Page 18 of Sweet Revenge

“You,” I answered honestly. Daemon snickered, and I felt like I should have a cigarette in-between my fingers, though I’d never smoked and didn’t like the smell of it. “Run away with me,” I blurted, not thinking.

“What?” His forehead wrinkled in confusion. I knew he’d heard me, so maybe I should’ve swallowed the statement back, played it off.

I didn’t. “Let’s do it. Let’s get the fuck out of here and disappear.”

“Didn’t we do that already? I’m pretty sure we already ran away. That’s why we’re out here in the middle of nowhere letting other people worry about our troubles.” Finished with his axe-wielding, at least for now, he moved the wood he’d cut closer to the porch and put the axe away before coming to sit near me.

“We sort of ran away, I guess, but this isn’t exactly the place I’d choose to get lost forever, you know?” I got up, stretching my legs a bit since I’d been sitting on a short stump, and situated myself next to him on the porch. “Wouldn’t you rather run off to somewhere tropical? Someplace nice and sunny all year round?”

Daemon raised an eyebrow at me, but he didn’t answer my questions. He didn’t disregard them either.

“Wouldn’t that be nice? We could sail away to a tropical island in the middle of the sea. No one there but you and me. We’d only have each other.”

“If you start singing ‘Islands in the Stream,’ so help me…” He shook his head, a slight smirk on his face.

Puzzled, I asked, “Singing what?”

Daemon chuckled at a joke I didn’t get and said, “Never mind. What would you like to do on this private island of ours, Elisa?”

A goofy grin took over my face as I shrugged. “I don’t know. Sleep naked with you under the stars, a huge bonfire to keep the chill out of the air. We could dye our hair. Mine would be jet black and yours could be as light as mine. No one would ever recognize us. We could even change our names.”

“To what?” He was clearly going along with this just to hear what I had in mind.

“Whatever we like. I don’t know. I haven’t given it much thought, but I’ve always liked the name Rhiannon.”

“Rhiannon?” He lifted a hand and ran it through my hair. “I can see that. You do look a little bit like Stevie Nicks.”

“Who?” I couldn’t see the connection.

Again, he was laughing at me. “You really need to listen to a wider variety of music. Okay, you’ll be Rhiannon, and I’ll be… John. A nice, normal, common name. Then what?”

“Then whatever the fuck we want,” I said with a shrug. “We’ll hop from island to island. During the day, we’ll drink plenty of those fruity drinks with the little umbrellas in them. We’ll go out on a catamaran and watch the dolphins play, maybe even jump in the water with them. At night, we’ll fuck in front of the fire.”

“You seem slightly obsessed with this sex in front of the fire idea,” he noted, still smoothing my hair.

“Well, we’ve been doing that here, so I guess I just like the idea of carrying that over, like that’s our thing.” I grinned at him, and he smiled back.

“I get it. From now on, if there’s no fire, I may as well just forget about getting laid.” We both laughed, and I put my hand on his knee. We both knew that wasn’t true. I’d fuck him pretty much anywhere, anytime, anyplace. We provided the fire.

“Don’t you think it sounds nice?” I leaned over and placed my head on his good shoulder, and he wrapped an arm around me. “Wouldn’t it be pleasant not to have to worry about winter? I’m tired of cleaning snow off my car. Not to mention all of the other shit we’re leaving behind.”

The idea that we could just walk away, leave other people to clean up the mess we’d leave behind, made my heartbeat drop and my breathing even out in ways it hadn’t since we first arrived there. Even here in the woods, I was always looking over my shoulder, wary of someone showing up and cutting our peaceful retreat short. I knew the chances of that were slim to none, but that was part of being in this world. If we ran away completely, though, we had a much better chance of freeing ourselves from all of it.

“It’s a nice fantasy, Elisa. I’m not much of a fruity-drink guy, but I’m sure I could find something on the beach to wet my whistle.”

I smiled up at him, wondering if this meant he’d actually consider my proposition, but when he began to slowly shake his head, I braced myself for what was coming. He was about to shatter my dreams with a huge dose of reality, and I just wasn’t ready for it.

“But we both know that’ll never happen, babe. We’ve got targets on our backs. It’s not as simple as changing our names and running away to another world. They’ll track us down. There’s really only one way anyone ever escapes from this world, and that’s in a body bag.” Daemon’s face was solemn, and I could tell he didn’t like the truth of the situation any better than I did.

He had been growing restless over the last few days. I could tell by the way he swung the axe. When he’d first started chopping the wood about a week ago, he’d taken it easy, being cautious, careful not to reinjure himself. He’d already caused a few stitches to pop the day he’d kicked the door down, something he’d sort of repaired since then. With each day, though, his swings of the axe became more aggressive until he was wielding it like it was his job.

He'd been thinking more, too. Planning. I thought he’d been talking to his brothers, but I wasn’t sure. He never did any of that while I was around. I’d spent some time walking in the woods, never going so far that I couldn’t find my way back. Winter was definitely setting in. I could smell it in the air. With it, the cold and bitterness seemed to be steeling his heart, getting him ready for what was to come.

I didn’t even want to broach the subject. I just wanted to pretend like we were going to stay out here for a bit longer and then get on a cruise ship headed for the islands I’d been picturing in my mind. But that wasn’t to be, and I needed to let the reality of the situation into my mind so I could accept it.

“All right then,” I said with a sigh, leaning up so I could look at him. “What are you thinking?”

“Well, since you and I both know they’ll never let us go, we need to plan for that. Until we’ve dealt with all of our enemies, we’ll always have these targets on our backs. We could go to the ends of the earth, and some asshole would be out there hunting for us, not letting up until we are found and eliminated.”

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