Page 93 of All Your Deadly Truths (The Filthy Duet #2)
Xeraphine
W hen I wake, Kai isn’t in bed.
I truly don’t know how much time has passed since our deaths, because the sun is always coming through the window, but he has always been here when I wake.
Throwing the blankets off me, I begin searching the house that holds no meaning to me. It all seems different, wrong , like we don’t belong here. When I leave one room, and go to the next, I forget what the previous one looked like.
The only thing I can remember is Kairhyse, my monster, the one I’ve spent however long curled up next to.
“Kai?” I call out to him for the first time this morning, but I don’t get anything in response.
I wet my lips and return to our bedroom. The bed with all plum-colored dressings has been made, but not by me. I turn to the bathroom, not that we use it or really anything in this afterlife.
The moment I’m about to check the closet, I hear, “Burrrow”.
Peaking over my shoulder, I see Mister coming through the slightly cracked door. My chest raises as I take a deep breath.
“What’re you doing here?” He hadn’t shown up in our version of paradise.
Buurrrow. Rrrow.
My eyes narrow in curiosity, and as I step to him, he turns around and walks out of the room.
A sharp pinch in my chest makes me instinctively reach for an invisible weapon—whatever it is that’s causing the pain. There’s nothing there, but it feels as though a small knife is dragging across my skin.
Rrrrrrrrowww.
I lift my gaze, and the light that usually pours from outside dims, and darkness now urges me to come to it.
“Kai?” I call for him again, and when silence envelops around me, I release a shaky breath.
Has it already been so long?
Taking the steps back to the door, I reach out with an unstable hand and push it open.
The darkness is as it always has been to me, unwelcoming, but not something I fear.
It wraps me in a feeling of loneliness I never want to feel again, but I know if Kai isn’t in this room, it means I need to wake.
Like my body’s coming back to life and removing the only means to keep me fighting against it.
I take the step through, and as if on instinct, my eyes shut, blanketing me in the cruel world I’ll be waking up to.
6 weeks later
A groan rolls from my throat and it isn’t as sore as I had imagined it to be. My tongue ring isn’t stuck to the roof of my mouth, and while my body aches, it’s not in pain.
“What… the fuck?” I am going to kill whoever woke me up too soon.
My hand moves up to my neck, feeling that my head has been placed perfectly, enough so that it will reattach itself instead of grow one back.
I’d instructed Kayn to cut my head off so that I was dead quicker than my heart would give out.
That, and I wanted to spill blood into the casket, just in case…
“There she is.”
My gasp catches in my throat, and I choke on nothing other than my shock.
I feel movement beside me, and I immediately jerk my head to the side. It’s pitch black in here, but I don’t need to see him to know that the body that moves next to me is alive .
I’d have immediately thought someone was playing a fucked-up prank on me. That maybe Alaric was being nice to just turn around and move me into his bed and wake me, tormenting me with happiness but instead giving me my own eternal damnation.
But there is no mistaking that voice.
“K-Kai…” I shake through his name.
His hand quickly finds mine that is still at my throat, and circles it around his neck before pulling me into a powerful kiss. The sound of liquid slushes under us as he angles himself to me and tilts his head. My mouth opens, his tongue clashes against mine and as I taste him, I hold him tighter.
“O-Oh—” I grab his hair and pull him back. “Oh my Gods—it worked!”
“Yes, little demon, it did.” He tears from my grip and smashes his lips against mine once more, kissing and sucking on my tongue that invades his mouth. “You did it.”
I laugh, but still keep our mouths secured together.
It worked… It fucking worked…
“I don’t know if it will work,” I say, releasing a heavy, painful sigh. “It’s so risky. You’ll die and I’ve never brought anyone back. Your healing is based on your body pumping the blood throughout your system.”
Kairhyse runs his fingers through my hair, our bodies entwined so tightly that not even a breath of air could slip between us. We are taking our time getting out of bed, knowing that the moment we do, we will have to meet up with Sydni and the rest of them, then it’s off to Sidence.
“It could, and worst case, we can just sit in that dreamy state you talked about.” His lips brush against mine.
“If it comes down to it, put my head back on my shoulders—” I literally tremble, violently so.
“—and then put me into a pool of your blood. Or maybe…” He wraps his arm around my neck and has me burying my face into the curve of his shoulder.
“Your Amoro will come find my soul and bring me back.”
“I don’t think that is how that works…”
But maybe it does. ‘I will make sure his soul stays yours’ –could that be what Proserpina meant? That she would ensure it was never collected, allowing him to stay with me…
“Why not let fate decide what works and doesn’t, little demon?”
I feel like crying, my head hurts and I just don’t want to go through with any of this. “Fate has been cruel…”
“Fate is a being without remorse, but, little demon, nothing—not even death—will keep us apart. Let it play out as it is meant to, and just remember that I will find you.”
I smother myself into him. “I’d search for eternity to get you back if I had to.”
He hums. “I know you would, because my moody, vengeful filled demon, loves me.”
Smiling, I nod. “I do… I really do.”
He releases my head, and I suck in a sharp breath, before trying to go back for another kiss.
“I’m still here…” Mister purrs. “Please, do not begin fucking in this small space. I will lick all your toys.”
A laugh bubbles out of my lips, slipping through my happy tears. My eyes are starting to adjust, but because there is no light that spills through any seam of the confinement, I don’t see much but the outlining of Kai and his crimson eyes that glow.
His soft, thoughtful hum has shivers rolling down my back.
He then takes a deep breath, his hand moving to lift my chin.
“You are free, little demon.”
I move closer, slipping one of my legs between his thighs and being so happy that there is nothing out there hunting me to take me away from his embrace. My nails dig into his back, just as Mister comes to rest right at our hips. He does so enough that he curves across us both.
I had felt the break of our Mark, our bond, when Kai died. But now, as I feel its zing again, I know more than ever that there’s no life without him. It wasn’t revenge that would bring me peace in the end—it was him.
“Free to live my life with you,” I whisper against his thumb that draws a line down my lips.
“That is the only way you’re allowed to live, fortunately for you.” My smile grows. “We might find ourselves bored. You know, you not running from me anymore.”
“I will take some boredom,” Mister cuts in.
I nod. “Agreed. At least for a few hundred years.”
He hums, and with a force I wasn’t expecting, he punches upward with his free hand. The metal whines, and with one more hit, the hinges that bolted the lid closed give. Another hit has it bending upward, allowing light to spill in.
He’s covered in blood, but the color in his skin has returned, and those bright red eyes look at me with nothing but love and possession. They scream of keeping me in them for the rest of our lives.
“I wouldn’t have cared to spend an everlasting eternity in bed with you, but I am thankful I get you back in this life. ”
He brings his hand down to my cheek, and leans in. “Eternity tastes so good, but not as good as you, my love.”
He gives me no means to respond, and passionately places his lips to mine, stealing my breath, my heart, and everything that falls in between.