my tongue. Looking around, I tried to find a place to put the rest down that wasn’t a bear hide or tiger head. “I’ll savour the—”
“You’ll swallow that whole glass if you know what’s good for you.” Victor’s calm, gentille persona vanished in a flash.
“Excuse me?” I arched an eyebrow, flicking a look at the guards who very subtly placed their hands on hips where no doubt guns waited.
“You heard me.” Victor took another mouthful. “Drink it. All of it. And then you will drink another. And possibly a third and fourth, depending on how well you handle your liquor.”
I scowled. “And make me throw up on your gorgeous rug? Isn’t that defeating the purpose of a fun night?”
“Ah, Henri.” He slithered an arm around my shoulders. I hated that we were similar in height. I loathed that he could make me feel both small and horribly equal. “Tonight is going to end in one of two ways. Either you snap those chains binding you so tightly, or...I’ll snap your neck and mount your head on my trophy wall.”
I coughed explosively.
He patted me on the back. “There, there. It’s nothing to be concerned about. I’m merely trying to help you. That’s what friends do, you see. You want this. You didn’t lie. You were honest when you said you want blood. Completely truthful with how much you crave pain, degradation, and the desire to become a god. It hurts me to see you refusing to let that part of yourself out to play. You’re too used to hiding and lying, so…I’m going to give you a teeny tiny push.”
“I appreciate your concern, Victor, but I’m fine. I’ll do what I want in my own time—”
“And that time is now.”
“But—”
“Drink up.” Guiding me forward, he didn’t stop until we towered over Ily and Peter.
I struggled to catch a breath as I drank her in.
Peter stayed resolutely still, but Ily…she shivered and shrank away. Her hands balled on her thighs, her teeth chattered, her entire body flushed and feverish.
My knees creaked as I went to duck to make sure she was alright.
I stopped myself before I fucked everything up.
Toeing her with my bare foot, I snapped, “What’s wrong with you?”
Cringing away from me, she bowed over her knees, rocking with a quiet moan.
What the hell?
Ily.
Look at me.
Fuck’s sake, look at me!
She didn’t.
She just hugged herself harder as sweat glittered on her temples and her black hair turned lank around her shoulders.
