Page 70 of Fae Farewells

Lavender screamed as Sloane removed her arm, completely detaching it from her body in a spray of violence. Blood splattered against my face and oozed from her shoulder, soaking the sofa in a gory dye-job.

My Kitten tossed the arm behind her carelessly. It smacked the wall, leaving a bright red smear all the way to the floor. Lavender’s hysterics faded to sobs as Purple clawed at Sloane’s tightening grip.

She jerked her hand back, ripping Purple’s throat out. Hot blood hit me once more, dripping down my cheek and jaw. I wiped my face with the edge of my t-shirt, though I couldn’t clean it out of my eyes.

“These are my mates. And as hypocritical as it may sound, I’m not open to sharing today.”

Lavender tried to scramble away from me, as she warned, “The queen—”

“Can kill me if she so chooses. I assure you, I’ll show her the definition of eternal. The same can’t be said of you, though. I’d say sorry, but I’m not. You touched my mates, and that’s my button.”

“We didn’t—”

“Know?” my Kitten finished, prowling forward. “Come here of your own accord? I don’t care. Your queen sent you here knowing that death was highly likely. I have a reputation. I am sorry that you didn’t hear about me before you agreed to come in here willingly and touch. My. Mates.”

Sloane placed her hands on either side of Lavender’s face, squeezing until her eyes began to bulge from the pressure.

“They say it’s impossible for a human to crush another human’s skull like this,” Sloane whispered, nose-to-nose with the fae. “The pounds per square inch is an outrageous number, but not impossible for some of us. I hope your reincarnation learns from your mistakes. Be wiser in your next life.”

Lavender’s eyes popped from their sockets, dangling against her cheeks as she wailed a miserable sound. Sloane drove her fingers into the fae’s throat, pulling her trachea out and dropping it into my lap.

We sat in the deafening silence as our mate wiped her hands on her blood-soaked hoodie, only smearing the fluids more. She tugged her sleeve up, catching the thin elastic on her wrist before pulling her stained hair into a ponytail.

“You couldn’t let them move first?” I asked curiously. “I’m covered in blood now, too.”

“You’re supposed to be on my side,” she told me, her voice lethal.

“I am. That’s why I let you kill them. You like doing this.”

“Let me?” she repeated, making it clear those weren’t the right words to use. “I was told I couldn’t kill people, so I wasn’t fucking killing them.”

I grimaced. “You looked like you wanted to kill them.”

“I did.”

“So now they’re dead,” I noted. “Why are you mad?”

She stared at me, her mouth slightly open in disbelief. “Because you made me kill them.”

“I didn’t make you kill them,” I argued. “Just like I didn’t make them touch me.”

“You didn’t stop them.”

“I thought it might liven up our trip. You know? Give you something to focus on. It’s not like I called them up here.”

“You opened the door and let them in.”

I shrugged. “I was bored. What would you have done if you’d opened the door and found them?”

“I don’t know,” she answered, taking a deep breath. “And I don’t care that you were bored. I wasn’t supposed to kill anyone. We had a plan. This isn’t part of it.”

“So killing them didn’t work off any of your frustration?”

“No, Stone!” she shouted. “It didn’t. Look at this mess.”

I surveyed the room, from the dead fae to the livid vampire to the other three guys, who were almost amused. “No one said you had to rip them apart.”

“She was touching you.”