Finally, he replied, “I don’t want to scare you.”
“You’ve broken into my bedroom at 2am, held a knife at my throat, kidnapped me, tied me up… I think we’re past terrifying each other.”
His chest heaved up and down as if he had run a marathon.
“What’s the point of hiding Diggy?” Slash reached out and picked a strand of Dig’s hair, slipping it back. “You don’t want people to know who you are? Why not, Diggy? You scared they’re not going to like you… not going toloveyou? Guess what little brother, they don’t love you. None of them can.”
Dig flinched in response.
Slash snorted a laugh at the flinch. “But I love you, Diggy.” He splayed out his arms to his comrades. “All our followers love us. They are the only people who ever will. Now, come on Diggy Dig, look up, show us those pretty eyes.”
“Fuck off.”
“Look up Diggy or I’ll make you look up. You know I will.”
Dig twitched, his head jerked to my direction. “Delphine.”
Him speaking my actual name grew flowers in my chest.
“Delphine.” He whispered it this time. “Don’t look at me, okay?”
Slash twisted his focus on me. His smile, a splintered crescent of amusement, grew wider, showing all his teeth. Those predatory eyes of his were highlighted with tattooed arrows. “Hm…why don’t you want her to see?”
“Slash—” Dig lost some of his caution, restraightening his shoulders. “Leave her out of this. If you even think of touching—”
“I’m the eldest.” Each word punctured like a pause as if he were trying to push them into Dig’s head. “Daddy put me in charge which means you listen tome.”
“Slash, please—”
Slash plunged his hand into Dig’s black curtain of hair and seized his cheeks. “Now show us those pretty eyes that Daddy gave you.”
He pulled up Dig’s face.
Black hair brushed past his cheeks and over Dig’s ears. Slash lifted Dig’s chin into the air and held his face high as if he were holding a trophy. Veins in Dig’s neck popped as he tried to restrain, his teeth clenched and gritted, his nostrils flared with silent rage as he was shown off like a groomed horse.
His entire face was revealed and every piece of him locked into perfect unity, showing his full portrait.
A strong jaw, high cheek bones, a nose that sloped to a rounded tip, a set of heavy brows and his eyes…
“Dig Graves, everyone!” Slash let go of Dig’s face and splayed out his arms to his audience of followers. “Look at him! Look at my little brother! Look at those pretty eyes!”
They did.
The cult of Soulless followers impelled themselves forward, tripping over their own feet, pushing at shoulders to catch a glance at Dig Graves and the eyes that had been entombed upon him from a Soulless madman.
I looked at Dig Graves, I looked at the mastery of his face he had done his best to keep concealed. I looked until I no longer blinked, my eyes going dry.
My heart thumped quicker.
A flutter of furious beats.
My chest ached from some unhindered emotion… what was this? Fear? I was not afraid. Yet, my heart was hammering against my ribcage.
I groaned, hunching forward, breathing through the sudden pain that brought my organ to palpitate.
“Delphine.”
I looked up through my hunch, through the strands of my hair. Dig bent down, his tied hands outstretched to me.
