His Favorite Sin

9.2: EVIL

Present

Cora realized she had underestimated the potency of the wine served to them when she started to feel her vision grow hazy.

At first, she felt relaxed, too relaxed for someone sitting across from her predator. She even started asking about his family and how Jonah was doing. His father’s death came up, which he brushed aside with ease and quickly changed the topic. Then she started fumbling with her cutlery, and she cringed, embarrassed when they slipped from her hand and clattered onto the table.

Her speech slurred, and she mixed up her words without meaning to, before her eyelids increasingly turned heavy, begging for sleep. By the time she stared at her half-empty glass and realized what was going on, it was too late, as she had almost finished both bottles by herself.

‘Something wrong?’ While Lance’s words conveyed nothing but concern, his face portrayed his amusement, and Cora narrowed her eyes at him.

‘I’m fine.’ Even that came out garbled, and she squeezed her eyes shut, burying her face in her hands, hoping to clear the drunkenness away.

When it was time for them to leave, Lance settled their bill with the staff while she could barely think straight.

With her hands firmly placed on the table for support, she pushed herself up, staggering to her feet, but the world tilted, and she followed, almost ending up in a heap on the floor if she hadn’t been saved by Lance reaching for her.

‘I’ve got you.’ He murmured in her ear with his hands framing her waist and holding her up against him.

‘You know, you could have warned me.’ She shot an accusatory look at him, clinging to his jacket because she felt she wouldn’t last one second upright on her own.

She felt his laugh vibrate from his chest, ‘And spoil your fun? Besides, you seemed tense.’

Cora wasn’t sure how they got out of there and made it to the car, whether she walked or he carried her, which would be a sight for the staff. The memory was a blur, but soon she was encased in the calm leather exterior of the sedan.

Her eyelids drooped, then everything went dark for a moment, and the next time she came to, everything suddenly felt hot.

Her head and half her body were resting on a warm torso for support, with one arm over her waist, holding her firm, like there was nothing more natural. Lance.

The rise and fall of his chest under her head as he breathed, and his cologne was just as inebriating as the wine.

It wasn’t right, even her intoxicated mind knew better and set quiet, alarming bells off. She weakly tried to push away, but it might have just seemed like a shrug to Lance, who didn’t let up his grip on her.

She tried again, ‘Lance...’

‘Don’t.’ He sighed, but there was a note of warning there that she couldn’t ignore even in her foggy state. His fingers brushed up to her nape, stroking the sensitive part where her hair ended. Her eyes flew open, embarrassed when a purr escaped her alcohol-loosened lips.

‘Just relax. We’ll be home soon,’ Lance soothed, deceptively lulling her back into the darkness.

‘Hot.’ She let out in her muddled state and soon felt the blast of the A.C. on her damp skin.

She couldn’t remember the last time she had ever been this drunk. Now she understood why those waiters poured so little into the glass. She usually had a high tolerance, but it seemed her body hadn’t met this brand of wine before. She kept going in and out of consciousness throughout the ride because, as much as her mind wished to shut down, she knew she wasn’t in the right environment to do so just yet.

Her foggy brain must have started feeding her hallucinations because at some point, she thought she felt cold lips brush against her temple, followed by a whisper just as dark as her fears, ‘All mine.’

The darkness cleared again, and this time, the hum of the car’s engine died down, signaling they had gotten to their destination. Lance still hadn’t let go of her, his arm still fixed around her like something inescapable.

‘We’re here,’ he announced.

She tried again, pushing out of his grip, and, luckily for her, he let her go. She reached for the door handle, only saying, ‘Thank you,’ before stumbling outside.

At first, her droopy eyes landed on the paved floor, but she already sensed something was wrong even before her eyes lifted to the building in front of her.

It wasn’t her tall, dilapidated apartment building with the paint peeling off the walls that stood before her. No, this building was much smaller but still grand, cozy-looking, two-storey, polished, and quietly luxurious.

Cora knew she was drunk beyond reasoning, to the point of hallucination even, but this remotely didn’t look like her house, and she wasn’t imagining the structure.

She staggered in her heels just as the sound of the car door opening and slamming shut behind her went off, followed by the roar of the engine coming to life. She turned around to see the car roll away into the garage of the house while Lance sneaked behind her.

Her feet faltered once more, but Lance caught her again, hands on her hips as he towered over her, holding her back to his front. She stilled, her heart rate picking up when he buried his face in the crook of her neck.

‘W... what is this?’

He inhaled deeply before pushing his head back and sighing. ‘Well, I thought about it, and we had two options, really. I could take you home, instantly smell that intruder that has been living with you for the past month, lose it and turn his mind into my little playground, or,’ his lips brushed the shell of her ear as he whispered, ‘I could bring you here, to my place, where it would be just us, and no one gets hurt, for now.’

Her blood ran cold as he released her, and she turned to him, backing away. Her drowsiness had evaporated as her wide eyes stared back at him in horror.

He was talking about Drew. The implication of his words settled in like a bucket of ice dumped on her, causing her bones to stiffen.

No, it couldn’t be possible. While he was capable of the impossible, what he simply indicated just couldn’t be true, and Cora hoped he was only trying to scare her.

‘You can’t.... You can’t do that.’ She stuttered out. ‘I thought you could only do that with animals.’

He smiled, a slow, cold, and sinister smile that conveyed his malicious intent. ‘I did tell you I had learned some new tricks that I wished to show you.’

It was like someone had slapped her, snapping her back to her senses and reminding her of what he was. She couldn’t believe she had forgotten it all just after one dinner, what he had done, and could do, and how vacant the space in his chest meant for his beating heart was.

The blood on his hands, the depravity in his heart, the mortal sins his family thrived in.

She had forgotten that for the past seven years, he was the reason why she had abandoned her life, everything, and been on the run.

How could she, once more, be so willfully ignorant?

‘You’re evil,’ she stated, eyes blazing with hate and silent terror.

He stepped towards her, and she stood her ground, balling her trembling fist. She couldn’t run from him now, so she might as well show boldness.

He stopped in front of her, silent at first, before slowly reaching up to his glasses.

Cora waited with bated breath as his hand came down, and he finally opened his lids to reveal not the dark browns she knew but pale soulless orbs, like the moon when it is darkest, with the outer rim of his irises being the only dark part.

It was like staring into the abyss of her worst nightmare, the void sucking her in as she battled to stay afloat.

Lance remained smiling, like he could smell the fear rolling off her. ‘If only I had come to that realization as fast as you just did.’

The world finally turned dark for Cora.