The executed, p.32
The Executed, page 32
She loved it. I knew she did. It didn’t matter what she said in the heat of the moment. Her words were passionate despite her choices.
Her every scratch, every blood draw, every spit in the face—was an expression of what she was afraid to accept… because she invariably molded into me during her weakness, pulling me in for the chase. I let her play with me. Hadn’t I always? Except now, the playing field was level and I wasn’t letting her go.
“Do what, Reed? You’re delusional!” she cried out, throwing a pillow at me. “You let him die, you asshole! How could you? How could you do this to me? How could you do this to us?”
Was she really trying that manipulation shit on me, thinking her tear-streaked face would add to her flare? I straightened and glared at her, daring her to keep going with a curl of my lip. Her lips quivered and my cock twitched. Fuck, she was beautiful. “How dare I? How dare I try to keep you safe while the entire damn community was out on a hunt? Listen to yourself. Just fucking listen to yourself!”
She threw another pillow and I caught it in my hand, lowering it with a fury that defied human nature. I wanted to kill her. I wanted her to scream in my face beneath me, clawing my flesh off as I finally made her see reality for what it was. We lived. We died. We fought to survive. It hadn’t changed.
She had.
“I hate you!” she hurled.
I blinked, and blinked again. Then let out a howling laugh as my mind broke in two. “You…hate…me. You…hate…ME?”
I didn’t see him until the door crashed in right as I dove for her neck, but missed by a scant few inches as Gunner pulled me back with all his might. I snarled and fought like a wild animal, ready to finally get a taste of the prey that kept eluding me—she had starved me of her to the point of insanity. Her scent of arousal coated the room thickly as my body responded in kind.
She hated me. She fucking hated me. I fucking hated myself! Did she not understand this? Did she derive pleasure from torturing me with her words and her actions as they contradicted themselves again and again?
“Reed! Calm yourself! She didn’t mean it! She’s mourning, man!” Gunner tried but I wasn’t hearing it. I wasn’t seeing it. My body necessitated I be near her as she rejected her gravitational pull on me. The room was closing in on all sides the same way it did when they buried me so long ago, nailing the coffin against my screams. My lungs refused to cooperate as I gasped for breaths, clawing at Gunner’s hold, trying to touch her just once more.
I saw it in her eyes, the way they yearned for me—her soul baying like a female wolf calling for her mate. I specifically perceived the way her lips parted before she shifted her legs as she scooted back in the bed.
It was as if she was in heat and I, the poor, sorry creature caught in her web of lies.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Gunner growled, almost losing his footing with my next lunge.
“Can’t you smell her? Can’t you feel her calling to you?!” I bellowed.
A crash came from the other house as Gunner tensed. He didn’t respond but I knew, I just knew he was fighting it too. The only difference was… he was winning and I wanted to desperately lose. The urgency to claim what was mine trumped all rational thought as I elbowed Gunner in the face with a crunch and slipped through his grasp, leaping at Fitri who didn’t run.
No, she sat there, watching me with awe as I tackled her onto her back and licked the column of her neck, groaning at her taste. Gunner grabbed my neck and I twisted, biting down on his. He roared and punched my face but I was lost in the taste of sustenance going down my throat, my body taking over every next move. Fitri sobbed beneath me, but I continued to cage her in, unwilling to let my pretty prey go now that I finally had her.
Soon, Gunner’s body fell limp and I let him fall beside us as turned and slammed my mouth on hers, mixing her tears with the taste of us.
She weakly fought, crying, passionately kissing me back as I caressed her face and coaxed her to let go.
But she kept whispering his fucking name.
Even beyond death, the asshole pushed me from my rightful position. I snarled and bit her lip, distracting her depression enough for me to pull the elastic waistband of her pants down to her ankles, locking them together. Releasing my straining cock, I rubbed it against her skin as I grabbed her hair with both hands and held her still for the assault of my lips.
She whimpered through her sobs and hiccups but didn’t push me away. Slipping my tongue out of her, savoring her taste, I trailed it down until I hit the neck of her shirt.
“Fucking piece of—” It didn’t stand a chance as it tore right down the middle with a jerk of my hands.
“Reed, please!” She pushed but instinct led me as I nipped her skin, closing my mouth on her right nipple and piercing her skin with my fangs.
My hips undulated as I pulled in a gulp of blood. The hands that pushed, now grabbed my head and brought me closer to her bosom, begging for me to rid her of her internal pain. When her nails dug into my scalp, I trailed my mouth down her abdomen and toward the apex of her legs. She pretended the pants kept her shackled but I knew she wanted another struggle. She was the strongest of us all.
Chuckling, I gave it to her—slapping her mound before wrenching one of her legs out of the pants and pushing the back of her leg up toward her shoulder.
Gunner laid unconscious beside us, his depression on the bed a reminder of our intruding guest. It was morbid of us to be doing this while he was passed out but I didn’t have it in me to push him off the side of the bed as I worshiped her cunt with everything I had.
My whispered name finally crested her lips and I was given a path to erasing everything that haunted her about Eliseo’s appalling demise. A part of me knew he was right, that I had always laid in wait until I had good reason to usurp him. Another part of me warred, saying the exact opposite as it purred against Fitri’s climax against my face. It was obvious which demon I let win. She grabbed the back of my head and let out a much different cry than the one I had come to expect these past few days.
When her cries of passion morphed back into sobs, my temper ignited. I bit her clit and licked the wound before forcing her onto her stomach, lifting her ass into the air.
“I hate you,” she wept against the sheets as I ran my nails down the side of her hips, digging my fingers into her flesh.
“You’re a fucking liar, little iris. But that’s okay,” I croaked. “I’ll make you forget him.” I plunged my aching cock, deeply inside of her inferno.
My eyes rolled to the back of my head as my body fell forward, covering hers. I didn’t miss how her ass backed up and pulled me in deeper, silently communicating her real needs.
The bed shook as primal hunger overtook me—as her carnal desires reciprocated with a dangerous perilousness that rivaled all the near-death experiences of our past combined. A crimson haze shrouded both of us as the air in the room became thick and heavy, like the unconscious body beside us. Each thrust drove me toward a heaven I didn’t deserve as she mewled like a kitten in heat beneath me, begging me to ruin her.
I gladly did.
She spasmed around my cock, clawing at the sheets but never pulling away. I bit down on her anyway, making sure she didn’t change her mind as I drank from her sweetly right before she bedeviled me and milked everything I had to offer.
We both panted against one another as she wept louder beside my ear, shoving my face away from the torn flesh of her shoulder. As the high of my release died down, so did my soul. My heart stopped as I stared at her stricken face. It didn’t matter that she healed exponentially.
What had I done?
The crackle of flames, the smell of cooked flesh and his final roar rang in my ear, mixing in with memories of rejection and burial, the smell of fresh dirt hitting the top of my coffin. I let out a stuttering breath, trying to regain control of a mind that was reconstructing itself before my mind’s eyes.
When Gunner returned to the living room, face flush, my envy rivaled my self-hatred, fighting its way toward resentment. I wanted to strangle him. I wanted to strangle her for letting him drink from her.
It didn’t matter if I almost killed him in my rabid lunacy.
My animalistic urges told me otherwise, battling my human psyche. I ran my hands through my hair and pulled at my scalp, forcing my eyes away from the puncture wounds on his neck… slowly healing.
“You calm now?” Gunner asked cautiously as he came to sit on the opposite side of the couch.
I felt a growl rumble beneath my chest but I swallowed it back down, blinking a few times. I rubbed at my chest, feeling the smooth expanse of skin, reminiscing the pain from the clawing she gave me the day I locked her inside the house.
She didn’t need to add any more bloodshed to her memory, she didn’t need to see the way his skin melted off with fat, sizzling in the flames.
“She hates me,” I deadpanned. My chest constricted and I wanted to peel my flesh off in self-punishment. She hated me and I claimed her. She hated me… and I loved every moment of it.
Leaning onto my elbows, I hung my head in my hands and struggled to breathe as my body and mind waged war.
“She doesn’t fucking hate you. Stop being dramatic. But what the hell was going through your mind to do that while she's still broken over Eliseo, man? Get your head out of your ass,” he growled, kicking me.
I snapped my head to him, my mouth watering, reminiscing the way he tasted in the heat of my anger. As if he knew, he straightened and glared in defiance.
“I fucking hate you too for almost turning me into a corpse,” he gritted out.
“But did you die? No. You were breathing right beside us the whole time.” I shot to my feet, pacing the room. “I wanted to watch your body fall off the bed while the little fox screamed my name. But because I fucking care, I kept you there. Don’t forget it.”
He shot to his feet too, the temperature in the room elevating, then burning at infernal heights when he shoved his finger in my chest. “You don’t fix something broken by breaking it further, you asshole!”
Asshole.
She loved Eliseo for it and she’ll love me for it.
I swatted his hand away and he threw a punch. I dodged and threw one back. The room began to spin as we both landed on the floor in hand-to-hand combat, battling for something bigger than what was in front of us. With snarls and growls, I felt his own inhuman strength grow as he kicked me against the couch. I slammed into it, rolled and landed on my hands and feet, watching him slowly get to his.
We slammed into each other as if it was the last fight we’d ever have. We didn’t see her come in, but we felt her… right before she grabbed both of us and threw us against opposite walls. Groaning from the impact, I shook my head and glared at her.
She was hunched over, her arms wrapped around her stomach, her eyes full of animosity and coldness.
“How could you, Reed? They burned him,” she sobbed, falling to her knees. “They always resort to fire. I should have known. I should have never led us here. It was better to die out there than to hear his cry.”
I crawled to her and she hissed, making me jerk back. “And you! You did this! You let it happen! You took me away, separated us! I should have died with him!”
“The fuck you say?” I growled, straightening and looking down at her with disgust over her words. “How fucking dare you, threatened to take my life by taking yours!”
“Reed, calm the fuck down, you delusional bastard!”
Maybe I was. I watched with abject bitterness as she welcomed his touch and not mine. The darkness inside of me tore through my soul as if a living entity wanted to claw its way out into the surface to finally consume its host.
I should let it devour me. Because right now, nothing I said or did could fix anything…
I dropped to my knees and hung my head in my hands toward the floor, heaving in breath as the shadows of my mind swirled around me.
The sound of her sobs were the currency for the demons to torture me. My name cursed under her breath were stab sounds meant to chisel a deep void in my chest until nothing of me remained.
The rejected son. The cursed one. The one who was going to be everyone’s downfall. I had been cast aside, buried, forsaken. The moment I stole a piece of heaven for myself, I should have known it would be my final downfall. As much as hate and self-loathing ran through my veins with each pump of my heart, I was too selfish to let go of what I took possession of.
I lowered myself, and gradually reached out. Hope was the most dangerous thing of all but I was desperate to make her see our connection. When she turned her face into Gunner’s chest, I exploded. My vision blurred, cleared and blurred again as fists, snarls, bites, and blood splattered in the room.
I thought the pain was from me subduing my competition but the reality was, Gunner had me in a chokehold, his body forcing mine still beneath him. I didn’t know what was real and what wasn’t anymore, my entire being focused on the body lock, Gunner had me in. It was a move he never used in training. It was the only reason why I couldn’t see it coming.
“I’m not going to tell you again,” he gritted next to my ear right before the bedroom door slammed shut.
25
FITRI
Time moved slowly.
Samuel and Remi came back. They checked up on us but I didn't remember any of it afterward. I no longer had any desire to leave the house as I sat on the edge of the bed, staring out the window. Watching the windows move, my mind supplied that it was a breezy day, but I felt nothing.
And I felt everything.
I didn’t realize my body shook until Gunner placed the bowl of food on the side table and wrapped a blanket around me. As much as it pained me, Reed had to take care of me while Gunner was at work and then vice versa.
At least I didn’t have to face Reed the entire time.
Didn’t he realize, guilt ate at me every time he looked into my eyes? Every time my body cried out for him knowing it was wrong. I didn’t understand the changes in me and was afraid of what I would find out.
Night turned into days and days turned into nights.
I found myself sitting in the living room, staring at the picture on the wall when the cushions depressed beside me. His scent had changed and it wrapped itself around me like a caress when all I could do was cry because I didn’t want to feel this way.
“Fitri, please,” he begged quietly and I closed my eyes, afraid of seeing his.
When he nudged the spoon beside my lips, I automatically opened, accepting his offering. When he wiped the side of my lips with a napkin, they trembled. When he brushed my hair and braided it, I hung my head in my hands.
I sobbed harder when I felt his dejected forehead against my back. Nothing else. I berated myself for still wanting his arms around me, but they never came. No, instead he gathered the bowl and utensils, stood up quietly and left the house.
Time continued to move forward and it was as if the light switch in my mind turned on and I noticed Remi sitting beside me prattling on about Samuel and his annoying habits. My lips twitched when she told me about how hard she had to work to keep certain unsavory women away from him and she stopped mid-sentence to look at me.
“You’re back,” she whispered, and my eyes burned with tears. She embraced me the same way I did her when her mother died and the irony burned itself in my mind. “We’ve missed you.”
“I missed you too. I’m sorry.”
“Why are you sorry?” she asked as she pulled back.
“I was supposed to be protecting you…” I trailed off, no longer sure of what I was supposed to be doing in this life anymore.
“We take care of each other. You taught me that. And the guys. Gunner’s been pulling double shifts to cover for your absence when some of the community began coming around to ask about why you wouldn’t leave the house.”
“What?” How many weeks have passed?
Remi nodded. “And Reed’s never left your side since.”
“What do you mean? He always leaves,” I told her, aware enough in my depressed mental state of his presence exiting the room after he completes the task of taking care of me.
She slowly shakes her head and wrinkles her brow. “He hasn’t eaten. He’s been so distracted while tracking, they relieved him of his duty. He sleeps against your closed bedroom door and Samuel has to force him to get cleaned up. And when he leaves the house… he sits beneath your bedroom window with his head hung in his hands as he listens to you cry…”
“I haven’t been able to talk to him or get him to interact with me. He’s been a shell of himself and the only thing he reacts to is your movements and needs.”
I felt the breeze today, simply because it told me my face was wet with tears that had been running down without my notice. We were both suffering and I didn’t know how to fix it. I didn’t know what we were supposed to do.
“I’m sorry if what I told you is making you sad. I didn’t mean for it to. I just didn’t want you to think he was leaving you all the time,” Remi admitted. “Some of the local women try to get his attention or feed him but all he does is slap the food away and gets to his feet, staring into your bedroom until they have no choice but to leave.”
“W-where is he now?” Dared I ask?
Remi patted my knee and got to her feet. “Call to him, Fitri. It’s all he’s been waiting for.”
How did she grow up so fast? I watched silently as she left me sitting on the couch, closing the door behind her. I took a stuttering breath and wrapped my arms around myself. The sick curl in my gut from so long ago returned and fear laced itself around me with thoughts of Reed.
When did it happen? The more I thought about it, the more I realized it wasn’t fear but trepidation. I stared at the painting and wiped my face. After a few moments, I walked into the restroom and undressed. Stepping into the stall, I turned on the water and let it force me to feel. There was no going back. He was truly gone.
