19. Bite

19

Bite

Saint

I take Violet's hand and pull her to sit. "Can you walk?"

She nods, scooting to the edge of the bed. But when she tries to stand, her knees shake, and I catch her before she stumbles to the ground.

"Here." I wrap one arm around her back and the other under her legs to pick her up.

"Where are we going?" She buries her face against my chest, her voice raspy from screaming.

The fire in her sapphire eyes has dimmed with her exhaustion, and she can barely keep them open. Her lashes flutter closed, and she sinks against me, giving into this like I knew she would.

Tears streak her cheeks as her fingers clench the fabric of my shirt.

Violet is beautiful when she's broken .

Broken by me.

Her skin is streaked in cum and blood, and dull bruises are starting to form on her perfect breasts and around her wrists. A picture of her submission, painting a stunning portrait. I could spend all night making art of her delicate flesh.

"The tub." I carry her into the bathroom. "Your muscles are tense. You need to relax them."

She turns her head to glance at the steaming bathwater. "Really?"

I nod, walking over to set her down. She balances as I slowly lower her feet to the ground, clutching my chest like she trusts me more than the tile. It's because she knows I'll never let her down, no matter how much I hurt her.

Holding her hands, I help her climb into the water. And she sinks into it until the water settles over her shoulders. Small red ribbons float across the surface as it washes away what we've done.

I glance down at my own hands and arms. Covered in the remnants of her blood. There are gashes where her nails dug into my skin as she fought me, cutting up my forearms. I should probably rinse myself off as well, but I'm not ready to wash her off me yet.

I'd like to bottle the scent of her pleasure and sweat so I don't have to smell anything else for the rest of my life. Maybe I'll record her screams as a reminder of how perfect she sounds when she's ripping open for me. The frequency still echoes in my ears. A symphony of beauty as my cock shoved through what she hadn't given any other man.

Tonight, she gave herself to me fully. Even if that's not what she intended. She might have been angry walking through these doors and planning to confront me with my secrets, but only because she knew what she really wanted.

Violet came here to piss me off—to draw Saint out—and my curious little kitten succeeded. Which left me with no other option but to remind her who she's dealing with.

I don't mind that she tempts Saint to come and play, so long as she understands now that she has, there's no escape.

Violet's black hair floats in the water around her. Her eyes are closed, and her head is tipped back, revealing the perfect column of her neck. Water splashes over the makeup she used to try and cover the fading bruises from her previous visit, and I'm tempted to reach in and rub it off completely so I can appreciate what's left of my artwork.

I'm tempted to wrap my hands around her throat and repaint the necklace I gave her.

But she's too calm. Too relaxed after what we've done. So instead, I watch her just as she is. Battling her acceptance of us.

"Why did you draw me a bath?" Violet asks.

She doesn't open her eyes to look at me with her question, and I don't need to see them to know why she's asking. She wants to tell herself she was wrong about me, that I'm better than she's given me credit for so far. But that would be a lie.

I'm everything she assumes—and worse.

"Why not?"

She shrugs. "It's… nice. That's all."

Nice .

After I fucked her until she was screaming in pain.

She'll hurt for a week because I didn't go easy on her for her first time, but somewhere in her pretty, twisted mind, she wants to classify me as nice .

"Don't do that, Violet." Standing up, I walk over to the mirror and wipe the dew fogging it. "It's just a bath. And if you don't take care of yourself, it will take longer for you to recover."

Staring at my reflection, I trace the scar that lines my cheek. The reminder of the limits on what I can be. Just because I'll claim her, and just because I'll keep her safe from the rest of the world, doesn't make her safe from me.

"So that's it then?" She tips her face to look at me, resting her arms on the sides of the tub. "This is just you keeping me in one piece so you can do it again later? I guess I shouldn't be surprised."

I turn to face her, gripping the counter behind me.

Her eyebrows pinch as she chews the inside of her cheek. And even if I don't know what it's like to seek comfort, I'm not blind. I know that's what she's searching for.

Answers I can't give her.

Something to pacify her fears .

She wants to pretend she's strong, but even as her eyes blink up at me, her expression bleeds with hurt.

For a girl as smart as she is, she's dumb enough to search for my affection. I've shown her I'm not capable, painted her in blood, and done the least of the sick things I'd like to do to her eventually.

Clearly, she has no survival instincts.

Violet runs her hands over the surface of the water as she leans back, straightening her spine. That fire of hers is welling back up to the surface.

"I see," she says, clearing her throat when I haven't responded. "So, if this all means nothing to you, why not kick me out the door the moment we're done?"

"All I said was, ‘It's just a bath.' I didn't say you mean nothing to me."

She tips her chin up. "You're a killer, Kole. People mean nothing to you."

Walking over to the tub, I squat beside it and grab her by the throat, tightening my grip just enough to color her blue eyes in the prettiest shade of fear.

"Do you put yourself in that category with all other people , Violet? Do you think I'd kill you just because I have no problem killing them?" I grip her neck tighter and pull her face to mine. "I believe it was you who wrote… Emotion exists on a spectrum. Just because a person might not feel love doesn't mean they're incapable of feeling anything. While action is easily measurable, emotion is often defined in extremes, not balance . There is never truly nothing. "

"How do you know what I wrote in my Criminal Analysis report last semester?" she whispers, tears pooling in her eyes.

"Because I pay attention." I drag my thumb over her cheek and brush the wet river running down it. "What you see in yourself and define as sickness is what makes you beautiful. You understand what others can't."

"I don't understand you," she says as I release her throat. "And I definitely don't understand myself."

Her fingers find her neck, and she traces them delicately over it.

"You do. But your books can't define it for you, so you'll continue believing that."

"That's because this is wrong." Violet blinks, wiping another rogue tear from her cheek. "You want to hurt me."

"I do." I reach for her wrist, rubbing my thumb over the mark I carved into it. "And I will."

She might not like my response, but I won't lie to her. There's no point. Hurting people is what I do. And Violet consumes me. I want to chain her to the wall and make her scream until I understand why the sound tearing from her lungs is the only thing that wakes me up inside.

Violet runs her wet hands through her dark hair. It spills like ink over her skin.

"Besides…" I rub my thumb along the apple of her cheek, wiping away her smeared mascara. "Right and wrong are like emotion; they exist on a spectrum and shift depending on how you define them. You want me to hurt you. That's why you didn't immediately run from me in the forest. So then, is it really wrong?"

She wets her lips. "Legally, none of this is right."

I can't help but smirk. "Am I the criminal in this scenario?"

"You kill people. What else would you be?"

"If you say so," I agree with her, appreciating that all it does is annoy her more as her eyes narrow.

"What would you call yourself?"

"I already told you."

"Saint?" She rolls her eyes. "You aren't my savior, Kole."

Kole .

She's still so far from putting the different sides of me together. To her, I'm still two people: one who will hurt her, one who won't. She doesn't realize it's irrelevant. Both sides of me want the same thing.

Her.

And I'll do anything.

Leaning in, I brush her wet hair behind her ear. "Someday, you'll realize you're wrong."

But not today.

There are still missing pieces. Things I need to figure out from that night in the forest. So instead of offering her the clarity she's desperate for, I brush my thumb over the upside-down cross on her wrist and leave that to define us when she can't.

"It's not going to fade, is it?" She looks down at the mark.

"It will." I brush over it again. "But it'll never go away completely. "

I made sure of it.

"Here." I reach my arm out, pausing with my forearm near her mouth.

"What?" Her eyebrows pinch.

"Bite."

"Why?"

"I marked you. You get to mark me. It's only fair." Not to mention my cock jumps at the thought.

She rolls her shoulders back. "Since when do you care about what's fair?"

"Bite, Violet." I shove my arm against her perfect pink lips when they part on an exhale. "Hard."

Sapphire eyes flick to me as she slowly peels open her mouth, and I push between her teeth.

Just like she did on the side of the road, for a moment, she hesitates. She tries to tell herself she doesn't want what I offer her. But just like that night, she loses her battle, and slowly—carefully—she bites down.

"Harder." I grip the back of her head as her teeth sink in. "Good little kitten. Claim what's yours."

My praise has her jaw clenching tighter. She might hate the mark I carved into her skin. And she might hate that she enjoys this. But her body craves it.

The girl who messaged me in the Dark Desires app wants all these things and more. She's just scared to ask for them.

"Harder, Violet." She's still just breaching the surface.

I need her to cut through, to slice into me. To burrow where she's belonged since the moment we met .

Gripping her hair tighter, she blinks back tears as her teeth finally break skin.

Surprised, she tries to pull away.

"No running tonight." I hold the back of her head in place, forcing her to stay put.

Blood trickles between her lips and my arm as she scratches to break free. But there's no use; I'm not letting her go. I want every drop of me inside her beautiful mouth.

Until we're one.

Until we're whole.

"Be a good girl for your savior, Violet." I seal my arm to her mouth. "I want you to drink up."