Page 24 of Song of Tenebrae

The tip of a sharp blade hits my neck and I feel the slow trickle of blood as it pricks through my flesh. I chuckle, causing the edge to cut in further, and continue to squeeze Tiny’s throat. “Do it, Demon.” I taunt her, “kill me now and all your troubles will be over.”

“She’ll be dead in two minutes, flat.” Hail replies and I can hear the taunt in his voice, “her problems with you will end and then the ones with me will begin.” His hand snags into Tiny’s hair and he rips her head back, causing her to scream, “or maybe I will kill both of her friends slowly as she watches first, fucking every hole on their bodies.”

I hear Tempest whimper as she lowers her knife, knowing she’s lost, and I reach up, touching the blood on my neck. “Take her out to the car, I need to have a little talk with Tempest.”

“Don’t take too long.” He warns me and then drags Tiny out by her hair.

“I would suggest you comply going forward unless you like seeing your friends handled like that.”

“Fucking evil pieces of shit.” She mutters and I turn on her.

“You think we’re evil?” I wrap my bloodied fingers over her mouth and squeeze, “you have no idea the concept of evil, but I could leave you and your friends here to find out.” Her eyes widen and I lean in, forcing the words out through my clenched teeth, “you will be strung up like you were in Dominica, you will be whipped like you were in Dominica, and then you will be left to slowly bleed out as the elders thank you for your sacrifice.”

Her throat works hard to swallow and I release her mouth, running my bloody fingertips over her lips. The crimson color is such a contrast to her pale pink ones and I can’t help but lean in, our mouths a hair’s breadth apart. Her breathing accelerates and her tongue snakes out, running along the red fluid.

“You still taste the same,” her words make my heart soar, “you still have mountains of anger that reside in the deep valleys of your pain.” She shoves by me and heads outside, rendering me speechless.

I remember the first time she told me that and it still hits me now as hard as it did then. No one else has ever read that off me, no one else not even my brothers can see what I keep buried, and it leaves me feeling ripped open.

Dangerous for everyone around me.

Tempest

We pull up to the tarmac and memories begin to work their way inside my mind; it’s eerily similar to this time last year and the same plane sits in front of us. Only I’m not feeling the same way I did then, not even close, and as soon as it’s safe for my friends, I am killing every fucking member of Deluge, even if it costs me my life. The car parks just as Sky begins to wake up. I grab her arm, and she tenses, looking at me with confusion.

“Tell me I’ve fucking dreamt all this.”

I shake my head as Hail gets out of the driver’s seat and Raiden from the passenger side, leaving us three in the back.

“We’re going back there.” Sky states and goes to open the door.

“You don’t sound surprised.” I can’t help the accusation that falls from my lips.

“Obviously not,” she retorts, “isn’t this what you’ve been planning the whole time?” Then she slams the door in my face and I’m left there, her words repeating in my mind. I did plan something like this, but it ended with their deaths before ever boarding this plane again. I failed.

“We should just do as they say and they’ll leave us alone.” Tiny suggests and I roll my eyes at her words.

“I said something very similar last year and yet I still ended up trussed up like a pig and whipped. Raped too.” I sneer and shove out of the car, leaving her gasp behind me.

I watch as Sky stomps up the steps into the plane, as if the last time she boarded it is long forgotten, but I know it’s not. She may have been completely out of it as the pilot carried her up them but I know she remembers everything. I’ve heard her screams in the middle of the night and I’ve watched as her eyes lose focus while her mind transports her back to Dominica.

Torrent and Squall are standing off to the side smoking and grinning as I walk toward them. They are opposite in their appearances but their facial expressions are identical. Smug and arrogant. Where Squall is pale with white/blonde hair, Torrent is a deep bronze with black dreads hitting his shoulders, and where one has ice blue eyes the other has near black. The double rings in Torrent’s brow catch the early morning light as he quirks it in a taunting manner. I ignore him and walk by, leaving them both to snicker behind me.

“What the fuck?”

I turn at the sound of Squall’s voice and see him staring as Tiny gets out of the car. Looks like he had no idea someone fromhispast was coming as well. I toss back a snicker of my own and it becomes a chuckle when his eyes meet mine in a glare. I wink at him and get on the plane just as I hear Tiny holler out.

“Is that you Squall?”

I continue laughing and stop short when I see Sky sitting in the back of the plane with her arms crossed over her chest. She looks pissed and she has every right to be, but it better not be at me. I warned her a year ago that I would stop at nothing until I had the chance to kill Raiden and then the rest of Deluge, God willing. I warned her that I wouldn’t be changing my name or appearance and I would be buying a club, knowing my name would be out there.

I walk back to Sky and sit in the seat right across, watching her until she turns her focus on me.

“I don’t want to be here.” She says quietly.

“Me either.”

“No, Temp.” She huffs, “this is always where you wanted to be.”

---