“Bailey said it was for his protection but also for my peace of mind in case he had an accident.” What I believe she’s trying to say without actually saying it is if he tried to kill himself again. I know Kayden’s emotions are volatile, oscillating between depressed and wanting to end it all. They change on a hair trigger and I’m constantly afraid from one minute to the next that this episode, this manic break, might be the one that takes him from me.

I swallow around the bile inching up my throat as I try to lock that insidious thought away. I won’t allow the terrifying “what if’s” to take away the chance I have to be with him. Every second with him is a blessing bestowed by the gods and I won’t waste it fearing the next time I see him could be the last. “Alright, can we remove it now?”

Springing from her seat with alarming speed, Jenna launches herself over the table throwing herself onto the floor at my feet a loud thud echoes around the room from the impact of her fall. It takes my mind far too long to work out what’s going on, it all seems to happen in slow motion yet too fast for me to process. As Jenna rolls across the floor cradling Kayden in her arms as convulsions ravage his body and rip apart his mind.

He stares straight ahead through wide unseeing eyes. The haunting emptiness that emanates from them has the cold touch of death lingering on my skin. His pupils are blown so wide their inky blackness has almost devoured the whites of his eyes; they reflect a desolation that pierces me right through the heart. His hands are gnarled, fingers bent like distorted talons that claw at his arms and face leaving rivulets of crimson trickling down his skin. A silent scream distorts his mouth, echoing the anguish that’s ravaging his mind. The image now rendered into the back of my eyes sears right through me to the depths of my soul.

I’m frozen. My brain stutters like the needle on an old fashioned record player skipping bouncing back and forth between that split second. “Rhys,” Jenna hisses at me. My eyes snap up to her implying her to tell me what to do because my mind is offline, static crackling through my ear. “Go through into my office, in the top drawer of my desk is a bottle of Benzodiazepine. Get it now.” My body moves without thought following her instructions as the soft murmur of her voice fills the room as she tries to bring my angel back to me.

How many times is it going to feel like I’m losing him before I actually do? Everyone I love seems to die. I know Kayden thinks he’s the broken one, the tainted one, but I know he’s wrong. I think it’s me.

I’m the one with the sickness that kills everyone I love.

“Here,” I say, shoving the bottle right in Jenna’s face, the apathy in her eyes as she looks at me flicks a switch in my panicked mind allowing me to regain control of myself. “Sorry.” I clear my throat. “How many?”

“Just one. You know this, Rhys.” Jenna sighs in exasperation, running her hands over her now ruffled hair. I do, I really do, but my mind is lost in a quagmire of grief and fear that is making it almost impossible to remember my name. “Sit next to me,” she orders. “I’m going to pass him over to you, wrap your arms around him and talk to him. Ground him.’’ I slide down the side of the chair so I’m sitting on the floor next to her. My heart is thundering its way up my throat making it almost impossible to breathe. Jenna slowly inches K across with my help until he’s situated between my legs. “Work through the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 technique once he calms down enough to be coherent but until he is, talk to him. Hearing your voice, feeling your arms around him, being surrounded by your scent will bring him back from the edge a lot quicker and help him feel grounded when he does.”

Kayden starts to relax as soon as his back rests against my chest, the tension easing out of his muscles as they melt like butter under my touch. I brace one arm across his chest resting my hand over his heart, feeling it’s frantic beating under my palm. My skin is clammy as perspiration beads on my brow and in my hair line, a shiver rolls down my spine as it trickles down the nape of my neck. Unrestrained nervous energy floods my veins like a tidal surge and I have to lock my jaw to prevent my teeth from chattering.

I tip his head back so it’s resting on my shoulder and inhale his dark seductive scent that soothes my fracturing heart. My lips brush against the shell of his cool ear as I whisper all the hopes and dreams I’ve never dared hope would come true but now we have the chance to write our future together.

I tell him about where we’re going to go once he comes back to me, how I want to show him the world and get the privilege of being the one to hold his hand as we step out and explore new places together. I share the dreams I’ve dreamt of making love to him on a pile of blankets in front of a log fire while snow coats the ground outside. I tease him with how much I’d love him to chase me through the woods again, about how I loved it last time when he fucked me like he hated me and I clung to the earth as he sent my soul up into the stratosphere. I tell him about how I wish he could forget everything that has happened to him and start all over again. That he would have no memories of the pain and suffering he has endured, just a brand new set of hopes and dreams. That I wish to tie him to me in every single way humanly possible, until the air doesn’t fill my lungs and my heart beats for the final time. And how not even that will separate us. Time, distance and death has no hold over a love like ours. We are unbreakable. There is no beginning or end, there is just our love.

It takes him nearly an hour to come back to me, for the fear infecting him to thaw and release its hold over him. For his heart to fall back into a steady rhythm that matches mine and his breaths to mirror the rise and fall of my chest. Every second I wait, another piece of my soul turns to dust but even when it’s scattered to the ends of the earth my love for him will remain.

“That’s great, angel. Can you tell me one thing you can taste?” Kayden turns slowly until his legs bracket mine and we’re chest to chest. He slowly licks his lips, my eyes tracking the movement of his tongue with unrestrained hunger. I suck in a sharp breath when our eyes lock, the burning lust in their depths echoes the longing inside me.

Kayden’s hand glides along my jaw until his fingers can toy with the damp hair at the base of my head. He twines it around his fingers and angles my head to the perfect position before his slick lips brush against mine. I suck in a sharp inhale—my senses still heightened from the adrenaline in my veins—and he takes that as an invitation to invade my mouth. I groan as he teases mine as he slowly deepens the kiss. His free hand comes up to collar my throat, the thumb stroking along my pulse point. “You,” he breathes into my lungs. “You’re all I can taste even if it’s been hours since I had my lips on you.”

“Fuck,” I groan as he pulls back, an exhausted smirk lifting the corner of his wicked mouth. I drop my head back against the side of the chair and suck in heaving lungfuls of air. “I think you just killed me.”

“I doubt that very much,” he muses, his voice rough with gravel. Kayden rolls his hips just enough to brush his hard length against mine, mischief alight on his face. “Definitely, very much alive.”

“Only for you,” I whisper as he rests his forehead against mine. “Want to tell me what happened?” I know the answer before the words have left my mouth. Initially, I thought his unwillingness to talk was a form of self preservation but now I see it for what it really is. It’s protection. It’s love. Kayden might be younger than me but he’s old beyond his years having been forced to grow up far too young. It warms my heart as much as it breaks it to know that he’d rather hide his pain and suffering from me to protect me than allow me to share the burden of his pain.

A throat clearing across the room has our heads snapping in the direction of the sound. Jenna sits in her chair dabbing her eyes with a tissue. “As sweet as that moment was, I think we still have a few things we need to talk through. So why don’t you both get up, freshen up and then we’ll have a little chat?”

“Sounds like a good idea,” Kayden says as he shakily gets to his feet and offers me his hand. “Just make sure you include me this time and we won’t have any more problems.” He gives Jenna a tight smile before leading me to the nearest toilet so we can wash up.

* * *

“Areyou sure you want to do this?” I ask K again, as we pass the sign for Alden. His slick palm in mine as I bring our entwined fingers to my lips placing a barely there kiss to the tip of each finger before sucking it into my mouth and swirling my tongue around it.

“Yessss,” he hisses at me, his hips flexing where he sits on the seat next to me. “I can’t believe you’ve given me a hard on in an Uber. What the fuck, Rhys?”

A light chuckle escapes me as I rest my head back against the headrest turning it slightly to face him. “I’m sorry… I couldn’t help it.” I shrug taking slow even breaths in an attempt to calm my heart as trepidation slithers down my spine.

“I’ll be sure to get you back.” He arches one brow at me in challenge, his hand slipping from mine as his finger trails up and down my thigh. “But to answer your question, yes I’m sure.” He swallows audibly, fear flickering through his dull eyes. “To be able to explain what the messages say, first I need to show you this.”

“I-I don’t understand.”

“Neither do I, completely, but my gut is telling me it’s the right thing to do. So I’m gonna roll with it and drag you along.” He’s trying to make light of this, whatever it is. It’s in the way his smile doesn’t light his eyes up. It’s in the hard set of his jaw and the tense lines of his shoulders. It’s in the way his fingers squeeze mine like a pulse. Like I’ve got his heart in my hands and I have the power to perform a miracle and heal all his wounds or maybe I’ve got the strength to hold him together the next time he splinters into something he can’t control. I’ve got you, angel.

Kayden leans forwards and whispers something to the driver who nods and the car swiftly changes direction. It only takes a few minutes before we’re driving down the dirt track to the back of Barton Grange that weaves through the woods and ends near an old hunting shack that the grounds keeper Carmichael uses. The last time I was anywhere near here was at the beginning of the summer holidays when we threw a massive rager in the woods.

That night is forever ingrained in my memory for a myriad of different reasons. It was the night that I discovered Thom, who was one of my best friends at the time was planning to drug and rape me. It was the night I watched Kayden nearly beat him to death then he held a knife to his groin and threatened to chop his dick off if he didn’t own up to it.

I remember almost throwing up as bone crushed under the weight of his fists and blood sprayed into the air around us. As Tyler, Gale and I stood and watched on in horror until Thom cracked and owned up to his plan. His sick obsession with me made my skin crawl, I felt fucking violated and betrayed. Once he broke, K broke right alongside him and as his body shut down and I held him limping in my arms. I was fucking fuming but I had never been so terrified in my life that I would lose him.

Thankfully, the guys helped me get him back to the house so I could patch him up and that’s when I had my first taste of him. I could no longer deny the way I wanted him, I couldn’t push it down anymore as I felt it flow through my being, whispering in my mind. I finally surrendered to the depravity that has been growing inside me and it changed the fabric of my world.

“We’re here,” he says just as the car stops. I’m out of the door and around the back of the car before K has even got his door open as he paid the driver.

“How’d you pay him?”

A smirk lifts his lips. “Michelle gave me some spending money. She said I’d been a good boy and deserved to treat myself.” A chuckle works its way up his throat as he pulls out a fag and sparks up, taking a deep inhale. His head rolls back on his shoulders and he releases a shuddering breath smoke billowing from between his lips. “Ahhhh, much better.”

I watch as he pats down his pockets before slipping the tatty backpack on his back. He turns to face me with his cigarette balanced between his lips, his brows drawn in tight forming an endearing crease on his forehead. I step into him and smooth it with my thumb. “What’s wrong?”

Exhaling a lungful of smoke his eyes fall closed like he’s gathering his thoughts before they spring open and look into mine, searching for something. But whatever is it he was looking for he must find. With a nod he turns from me and starts walking away from me, my feet automatically following him. I’d follow you anywhere angel, even through the gates of hell.

“Roughly a twenty minute’s walk to the north west of the main house is a large ravine. Hidden along the craggy bottom of the ravine, amongst the rock slides and shale, is the only sanctuary I’ve ever had. I spent a lot of time there in the years when you abandoned me.” When he was alone. He doesn’t need to say it because I can feel like a sucker punch to my heart.

A strangled sound catches in my throat, my heart seizing in my chest with a force that threatens to suffocate me. “You know why I...” My voice falters, each word heavy with the weight of unspoken truths. An avalanche of emotions crashes over me, threatening to engulf me in a tidal wave of raw, unfiltered pain. I struggle to contain the tears that threaten to spill from my eyes, refusing to surrender to the anguish that threatens to consume me.

“I know,” he huffs. “I’m not trying to reopen old wounds, Rhys, I’m just telling you how it is. When you were gone I spent a lot of time there running and hiding in the darkness. Losing myself and my strength to the drugs that I had. It was the only way I could escape the pain Neil—I flinch at our fathers name—inflicted on me. Some days I basically crawled there, swallowed whatever I had in my tin and prayed that would be the last time my eyes opened.”

“Angel.” My hand latches onto his shoulder making him lose his footing and stumble. “I’m so fucking sorry I abandoned you. I was scared baby, so fucking scared of what I was feeling.”

He brushes his thumb over my bottom lip pulling down before releasing it and stepping back. Something cold seeps beneath my skin as he puts distance between us. “I know. I do but…” But it doesn’t change what happened, I’ll never be able to take back those two years of separation I forced on us, the guilt weighs heavily on me like a noose around my neck.

We walk for about forty minutes through the woods and it hits me that other than the few parties I’ve held in them I’ve never actually spent any time wandering through them, losing myself in nature. Even in the icy grasp of winter its beautiful ancient oak—red oak and yew are interspersed with elm, aspen and beech. They stand like silent sentinels as we meander through them taking a winding path rather than following the worn down paths created by the animals that live here. The gnarled branches sway in the cold winter wind dancing to a melody only they can hear, this deep in the woods is untouched by the frost that still clings to the grass in the shadows.

With my muscles protesting with sweat coating my skin making my clothes stick to my skin, we make it through a particularly brutal thicket of trees and brambles that snag and tear my clothes. “Welcome to Devil’s Hollow.” Kayden looks over his shoulder at me. “Did Carmichael ever tell you the tale of a child who was taken by the keepers of the woods never to be seen again?”

“No.” My voice hoarse, a whip of sound rending through the bare trees that silences the chatter of birds. “Don’t be ridiculous, that old man is full of nonsense.”

“Careful Rhys, your privilege is showing.” He whirls around ramming his finger in my chest. “Out of all the staff still here he was the only one to not turn a blind eye at what was happening to me. To my suffering. If he found me wandering the woods bruised and bleeding he’d clean me up, dress my wounds. Feed me the painkillers or antibiotics I needed.” A single tear falls from his eye glinting in the cool winter light.

I hold my hands up in surrender, my heart thunders erratically in my chest. “I’m sorry,” I rasp.

“I know.” He sighs the fight leaving his body, as his shoulders slowly relax. “I shouldn’t have snapped.” A shaky finger wipes away the teardrops clinging to his lower lash line, his eyes glow with the intensity of an electrical storm. “I’m very protective of the old man.”

We step out onto a rocky outcrop, and my breath catches in my throat as I take in the sight. “How did I never know this was here? It’s amazing.” My eyes don’t know where to look as I catalogue every nuance nature has carved into this place. I step closer to the edge of the ledge and am awed by the destructive power of the elements, the way they have broken and beaten down the rocks. Shale, and the remnants of rock slides litter the ravine like fallen civilisations. The tinkling of water carries through the air soothing away the sharp edges of destruction the seasons bring. Even amidst the destruction new life finds a way as saplings sprout between the shale and lichen and moss cling to the damp rocks that litter the floor.

“It really is something beautiful.” He steps up next to me, warping his arm around my waist and he cinches me in closer to him until our sides are flush. Every inch of me tingles with his close proximity.

I peer over the edge again, morbid curiosity tugging me, beginning me to get closer. “Must be a fifty-foot drop,” I muse.

“Try a hundred.”

“Why are we here?”

“Because I want to show you something important to me, little devil.” He slides his slick palm against me and drags me a little further along the northern edge, the low afternoon sun blinding as it cuts through the trees surrounding us. “We’re going down here, follow me.” I stand there gaping at him as he starts his descent.

The rocky surface is like an oil slick covered in algae, my fingers slip so many times I’m tempted to use my teeth. It’s almost impossible to grip anything with my hands without the threat of falling to my death. The descent feels like it takes hours but eventually, covered in mud and slime, our feet touch down on solid earth. Kayden grabs my hands and pulls me long, like he’s scared I’m going to disappear if he’s not touching me.

Kayden drags me to a deceptively hidden air-raid shelter. It looks like stone. I didn’t even realise it was there when my eyes initially ran over the ravine. An old wooden door hangs off the hinges, the peeling white paint looking more like a decaying fungus than something intended to protect the delicate wood underneath. Praying it holds, I haul the door closed behind us and step aside as K wraps his arms around me. “Thank you.” He leans up and presses a kiss to my shoulder. “Stay here,” he says as he shuffles me around.

He begins engaging the numerous locks that run along the inside of the door frame. It’s pitch-black in here and I can’t see a fucking thing, the sound of K’s soft breaths the only thing that lets me know I’m not alone.

I close my eyes and rub the heel of my palm into my eyes, hoping it will help them to adjust to the almost backness that’s surrounded us. I can hear his hands run along the damp rock face, the scuffing of his skin as he searches for something. It’s the longest two minutes of my life until a lamp starts to illuminate the space, the filament taking a while to brighten up.

I blink rapidly to help my vision adjust as Kayden double and triple checks each individual bolt on the door. The sheer number of them is a testament to the fear he felt living in this house. I wish Kira would have seen the light and saved him but she was either too self absorbed or she was being medicated. Just another way for Neil to control and manipulate people.

Kayden leads me to the back corner of the small bunker, and lights the four remaining lamps, fully illuminating the space. Nestled in the corner is a large plastic storage chest. He opens it with a flourish and starts digging around inside it. “How did you get all this stuff in here?”

Haunted blue eyes look up at me, “Carmichael or I stole bits from the garage when no one was looking.”

A flea bitten sleeping bag gets launched at my head, my sharp reflexes are the only reason I manage to catch it before it hits me in the head. “Lay it on the floor so we have somewhere to sit together. “This isn’t going to be easy.” With the sleeping back offering little way in the form of comfort, I stretch my legs out crossing them at the ankles as I lean back on my hands waiting for Kayden to finish his search.

“Fuck, yeah,” he shouts shattering the easy silence we’d settled into. The schik, schik, schik of a flint sparking, before the earthy scent of weed burns up my nose.

“Isn’t that shit… like.. hasn’t it… gone off?” A pile of bound and hardback journals land in my lap, my fingers tracing the battered edges.

“It’s a bit dry,” he shouts, settling in next to me. “But because I kept it in a ziplock bag it’s alright. Start with this one. Then, that one and that one and then start on the next pile.”

The cool air turns sour dropping instantly making shivers work their way over my body and goosebumps prickle across my skin. With shaky fingers I pick up the oldest looking journal, I lift my eyes in Kayden’s direction to see him spinning the butterfly knife between his fingers while he tokes on the large joint. “What are these?” I ask tentatively, as if any loud or sudden noises might startle him. I can feel the anxiety rising in him, it’s palpable, volatile and has my stomach churning faster than a cyclone.

“You know what they are.” He hits me with a deadpan look. “The first time Neil raped me…” Tears pool in my eyes like acid as his voice wavers and morphs into that of the small boy I met ten years ago. “I couldn’t move, he promised me a shower but instead left me in my bed on sheets covered in his cum and my blood. I couldn’t move because everything hurt, it burned white hot. All I could do was cry and cry. I couldn’t take a shit for nearly 3 weeks because it never got the chance to heal. Well, not until he had to go away for work for a week then my body got the chance to mend. But unable to move there was only so much I could do and I just so happened to have a notebook from school next to my bed so I started writing about what happened.”

Neil came into my room tonight to tuck me into bed. I was scared, this house is so big and cold and everyone else is so far away. I asked him why my room was at the other end of the house and he smiled. Big. So big. I saw all his teeth before he licked his bottom lip. He leaned closer to me, the weight of his body pinning me to the bed. The knee of one of his legs pushing between mine until it was almost touching my dick. He bit down on my ear and made a funny rumbling noise and called me his ‘sweet boy’ and then ran his hand down my chest to the top of my pjs. He pulled them away from me and made that sound again. His knee moved closer so it was brushing against me. His fingers went down and touched me.

“No. No. No. No.”Tears stream from my eyes as his words play on repeat, my brain unhelpfully forming them into images forcing me to watch Neil molest a young Kayden. “Oh god, I think I’m going to be sick.” I drop the journal like it’s possessed and wrap my arms around my stomach as evil claws at the shreds of my soul. I can’t breathe, my lungs scream as I try to inhale some much needed air but I can’t, my muscles are frozen solid drowning in memories that aren’t mine but could have been. Fear and revolution coats my skin making me feel disgusting. I’m broken. I’m falling. The world is spinning around me. It’s like I’m trapped in the eyes of the storm watching it ravage and destroy everything in its path. Viscous cramps contort my internal organs. Squeezing the contents of my stomach up my throat like a volcanic eruption, bile tastes like battery acid on my tongue burning away every part of me.

“Here you go, baby.” A wave of calming warmth washes over me as he cups my cheek soothing my pain with his thumb as he wipes away my tears. K places a small plastic box in my lap and settles down next to me, his chest to my shoulder, concern and fear etched into every part of his face. Cool fingers trail through my hair, his touch grounding, comforting me but still giving me the space I need as I process the words he wrote. I want to bleach my brain to take away the pain but I’ll suffer through it for me. I’ll drown in his darkness only to show him where the light is.

It’s one thing to hear his abridged version—although it didn’t feel like that at the time—it’s another to be confronted with the pain-filled scrawl of a broken child. I can taste the despair in his words as they smudge and blur from the tears that fell when the ink was still wet. Kayden wraps his arms around me pulling me into his embrace. I lean into him seeking the solace of his touch as I fight against the surge of bile as it tears up my throat. My eyes fall closed and I bury my face in the crook of his neck deeply inhaling his scent as I try and regulate my breathing as I fight against the nightmares infecting my mind.

“Thank you.” A sob shreds its way out of my throat dragging my heart with it leaving me feeling hollow. Cold. Kayden’s arms tighten around me holding me together as I fall apart. My dark avenging angel who’s watched me form the shadows for years always there when I need him. “I need you,” I whimper, my hands clawing at him, grabbing anything they can cling onto like a lifeline. He’s the only thread between me and the oblivion that’s threatening to swallow me whole.

“Shhh, I’ve got you. I’m here.” His lips brush my ear, a barely there caress but I feel it flow through my body all the way to my toes.

“I need you, angel. I need you to make me forget.” He sucks in a sharp inhale, his body going rigid for a split second before he adjusts his hold and gently, reverently lowers me down until my back is pillowed by the sleeping bag. Cool knuckles run down my cheek tracing my tears like fallen stars, wonder swirling in his glassy orbs. His distorted image looks ethereal in the dim glow of the lamps as he hovers above me, a sad smile twitching at the corners of his lips. “Please. Please…” My breath hitches as his warm tongue laves away the pain staining my face infusing warmth into my frigid flesh.

“I’ve got you, little devil.” He breathes against my lips, they part instantly as I inhale his words tattooing them on my soul. “I’ll make you forget but most importantly… I’ll set you free.”

My eyes flutter closed as he peppers soft open mouthed kisses across every inch of my face as if I’m something precious. “I-I don’t deserve you, angel.” My words falter as I hiccup a sob, my heart flatlines as devastation washes through me. “H-how can you even look at me after what he did to you.” I wet my lips with the tip of my tongue tasting the salt of my tears. Of my pain. My torment. “W-what i-if I…” I struggle to breath through the pain these words make me bleed, leaving me raw and exposed as I set free my greatest fear. “W-what if I-I turn out t-to be just like h-him?”

A menacing growl rumbles in K’s chest where it rests against mine the vibrations echoing through me. My eyes fly open as his hands tighten around my throat stealing the air from my lungs, but who needs oxygen when you’re staring into the eyes of an avenging angel. His fingers pulse on the delicate skin of my neck as he wars with the anger staining his face. His lips curl in a snarl as he bares his teeth at me. I should be afraid. I should fear the way his words will condemn me but all there is inside me is a numb sort of acceptance.

“There is nothing in this universe more pure than your soul, Rhys. Neil was born in hell, created from the ashes of the most depraved souls—he was never going to be anything but a monster. But you,” he punctuates his words with a viscous, bruising kiss that leaves my lips burning. “You are nothing like him. You never have been and you never will be. If you don’t believe it then I’ll carry you until you do. I have enough faith in you for the both of us.”

I shake my head, a fresh wave of tears spilling from my aching eyes. “I’m worried, I’ll never be enough… that I’ll never be able to be free of his insidious depravity.” I suck in a shuddering breath of air that sears my lungs. “H-how can you still want me?”

“I want you, little devil.” Kiss. “I love you.” Kiss. “Even if I don’t truly understand what that means, I know I can’t exist in a world where you don’t.” His lips devour mine, his tongue demanding entry as it spears through the seam of my lips. When he releases his relentless hold on my mouth, he’s braced on his elbows, his hands cradling my face. “I will love you until the last star dies. Until the sun no longer burns and all the oceans have run dry. I’ll love you amidst the ashes of humanity, when we stand as the last remnants of a dying world.”

“Fuck. I love you.” My hands thread through his hair pulling him into me as the need to be owned by him starts to drown out the hellish cries in my head that will now consume my nightmares. “I need you.”

“I’ve got you,” he murmurs against me, tasting my pain. Taking it away with each brush of his lips, feeding me his love when his tongue curls around mine. Breathing life back into me with every exhale of his I swallow down. “Let me make you feel whole again, little devil. Let me set you free.”

K’s words are a balm to my ruined soul as he starts to peel my clothes off my body, baring every inch of me to him. I’ve never felt so brutally exposed as I do at this moment, but if the heat in his eyes is anything to go by we’re about to set the world alight. He kisses every inch of my body, tasting, teasing me, pushing me to the edge again and again. But there’s something different, something tenuous between us, something fragile and newly forged. It’s like the birth of a celestial being as his hands and lips reverently worship every touch starved part of me fighting away the numbing cold that’s trying to break me.

“I want to mark you, baby. I want to claim you.” I blink up at him through the fuzzy daze of lust and tilt my head to the side exposing my neck to him. Teeth scrape along the column of my throat and graze my collar bone. “Can I add another mark to go with the one on your chest?” A full body shudder rolls through me, dark and seductive as goosebumps chase in its wake.

“Yes,” I rasp my lips seeking his, hungry for his taste. He smiles against pushing back on to his knees and rips his hoodie off over his head. My mouth salivates as every inch of his lithe body is revealed to me. My fingers trace the litany of scars on his skin concealed by the stunning fine line tattoos that make him a work of art.

A wicked smirk curls his lips as he pulls his butterfly knife from his boot and flicks it open. He trails the tip over my mouth, pulling my bottom lip down before it traces the veins fluttering in my neck. He circles my pebbles nipples leaving a thin trail of red behind the latches, his mouth around it sucking up my essence pooling on my skin. He does the left first before moving over to the right.

“Mmm,” he groans, licking his now blood-stained lips as he continues to torment me by tracing the contours of my body from my pecs down to my happy trail at the top of my jeans. Azure blue eyes lock on mine as he flicks open the button and pulls the zipper down. “I need to taste you, it’s been too long since I’ve had your taste on my tongue.” A soft whimper of need passes through my lips making his kick up as he yanks my jeans down releasing my aching cock to slap against my abs smearing them with precum. “Fucking perfect.”

“Oh shit,” I groan as he buries his face at the top of my thigh and takes a deep inhale then drags his nose through the neatly trimmed hairs at the base of my dick, up and over my balls right to my taint. Cold hands wrap around the inside of my thighs spreading me open as his hot tongue spears right into my entrance. I throw my head back as he starts a viscous assault on the tight ring of muscle, fucking his tongue in and out of me like it was his cock. “Yes. More..more...please.”

“Such a needy little slut. I know just what you need.” He steals my mouth with a bruising kiss eliciting a full body shudder from me as my musky taste bursts across my tongue. With a last lingering brush of his lips he pulls back quickly unbuckling his jeans and kicks off his boots before taking his cock in his hand giving it a slow torturous stroke as his eyes roam over my sweat slicked skin. “Fucking beautiful, little devil.” He bites down on his lip as he falls to his knees between my spread legs, it’s a tight fit as they’re caged by my jeans around my ankles.

“Please… touch me. I need…”

“I know, baby. Be a good boy for me and put your hands behind your head.” I do as he says without question and watch on in morbid horror as he takes my aching length in one hand, and spins his blade between the fingers of his other. “Do you trust me?”

“With my life.”

“Good. Now breathe for me.” The spinning of his blade stops and he traces the veins along my shaft with the sharp tip. The heat of his body radiates into mine as I feel the tip of the blade slice into my skin like it’s nothing, a dark fire burns in his eyes as he watches crimson trails slowly form on my shaft. “So fucking perfect. Mine.” He growls and wraps his lips around me, hollowing his cheeks as he works his way up and down my aching dick. My hands sink into his hair wrapping the strands around my fingers as I hold his head down, and thrust into the back of his throat.

I pump my hips into him feeling the back of his throat constrict around me as he swallows me down. Tears stream down his cheeks glistening in the light as his lungs start to burn. Kayden’s lips suction the skin at the base of my dick adding a new tighter sensation to the ones already assaulting my body and overloading my brain. My heavy balls draw up tight to my body, electricity dances through my veins as pleasure pools at the base of my spine.

“I’m close, angel. I’m so close.” I release my hold on his head and he slowly works his way off my pulsing length. Crimson stains his teeth as he smiles down at me, adoration in his eyes as he cups my face and seals his mouth on mine. I open for him like he’s giving me the kiss of life and I’m starving for the oxygen only he can provide, his tongue duels with mine stoking the fire inside me into an inferno. When he steals them away from me, we both struggle to regulate our breathing.

“Who do you belong to, Rhys?” he asks softly, his eyes trained on the palm of his hand as he slices it open and holds the blade in his clenched fist until rivulets of claret stream between his fingers staining a path into his skin.

“You.” I lick my lips, tasting the coppery tang of my blood on them.

“Open. Tongue out.” I baulk at his words but the feral edge to his features has me complying. I stick my tongue out and groan as warm drops of his blood spill onto it. “Such a good boy. I want every piece of me inside of you, always,” he growls shifting between my legs. “I want you to come on my cock while I fill you with my blood and cum.” Wrapping his bleeding palm around my slick shaft he gives it a couple of strokes and teases my weeping slit with his thumb before bringing it to his mouth groaning as my taste bursts across his tongue.

“More, please more…” I mewl, thrusting my hips up, seeing him as his grip loosens. I narrow my eyes at him but all I get is a bloody smile that promises retribution.

“Up. Hands and knees.” The slap that lands on the outside of my thigh sears his palm print into my skin as I wriggle out from under him and roll into position, somehow managing it without falling flat on my face where my legs are still bound. “So desperate.”

“For you, always.” He palms the globes of my arse, kneading the tight muscles for a few seconds before pulling my cheeks apart and letting loose a rumbling groan.

“Such a perfect pussy. All soft, wet and waiting for me to fill it with my cum.” My teeth sink into my lip as I bite back the groan building within me. Slick fingers sink into my empty hole scissoring against my already soft walls opening me up further. He curls them in a come hither motion right over that magic spot inside me sending bolts of lightning through me, setting alight every nerve ending in my body. “I said I was going to set you free, little devil.”

“Yesss,” I hiss as warm droplets hit my rim, I arch my back baring my hole to him desperate for more of his blood, of his depravity.

Kayden groans behind me, it’s deep and unrestrained as it echoes around us in the bunker. I look over my shoulder to see him standing behind me coating his length with his blood. A delicious shiver of anticipation rolls through me at the mere sight of him. “Fuck me, angel. Fuck me now.” His eyes fly open and lock on mine like a homing beacon, a cruel smirk lifting his lips.

“I’m going to break you, little devil. I’m going to fuck your needy cunt until you can’t remember your own name. I’m going to rewrite your history with my blood, my cock and my cum. I’m going to own you until the devil tries to pry you from my cold dead fingers,” I suck in a sharp breath, as the walls of my channel flutter at the image he’s painting in my mind. “And when he comes calling, I’ll kill him and take you in his still cooling blood.” That shouldn’t be hot. It should disgust me but fuck when it comes from my dark angel, how can it be anything but perfection. Heaven or hell it doesn’t matter as long as he’s mine and I’m his.

He notches the blunt head of his cock against my spasming entrance, and brackets my body with his. A hot trail of kisses down my spine is the closest thing to a warning I get before he punches into me, bottoming out in one hard stroke, the slapping sound of skin on skin reverberates around us. “Fuck, you’re so god damn tight,” he bites out as he sets a punishing rhythm. One hand braced on my hip, the other pushing down between my shoulder making me deepen the arch of my spine and subtly changing the angle his length strikes my prostate at.

“Oh fuck. Oh fuuuuccckkk.”

“Such a greedy little slut. You hole is sucking me in, refusing to let go.”

“Don’t stop, please don’t stop,” I whisper, tears pricking my eyes as my body and mind start to disconnect. I’m overwhelmed. I’m drowning. I’m floating. I’m feeling too much. It’s all too much. “Angel...” It’s a prayer. It’s a plea. It’s grasping at water as it slips through my fingers.

“I’ve got you, baby. Stay with me.” A sharp sting burns across the base of my spine. The world fades away as the itching burn starts to consume me, igniting an inferno in my veins. “Come back.” A sharp slap on my arse brings me back into the here and now as Kayden ruts into me with a level of ferocity I’ve never known from him. “Are you with me?”

“Y-yes,” I blink away the tears pooling in my eyes. I gasp and my hands sink into dirt, not the soft sleeping bag I had been against moments ago.

He growls against the skin at the base of my spine, his tongue soothing the burning in my skin. The tip of his cock resting just inside that first ring of muscle, I clench around him afraid to lose the connection to him I so desperately crave. “Fuck you taste so sweet.” He peppers little biting kisses up my spine slowly sliding his thick length back into me.

“Nnngh,” I groan as I feel him bottom out.” So good.

“Come to me, baby.” A tacky hand wraps around my throat pulling me up so my back rests against his chest and another forms a band of steel around my waist, fingers digging into my flesh. With every thrust of his hips I feel like I’m flying higher and higher, my head fuzzy and close to being lost in the clouds. “Stay with me, little devil.” K licks up the side of my neck then sinks his teeth into my ear lobe before tugging on it making me shudder.

“I need… please… come…”

“Not yet, Rhys.” The sound of my name being whispered into my ear grounds me, pulls me back from the brink of ecstasy. “First I want you to know how I’m going to save you and set you free.” A whimper catches in my throat as he tweaks my nipple. “I’m going to make him pay.” Thrust. “I’m going to make him feel the excruciating pain I did.” Thrust. “I’m going to watch the life drain from his eyes and fucking smile.” Thrust. “I’m going to ruin him and everything he stands for.” A slick hand wraps around my aching length working me from root to tip. “I’m doing it to free you of your guilt.” Kayden fucks me into his fist with every hammering blow to my prostate, pushing, pushing, pushing me closer to the edge. I’m at the top of the cliff ready to fall but held hostage,”

“Angel….”

“I love you, Rhys.” Thrust. “Come. Now.” My body lets go as white hot heat sears my inside, melting me into a puddle of pleasure as jets of cum spill from my pulsing length. The edges of my vision start to darken. “Fuck. Yes. Fuck, your cunt is heaven. My fucking nirvana.” Kayden thrusts two more times before I feel him stiffen and start pulsing inside me. Filling me. Owning me. “I love you.”

“I love you, angel.” As the last syllable passes through my lips I’m swallowed by the darkness finally feeling free.