“He is an awesome kid…but Kor – “
His grip on my arms tightens as he walks us back towards the fence and out of Abel’s view. Curls swing as he shakes his head, pressing me against the wood as his hand comes around my throat. “I’ve searched for you for a decade, Evangeline, and the last thing I’m going to do is sit here and listen to you talk bad about yourself.”
Oh my God. Kor is….
His dominance makes my inner brat want to jump out and wave a pom pom in his face. “So, what is it that youdowant to do, Kortez?”
His arms raise to cage me in, forearms flexing until the scars and tattoos blend together to create a morbid collage of beauty and pain seared into his skin. The black ink off his skin seeps into his eyes, turning them darker until my own depravity is reflected back at me.
I’ve unleashed a beast and I can’t wait until he stakes his claim.
His face leans closer to mine, and I hear the flick of a blade from above my head, my eyes shooting up to land on the open pocketknife coming towards me. My breath comes faster – not in fear, but in exhilaration. For so long I thought I would corrupt Kortez. Fear creeped through me when he walked through my door because I thought he would despise what I’ve turned into.
Hatred fills my veins at the thought of everything Kor went through but right along with that fear is excitement. Now his darkness matches my own.
The knife comes closer, the silver blade glinting as it passes by my face to land on my bare chest. The fingers from his other hand come down to pull at the spaghetti straps, lowering them until the top of my breast peaks from my shirt.
“Would you bleed for me, Evangeline?”
His voice is so deep it almost doesn’t sound like him, but my body knows it is and leans closer. “What?”
He leans in, pressing the blade down into my skin just enough for me to feel it. “You’re already my heart –Mi Corazón,but would you give me your blood so it can keep beating?” His lips slide across mine, just a soft lingering kiss to combat the sharpness of theblade. “Can I learn what the darkest parts of you taste like so my soul can know who its master is?”
Jesus Christ. When did he learn to talk like this?
I nod but it’s not enough. He wants words and I can tell from the shaking in his hand that whatever demons he needs to control are riding him hard.
I don’t mind being his escape.
“Yes, Kortez. I’ll bleed for you.”
He groans and my skin burns as his blade digs into my flesh, the knife going deep enough to leave a scar right on the top of my breast – a mark that I’ll forever belong to him.
Before the blood can drip down and stain my cotton pajamas, he’s moving the knife and swooping in, his tongue sliding over the wound to taste my blood.
A blood oath – the most archaic version of one I’ve ever seen.
He groans, his mouth vibrating on my chest and making me gasp at the sensation as his hands dig into my hips to draw me closer.
My chest feels hot where his tongue continues to lap at my fallen blood, the cut not wanting to close as his hands begin to slide up my shirt. I hear the murmuring of voices, but my hands are in Kor’s hair, and my eyes are closed as I revel in the sensation of being utterly consumed in a way that’s too primal for me to even understand.
“Fuck!”
Kortez is ripped from me, his knife flying to the ground as he whirls on Atlas, his eyes darker than I’ve ever seen as my blood stains his lips red.
“Eve, you need to get out of here. Roman, go make sure Abel didn’t see. Now!” Atlas’s eyes are wide and pleading as Roman runs past me, his footsteps thundering up the stairs to save my son from asituation I never thought I’d see.
My Kor is feral.
I can see now he’s been keeping things in check the last few days, but I knew he was too quiet. He was quiet because his demons were screaming at him to be set free.
“No.” I shake my head and turn to see Kortez lick my blood from his lips. “You want to play, Kor? Come and get me.”
He smiles.
And I run.
Chapter 26
