Toxic

by Nicole Blanchard

"Gracin," he says, his lips so close they graze the shell of my ear. "My name is Gracin." Then his mouth covers mine.

His cheeks color with rage and a vein at the corner of his temple begins to throb as he takes a step forward . . . and runs right into Gracin’s fist.

I should tell Gracin to stop, that we can just leave, anything to get him to quit, but I can’t make myself say the words. I derive a sick, twisted satisfaction from each pained sound, each connected hit. It’s the vindication I didn’t know I was looking for. Vic’s face is covered in blood, and his eye is already swelling, but Gracin keeps going.

I wish I could say my luck held out, but it doesn’t. The hotel looks straight from an episode of American Horror Story, but it's cheap and I'll only need it for a couple of nights.

I release the gun, letting it fall to the seat, and he snatches it away. My hand goes to my stomach, not because I’m feeling queasy, though there’s certainly some of that, but to protect the life growing there. The life Gracin and I made and that I’d die to protect.

Abortion????

When I come to, I can actually see him when he throws a thumb over his shoulder in my direction. “This slut? She’s just the dumb cunt I convinced to help me get out of Blackthorne.” He laughs, bending forward to slap his knee.

This would have made me crash. Start of my villian arc. Maybe I need to rethink what I want out of dark romance.

What is broken inside me that I look for love in the worst places? Was it programmed inside me from birth or is it a product of my parent’s neglect? Am I just so fucked up that I’ll take affection wherever I can get it, even if it’s

from the worst possible source?

“What are you thinking about?” he asks, sounding drowsy. “Why good things happen to some people and not to others.” I feel his lips on my cheek, and I sigh. This moment with him is just a reprieve. Tomorrow, things will go back to normal, and I’ll be able to despise him again.

“When I turned ten, my father nearly beat her to death, but she was okay enough to go out and overdose.”

WOAH!!!!!!

“What I should have done a long time ago,” he says and wraps me in his arms. “It wasn’t your fault. It was mine, and I promise I’ll do everything I can to make it up to you.”

This is sweet but it does not excuse his shitty behaviour.

I must take too long to work through the rush of hate and fury because a second later, he shouts, “Untie me, you fucking slut, or I’m gonna beat you so fucking bloody, I’ll have to wash what’s left down the drain like I did your fucking baby!”

WOAH!!!!! This book just keeps surprising ne