Page 2 of Butterfly
It’s obvious he wants to be alone, and Ineedhim to be alone if I’m going to have any chance of this working.
I need him to be alone and not paying attention, because right now I’m trying to figure out how to scale the perpetual Mount Everest of kills, and I’m not sure how I’m going to manage.
I pull out the knife I have tucked into my pocket, holding it half hidden in my sleeve as I silently follow him behind the opening in the loose board. He’s leaning against the back of an abandoned building and his head is down. All he is to me is long, lean limbs and a tall, cut figure. He looks strong. His thighs are perfectly sculpted under the jeans he wears… and I can already see the lines in my head. Streaks of crimson. A figure cut in shadows against a brick building. Red on white.
Blood on bone.
And…
He tilts his head up, and I stop in my tracks. Long red lashes fall in half moons against pale cheeks. The soft glow of the moonlight illuminates his features in perfect clarity.
He’s like a statue, likeart.A nose that looks like it might have been broken once or twice and full lips that are pulled down in a frown.
He looks… sad. And beautiful. And the fan of his lashes are like blood on the moon.
Red on white.
I make the mistake of letting out a soft exhale inawe. He might be the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen, real or created. No one is supposed to be prettier than my art, but…
Those eyes shoot open, and I’m met with a startled expression that quickly schools into concern. His eyes drop from my face—which I’m sure is confused and overwhelmed—to the knife in my hand, and then he looks behind me like he’s expecting something else.
It doesn’t save me as he turns back to my face when nothing pops out behind me. He starts forward and I stand frozen, my feet stuck to the ground and my heart pounding in my chest.
I’ve neverbeencaught before. Not like this. And I’ve never been held in place without someone holding me down.
I…
I… Oh, absolutelyfuck me. He’s looking at me with wide, warm brown eyes as he approaches, and I can’t help but imagine it. Over a foot taller than me… I’d have to climb him to slit his throat. He’d bathe me in blood. It would taste like copper on my tongue, feel like being reborn… remade…
His hood falls down as he leans closer, and I’m lost in a sea of crimson waves and a galaxy of freckles that span across his cheeks, making constellations I’ve never seen before.
“Are you okay?” he asks, his voice tinged with an accent I don’t recognize. His fingers on my arm burn through me with the same heat I was seeking out. Heat from a living person instead of blood and paint and flesh.
It’s… weird. Wrong.
New.
“What?”
“Are you okay?” he repeats, his voice spilling into a low, soothing rumble like he’s talking to a scared rabbit instead of a predator.
Am I okay? I… no. No, I’m not. I’ve never felt anything this strange ripping through my chest, never had a moment of hesitation. But now? Now all I can do is look up at him and force my face into a mask of terror—fabricated fear. I only know how to do it because I’ve seen it so many times before.
It lets me hold the knife up with trembling fingers as I speak. “I… someone’s following me. Can you help me?”
Fuck. What am I doing?
CHAPTER TWO
DONOVAN
If I didn’t knowany better, I’d swear this stranger is about ten seconds away from having a complete meltdown. He’s trembling, a frightened rabbit beneath my hand, his eyes so wide with fear he almost looks like a cartoon.
So wide it almost looks fake.
It’s odd for someone to be back here in this space at this time of night. Well, odd for someone other than me to be here, I suppose. I have a habit of wandering after a game, and I stumbled upon this building by sheer chance. I’d just blown a two-goal lead that would have seen my hockey team with the win if my brain had only reacted faster to the shots being fired at me. After the next loss with me in net, I’d found my way back here, and now it’s just a habit to head into the silence of this place after a game doesn’t go my way.
I can see the stars here, like I could back home.
