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CHAPTER ONE

ONYX

B lood.

We come into the world covered in it and sometimes, we leave the world in a similar fashion. I stare down at the body on the floor by my feet, mutilated beyond recognition from the sharp blade of my knife. The thrill that I got from my newest toy has already vanished, and I feel the boredom creeping in.

My gaze focuses on the blood pooling around his body. It was something that had always fascinated me. The way that the bright red hues change into a darker tone as it absorbs the oxygen from the air when it leaves your body. My obsession started at a young age. What once seemed innocent has turned into something much more sinister.

Blood.

Arterial bursts are splattered across my fresh white t-shirt. The warm, sticky substance coats my arms, droplets dispersed across my face. With my knife still in my hand, I turn the blade sideways and wipe it off on my black jeans.

Blood.

“Onyx?” I hear her soft, haunting voice from across the abandoned asylum. Her footsteps are quiet, but as she gets closer, I can hear her black Chucks crushing bits of glass from the broken windows. “I know that you’re in here.”

It’s a game that we’ve played since we were kids, but over the years, it’s taken a sickening turn. That’s the essence of what we are though. Sick. Plagued. Completely and utterly fucked in the head.

This place was our refuge, growing up in an abusive home where there was nowhere to escape within those four walls. The asylum had shut down decades ago, and the building was left to rot. Selene and I would spend hours here, telling ghost tales and playing hide-and-seek. Even years later, after we’ve moved out of our old home, we still always end up back here.

This was the first place where she found me with a dead rabbit in my hand.

This was the first place that she saw the real me.

Abandoning the mutilated body, I slip into the moldy closet, holding my knife close to my chest as I listen to her footsteps growing closer. Pinching my lips closed, I hold my breath, waiting for her to enter the room. I hear her sharp intake of air echoing in the small space. A smile creeps onto my lips as she takes in my latest masterpiece laid out on the floor.

“Onyx,” she sings to me through the darkness. “Where are you?”

She moves around the room, inching closer to the closet. As she reaches it, she lifts her head in high alert, glancing to the other side of the room. With her back facing me, I seize the opportunity.

My movements are stealthy and quick as I slip out of the closet, grabbing her from behind. A scream slips from her lips but I silence her, clamping my hand over her mouth. Her body stills against me as I lift my knife, holding it against her neck, positioned right along her carotid.

“You want to play, little devil?” I breathe against her ear, pressing the blade harder against the soft skin on her throat. Her pulse vibrates under my hand, the thrill running rampant through my system.

Her head bobs against my grip as my knife nicks the top layer of her skin. The warmth of her body against mine and the blood trickling down the side of her neck has my cock fucking throbbing. Selene presses her ass into me, grinding against my erection.

I drag my tongue along the shell of her ear, nipping at her cartilage. “Run.”

Pulling the knife away from her throat, I drop my hands to my side. Selene glances at me over her shoulder, her hazel eyes shining with mischief as she takes off. She jumps over the body on the floor, clearing the pool of crimson liquid as she darts out of the room.

Twirling my knife in my hand, I give her a head start, counting the cracks in the wall until I reach ten. “Ready or not, devil girl,” I call out, a sinister grin settling on my lips as I stalk through the room. “I’m coming for you.”

Her laughter floats from the maze of rubble, bouncing off the chipped walls of the hallways. I begin to whistle as I stalk through the halls, the predator chasing its prey. The asylum is like our own personal playground. A playground for the depraved. Only the soulless dare to step foot in this place, but none of them ever last.

It’s gotten such a bad rep because numerous people have gone missing after entering. It was always chalked up to this place being haunted—demonic souls lurking in the shadows, bringing them to their untimely doom. Little does the world know, I am the demon who lives in the darkness.

The bodies are never recovered because I know how to make them vanish for good. When I was younger, I was fucking sloppy. There were a few close calls, but we essentially lived off the grid. I wasn’t on the cops’ radar—just the quiet kid in school whose foster parents painted his skin with black and blue marks.

I was on Selene’s radar before I even realized it.

Her father was one of the country's most notorious serial killers. Sirius Hayes. Everything Selene knew, she learned from him, and she saw it in me instantly. Sirius wanted her to be his prodigy after he noticed similarities between the two of them. He saw pieces of himself in her and wanted her to be a part of his world.

Selene’s brother was Sirius’ downfall. When he found out about Sirius’ extracurricular activities, he panicked and called the police. Their mother didn’t even know what was going on, so it was a complete shock to the family, except for Selene. She didn’t handle his absence well and at the ripe age of twelve she tried to drown her younger brother in an effort to get back at him for what he did.

Gemma realized that even though Sirius was gone, he had created a monster who was living under her roof. She claimed that she couldn’t handle Selene, but I think she didn’t want to assume responsibility for whatever Selene might do. She was a painful reminder of how Sirius had destroyed their lives.

Selene was thrown into foster care, and that’s how she ended up living under the same roof as me—my little monster, the one who speaks the same language as me.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” I sing the words, twirling my knife as I duck through the hallways, dodging chunks of the ceiling that hang from above. “I know you want me to find you, pretty little devil.”

The faint smell of vanilla drifts through the hall and I know that I’m getting closer to her. I follow her scent, but as I turn corner after corner, she’s not there. My heart thumps in my chest to a calm, steady beat. The chase is a high of its own, and adrenaline courses through my veins as I stalk my prey.

Selene’s good at this game because even though she’s my prey tonight, she’s a fucking predator.

“Can’t you find me, love?” Her voice floats from the opposite direction of where I was headed. Spinning on my heel, I catch sight of her long, midnight-colored hair as she darts through another doorway, her laughter following behind her.

I break out into a jog in the direction that I saw her disappear, clutching my knife in my hand. The need to spill blood mixes with the lust and the thrill of the chase. We’re toeing a dangerous line, but we’ve never been afraid to cross it before.

She’s going to wish I never found her after I’m done with her.