A deviant smile spread across my lips as Slash lunged, pulling Niles to the ground. This was nothing like his methodical kills, the measured steps, the precise slices. All of that had been thrown away to unearth the best I knew existed beneath the surface. My men thought they were killers in control of their demons. But they weren’t. Not in the slightest.
No, like me, they had learned to silence the darkest parts of themselves through practice and band aids to the issue. Hopefully, tonight would be the night Slash realized just how important I was to them. How I could help them remember who they truly were.
Returning my focus to Slash, I watched with excitement as Niles bucked and flailed around, trying to throw the man off but Slash was faster. He flipped Niles onto his back and straddled his stomach, his knees planted firmly in the dirt. And that’s when the true fun began, Slash pinning Nile’s hands above his head, his other hand brandishing the scalpel with ease.
I crept close to catch the pure terror running through Niles’ expression, the man frozen beneath The Skinner, himself. I had never had a front row seat like this. It was like producing a movie and then sitting back to watch the masterpiece.
Slash leaned in close, his voice full of irritation. "You thought you could run from me? After all those months of hounding me at the hospital, dragging me back like I owed you my life? You owned the place and thought that made you god. But look at you now—pissing yourself in the dirt."
My nose scrunched up as I let my gaze wander, the darkened spot at the crotch of Niles’ pants making me groan. He triedthrashing again, screams vibrating against the tape but it was no use. He was prey caught by a predator, one who had no intention of letting him go.
Slash was too far gone, his demon let loose, the darkness that he usually kept tampered down running free. The muscles along his neck and shoulders tensed and flexed, the gorgeous veins in his hands bulging, calling out to me. I needed to lick him. Taste him. Have him fuck me, right out here on the earth floor.
I had watched from the shadows for years, fragments of me chasing this thrill through the others, but now it was mine.All mine.
Finn: Slow down, Runo. This is getting out of hand. We need to talk. There’s something you need to know.
Daemon: He's right. You're pushing too far. What if this blows back on us?
Of course they’d be able to slip out and the first thing they would try was to ruin the moment. Finn and Daemon had been my shields once, fragments I created to cope, but now they felt like they were in the way.
And while the urgency in Finn’s voice told me that whatever he had to say was important, it would have to be later. Somewhere else than here, at this moment. Not while Slash was embodying everything I adored—raw, unfiltered violence. The demon in him mirrored mine, and watching it unfold sent heat through my veins, straight to my dick.
No, I wouldn't let them spoil this. I shoved them down and locked them into that dark corner of my mind where their voices faded to whispers and then into nothingness again.
I refocused my attention on Slash, reaching down to cup my cock through my pants. A few strokes later and I was fully hard, my hips rocking forward to meet the sensation as I watched Slash.
Slash dragged the scalpel across Niles' cheek, the blade slicing clean through skin, parting it like paper. Blood welled up in a thin line and dripped down Niles' jaw as he jerked away from the blade, his body convulsing under Slash.
Slash pressed harder, twisting the blade just enough to deepen the cut, exposing the raw muscle beneath. "All those calls, Niles. All that whining about my shifts, my attitude. You thought you controlled me? Now you're justmeat." A few months ago, Slash would have never let this kill extend this long. He didn’tplaywith his victims. He tortured them a little and then left them around Primrose to be found.
The thrill came from the kill itself but I knew him. They had all forgotten what it felt like when they were younger, discovering who they were, what they liked, what fed their demons.
And this? This was like an entire feast.
Slash continued as he sliced across Niles’ collarbone, each cut pressed deeper into the man’s flesh until there were several crimson rivers flowing onto the earth floor. Another cut had blood spraying in a fine mist, soaking through what was left of Niles’ shirt, the metallic taste on my tongue dragging me forward. Niles was barely conscious at this point, his muffled cries softening to mere whimpers.
"No one is going to save you," Slash purred. "Don’t you get that? You're alone out here, just like you left me feeling in that hospital. But this? This is better."
He plunged the scalpel into Niles' shoulder, twisting it slowly until the blade hit bone. Niles’ back arched off the ground, his entire body contorting as a blood-curdling scream ripped through the tape Slash had apparently slapped back on. Slash ripped the scalpel out, growling at the gore clinging to it before slicing into Niles’ abdomen. Over and over again until Niles was just a mass of blood and tendons and organs.
I had wanted to take the lungs to Aeron but at this point, I’m not sure he’d have much to work with.
Slash’s cackles echoed through the forest as he continued to tear into Niles’, this animalistic moment extending into something downright demonic. Niles let out one last dying gasp before he collapsed, his eyes still open as his head lolled to the side, his gaze now firmly connected with mine.
It was time to end this, though. Any further and I wouldn’t be able to contain Slash’s demons. I wanted him feral but not uncontainable.
However, he looked absolutely glorious like that, covered in blood, his eyes a darker shade than I had seen them in a long while. My men didn’t truly know how much I understood about them or how much I had seen. They thought it was Daemon or even Finn but that didn’t mean I didn’t remember those moments. Or that I didn’t catch brief glimpses of who they truly were before it ever really registered. Killian tried to bury it and Dark ignored it but that just meant I was stewing in it, enjoying it, craving more of it.
And now I had it right in front of me.
Gently, I reached forward to grab Slash’s chin and turn him toward me, my man drenched in Niles’ blood. All of his kills had been so methodical up till this point. They had been a release but this was a reckoning, a need, adesire.He snarled at me before pushing me down onto the earth floor. His lips attached to mine, hunger and passion spilling between us as I clung to him.
Dark: Yeah so, Slash has never lost himself in a kill like this. We should be worried right?
Daemon: Runo doesn’t seem to be.
Killian: Because he’s a fucking sicko.
