Page 73 of Cryptic Dreams
“Thought it was time to redecorate. A little blood here, a new rug there. I’m sure I could find asetethat compliments the corpses.” I crush the muscle in my palm, the male’s heart exploding around my fingers before I toss it aside and glance around, realizing I’m actually going to have to redecorate now.If the madness of her rejection doesn’t kill me first.“I’ve been living in the dark ages far too long with all these antiques collecting dust. It’s time for somethingnew.”
“Asshole,” she spits.
Seems as though her disgust in me knows no bounds, what with the demolition and death now painting my home.
Good.
I’ll need to play on that while she’s here so she leaves quickly, otherwise I’ll carry Zephyr down to my secret study, tie her up and beg her to never leave me.
“What are you doing here, Zephyr?”
She stares at me for a few beats, her mind completely shielded but her body language full of determination.
Another blow to my battered heart.
My mate with a fire inside her, a warm and blinding flame that has sparked into something dark and delicious. Something that is burning to be set free, to be unleashed in all of its beautiful destructive glory. Something I would have loved to explore at length, given things were different.
My mate no longer is afraid of anything and, fuck, if it isn’t lovely on her.
“I said I wanted to go home.”
Once again, the stupid organ inside my chest leaps to attention, but I ignore it and start wiping my blood soaked hands on the front of my dress shirt. There is no way she views my house ashome. She barely did before wediscussedthings, I can’t imagine she would now.
“You came to collect your belongings then, yeah? Wanted to make sure you retrieved your subpar paintings and sentimental trinkets?” Her flinch cuts me like a knife, but I need to be cruel.Cruel for her. “I could’ve merely tossed what little you possess in a rubbish bin and had it sent over.” I arch a brow as I dig the blade a little deeper, my indifferent tone enough to have my stomach rolling. “Then again, you’re an orphaned, friendless little outlaw, burned yourmasterto a crisp and have nowhere else to go. I’d need an address in order to send your things anywhere and since—”
“Stop!” Zephyr booms, thunder and lightning in her voice, the electrical charge she emits almost visible as it ripples through the air around us.
Well, that’s perplexing.
But I tamp down my curiosity and concern in favor of donning a sardonic grin. “Angry,love? Right pissed that the Gods of Old bound you to a murdering heartless bastard like me?”
“Am I angry?” She stalks toward me, the gold of her eyes like a thousand suns burning into my soul. “I’mfurious, Wraith. I’m furious with you, but not because I’m bound to a murdering bastard.”
“You left out heartless.”
“Intentionally.” Zephyr steps over the discarded windpipe and stops a simple three feet away. “If I’ve learned anything about you over the last month, it is that you are definitelynotheartless.”
“Is that right?” I’m teetering on the edge here. Angry, hopeful. Devastated, in love. Turned the fuck on because my god, my mate is magnificent. There is a lethal cocktail racing through my veins and one wrong move, one wrong word from my gentle breeze will have it exploding through my skin and dragging us both down with it in one way or another.
She holds her head high and meets my condescending stare. “It is. I know you have a heart and the little bits of it you’ve shown me are beautiful.”
I scoff. “Silly, stupid girl. Was nearly getting killed not enough for you? What you see before you, or my lesson in my family history not quite what it’ll take for you to understand who I truly am? Was that not enough to prove that I am a cruel, bitter, calculating killer who won’t think twice about doing what it takes to get what I want?”
Her breath quickens as I slowly begin to move toward her. “Perhaps then I should share everything? Everything that makes me a vile bastard that would happily destroy innocent lives if need be, murder my own flesh and blood without batting an eye in the name of vengeance and the greater good?”
My grin widens as Zephyr inhales sharply. “That little incident at my nest? The one we were to be debriefed on in a short few days? It was all my doing. The entire plot took root in my twisted little mind then grew into something warped and depraved.” Searching her eyes I continue advancing until Zephyr is forced to take a step back—out of fear or disgust, I do not know but either will suffice. “I purchased ungodly amounts of drugs, used them to lure countless humans to the nest, orchestrated an orgy amongst the coven and coaxed its members to fuck until the need to feed became too great.”
Her breath stutters out of her, but I keep going.
“I planned every last detail, encouraged the Counsel and nobles to indulge until their baser instincts took over knowing damn well once they began to feed they wouldn’t be able to stop, knowing that once they drained those disgusting humans dry they’d be so ripped out of their skulls that they’d practically be in a coma. I planned to have a member of my group tip off the VSUST so they would stumble across a scene straight out of their worst nightmares, hence setting in motion a sequence of events that should have dismantled the Counsel from the inside out.” As nonchalantly as possible, I push a hand back through my hair and continue as if I’m unfazed by sharing all of this with the only creature on the planet I fear judgment from. “I did itknowingdozens would die, did itwithout caringabout anything but my end goal, and do you want to know how I was spending my time while this all transpired?”
Zephyr shakes her head and relief floods my stomach despite the way my chest squeezes. This will surely be the end of us then.
“I was entertaining a human couple, male and female, in my dungeon. They were both bound and tortured for hours on end, their naked bodies blooming with my marks. And you know what I did to them?” My smile turns cruel as I meet her gorgeous glowing eyes. “I fucked them both, Zephyr. Fucked the male’s virginal little arse, fucked both of their filthy mouths, slid my dick between the female’s tightly bound breasts.” I take one more step, my mate’s breath puffing across my chest in fast succession through the split in my shirt. “They were completely at my mercy, covered in welts and bruises, cuts and scrapes, their blood and cum marring every surface of my room as well as my hands while I fucked them both repeatedly for hours. All as my coven slaughtered dozens upon dozens, living beings that I led right to their deaths in hopes of bringing my plan to fruition, and I did it because I am a cold, cruel,heartlessbastard.”
Zephyr’s hand shoots out so fast I almost miss it, the slap across my face surely one I would have felt, but in the blink of an eye I have her pinned to the wall by the door, arms above her head, her delicate wrists firmly in my grip.
“Feisty, yeah?”
