Page 54

My joy comes to an abrupt end as we both freeze at the sound of Helene’s stick tapping outside of the room. It moves in the same pattern it did while she was walking in the creepy cathedral. The sound gets louder, and Kane tries to move me off his thigh.

He’s a fucking dumbass if he thinks he can do anything.

His arm is bleeding and he’s pale from the amount of blood he’s lost. Who knows what kind of filth will get into his wound, only for it to end up getting infected.

I’ll be the one stuck looking after him when he doesn’t deserve care or some Nightingale routine.

Pressing my forearm flat against his chest, I draw my brows together and shake my head in a quick, tight motion so he stays still.

He taps his ear with his two middle fingers before gesturing to the wall that Helene is pacing on the other side of.

The bitch is eavesdropping. She’s like my parents and needs to see the pain she causes.

Fuck her and fuck them. They never got to see that shit from me, so I won’t allow any of them to have the satisfaction of it now.

Whether it’s me or Kane, we’ll hide everything because it’s us against them.

We can hate each other once this is all over, but now we have a common enemy.

He curls his lips into his mouth to hide his laugh as I tilt my head to the side to shake my hair away from his wound. I must look like an idiot, but I tap him with my elbow and nod towards my exposed neck.

“Bite,” I mouth.

He leans into me to place a gentle kiss over my pulse point.

If he’s trying to distract me or make me forget everything he’s done, he’s even more deluded than I thought.

I increase the pressure against his arm, directly against his wound, and he sucks in a breath.

It’s not even at the worst part, considering there’s nothing to numb him when I do the stitches, so he can stop pretending to be fucking brave with his breathing exercises.

“It’s your turn to scream for me.” I gesture to my neck again as I dig my fingers into the inflamed skin to get him to move.

He holds my hip in a bruising grip, pulling me closer as he sinks his teeth into my neck.

His harsh breaths blow across my nape as I gently uncover the wound and wash it out with the solution.

The smell hits me as soon as it leaves the flexible spout, and he bites even harder to dull his screams. The peroxide fizzes upon contact with his blood and the white foam runs down his bicep as his arm spasms.

I’m going to be covered in blood and bruises.

Kane wraps his left hand around my knee.

The veins in the back of his inked hand are thick, crawling over each knuckle up to his fingers.

I need to wash out the peroxide, but none of the other solutions are labelled and they’re all in the same pouches with a spout.

There’s nothing to differentiate what they are, and some acids don’t have a scent so I can’t smell the liquid before I use it to make sure it’s safe or that it won’t hurt him.

Helene’s fucking tapping is directly on the other side of the door. Each fucking repetition is like she’s inside of my damn skull with that stupid fucking stick, smacking my brain. There’s no rhythm to it. Some are fast, others slow. But it makes me want to scream.

I cup Kane’s elbow and try to stand. He tightens his arms around me, shaking his head with his teeth still latched on to my skin.

Squeezing his elbow, I wrap my other arm around his neck and press my forearm to his nape, so I don’t get the sand and grit on my gloves.

He seems to understand that I’m not leaving him and stands with me.

His teeth tug my skin as we slowly walk into the bathroom.

The tapping seems to move with us, and I don’t know why it’s pissing me off.

They restrained me while forcing Kane to fuck me, put their filthy fucking blood on me, imprisoned us on this island, but a small sound—a fucking tap—is the thing that’s making this all worse.

Kane sways on his feet and I focus on him, even though his cunt of a grandmother is toying with us.

I’m pulled forward by my neck as I sit him on the edge of the bathtub.

My exhausted body can’t react quick enough as my knees crack against the metal tub.

His teeth draw blood from the force of dragging me with him.

The only thing stopping his head from slamming on the edge is my forearm.

My knee is trapped between his thighs, and he’s even more fucked up than me because he’s hard.

I like pulling sounds out of instruments and Kane is no different as I push my knee up, earning a groan.

Gripping my hips, he tries to pull me away, but I increase the pressure as I reach for the brass shower head resting above the faucet.

I ignore him as I test the water temperature as well as my control over him.

“I need you to move, koukla mou,” he begs into my neck.

I begged him when he was Ghost and he never helped me.

Maybe vengeance is a good thing. It’s a powerful feeling to know that I’m the one who can hurt him now.

But I don’t want his pain, I want him to feel the way I did.

To be confused and screaming into the void because the only person in front of him is refusing to acknowledge him.

The bottom of the tub fills up around Kane’s body blocking the drain.

His knees are hanging over the curved edge, and for one moment I imagine what it would be like to allow the tub to fill, then hold his head under the water until bubbles stop forming.

I lift myself up then stroke his cheek with the tip of my nose to prevent dirtying the gloves or reducing the pressure on his wound as I whisper, “It would be poetic, wouldn’t it? ”

“What?” he mumbles into my neck, refusing to let my skin go.

“I killed Asher with fire. I could kill his reflection with water since mirrors always flip the image.”

“Don’t,” he begs.

Good, keep begging and we’ll see who the bitch is then.

“Don’t,” he repeats more forcefully as he tugs on my hips. “I’m not him. I’m me, Kane. Yours.”

I continue ignoring him as I bring the shower head closer to wash out his wound.

The pool collecting beside us is tinged red and brown with small grains of sand sinking to the bottom of the tub as I watch the dirt unveil his tattoos.

I can’t hear the tapping over the sound of the water.

Kane’s whispering, “Look at me, Delilah.”

I bite the inside of my cheek to prevent any words leaving me. I don’t want to be passive, stupid Delilah who gives in to everyone anymore. There has to be some seed of strength inside of me that isn’t a fucking idiot, allowing everyone to treat me like shit.