When Sarah Solomon took refuge in an old cottage in the woods, she knew it would only be a matter of time before the monsters came a' calling.
Cursed with a power she neither wants, nor knows how to harness, Sarah has become a target, but who is he...
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'You've got to hand it to Marcus. He sure does love a good view of the city. How weird to be in hiding so many years and yet still manage to see everything.'
The view from the lounge window was almost as good as the one from Marcus' practically palatial office, and it gave me the opportunity to stare outwards, rather than at Michael, who I knew was glaring at me and possibly about to combust. I could feel the heat of his rage from across the room, having been sure to put as much distance between us as I could when we'd been escorted to what was to be my private apartment, which essentially was an entire floor all to myself that included this room, a kitchen, bathroom and two bedrooms.
Only those with security keys could access this floor via the elevator, and from what I understood that was to include myself, Marcus, and my own personal bodyguard, a mountain of muscle called Jason, who weirdly enough did actually look a bit like Jason Statham if you squinted a bit.
'I'm really going to need you to run this fucking insane decision by me once again,' Michael said, his voice tight and tinged with enough anger to make me wince. I could still hear his colourful objections to the ultimatum I'd given Marcus, like someone was hammering them into my head with an ice pick.
I took a deep breath and turned to face him. It wasn't the fury that made me falter, but the look in his eyes, like I'd kicked an injured animal, waited until it got back up and then kicked it again high up into the air and off a cliff edge. I'd hurt him. My decision had hurt him, and that definitely wasn't something I'd been prepared for, or even expected.
The words – the ones I'd been practicing in my head all the way up here in the elevator – didn't just fade away. They threw themselves off the cliff edge too, plummeting towards certain death and plunging me into a well of silence that I didn't know how to climb out of.
'It was the only way,' I finally managed, my voice weak and unconvincing, even though I did believe it. I did.
'The only way for what? To give daddy what he wanted? Or to condemn yourself to a life with a man who abandoned you just because of some misplaced guilt about what happened to my friends? You really want to stay with the man who could have prevented you from ending up in Luther's torture cell?'
'Cheers,' I mumbled. 'I mean, if I didn't have abandonment issues before, I probably do now.'
Michael's face twisted sourly. 'This isn't a joke, Sarah.'
'You think I don't know that?' I said, firmer this time. 'You think I'm not totally aware of what I've just done? Do you think for one second that I want to give him what he wants?'
'Then, why?' he said, aghast. 'Go and tell him you made a mistake. Tell him that you're leaving with me.'
'No.'
'No?' he replied, his face dropping. 'Just straight up no?'
'Yes. No.' I grimaced and shook my head. 'You know what I mean.' I sighed, the exhaustion beating at every inch of me. I didn't want to fight with him. I was tired of fighting. At least for tonight.
