Page 97 of Deadmen's Queen

She looked up at Nate, her eyes glassy as he gazed at her with such pain and anger on his face that I don’t know how she stood his intensity.

“Keep your eyes on me. I let my darkness break me,” he said softly. “I walked alone in that darkness for so many years. You put me back together. We won’t let him break you, baby. We would never let you walk alone in the dark.”

Tears fell from her eyes and she nodded slightly. She closed her eyes, and took a shaky breath.

“Don’t listen to them, Paige,” the bastard said. “I told you. You’re mine. All mine and I won’t fucking share. It’s my cock that’s fucking you this deep.”

Paige opened her eyes and looked at Nate and then at me. The despair was gone, and there was a flicker of defiance now, that had me tensing up.

“You're right,” Paige responded, her voice barely above a whisper, but somehow still clear in the charged silence. “They couldn’t protect me from you, and now they’re here and they can’t even save me.”

The words clawed at my heart, as her eyes met mine again, ice-cold and with a steely determination that sent chills down my spine.

“I’m glad they’re here,” she continued. “I want them to see a real man fuck me. Because they couldn't do it. They were all talk, but you...you take what you want.”

David’s eyes lit up, his grip on the knife loosening ever so slightly. The sick grin returned on his face.

“That’s right, I do,” he panted, his thrusts growing harder, rougher. “Who do you belong to, Paige? Tell them.”

“You,” she said, her hand running over his arms. “I belong to you.”

“That’s right,” he said. “Mine.”

“Fuck me harder, David,” she moaned.

His breath hitched at her words, his ego inflating as he pounded into her harder.

“That's right...harder,” she gasped out, her nails digging into his arm. “Show them what a real man can do.”

With every word Paige uttered, every derisive syllable, David grew more frenzied, driving into her with renewed vigour. He had lost all control now at her provocation. Paige continued to stroke him gently, almost lovingly, tracing a tantalising path down his arm until she reached the hand that held the knife to her throat.

“Harder, David,” she taunted him, arching her back as painful sobs shook her body. She flinched under his touch, her skin raw and bloody under his fingers. But she didn’t stop, whispering encouragement and driving him on.

David's eyes glinted with a wild mix of desire and triumph, his grip on the knife slackening even more as he lost himself in the pleasure she was baiting him towards. He roared, slamming himself inside her as he came.

Paige cried out, but her fingers wrapped around the hilt of the knife, yanking it from his slackened grip as his concentration slipped. She twisted around to face him and David blinked in surprise, his eyes going wide when he saw the knife in her hand.

“No,” he gasped, his hand reaching out to stop her. But it was too late. With a cry of pure fury and pain, she swung the knife up and across his throat. A look of startled shock passed over David's face before it contorted into a grimace of pain. A hideous gurgling noise escaped David's lips as blood gushed from his throat, spurting over Paige’s naked body, and he pushed her away from him, one hand trying to stop the bleeding as he tried to crawl away.

She got to her feet, and followed him, grabbing him by the hair and wrenching his head back. She gazed down at him, her eyes blazing with cold fury as she looked down at David choking on his own blood. “You're just a pathetic little boy,” she spat out, every word laced with venom but never wavering. “Worthless and pathetic.”

Sheer pain flashed across her and she screamed, a hideous, twisted sound that chilled me to the bone. She dropped the knife down into his back and he made a wet, sloshing sound as he tried to cry out. She pushed him over onto his back, and stabbed him again and again, screaming the whole time. Her eyes were wide and wild, her blonde hair clinging to her face, streaked with his blood. She was a vision of raw, primal power, and I couldn’t take my eyes off her.

“You think this is what it means to be a man? That inflicting pain on others makes you powerful? You're nothing!” she spat, her voice filled with rage as the blade plunged again into David's chest. “Nothing!”

I made a move to stop her, but Nate held me back, his eyes never leaving Paige.

“She needs this,” he whispered, his voice laced with fury and sorrow. “Trust me, she needs this.”

My feeling of being powerless hadn’t abated with Paige’s incredible actions, and it hurt to watch her plunging her knife into his body over and over again. I wasn’t sure when he’d actually died, but I could see now that he was gone. Finally, her screams quieted as the rage simmered down and exhaustion took over. She knelt over him for a moment longer, her chest heaving as she realized the monster was finally dead.

Nate released my arm. “Now,” he murmured, and in a heartbeat I was at her side. I reached for the knife still gripped in her hand and pried it away.

“He’s dead, Paige,” I said softly. “He can’t hurt you anymore.”

She blinked at me, my words not quite registering. She looked back down at David's lifeless body, then back up at me again, the magnitude of what had just happened slowly starting to sink in.

“I... I killed him,” she said slowly, as though tasting each word on her tongue.

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