Samael frowned, his dark eyes sharpening as he grabbed his phone and fired off a text. “If that’s the case, we have no idea who we’re dealing with.”
He stood and rounded the table in two long strides before cupping my face in his hands, his palms warm and rough against my cheeks. My breath caught in my throat as his lips grazed over mine, his touch anchoring me as my thoughts spiraled. “Look,” he breathed as he pulled back. “I want to believe Runo is still the man we fell in love with, or at least some part of him is, but the fact is he’s playing a game we were only just invited to. I don’t know his endgame, and I have no idea what he wants.”
I reached up to wrap my hands around his wrists to hold Samael there, his touch stirring the familiar heat I was so fond of. Runo’s chaos was seductive, pulling me in like it had with Finn, but this felt bigger, darker. “What if he really does just want us?” I said, my voice cracking a little. “That ring came with a secret admirer letter, Samael. What if he’s been there all along, waiting? For us?”
Samael’s thumbs brushed my cheeks, his warmth cutting through the panic clawing my chest. I leaned into it, craving the steadiness he always brought, even when everything else was falling apart. I hated how much I wanted all of this, how much I wanted him. Killian’s boyish smile was gone, replaced by Runo’s manic energy, and I wasn’t sure if I was losing myself to it or finding something new.
As terrifying as the thought of Runo stepping into our lives was, the idea of him not being a part of it was worse.
Samael’s grip tightened slightly, grounding me again. “Let’s see what happens after we get rid of Brent and Jade. We’ll figure it out from there.”
My stomach twisted, a knot of guilt mixing with the heat. I pulled back just enough to look at him, Samael settling his hands on my waist. “Are we actually killing Jade? I don’t know of any reason to kill her. Sure, she knows a lot, but…” We were all a little deranged in our own way but killing Jade felt wrong. She hadn’t explicitly done anything other than just exist at Runo’s side.
Samael let out a heavy sigh, tugging me into his chest. He seemed as tired as I felt, a conflict of emotions running through his expression. “We’ll see if we can’t convince Runo otherwise and hopefully turn our lives back to some kind of normalcy.”
I opened my mouth to add onto that when a door creaked open in the basement, followed by Runo’s wild cackles. “You’re a fucking menace,” he said, his voice echoing up the stairwell. “I’m going to need stitches.”
Stitches?
Pounding footsteps hit the stairs before the basement door banged open. Slash and Runo stumbled in, blood smeared across both of them. Slash was holding a scalpel, his eyes wild, pupils blown wide like he was high on the kill. However, I hadn’tseen him that strung out for years. There wasn’t enough action in Primrose.
Runo’s energy matched Slash’s, that unhinged grin plastered on his face, but his shirt was shredded, blood seeping from gashes along his torso and back from where I could see. He looked freshly fucked, his hair mussed and lips swollen, but there was a flicker of terror in his ocean-gray eyes. If I hadn’t known Slash as long as I had, that feral look on his face might’ve scared me shitless.
“What the fuck happened out there?” I asked, my voice sharper than I meant, stepping closer.
Runo plopped into a chair, wincing as he pulled out his phone, his fingers already moving across the screen. “We went on a little bit of a chase. Niles is dead. Like,way dead, and now I’m all sliced up. I’d ask the doc here to stitch me up, but he’s the reason I’m bleeding out.”
Samael frowned, stepping over to inspect Runo’s back. His jaw tightened as he saw the gashes, blood seeping into the hem of his pants—at least, what was left of it. “Jesus Christ. Lay on the table,” he said, helping Runo up and onto his stomach. “Slash, you’ve never lost control like that. What the…”
Runo cut him off, his voice strained but still with a hint of chaos. “Stitch me first. I’m feeling faint.” The bastard was still texting, his grin never faltering but it was easy to see he had lost too much blood. He blinked a few times and then cleared his throat, trying to keep up the façade. Whatever had happened out there, Slash really had gone too far. Another look over at Slash and I could tell something was wrong.
Slash had never needed to let go like that recently. He hadn’t wanted to. We kept the worst of our demons locked down for a reason but his… was roaming. I just had to figure out how Runo had fucking dug it out and let it loose.
Turning my attention back to Runo, I snarled at the fact he wasstilltyping away, like he wasn’t currently bleeding out. I crossed my arms over my chest, my pulse still racing from the kiss and now this. “What is so important right now?”
Runo glanced up, his grin faltering for a second. “I have to talk to my father. He’s on cleanup duty.”
We all froze, my heart dropping into my stomach. “What?” I said, at the same time as Samael’s low, “What the fuck?”
Runo sighed, trying to sit up, but Samael pushed him back down. “Fuck, I haven’t told you the story, have I?” Runo asked, wincing as he settled back on the table.
Samael grabbed a first aid kit from a drawer, his eyes dark with worry. It was the first time I had seen him actually care about Runo, a testament that this new alter—or the real one, I guessed—belonged with us. “You, finish cleaning that shit up in the woods,” he told Slash, then turned to Runo. “I’ll stitch you. Then you can talk. Why are these so fucking deep?”
Runo’s grin returned. “I gifted him a new weapon. He loves it.”
I looked over at Slash again, the man still frozen by the basement door, the scalpel hanging low from his hand, blood crusted on the blade. His chest heaved, that wild look still burning in his eyes. I walked over slowly, stopping just in front of him. “You haven’t looked like that since we were kids,” I murmured.
Slash took a deep breath, finally blinking, the scalpel clattering to the floor. “He brings the demons out,” he purred, a mixture of awe and terror in his tone.
Fucking hell.Those gashes on Runo’s back weren’t just accidents—they were Slash’s art, his demon unleashed, and Runo had handed him the tools to do it. I glanced back over at Runo, wondering how we had stumbled on the one person who was both worse than us and perfect for our chaos.
Samael worked fast, grunting through every stitch. I was glad that the gashes were more toward his side, away from his spine but they were still deeper than anything Slash had done to Samael or himself. Runo hissed but otherwise didn’t react, his attention somewhere other than here.
I wanted to snatch the phone, demand answers, but the sight of him kept me rooted. He’d planned this, every step, from Niles’ death to this very moment. If this had been Slash, he would have been on the phone immediately with Samael, giving him an SOS and a location about what was needed to clean up. There was also some fear that went with these moments, fear that we’d get caught but excitement following when we didn’t.
Runo was just… there.
RUNO
