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Understanding dawned. “But you can never have that life if you’re a huge, slimy lake monster whenever the sun shines.”
“Aye,” he said.
“Nice curse.” Very clever.
“There is something about being confined to the scene of yer crimes,” he continued, “walking the same land where ye did such horrible things, swimming in the loch where those bodies still lie, charged to protect what ye made a graveyard, that makes it all seem like yesterday.”
“You can’t leave?” Kris asked.
His gaze became distant. “Ye know the few land sightings of Nessie?”
“What about them?”
“Sometimes the memories, the loneliness, the voices became too much, and I would run. But as soon as the sun bursts into the sky, I flop to the earth and roll around like a one-legged cow.” His lip pulled back in a disgusted snarl.
And the curse became cleverer and cleverer.
“You’re a shape-shifter,” Kris said. “Yet silver doesn’t hurt you?”
“I was cursed to eternal torment. If silver can kill me, there’s nothing eternal about it.”
Sympathy flared again. To be in agony, to know it would never end … She was surprised Liam hadn’t snapped and started killing people just so Edward would—
Kris caught her breath. Had he?
“I can see every thought cross yer face,” he murmured. “I havenae begun killing again; this I swear.”
“Oh, well, if you swear,” Kris said. “Then you must not be lying.”
“I’m not. I was standing next to ye when we saw the woman drowning. I saved her as I saved you.”
He had. And since he couldn’t leave—or so he said—he hadn’t been mimicking legendary beings in Botswana. Although there could be two killers—
Kris’s head began to ache.
“Does Mandenauer know?” she asked.
“Who I am? No.”
“About your curse? That you can’t be killed?”
“Also no. I always hope that on one of his visits he’ll attempt the right way to end my existence. If anyone can do it, he can.”
“He’s tried to kill you?” Kris asked.
“Now and again he’s caught a glimpse, taken a shot. I am good at hiding. Mandenauer is equally good at seeking.”
“But you haven’t— You said you didn’t…” Kris paused, then blurted, “If you haven’t killed anyone, why does he want you dead?”
“I have killed. Centuries ago, ’tis true, but I killed nevertheless.”
That didn’t seem right. Didn’t everyone, everything, deserve a second chance?
And here she was thinking favorably about him again. Him and his damned mojo were messing with her mind.
Liam was a killer. Just because he hadn’t killed recently didn’t mean he wouldn’t do so again. Maybe he’d reformed, but would that reformation cause all the women he’d drowned to suddenly arise?
“Mandenauer hasn’t made the Loch Ness Monster a top priority,” Liam continued. “Which might be why whoever is killing women is trying to blame Nessie.”
