Page 111 of Addicted
“Tarl will teach you all the ways to make someone hurt before they die, leaving them in agony until the very last second, begging for your mercy.” His voice is a deep rasp, and fuck me, I swear I almost came from his husky tone alone. Add in the words and I’m a hot fucking mess.
My breath leaves my chest in a stuttered exhale, and I lift my hooded gaze to catch Tarl’s, one pale blue eye and one jade green focused on me. He doesn’t hide the raw lust in his eyes as he watches me in Aeron’s arms, his tongue coming out to slowly, teasingly licks his lips, as if he’s trying to capture my taste from his kiss with Jude moments before.
“How do you want to finish him,Azizam?” he asks me, his own voice a glass full of sinful indulgence.
I shiver when Dean makes a pained sound in his chest. I know that some part of me must be broken not to feel horror and revulsion at the man lying at my feet, broken and bleeding out as he is, but I don’t. I don’t feel bad at all. In fact, my heart beats fast in my chest, and by the way my core tightens I know that the sight of my vengeance turns me on unlike anything that I’ve experienced before.
Perhaps that’s another thing to add to the list for my future therapist.
Aeron’s hand slips along my thigh, his low groan vibrating through me when he reaches my inner thighs and realizes justhow wet I am. It makes it nearly impossible to concentrate on Tarl’s question, and I have to swallow a few times before I can answer.
“Step aside,” I say, my voice husky but unwavering. My hand ghosts down Aeron’s arm, back to the gun he still holds as his other hand toys with the area around my dripping sex. “Help me shoot him in the head, Devil Man?” This time my tone is a little uncertain. Not because I don’t want to do it, but maybe because I know that everything will change once I’ve killed him. I will never be the same again.
I gaze around at the piles of bodies that litter the room, the bodies of my abusers, and I know that this is the only way to end this chapter of my life, and I’m okay with that, more than okay.
“Always, my love,” he whispers back, his hand on my thigh leaving, a small whine of protest coming out of my lips. “Don’t worry, Dove, I’ll finish what I’ve started after we conclude business.” He releases a chuckle before he brings our arms up, sighting Dean’s head in the center of the barrel. “Deep breath, just like before, then pull.”
I follow his instruction, my grip steady underneath his as I think about all the times a Soldier hurt me, raped me, took what didn’t belong to them. Every time they tied me down and I was unable to defend myself against the monsters that surrounded me.
Then I pull the trigger.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“SILENCE” BY MARSHMELLO
LARK
We emerge into the early morning chill covered in the blood of our enemies, dust, and other things. The sun has yet to rise, which I’m grateful for as I’m not sure I could handle daylight after the past seven days of darkness. Aeron keeps hold of my hand as we step into the semidarkness, and he tugs me closer as a figure barrels towards us. My heart thuds painfully in my chest, my stomach dropping like when you come down the other side of a rollercoaster as the man comes closer. The figure pauses, and as the clouds shift, the pale light of the almost rising sun highlights his familiar face; It’s just Rook.
“Sorry,” he apologizes, looking sheepish as he takes the final few steps towards us when Aeron relaxes his grip. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”
“No worries, dude,” Knox assures him, striding towards my brother and clapping him on the back. I have to hold in a giggle when Rook winces and wobbles slightly from the force. “Just trynot to make any sudden movements or Tarl might whip his knife out. He tends to cut first and ask questions later.”
“Noted,” my brother answers, giving Tarl a wary look. He then looks at me, his brows dipping at the blood no doubt. “Lark? You okay?”
“Never better, little bro,” I tell him, letting go of Aeron and wrapping my arms around Rook’s waist. Fucker got tall in the past couple of months. He pulls me in close, giving me a tight hug in the pre-dawn light. After a few moments, I pull back and look up at him, my arms still around him. “Are you?” He killed our father tonight and the rest of the inner circle of the Dead Soldiers. He’s the last Soldier left. I feel his sigh and then see the grim determination on his youthful face.
“I will be. Adam is going to help me build the Soldiers into what we should have been all along; a family.” His voice is firm, and pride swells my chest. Rufus didn’t poison my brother like many of the others, and I have no doubt that he will grow into a powerful man who doesn’t target the weak and vulnerable. The complete opposite to Rufus.
“If anyone can do it, you can, Rook,” I encourage him, leaning up and placing a kiss on his cheek. “You were always much stronger than he gave you credit for.”
His own chest grows as he takes a deep inhale, looking away from me and up at the rapidly lightening sky.
“I hope so, Lark.”
I feel him at my back even before his hand skates down my spine. “Let’s get you home, Dove.” Aeron’s deep voice washes over me, and I shiver, but not from the cold air that surrounds us.
“Where are you staying?” I ask Rook as I let him go, Aeron immediately pulling me into his side, as if he can’t bear to be away from me for even the couple of minutes my reunion with Rook took.
“Adam says I can stay at the big house until we get things figured out,” he tells me as he glances back down at me, and I know like me, he doesn’t want to go back to our family house. There’s too many terrible memories there for both of us, and if it were up to me, I’d firebomb the fucking place. Guess it belongs to Rook now. I know Rufus planned on leaving everything to his son anyways because heaven forbid his daughter get a cent upon his death.
“That sounds like a great idea,” I reply, looking past Rook to see Adam and some of the other Tailors talking further down the alley, toward the main road. “Why don’t we meet up in a few days?”
“I’d like that.” He rubs the back of his neck with his palm and looks away from me for a moment. “I know that you always said you’d help me get out, Lark. You took so much shit when you could have run at any moment. I–I can never repay you for everything you’ve done, but I want to try somehow.”
“Oh, Rook,” I whisper, tears filling my eyes as I step out of Aeron’s grip once more and rush to Rook, wrapping him in another hug. “We’re family. There’s no need to repay me. You would have done the same, and more, if you could have.”
“But I didn’t,” he confesses between clenched teeth, his body taut beneath my embrace even as his arms circle back around me. “I didn’t do a fucking thing to help you, Lark. So I owe you more than I can ever repay.”
