The Blood We Crave: Part Two (The Hollow Boys, #4)

by Monty Jay

They should fear the woman who loves him.

“Hello, darling phantom.”

DADDYS HOMEEEE

Her hands are balled up into tight fists at her sides, and I think she might actually try to kill me. Good, I want to praise. Protect yourself from me—you need it more than anyone.

“You’re my brother. I hate you—I hate you so fucking much, but you’re my brother,”

“You’ll be hidden. You’ll be safe.” “You won’t be.”

I want her, I won’t deny that to myself.

All because of Lyra. To protect my bloody, cherry-flavored girl.

“What are you going to do, kill me in my sleep?” “Don’t flirt with me like that.”

Because even though I can’t have her, she’s still my ghost. She still haunts me. And every single murderous inch belongs to me.

I chew the inside of my cheek, glancing at the room hidden away in the dim light.

def a thatcher shrine in there

“Maybe I’d die for you, Thatcher Pierson,” I mumble. “But death is inevitable for us all. It’s what you’d do for me that matters.”

“You’d disappear again, just like you did when you were a little boy, just to keep me safe.”

I place my wet shoes by the door and continue my new morning routine. Snooping around her things.

It’s in these hours of the morning that I give myself some leeway, and I am soft. Weak for her.

Beauty so divine death can’t bring himself to touch her.

“If this was a horror movie,” I say, “you’d be dead.” “I was being nice and letting you finish staring.”

The word “control” seems to hold no weight when I’m around Little Miss Death.

Do you know what it’s like to go your entire life and never know gentle? How to be kind? Then you meet someone who is overflowing with it, and suddenly, you can’t be anything but soft just for them?

“No tears, Scarlett. Not for me,” I say. “Save those for someone who deserves them.”

No one had noticed her, that was correct. But I had. I’d noticed her long before she started following me around.

And Lyra had been my very first muse.

“And now? What am I a reminder of now?” “All the things I can never have.”

It’s misery, pure agonizing misery, how badly I crave her.

I never thought there would be anything stronger than the urge to kill. Until I tasted her.

I think about how he lies in bed, suspecting he sleeps on his stomach,

def bbgirl pose

Thatcher was perfectly made, but I was made perfect for him.

“Darling.” He traces the front of his white teeth with his tongue, a starved animal ready to feast. “I’d rid the world of men who breathe the same air as you.”

“It’s cute how clingy you are.”

That softness inside of him appears, just enough of it to sound like he’s begging. As if the sight of me leaking crimson is enough to bring him to his knees.

“Wait, wait. I’m not laughing at you,” she breathes. “I just—I think I broke you.” Yeah, I think you broke me, too.

A man who fears nothing is afraid of all she is. All she makes me want. All she makes me feel.

“Me, you stubborn fucking girl. I’m protecting you from me.”

“My body wants you every second of the day and twice as much at night. I want you in the most unhinged ways, ways that would scare you.”

It keeps me up at night. The way I yearn for her haunts me.

There is no one else out there for me. I was made for you.”

I wish I could say that I don’t believe in fate, but if it was real, I think I would’ve been made for her, too.

Because no one is simply born this beautiful. This unbearably beautiful.

“Oh, darling,” he purrs, swallowing my tears, “you’re worth it. Bloodshed and all.”

“Let me make this clear. Don’t ever touch her again. Don’t breathe near her. Do not exist in the same space as her. Or I will rip your fucking head from your shoulders.”

I can’t give her love, care for her in the way someone should, but I’m tired of not giving her me.

I’m tired of fighting her. Fighting myself.

I’m standing above her, but she’s got me like putty in her hands.

I think when we were created, instead of splitting our spirits in half, they gave both of them to her in order to keep them safe. To remind me, when the time was right, that all I am is hers to carry.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME<33

“Human beings are disgusting. I don’t touch them with my bare hands, and you think I’m going to eat their flesh? Some stalker you are. Do you even know me?”

DIVAAAA

“My firsts. I saved them for you.”

“I think…” He trails off for a moment, as if to search for the right words. “I think I saved all my firsts for you, too.”

“No matter the cruelty your hands are capable of, they will always be the one place I feel safe. How could I fear fingers that were made to touch me?”

“You’re invisible to most, this enigmatic ghost. You are a mystery to the world, Lyra, and you’ve let me solve you.”

I’ve waited all my life for this. For him.

The nightmare of Ponderosa Springs and his darling phantom.