Lord of Chaos (The Dragon Demigods #7) - Charlene Hartnady Page 0,41
sounding hard done by. Poor baby!
My chest is heaving. “No,” I push out, folding my arms across my chest.
He frowns. “What do you mean, no? Fuck, Nia! I thought this is what you wanted.”
“Firstly, I refuse to fall in love with you, so whatever plan you and Death were hatching is a no go.”
“Fall in love…?” Rage is shaking his head, looking completely perplexed. Maybe I got the wrong end of the stick. Stranger things have happened.
“Yes, fall in love. I heard him telling you that me falling in love with you would be the best thing…it wouldn’t. Not for me! I won’t do it. Gaire must die, and I will never love again.”
I see his face soften. “Firstly, the last thing I would want is for you to fall in love with me. I can’t ever reciprocate, so it would be just plain wrong. So no, I wouldn’t want that at all.” He shakes his head. “Secondly, if you fell in love with the right person. Someone who didn’t take advantage of you…you could have a good life, Nia. Not everyone is like Gaire or me.”
“You are nothing like Gaire,” I retaliate immediately.
Rage laughs. “I’m five seconds away from being Gaire. No…worse! Any given day and at any given moment. Five seconds. That’s why I’m the ideal candidate to beat him.”
“I don’t believe it! I won’t!”
Rage walks right over to me. I can smell soap. I can smell him. “Believe it, sweetheart. I’m fucked up. My power is chaos. It can’t be tamed or controlled, and neither can I. I learned that a long time ago.”
“You killed someone once,” I whisper. I know what messed him up. Make no mistake, this poor, sweet man is completely messed up. You don’t get eyes that haunted for no reason. If I opened his closet, an army of skeletons would fall out.
I watch him recoil. He even takes a step back. I watch his eyes cloud. He nods once. “I don’t want to talk about it, but yes. I killed someone, and I could have killed many more—”
“You didn’t, though.”
“I was stopped, or I would have. There’s a difference between having restraint and being restrained. How do you know about my past?” He cocks his head, looking at me with an intensity that roots me to the spot.
“I’ve heard things. Rumors.” I shrug, trying to play it down. When I see his expression, I stop. “You used a huge amount of power – an off-the-charts amount. You did so in one solid burst, and that doesn’t go unnoticed.”
“What rumors? Who knows?” He narrows his eyes. “Who noticed?”
“The Underworld knows. They sent a Cerberus to investigate who was responsible.”
“A Cerberus.” I see him touch his forehead; his mind is in overdrive.
I nod. “They’re badass hellhounds.”
“This one had a couple of heads with glowing red eyes.”
“I heard it clawed your face.” My eyes are on the scar.
“I was in a bad mood. I had just…done a terrible thing. An unforgivable thing. I lashed out at the creature and got this for my efforts.” He touches the scar again. “It was deserved. Beast should have torn my head off.”
“There are very few creatures who can beat you. You’re too strong, Rage. Back then, you weren’t as good at keeping your powers under control. That hellhound wouldn’t have stood a chance. It defended itself and ran.”
“Do I get to keep this scar as well?” He touches the faint pink marks on his arm.
I shake my head. “If a hellhound is in its true form, even non-humans will scar for life. I was in my dog form when I gave you that. If I’m bigger, badder, with glowing red eyes, be very careful. We’re quite deadly to humans and non-humans alike. Worse than silver.”
“I’m impressed.” I get this warm fuzzy feeling inside because I can see he means it. Rage doesn’t just dish out compliments.
We look at each other for a while. The seconds tick down. Then Rage clears his throat. “Okay, so no one is falling in love with anyone else. We’ve established that. What other reason do you have for turning me down? I thought you wanted this? I thought it was an unavoidable necessity.”
“That’s just it. I only want this if you want this, and I can see that you don’t. It’ll be like a chore for you. I think if I asked you to mop the floor and take out the trash, you’d show more enthusiasm.”