King of the Underworld by RJ Kane

375

Adri

Sephie still felt slightly upset, but she was trying to smile through it. She turned toward me after putting her

contacts back in, smiling sweetly up at me. She reached up and pressed her lips to mine. “I love you.” the said as

the grabbed my hand to walk back to the kitchen.

The guys were still in the kitchen as Sephir lest me back out. They looked concerned, but I could tell that she smiled

at them an i soften. Vitalis and Aleksei were standing with them. Sephie didn’t waste any time. “Vitaliy, what did you

feel when you thook that woman’s hand

all of their faces

today”

He looked surprised, but there was also an air of amusement. “It’s good to see you

he said, a shy smile across his face.

ms question and I’ll lawn over you, but not before. I saw your react when you touched her,” she said, crossing her

arms across her chest. The guys were struggling to not laugh

Vitaliy chuckled, but answered her question. “She’s very evil. Battista ows of my ability. Occasionally, he brings

people for my approval. She was one that he was seeking approval on,” he said.

“Then why did he tell me that I did him a huge favor and he’s in my debt now before we left?” she asked

“Because you gave him a valid reason to get rid of her quickly. They’ve been working on a few small things

together and it’s gone well, but he said he’s never felt completely comfortable with her. He just didn’t know why.

That’s when he usually seeks out my services. She’s very influential with a few other business associates of

Battista’s, so he can’t just cut ties with her without a valid reason. You’ve given him a valid reason. He may be a

womanizer and he might openly flirt with women, but never in the disrespectful manner that she did today. He

knows his boundaries. She clearly did not, but vou did an excellent job of reminding her, sladkaya,” he said,

laughing. “What did you tell her when she got up**

“That if she ever tried to touch him again, she would no longer have functioning hands.” Sephir said, her arms still

folded across her chest. She was clearly still irritated with her.

Vitaliy and Aleksei both looked surprised, but both laughed at Sephie’s words. She moved to lean against the

counter, chewing on her bottom lip. *Vitaliy, ow does your ability work? Is it a black or wh ite situation? Or do you

feel like levels of good and evil?” she asked.

“It’s more nuanced than black and wh ite. Like I said before, some people are ruled by good, some by evil. But

there’s also what they’re doing about it. I can feel that too. Some people fight against the evil and ultimately end up

being very good people. Some people are ruled by good, but still choose eval for whatever reason. It depends on

the person. This woman today, though. There was no good in her,” he said.

Sephie looked at Ivan, silently asking if he was okay to tell Vitaliy what happened. He nodded once. “Ivan and I saw

her demon. She’s completely consumed by it,” she said.

Italty raised his eyebrow. “How?”

Septur und, “we’re still not entirely sure. It’s happened to Ivan before today, but it was rare. It’s never happened to

me before.” She suddenly looked at like she’d made a connection. “It might’ve happened with me because your

hand was on me. Like I borrowed it fro (you same as I do Misha.”

Vitaliy looked at Ivan. “You can see the face of evil?”

Ivan shrugged his shoulders. “It hasn’t happened in so long that I’d invinced myself I was imagining it when it

happened before. I wa happened before.”

kid when it

“When you were at the facility?” he asked, Ivan looked surprised, then turned to look between me and Sephie.

Vitaliy quickly added, “I figured it out. They told me nothing other than you were incapable of feeling pain and you

had a hatred for doctors. I’d heard stones of the facility for years. Your inability to feel pain was highly sought after

in Russia years ago You shu t the program down the night you escaped, for the record. You scared them.”

Ivan looked stunned. Sephie went to him, sliding her arm around his waist. He put his arm around her shoulders,

pulling her to him. He kissed the top of her head, saying, “thank you. I needed to know that.” He looked back to

Vitaliy. “When I was at the facility. I never saw the doctor’s faces. It was always their demons. It’s why I’m so

haunted by it, even still. It hasn’t happened since I got out, so I just convinced myself was a traumatized kid. But

then as soon as that woman turned toward me today. I could clearly see it on her. Sephie saw it later.” He still had

his arm around Sephie as he

talked. She quietly stood next to him, happy to be his anchor.

Vitaliy thought for a few minutes, then looked at Andrei and Misha before looking at me. “Did you three get

anything from her today?”

“I was nauseous every time I looked at her. That’s how I know something is going to go very badly,” Misha said.

“I didn’t get anything good from her. I didn’t like her, but she didn’t talk enough for me to be able to figure out why

I didn’t like her,” Andrei said.

“She made me si ck when she tried to touch me,” I said.

Vitaliy looked at me, both eyebrows raised. “Does that happen often?”

I shook my head no. “Only twice that I can think of and only since I met Sephie. Both times were other women

trying to touch me. There was one time a woman at a bar touched me and it was not as extreme of a reaction. I

didn’t like it, but she didn’t make me si ck. The other two made me si ck. Almost to the point of anger both times.”

For once, Vitaliy smiled at someone other than Sephie. “That’s how it started for me. I was about your age when it

started, too,” he said. “It started with women other than your mother. I couldn’t stand for them to touch me. It was

very intermittent when it first started, but it started to get more prevalent. Then it started happening with

everyone. The more I paid attention to it, the more precise it got. You, though. You’ve always felt different to me, I

could always feel something from you, even before I could from other people. From the first time I held you as a

newborn, I could feel you were special. I’d never found anyone else that felt like you until you brought Sephie to

me.”

“And then you found out he brought you five more. You have a very generous son, Vitaliy,” Sephie said, grinning at

him.

Vitaliy nodded his head, agreeing with her and unable to hide his smile.

“I think your math is off slightly, Seph,” Stephen said.

Vitally looked at him, seriously. “She speaks no lies. You feel the same as the rest of them. I don’t randomly put my

hand on your shoulder because I’m a warm and fuzzy guy, Stephen. I didn’t believe her at first either, so I checked.

All of you. You’re all the same.”

Stephen and Viktor looked at Sephie, the surprise clearly written on their faces. She couldn’t help but laugh. “You

both have something special about you, but you’re very timid about believing it. We don’t know what it is until you

start to believe it for yourselves. It’s also not an absolute guarantee that you’ll figure it out in this lifetime, which is

just fine. You’ll figure it out in your own time, on your own terms. This is a lot to take in for all of us. You’re both

dealing with your own things on top of everything else. There’s no time limit on any of this. It will happen when

you’re ready,” she said.

They were both quiet for a few minutes, mulling over what she’d just said. Stephen’s phone beeped, to indicate

dinner had arrived. He finally looked up at Sephie. “Vlad is going to be so pi ssed that I kept this from him for this

lung,” he said, as he stood up to go downstairs.

We all laughed as once again Vitaliy and Aleksei were left confused at just who this Vlad person was and why he

would be pi ssed at Stephen. I found myself loving Sephie a little more for her random silliness that gave us so

many of these moments now. I never wanted her to stop.