“He was Roman, dumbass. You done with the theatrics now? I’d like to get my wife back.”
“Right. Let’s get to torturing.” He grinned like a maniac.
I sighed. “No torturing, yet. I just need you to knock someone out.”
“Well, that’s not nearly as fun. But fine.”
Lord, give me the strength to not kill this fucking idiot.
41
THE BENEFACTOR
I’d waiteda long time for this moment. For the moment I finally got her. The moment she was finally mine. My mother showed me a picture of her when I was just eight years old. She was six, grinning at the camera. Her blue eyes were sparkling in the sunlight, black hair pulled back in pigtail braids, light-blue dress slightly flowing in the wind. Even back then I thought she was breathtaking.
“She will be yours one day,”Mom said. “It will be your job to love and protect her, and it will her job to love and serve you.”
Every year on my birthday Mom brought me a new photo. Every year I begged to meet her.
“Not yet,”she always replied.
When I was seventeen, I finally got fed up and tracked her down on my own. She was at the park with one of her friends. They sat on the swings, talking and laughing. I’d just planned to watch her from afar but she was so intoxicating. I couldn’t help but approach.
She’d smiled at me politely, giving absolutely no indication that she knew who I was. Her friend spent the whole time eyeing me like candy, butshehad seemed utterly indifferent.
“Does she know who I am?” I asked my mother when I returned home that day.
“Not yet, sweetheart, but she will.”
“Then how do you know she’ll be mine? What if she doesn’t like me?”
“Like has nothing to do with it, honey. She is owed to you, you will have her.”
My father had set up some kind of deal. I was never filled in on all the details ofwhy, but she was promised to me, so she would be mine.
For years, I watched her prattle around with different guys and even experiment with a few girls, waiting for my chance. Then all her dates stopped. I thought it was a blessing, but it wasn’t.
I managed to engineer a meeting a couple of years ago and we hit it off really well. She was nice and witty and fucking stunning. So I orchestrated more and more until I worked up the nerve to ask her out. Yes, she was promised to me, but she didn’t know that and with both of her parents dead, who would tell her? I hoped she’d fall for me for real.
Then that fucking icicle ruined everything. She became cold and distant, never giving me the time of day. I wasn’t on the fucking list, why the fuck was that ice freak running around trying to drop an icicle on me? I should have kept him on a tighter leash. I needed him to clean up the mess The Culling had made.
Okay fine, I made the mess. Their plan was stupid, so I may or may not have made a few adjustments. Well, not just me—my family. Mom, Dad, and me. Instead of just leaving the strong ones alone, we got some help from a witch—mixed a little magic with the science—and the strong got stronger.
My promised wife began to stir in her chair, drawing my attention back to the present momentarily. I felt my heart speedup. I’d been waiting for this for so long it almost didn’t feel real. I knew she’d fight me on it, but with time, she’d grow to love me. After all she worked with those villains, I wasn’t any different. In fact, I made them possible.
I madeherpossible.
When I found out she planned to be away fromthe incident, I’d made sure those plans were cancelled. I needed to be sure she was worthy of being my wife. She needed to be here so I knew that she was strong enough.
But nothing happened.
So I had her dad killed, hoping it would trigger something. It didn’t.
So I had her mom killed, too. Still, nothing happened.
I tracked her down this morning, hoping the adrenaline rush might trigger something. I couldn’t risk her getting through all my guys so I brought our brand new devices, capable of nullifying any and all powers gained bythe incident.
It was a good thing we brought it. That fucking blonde bitch, couldn’t even get her intel right.
