Only, half of his face is caved in, his skull irreparably dented, bits of flesh dangling around shiny skull and gray brain. Kage reels back again, raising the crowbar with both hands above his head and slamming it down onto bone and viscera. Blood spurtsfrom the new wound as he collapses in my lap, and all I can do is watch in shock and horror as Kage grips him by the back of the shirt and hauls him away from me…
Only to pound his brain into the concrete over and over and over, beating the dead body of the man who touched me until he’s nothing but pulverized scalp, until what was once a round head is now a cracked eggshell, spilling its contents to the ground below.
Kage stands above the decimated man, shoulders and chest heaving with exertion. When his eyes find mine, he drops the weapon, his face a canvas smeared with crimson, his eyes glowing with the remnants of his white hot fury. Gritting his teeth, he angles his body toward mine, and takes a step forward.
Whimpering, I shuffle back, slipping in my own blood, terrified of what I’ve just witnessed and what was about to happen to me. In the silence that follows, my panic attack is allowed to take root, and I press my shaky fingers to my lips as my chest burns and my breath comes in sharp gasps.
Slowly, Kage crouches a few feet from me, careful not to come any closer but making himself appear smaller for my benefit. I can’t look him in the eye. Can’t make sense of what I’m supposed to think or feel right now. He reaches out to me, palm up, fingers relaxed, congealing blood beginning to crack along the lines of his tanned hand.
I shake my head and choke on a sob. I don’t know if I want him. He put me in this situation, and yet all I want is for him to hold me. I don’t know why. I shouldn’t want that after what he just did, even if it was to save me.
My eyes skirt around his impending frame, searching for the horrors I know I’ll find behind him, but he stands and cuts off my view, coming closer to bend down and tenderly cup my chin. Eyes fluttering, my panic ebbs at his gentle touch, and I find his gaze. He’s guarded, but when I don’t push him away, his otherhand moves to cup my swollen cheek, head tilting to the side to study me, to ensure I’m intact.
A fresh wave of tears chokes me, a sob wrenched from the pits of my weary, broken soul. He doesn’t hesitate when he hears my cry, pulling me to his chest, tucking me into the safety of his warmth and strong embrace.
So I cling to him and weep, knowing that the worst is yet to come.
CHAPTER TWENTY
SUMMER
Waveringbetween this realm and one far more sinister than plain sleep, I force my eyes to stay open out of sheer self-preservation.
Kage’s hands are slicked with blood, the liquid sticky against my cheeks and stringent as it’s sucked through my nose, the taste lingering on the back of my tongue. More of the offensive color clings to exposed, jagged bits of bone, the jaw of the man who was about to rape me crooked, his eyes sunken.
There is no making sense of what I am witnessing, of how it will impact my mind from this moment on. Kage’s grip on my cheeks tightens, a sound issuing from the back of his throat that dies as soon as it catches on frayed vocal cords. Vision swimming with tears, my eyes are pulled from the body to his.
Only, the Kage I’ve come to learn is still so very far away from me, and my body seems to know he won’t be returning anytime soon. His livid eyes glow with fury, the emotion an entity burning him alive from the inside out. Nostrils still flared as his chest heaves, his teeth slide against one another before he swallows and parts his lips that are carved from the same slab of marble as David.
“M…mmm…”
The sound comes from deep in his throat, choking off in a raspy cough before the consonant is fully formed. His anger only grows, his nose and jaw ticking, his grip on my face tightening until an ache blooms in my bones and mingles with the pounding in my head.
“My…mi-ne.”
My heart dips as though free-falling from the stratosphere. There’s an unhinged glint to his gaze that I’ve yet to meet, and although it terrifies me to some extent, I have to acknowledge to myself that this moment was always bound to happen. I knew Kage would snap eventually; I just didn’t know what provocation would tip him over the edge and into the blackness of a plane with no morality.
So when his zipper descends and his cock becomes seated at my entrance, I tighten my hold around his neck, shivering in trepidation, steeling my nerves and preparing for the decimation I am about to face. Holding his gaze as we pant, hanging suspended above the pits of a realm neither of us have known before, I make peace with what it is he needs to do.
“Yours,” I agree softly, giving him the only permission I know he’ll accept.
His pupils are a black hole at the center of our universe, consuming the once-golden ring around those impossible depths, and with a vicious sneer, he sinks his cock into me to the hilt in one brutal, claiming thrust. My head tips back, baring my throat to his teeth as I scream; the pain is acute, for not only do I feel cloven in half by his girth, but the head of his cock is kissing my womb at the same time—and he keeps pushing until our hip bones kiss and I swallow him whole.
Pushing against his chest to alleviate some of that burning that flares through my pelvic region, I pant, “Kage…fuck…hold on…”
The most gentle thing he does is lay me on the cold, bloody ground, keeping himself planted inside me as he cradles my aching skull with his massive palm. A shuddering breath ripples through him, and my brows pull together in earnest, knowing that is the only reprieve I’ll get.
His other hand settles on my stomach beneath my belly button, pushing down until I can feel him prodding at his own palm through me. It’s erotic and barbaric and shouldn’t make me wet, but my cunt weeps around him all the same.
He begins to thrust haphazardly, and it’s clear he’s not experienced, but something about the way he holds my gaze as well as holds me has me melting beneath him.
“Fuck,” I whimper once he finds a rhythm, one that has my bruised ass cheeks slapping the ground below.
“Mi…ne,” he growls again, losing his voice halfway between the word. Jostling to the timing of his thrusts, I nod.
“Yours.”
It’s so fucked up, so dirty and wrong and savage, my eyes skipping past my jiggling thigh and his pumping hips to the corpse behind us. The man who tried to take what was always Kage’s. My eyes roll back, and my pussy flutters around his massive length that is still unbearably painful, but also morphing into something deeply satisfying.He killed for me. He beat a man to death for touching me and had not a trace of fear on his archangelic face.
