“No. You’ve told me what you’ve told yourself. I want the truth.”
“What truth?”
For fuck’s sake. How did Alexei do it?
“Why.” I drove my fist into his jaw. “Do.” His stomach. “You.” His nose. “Keep.” His jaw again. “Getting.” His mouth. “Up?”
“Why do you keep avoiding my ribs?” he accused, spitting on my boots.
Was that his attempt to bait me?
I’d had countless bodily fluids splatter my boots over the years. His hardly mattered. Although I couldn’t help but be smug that we were finally making progress.
Let’s see how angry he became if I didn’t hurt him at all.
“You expect me to answer your question when you refuse to answer mine?”
“I have!” he shouted.
I chuckled.
Something snaked through his tightening expression. I knew that look. It was the same one MJ got when she had me by the balls. Or Alexei, when he developed a plan that’d destroy our adversary. He had a card up his sleeve. Was he about to rub Lucille’s sleeping habits in my face?
I’d already battled with that this morning.
Was he going to bring up their past sexual exploits? The thought pissed me off, but also made me smile, because I had some of my own now. More recent too.
“Remember when I told you about the time I ran my tongue all over Lucille’s body?”
So fucking predictable. I shrugged, keeping a tight hold on my pissy shadows, knowing my nonchalant response would further goad him. That was part of our goal, after all. Unfortunately, it did nothing. He truly thought he had something.
“Well, I forgot to mention each time I made her orgasm on my fingers and tongue, giving her the first moments of pleasure in her entire twenty years…” He paused, letting his trailing words sink in.
Did they really count if they happened in her dream-walks?
Still, his words were like tiny needles digging beneath my skin, creating holes for my shadows to seep through as they attacked my body, trying to fly out and silence him. I tensed, keeping them close. He wanted a reaction. The need for pain in this stage was undeniable. And as much as his words taunted the beast inside me, I wouldn’t give him what he wanted.
Then he continued.
“I manipulated her.”
A deadly cold pooled through my system.
“I took her pleasure all for the sake of the show I provided for Lilith.”
Show?
He used Lucille’s most vulnerable moments to give a show to that deranged fucking witch?
My Soul Swords were in my hands before I even realized I’d moved. My vicious shadows seethed to be released. To raze him from this world. I clenched my hilts, arms and legs shaking with my fraying restraint.
She would never forgive me.
“Should’ve seen how happy I made her after I seduced her into trusting me.”
I took one step, teeth clenched, battling every cell in my body screaming at me to close the distance and end this.
“Stop,” I hissed, trying to save his rotten existence.
