She watched the battle of emotion sweep through him. He didn’t trust himself. That was the bottom line. No matter how much she trusted him, he didn’t trust himself.
Okay then, what else was there to lose? If she didn’t do something drastic, they might never get out of this hole alive. What could possibly be more drastic than telling him her true feelings?
“Then you better know something else,” she threw out there, reckless now. “I love you, you big jerk. I stayed with you because I love you. I believe in you because I love you. Now get that through your thick skull.”
Gideon gazed at her, stunned. Not even the theatrical clapping from the doorway broke through his openmouthed shock.
“Brava, Halfling, brava,” Mortika? jeered. “Now wasn’t that moving?”
Mortika? stepped farther into the room, and approached Maggie. The stench of him was enough to make her gag.
“Ah, such lovely sentiment.” He trailed his fingers through her limp, sweat soaked hair as if it were the finest silk. “It stirs the blood, does it not, Temptation?”
“Get your hands off her,” Gideon snarled, fighting his restraints with renewed fury. Blood ran from the fresh wounds on his wrists.
“You know, I’ve been thinking,” Mortika? went on, ignoring Gideon’s rabid tirade. Maggie turned her head away, seeking desperately to avoid the aroma of wasting corpse that wafted from his putrid flesh. He trailed a grotesque finger down the line of her jaw, down her neck, and hooked a ragged black claw in the torn collar of her T-shirt. “Why should Stolas have all the fun?”
A scream ripped from her throat before she could muffle it as he used that claw to rip the front of her shirt wide open, leaving a trail of crimson seeping from her skin. Behind Mortika?, Gideon roared, his face contorting with rage. Mortika? was too busy staring at her exposed breasts with salacious intent.
“Such a shame to let all this go to waste before Stolas gets his claws into you. I’m told he’s not very careful when it comes to the females he beds. In fact, most don’t even survive.”
Mortika? reached out, his gaze rapt on the flesh he was about to fondle.
Maggie cringed.
Gideon exploded.
One minute Gideon was there, blond haired, amber eyed, handsome Gideon. And the next moment, his body morphed into a nightmare. One she remembered all too well from the night he’d taken her to her home. One that fought with a mindless, killing rage. And she was directly in his path.
The chains snapped like strings, and Gideon charged Mortika?. Mortika? ducked to the side with an evil grin. As if this was exactly what he’d been after all along. He swung a beefy fist, and Maggie could tell he had every intention of drawing this fight out. Of putting her in as much peril as possible.
But there was one thing he had miscalculated. He’d underestimated Gideon’s fury and his relentless drive to protect what he deemed his.
Gideon was all over him in a heartbeat. All his ferocious rage focused solely on the demon now fending off blow after blow.
Maggie could do nothing more than hang on the wall and watch in mute shock as Gideon brutally ravaged Mortika?. Mortika? slipped in a puddle of blood and went down on one knee. Gideon was moving too fast for Maggie to tell if any of it was his.
Gideon knocked him the rest of the way down, and then sat on his chest, pinning him to the floor. The air around Mortika? began to shift, just the slightest bit, just as Maggie had come to recognize it did when a demon was about to shimmer.
Gideon gave a mighty roar and plunged his fist deep in the cavern of Mortika?’s chest. Mortika? froze, eyes wide, mouth agape on a garbled roar. Smiling a grisly, serrated-teeth-filled smile, Gideon ripped the still beating heart from Mortika?’s chest.
A wave of nausea hit Maggie, followed swiftly by dizziness at the sight of Gideon’s blood soaked fist clutching the organ in the air. But he didn’t stop there. He tossed it aside like rubbish and clamped both hands on either side of Mortika?’s head. With a brutal twist, Gideon liberated Mortika?’s head from his twitching body.
Gideon roared in triumph, holding the head in his hands. He stood there a long moment, staring at the thing as though admiring a trophy.
Maggie sucked in a shuddering breath, unable to drag her attention from Gideon’s bloody hands. The sound drew his attention. His head snapped around, and his stare zeroed in on her like a heat seeking missile.
“Gideon,” she whispered. Clearing her throat, she forced herself to speak slowly and soothingly. “Gideon, stop. You have to calm down.”
He lowered his head and began stalking toward her, her imminent death glittering in his black eyes.
“Gideon,” she squeaked. Her words tumbled over each other, faster and faster, in her desperation to get through to him. “It’s me. Remember me, Gideon. Maggie. Your mate.”
He hesitated, just for a moment, his head cocked to the side. But then he shook it off and advanced again.