I waited for him to snap my neck and get it over with.
Instead, he pushed away, letting me go and breaking my hold on him.
Crossing his arms, he looked me up and down with disdain. “Speak if you want to survive.”
My mouth was dry but, amazingly, I didn’t pass out. My heart skipped and tripped and I’d never felt so sick, but I managed to rush, “I didn’t mean anything by touching you. I felt woozy, that’s all. My options were to grab you or collapse.”
His jaw clenched as if he didn’t buy a word. “Are you here to kill me like she was?” He arched his chin at the body lying face down by the table. Ribbons of red covered the marble tabletop from where her blood had sprayed.
I struggled to stay conscious. “No.”
“No?”
Meeting his fury, I sucked in a breath. “I was taking a walk, that’s all. I have absolutely no intention of harming you—”
“Liar.”
My hackles rose, combating the brokenness of my nervous system. My voice came out stronger as I said, “I’m a lot of things, but I’m not adept at lying when my life is being threatened.”
“If you’ve been thrown in here, you’ve been trained to be the best liar possible.”
“Trained?”
He rolled his eyes. “Come on. Do you really expect me to believe you’re this clueless?” His mood turned black as Hades. “I’ll ask you again. Why. Are. You. Here?”
“I-I don’t know. I—”
“Do you wish to kill me?” he asked quietly, his gaze cutting over my face like a blade.
“I’ve told you. No!” I shouted, probably a bit louder than I should. “I don’t evenknowyou. Why would I want to kill you?”
His head tilted, a shadow of disbelief dragging across his features. “Do you want to seduce me and have my child?”
A morbid giggle escaped. “Can you at least buy me dinner first?”
Confusion slid over his features, mingling with his fury. “If you’re not here to do either of those things then...why. Are. You. Here?”
I swallowed hard. “It was a mistake.”
“A mistake,” he echoed as if playing along with me. “How so?”
“Wrong place, wrong time, wrong everything. I was promised hot stones and cucumber facemasks, not...whatever this is.”
Black wrath etched his features; he stepped closer as if to hurt me. “Twenty fucking years I’ve had to put up with this nonsense but you...you might be the worst one yet.”
“Excuseme?”
“Sometimes I’m lenient and let some of you go, but this time?” He smiled thinly. “This time I’m going to exterminate each and every one of you because—”
“Wait!” I threw up my hands even though he hadn’t moved. “I told you! I’m not like the others. I-I didn’t come here willingly. I’m not here to kill you or bed you. I’m—”
“Whisper,” he purred, cutting me off. “Kill this liar for me.”
“Whisper?”
The black panther coalesced from the night, its hackles raised and whiskers bristling.
That’s Whisper?
