Page 80 of Soulless Saint

Then she spun to face me, her face concealed in shadow as her arms swung and her foot connected with my gut, forcing the air from my lungs. I laughed darkly, quietly, goosebumps rising on my flesh at the purity of the pain hitting deep in my solar plexus. She kicked again and I let her, opening my arms wide as the toe of her heel hit bone and the hit ricocheted up my rib cage.

She tripped to the side, catching herself on a still standing speaker, her face twisted in pain. Letting me know she’d hurt herself far more than she hurt me with her little show of strength. I watched her, felt my lips twitch up into half a smile.

You loved every raw second, I challenged her.

“Fuck you!” she hissed, and I pushed up onto my side, looking up at her with a cocked head, letting the smile fall, understanding that she needed this. She needed time to accept that she liked every dirty, wrong thing I did to her tonight. That she craved it more than she would ever crave anything else.

It was no easy thing, bowing to the dark.

It’s okay.

“I-I hate you!”

It’s okay.

Her chin quivered, and she squeezed her eyes shut, shaking her head violently as she turned on her heel and left. This time, I wouldn’t chase her because I knew, one way or another, she’d come back all on her own.

“There you are.”

About time he decided to grace me with his presence. I went looking for my brother after the second encore song to find his spot at the bar lacking its usual occupant. It would’ve been one thing for him to ditch me, but to refuse to answer any of my text messages and leave me without a piece was just a dick move. Especially given the current circumstances.

“Where the hell you been?” I asked him. “I went out to the car, checked the perimeter. I thought you fucked off.”

He came into the backstage area The Crows already had set up for a late night of overtime debauchery. The fridge was stocked with good booze and a mountain of snacks covered the long bar top counter running the length of the space against the back wall.

Something about the disheveled look of him made me pause. Reassess.

Oh shit.

I knew that look. It was the Hardin-just-ate-a-fucking-soul glow he only got after a particularly good lay. And fuck if this wasn’t the perfect place for him to find that. What with the type of music Primal Ethos slung. I bet he found a good little freak to take the edge off. If only I could do the same, but this wood only seemed to stand at attention for one girl these days.

“Clearly I missed a good time,” I said, with a lot more bitterness than intended. “But next time pick up your phone and text me back. It’s that little rectangular thing you keep in your pocket. Has tiny little buttons to make messages.”

He lifted his gaze to mine as he fell into one of the three long black sofas set up in a fucked up triangle formation around an artfully misshapen coffee table. But even though my brother was looking at me, he wasn’t seeing me. There was a faraway quality to his stare that told me he was anywhere but here right now.

“Everything good, Bro?” I asked, unable to be pissed at him anymore. Not when he was looking so damn… haunted. Hardin St. Vincent always had his shit in check. Nothing ruffled him. Nothing shook him.

He was solid. Made of cold iron from his head to his fucking toes.

“Yeah,” he muttered, reaching into his waistband for my piece. He held it out to me and I took it with a wary eye, finding claw marks over his forearms. Down the right side of his neck.

“Hardin…”

He swallowed, looking through me again.

“The girl you fucked. She still breathing?”

His brow wrinkled in confusion and then he was back, the twist of anger warping his mouth into a sneer, his black eyes narrowing.

I lifted my hands in a placating gesture. “Right. Stupid question.”

“Hey, fuckers!” Rook called, a bottle of Jack in his hand as he strolled into the room with Grey behind him. He made a show of looking around before lifting a brow. “They still not out?”

It took me a full second to register he was talking about Ava Jade and Corvus, all my brain cells focusing their functionality on the issue of my brother having potentially murdered someone tonight.

“Nah, haven’t seen them yet,” I told Rook, and he and Grey shared a knowing look, both of them letting out little laughs.

Oh my god, they were fucking. That’s what was taking so long.

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