Page 22 of Divine Violence
“Clarissa Hutchins,” he mumbled, playing with a loose string on the carpet. “The girl from last year,” he continued, but I already knew what he was going to say.
We’d spent days and nights looking for her after she disappeared from the party last year. Police came and went, but no one had any answers to what happened. One moment, she was with me, agreeing to be our Maiden, and the next, she disappeared.
“Domi—”
“I killed her,” he said flatly as if it was something that he never should’ve done. Lifting his head, he looked at Echo and then at us. “And I can’t remember half of it.”
“Shit,” Alexander mumbled and sat down next to him.
“I didn’t mean to. I think. But I hated her,” he bit out. “I hated the way you two fell for her, worse than Anastasia. I hated the fact that there was no space for me in that relationship.”
“Dominic—”
“No! I’m afraid that I’m going to kill her too when the darkness descends on my mind.” He looked at Echo again. “That’s why I’m torn. I can feel it coming, this need to destroy her, to show her how much it could really hurt, and I can’t do that. Not to her when she reminds me of one person who was always kind to me.”
“You’re not going to hurt her,” I murmured and kneeled in front of him. My hand clamped down on his shoulder, kneading the tight muscles there. “You’re not the sum of your mistakes, Dominic.”
“One day, I might believe you,” he murmured, tracing the invisible pattern on my shirt. His other hand wrapped around my neck, and he pulled me down closer to him, closer to his lips, waiting for me, free for taking. “But today, I don’t believe you. I don’t know if she will be enough to put me together again.”
He bit down on my lower lip, earning a grunt from me. It wasn’t strong enough to break the skin, but hard enough to stir the need coiling in my gut. It’d been too long since I had him here with us. It’d been too long since I felt his hands on my skin, or his lips on mine.
As he kept gripping the back of my neck, pulling me closer and closer until he got up on his knees, pressing his chest against mine, I could feel his need.
Not only the physical one, even though his rock-hard dick pressing against mine was indication enough of where he wanted to take this. No, it was the need inside his soul that was always there for us.
The need to escape, to run away, to get lost with us even if it was only for one night. If today was any other date, I would’ve allowed this.
“Dom,” I murmured against his lips. “We can’t do this. Not yet.”
“Please,” he whispered, trembling against me. “I just want to forget it all. Please, take it away from me. I’m begging you, Kai. Take these memories away from me.”
“He can’t,” a melodic voice piped in behind us. As if someone threw a bucket of cold water over us, I tore myself away from Dominic and fell on my back.
I saw her then, standing next to the bed like the Goddess of Darkness, looking at the three of us. She held herself upright with one hand on the bed, swaying on her feet, no doubt the effects of the drugs I’d given her.
It wasn’t enough to knock her out for a longer period of time, but it was enough to piss her off. And boy, she was fucking pissed off. Her eyes were narrowed at the three of us, calculating, her face open as a fucking book, showing almost every single thought passing through her mind.
So much anger would suffocate a lesser person, but not her. I expected fear from her, or maybe her bolting for the door while we weren’t looking. The defiance and violence seeping from her brilliant eyes weren’t what I expected to see.
Yet I loved it.
My eyes drank her in—her smooth skin and the way she observed us as if we were here for her and not the other way around.
She was the missing piece of our trio. Her energy, the way she stood here, already owning us without trying. We were doomed if we continued our life without her. I knew that I couldn’t let her go.
I pulled myself up, seeing the shocked expressions on the faces of my guys, yet Dominic couldn’t look away from her.
“I want—” he started as she walked, no, stalked toward him, completely ignoring Alex and me. I chose her because she would’ve been the perfect prey for the three predators lurking in the middle of the night. I never assumed that she could be a predator herself.
“I know,” she interrupted him and kneeled in front of him. “I know what you need, but you need me as much as you need them.”
“I’ll destroy you,” Dominic said, sorrow and pain lacing every word softly spoken.
“No, Dominic,” she whispered, leaning down. Her lips pressed against his cheek and her arms around him. “I am going to destroy you, and then we can all be hollow together. Maybe tonight won’t be the end, but a new beginning for all of us.”
We were all broken,every single one of us. as the grogginess cleared from my mind, slowly pulling me back to reality, I could hear the broken pleas and whispers of the man kneeling in front of me.
I hated it. It resembled my own misery, and like looking in the mirror, Dominic’s feelings were as clear as mine.
