“No, I will not.” Her pointed, exaggerated features twisted into a half-amused snarl. “This entire place is as much mine as it is yours.” Her nasty smile grew. “In fact, it’s more mine than yours now, isn’t it?”
Gritting my teeth, I rolled the blade in my grip, wishing I could send it flying across the room and straight into her heart. I was still reeling, even after letting out my aggression on that whore, after beating that man bloody. I couldn’t seem to get a grip on myself, still needing an outlet, needingsomething.
“He’s a mess, you know?” she said, taking a very deliberate step toward me and sliding her fingertips along a dusty tabletop as she passed by. Painted pink, her fingernails matched her hair color and the shade of lipstick she was wearing. Her short black skirt just barely skimmed her ass, and her threadbare belly shirt teasingly lifted with every breath she took, revealing the underside of her breasts.
Christ, she was ridiculous. She wouldn’t be a bad-looking woman if she’d only stop painting herself up like a goddamn circus clown.
“Who’s a mess?” I held my ground as she crept closer.
She approached me, her thin lips curved into a seductive smile. “Bryce,” she answered. Reaching for me, her fingers curled around my belt buckle and yanked the heavy clasp open. “The man you just introduced to a wall. Poor thing still hadn’t recovered from his fight last night,” she said as she slowly pulled my belt free from my belt loops. Once it was free, she tossed it aside, and it hit the concrete floor with a loud clang. “You know, E, that was a bad move. Fucking up one of our best scavengers right after your epic fuckup this morning. Jeffers issopissed.”
She reached for my zipper and I grabbed her wrist, squeezing until I heard her bones grind together, then I bent her hand backward until she gasped in pain. She grinned up at me, and her gaze turned hungry.
“I didn’t even recognize him,” I gritted out. The man had just been in my way. They were all in my way, every last one of these people.
She shrugged. “Normally I wouldn’t care,” she purred, her tongue darting out to wet her lips. “I like it when you hurt people, it turns me on. But he was our best scavenger, one of the few men we had who wasn’t scared out there. We needed him, E.”
“Add it to my fucking list,” I said, releasing her wrist with a hard shove. “You’ve already got me in charge of strays.”
She stumbled backward, her pink-tinted, chin length hair falling in front of her eyes. Catching herself, she straightened and shoved her hair from her face.
“Oh, I am,” she said, her chest heaving. “You’re leaving first light tomorrow with the others. But right now, I need you.”
“No.”
“Yes.” She reached up beneath her skirt and pulled her underwear down. Stepping out of it, she kicked it away.
“Out,” I demanded, pointing toward the door. “Don’t make me ...”
Noticing the spark of excitement in her brown eyes and the way her body began to bow toward mine, I hesitated. I was always on fire, the rage in me never fully silenced, and Liv was the gasoline to my flames. Together, we were no good; we never had been.
But there was something about pain, both inflicting it and receiving it, that I craved.
It was fucked up, twisted and sick. It was the core of everything I hated about myself. But fucked up had become my drug of choice these days, and Liv was the best damn dealer in town. Even if I hated her with every fiber of my being, no matter how much I hurt her, she always came back for more.
“You stupid whore,” I growled. Goddamn, I really hated her, hated myself, hated the way I was with her. Hated how much I enjoyed this.
“That’s it, baby.” Her words were soft, drawn out in that stupid drawl of hers. Stepping forward, she reached for my pants. “That’s the way I like it.”
Gripping my dick, she squeezed hard, and I had to shake off the wave of disgust that rolled through me. This goddamn bitch was ruining what was left of my life. It wasn’t much, but it was still mine and she was eating it up for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And here I was, like a fucking junkie needing his fix, allowing her to do it.
She stroked me roughly, her breaths turning into pants as she worked herself into a frenzy, all while I stared down at her, hatred rolling off me in heavy, suffocating waves even as I grew hard beneath her touch. My muscles coiled, my adrenaline pumping at the thought of what was to come.
“Someday,” I growled, and grabbed her by the throat. Pushing my dick into her grip, I squeezed her neck. “I will kill you.”
She stared up at me, and although her smile never faltered, her glassy gaze took on a pained and faraway look that almost seemed pleading.
“That’s it,baby,” I mocked her. Taking a fistful of her shirt, I dragged her up against me. “That’s what I like.”
Chapter Four
Autumn
The scream tore its way up my throat, then violently exploded past my lips.
“Will you calm the fuck down, please?” the blond-haired woman begged. Her hands on her hips, she stared down at me, looking frustrated. “Seriously, I’m not going to hurt you.”
From my corner on the floor, I stared up at her. She was young and seemed sincere. At least, she seemed less disgusted with me than the others had. She was nice too, far nicer than the others. So far she hadn’t hurt me, yet like the others she didn’t seem to understand that I couldn’t take my clothing off. My clothes were my protection, part of my armor against the biters. I needed them to hide my scent, needed the dirt and the filth plastered over them and me to cover the smell of being human. She didn’t understand this; none of them seemed to understand this. I couldn’t take my clothes off, couldn’t be clean, because then I would be even more defenseless than I already was.
