Page 51 of Cursed to Be Mine
I push the bullet deeper inside her eye as she screams, but I don’t pierce her brain.
I want her alive for a while longer.
With the bullet fully embedded, I trail my fingers down her cheek. I wanted to heat the bullet until it melted her eye, leaving it to drip down her face, but a werewolf can’t do that either.
And I need to make sure the WALL thinks this is a wolf attack. I need Scarlett to think the same.
Her mother screams as she hangs in front of me, my magic keeping her from thrashing.
“I want you to know I’ve warded the room,” I say as I grip her jaw, digging in my fingers. “You can scream as loud as you want, but no one will hear you. No one will call the cops on your behalf. You will die here tonight, by my hand. You will not be saved, Hannah. You will not be shown mercy. You touched my girl. Youhurtmy girl, and so I will hurt you in return.”
I release her chin as I turn my attention to the wall beside her. Slipping the knife inside the hole already there, I yank down, slicing apart the wall. Three more times, and I’ve created a false set of claw marks.
“Fuck...you,” she spits, her words harsh with pain. They make me smile. Maddox enjoys breaking his targets – the more feisty at the start they are, the more of a thrill he gets. As a reaper, I’ve killed more than him, more than anyone in our family, but I never embraced the enjoyment of it. Perhaps because I hunt our old friends, our cousins and uncles. All the Family that turns on us, trying to steal our legacies.
But I’m enjoying it now.
The thrill of breaking her, of making her scream in the throes of death...I’m looking forward to it.
My smile stretches.
“I’m going to cut open your chest,” I explain to her as I trail the knife over her stomach. “I’m going to slice open your face. Then I’m going to carve out your liver and your heart as it still beats. A werewolf is obsessed with those two, you see, and I need your little boy toy to think what I want him to, todowhat I want him to.”
Her eyes widen, and I laugh.
“Oh yes, we know about the WALL. I know all about Derek and the reason he hunts us.”
“Why haven’t you killed us then?” she rasps, and it’s cute how she tries to grasp at ‘logic’ to convince herself Idon’t really know about her friends.
“You don’t go out of your way to kill mosquitos,” I say dismissively, angling the blade so the tip digs into her. She grits her teeth so she doesn’t scream, but it’s only a little knick. She won’t be able to stop herself when I go deeper.
“Scarlett is already...dead,” she hisses before a forced laugh expels through her lips. “You’ll never have her...”
I straighten and take a step back. The knife spins in my hand as I study her.
Her laughter increases, and I let her bask in her hope before shattering it completely.
“She is alive and showering in room 241 of my family’s hotel,” I say, knowing the pain of that will hurt her just as much as my blade. “I will have her tonight.”
She screams and actually manages to lunge forward a bit. Magic feeds off raw emotion, and right now, the rage burning through her nearly matches mine.
Nearly.
But not quite.
Because she’s mad her daughter is going to live a life with ‘monsters.’
And I’m pissed she tried to kill her.
Our anger is not the same.
Our love for Scarlett is not the fucking same.
Binding her limbs completely again with my magic, I step forward and slice the knife across her body. She screams, her body convulsing, and I work quickly so she has time to feel every punishment before she passes out.
Three more cuts open her up, and then I move to her face, digging into her bloody eye and ripping down. The bullet falls out, and I catch the evidence of my presence here. Pocketing it, I carry on methodically.
She screams.
