To Curse the Darkness by P.G. Forte

can’t even protect yourself!”
    Marc shrugged. “Well, that’s where you’re wrong. You’d be amazed by what I can do now.”
    â€œThat’s not what your missing eye says.”
    â€œOh, ouch.” Marc took a deep breath and willed himself to calm down. He pulled one of the armchairs up to the bed and sat. “You sure know how to hurt a guy, don’t you? Look, I know it might not appear like I know what I’m doing, and maybe I didn’t at the time, but Audrey took me by surprise. She figured out a way to target my weaknesses before I even knew what they were. But I’m a quick study. And, believe me, that’s not gonna happen again. Not ever. But, I gotta say, that’s some show of concern on your part. You hear about my eye—or you hear I’ve been injured, or whatever the truth of it was—and your first thought was to leave town without even waiting to see if I’m all right? I’m really touched.”
    Elise’s eyes flashed. “You know what, Marc? Screw you.” She shook the hand that was cuffed to the bed frame, until the chains rattled. “If this is an example of your concern, I’m touched too.”
    Marc snorted with laughter. “Touché.” God, he’d missed her. “Okay, babe, I admit it, you got me again. I’m a bastard, and maybe I just liked the idea of cuffing you to the bed. But I’m still the bastard that’s here to save you. So why don’t you tell me what happened with you and Audrey? What made you run?”
    â€œOh, sugar.” Elise sighed wearily. “What do you think happened? After Audrey’d had her fun with you, she showed up at my loft, demanding I give her money to help her get out of town. I guess things had gone wrong somehow? I mean, from her perspective, obviously—probably not from yours.”
    â€œDefinitely not from mine. I’m still alive, aren’t I? Which I don’t think was any part of her plan.”
    â€œYes, I’m sure you’re right. And I’m happy that you weren’t killed. But, beyond telling me about your eye, she wouldn’t go into specifics, so I couldn’t even be certain you were still alive. She didn’t tell me everything, you know. She only told me enough to convince me she was indeed desperate. But I swear, I didn’t know anything about what she was up to beforehand. I certainly never gave her any information on how to ‘catch’ you!”
    â€œBut you gave her the money, right? You helped her run?”
    â€œYou say that like I had a choice,” Elise grumbled.
    â€œDidn’t you?”
    â€œOf course I didn’t! It’s not like I had the option of refusing her ‘request’. Audrey knew I had money. That’s why she came to me. She had no intention of going off empty-handed. I could either give it to her voluntarily and hope she’d let me live, or I could say no and let her kill me. Either way she’d have taken the money. Not being a fan of dying for nothing, I chose to live. What would you have done? Hell, sugar, for all I knew, you were the one who’d sent her after me.”
    â€œHow do you figure that?”
    â€œWho else would do it? You also knew I’d been saving up. You knew I was planning to leave town—and as I recall you weren’t too happy about it. And you knew about Vincent. I still don’t get why you did it; why would you tell her he was dead? You had to have known how she’d react. You had to know who she’d blame for it. Me. That’s who. It’s a miracle she didn’t kill me—just on those grounds alone.”
    Vincent. Marc winced as the memory of Vincent’s body bursting into flame flashed before his eyes. He had done that. He’d taken a life. He steeled himself against the waves of regret, reminding himself that it was Vincent who had tortured Conrad, who’d tried to kill Julie,