Urgh. I hated his voice. It was so deep and raspy, and I hated the way my dick was starting to like it. “What the fuck is in the box?”
“You haven’t opened your gift yet? I’m disappointed,” he drawled, his voice dripping with sensuality. I bet the asshole was doing it deliberately just to piss me off even more.
I stared at the stupid gold bow. It really was very neat. Then again, should I really be surprised? He was probably an expert at folding bodies into small boxes for disposal. “Of course I haven’t opened it. It could be a bomb.”
He mock gasped at me down the line. “Wilder, I’m offended. If I wanted to kill you, I’d wrap my hands around your throat and watch the life drain from your pretty eyes. I’d kill you up close and personal, baby.”
My breath hitched. That sounded hot.
Itshouldn’tsound hot. “Stop calling me that.”
“What?Baby?” he asked, drawing out the word with a low, sultry moan.
My dick twitched. “Yes. That.”
He laughed, a breathy sound that I could practically feel whispering by my ear. “I’ll call you what I like, baby, and you’ll learn to like it.”
Like fuck I would. Even though the thought of him whispering ‘baby’ in my ear had my dick harder than a goddamn rock. “You’re an asshole.”
“Tell me something I don’t know,” he sniggered. “Open the box, Wilder. It won’t kill you, but I need to know if you recognise it.”
Recognise it? What the hell did he mean by that?
Someone shouted Byron’s name in the background. “I’m coming! Look I’ve got to go, Damyr wants some piece of shit ratbag taken care of so Bishop, and I are going to scope him out. I’ll see you later, baby. And wear something nice.”
He hung up, and I stared at the phone for a moment. Wear something nice? Nice for what?
Fuck.
Benji’s Christmas Bash.
I wasn’t the best at parties, preferring my own company to the company of others, but I did kind of like Benji. He was kind and had saved me that time when Acheron had decided to throw a bolt of energy more powerful than the sun at me. It was so powerful that it had stopped my heart and I died for about two minutes.
Huh. I wonder if that had something to do with the visions starting. It was around that time when they started to intensify. I’d have to speak to Dara about that. Maybe not about the Memory Wraith though. I couldn’t believe I was even considering this, but maybe I should speak to Byron about him. See if he’d ever come across him in his day job. He must have met countless people and supernaturals and I wondered how many of them he’d killed. It was mad to think that, because as far as I knew, Byron wasn’t that much older than me.
I picked up the little red box again and tugged the end of the bow, unravelling it neatly from the box before ripping off the paper. I pulled my magic to the surface, just in case there was something vicious in there. I wouldn’t put it past Byron to lie to me just for kicks.
I took a deep breath and lifted the lid, peeking under the rim carefully.
Nothing jumped out at me or exploded, so that was a good sign. I waited a few more seconds before lifting the lid completely and finally peering inside.
A gold ring sat in the bottom of the box. I peered closer at it, noting the simple design on the front.
Two letters set beneath a large diamond.
LR
I’d seen this ring before. Up close and personal. I knew exactly who this belonged to, but this ring couldn’t be here.
Images flashed before my eyes, followed by phantom pain that wracked my body.
There were screams, flashes of lightning, the sound of manic laughter, and pain.
So much pain…
Bile rose up my throat, and I ran to my bathroom, making it there just in time before my almond croissant resurfaced.
I couldn’t shake the pain and the fear that reared up inside me, and I threw up again. I was lost inside a memory of a room—no it was more like an underground cavern, and there was a boy suspended in chains, screaming as lightning pulsed from him.