Page 32 of Essence of Fear

“You were invited to this too?” she asked quietly.

Pav shrugged. “Seems so.”

“That’s what the card was for, then?”

“It was.”

“What did you get them for a gift?”

Pav smiled. “Different things; whatever the girl at the store said was good for a baby boy.”

Huh.

“I could have helped you to pick out—”

“You were uncomfortable enough. I figured it was better to let you go.”

All over again, she was left confused by this man. He seemed to enjoy her fear of him in some ways, and yet, he was also hyperaware of it and made deliberate choices that would make sure her fear wasn’t made worse by anything he did.

He was a mess, too.

Just in a different way than her.

“These people …” He grunted under his breath and shot a look over his shoulder. “I don’t know what to do with them. I don’t feel like I belong here, yeah? They know me, and that’s what I feel when they look at me.”

“Reaper, you mean. Zhatka.”

His throat jumped at the name coming from her lips, but he didn’t tell her not to use it. “They know what I do—what I can do. I feel like I can hear what they’re thinking. Stay in your place, Pavel. Stay downstairs with the rest of the things that shouldn’t be seen.”

Why did that hurt her for him?

“You’re human, too,” she said softly.

“And so are the people who they’ve put in the cells for me to keep,” he returned. “Should they be allowed off their leashes, too?”

“Do you feel like that when you see their victims, day in and day out?”

Pav let out a dark laugh at that. “They’re not victims down in the cells. They’ve all earned their places, trust in that. I know they’re human, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’ve earned their punishments. Or, that’s what I have always been told.”

Then, Pav glanced over at her. Those dark eyes of his seemed even more shadowed in the dim lighting of the backyard. He leaned closer to her, until there were just a couple of inches between the two of them. She felt like a deer in headlights. Partly entranced by his scent and closeness, in the beauty of his features, and the way his lips curved sexily and dangerously. And yet, terrified at the same time because she had no idea what this man wanted with her, but she had no doubt he was capable of horrible things.

She wanted to move.

She also wanted to remain.

“Can I tell you something?” he murmured.

She nodded. “Yeah, sure.”

“That fear of yours … it’s a powerful thing, Viktoria. For yourself and for others. It can be used, manipulated, or wielded. Do you understand?”

“I only know that it holds me back.”

“Because you let it, girl.”

She almost laughed at that. “Do I look like a girl to you?”

Pav flashed his teeth in his grin. “No, you look very much like a woman I would enjoy ruining, but I have to remind myself that won’t work for you.”