Page 110 of Sick Bargain

“Uh, no, it’s okay,” Cain says. “I’m gonna clean up and kill some time. I’ve got a tattoo appointment at seven.”

With Mason. Menace. The blue-masked Vile Boy Cain fucked but doesn’t know. I feel like such a shitty friend for not telling him, but I’m certainly not going to while Krypt is standing here. I’ll tell him later, tomorrow, after his appointment. And he should probably tell his girlfriend…

“Enjoy.” I smirk at him.

“Remiel,” Krypt calls out a warning for me to hurry. He’s fucking bossy and impatient, but my god, it sends a thrill through me.

I tuck the medications into my jacket, grab my keys and phone, and follow Krypt out the front door. My brother is gone, under Riot’s control now, and Cain is… well, Cain is in for a rude awakening when he realizes the tattoo artist who gives him ink and an orgasm every few months is the same man who chased him through the streets and fucked him hard on Initiation Night.

Krypt pulls me past Cauldron, not wanting to spend any time where I almost died, but he slows his steps again once we’re past. It’s Devil’s Night, and like most holidays, Moros does it in style.For me, Devil’s Night had always been about resisting the pull of an early death. There’s something in the air this time of year, and a night that literally worships the depravity of our town, pulls pranks and turns the streets into a maze of Purgatory… well, I almost fell prey. This year, I have a hellhound nipping at my heels to keep me on the path that leads to life.

I brush his hand with mine, testing to see if he’ll let me hold it. He pulls away, but it makes me grin a second later when he grabs my wrist instead.

“Where are we going?”

“Home.”

Home. Vile House with Krypt. A warmth resonates all around me.

“What’re you doing?”Krypt asks, snatching the bottle of body wash from me.

I squint my eyes at him. “You said home. This is home now, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, so I’m putting my body wash in the shower.”

He throws it in the trash can.

“Krypt! What the fuck?”

His long fingers wrap around my throat, and my back hits the tile wall of the shower. The floor is wet, so my socks soak through, but my eyes shoot to his. For whatever reason, his monsters are all right there, at the surface, rattling their cages with sinister glee. “You think you get to smell like anything other than me, Remiel?” His hand tightens, his palm pressing againstthe word tattooed on my throat. “You are mine. You smell like me. You wear me. You belong to me.”

My god. “It’s just body?—”

“No.” He spins me around, pressing my face to the tile wall. I gasp when the cold water turns on, drenching me and my clothing in ice. “See this bottle, Remiel? This is the bottle you can use. See this body, Remiel?” He runs his hand down my back and over my ass. “I wash it. Not you.”

His hips press against me, and my cock, hard and infuriatingly eager, hits the tiles. I groan, hating how much I love being completely consumed by him. He’s insane, unhinged in his possessive ideologies, completely batshit with the need to take my rights away, but then again, I kind of gave them up willingly, didn’t I?

“Krypt,” I groan. “Our bargain is over. We talked about being partners, didn’t we? I can touch my own body. Wash it.”

He rips my pants down to below my ass as the water warms. “I wash it. I own it. I hurt it. I heal it.” His fingers press against my taint. “I fuck it.” He pushes one finger inside me, making my eyes flutter. “Our bargain might be over, but a new one has started.”

“What one?” I push back on his hand, my fingers gripping the slippery wall.

“Our sick bargain, Remiel. The one that will take us into forever and teach us to be sick and sinister together.”

Fitting, I suppose, that this whole thing started with a bargain and ends with one, too. I don’t regret any of it. “Do I get to use my own toothbrush?” I ask, goading him.

“No.”

“Going to hold my cock for me while I pee?”

He adds a second finger. “I’ll terrify you until you piss yourself anytime, hero.”

I grin against the wall. God, I’m vile. “What’re the terms of our new bargain?”

“Learned your lesson, did you?” He adds a third finger.

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