9. With pleasure.

Footsteps thud on the floor,making my face, my entire body, vibrate. I look up.

Lucian moves the hand wrapped around my neck and caresses my head.

"Are you okay?" he whispers.

Kevin steps into the room. I shake my head.

I should have known it wouldn't last. I should have known the little peace I'd managed to find with Lucian would be disrupted by the bastard who had trapped us here in the first place.

"It's okay," Lucian says. "It's all going to be okay."

I don't know how he can say that, but for a minute, warmed by his big, strong arms, I believe him. I want to believe him.

"What have we here? Did the little slut finally give it up to someone?" Kevin's low, growly voice makes the hair on the back of my neck rise, and I bite my tongue. "How disgusting."

Lucian gets up, standing in front of Kevin in his full naked glory, and snarls.

"The only one in this room who's revolting is you."

Kevin laughs.

"Am I now? Let's see if you'll be spouting this bullshit when I'm done with you."

"Don't. Please, Kevin. Don't hurt him," I stand, and immediately, Lucian's wings wrap around my nakedness. The goosebumps turn to something warm.

Something sweet. Because I've never had anyone take care of me in that way. Or in any way, really. Ever. And Lucian's doing it without even blinking.

"I'll do whatever you want me to. I promise. Just?—"

Lucian shushes me.

"He's not doing anything he wants to either of us, darling boy. I won't let him touch you ever again."

Kevin coos mockingly, and I glare at him.

"Too bad neither of you will have a choice. But don't worry, demon. Now that I've got you, I have no use for that useless, weak little shit."

"Don't call him that!" Lucian growls and launches at Kevin. The white barrier of our entrapment spell rises and sizzles at the impact. Lucian falls back, hissing.

"I'll call him whatever I want. It's what he is. And you can't do anything about it."

Kevin steps through the spell—the sizzle doesn't even register on him—and puts both hands on his belt buckle.

"I have to say, Yu-jin. I didn't think you had it in you, but thank you ever so much for bringing such a delectable, juicy creature to me."

Lucian makes another attempt on Kevin. My stepfather only needs to raise an eyebrow, and Lucian falls to his knees, screaming in pain.

I feel it inside me as if he's punishing me, controlling me, instead of Lucian. I've had years of experience with this pain. I know it all too well.

"Stop it!" I shove Kevin. He lets me. He doesn't punish me. At least not with the blood bond.

He grabs me by the neck and squeezes. I gasp for air. He's always been strong. Stronger than me, anyway. He's always been powerful. But this…this is something else. This is Lucian's power coursing through his veins, and I hate it.

"Leave him alone!" Lucian's scream booms across the room as he tries to stand and fails. "Use me instead."

Kevin smirks and pushes me back. I fly across the room and am only stopped from crashing into the wall by the spell's boundaries.

"Ouch!"

My naked body tenses at the alien heat, and I roll away from the spell, back into the middle.

"How sweet. What a sacrifice." Kevin pushes Lucian's shoulders farther toward the ground until the demon is on all fours. "Trust me. I don't need him now that I have you. This…power. It's electrifying. I've never felt anything like it."

He licks his lips and raises his hands. They catch fire, and Kevin's smirk only gets deeper, more perverted.

"I wonder…" He grabs a fistful of Lucian's hair and forces the demon to look at him. "If I can steal your wings too. They're glorious."

He dips down. Is he going to kiss Lucian? He never kissed me. Neither did Mason. Because if you ask them, they're not gay. They're just witches.

No homo. He just likes to rape his stepson.

The bile sours my mouth as Kevin licks Lucian's cheek, eye, and forehead instead. I can't decide if that's worse. Lucian does. He spits in Kevin's face. Kevin slaps him, and Lucian falls to the floor.

My heart clenches.

I've caused this. This is all my fault. I brought him here. Into this world and this house. It's all my fault.

I push off the floor, straight for Kevin. He looks at me, and before I can even reach him, my lungs give out and collapse.

We're doomed. We're fucking doomed.

"You're a feisty one, aren't you? Don't worry. I'll drain that out of you," he says to Lucian, picking him up again by the hair and making him stand in front of him.

I can only watch as he unbuttons and whips his dick out, slapping Lucian's face with it.

Lucian growls, but the blood bond is strong even if Kevin has only fed off him once. It's enough to trap someone in his magic. Usually, he has to renew the bond by drinking more. Drink enough times, and the person will be bound to him for life. Like Mom. Like me.

"None of that, naughty demon. Now be a good devil and suck my cock so I can feed." I can't believe he's even uttering those words. Not for anyone else but me. I can't believe it's Lucian in his grasp and not me.

I caused this. I brought this on him. And not only did I cause him to be bound to Kevin, now he's going to be raped because of me.

Kevin forces Lucian on him. Lucian growls, fighting against Kevin and the blood bond, but he can't do anything about it. I can't do anything about it.

It's my fault.

It's my fault.

It's my fault.

It's my fault.

It's my…fault.

The tears fall directly on the floor, and I can't move to wipe them. I can't do anything. I can't even close my eyes so I don't have to witness the consequences of my actions.

The more I watch, the harder the tears fall, and my insides burn with hatred. Not just for Kevin and this situation. But for myself. For causing another being to go through what Mom and I went through.

Lucian's screams tear at my insides. I can't stand the pain. I can't stand the sigh. I bite my tongue, the inside of my cheek, anything I can find, anything to help refocus the pain on something more manageable, on something less evil.

The copper taste fills my tongue. Lucian's scream turns into a snap and a snarl, and Kevin's cry bursts my eardrums.

Blood everywhere. Red everywhere. And when Lucian pulls back he spits something on the floor. It rolls within my field of vision, and I just about throw up.

It's a cockhead. Kevin's cockhead, to be precise.

"You fucking cunt!" Kevin shouts and takes hold of Lucian's head. He punches him.

Again and again and again.

It seems whatever strength Lucian had garnered for his rebellion isn't strong enough to last. But at least Kevin's stopped raping him. At least he's only hitting him.

Which is still as disgusting, but at least he fought back. Right?

The blood in my mouth chokes me, and I spit it out. The heat inside me? It explodes. It bursts. And with it, my eyes roll back.

Something passes through me. A breeze. A shadow. A feeling that makes me tense. It overtakes my body. Slowly at first, a fingertip here, a foot there. But it soon flows through me, and the creature within me takes control.

Hello, Master Jung. So nice to finally meet you, it says inside my head.

It's not exactly words though. More of a feeling. Like images translated into words.

Mom had tried to describe the feeling of the eldritch creatures possessing her body. She'd described it as something wild inside that felt like it needed to be tamed but couldn't. Something that was both a part of her and not.

That's…that's exactly how I feel now. And when the dark, slithery tentacles burst through my stomach, it doesn't hurt. They don't cut me. They're like a shadow of the creature inside. They don't hurt me. They don't disrupt the sanctity of my body. They exist both within me and outside. And they slap Kevin off his feet.

The compulsion of his blood bond inside me eases, and I find myself suddenly standing. Three tentacles touch the floor, propping me up while the other five curl back. I fill my lungs with air. As I breathe out, they unfurl, punching Kevin multiple times, each tentacle another hit that bruises not just his body but also his ego.

Mmm, revenge. It's so tasty.

Again, the words are more like emotions. Like visions more than words, but they feel so good.

Because they're right.

Hurting Kevin feels tasty as fuck.

Kevin attempts to stand on his feet while fire erupts from his hands.

Amateur. Pathetic.

He is. Because the fire doesn't hurt. It doesn't affect me whatsoever. Not me, and definitely not the tentacles. I'm an eldritch master right now. Earthly elements can't touch me.

The tentacles acting as my legs bring me closer to Kevin and make me rise taller than him in all possible ways and meanings of the word.

He's just a worthless human trying to hurt someone bigger, stronger, and crueler than him.

He punches my stomach with a fiery fist. My skin doesn't even react. It doesn't even bounce. But the tentacles? I take full control and wrap them around his arms and legs, using two more to stab him in the chest.

More. More. Hurt him more.

"With pleasure," I say. My voice sounds foreign. Demonic. Eldritch.

I pull the two tentacles apart inside Kevin. One cuts up, the other cuts down. When they're free, Kevin falls away in two parts, split in half like he's nothing but papier-maché.

The monster within bursts with enjoyment. It's not the only one. I look at Kevin's body. I look and look. I can't get enough of it. Because he's dead.

He's finally dead.

And my suffering is done.

For good.

Lucian was right. I'm a witch.

I'm a motherfucking eldritch witch.

And I'm free.