A shiver courses down my spine, my tentacles pulsing at the possibility of both. Orthia smirks as she flexes her biceps.
“I’m a good girl, but sometimes,” I lean forward until our breath mingles and I can almost taste her. “I like being naughty, Captain.”
Her eyes dip for a moment to the swooping neckline of this dress, where just the tip of my tentacle etching peaks out between my cleavage. I smile at the show she is trying to put on for me.
Then it falters for a moment. A phantom pain in my wrist and a sudden rush of feeling in my stomach make me feel like I’m falling and have me turning a bit cold. The smile drops from my lips as a sinking sensation overcomes me.
“I don’t want to be yanked around. That’s a hard limit.”
Orthia uncrosses her arms, and brings her hand out for me to hold. My fingers slide between hers effortlessly, because they are meant to be there. It’s insane to me that I have a soulmate, that I’m even alive, but I’m leaning into the illogical, the irresponsible. She is literally a centuries-old serial killer with enough trauma to topple a city, and I don’t want another person besides her. I have seen her devotion in action. I want that directed at me. The way her shoulders relax when our hands meet is like the sun on her skin for the first time. It’s perfect.
“I won’t do that again, nor will I allow anyone else to do that to you, ever,” she promises. It’s hard to tell in the dark, but I know she is looking at me with brutal sincerity.
“What are your ground rules?” I ask, swallowing the lump in my throat. I am about to murder someone; I am not going to cry over our kink negotiations.
“I like to be in charge,” she starts, but before she can keep going, Audrey wakes up.
“Was going on?” She moves to sit up.
“Shh,” I hiss, ready to shove my designer high heel right into her mouth to keep her from talking. I need to hear all of this.
Orthia cocks her head to the side and arrogant energy rolls off of her in waves. She squeezes my hand softly before letting go and turning towards step one in my revenge plan.
“You canearnthe rest of my rules, wife. Consider edging one of my favourite pastimes, though.”
“Yeah, I know all about that, Captain,” I grumble, before crouching down to face this traitor among women.
Her eyes are struggling to focus. Audrey blinks heavily and stares like she’s still got sleep in her eyes. My fingers snap in front of her face and that gets her to focus quickly enough. Her nose isn’t gushing blood down the front of her dress any more, but it’s definitely broken. I look over my shoulder at Orthia, who shrugs at my disapproving look.
I hike the skirt of my dress up to take the dagger from the holster strapped to my thigh.
“Where the fuck did you get that?” Orthia’s voice is husky and whisper-soft when she asks me that.
It’s my turn to let arrogance roll off me. I smirk at my soulmate and shrug. “I took it from the closet.”
“Don’t put it back.”
She doesn’t elaborate further than that, but as I turn back to the woman I am going to murder, my lower body clenches as tentacles pulse inside me with lust. Now is definitely not the time for these feelings. Once I’ve scrubbed all the evidence off of my body, then we can be horny. Right now, I need to let the anger out, need to let it centre in my chest until I can feel Love’s power surge through me to draw out Audrey’s life force.
“Audrey.” I tap the edge of my knife against her cheek and she hiccups. Tears swell along her eye line and her lip trembles. “I need answers.”
“Delphini, you don’t have to do this,” she whimpers.
“Did you have to do what you did?” I ask. “Was drugging me fun for you? Did watching strangers assault me make you feel good?”
She doesn’t answer. Heavy tears fall from her eyes and mix with the drying blood around her mouth. It’s disgusting. She’s scared, and I don’t care because this is barely an ounce of what I felt on that night. These are the tears of someone who is being eaten alive by guilt.
No, these are tears of someone who is upset they got caught. Audrey Paine would have happily lived her whole, expensive life without giving what she did to me a second thought.
Those tears are what bring the waves of anger rushing through me. Makes my limbs lighten and makes my fingers flex around the hilt of this dagger.
“Because that is where you and I differ. I have to do this, but it won’t be so bad if you talk.” I rest my knifepoint on her chest. “So, tell me what you know.”
“I don’t know anything,” she sobs, the lie falling from her lips so easily.
“That’s not how it sounded when I stumbled down the stairs on that fucking boat and you said… What did you say, Audrey?”
She shakes her head at me. The anger in me draws in closer, tighter into my chest, like the ocean receding before a storm. I need my answers before the storm breaks, before the wave of my fury crashes into Audrey and I’ve fucked this forever.
