Page 19 of Ruin

I should have let her die.

I should have ended her myself.

Breath finally floods in through my nose, nostrils flaring as the cool air bites at my lungs. And I hear the clinking again. Turning on my heel, eyes like lasers shooting through her, she stares back at me. Still in the cage, those eyes on mine, peering at me through matted, dark hair. I drift closer, hands loose at my sides, eyes locked on hers.

A rush of anger floods through me, irritation making my teeth ache. She has infected my brain like a tumour. Latching on and spreading throughout my cranium. My temples pound, pulse hammering, my heart is a heavy, disgusting thing caged behind the bars of its bone prison.

I have dealt with this before.

Lala’s pretty face pops into the forefront of my mind like she’s here in this very room, those too big eyes boring into mine, a sinister smirk twitching at the corner of her lips.

Fixation.

Obsession.

It turned my blood black, my heart to mush, my insides felt like they were doused in acid.

I have killed for her.

My own brother.

I would die for her.

Even now.

And it is still not enough. It doesn’t matter what I do. She will never choose me.

I am not enough.

I am too damaged even for her. My cousin. My twin flame. Soul mate.

It was,is,my ruin.

Her.

Her three husbands, beautiful son. She has a new family, a home, all things that took her from me.

And I still can’t move on with my life.

I won’t let it happen again.

My knees slam into the concrete as I drop to the ground at the open door of her cage. I reach in, hand clamping over her bony foot, forefinger and thumb curling around her jutting ankle. She hisses at me, her teeth bared, and rage explodes inside my chest.

I yank her leg, her hip bone popping, her back smacks into the solid metal base as she falls, her head bouncing off of it with a thunk. I rip her towards me. She arches up, chain hooked to her neck rattling, her good hand grappling with my hold on her leg. Snagged nails tear at my skin. She claws and growls, a low rumble in the back of her throat, the most noise she has ever made, and her eyes are alight with fire as I drag her free of the bars.

She clings onto the thick round metal, her dislocated arm limp as she flips onto her front, trapping it beneath her. She writhes to get away from me, but as I suspected, her legs don’t work properly, there’s no muscle bulking her skeleton, and as such, I can move and manipulate her without any effort at all.

I tear her out on her belly, her chin smacking the lip of the cage, a grunt of air forced from her lungs. I heave her up, standing quickly, I pull her to her feet. Her legs buckle beneath her, her entire body trembling. The chain swings between us, heavy and loud with its clinking against the concrete floor. Grabbing her roughly, I flip her around, her back to my front, legs hanging, toes dragging over the floor. Her one good arm claws blindly behind her, nails grazing my throat, my jaw, my face. I band my arm around her front, pinning her own at her side.

“Stop struggling,” I hiss in her ear, my breath ghosting down the side of her throat.

She stills instantly, my lips brushing the skin just below her ear. For just a moment, we breathe, in time with one another, too fast, uncontrolled. She goes lax, and I don’t let go, but I don’t tighten my hold any further on her either and then she’s feral again.

Her wrist flexes unnaturally in an attempt to grab at me. Reach any single piece of me she can try to fight. But her legs are completely dead beneath her, my arm the only thing keeping her up, flush with my front. Growling like a little beast, she seethes in my hold. I carry her, lifeless limbs attempting to kick, hand trying to tear my flesh from my bones, heavy chain trailing along the floor at my feet.

Slamming her into the edge of the workbench, the air punching from her lungs. I snap her body forwards, over the wooden table. Her arm flies out in front of her, free from my hold, trying to soften the collision, but all that does is get it caught between the workbench and our combined weight.

I am smothering her back, all of her cold naked skin beneath my own, my jeans rough against the back of her thighs, arse. A shiver tears up my spine, her cheek flush with the splintering wood of the table, eyes narrowed and cornered on mine.

---