Page 51 of Wreck and Ruin

His filthy hands all over my body.

His filthy hands on my mother’s body.

I raise the blade and bring it back down with more strength than I can afford to use, slicing through the material, his exposed protruding stomach now a mess of flesh, blood, and intestines.

He was going to sacrifice me to his men. They were going to eat me. They were drinking my blood, and they weren’t going to stop until my heart finally stopped beating. He took everything from me. But he still doesn’t have me. And I hope his soul suffers for all eternity in the purgatory in the sky.

The room spins around me, Ezekiel's words even quieter as a coldness surrounds me, like a blanket of ice draped over my body. My body is screaming, but I can't speak from the pain. I move my hands, distorted and doubled, and all I see is gore and blood. Ezekiel holds me in his arms, rocking back and forth, but I don't feel it. I don’t even feel like my body is my own anymore, yet I feel everything at the same time.

“It's okay now, baby. I'm so fucking proud of you. You got him, Airlie. He's dead,” Ezekiel's voice brings me out of my trance, and a breath escapes my lips. “You're in shock, Little Siren, but you're gonna be okay,” he soothes, kissing atop my head and then my forehead.

His face and body are covered in blood, but I think he looks spellbinding like this.

Enchanting.

I open my mouth to speak, but my throat feels dry. Instead, I move in Ezekiel's arms, rolling my eyes over his body to see how badly he's hurt. He must notice because he looks down at his side, where blood pools from a small, dark red piece of flesh missing from the side of his body.

“I’m okay, baby. It's just a flesh wound. The bullet only scathed me.”

I don't know what he means, but I nod. I have yet to learn about the outside world, but I mentally note that I should ask him what a bullet is.

I’ll ask tomorrow.

Burrowing deeper into his hold, I realize I never want him to let me go. My eyes fall on the man who lies dead at my side. His grey hair now blood red, and his dark eyes are even darker, black, I realize, as his evil, demonic soul leaves his lifeless body on a one-way ticket to Hell.

My head is pounding, my body throbbing, but nothing feels as bad as when I saw Ezekiel hurt. “I-I love you, Stranger,” I whisper. My throat feels like I've swallowed glass, and considering we're sitting in a pile of it, it wouldn't surprise me if I have.

“Say it again,” Ezekiel says, his bloodied face lightly caressing mine before he nuzzles into my neck and hair.

“I love you.”

“If anything happens to me after this moment, I'll be dying a very happy man, Little Siren,” he says, wearing a coy smile.

“Why is that?” I ask. I want to know everything about him. How his mind works, what he likes and doesn't like. I want it all with him.

“Nobody has ever told me that they love me before, Airlie. I don't know a single person who would have saved me. Out on the rocks the day you found me, and here a few minutes ago. No one is waiting for me back home to talk to, to tell them I’m alive, let alone how my day went. I am just me. I have no family.Nothing. I have nothing to offer you. I'm just a ghost, baby,” his voice cracks, his warm breath heavy on my neck as I take in his words.

He's torturing himself, but it isn't necessary.

I know what I want, and I'm no longer allowing a man to tell me what that is.

“If you're a ghost with nothing, Ezekiel, then I am a phantom with everything. Because now that I have you, there is nothing else in this world that I could possibly want more.”

Bright blue eyes meet mine, and my heart stops at how remarkably wonderful he is. He leans in, pressing his bloodied lips to mine, and I've never tasted anything more beautiful. He leans back, his hand gently wiping away the tears that I didn't realize were falling down my face.

“Now, about your father—Titan,”he quickly corrects, and I can see why the wordfatherwould be like acid on his tongue.

I look up, tilting my head to see what that strange sound is coming from outside.

What is that?

Ezekiel follows my gaze, and his crimson lips tilt into the broadest smile I have ever seen anyone wear.

“You couldn't write this shit,” he says, still wearing a triumphant grin, as he holds me tightly, not enough to hurt me, and I burrow into his body as we watch the monstrous machine-like thing hover above the water. There are people,lotsof people, standing outside, staring up at the strange building in the ocean.

“It's a boat, baby, more like a ship, kinda like the one I was telling you about,” he explains, and I feel silly. My cheeks heat with embarrassment because when he mentioned that he blew up a boat, I imagined an arc-like thing, and it looked nothing like the ship outside. “And those things over there,” he points to the large, loud black birds in the sky. “Those are helicopters. They are what is gonna get us out of here. And down there, baby, is Titan,” he says.

His voice sounds different. He sounds free, like an enormous weight has lifted away from his shoulders.

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