King for a Day (19 page)

I blew out a stress-filled breath.
But if you kill me and I come back, then what?

“The Club has a body disposal service, and Vaughn will surely use it to get rid of yours.”

I remembered Mack mentioning the service. How could I forget something so creepy? It was one of the many benefits of belonging to the Club, along with free tax evasion, a fast-pass through Customs, and basic diplomatic immunity.

“I have paid them well, and they will know what to do,” King said. “Vaughn will never suspect.”

I blinked.
What the hell, King?
A ghastly uneasiness washed over me. He’d somehow seen all of this coming and had the foresight to make arrangements for my body?

Wow, 10 Club’s perks sure come in handy.

He placed his warm hand on my leg. “I began making arrangements the moment I decided to give you the ring. Just in case.”

One hell of a backup plan, King. I’m still not sure it solves our trust issue.

“It was not intended to win your trust. You asked a question. I answered honestly, Mia. And now you must choose what comes next. I cannot force you to trust me.”

Oh Lord, I knew King was right. Hell, now that I’d thought about it, even if he said the ring wasn’t going to bring me back, I would still choose a death by King’s hand over Vaughn’s. The only issue was that I wasn’t ready to die, and I certainly wasn’t ready to trust King, no matter how hard I might want to.

I shook my head and then gazed into his unsettling eyes. They were filled with emotion and determination, like he was willing me to accept the truth he wanted me to see.
I want to believe you, but I can’t.

He slid his arm around me and pulled me into his side. “Again, I have erred. If I had not been so reluctant to believe you would see past my scars and pain, I would not have been so cold, so secretive. But I know you were brought to me for a reason. I truly believe that. You are a chance for me to redeem myself.”

Such sweet words. Too sweet, in fact.
Actually, I’d be an idiot to believe anything he said.
Because the opposite side of the coin told me he was cold, mean, and had zero issues with lying or manipulating people.

“What other choice to you have, Mia? Do you think Vaughn will let either of us go?”

I shook my head.
But you’re basically saying the ring won’t work unless I trust you
.

“Yes. You have to want to return. But will you? Will you, if you believe I wish to harm you, murder you?”

I guessed I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t want to die and come back just to die again.

“Then,” King said, “I have one day to change your mind and convince you of who I truly am.”

~~

To relax my body, King had me lie down on the narrow bed. He started by rubbing my feet and legs, then my arms and fingertips. As he massaged and glided those warm strong hands over my skin, I fought hard not to think about how his touch was so alive, so sensual, so completely enrapturing and so unlike what my mind thought the touch of a ghost should feel like. But the harder I tried not to focus on the physical effects of contact with King, the more my body reacted, lighting up in ways it never had for any man. Yes, without a doubt, King was no ordinary ghost. Or man. Even in captivity, he continued to exude a seductive, alluring, masculine power that drove me mad.

I think he sensed it, too, because when I began to squirm, telling my body not to do what it was doing, he made a quiet, deep groan. “This may be more difficult than I anticipated,” he said.

Nothing could be harder than trying to relax in Vaughn’s basement while having your feet rubbed by a ghost who was about to kill you to prevent you from being tortured then killed.

Of course, I was joking—sort of—but he grumbled with disapproval. “Try to focus on your breath.”

And then what are you going to do, again?

“It is something you’ve experienced before.”

Which is?

“I’m going to enter you.”

My right eye popped open. “Excuse me?”

He smiled with that charming, delicious, seductive smile that showed off the dimples in each cheek.

Uh-uh. That smile doesn’t work on me
. I sat up, placing us nose to nose.

“I do not mean sex, if that is what you are thinking.”

Then what had he meant?

“I am going to…” He cleared his throat. “I am going to go inside you as I did that night in Edinburgh.”

What? No!

“There is no other way, Mia.”

Way for what? To hurt me?
Because that night in Edinburgh, I’d tasted the full force of King’s pain. It was like having crushed glass pumped into my veins.
Besides, didn’t you say Vaughn took away all of your powers?

“Some of my abilities cannot be removed. They come with the incorporeal-being package.” His beautiful dark brows furrowed, and he scratched his black stubble.

Why do you always do that?

“What?” he asked.

Scratch your beard when I challenge you or make you have to think something over.

“Do I?”

I shouldn’t have told you I noticed. It’s how I know something is up with you.

“Something is up. I cannot go inside you without sharing the pain of my curse. However, if I do not show you the truth, you will die with doubt in your heart. The ring will not function.”

What do you want me to see?

“My memories.”

Can’t you just tell me what you want me to know?

“Words can be faked. Memories cannot.”

Not everyone remembers things the way they really happened anyway.

“True. Everyone sees their own version of the truth; nevertheless, it is the only truth I know.”

I can’t, King. It was too…

“Horrifying.”

I nodded.

“It felt wonderful to me.”

I looked at him and wondered…
Why?

“Because.” He straightened his spine. Suddenly, I saw a look in his eyes. It was a look I knew well. The angry look. The look he flashed when he was about to lose his temper. He grabbed my shoulders firmly and locked eyes with me. “I’m sorry, Mia, but there is no other way.”

~~

When King filled my entire body, it felt like having razor blades coursing through my limbs. I wanted to scream. I wanted to cry out for him to stop, but I couldn’t move. Was this what it felt like to be possessed? Or did it hurt so badly because he was cursed?

And Lord, there I was again, feeling sorry for him somewhere in the back of my mind. How could anyone live with such agony? Just a few moments of this was enough to drive any person insane. I wanted to claw at my own heart just to make it stop. And when I distinctly felt King trying to calm me, I wanted to claw at his back as Hagne had done. I hated him a thousand times more than I had ever hated anyone.

How can you do this to me?
I thought.

Because I must,
he replied.

And as I mentally writhed in pain, I felt King’s energy penetrate the deepest corners of my soul. I tasted his pain. I saw nothing but purple light. When I felt him vibrate and rub against every cell of my body, I sensed the intense pleasure he experienced from being so intimate with me. It was better than sex for him. How I knew that was a bigger mystery than King himself, but I knew. He was in ecstasy.

I growled at him inside my mind.
How dare he enjoy this? How dare he!

I felt a tingling sensation, as if King were petting the inside of my skin, trying to soothe me, trying to get me to simply accept the agony and move past it.

Not helping!
Lord, I hoped he could hear me. Petting the inside of my skin was quite possibly the most unsettling sensation I’d ever experienced. Apart from being possessed by a wealthy, seductive, deceased king, of course.

The stroking ceased, and then I felt him moving around, digging inside my head. Was this really why he wanted to do this? He had done the same thing last time when we were in Edinburgh. He’d been looking for something inside me.

I couldn’t tell how long the treasure hunt lasted or if he stopped because my mental screaming got to be too much, but he finally did.

King? What are you doing?

Try to relax
, he said. His voice was more of a faint echo, rather than King’s voice.

Then I felt a warm blanket of peace wrapping around my mind. Was I already dead?

No. You’re not dead. Just be still
, he commanded.

Oh Lord
. This was so horrifyingly weird.

King seemed to settle down and relax into me.

What’s happening
? I asked.

This…

I stood in a small coliseum. The hot sun was high in the sky, beating down on my bare back, and the air was thick with the smell of sweat, ocean, and dirt. The roar of a crowd, sitting in tiered benches all around, deafened my ears. Men with swords waved them high in the air and screamed my name. “Draco. Draco. Draco!”

“Please lay down your weapon, brother,” I begged. I knew that someone had poisoned Callias’s mind. There was no other reason he would challenge me for the throne. Because Callias was my blood. My twin. My most loyal friend. But someone had gotten to him, though I knew not who.
Perhaps the gods despise you.

But I had tried to be good to our people, to be fair and kind. I valiantly hid my true nature—vengeful, angry, and uncaring—because that was what my father showed me a good king did. Before he died, he taught me humility and discipline. He taught me how to be patient and gracious. But most importantly, he showed me how to leash my darker side and to exercise brutality and strength only when necessary.

The crowd chanted my name over and over again. I knew that anyone who remained silent did so because they cheered for Callias. Fools. They had no idea. If it were not for my loyalty to my people, I would gladly have let Callias take my head because killing him would be the moment my life turned into a living hell of torment. Still, I had put all that aside. For them. I could not allow Callias to rule. Whatever wickedness had possessed him would make him a cruel, vindictive, tyrant of a king.
I place duty first. I place my people first.

“Callias, I plead with you one last time. Stop this foolishness.”

A raised sword was his response.

“So be it,” I whispered. “May the gods have mercy on my soul.”

With every swing of my sword, my heart grew blacker, more outraged. I released my darkness, my anger, my ferocity, which I reserved for my greatest enemies. Callias fell quickly, and it was then that I realized who had poisoned my brother’s soul. The woman to whom I had given my heart, whom I’d loved and adored since we were children. And in that moment, I realized I would never be able to cage my fury. The monster had been released from its cage.

I swung and watched my brother’s head fall to the dirt. When Hagne ran to Callias’s body and screamed in horror, the rage overtook me completely. This was her doing, and she dare cry?

I curse you to taste Callias’s blood for eternity, Hagne.
I scooped up the dirt as I said these words and made her eat from the destruction she created.
You are darkness’s companion for all time, Hagne. You shall never know happiness; only death shall live within you.
Hagne had destroyed the two people I cherished most in this world in one day.

CHAPTER
THIRTEEN

The pain fled my body, and I drew a sobering breath. Then another. And another. I winced as I tried to move and became myself again. Yes, I was me. Mia.

I rolled my head from side to side, searching.
King? Are you there?

No reply.

Slowly, I managed to move my feet to the floor. My muscles were sore, and my head ached like a son of a bitch, only this time, I imagined it was because I had had someone digging around inside it.

“King?” I pushed my weight over my wobbling knees and managed to make it to the doorway. Where was he?

I stumbled to the next room and saw his limp body sprawled across the floor.

I rushed to King’s side, but he was in the same catatonic state as when I first saw him earlier. No breath. No movement. But warm and beautiful.

“Hello, Miss Turner. Are you enjoying your stay?”

I flinched and looked up at the slimy cretin, wearing a horrible green suit, occupying the doorway.

“Immensely. Thanks, Vaughn.”

He smiled with those slithery, thin lips that reminded me of a snake about to unhinge its jaw. “He will wake up in a few hours. I didn’t want us to be disturbed.”

Shit. King. Wake up. For God’s sake, wake up.

Not a twitch.

“What did you do to him?” I asked.

Vaughn flicked his wrist. “King isn’t the only one who dabbles in the arts.”

I assumed he meant dark arts, but whatever. I had to think quickly because whatever Vaughn planned to do, it wasn’t good. Maybe I should have let King kill me when he had the chance.