Page 189 of House of Pain
Finally, he came over and sat on her bed, so close to her that she could smell the leather and smoke and the damn lake on him.
He shifted towards her, bending his leg so their knees touched.
Alecto glanced at him. She barely had time to wince as his hand crashed behind her head, cupping her neck, and then, his face was mere inches away, dark eyes searching her face.
“You almost died.”
Alecto blinked, trying to calm her thundering heart. “Yeah, I know. I was there.”
Blaze sighed heavily, bringing her forehead to his. “I didn’t like it.”
Anger bubbled so suddenly inside her, she barely registered her hand, moving to slap his cheek, sending his head to the side.
“Fuck you,” she snarled, moving away from him.
His hand on the back of her neck locked her in place.
“When are you going to understand, Alecto?” Blaze growled, bringing his face to hers once more, a red print of her palm blooming on his cheek.
“Oh, I understand everything very well,” Alecto snapped, fighting against his grip. “I understand that you’re a fucking asshole. No, you know what,assholeis a word that’s not colorful enough to describe what you are.”
Blaze stayed silent, glaring at her, so she continued as she buried her palms in his chest.
“You don’t fucking have a heart. Or soul, for that matter,” she hissed. “If you were to offer a demon a deal, they wouldn’t fucking take it because even in Hel, there’s not a place dark enough for your rotten fucking soul.”
“You’re right about that.”
Alecto was thrown off by that for a moment, but then anger surfaced once more, and words spilled out against her will.
“You think knowing that you’re evil makes you better? It makes you even worse because you know how fucking malicious you are, and yet you still refuse to do anything about it. You feed on the pain and misery you inflict on others. There is nothing that’s off-limits. In fact, the worse the act, the more satisfaction it brings, right?”
Blaze didn’t answer.
Alecto’s breath was ragged, her chest burning, but she didn’t stop.
“How fucking empty do you have to be to only feel satisfied when someone else suffers, huh? How fucking broken must you be to only thrive when someone else is suffering? But I suppose it’s a Leveau thing because it sure as fuck isn’tawitchthing.”
Blaze released a heavy breath, bringing his forehead to hers despite her trying to push him away. Alecto didn’t have the power to fight him off.
“I am all of those things,” he admitted, his voice a whisper. “And I am probably much, much worse than that because there are no lengths I wouldn’t go in order to punish someone or to get what I want. But you can’t sit here and pretend like all of these things aren’t the reason why you are drawn to me.”
Alecto pushed at him once more. “I don’t—”
“Don’t give me that bullshit,” Blaze cut her off. “You know you can’t stay away from me the same way I can’t stay away from you. For fuck’s sake, don’t tell me that you don’t feel the way your pulse spikes around me, the way your senses sharpen.”
Alecto inhaled a breath, grinding her teeth.
She was done admitting anything to Blaze. He already had crushed her the moment she let her guard down.
“And do you know why that is?” Blaze asked, his breath hovering over her mouth. “Because you’re just as fucked up as I am. You have a pit as deep as Hel inside you, and it is filled with a rage so potent, it could ruin the whole of Inathis if unleashed.”
Alecto tried turning her face away, trying to put distance between them because it was getting hard to breathe.
Blaze’s hand slipped from the back of her neck, coming to grip her face so that she couldn’t escape him.
“You don’t bother cutting others off whenever they wrong you. You walk over anyone that threatens you, no matter what reason they have for it,” Blaze continued. With each word, Alecto’s heart raced faster. “And while you think that being half-mortal gives you a better sense of remorse, I bet you have absolutely no fucking idea what guilt tastes like because you’ve never experienced it before.”
Alecto wanted to dig her nails into his throat, scratching and tearing through his flesh to stop those damn words from coming out of his mouth.
