Page 32 of Love Her Ruin
He continues, letter by letter, each one accompanied by a word, a judgment, a condemnation. I for infection. S for stain. T for truth.
By the time he reaches the final letter, the word is clear and red, running from Vincent's sternum to his flank.RAPIST. Seven letters. Seven wounds surrounded by countless cigar burns. Seven truths carved into his flesh.
“Och, what was I thinking?” James taps his forehead. “Skin dries up so quickly when you’re dead. Better to carve the word into bone.”
Vincent moans, a low, animal sound.
James peels away Vincent’s skin over his ribs with the edge of the knife, exposing the white surface of his ribs beneath, and begins to carve again.
The sound is different here—a grinding, a scratching, a deep vibration that travels through Vincent's body and makes him tremble.
"R," James says again, his knife scraping against bone. "For reminder. Even if ye forget, the bone will still bear the mark of what ye are."
He carves the rest of the word into his rib bones, letter by letter, each stroke a permanence that will outlast his skin, his muscle, his very life.
When James finishes, he throws me a feral grin.
I moan at both the beauty of it and the emptiness I feel when Daddy pulls out and away from me.
My turn to end this. My turn to begin something new.
I walk to James and take the knife from his hand, the handle warm from his grip. Vincent watches me, and there’s not a damn thing he can do about what comes next. I had so many plans for his torture, but this will have to do.
I cut away his pants and nick the skin beneath.
His pathetic shrunken cock flops between his legs.
I grip it and pull the skin taut.
The first cut is shallow, just to break the skin, and a thin line of red wells. Vincent jerks, a full-body spasm, but the shadows hold him fast, choking his scream into a muffled whimper.
I cut deeper.
The blade parts flesh, finds the cord, the root of him, and it’s tougher than I expected. I saw back and forth, my arm burning with the effort. Blood flows now, hot and sudden, pouring over my hand, my wrist, splashing onto the floor.
Vincent is shaking violently, his back arched. His face is purple, veins standing out on his forehead. The shadows let him breathe just enough to keep him conscious, to keep him feeling.
The final cut is a twist, a severing. Something gives with a wet, rubbery snap.
And then it’s done.
I hold the small, bloody piece of flesh in my hand, a warm and insignificant thing, high enough so he can see it with his bulging eyes. Then I drop it to the ground with a wet splat and step back.
The blood is a river now, spreading from between his legs, pooling on the floor, dark and glossy under the bare overhead bulb. His chest heaves in ragged, shallow hitches. His eyes are fixed on the ceiling, already losing focus, but his heart is still beating, pumping his life out onto the ground.
Turning to me, James strokes his straining cock through his jeans.
“Fuck,” he breathes, his voice thick with lust. “Look at ye, Prayer. A queen of darkness.”
Eddie strips off his shirt, now completely naked, his eyes never leaving mine. Hunger radiates from him. He closes the distance and kisses me, deep and filthy, tasting of smoke and copper. His hands are in my hair, pulling me closer.
Daddy’s shadows release Vincent’s throat because it’s too late for him to scream. His cool, silken tendrils wrap around my ankles, my wrists, my thighs, caressing my clit, and fuck inside me so hard that my body jerks forward.
I sink to my knees right here, in the warm, spreading pool of Vincent’s blood.
James pushes me forward, my hands landing in the slick, sticky wetness. Eddie is in front of me, fisting his cock, which is impossibly hard again. I take him into my mouth, the taste of both him and me from our earlier fuck mixing with the metallic tang of blood I didn’t realize speckled my lips. James enters mefrom behind in one brutal, perfect thrust. I cry out around Eddie, the sound muffled, vibrating through both of us.
Daddy is everywhere. His shadows strum my clit, lick my nipples into aching peaks, and pump up inside me alongside James’s cock.
