Page 32

I woke two days later with one motherfucker of a pain in my side, but I was alive, so fuck it.

“Never do that again, Nikolas. Promise me,” she begs, her thumb remaining on the scar while the rest of her fingers wrap around my side, tugging me closer. And the sap that I am, I go to her.

“What? Get stabbed? I’ll do my best, Angel.”

“Well, yeah. But if you get hurt, you need to get it looked at.”

“I survived,” I mutter.

“And what if you didn’t? What would I have done then?” she asks, tears quickly filling her eyes.

“Not had your soul darkened by me,” I mutter, cupping her cheek in my hand.

“No. That’s not—”

“Come on.” I take her hand and drag her into the house.

She stands, silently leaning against the door frame of the bathroom in the master bedroom I put her in when we arrived, and I can’t help but smile.

“I thought you didn’t have a thing about watching,” I shoot over my shoulder.

“You’re beautiful, you know that?”

A bitter laugh falls from my lips.

“That’s about the furthest from the truth that you can get, Angel.”

“Bullshit,” she spits as I tuck myself away and flush.

I get caught in her mesmerising blue eyes as I step toward the basin.

“Stop looking at the world through rose-tinted glasses, Calli.”

Her lips purse in irritation.

“I can see things perfectly clearly. Don’t treat me like they do,” she seethes.

“Then stop romanticising this.” I gesture to myself. “Our lives are ugly, messy, brutal. There’s nothing beautiful about me or any of the things I do.”

“You are to me.”

My lips part to argue once more, but how can I when she thinks she’s right?

“Yeah, and look what I’ve done to you. I’ve tainted you with the devil.”

I step in front of her and grasp her chin between my fingers, staring down into her pure, innocent eyes.

She trembles in anger, but she doesn’t say a word as I take my fill of her.

“Clean up. I’m going to make dinner.”

All the air rushes out of her lungs as I release her and march through the bedroom and down the hall to the one I reluctantly claimed for myself. Or at least the room I dumped the clothes I bought when I went shopping yesterday. Not that I’ll sleep. I won’t be able to anywhere in this place unless I have Calli right by my side.

Memories flood me as I step into the room with the two single beds. The image of Alex bouncing on the one closest to the window fills my mind, and I can’t help but feel lighter. He was always so full of life. He still is, despite everything we’ve both lived through. But he was like the fucking Duracell bunny whenever we got to stay here.

I used to think it was the constant treats that our grandmother used to give us, or maybe even the beach. But now I realise he was able to break free of the shackles that tied us down at home. Clearly, his weren’t locked quite as tightly as mine.

I grab my phone, my need to reach out to him burning through me, but I quickly remember that Calli still has it.