Page 38 of Irreverent (The Marked Saga #7)

A clap of thunder exploded outside the Blackburn Estate, shaking the stairs and railing as I made my way to the basement later that evening. As much as I wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed and fall asleep to the rain smacking against the windows, I knew my day was not yet finished until I spent some quality one-on-one time with my favorite emotionless vampire.

“Rough day, love?”

asked Dominic as I made my way into his cell and then slumped back against the steel bars, sighing.

My hair was in a messy top knot, and I was still wearing my school uniform from earlier that day. I wasn’t exactly the picture of hotness but at this point in my life, I couldn’t find it in me to give a shit.

“I hope it wasn’t anything I said last night,”

he said with a gleeful look in his eye that told me that was exactly what he was hoping. He was standing with his back pressed against the concrete wall looking especially rested and mischievous despite the fact that he’d been locked down here for days. The realization only made me more resentful toward him.

“Do you get off on being an asshole or is that just your natural state these days?”

He blinked lazily, a barely-there smirk playing with the corner of his lips. “I suppose it’s a little bit of both.”

“How charming,”

I answered dryly.

He pushed off the wall and meandered toward me, stopping before the chains had a chance to tug him back as though he’d memorized their exact length. The thought made me shiver. “Let’s not pretend that what we were had anything to do with my charm.”

His dark eyes swept over my body as he licked his lips, chilling me and heating me at the same time. “We both know you were never looking for a Prince Charming.”

I swallowed against the dryness in my throat as his smirk turned into a full grin.

“Isn’t that right?”

His dark eyes surveyed me, as though reading through coded passages in a diary only he understood.

I shook my head, but there was no conviction behind it. What I had with him—what I was drawn to, it had always been rooted in the darkness we both possessed. A darkness that called out to one another. A darkness I felt perfectly comfortable in.

He chuckled lowly. “You never were any good at lying. Not even to yourself.”

“And what about you?”

I challenged, refusing to let him corner me with his word games. “How long did you have to lie to yourself about being in love with me?”

His back straightened just a tad, though it was barely noticeable to the eye had I not memorized every inch of him. It appeared my retort had had some effect on him, though I wasn’t sure to what extent.

“Weren’t you the one who was so damn scared of your feelings for me that you had to erase your entire confession from my memory just to cope with it?”

His jaw muscle feathered. “That’s hardly the way I remember it.”

I scoffed. “Selective memory much?”

“Speaking of which, how is Romeo coping with the good news I gave you yesterday?”

he retorted, purposely hitting me where it would hurt the most.

I gnashed my teeth together in an effort to hide the anger rioting through me. “Actually, he’s handling it quite well, all things considered.”

It was a bold-faced lie but I sold it like my life depended on it. “Then again, he wasn’t the one that was emotionally stunted…unlike some people I know.” I made a face making it clear I was referring to him.

“Emotionally stunted?”

He laughed, but there was something unnatural about it, like he had to force it. “There isn’t a single thing about me that was stunted, angel lips, as I’m sure you very well remember.”

“Hm. Vaguely.”

I shrugged, keeping my expression indifferent. “Honestly, these days, I prefer to forget my time with you altogether. It’s mostly turned into one of those ‘what the hell was I thinking’ situations,” I said, doing my best to hide the lie from my eyes and voice.

“Is that so? Perhaps you ought to step to this side of the line so I can refresh your memory then.”

“I’ll pass.”

I manufactured a smile on my face. “The way I see it, you’re as dead on the inside as you are on the outside now. Kind of useless if you ask me.”

He took an aggressive step toward me, though the chains tugged him back in place. His cold eyes bore into me as I tried to gauge what he was thinking jus then—whether I’d struck a chord with him. He definitely seemed ticked off, and even though that wasn’t the positive emotion I was looking for, it was still an actual feeling.

It was a full step in the right direction.

“Besides, I have Gabriel now and he fills that very specific void you left in my life just fine.”

I hated myself for stooping this low; for trying to pit brother against brother and dragging Gabriel into this, but I was in a desperate race against the clock. Nothing was off limits at this point.

A taunting smirk curled his lips. “My brother isn’t capable of finding a void much less filling it.”

I crossed my arms. “And yet he has.”

His stony eyes swept over me as if to assess the veracity of what I was saying to him. “Then why, pray tell, are you still oozing with the fragrant scent of dissatisfaction and unfulfilled needs?”

Pushing off the bars, I took a small step toward him and then another, stopping when I was just inches from where he stood. “I’m actually very satisfied. Maybe you need to get your senses checked.”

His smirk pulled into a full grin as though he could see right through my fa?ade. “I think you’re lying, angel.”

His words sent a pang of pain through my heart as memories of the old Dominic flooded me then. He had always had the uncanny ability to tell when I was lying—to call me out on my bullshit—and tonight appeared to be no different.

His grin faltered as he assessed me with those knowing eyes and I immediately tried to steel myself under his probing gaze, but it felt forced and phony, even to me.

“You know I can make that ache go away,”

he said after a thoughtful pause, his voice a velvety promise of rapture. “All you have to do is say the word.”

I opened my mouth to respond, to shut him right the hell down, but nothing came out.

“No one has to ever know,”

he said and then craned his head forward. “It can be our little secret.”

There was something so alluring about his voice, about what he was offering, even when I knew he was only trying to draw me into the flames. It was the kind of voice that could call you off the ledge of a cliff if you listened to it long enough.

“You’ll kill me the first chance you get. You already said as much,”

I said and licked my lips, searching for moisture in my arid mouth.

“What If I promise to be gentle?”

he asked mischievously, his gaze briefly dropping to my mouth as though my lips had suddenly piqued his interest.

I refused to let him get me all hot and bothered on principal alone, but apparently, my body had other plans altogether. “As in you’ll be gentle when you snap my neck in two?”

“As in I’ll be gentle with my hands…and mouth.”

Heat spread out across my chest as I tightened my hold on myself. Literally and figuratively. “I don’t know what game you’re trying to play with me but I’m not cutting you loose, so you can just save the sweet talk.”

“What I’m offering doesn’t require you to release me from my binds in the least,”

he said lowly, and my entire body flushed with heat. I wasn’t even sure what the hell he was offering me but the way he said it made my traitorous body react like a dog in heat. I needed to get myself all the way together.

“Just…stop it.”

“Why?”

He chuckled. “Because you’re considering it?”

“I’m not considering it,”

I said and then wet my lips again, feeling as though my mouth had turned into a damn desert. “I don’t need you for that. I don’t need you for anything.”

His cold gaze snapped to my mouth as he cocked his head to the side. A strange look filtered through his eyes, as though he were contemplating whether he wanted to rip my tongue out of my mouth…or kiss me.

What in the burning hell was going on right now?

After a short beat, he straightened his head and shrugged his shoulders. “Suit yourself then.”

I blew out a weighty breath and watched as he made his way to the back of the cell and then slid down against the concrete, keeping his back pressed firmly against the rocky wall.

Feeling as though I’d had just about all I could handle for the day, I turned on my heel to leave before I went ahead and combusted right in front of him.

“How about another trade?”

he asked, his smooth voice stopping me in my tracks.

Despite myself, I took the bait and turned back around to face him. “Depends on what kind of information you’re offering and whether it’s worth anything to me.”

“I think you’ll find it rather priceless actually.”

The chains clanked against the floor as he rolled his sleeves up to his elbows and then rested both arms over his bended knees.

“Doubtful.”

I crossed my arms and waited, certain that this was another one of his mind-fucking games.

“It seems I’ve come into some pertinent information concerning one Thomas Blackburn.”

“My father?”

I said on a breathless whisper, my mind instantly cycling back to the man that had loved and raised me from the moment I took my first breath. That was the very last thing I had expected to come out of Dominic’s mouth tonight—or ever. “How could you know anything about my father?”

“I don’t, love. But I do know quite a bit about his death.”

I shook my head as a wave of nausea slammed into me. “You’re lying.”

He was messing with me—fucking with my head again. He had to be.

“Am I?”

He blinked lazily as though he didn’t care whether I believed him or not. “I wonder, though. Hadn’t you ever thought it strange that your father had been so easily located by and then overpowered by Revenants? Revenants who instead of going for a fast, easy kill, decided to risk their lives to track down a powerful Supernatural with years of vampire hunting experience?”

It was such a loaded question; he might as well have put a bullet in my brain.

I took a step toward him and then sank down to my knees, unable to stand upright on my failing legs. “Are you saying they went after my dad on purpose? That it wasn’t random?”

“That’s precisely what I’m saying.”

I splayed my palms on the cold floor before me as the room whirled violently around me. How could he know that? He couldn’t. He had to be lying. This was just another one of his tricks…

His mind games.

A cruel joke.

But what if it wasn’t?

I looked up and met his dark eyes as they openly appraised me. “If you’re lying to me…if you’re lying about this, so help me god—”

“I’m not,”

he answered evenly, his gaze still fixed on me with far too much interest.

My chest heaved as my breathing grew shallow. “Who sent them?”

“Ah, that’s the million-dollar question.”

I snarled at him. “What do you want in exchange?”

“Oh, nothing much. Just that tantalizing blood of yours, of course.”

He inspected me more closely as though trying to calculate my level of desperation. “Only this time, I want it from the source.”

“No way.”

I shook my head fervently. “I’m not stepping foot over that line.”

“And why is that, angel? Are you afraid of me?”

he asked, smiling as though the notion pleased him. “Or are you afraid you’re going to enjoy all the things I’d like to do to you?”

Heat spread from my neck to my cheeks. “Both. I mean neither. Just forget it. It’s not happening.”

“Then we have no deal.”

“You can’t do this to me, Dominic. This is my dad you’re talking about.”

“Take it or leave it, temptress.”

I hissed out a curse and then dragged myself back to my feet. “You’re going to regret this,”

I warned and then marched out of his cell, slamming the steel door shut behind myself.

Not that my threat mattered to him one bit. I’d already taken everything from him, and yet somehow, he was still holding all the cards.