Page 110 of Always A Villain

He chokes, blood bubbling up from his throat. The air is thick with the taste of iron. His body spasms violently. He’s bleeding out fast.

“Please,” he gurgles, the word barely a whisper. “Stop…” He finally begs, they all do,eventually.

“No. This is for Rory.Herrevenge.” I pull the plastic bag over his head, seething. “For forcing her to listen whileyou raped and murdered her mother. For making her believe it was her fault. For every fucking moment of pain she felt because of you. You deserve every second of this.”

He gags, his body jerking, the fight fading from his eyes as the blood fills his lungs, drowning him from the inside out. His chest heaves, desperate, but there’s nothing left. Just death.

“Goodbye, Conrad,” I whisper in his ear, tightening the bag, sealing his fate.

I rear the hammer back. One last swing, and the impact is fatal. His body slumps, lifeless. His last breath leaks out, empty.

This kill is more satisfying than any other.

Because this one heals the woman I love.

I wipe my prints from the room, leaving no trace of me behind. Just his bloody, tortured corpse. As I slip out the way I came, I grab his phone and laptop. I don’t know what information he was hiding, but I’ll find out—I always do.

As the sun rises, shining through the early morning haze, I slip back to the car. The streets are empty and silent. I rip off my blood-soaked clothes. Shove them into a bag. Change fast. Toss the bag into a dumpster. Watch it go up in flames.

My life has been nothing but shadows and blood. A trail of corpses. My heart is a slab of stone, black and hollow. No soul. Just a fucking void where something human should’ve been.

I am death. The Reaper. And I don’t apologize for it. Don’t regret it. I’ve embraced it.

Then she came.

No matter how much I bleed for her, no matter how hardI fight, I’ll always be the monster. The devil they whisper about in the dark. I don’t deserve her. Never fucking will. I’ll carry this darkness with me to my grave.

But I’m hers.

For better or worse.

And I’ll die before I let anyone take that from me.

My only regret is not seeing it sooner. Not realizing she was the one thing worth fighting for.

Now, I’ll spend every second of my life making sure she never feels pain again. Never suffers. Never has to look over her shoulder.

Her happiness is all I care about.

All I ever will.

Acool breeze brushes my skin. I stir in bed, reaching for Axe, but there’s nothing but cold sheets.

“Axe?” My voice is groggy as I sit up.

No answer. The clock flashes 12:49 a.m. Noticing the patio door’s cracked open, I pull on the silk robe hanging by the bed and walk across the marble floor. Before I reach the door, something shifts in the shadows behind me.

I freeze.

The shape steps forward. The skull mask catches the moonlight. A knife glints in his hand.

“Little siren,” he says, voice like gravel. “It’s time to hunt.”

I suck in a breath. “Axe...”

“Run.”

My heart stutters, a twisted mix of fear and arousal hitting me at once.