Page 37 of A Taste Of Truth

The arms leave me until one hand takes mine and tows me out of the room. I follow, still stupidly holding on to some kind of hope that maybe, just maybe, this is something for him and not just fun. It’s all becoming easy, as if this hand I’m looking at, the one wrapped tightly around mine might chose to help me, for my benefit, more than he already has done. Putting some kind of protection team on my brothers wasn’t for me, it was so he could keep me here, keep me engaged with all these strange freaky games he likes to play.

I stop, grind my feet into the carpet, and wait until he turns to look at me. “I don’t want to play games with you anymore, Malachi.”

“Why not?”

“Because-“ I look at the floor, then around the hallway, perhaps hoping he will say something first. Stupid. Why the hell would he do that?

By the time I bring myself back to looking at him, a broad smile is stretched across his face. He walks to me until he’s caging me by a long, low cabinet, firm muscles less than a foot away again. “Let’s be honest then,” he says. “Why are you talking about killing anything?”

“Me?”

“In your panic, amusement, folly, you talked about killing. About the fact that you’d already done it. You said it was easy. Talk, Alice.”

I frown, not remembering any of that. “Just stupid stuff. You of all people should know what those pills are like and-“ He moves in closer.

“Don’t fucking lie to me. If you don’t want games, it’s the truth that should be leaving your lips. Maybe then I can consider this as important as it might be.”

I nod, yielding to that fact, and keep looking at his intensity. “Because sometimes that’s what you have to do to avenge the ones you love.”

“You, as in I?”

“Yes.”

“You did it yourself?”

“Yes. It was my risk to take.” Something in his eyes changes, like a light flickering at the back of his pupil, dilating what is usually dark and obsidian in nature. It draws me into him, making me peer further and further into depths I haven’t even begun to understand yet.

“You just became more relevant than you already were. Special little Alice that kills to protect the ones she loves.” He keeps looking at me, his body get closer, his weight gentle but firm to keep me caged in. “Did you enjoy it?”

“Killing someone?”

“Yes.”

I frown. “It was deserved.”

He closes in tighter. “Hmm. Did it bleed?”

“Yes.”

“And how does this make you feel?”

“Caged. Wary.”

“Because you don’t trust me.”

The freaky ass thing is, I do trust him. In some way, deep down, I would trust him with anything – my life included. I did last night if I’m honest. I keep looking at his eyes, trying to find reasoning for my own response to that. Maybe it’s the pills, the thought that I’m still part of him somehow. I don’t know, but my thoughts are true enough. They’re real, like this moment between us is. No pretence. No games. Just truth. Still … “Trust is earned, Malachi. You’re far from earning that yet. I don’t know you.”

“Hmm.” The air goes quiet again, as if he’s thinking about things that I don’t know about. I laugh lightly, uncomfortable with my own stupidity and naivety when it comes to the truth and honesty. Feels weird now. Which is fucking pathetic given the freaky ass place I’m in and the man in front of me. Maybe that’s just me being me, though, rather than the me that I was made to become while we’ve been hiding. “And why do you want to help me?”

“I don’t know. I just do. It’ll help me to help you.”

“Why?”

I shrug. “Because I couldn’t help my mother. Couldn’t save my father. Maybe I can help you. I want to if I can. Stupid really. But here we are. Trust, though, Malachi. Honesty. I need more.”

My ass is lifted the second I’ve said it, and I’m walked through hallways and corridors. No response from him other than that. Just his eyes and his size and his breadth carrying me as if my weight means nothing. We eventually reach a lounge I recognise, and then he nods at the doors into his bedroom for me to open. I do, and before I know it he’s dumping me on a bed and he’s disappeared to run a bath.

Steam and sweet smelling perfume fills the room around me, as I wait. It’s glorious, almost as mesmerising as he is becoming, and I can’t stop myself from following the smell. He picks me up the moment I get in the room, gently lowering me into the bath and then climbing in behind me.