Page 14 of Drag You Down (Bloody Desires #2)

GAbrIEL

I watch my little lamb as he leads me to the stairs.

I want to go back to Zachariah’s apartment; I want to punch his face in and carve him open and let him know exactly what I think of the way he’s been abusing Levi. I could still do it, too. That flimsy door wouldn’t be able to stop me.

But I know if I do that before Levi is ready, I’ll only lose him forever, and Levi is more important than the rage coiling inside me.

Besides, there’s nothing I can do for Levi if I’m arrested. He’s going to need care and comfort once he’s pulled out of this hell disguised as salvation.

“This way,” Levi says, his voice adorably breathy.

“Of course, little lamb,” I whisper.

I follow him a step too close, and he tenses but doesn’t turn around.

He also stops right in front of the entrance to the building. “You need to leave,” he hisses.

I notice two things right away. One, there’s no conviction in his voice. Two, his right hand is closed in a fist.

Then a third as he turns to face me.

There’s trepidation, of course, and fear. But there’s yearning, too, and it’s all I can do not to lean in and claim his lips in a kiss.

“I haven’t done my inspection,” I say to Levi, and I step even closer, crowding him against the wall of unused mailboxes. “I need to make sure this building is safe for you.”

I can see the way Levi’s Adam’s apple bobs, and how his eyes widen. I lean in, bringing my lips a hair’s breadth away from his.

“What… What do you know about examining buildings?” he whispers. “Is this what you do when you aren’t k-killing people?”

“You think this is my job?” I ask, my lips curving into a smile. I want to ravage him right here, but I’m more than aware of how many people are currently in the building, potentially waiting to run down and discover us.

I back off, and my little lamb shows me such obvious disappointment that it hurts not to kiss it better.

“I think your landlord said to show me the maintenance areas,” I say. “Where’s that?”

“In the…” Levi swallows thickly. “In the basement.”

His hand is still clenched into a fist, and I take his hand into mine. Carefully, I unfurl his fingers, revealing the reason for the tension.

In his palm, imprinted into the skin now, is the crucifix necklace I’d sent him.

My heart does a strange thing, something I’ve never felt in all my life, pain and elation in one swirl of emotion that is impossible to detangle.

I take the necklace from his hand and gently fasten it around his neck. Levi doesn’t move at all. I brush my knuckles across his jaw.

“It looks as good on you as I imagined,” I say with an unfamiliar rawness to my voice. “You’re so perfect, Levi.”

“I’m not,” Levi says with surprising ferocity, shaking his head. “None are perfect. I am… I am a sinner.”

I have a hard time believing Levi knows anything of sin, no matter how often he repeats it. I’ve stared murderers and rapists in the eyes—before cutting those eyes out—and I know what the darkest heart of the world looks like.

It’s nothing like Levi.

“You aren’t a sinner,” I say more fiercely than I intended. “You’re good , Levi.”

Levi chokes out a laugh. “ If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us, ” he says, quoting a familiar verse. “If I’m not a sinner, if I’m good , then why—” He cuts himself off, giving another quick shake of his head. “Why are you here , Gabriel?”

Hearing my name from his lips is like what I imagine his Heaven would feel like.

The only other word that could have such an effect on me would be for him to call me Daddy , to accept my comfort and my care as my boy.

“I’m here to save you,” I say, making Levi’s breath catch.

It’s the truth, if a simplified one.

I’d been watching the cameras I’d placed, sitting outside the building and hoping to catch a glimpse of Levi opening the present I’d left him. His sister picking up the gift instead was unexpected, and she’d shut the door, preventing me from seeing what happened inside.

I did see when Levi went to Zachariah’s apartment, though, and the burning jealousy I’d felt had me abandoning my parked car and pretending to be a building inspector.

I’m not going to let that con man lay another hand on Levi ever again. There will be no more whippings, no more punishment, no empty penance.

The only one who gets to touch Levi is me.

Levi licks his lips, then says, “If you don’t think I’m a sinner, what do you think I need to be saved from?”

I keep his gaze, taking in the gentle curve of his cheek and his adorable nose. There’s a small freckle on the side of his eye that he probably never even notices.

Levi turns red under my scrutiny, making me smile in turn.

“Why don’t you show me the basement,” I say, not answering his question. I raise my clipboard. “So I can do my inspection.” His lips part in what I know will be a protest, so I press a gentle finger against his lips. “Show me.”

He whimpers, a sound that goes straight to my cock, but he says quietly, “I need you to move out of the way.”

If I move, he might choose to flee.

But I can’t get him alone if I don’t.

I carefully step aside, just enough that he can head toward the door to the basement but wouldn’t be able to dart past me to run back upstairs.

His gaze flicks to the elevators, but then he goes to a door across the room.

His hand shakes as he pulls on the handle, and he shuts it once, twice, before finally opening the door all the way.

He hesitates before flicking the dim light on to reveal a set of stairs that look like they’ve seen better days.

He starts down them, and I follow without crowding him, not wanting him to panic and trip.

The air becomes suffocating as we descend.

Levi’s breaths are loud and heavy.

It’s dim and dank in the basement, matching the feeling of the rest of the building. The exposed brick is chipped in some places, and now that I’m down here, I wonder if I should call a real building inspector because I’m no longer sure the building is actually safe.

There’s a single light bulb in the center of the unfinished basement room. Several boilers are set up along one wall, with exposed pipes running up into the ceiling.

I note rat droppings along one wall, but that’s not a surprise. It’d be harder to find a New Bristol apartment without rats.

“How old is this?” I ask as I look around. The exposed architecture is old and half-rusted. Levi lingers at the base of the stairs, and the adorable blush from his cheek is far gone, replaced by something deathly white.

He’s afraid.

“I don’t know,” he says, his voice strange.

I look around again, trying to find the source of his discomfort. There are no chains or whips or any obvious torture devices down here. The only thing unusual is a single wooden chair, lying on its side next to one of the boilers.

“The building is from the 1950s,” I say. “But it must have been updated since then.” I get closer to Levi and place a hand on his shoulder.

He jumps and almost stumbles backward into the stairs.

“Do you want to go back up?” I ask gently.

He’s looking at me, but I get the feeling he’s not seeing me.

His lips part, but no words come out. He’s trembling, and he wraps his arms around himself, pressing them close against his chest. “I c-can’t,” he whispers, his teeth chattering so hard that I have a difficult time understanding what he’s said.

“Little lamb,” I say, cupping his jaw. “Look at me. Tell me what’s wrong.”

Just as I say those words, the flimsy lightbulb flickers.

And dies.

We’re plunged into darkness.

Levi cries out, an animalistic sound of raw terror.

“Levi,” I say.

He sobs desperately, and he slips from my grasp only to trip against the stairs. I catch him before he smashes his head against the hard concrete.

“Levi!” I scoop him up into my arms, and he shakes his head, crying out and flailing.

I end up having to hoist him over my shoulder so I can carry him up the stairs and into the light of the hallway. I almost stumble and fall myself thanks to his flailing, but he’s a lithe young man with nowhere near enough muscle on him.

When I set him down in the hallway upstairs, I look at his beautiful face and see the tears streaming down his cheeks.

The anger slams into me, but I force myself to remain calm. “Shh, boy. Tell me what’s wrong.”

“C-can’t,” he says again, shaking his head. “You need to go before?—”

When he doesn’t complete his sentence, I ask, “Before what?”

He gives me a wide-eyed look of fear. “God cast even angels into Hell in… in chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until judgement. What if judgement never comes?”

I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but I’m certain that Zachariah Carpenter has something to do with it.

I refuse to let my little lamb stay here, alone, panicking on his own.

He deserves better than this congregation of naive fools who look the other way, who allow their fellow congregants to be abused right under their own noses.

I make a snap decision.

I scoop Levi up in my arms and walk toward the apartment door. “You will not be cast into Hell,” I promise him. “You are the light, Levi, and if anybody tells you otherwise?—”

Well, I am much more the Devil than Levi could ever be.

“Wait!” he says, but he’s still shaking.

I can’t leave him here. I won’t.

I push the front door open and carry him around the block to where I’ve parked my luxury sedan.

There’s a parking ticket on the windshield, but I ignore it as I get the door open.

Levi tries once more to run away from me, but I get him into the plush leather seats and strap him in, shutting and locking the door fast.

I hurry into the driver’s seat and start the car before he gets ideas about jumping out.

“I’m taking you home,” I tell him sternly. “You don’t get a choice, boy. I’m going to take care of you.”

My words must have some impact on him because instead of trying to unbuckle the seatbelt and get out of the car, he stays put. “He’s going to be so mad,” he mumbles. “That I left with the Devil.”

“The only Devil you know is the one living in that apartment complex,” I say harshly as I pull out into traffic. The traffic ticket flutters in the wind, threatening to escape its spot underneath the windshield wiper.

Levi chokes on whatever words he was going to say, and he shrinks back into the seat. I want to comfort him, but I need to get him home before I can pull him into my arms. “My sister,” he whispers after a few minutes.

“What about her?” I ask, mentally threatening the driver in front of me with mutilation when they slow down at the yellow light.

“She needs me.” There’s something else he’s not saying, but I wait him out until he continues, “He might hurt her. Take me back. Take me back, I’ll pay my penance, and no one will have to suffer because of me.”

I grip the steering wheel tighter. “No. You had a panic attack because of that basement room—the basement room your Zachariah sent you into.”

“It wasn’t—” he begins.

I give him a sharp look.

He withers beneath it. “But I’m okay now,” he tries.

“You aren’t.”

Traffic finally starts moving again, and I break a few traffic laws in order to get back to my condo building in time.

When I finally park the car, I turn in my seat to face Levi.

“I’m going to take you up to my condo. I’m going to give you a nice, hot shower or bath, your choice.

I’ll cook for you. And you will tell me why you panicked, so I can—” I almost say, break the fingers of whoever hurt you, but I’m going to do so much worse.

He already knows I’m a killer though.

I shake my head. “I’m going to take care of you, little lamb.”

“And who’s going to take care of her?” he asks bleakly.

I couldn’t care less about his sister.

“She’ll survive one day without you,” I say.

She can survive the entire rest of her life without him.

I brush back some of his sweat-slicked curls. “You deserve to be taken care of, boy. Especially right now.”

“She always takes care of me,” he protests. His voice is weak, lost, and he sounds so fragile that my urge to destroy the person who made him this way burns hotter and brighter.

“Don’t argue with me, boy. I’m not giving you a choice,” I say firmly, and to my surprise, Levi’s face turns bright red.

Interesting.

“One day, then you stop stalking me,” he says. He’s trying for firm, too, but coming from him, it’s a lot less convincing. “I have a life. You can’t just… do this.”

I almost tell him that I absolutely can — that I just did.

“One day,” I say, merely to reassure him. I have no intention of giving up on him.

I get out of the car and walk around the other side to open the door for Levi. He hesitates before taking the hand I offer him.

I pull him up—and against my chest, wrapping my arm around him.

“You’re safe with me,” I promise him, pressing a kiss to the top of his head.

He lets out a broken laugh. “Safe, with the Devil.”

I smile. “Nobody would dare harm you with the Devil protecting you.”

Levi shivers.

I’ll be the Devil if it chases the shadows away from his eyes.