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He was a plain psycho for thinking differently.
“She didn’t want to be a better person. She didn’t want to accept the help I offered, nor was she grateful for it. She wouldn’t open her heart to me even a little. Sadly, Moira wasn’t what I was looking for. And there was no way I could leave poor Levi with such a cold, uncaring woman, so I took him to the local home for demonic children. Ending her life was a kindness, really. It gave her peace she never would have found while alive.”
It chilled Piper how he could rationalize his actions in such a way. The man really saw no wrong in anything he did.
“I couldn’t believe it when I first saw him again as an adult. I recognized his energy signature straight away. It was sad that he didn’t remember me … but nobody ever does. You already know that, though, don’t you? You’ve already guessed who I am.”
She felt a push for an honest answer. “Yes.”
“I’m going to allow you to talk freely—only aloud, not telepathically. But if you try to scream, I will cut you off.”
Excitement bubbled in her blood. She wouldn’t scream now—the walls were soundproof, so it would do her no good. But if Levi came strolling into the apartment, she’d be able to yell out a warning.
“There. Now you can speak.”
She blinked, surprised that she didn’t feel any different than she had before. The mental weight trapping her hadn’t lifted or anything. She experimentally tried to speak, and out popped her question. “Why are you here?”
“I have an … understanding with another member of your lair. The very one who has caused you so much trouble lately.”
Her gut tightened. Wait, what?
“Not nice of me, I know. Levi will no doubt be furious.”
That weirdly seemed to please him. “Why would you do that?”
“I needed to get into this building. Needed to get to you. Because unless I’m a lethal threat to the one person he cares about, Levi will never kill me. He’ll instead lock me up somewhere and have me tortured for centuries. I would have simply taken over the mind of a resident and had them bring me inside, but measures were taken to ensure such a thing couldn’t happen. The demons in the security office see every visitor via the cameras. They only permit entrance to people on the pre-approved list. I’m not on it. I needed an ‘inside man’ to distract them and allow me to enter.”
“If you want to die, why not end your own life?”
“My demon would never permit it. It’s very angry. It hasn’t had a chance to make any sort of mark on the world. No one remembers it. No one cares for it. Demons aren’t built to be alone. It’s why we come in pairs. Maybe our anchor would have remembered us. We never found her. We looked and looked, but it came to nothing.”
“Surely you could still have a relationship with someone. Like you do with Janelle. You’d just explain that they won’t remember you clearly when you’re apart.”
He shook his head. “Oh, it works that way at first, yes. But part of my curse is that the longer you know a person and the more time you spend with them, the quicker they forget you when you’re apart. Eventually, it’s no longer a case of them merely forgetting your name and appearance. They forget you were ever around. It gets to a point where they don’t recognize you anymore. They see you, but they don’t know you. They don’t trust you. They can’t love you because they have no clue who you are. Imagine Levi always looking at you like you’re a stranger. Imagine having to constantly try and fail to convince him that you’re his mate. He’d brand you crazy. He’d order you to stay away. He’d begin relationships with others because he’d feel no love or loyalty toward you.”
Her heart hurt merely imagining it. It would be a form of hell. “Who cursed you?”
“A witch. A woman who once claimed to love me. They say there’s a fine line between love and hate. It’s true. I … I cheated on Beth. With her sister. It wasn’t planned. I loved Kathryn, who loved me in turn. In a moment of weakness, we acted on it. I don’t know if Beth wanted to believe her sister would never be party to such a thing, or if she simply wished to smear my name, but she falsely accused me of taking Kathryn against her will. As if I’d ever do something so utterly horrific.”
Well, Piper wasn’t so certain he hadn’t. The man believed his own lies, seemed able to justify anything he did to himself, and blamed everyone else for his actions. Could he have convinced himself that Kathryn loved him? Could he have ignored her objections, telling himself they weren’t real? Could he have taken her will using his gift and forced her to go along with what he wanted, all the while convincing himself that she was willing? Yes. Yes, Piper believed he could have done any of those things.
